Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

Prizes are being offered at the Architectural Museum , South Kensington , to artist-ivorkmen , for stone-carving , modelling , wood-carving , mefcal-w-ork , painted glass , and coloured decoration ; and all deserving specimens are to be sent to the Great International Exhibition of 1 SG 2 .

The Secret History of tlie Court of France under Louis XY ., edited from rare and unpublished documents , by Dr . Challice , is just ready for publication , iu two volumes , ivith portraits . The late George Wilson , M . D ., who contributed the first six chapters to the Memoir of Edward Forbes , F . P . S ., late Pegius Professor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh ,

gives the following beautiful sketch of the Isle of Man in the first of these chapters : — "In the centre of the Irish Sea , midway between the shores of England , Scotland , Ireland , and AA ales , lies that diminutive continent which , as if it ivere an epitome of the ivhole world , bears the title of the Isle of Man . On the chart it looks like one of the pieces of a child ' s puzzle-map which iias strayed to a distance from the adjacent shores . It can be fitted

, however , into none of them , and geologists tell us thafc it is in its true place , and represents one of the few surviving portions of a tract of land which once united fche British Islands , but has long since left only fragments above fche waves . . . . Down the centre of the Island runs a ridge of hills , and chief among these is Snaefell . On its green summit the spectator , lifted two thousand feet above the sea , stands , as it were , in the centre of the British Isles , and on

a summer day looks down upon three thousand square miles of land and ocean . Skiddaw and Suowdon , Criffel ancl fche hills of Morne , greet him from England and AA ' ales , Scotland and Ireland . . . . The sides of the hills are golden with gorse at one season , and purple with heather at another , and the grass is as green as that of Ireland . The glens which hide their quiet beauty among the hills are mantled by deep green woods , hung with ivy , and carpeted on their sloping sides by velvet mosses and fragrant th kept

yme , verdant ancl full of lite by the flash of a mountain stream tumbling from crag to crag , and filling the air with its music . . . . The white smoke of hidden cottages rises like a veil in front of the purple hills . The fragrance of wild flowers conies down the breezes with the tinkling of sheep-bells and the low murmur of distant waterfalls . An island so varied and so beautiful was the befitting birthlace ancl cradle of one destined infuture life to prove himself

p alike naturalist , artist , and philosopher . AVhilsfc yet a child , the wild plants of its vallies had made him a botanist , and the spars and fbssils of its shores had taught him something of geology . But the sea had tho chief charm for him , and in the Bays of Douglas and Ramsay he caught , whilst yet a youth , the first glimpse of those ocean revelations ivhich have made him famous . "

A cheap Life of James Montgomery , the Sheffield poet , by the Rev . John Kirk , is shortly to be published . The Rev . James N . Gloster has commenced a newspaper at Brooklyn , New York , under tlie title of the Coloured Patriot . Its motto ivill explain its object -. — "Truth is omnipotent . To arms ' . to arms ! ye loyal sons of patriotic sires ! No more union with slaveholders . "

CRICKET : ITS UxrvTiiSALiTr . —AVherever the English name is carried , wo find cricket taking the same prominent place as at home . In the Canadas , Australia , and other seats of British colonial enterprise , we see the game arriving at the same popular height as in the old country . This fact at once stamps the national character that distinguishes it , and the thoroughly British element it so strongly embodies . Perhaps the enjoyment of natural beauties that it ' s participation affordsto a people so tible to the charm of

, suscep home scenery as the English , may supply one means , and but one , in explanation of this undoubted truth . —Poi /' s Own Magazine ( July ) . THE LONDON PARKS . — If we turn from the gentlemen's country seats to the public parks in the time of Elizabeth , we shall find that the latter , especially St . James's , ivas merely a pen for deer—an appendage to the tilt-yard—and it wasmost probablyto

, , tlie passionate fondness of the early English sovereigns for the chase thafc we owe the parks of London . A proclamation of Henry \ IIL , July 15 , 15-iG , places this in a very clear light , and shows most plainly that in those days a considerable extent of country round Westminster was simply a royal chase within which deer were bred in the inrks . —Enalishwoinaii's Domestic Manazine ( July ) .

Masonry In" The United States.

MASONRY IN" THE UNITED STATES .

