" Once Upon A Time."

few remain who once laughed with us , and cheered us , and chaffed us , aud loved us , and gave ns good advice , ancl were all in all to us , ancl whom we ourselves loved very truly . How few even still survive who scolded us , and bothered us , and bored us , who wo laughed at and chaffed in return , ancl who were the " flics " iu our little morsel of choicest amber . " Non sunt ! " They are no more with ns ; they have left ns ; and we remember them sadly , and grieve for them often ancl want them very much .

I d give many a sugar cane , Matt . Lewis were alive again . But so it cannot be , and to-day , in the throng of men , in a solitary study amid the " songs of sirens" and the noise of a crowd , there comes to us all with the words " once upon a time" an indescribable yearning for those loving faces ancl gladdening smiles which once threw au aureole of truest , tried affection over our homes ancl our hearts . Yeshearts ! for we had hearts

, then . Ancl once more , in Freemasonry especially , we can enter into the full force of these simple , yet meaning words . To how many years of very pleasant fellowship and innocent sociality does the saying " once on a time " carry us back to-day ? We are in the old lodge again as in the cheery days of yore . Those kind faces , and ready hands , and warm hearts are all there before us , if in shadowy outline yet in spiritual reality . We see their

countenances , we listen to their words , we rejoice in their presence . The merry laugh , the harmless joke , the gay symposium , the classic song all come before us again vividly , really , ancl wo can hear our W . M ., with pleasant intonation , saying his emphatic words—or a good old P . M . —either " layingdown the law " or chanting his ancient melody . Alas ! all these are , after all , only "shadows of the past , " simply , purely ; and as I write to-day the room

seems empty once more , and I rise even from this paper with the conviction that , say what we will and do what we will , there is all of the hi ghest philosophy , the truest wisdom , the most beneficial care treasured up for us all in the words " once upon a time , " for ns all , and that as life comes and goes , and we all move on our way through this great waste wilderness of life , there is nothing so good for us all , be we ' who we may , as to bring home to our innerest selves the memories of the past , to soften , to subdue , to better , ancl to bless these cold , composed , hardened heartless hearts of ours . —Farewell !

Enchantment.

ENCHANTMENT .

rriHE sails we see on the ocean - * - Are as white as white can be , But never one in the harbour As white as the sails at sea . And the clouds that crown the mountain With purple and gold delight

Turn to cold grey mist and vapour Ere ever we reach its height . Stately and fair is the vessel That conies not near our beach ; Stately and grand the mountain Whose hei ght we may never reach .

0 distance , thon dear enchantress , Still hold in thy magic veil The glory of far-off mountains , The gleam of the far-off sail . Anon !