Masonic Notes And Queries.

Al'EKE FATHEK PBOUT OK IIENEY O ' BRIEN MASONS ? Henry O'Brien , author of the Bound Toivers of Ireland , is thus spoken of by the celebrated Father Prout : — " His hook has thrown more light upon the early history of Ireland , and on the Freemasonry of those gigantic puzzles , than irill ever shine from the cracked pitchers of the Royal Irish Academy , or , the farthing candle of Tommy Moore . "

Can you tell me if O'Brien , or Father Prout Avere Masons ?—J . O'D . MASONIC ETIQUETTE . Iii addressing a foreign prince , a brother Mason , would it be etiquette to call him brother?—ALEPPO . —[ That all depends on circumstances . If in lodge , it Avould ; if as a prince , we think not . Masonry does not detract from the honours of a high station , but recognises , to its fullest extent , the rulers , laAvs , ancl customs of every land . ]

CHAPTER OE HEEEDOJtf . Is there any Mason living who Avas a member of the Chapter of Heredom ; and is there any means by Avhich its teaching can be ascertained ?—SEES . DE . OLIA-EE . Is Dr . Oliver , the Masonic Avriter , living?—B . T . —[ Yes ; and , Ave believe ancl hope , hale and hearty . ]

AVELSII SPOKEN IN LODGE . Is there any lodge in the Principality Avhere the business is transacted in Welsh?—CYMRI .- —[ We think not ; but perhaps some of our Welsh subscribers will be kind enough to forward the information required . ]

PRESENT TO A LODGE . I am going to leave England , and should like to make a present to my lodge . What is the best to give ?—JAMAICA . —[ Whatever it stands most in need of . If its appointments are perfect , make it a Governor to one , or all , if you can afford it , ofthe Charities . ] THE SECRET ALPHABET . to

I am much pei ^ ilexed decipher some writings constructed Avith the secret alphabet . The dots are my stumbling block . The plain letters I can master , and make out most words , hut in comes a dotted letter and upsets my conjecture by turning- it into a Avord , the like of which is not to he found in the English language . How is this to he accounted for?—SAM . —[ There are seA'eral Masonic

alphabets . The one over which you boggle is either the Craft or Arch . The latter all depends on the dot , and no doubt it is an Arch cypher Avhich is puzzling you . Send us a line , carefully copied from the original , and AVO will help you out of your difficulty at once . ]

MASONEY THE HANDMAID TO EELIGION . Who was the originator of the phrase often quoted , that Masonry is the handmaid to Religion ?—S . T . P . BBO . H . COPPENDALE . Bro . H . Coppendale is said to have sung a song beginning , " Loud now your voices raise

, In our Institution's praise , " which is dedicated to the Patrons of the Boy ' s school ; see Masonic Minstrel , page 244 . Who was Bro . Coppendale , and Avhen and Avhere did he sing that song ? - —D . B . "

Notes On Literature Science And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE SCIENCE AND ART .

The Eev . Dr . Somerville , in his chatty Own Life and Times , in noticing a private political meeting which he attended , 1791 , at Lord Malmesbury ' s house , says : — " I remember I was amused ivith observing , that while Mr . Pox ' s countenance indicated profound attention to all that ivas said , his fingers were incessantly in motion , catching the drops that fell from the wax candles , and turning ancl forming them into little pellets . Mr . Erskine once

and again rose from his seat mentioning the burden of business that was in his hands , ancl the necessity he was under of leaving the company , naming the number of briefs on which he must be prepared to plead next morning in the Courts at Westminster .

The number I do not now recollect , but it was so enormous that after he had left the company , I could not help expressing my surprise . Mr . AVyndham replied , ' You are not to believe all that Mr . Erskine says : ' and the other gentlemen smiled , " The editor of the Athenasum is not one of those who think Mr . Dickens ' s late writings inferior to his first . " Trying Mr . Dickens's by himself , " he writes , " we find in this his last tale as much force

as in the most forcible portions of Oliver Twist—as much delicacy as in the most delicate jjassages of David Copperfiehl—as much quaint humour as in Piclcwiclc . In short , that this is the creation of a great artist in his prime we have felt from the first moment of its appearance , and can deliberately sign and seal the conviction , even though the catastrophe is before us , and though we have just been devouring the solution of Great Expectations . " The Athenasum says that the monument which has just been

inaugurated to James Montgomery at Sheffield , "is the first literary monument erected on the banks of the Don . " AVe think our contemporary is in error . Has Sheffield no monument to her brave bard , Ebenezer Elliott , whose merits as a poet are but slightly intimated in his usual title of " The Corn Law Rhymer . " We fancy that a visitor to Sheffield would find in the public streets a

statue of "The Poet of the Poor , " as the New Monthly Magazine appropriately termed him . In 1796 , we find our gifted brother , Robert Burns , writing to Mr . Mitchell , the collector of Excise at Dumfries , for the loan of a guinea , in the following terms : — " I modestly fu' fain wad hint it , That one pound one , I sairly want it ; If wi' the hizzie clown ye sent it , It would be kind :

And while my heart wi' life blood diluted , I'd bear't in mind . " We have also his Lines Written on a Panic Note , ancl frequent allusions in his letters , to show how often he was in want of an odd guinea ; but now , in 1861 , we have a few trumpery tradesmen ' s bills , which the poor bard , in his anguish of spirit , perhaps wished at no enviable jdace , sold by public auction in London for five guines . This reminds us of a couplet by one of the best of the Lancashire poets , Samuel Bamford : — " Ancl Burns , who only wished for bread ,

But hath gotten a marble tomb instead . " Dr . Tulloch , in his 'Fnglish Puritanism and its Leaders , thus admirably criticises the brave tinker of Bedford jail : — - "This realistic character of Bnnyan's allegories is of special interest to us now . AVe are carried back to Bedford and the Midland counties in the seventeenth century , and ive mingle with the men and women that lived ancl did their work there . It is in many respects a

beautiful ancl affecting picture that we contemplate . A religion which could produce men like Great-heart , and Old Honest , and Christian himself , and Faithful and Hopeful—ancl of which the gentle ancl tender-hearted Mercy was a fair expression—had certainly features both of magnanimity and of beauty . There is a simple earnestness and a pure-minded loveliness in Bunyan ' s highest creations that are very touching . Puritanism lives in his his pages—spiritually ancl socially—in forms ancl in colouring

which must ever command the sympathy and enlist the love of all good Christians . But his pages no less show its narrowness and deficiencies . Life—even spiritual life—is broader than Bunyan saw it ancl painted it . Itis not so easily and sharply defined— -it cannot be so superficially sorted and classified . It is more deep , complex , and subtle—more involved , more mixed . There may have been good in Talkative , with all his emptiness and love for the ale-bench—and Mrs . Timorous , and even By-ends , might have

something said for them . Nowhere , in reality , is the good so good , or the bad so bad , as Puritan evangelical piety is apt to conceive and represent them . There is work to be done in the city of Destruction , as well as in fleeing from it . The Meadow with the sparkling river , and the Enchanted Ground , are not mere snares to lure and hurt us . There is room for leisure ancl literature , ancl poetry and art even , as we travel to Mount Zion . There is a meeting-point for all these elements of human cultureancl the

, ' one thing needful' —without which all culture is dead—though Bunyan and Puritanism failed to see it . Let us reverence with all our heart the spiritual earnestness of such men as Bunyan , and of the system they represented ; few things higher and more beautiful have ever been seen in this world . But we are also bound if we would not empty our earthly existence of the beautiful and grand—the graceful , fascinating , ancl refined in many forms of