Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

vatories , that he found the only flowers he much cared for—those of literature . His library , which was a very choice one , mainly consisted of old books picked up at bookstalls . He had no predilection for modern editions of his favourite writers , furnished with notes , and costing large sums of money . The notes he could furnish himself , and the four pounds ten shillings he was willing enough to keep ; conscious , that with the remaining ten , at due intervals of timehe could ick the disjointed limbs of the great man . His

, p up hook-shelves accordingly had no outward attractions . They resembled an old fruiterer's , who makes no show . Dust and dry leaves hung about them . But within were melting peaches and fruits for the gods . The curiosity-shops Lamb did not trouble . He did not care for antiquity as antiquity ; whatever some may have supposed . . . . But he had an eye for a print or an old picture . Hogarth ho revelled in ; ancl he would delight iu the high forehead

of an old saint in au etching , with its capacity for being 'filled with wondei-. ' Therefore , in Wardour-street and Princes-street he was happy . We never heard Hazlitt speak of this quarter ; but as he died in Frith-street , he was here buried ; ancl very fitly does his memory also associate itself with the old pictures ancl books . He was , moreover , very fond of music ; ancl could write things about its inarticulate sweetness and sufficiency , which , as it has been beautifully observed , were themselves like overtures of Beethoven .

He would have pronounced , we fear , most of the pictures in Wardour-street to be daubs ; ancl he did not care for a stock of the hooks as Lamb did . His brain was perpetually seething with authorship of his own . Hazlitt had scarcely a book in his house , or even a print . A few prints would accumulate and be given away ; and we never saw either on his walls . Yet no man loved a few of them better . Give him a stroll in the country ( for he liked the country better than Lamb did ) , a room in an inn to repose in , a roast fowl , and a volume of Fielding or Congreve to recall the clays of his youth ; and those were his happy moments . "

The following description of a . raft voyage down a forest-fringed mountain stream , we extract from Student Life in Venetia , recently translated by Mr . C . B . Cayley , P . A ., from the unpublished Italian Manuscripts : ¦— "Oh , it is a wondrous thing to float on a zatlera upon a river , which descending an inclined bed , rushes , and whirls , and seethes , and maddens in its career ! The distances are swallowed

up ; varied scenes , fearful and lovely , replace one another every moment . Now you pass through a defile between two lofty mountains , which scarcely allow the water a narrow passage ; now you go along with a goodly tract on either side of fruitful level ,- now

through an expanse of shingle , which the torrent once devastated , when it sppeacl , during the full flood-times , _ into an ample channel ; now you descry villages , now towns , which appear and disappear at a little distance from the banks ; now you come across the ruins of old-world hills , which broke clown , at an unremembered era , from the water ' s incessant action having many ages corroded ancl undermined their bases ; ancl now you pass streams , that pour the tribute

of their waters into the superior torrent , which with a ravenous snatch hurries you forward ; ancl there at the confluence , the water seethes and . foams , ancl thence the torrent swells more arid more , and the rapidity of its course increases , and it bears you downward , aye more furiously . But all this is comparatively nothing . The raft is an object of still greateivwonder . The ligatures , which connect the planks , are not drawn close and tight , but have play given themaccording to the rules of artso that thoy ield without

, , may y treating , o the reactions begotten , by the impetus of the em-rent . The raft is always represented hy the zatieri in their gergo as a serpent , ancl like a serpent she comports herself . She turns round upon herself according to the tortuous course of the river , and seems to imitate a serpent slinking ; she bends in front , ancl remains straight in the rearward part , just as a serpent might . She hisses when she breaks through the water , and grates and rumbles over a

bed of shingle , where the water is shallow ; now her joints are dislocated ancl creak horribly , as she almost doubles herself up in winding round a rock ; now she clears the reaches ivith sharp , broken jilunges : and now she threatens , in her coilings , to dash against a rock , ancl by a snap with her head evades the obstacle . All these marvels are effected by the four zatieri , who stand by the four oars . You feel sure every moment that the raft is going to strike a crag and be

broken to pieces , or to run aground in a shallow , and remain immovable for many hours ; or to be dismembered by the violence of its own movement ; ancl all these perils are encountered and overcome every moment by the dexterity , the herculean strength , and the audacity of the zatteri , who with their four rude oars perform prodigies . In four or five hours they traverse a distance amounting , in a straight line , to about forty miles , but the route with all its windings would measure it hundred or perhaps a hundred and forty , "

Correspondence.

CORRESPONDENCE .

