Arkism.

Nebuchadnezzar to his great image . No man who is not hurried away by his own wild but longnursed fancy would dream that in Arkism he had found that which " allies two such apparently

irrevalaut trains of thought as those suggested by the hierarchy of the Grand Lama in his capital at Llassa , and the Apocalyptic 'Lamb in the midst of the throne , ' before whom the four-andtwenty elders and the hosts of the New Jerusalem

fell down and worshipped . " Let the Apocalypse be " an evident mythical rhapsody , " if you will ; yet none but an evident mythical rhapsodist would connecfc its sublime imagery with the worship of the Grand Lama . It is a little too extravagant to

maintain thafc " that marvellous picture wifch which the Apocalyptic writer opens the twelfth chapter of his immortal drama , 'And there appeared a great wonder in heaven : a woman clothed with ihe sun , and fche moon under her feet , ' & c ,

borrows the principal details of the dress in which the metaphor flashed splendidly before the inspired writer from the universal Arkite sentiment of the pre-Christian and pre-Judaic mythology . "

Just as much , not to say more , has been and may be said for Ophism as for Arkism . The Serpent Symbol can be as widely imagined and as greatly magnified as the Arkite . But Arkism in this author ' s hands is a bigger serpent that

swallows up all the other serpents . It is more mysterious than the great Asian mystery , and more voracious . It is almost omnivorous ; for not only Ophism , but likewise Phallism , Druidism , Mithraism , and half a dozen other isms , go down fche throat of this boa-constrictor Arkism . " In

the-mountain and the ship , which rescued mankind from destruction , we have the explanation of the origin of all Phallism and Egg-worship . In the waters which came so near destroying him , we have the explanation of the origin of all Ophism

and Devil-worship . Both were made ornate in the tasteful idolatry of Greece , scientific in the clear-eyed mountain-laud of Persia , and spiritual among the justice-loving seers of Palestine . Before Arkism , of course , was universal fetichism , like a

great chaos , without law , or any method of selfexpression ; and after Archism came all forms of thought and feeling possible for man to invent , but all budding from the Yggdrasil , and bearingflowers and fruit after the pattern of its undying

life . " But what of " Man ' s Destiny " in all this ? Not a glimmer of it do we catch from the plat-

Arkism.

form . Does Arkism reveal nothing of this ? Why , then , tempt us with au unfulfilled title ? After all , perhaps the coffin is the last symbol of Arkism , as the cradle is the first . Here is another

contribution to the theory . Man's life begins and ends with an Arkite symbol . After all , his baptism , what is but fontal Arkism ; his burial , but the shutting of the Ark ? Beyond this life , too , there is one other symbol—Charon ' s boat . But we are

becoming too Arkite , and have lingered so long wifch Mr . Lesley as to have become infected . Success to his theory ! it came to us across the Atlantic in a ship—another Arkite symbol . We are Arkite to the very last line ?

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

K . H . S . K . H . S . means Knight of the Holy Sepulchre , achivalric order still conferred hy the Pope , and whieh , in the end of the last century , was adopted as the subject of a sham Masonic degree , and which has now been revived for such as the

facepurposes , tious Bro . "W . Harris proposes to establish the Masonic Order of the Garter . Bro . Harris's joke steps short at the proposition , but the propounders of K . H . S . have found a tavern in which to start ifc . There is more in Bro . Harris than appears . — EZEKIEL .

OEDEE OP THE SACRED TEMPLE . According to the English newspaper published in Mexico , the Spanish ladies of that city have founded a female secret society called the Order of the Sacred Temple . —CUTTLE .

A COJOIUS-ICATIOS" PEOlt TOEKSHIEE . A correspondent sends a communication , meant for our Magazine , entitled "A Communication from Yorkshire ; '' and ho asks if I like ifc . My answer is—¦ no . The subject is necessarily vulgar , and is made yet more vulgar by the unskilful and common way in

which ifc is treated . Communications of this sort offend all readers who have taste , natural or acquired , and effectively prevent the periodical which inserts them from attaining reputation as a literary publication . —C . P . COOPEE .

A HAXIM . Natural Theism , desirous of propagating true Masonry , should make pure Christianity her ally . —From one of Bro . PUETOS - COOPEE ' S Note Books . OEDIJTARY 11 A . SON-RT AST ) SPECULATIVE MASONEX . A young imaginative correspondentwho writes

, that when men began to construct dwellings ordinary Masonry arose , and when they began to reflect , speculative Masonry arose , should read Bro . Hughan's First Analysis . It is contained iu numbers of the Freemasons' Maga-ine for Octobei-, November , and December last—CHARLES PCETOX COOX > .