Mark Masonry.

MARK MASONRY .

LANCASHIRE ( WEST ) . M ANCIIESTEE . — Union Lodge ( No . 46 ) . —This lodge has long lain iu abeyance , recently held a meeting at Freemasons Hall , Cooper-street , Manchester , under the authority of the M . W . G . M . A sufficient number of old members of the lodge having assembled for the purpose ot electing a TV . Master , their choice falling upon Bro . J . M . Wike , P . Prov . G . S . W ., East Lancashire , and with so abie a head , it is confidently hoped that ere long the Union Lodge will resume its former exalted position amongst the leading lodges of Mark Masonry .

A Letter From Egypt.

A LETTER FROM EGYPT .

We are at last returned to Cairo . The last aay of our travel was a most interesting one—toe saw tlw pyramids . ' We had passed the site of Memphis ; a forest of palm trees covered the ruins of the city . A . fragment of the Colossus , only visible when the waters are down , and which gazed piteously from the ditch , reminded us that

here was one of the grandest cities of the world , and the most ancient , for Memphis represents the primeval period of Egyptian history . But if the city has disappeared the cemeteries remain and such cemeteries ! A dozen pyramids successively present their angles upon the horizon , and each of them is a royal sepulchre . They are grouped upon the edge

of the desert , from Sakkarah to Ghizeh . We could not visit the ruins of Sakkarah ; the inundation bars the passage , and it is a great loss not to go there . We could only see in tho horizon the brick pyramid of six degrees , which is the most ancient monument known to the world . Beyond this are found the sepulchres of the bulls Apis , reunited in a temple first discovered by M .

Mariefcte . We were only able to visit tho classical pyramids , those of Ghizeh . The entire expedition left Ghizeh on asses , about one hour before day . To visit the pyramids we follow the only practicable way of Egypt , but feel ourselves to be on an imperial route . On each side the shrubbery recalls the plantations of the new boulevards at Paris . To complete the illusion , we skirt the railway from Cairo to Minyeh . We lose this altogether European aspect by

an admirable sunrise , where purple tints of the brightest character are magnificently produced . It lightens up the plain around us . We think we have already passed the delta . An immense plain extends even to the horizon . Although hastening our steps , the sun had already exposed one of the faces of the grand pyramid when we

arrived . It was a- singular spectacle to see four pyramids resembling each other , aligning themselves upon an oblique row . They aro of decreasing size , and the last one by the sids of its gigantic sisters has the appearance of a lap dog . Nothing is more strange than these immense faces , triangular and receding , and the perspective gives back in a manner the most bizarre .

But the grand pyramid , that of Cheops , is far from producing , at first sight , the effect which its proportions justify . It is not with the eye it is to be measured , but with the knees . We were scarcely arrived when the Arabs seized us by the hand and hoisted us to the top . It is known that each face , despoiled of its casing , is only an immense

stairway , each step of which is a yard in height , and some of them more . This stairway " is climbed by the help of the Arabs , and it is then , when we sec those gigantic steps renewing themselves unceasingly ; when we halt , out of breath , and behold above us the travellers more advanced , like so many black points lost upon the immense inclined face ; when wo fancy the knees palsied and refusing to move , then there is an idea and a true mpression of the real grandeur of the pyramid .

The effect is perhaps even more satisfactory when we enter the interior . All this immense -work of stones is massive . We enter it by a narrow door . A passageway descends by a steep decline , then ascends between four walls smooth as glass . We slide upward in the dark , into the unknown , upon a surface polished as ice , sometimes scarcely having a foothold , aud the pathway

renewing itself unceasingly before us . We arrive by this long and terrible road into two halls cut into the stones , without an ornament or a carving . These are th e funeral chambers of the king and queen- The Arabs led us , sustained us , carried us , when needed , upon the edges that descend so sharply that at times the feet scarcely find an object to which to attach themselves . We stagger , we

fall , sustained by them , in the depth of these corridors , which are indefinitely long and deep , and a feeling of surprise comes over us when , in due time , we come out of that midnight , and recover the air and the light of day . Those who have not seen the pyramids are apt to imagine three monuments isolated in the midst of the

desert . This is entirely erroneous . The pyramids are only the centre of a vast cemetery . Beyond the fourth pyramid , very small , which continues the range of the three colossal ones , there are two or three others , nearly demolished , A pyramid can only have a certain measure of height . The king began to build it at the commencement of his reign , then continued steadily to surround it with now beds of stones , nor does the building cease until his death , when the builder is laid down to sleep

under the mountain of stones he has elevated . There are still other tombs about the pyramids , among others , squai'e constructions , holding many chambers , that served for particular tombs . I saw in one of these the pictures of private life , older by a thousand years than those that I described to you in my former letter . They are particularly curious for

their dances and banqnets . On the side , at the bottom of an immense square well , is seen a massive cornice of stone , out of which came a head of black marble , This is the sarcophagus of an Ethiopian king . Near the mountain of stone that serves as the tomb of Cheops , is the head of the gigantic Sphinx , all shattered , but whose fragments announce one of the most beautiful

monuments of ancient sculpture . There has been uncovered an inscription here which proves that Cheops , more than 4 , 500 years ago , restored this Sphinx . At the foot of the Sphinx was also found an entire temple of the same epoch , that is to say , the most ancient , known to man . Nothing is more remarkable than this monument , constructed of granite blocks , some of them two

or three yards cube , without ornaments , without columns , sustained upon square pillars , and having no other decoration than the extreme polish of their walls . Notice that there is here an extreme ai- t in the proportions of the doors and pillars , and that each of the gigantic blocks of which the edifice is formed comes from Assouan , and was made two hundred and fifty leagues up the Nile . This is a prime discovery for the history of architecture and of Egypt .

TnE real philosopher has no trouble in thrusting aside the veil with which men would shield their true hearts ; audit is known that the class of truly worthy men is a very large one . Not a day passes that we do not come iu contact with persons whose forehead is stamped with Nature ' s nobleness , whose souls are alive to sympathy , whose hand is ever ready to minister and to do good . But as they are not " prominent citizens , " they go along over the stage scarcely markedand their coming and

, going attracts slight attention from the world . Are they not , however , the men to merit our regard ? Are they not above compare with Toodles and all his forced honours ? Certainly ; and did society stand upon a basis less false and unnatural , they would be the prominent men , while the immaculate TVodles would be banished to the neglect and contempt which are his just deserts .