The Editor is not responsible for the opinions expressed by Correspondents . PROV . GRAND ' LODGE OE SUSSEX . TO THE JEDITOll OF THE JFltEEMASONS MAGAZINE AND MASONIC MIMIOH . DEAR Sm AND BUOTHEH , —In your article last week upon the forthcoming " Sussex Provincial Meeting" you remarked " for the first time for many years the brethren Avill attend Divine Service . " I am leased to think you deem such

p intention worthy of particular mention . It further shows that the little province of Sussex is not lost sight of by your Magazine . I venture to hope that 7 / ou will increase the obligation Ave feel under to you , by sending a representative to the forthcoming meeting . You Avill then have an opportunity of seeing how harmoniously eA * cry thing Avorks in the province , of bearing witness to the individual exertions

of the D . Prov . G . M ., of hearing his report , from personal visits , of the progress of the several lodges , and of acknowledgingthe justice of the UOAV appointments , and further you will be enabled pleasurably to record a movement in the right direction—steps for the immediate erection of " A Masonic Hall . " Yours fraternally , Brighton , August 6 th , 1861 . PKOGBESS .

Admission Of Non-Masons To Masonic Banquets.

ADMISSION OF NON-MASONS TO MASONIC BANQUETS .

TO THE EDIT 0 JR OP THE EREEMASONS' MAGAZINE AND MASOXIC AIIJREOH . Sm AND BROTHER , —Some of your readers may be amused by the folio-wing " cutting" from the Norwich Mercury of last "Wednesday , anent the Norfolk Prov . Grand Lodge meeting on the preA * ious Friday : — "THE SUDDEN BREAK UP OP THE MASONIC DINNER .

" We are prevented from giving a report of the Masonic dinner , at the Assembly Rooms , our reporter having been refused admission by the Secretary , Mr . Leedes Fox , after Mr . Bond Cabbell , the Prov . G . M ., had expressed an opinion to a member of the Prov . Grand Lodge , who applied to that gentleman on our behalf , that 'he saw no objection to our reporter being present . ' ' From what we can learn , the refusal is of no importance to the public , as far as Masonic eloquence is concerned , for we understand , that the

conduct of some of the brethren , who certainly ought to have known better , was so disorderly ancl disgraceful when the Prov . G . M . was addressing them , that he was compelled hy the noise ancl disorder , to sit clown , ancl leave unexplained his intentions as to the Assembly Room property . The reader ( Mason or non-Mason ) has , therefore , suffered no loss hy the rejection of our reporter , only that the report he would have made of these not very creditable or brotherly proceedings would probably have preventedby j ^ s

, exposure , any similar conduct in a Masonic lodge , where brethren are supposed ' to dwell together in unity . ' "A few words now as to this very pitiful rejection of our reporter . We can show hy precedents , not only that the late most illustrious Grand Master of England , when he came to Norwich in August , 1819 , to instal Mr . Coke as Grand Master of Norfolk , or his officers , did not refuse the attendance of a non-Masonic

reporter , or even his being at their elbow for a wnole evening reporting ( for we had that honour ancl pleasure ) . Two years ago , at the North AValsham Masonic dinner , Mr . Bond Cabbell in the chair , our reporter ( the same party as now ) was present , ancl the report of the proceedings appeared . How the Provincial Secretary can reconcile the incongruity 01 pi- ' mciple , which not only admits tbe presence of a reporter at ono time , but objects at another , we do not quite nuclei-stand . Even if we put aside the fact that the

most illustrious Grand Master of England , and the Provincial Grand Master of Norfolk , and the body of the Masons , were not opposed to a reporter ancl editor's presence , the refusal to admit now savours of something more than Masonic rule . Unless , therefore , among tho extraordinary revolutions of these times , when practice is found sometimes not to be quite synonymous with the outward show of princilethe leaven of lifo ( which has been of

. p , late found to affect the very good as well as the sinner ) , may have affected even some of the ' Brethren of the Craft , " we cannot comprehend the reason of this rejection . Tho spirit of Masonry we have always understood to be liberal , kind , and generous ; anything but narrow ancl bigotted . But we , who are not of the Craft , can only judge by the deeds of the flesh , and read the refusal of our reporter ( after the courteous ancl liberal view taken of our

application only the night before by the Grand Master , for which we beg to express our acknowledgments ) as rather the result of a narrow view of the laws , or a despotic exercise of the power of office , than as in the true spirit of Masonic rule . " Fortunately nothing has been lost to the public , except indeed they would have been better informed of the causes of the out-