Origin And Mission Of Freemasonry.

outwards every inch a Mason , replied : " Gentlemen , I have heard your statement and request ; I desire to hear the other side . AAlio speaks for the sick man ? " No one answering , the Captain stepped across the wharf into the cars , ancl related to the sick man—who was unable to walk out—the request of the passengers , asking what he had to say . The poor invalid raised his head , tears flowing from his eyes , ancl , with a sign well understood by the Captain , replied , " that he well knew that his presence must be unpleasant to his

fellow passengers , as he felt that he was near his end ; that he was anxious to reach an Eastern city , where he had a mother and sister , there to die . He feared that unless he went on immediately , he would not reach them alive . " The Captain replied , in the hearing of tbe passengers , who were listening , " You shall go , if I have no other passenger ! " ancl taking the poor brother into his arms , bore him into the boat , and carefully laid him upon a couch . Then

going out on deck , he ordered his men to unloose the boat and shove off , coolly requesting all who desired to take passage , to point out their baggage ancl step on board . The passengers stood on the wharf , evidently surprised ancl ashamed . At length the wedding party walked on board , and the rest followed . The boat started , and the Captain , going into the cabin , immediately ordered some boast and tea for the sick brother . The passengers , after consultation , made an apology to the Captain and also to the sick man , to

whom aftenvards they were more attentive . They left the boat we trust . better than they entered it , though probably ignorant of the mystic tie which linked the hearts of the Captain and the sick man together .

Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE , SCIENCE , AND ART .

At a meeting of the Pathological Society of London , on the 17 th ult ., Dr . Peacock , who had previously brought before the Society some observations upon the specific gravity of the brain , gave an account of the specific gravity of fche cerebrum in nine cases , taking distilled water as 1000 ; cerebrum , 1034 ; cerebellum , 104-1 ; pons varolii , 1040 ; the specific gravity of the whole brain together ,

1039-One object also was to show that the brain does increase in size and weight after the age of seven years , notwithstanding Sir William Hamilton's theory to the contrary . Dr . Peacock stated that the brain increases up to from the twenty-second to the twenty-fifth year ; ancl Dr . Copland , the President of the Society , corroborated the views taken by Dr . Peacock relative to the increasing size of

the brain up to adult age . The Metropolitan Board of AVorks state , that by the end of next year they expect that sewage "will be diverted from the Thames to the extent of fifty millions of gallons a day , besides the rainfall AVe may therefore trust that old Father Thames will improve in cleanliness , and his neighbours in health , by the change .

A new illustrated monthly , entitled The Sixpenny Magazine , is to be commenced on the 1 st of July . Bro . Charles Mackay ' s new magazine , Bobin Goodfellow , will be commenced on Saturday , July 6 , and continued weekly . From the well-known ability and popularity of our literary brother , we may safely predict him a goodly circulation . The following reply is said to have been addressed to the new

institute afc Paris by M . Thiers , in reply to their having awarded him the prize of £ 800 for his History of the Eevolution , Consulate , and Empire , — "My dear colleagues , —Take back this prize , which would have been pleasing to me forty years ago , and which may be pleasing to others . Take ifc back ; do with it what you like . In . the time of Voltaire , you would have deserved a clever satire for not being gallant [ in not awarding it to Madame Duclevant ] But

. A oltaire is dead , ancl we have a monk among us . Take back your . prize , and strive that it may not return to you . Leave me to my books , and search the garrets for some future Thiers . " Afc a general assembly of Academicians , held on the 10 th inst ., Mr . John Robinson was elected travelling student in the class of Architecture .

A new edition ( the tenth ) of Haydn ' s Dictionary of Dates , is on the eve of publication , revised and greatly enlarged by Mr . Benjamin Vincent , assistant secretary ancl keeper of the library of the Eoyal Institute of Great Britain . Memoirs of King lliehard III . and some of his Contemporaries , is the title of a new work now in the press , by J . Heneage Jesse .

