THE TRIANGLE SUBLIME. 181 



lieved, the corner-stone of the temple in the tri- 

 angle ! The freemasonry emanating not improbably 

 from the aborigines of the Nile, and that carried 

 the triangle as an ark and symbol in Io triumphs 

 procession through the " hundred-gated " Thebes to 

 the grand temple of Karnak, — centuries before the 

 suggestive basis of the " English inch " and " Quarters" 

 were disembowelled by John Taylor and Piazzi Smyth 

 from the pyramid and chambered caverns of Cheops of 

 Gheezeh ; the triangle — the high token of the Oinero- 

 mathic Brotherhood, so ancient as to be lost in Eastern 

 mythology, and now in everyday use as a feature of 

 modern and public-marching fraternities — came to be 

 invested by Goodsir with a higher significance than 

 Eastern emblems clothed in the wildest of imagery — 

 namely, the glory of type — the primitive form — the 

 universal image of nature. 



In seeking his grand ideal — a physiological law 

 ruling the form and growth of organisms, as gravita- 

 tion is held to prevail in the physical world — the last 

 years of his life were as absorbing as his buoyant ado- 

 lescence, if not the most interesting of all ; for as his 

 body became increasingly weak his spirit soared higher 

 and higher to the pinnacle of speculation. The happy 

 psychological condition prevailing with the phthisical 

 patient seems to have been meted out to Goodsir ; with 

 hopes of a longer life, a kind of optimism book | Lou 



of his faculties. His bodily powers were daily deteriorat- 

 ing; his hours of sleep were short and unrefreshing, and 

 the enjoyment of society had vanished forever; but tin re 



