Masonic Notes And Queries.

society . The latter is redolent of pains and penalties , and declares that if any Catholics meet in such societies , promise , or obligate themselves , to keep such secrets , the parish priest shall carry them before the Bishop that they may be punished with heavy ecclesiastical punishment , for their contumacy . Lest this may seem too hard ameasure to be dealt out to a brotherhood like our own , and to showthat we have erred

on the side of lenient construction , we append E . C ' s . original for fche benefit of our classical readers : — " The following extract is from the Decreta Synodi , Plena / rice Hpiscoporumi Uibemice , apud Thurles HabitceAnno MDCOCL . Jussu Superionem . Dublini , 1851 " De Parochis , 14 , Cum gravissima damna religion ! et reipublieae ex societafcibus secretis orianfcur , paroohos monemus ut maximam

diligentiam in eo ponanfc , ufc hujus modi societates iu suis paraiciis non insfcituanfcur . " 15 . Cum vero ma-ximopere dolendum sit non paucos cafcholicos damnataa societati Liberorum Muratorum nomen dedisse , Parochi eis in memoriam revocent , omnes jure meritoque excommunicationem Summo Pontifici reservatam ipso facto incurrere , qui audenfc vel presumunt hujus modi

societates inire , vel propagare , aufc confovere , receptare , occultare , aufc iis etiam mfceresse , prout stafcuit Clemens XII . Const , in Fminenti , roborata ac Confirmata a Benedicto XIV . in Const . Providas , an . 1751 ; a Pio VII . in Const . Ficclesiam , an . 1821 ; a Leone XII . in Const . Quo graviora , an . 1826 ; et ab aliis Pontificibus . " " Quod si Cafcholici aliqui in alias societates secrefcas

nominatium a Sede Apostolica non damnatas convenient , sive juramento sive mera promissiove ad secretum servandum se obligent , eos parochus at Episcopum deferat , ut re perpensa gravissimis pcenis Ecclesiasticis contumaces puniantur . "

TUB BALDWYN ENCAMPMENT . Now that there has gone forth the healing between the Baldwyn Encampment and Grand Conclave , will some Knt ., conversant Avith the difference between these two bodies , put the matter into plain language that we , the younger Knights of the order may know what ib was about and nofc remain in ignorance any longer ?—TORCOPOLIER .

THE S . G . I . G . BEO . STEPHEN MOBIN . Where is a life of the S . G . I . G . Bro . Stephen Morin to be found?—TKENTE TKOIS . 3 IAEK MASONEY . What is tho earliest date of a lodge of Mark Masons meeting in England ? J . E .

AGE 01 ? SCOTCH MASONEY . What is the age of Masonry as practised in Scotland under the Kilwinning lodges ?—F . M . [ Consult Laurie ' s History of Freemasonry . ' ]

Notes On Literature Science And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE SCIENCE AND ART .

The following excellent remarks of the Critic are well worth the attention of all who wish to produce hooks for young people : — " We pity the man who cannot enjoy a hook for youth ; depend on it that he is no philosopher who disdains even the child ' s hook , with all its nonsense and baby-prattle . He certainly was never young , philosopher as he may consider himself ; never sat with wonder at the feet of mother or nurse listening to old-world tales

ancl the music of old- world ballads ; never was curious about the pictures in 'Little Eed Riding Hood' and the ' Babes of the Wood , ' as glorious to young eyesight as the cartoons of Raphael ; never cared about beautiful fairies , princesses , and sleeping beauties- ; never had his heart beat in sympathy with the hero who sets out to rescue a sister from the power of a tryant or ogre ; never , in short , hand any young blood in him at all—or he would speak with a kind of reverence of the hook of his youth-time , remembering its

first lessons , the first stimulus it gave the imagination , and the first impulses the heart . Some one—more than one—has said , ' Let me have the making of the ballads of a nation , ancl I care not who married before they were thirty . To take a few , those whose names first occur to me , there were two laureates , Southey and Colley Gibber , each of whom married very young indeed . Of dramatists , Francis Beaumont married at twenty-seven , ancl the immortal bard linked his fortunes with Ann Hathaway's before he was eighteen .

