The Election For The Boys' School.

Girls' School . Three have already been removed from the list through being over the age of eleven years , and twelve , if unsuccessful this election , will be removed for the same reason . London furnishes twenty-five candidates , North Wales and Salop , South Wales , Monmouthshire ,

Derbyshire , Devon , Durham , East Lancashire , West Yorkshire , Gloucestershire , two each ; and East Indies , Constantinople , Middlesex , Cambridge , Kent , Westmoreland , Hants and Isle of Wight , Essex , Sussex , Norfolk , Cheshire , Cornwall , Stafford , North and East Yorkshire , Warwickshire and Lincolnshire , one each .

Annual Meeting And Distribution Of Prizes.

ANNUAL MEETING AND DISTRIBUTION OF PRIZES .

MASONIC FEMALE ORPHAN SCHOOL , DUBLIN . THE activity of the Craft in Ireland is in the hi ghest degree satisfactory . The antagonism of the Romish priesthood is of the most virulent character ; yet , if anything , it serves to animate the brethren to employ all their means in order to strengthen the edifice of

Freemasonry in that country . These efforts are not as widely known as they deserve to be , for Irish Masons appear to be far more reticient about their doings than we are in England . Be this as it may , we gladly avail ourselves of every opportunity of publishing such Masonic news as

reach us from the Emerald Isle . That works of charit y are not overlooked by our neighbours—ca va sans dire . Irishmen are by nature too generous to be careless about so important a duty . But though the Craft is more limited there than here in respect of numbers , and their Masonic

Charitable Institutions are , as a consequence , small by comparison with ours , the benefits they confer on the families of iudigent or deceased members are in every way creditable . This , indeed , is evidenced by the announcement we feel so much pleasure in making , that the Annual

Festival and Distribution of Prizes to the pupils of the two Masonic Orphan Schools will take place on the 28 th instant , in the Exhibition Palace , Earlsfort Terrace , Dublin , under the auspices of His Grace the Duke of Abercorn , Lord Lieutenant of Ireland , and M . W . G . M ., who will preside

on this interesting occasion . The prizes will be distributed by His Grace ' s daughter , Lady Georgina Hamilton , and a strong muster of brethren is expected . The doors of the building will be thrown open at 7 . 30 p . m . , and from then till 8 . 15 the music of several military bands

will serve to pass away the time agreeably . A procession of Officers of Country and Dublin Lodges , of Provincial Grand , and past and present Grand Officers , will then be formed for the purpose of conducting the Grand Master from the Leinster Hall to the Grand Concert Hall . His

Grace , on taking his seat on the throne , will then be saluted according to ancient usage , after which the Pupils of the Girls' School , accompanied by those of the sister Institution for Boys , will file into the hall , occupying the seats provided for them on the platform . A portion of the

Hundredth Psalm having been sung , the Honorary Secretary will then read the annual report , after which sundry of the girls will play a selection of pianoforte music . Tbe National Anthem will then be given , and the procession having re-formed , will conduct the Grand Master to the

dais in the Glass Building , where Lady Georgina Hamilton will present the prizes and certificates awarded to the successful pupils at the annual examination . Admission will be by tickets , obtainable onl y from Governors , who will each have a free pass and seven visitors' tickets , at two

shillings each , provided application is made for them at Freemasons' Hall , Molesworth-street , on the 11 th , 12 th , or 13 th instant , between two and five p . m . Brethren not previously Governors , but who are subscribers for 1876 ,

may obtain tickets , and will have the privilege of voting at elections of the pupils in June and December . We have no doubt whatever that the Festival will prove a great success , and help materiall y to advance the prosperity of the Asylum .

We have good authority for stating that one hundred Commanderies have agreed to accept the invitation of the Grand Commandery of Pennsylvania , and take part in the Grand Knight Templar Centennial Meeting in Philadelphia , Ten thousand Knights Templar will be present .

Nature And Science.

NATURE AND SCIENCE .

By Walter Spencer , F . E . G . 8 ., fyo . THE " theory of descent , " as formulated by Professor Haeckel , of Jena , * not only traces the process of organic development by hereditary transmission , adaptation and natural selection , but proclaims the unity of organic and inorganic nature . It asserts that there exist no

complete differences , no insurmountable barriers between living organisms and inorganic bodies , either in form , structure , matter or force ; that their chemical and physical differences do not lie in their component elements , but in the varying methods of their chemical combination ,

to which distinctive peculiarities ( notably comparative densities of substance ) are duo . From this it argues , for instance , that the constructive force or formative tendency of crystals is equivalent to the heredity of organisms ; and that all vital phenomena aro purely physico-chemical

processes dependent on the material nature of tho organism , just as the physical and chemical qualities of any crystal are determined solely by its material composition . The Professor needs no tribute to his ability in handling these propositions , nor to the admirable logical sequence

observed in their demonstration . We all aro willing to believe that nature works ( or appears to work ) by definite laws . It is only when the picture of progressively developed results would lead us to the assumption of primal spontaneous generation that the startled student halts to review the field .

The moral drawn by the Professor seems to be that matter is eternal ; that all law is inherent in the elements of matter , inducing through it all the phenomena of existence ; and that nothing but matter exists . Or thusthat in the cosmical beginning , condensed gases which

afterwards combined in various ways , contained in themselves all the possibilities of vital force ; that transmission by heredity and adaptation did the rest , until the earth's surface developed , as it were spontaneously , into its present state with living parasites upon it , and that eternal matter is eternal God .

Upon careful consideration of Professor Haeckel's book , we note , 1 . that he deals only with matter , assuming that nothing but matter exists ; 2 . that his whole theory is expounded by observation and comparison of effects , and of the effects of effects , by which he discovers ultimate laws , which

he assumes to be inherent in matter , the causes of which are not even guessed at . He cannot account for the primal motor which must have impregnated matter , and is utterly at a loss for a great just cause . All induction , however , lends us to put the questions thus suggested , and to fail to

be satisfied with a theory which cannot answer us . 1 . Does nothing outside of matter exist ? The Professor deals with nothing else ; but can we conceive of a vacuum or of a useless gauze of attenuated gases in the vast interstellar spaces of the universe , through which our worlds

revolve like specks of dust ? Are light , heat , and electricity comprised in matter , and simply properties inherent in it ; or , rather , is the force which determines their objective vibrations so intelligible to us as to be thus classed ? If the stars be material bodies , and if matter be deity , then

we shall conceive of deity as being contained in a something greater than itself—the universe ; but as the materialist will hardly deny that ( Deity ) the greater must contain the less , we shall find him on the horns of a dilemma—admitting , either that the universe is pervaded by a something

inexplicable , not the matter with which he is familiar , which is greater than the latter and contains it , or that the interstellar rother partakes of properties which are familiar to him in matter , and that the germ of effects consequently is contained therein . In the former case the force of Jaw

( said to be inherent m matter ) is more probably an emanation from the unknown universal element . In the latter case we have a refined matter , with greater inherent possibilities , which may be the impregnator of gross matter , and the founder of its laws .

From either of these propositions we regain the ol divisions of matter and force , or matter and spirit . Deity must be conceived of as omnipresent and eternal .

Omnipresent—He must contain the entire universe -, Eternal—He must contain the planetary revolutions which mark time for us . This is a necessary conception , altogether beyond the properties of matter , under whatever name it may