Masonic Notes And Queries.

SOLOMON and SHEBA . ( Duett . ) o ' [ One gem beyond the rest I see , SHEBA . \ And charming Solomon is be . SOL . ) Fairest of fair ones , tbon art she . SHEBA . Oh thou , surpassing all men wise , SOL . . Ancl thine excelling women's eyes . HIRAM . ( RecUi )

Wisdom ancl beauty doth combine Our art to raise , and hearts to join . CHORUS . Give to MASONRY the prize , Where the fairest choose the wise ; Beauty still should Wisdom love , Beauty ancl order reign above . "

[ The foregoing cannot be adduced as an authority on matters of fact , but it asserts two things touched upon by former querists , and one heretofore altogether new in this form . It calls Sheba " fairest of fair ones , " in opposition to Bro . Passenger ' s " ebony Yenus . " It also pretty plainly intimates a liaison between Solomon and the Queen , and it brings Hiram on the scene after the completion of the Temple . —f * t- ]

Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE , SCIENCE , AND ART .

A writer in the Comhill Magazine for the present month , whose theme is " The Morality of Advocacy , " says -. — " People read newspapers , ancl especially the trials reported there , almost exclusively for amusement . The most important cases brought into court ' possess , ' to use the reporter ' s phrase , ' no interest for the general public' Mercantile causes of all kinds , questions about dispositions of property , actions between landlord ancl tenant , proceedings

about the rights and duties of public authorities , such as corporations , questions as to rights of way , local customs , and other matters which it would be tedious to mention , are amongst the most important branches of litigation , ancl impose upon the advocates engaged in them their most laborious , ancl also their most lucrative duties ; but such matters as these are naturally passed over very shortly in the columns of newspapers . The cases which are reported there at full length are matters of a slihtl

gy scandalous kind . Actions for libel , assault , seduction , or breach of promise of marriage—actions by fraudulent bill-discounters—horse causes , in which whole days are spent in complicated perjury ; and , in fact , every suit which could be classed under the general title of 'Foolu . Knave , ' are the cases which are reported and read , and from which the public form their notion as to what sort of people

barristers are . These cases give far too low a notion of advocacy , and of those who practise it . The litigants are usually both rogues ancl fools ; they naturally resort to a low class of attorneys , who again have a natural affinity for the lowest kind of barrister . Those who have a special turn for this kind of business , and who are supposed to be the most distinguished members of the profession by those who measure professional eminence by the frequency with which a man ' s name in the form a class

appears newspapers , which is small , disreputable , and shut out to a great extent from really high professional distinction . After a shore experience of Westminster Hall , it woulcl be easy for any one to recognise at a glance the members of this class . The callous insensibility , the brutal indifference to the feelings of others , the hardened vulgarity which can never rise above a s sort of metallic bombast , tbe unvarying mannerism which makes speech subject

every upon every look like variations upon one tune , bave almost always made their mark on the features , the tone of voice , and tbe very gait and gesture . It is from this small section of a noble profession that too many persons form their opinion of the whole of it ; ancl it is not surprising that that opinion should be a low one . It is unfortunately true that there are amongst English barristers a certain number of ruffians as brutal and as false as any of their clients . "

Another strange freak has been played with the bust of Shakspere at Stratford , worse than that perpetrated by Malone . " It has been taken down from its niche in the wall of Trinity Church , " says the Aihenceum , " scraped , painted -red and black , and set up again , without a single soul out of Stratford hearing one ivhisper about it until all was done . " The article is from the pen

of Mr . Hepworth Dixon , and dated from Stratford-on-Avon , March 25 th , 1861 ; and he continues : — "That an unknown picturecleaner should have been suffered to take the bust from its niche ,

scrape , scratch , and rub , ancl then to lay on colour , to daub and splash as it seemed good to him , without consulting a single person connected with Shaksperian lore , or taking the opinion of a single artist , is a fact so strange and so incredible , that I almost expect the reader to say , ' This is a dream . ' It is too true . The bust is changed , and for the moment spoiled . The expression of

the stone is at best a little hard ancl rigid , as if the face had been modelled from a cast taken after death . It is now as hideous and idiotic as any bust can be made to look with that round head ancl mass of brain . The mouth is made to gape . The eyes stare and squint . The cheeks are daubed a villanous red . " After this , one could not be very much surprised to hear that the Stratford authorities hacl caused a short black pipe to be inserted in the bard'smouth .

Professor Temiant is to commence a course of lectures on geology ( having especial reference to the application of the science to engineering , mining , architecture , and agriculture ) , commencing on Friday morning , April 12 th , at King's College , London . Eugene Verboeckhoven ' s great picture , <• Cattle leaving the Farmyard , " on which the great Flemish master has been engaged

for the last three years , is to be publicly exhibited in Hanoversquare , on and after Monday next . , Mr . Richard Doyle , who withdrew from Punch some time ago on account of its attacks upon Popery , commences his " Bird ' s Eye-Views of Society " in the Comhill Magazine for this month ., Essays and Reviews has already reached an eighth edition ,

without any reduction in the original price of balf-a-guinea . In the first editions , we believe , only a thousand copies were printed at . one time , but now five thousand impressions are required for each issue . Mudie ' s library alone has taken two thousand copies , but the demand for the work is so great , that subscribers have to " wait till they get it . "

Mr . Alexander Smith , the talented secretary to the University of Edinburgh , has a new poem preparing for publication . Mr . Edwin Arnold , M . A ., has in the press two volumes on the Administration of British India under our lately deceased Bro . tbe Marquis of Dalhousie . My Own Life and Times , by the late Eev . Thomas Somerville ,.

D . D ., Minister of Jedburgh , and one of the chaplains in ordinary to George HI ., is now in the press , and will be out during tbe current month . The work was written in the years 1813 and 1814 , and the author , who was born February 26 th ( O . S . ) , 1741 , died on the 16 th

of May , 1830 , in his ninetieth year . He was the author of some historical ivorks on the Kevolution of 1688 ; and on the reign of Queen Anne , Lockbart , in a note to his Life of Sir Walter Scott ,. says : — " Some extracts from this venerable person ' s unpublished . Memoirs of his own Life have been kindly sent to me by his son , the well known physician of Chelsea College ; from which it appears that tbe reverend doctor , ancl more particularly still , his wife , a lady

of remarkable talent and humour , had formed a high notion of Scott ' s future eminence [ at a very early period of his life . Dr . Ssurvived to a good old age , preserving his faculties quite entire , and I bave spent many pleasant hours under his hospitable roof in company with Sir Walter . We heard him preach an excellent circuit sermon when be was upwards of ninety-two [ this must be an

error ] , and at the Judges' dinner afterwards he was among the gayest of the company . " And our gifted Brother , Sir Walter , hnnself mentions him under date of the 20 th of September , 1826 , in tbe following terms : — " Breakfasted with tbe Bev . Dr . Somerville . 'This venerable gentleman is one of the oldest of the literary brotherhood—I suppose about eighty-seven , —and except a little deafness , quite entire . Living all his life in good society as a

gentleman born—and having , besides , professional calls to make , among the poor—he must know , of course , much that is enrions concerning the momentous changes which have passed under his eye He talked of them accordingly , and has written something on the subject , but has scarce the force necessary to seize on the most striking points . The bowl that rolls eas 2 st along the green goes farthest , and bas the least clay sticking to it . I have often noticed that a liindly placid good humour is the com panion of longevity