The Eev . Eoberfc Charles Jenkins , Sector of Lyminge , Kent , has in the Press The Life and Times of Cardinal Julian , the last Crusader , including a narrative of the Relig ious Movement which originated in the martyrdom of John Huss and Jerome of Prague . The Reasoner , the weekly organ of the Secularists , which has been edited and published by Mr . G . J . Holyoake for fourteen years , is to

be discontinued at the end of the present month . Her Majesty and Prince Albert have intimated to the Commissioners of the Great Exhibition their willingness to lend any paintings , sculpture , or other works of art in their posession , which may be deemed appropriate . Sir Edward Bulwer Lvtton is to commence A Strange Story in

Dicken's All the Tear Sound , on the llth of August . Mr . John Petherick , the British Consul for the Soudan , who is said to have ascended the Nile higher than any other European had previously done , in his Egypt , the Soudan , and Central Africa , gives the following account of his interview with a chief : —

" Taking up our quarters under some spleudid tamarind trees on the confines of the village , we waited three hours for the arrival of the chief , whilst we were surrounded by the population , who , criticising and laughing at us , congratulated themselves upon the rich spoil which had so providentially fallen within their grasp . The chief at length arrived ; and after a-long consultation with the elders of his tribe , he at last condescended to approach , seating himself opposite meand striking the ground with his club

, , asked what brought me into his territory ? Pointing to the baskets filled with beads , I stated that he might possess himself of them by exchanging tusks of ivory , and the inhabitants of his village might also obtain fchem by providing my party with provisions . Another blow of the club followed , with a peremptory order to quit his territory ; that he had no ivory , neither ivould he allow anything to be supplied to me ; and unless we departed immediately , he could

not answer for the consequences , as his men , to whom he proudly pointed , were but waiting his withdrawal to fall upon us . I then asked him if he knew whence we came ; and , replying in the negative , he said that it must be very far , he never having seen a white man before . In that ease I told him that there were many such tribes as his betiveen him and my home , whose hostility we had successfully braved , and that he could not be so infatuated as to believe that his tribe could impede my progress . In the event of his having no ivorv , no harm would be done ; but if the refusal was

persisted in to allow the barter of provisions , I should be obliged to help myself , ancl his own huts ivould be the first to be sacked . A change in his features was perceptible ; ancl as he evidently was at a loss what to say , I asked him at what distance he could kill a man with his spear . Pointing to a man at about twenty yards distant , he said he could kill him ; I then singled out a tree about one hundred and fifty yards distant , and said that I could make sure of killing a man even farther than that . He stared like an

idiot , and after a while , repeating that he had no ivory , he said that if we paid we might have provisions , bufc that we could not proceed through his territory . Laughing at his presumption , I desired him to provide the provisions ; ancl by his orders we were soon furnished with milk , grain , beans , and ground-nuts . Fowls there were none , neither would they supply us with a bullock , sheep , or goats , stating that they had so few of them , that the males , with the exception of a few kept for breeding , had been slaughtered by

themselves , as for eight successive years they had suffered from famine in consequence of the failure of their crops . Surrounded as I was by hundreds of the natives , and believing that amicable relations might finally be established , for the better security of my property I requested the chief to supply me with a hut . This , after some demur , was complied with , and we took possession , and removed our baggage to ifc ; and , with little ceremony , felling a number of trees , we erected a fence round our position in order to keep oft' the prying mob . "

Mr . Henry Thomas Buckle ' s History of Civilization in England seems likely to make no little sensation . In the newly published ( second ) volume , the religious state of Scotland in the seventeenth century is thus described : — " The Scotch , during the seventeenth century , instead of cultivating the arts of life , improving their minds , or adding to their wealthpassed the greater part of their time in what were called

, religious exercises . The sermons were so long and so frequent , that they absorbed all leisure , ancl yet the people were never weary of hearing them . AVhen a preacher was once in the pulpit , the only limit to his loquacity was his strength . Being sure of a patient and reverential audience , he went on as long as he could . If he discoursed for two hours without intermission , he was valued as a