Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE , SCIENCE , AND ART .

BY BBO . GEOBGE MAKKHAM TWEDDELL . ' Author of " Shakspere , Us Times and Contemporaries" " The Sards and Authors of Cleveland and South Durham , " " The People ' s History of Cleveland and its Vicinage" " The Visitors Handbook to He-dear , Coatham , and Saltburn by

thc Sect" " The History of the Stockton and Darlington Railway" etc ., ete . ^ ASLON'S Circular informs us that " type metal is a composition of lead , tin , ^ antimony , and copper , all of ivhich metals are necessary to give the required ductilityhardnessand toughness . No other composition has ever been found ivhich

, , so well answered all the purposes for type making . " The fifth number contains a nice little account of Type Pounding , illustrated by woodcuts , ancl also of Registered Adjusting Furniture , ivhich article will be a useful improvement in the art of printing ,- —one , of the noblest manual labours any human being can be engaged in . The names of Baskerville ancl Caslon are inseparably connected with the history of letterpress printing in England ; but the former , at his death in 1775 , left no issue , though 'his name is

imperishable . Not so with the house of Caslon , which , though the celebrated William , the first English type-founder , died in 1700 , still maintains a foremost position in the ranks of the type-founders of Europe . The ignorant prejudice ivell meaning but badly educated people entertain against making the hidden mysteries of nature ancl science our stud y is well shown in the following short extract from Homes of the Hamlet , from the pen of my literary friend , Charlotte Phillips : —

" Good Superintendent Whykcs ! I used to like him for the zeal he displayed on behalf of these little ones ; ancl yet it certainly was not always a zeal according to knowledge : for well I recollect that G had been for some time trying to teach the children the distances of some of the planets from our earth ; and , in order to impress the matter more fully upon their minds , had drawn out the distances upon the black board , Our schoolroom was used for the Sunday School , and we invariabl y found on a Monday morning that the figures were effaced from the board . _ '" Who is it that always rubs out this lesson , ivhich I take so much pains to copy for you , boys . ' said Of one morning

, , '" Please , Sir , ' said a little , sharp , Muck-eyed boy , about ten years old , 'it is Mr . Whykes . ' '" And do you know ivhy ha does that ? Is not the board always hung up in its place on a Saturday out of thc way ?' "' Yes , Sir ; but Master Whykes asked what that meant that was written there , and I told him about thc stars , and their distances from us , and ho said it was very presumptuous and wicked of you to teach us what God never meant we should know : it ivas like trying to bring doivn heaven to earth ; a 'M that wo should be contented with what God bad told us in the Bible , without prying into His secrets . '"

Mr . William Andrews has published in a separate form the short but pithy paper contributed by him some time ago to the Argonaut , on Beverley Sanctuary , with illustrations of the I . rid Stools yet remaining at Beverley Minster ancl at Hexham , the ' only fl 7 o , I believe , now existing in England . The privilege of sanctuary dates back to the earliest records of history , and seems to have prevailed both among Jews and Gentiles . J the Mosaic Law it was ordained , 3369 years ago , that for manslaughter the criminal snoulcl have " a place whither he shall flee , " but the murderer , who came " pres umptuousl y upon his nei ghbour to slay him , with guile , " was to be dragged even Ji'oru the altar to his doom ( Exodus xxi , 13 , 14 ) . And at a distance of nearly