Chinese Freemasonry.

says Dr . Legge again ( Vol . iii ., Part i ., p . 196 ) , " in the Shoo , nor elsewhere , so far as I am aware , of what became of bad emperors and bad ministers after death ; nor , indeed , of the future fate of men generally . There is a heaven in the classical books of the Chinese but there is no hell ; and no purgatory . Their oracles are silent as to any doctrine of future rewards and punishments .

Their exhortations to well doing , and their warnings against evil , are all based on a reference to the will of God , and the certainty that in this life virtue will be rewarded and vice punished . ' Of the five happinesses , the first is long life ; the second is riches ; the third is soundness of body and serenity of mind ; the fourth is the love of virtue ; and the fifth is doing or receiving to the end the will of heaven . '—( " Shoo King , " Part v ., Book iv ., par . 39 ) . There is no

promise of rest or comfort beyond the grave . The virtuous man may live ancl die in suffering and disgrace—let him be cheered . His posterity will reap the rewards of his merits . Someone , sprung from his loins , will become wealthy or attain to distinction . But if he should have no posterity ? it never occurred

to any of the ancient sages to consider such a case . Some kind of Freemasonry would seem peculiarly necessary to a people holding such general views of the existence of man and its object . It seems in consonance with the thought-genius of the Chinese mind , and a good moral life would certainly be taught in the lodges . Before I conclude , however , I ought to add that the Freemasonry of China in no way rests upon the traditions adopted in the Westnor does it resemble the Brahminical Masonry still

, practised in India . Indeed the greater mass of the population regard Freemasonry as practised by the Western nations with a mixture of dread and contempt . A well-known and distinguished brother , Major Samuel Owen , who served in several of the Chinese wars , told me that when he was at Hong Kong he frequently visited the local lodges , but his native bearers , who conveyed him in a sedanexhibited unequivocal repugnance at the service they were obliged

, to render him , and spoke of the Masonic Hall as a " Devil's House , " in which the unholiest mysteries were celebrated . That this feeling is not , however , universal , is shown by the statements of the Chinese brethren alluded to at the beginning of this paper .

The Weather.

THE WEATHER .

BY A WANDERER AND A BROTHER . THAT interesting subject of English conversation has certainly recently come " to the fore " with " a vengeance , " and the holidays of some of nswell earned and needed as they arehave been seriouslinterfered with b

, , y y ungenial temperature , and the unheard of vagaries of the " clerk of the weather . " Our excellent friend Jones , always beaming and modest , cheery and talkative , gives us a dismal account of his trials and troubles on this account , which . he declares gruef ully , and we believe him , were really at times " too much "

for his nerves and his temper . It seems he took the wife of his bosom , and his -wife ' s mother , and his wife ' s sister , and his son and heir to a charming cottage in the lake country ; but he equally declares that never in his whole life did he suffer such a martyrdom , and never in his whole existence was he so bored , so bothered , and in such bad humour ; and the reason was , he declares solemnly , " the weather . " We could not get out ; we had to stop in . " Women , my dear friend , he adds , solemnly , require variety , excitement , noveltysomething to do , see , and talk about . They do not like being boxed up , and