Family cares did not obscure the poetic genius of either Coleridge or Campbell . Jeremy Taylor rose to eminence despite an early marriage ; and , the same obstacle notwithstanding , such men as Oliver Cromwell , Napoleon , and George Washington could dare tho stupendous ventures by which they moulded the world ' s destinies . Fenimore Cooper's industry was not at all impaired by a marriage at twenty-two ; and James Watt had energy and boldness left after an early union to conceive and carry almost to perfection the

triumph of mind over matter , where steam is enslaved and forced to employ its power as man wills—a triumph which will keep a loftyniche for the great inventor in Fame's temple while time shall last . Of great lawyers , men whose opinions passed with the weight of statutes , there are comparatively few who did not marry early . Elclon , Erskine , Abinger , had each his wife before his beard coulcl have been well grown , and yet the world has known few more learned jurisconsults . Of living celebrities I cannot so well write

, without searching into privacy nofc yet embalmed in history ; hut , seeking no further than the peerage , it appears that Lord St . Leonards and the Bishops of Oxford , Canterbury , Lincoln , and Exeter , have , among others , been able to rise to a great perfennenfc notwithstanding their early participation in nuptial happiness . It " we search the biographies of statesmen , we shall find many whose sons were of age and in Parliament when they themselves were in their prime . I might almost say Ex uno dice omnesancl assert that

, all great men whose lives have been useful to society have married early . But , stopping short of this , I may safely affirm , that of those who have been the greatest honour to the country by their science , literary merit , or learning , a very considerable proportion have been men whose minds have had the soothing halo of domestic life cast around their ways from early manhood up-wards . " The following letter from a lieutenant in the army to his

commanding officer is given in the newly published memoir of Sir Ralph Abercromby , by his son , James Lord Dunfermline , and is valuable as showing the state of society towards the close of lasts ' century : ¦— " To Lieut .-Col . , Foot . Sir , —I believe ( I am a member of the mess ) , if so , I will take the liberty to submit the following argument , viz ., every gentleman under the immediate propensity of liquor has different propensities ; to prove which I have only to mention , the present instance with respect to myself

and Lieut . —— -. My propensity is noise and riot—his sleep . I everconceived that in a public mess-room three things were certain : first , that it , vas open to every officer who chose to pay the subscription ; second , that he might indulge himself with liquor as much as he pleased ; ancl third , that if a gentleman and a member of the mess chose to get intoxicated in the mess-room , that no other officer ( however high his rank in the regiment ) had a right , or dare order to restrain ( not being president ) his momentary

pro has the making of its laws . ' It would be an equally laudable ambition were one to say , Let me have the making of children ' s books , ancl I care not who has the making of their philosophy . We would rather have the immortality of the author of ' Robinson Crusoe' than that of the author ofthe 'Novum Orgamnn' —we know , at least , which of the two is most popular . But ifc is no easy task to write books for the young , as may be seen by the

multitude of failures every year made . Youth is keen in its critical perceptions ; it recognises a good book without the aid of puffing . ' Sandford ancl Merton , ' the Travels of Mungo Park , the tales of "Miss Edgeworth , and many similar works , were accepted as favourites the instant they appeared ; while other books , with all the temptations of gaudy binding , ancl woodcuts and copperplates numerous , have never received a welcome in hall or cottage , or playgroundor schoolbox . Most of these failures must arise

, from incompetency in the writer . He or she writes correct English , perhaps even elegant English , but fails to rivet the attention . Perhaps he or she is of those of whom we have already spoken as never having been young , ancl consequently ignorant of the wants and tastes of youth . Then , again , youth does not like to be talked down to ancl treated as mere little boys and girls—a common mistake in writing for youth . Boys especially desire to bo treated as if they were young men able to take their own part in the

world ; and the more manly the book in manner and matter tho more it is likely to be relished . " Canon Moseley says : — " As I go from school to school , I perceive in each a distinctive character , which is that of the Master . I look at the school ancl at the man , and there is no mistaking the resemblance . His idiosyncraey has passed upon it , and I seem to see him reflected in the children as in so many flagrante of a broken mirror . "

Mr . Henry J . Slack , F . G . S ., in his Marvels of Pond Life , remarks of the Trachelitis , or long-necked ' ciliated animalcule : — " Tlie motion of this creature exhibit more appearance of purpose and design than is common with animalcules ; but in proportion as these observations are prolonged , the student will be impressed