Notes On Literature, Science And Art.

Papist or be they of the " Unco Guid , " may launch forth their anathemas against us , which will be as poorless as those denounced against the Jackdaw of Rheims , in Canon Barbara ' s popular Ingoldsby Legends . Certainly to give the poor sufferers in our London aud Provincial

Hospitals something more than blank walls , however cleanly , to help to divert their attention , is an object worthy of Masonic encouragement , and our good Brother Hamilton has done well to direct

attention to it m the columns of The Freemason . Mr . Robert Gillespie has just published a very interesting little book entitled " Glasgow and the Clyde , " a copy of which has reached me by hook-post , but damaged so much in its passage between

Scotland and Cleveland , as to be a disgrace to the post-office . The book is full of facts , told in a pithy and yet pleasant manner , a few of which I purpose , from time to time , to cull for the information of my readers . The development of the river

Clyde , the growth of its immense manufactures and commerce , and the consequent increase of population along its banks , are all matters of general interest , and Mr . Gillespie , who wields a well-practised pen , ought to find his able little book finding purchasers as far at least as tho commerce of Glasgow extends ,- ancl that , like Freemasonry , girdles the globe .

Under the title of " Andrew Trudger ' s Observations , " Mr . J . S . Calvert has . published a collection of Temperance Sketches and Stories , calculated to do good from the sensible manner in -which Andrew ( who is made to describe himself as " one of them follows that goes about to country villages

with numbers , " in other words , with books published in parts ) delivers the results of his observations , in a sort of John Ploughman ' s talk , easily to be understood by the simplest intellect . "A thing I observe is , " says he , " that working men are not

well off in proportion to the money they earn . I went into a cottage in South Eston the other day by mistake , and I found that all the furniture in it consisted of a log of wood and an old tin pail . A slatternly woman was sitting on the pail , which was turned up by the side of the fire-place ,. a drunken man was snoring on a heap of straw in a corner ; and three little

bare-legged children were playing about the floor , which was quite as dirty as the road outside . That man earned five-andtwenty shillings a week , and had regular employment when he liked to go to it . I didn't have to ask the reason of his povertyfor as I went out of the door I saw

, a neighbouring publican - and his wife , dressed in vulgar finery , getting into a dog-eart and driving off to spend the day at Reclear . " That there are too many such men , robbed of all manhood by the demon , Drunkennessin all parts of our clear old

, England , is as true as it is pitiful ; but , on the other hand , in the ironstone district of Cleveland , as elsewhere , I have met with working men possessed of " Homes of Taste , " like that so well sung by Ebenezer Elliott : —

" You seek the home of taste , and find The proud mechanic there , Rich as a king , and less a slave , Throned in his elbow-chair ! Or . on his sofa reading Locke , Beside his open door ! Why start 1 why envy worth like his The carpet on his floor ?"

Ancl what true Mason will not exclaim with the poet : — " 0 lift the workman ' s heart and mind Above low sensual sin ! Give bun a home ! a home of taste ! Outbid tho house of gin !

0 give him taste , it is the link Which binds us to the skies—A bridge of rainbows , thrown across The gulph of tears ancl sighs ; Or like a widower ' s little one—An angel in a child—That leads him to her mother ' s chair ,

And shows him how she smiled . " One of Andrew ' s observations , "that people who keep public-houses consider you do them an injury if you ask them to sell you anything except liquor , " is too true in the majority of cases . " They call

themselves 'Licensed Victuallers . ' I ' m sure they are not , as a rule , victuallers in any true sense . . . They don't scruple at all to put up outside the house ' Good accommodation for man and beast ; ' but , it seems to me , that they intend the man to make a beast of himself , and then they'll accommodate him . Half the times that you ask to be supplied with anything to