The following letter has heen addressed by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania to the Grand Lodge of Tennessee , in reply to a circular issued to the sister Grand Lodges of the United States , on the present state of the Republic : —

TO THE EIGHT WORSHIPFUI GRAND MASTER , DEPUTY GRAND MASTER , AND OFFICERS AND MEMBERS OF THE GRAND LODGE OF TENNESSEE : — Your circular letter of last month , addressed . to the R . AV . Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania , ivas received and read at a Quarterly Communication of that body , held at Philadelphia on the third of the present month , and referred to the Committee of Correspondence .

On behalf of the R . W . Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania , we are entrusted with the duty of considering and answering it . Brethren , Masonry is as old as government . It constitutes a government in itself . Ifcs origin , principles , organization and administration are to be fourd in loyalty , obedience , hope , charity , ancl love . It is operative everyivhere , because its foundation can be laid among mankind wherever mankind exist . Resistance to , or disobedience ofany of these principles is not permitted in Masonic

, sovereignty . Masonry could nofc exist a moment , it ivpuld not have lived longer than languages , races , ancl empires , if "it had tolerated insubordination or rebellion against its authority . -Masonry teaches lessons for all peoples , and all times , and all epochs in history , past or future . Every Masonic principle , all its virtues , each of its benefits , have been sanctified by time . They have been ripened into good fruits by the aid , approbation , and

support of the ivise , virtuous and patriotic of every commonwealth . Masonry is a sovereignty and a law unto itself . AVherever existing it is occupied with the permanence , universality , and integrity of its own organic laws and usages . It has excluded all , bufc ifcs own members , from participation in its affairs . It knows nothing but the principles and teachings of its faith . Masonry has relations only with such as are bound together by the ties of its brotherhood .

It regards the rise and fall of empires , the disturbances in states , the wars of contending nations , ancl rebellions and revolutions in commonwealths , or among peoples , as calamities , arising from causes to which Masonry is a stranger . The proud position of the brotherhood is to stand aloof from such evils , without partiality and Avithout participation . The mission of Masonry is not either imperilled or hindered by such conditions of society . The claims of a brother are not dissolved by war , pestilence or famine ; the tie , once formed , is only sundered by death . In gloom and despair , in want , distress and peril , the life of Masonic principles is neither

endangered nor attacked . Ihe roar of tho whirlwind cannot render the cry of a brother inaudible ; nor the darkness of civil ' war prevent the destitution of a brother from being seen . As to the present deplorable state of the country , Masons cannot fail to have opinions as to the causes that produced it . It is to be feared that some of our brethren are in arms against the union of the States ; others are in the ranks of its defenders . Taught by the history of the Orderthat resistance to its government is

, indefensible , they have carried these principles into the formation of opinions on tlie present crisis in our national history . But while Masons , as individuals , have been thus influenced aud are acting in harmony ivitli such views , Preemasonry is a silent , unhnpassioned , abstracted observer of events . It is hardly possible that a fraternity ivhich has on its roll the names of the fathers of American liberty and independence , could be other than deeply impressed

with the present relations between heirs of such a glorious inheritance . Brethren , these are the thought wc cannot bridle , and almost force their way without the will , and to ivhich your circular letter has given utterance . The R . W . Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania , for ivhich ive speak , fraternally salutes you , ancl the brethren under your jurisdiction . One of the earliest and most consistently followed duties of this Grand Lodge , has been to stand by , and defend , our ancient landmarks . Those who are familiar with its

history know , she has gone through trials in support of this organic article of Masonic faith . In times of prosperity and peace , but little courage is required to perform duties ever so imperatii'e . Now , or Avhenever this , or any Masonic duty is to be discharged in the face of stern exigencies or unaccustomed perplexity or peril , the R . W . Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania hopes and believes she ivill not be found less faithful nor more unwilling than any of her sister sovereignties of the Craft , around the world .

Brethren , ive , with you , deplore the present unnatural and deeply distressing condition of our national affairs . Civil strife cannot be the outgrowth of the principles and victories of that great epoch in the history of mankind , known as the " Avar of 1776 . " We have a hope and a faith that tho God of our Fathers will behold their children in their affliction , and be merciful , bless , protect , and preserve them , and say to them , " Peace , be still ! " But if this voice is not heard , if the fire in the bush is not seen as a monition ,