Classical Theology.—Xltv.

the poet tells us that as soon as the embassy reached the palace of the royal enchantress , they were met by a number of extraordinarily tame and affectionate beasts , lions , wolves , tigers , and bears , all seemingly very pleased and delighted to see them . Soon after , being waited upon by a train of beauteous women , they were conducted

through magnificent marble halls and galleries , to the more superb apartment of the voluptuous and fascinating queen . She was apparelled in a white robe , fashioned so close to her shape as to display the supple symmetry of her goddess-like figure ; over Avhich floated negligently a gold embroidered scarf of silver tissue , reaching about

as low as the hem of her garment , which barely tipped the ancles of her slender feet . She was half sitting , half reclining , on a gorgeous couch , haA'ing round and about her many ladies in attendance , some of them employed in the arrangement of flowers , and some in preparing the guest-boAvl—a large and glittering gobletor rather Oircapocillwn , the fatal cup of Circe . . The

four deputies , being Ulysses ' s companions , were soon graciously invited to partake of fragrant , sparkling , and tempting beverage . But Eurylochus thought it prudent politely to excuse himself , AA hereas his three imprudent friends had scarcely tasted of the charming mixture when they became transformed into svrine , and vrere seen by Eurylochus dmen by the women into a sty , and

there confined . Here , Ave believe , the sequel is intended to shoAV that the potent poAvers of darkness and enchantment can maintain no prevalance against the pervading of light and the discerning of wisdom , which suffers therein no bondage . " Eor without are dogs and sorceries . . . idolaters , and

all who loveth and maketh a lie . " For all nations have ch . mil . of the wrath of her fornication , and the kings of the earth have committed , fornication with her , and the merchants of the earth havo waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies . " Think not but these Avere obtained at the price of sorcery and slavery .

Memoirs Of The Freemasons Of Naples.

MEMOIRS OF THE FREEMASONS OF NAPLES .

( Concluded . ) The prosecutions of 1848 were so numerous and so cruel , that it caused a general inquiry throughout Europe . The trial of Poerio and others for an imaginary - act has been rendered notorious by Mr . Gladstone . Later in the same year a number of most peaceable and

respected inhabitants were tried for treason , Avhose only crime consisted in having cried , " Long live the King and Constitution , " on the clay of the first prorogation of the Chambers , in opposition to a mob of lazzaroni , AAIIO shouted in favour of an absolute sovereign . This incident Avas the cause of forty-seven persons appearing

in court on the 4 th of August , 1851—that is , after three years of arbitrary and close confinement—to be tried on the charge of having conspired to overthroAV the Government ; and after appearing day after day , on the 26 th of August , the court sentenced twenty-five of the accused to imprisonment in chains , for periods varying from

seA-en to twenty-five years , Avhile it ordered , the rest to be remanded for second trial , although the public prosecutor himself had demanded the provisional liberation of the latter . But the secret spies and informers brought forward the most ludicrous charges before the Inquisition , who treated them as serious mattersand

, aAvarded' punishments the most monstrous . Against Luigi Settembrmi the Inquisition declared that the ' ' secret inquiries of the police" prov ~ ed him to be a man of anarchical and destructive principles . Against Poerio ,

" that he had before been arrested ( never indicted , still less tried ) for hi gh treason ; " against Agresti , "that he was possessed of a Masonic catechism ; " against Yellncci , "that he was watched bv the Commissary of Police of his district , suspected of being a Ereemason , and in the pay of the Erench Lod ge ; " against Braieo , "that there

Avere secret reports in the Ministry for the Home Department , accusing him of being a Ereemason , and positive proofs of his attending a lodge at Berlin ;" Molinaro was convicted " for having in his possession a trieoloured handkerchief , supposed to be an emblem of some secret society ; " Esposito"for having a trieoloured

, scarf ; " and these were all more or less sentenced to the severest punishments . These cases all happened at Naples ; but it was not only in the courts of the capital that political persecution was carried on . Such an idea would give a false notion of Neapolitan injustice at this period ; every province was under the rod of calumnious

defamation ; every court had been the scene of monster trials ; every jail Avas then choked Avith innocent victims , AA'ho were treated Avith terrible cruelty . A certain Government official , Luigi Carloni , accused about thirty inhabitants of the village of Antrodocoin

, the _ province of the Abruzzi , as members of a secret society which was said to hold its meetings in the Eather Guardian ' s room of the convent of the Padri Osseiwanti . This happened in May , 1849 , when the district was

under military laAV , and consequently the prisoners , to the number of tAvent y , amongst Avhom Avere five brothers Castrucci , the own nephews of the informer , were brought before a court-martial , and condemned to from twenty to twenty-four year ' s imprisonment in chains , as members of some sect , neither the name nor the object

of which Avere . ever mentioned . Soon after this , the other accused , including the Eather Guardiano and the Gindice de Pace , were arrested ; and as martial law had been removed in the meanwhile , the case came before the special court of the province of Aquila . NOAV this last batch included those Avhom the informer declared to be

the chiefs of the plot ; and yet even a special court , after examining every tittle of evidence , Avas obliged to pronounce the existence of the secret society a falsehood , and entirely to acquit the prisoners . The A'ictims of the court-martial consequently petitioned that the same measure of justice which had been meted out to

their comrades mi ght be extended to them likeAvise , who had never been accused of anything but partial complicity in a design now piwed to be an invention ; but the only ansAver giA en to this just application was an order to remove them from the jail in Avhich they had been hitherto confined , to the foul , horrid Bagni , of Nisida , Avhere , until released b y Garibaldi , they remained immured . This fact had its parallel case in every toAA-n in the kingdom .

In such a state of things it Avas impossible that Ereemasonry could flourish ; Naples had been so long the theatre of hostilities , and the hot-bed of persecution , that no peacable order could exist ; and latterly the A ery name and principles of the Order are Avell ni gh extinguished . But Ave trust there is' a brighter and a happier

time for Naples . Many touching incidents could be told of the fraternal spirit of Ereemasonry in the Garibaldi expedition , for even in the midst of Avar were si gnals given and acknowledged hy men of almost every nation , and in time of sickness and want , they Avho had opportunity bestoAved all their care on their less fortunate brethren .

The first great step tasen by Garibaldi was to have open trials by jury in every court in Naples ; and this Avas received by the people Avith deli ght . We trust