Literature.

"We add a few other lines of the same class : — iENEID I . " Myself a sufferer , I can pity woe . " JENEID II . "The vanquished have no safety but despair . " yENElD V . "Able are they , who able deem themselves . "

JENEID AT . ( Speaking of the good in Elysium . ) " Among them are the brave who suffer'd wounds In glorious battle for then fatherland ; Chaste priests , and pious bards , that worthily Of high ApoRo sang ; discoverers Of' life-improving arts ; all whose desert Hath to mankind endear'd their memory . "

iENEID X . " Blind to his future destiny is man , And knows not how to bear prosperity . " iENEID XII . " Courage and patience learn from me , my son ; From others , fortune . " iENEID I . " Take courage , men ,

And banish dismal fear : these very woes Hereafter in remembrance may be ioy . * * * # * . * Live and reserve yourselves for happier times . " JENEID VI . "Mind stirs * and quickens the material mass , - Fused thro' each part and mingled with the whole . " In cordially recommending this admirable translation to

our readers , it gives us pleasure to add that its author belongs to our . ranks , being one of the many able men whose names the Howe Lodge ( No . 857 ) , has been privileged to add to the roll of Preemasonry .

Mysteries of Life , Death , and Futurity , illustrated from tlie best and latest Authorities . By HORACE WEIJJY . London .: Kent & Co . This is a compact and comprehensive volumne , resembling in its general appearance , and the miscellaneous nature of its contents , the now celebrated Things Not Generally Known

There is this difference , however , that ivhile Mr . Timbs ' s volume is merely a collection of recondite facts , that of Mr . Welby claims to be a similar repository of opinions . It is in the highest degree interesting , and affords ample material for the speculative philosopher ' s meditations , or those of the psychological student . Very many of the extracts of which the book is a compilation will be familiar to those Avell up in

pur current literature ; but there is much that will be quite new to most ordinary readers . There is a plentiful selection from the Avorks of American philosophers , some of whom are almost unknown on this side of the Atlantic . Although our author professes to have constructed his volume from the Avorks of modern Avriters only , there are several very old acquaintances who turn up here and there in wandering through his pages , such for instance as the

story of the death of Lord Lyttelton , and other equally well-known anecdotes , besides sundry reproductions of the equally familial- opinions the ancient heathen poets and philosophers . "With regard to his modem authorities , Mr . Welby certainl y deserves the credit of impartiality . Perhaps we are not altogether wrong in attributing to him some slight sympathy , with spiritualistic doctrines ; yet Ave find VvrenFootfcdls the

s on Boundarij of another World quoted side by side with the argumentative Avriters in the Saturday Heview . The famous and heterodox Essays and Reviews contribute a very large portion of their contents , while , to counter-balance ^ this , we have the ultra-correct Quarterly ¦ ttemew- Sir W . Hamilton ' s eloquent pages are largely cuUedfrom , as are also Sir B . Brodie ' s psychological inquiries , of

tocraps poetry , stories of quaint customs , and numerous anecdotes serve to lighten the contents of a closely printed volume , the compilation of Avhich shows truly ( to use the expression of Lord Bacon ) that " readingmaketk ' a full man . " lne book is one Avell worthy of a place among those Avhich one keeps for reference ; for if its contents do not actually go to prove anything , it is hardly possible to read a couple oi pages anywhere in itAvithout discovering ample food for meditation , both pleasant and profitable .

This , indeed , is put forth hy Mr . Welby as one principal object of his labours . He says ( in a short introduction ) that the characteristics of the age are , freedom of discussion , inquiry , and thought . "Thinkingnurseth thinking ; " and he has faith that truth is a gainer by the result . He very modestly describes his book as being one of humble pretensions , and tells us that it has been undertaken with a view

of concentrating within a- focus the views and opinions of some of the leading Avriters of the day , and placing them before the reader in a popular form . He is very careful in giving the authority for every statement Avhich he has placed before the public , and approaches the great concerns of which he treats in a reverential and religious spirit . "With regard to his title , he says : —

The writer has employed the word Mystery m its ordinary acceptation—a thing unintelligible or concealed , —as well as in the Scriptural meaning—something that had been unknown , but in due time was revealed by the inspiration of God . Thus it is applied to the principles of the Gospel , and to the circumstances of the General Resurrection ; as well as to denote an emblem of revealed truth .

The subjects treated of are such as the following : —Life and Time ; The Nature of the Soul ; Spiritual Life , Belief , Scepticism , and Superstition . The phenomena of death lead to singular facts about premature interment and trances . jSText Ave find disquisitions on Sin ; Punishment ; the End of the AVorld ; and the State of Man after Death . And here we may cull , as a specimen of the quaint extracts Avhich abound

in the book , the following choice specimen of mediasval theology , which we think ' is sufficiently full-flavoured toplease the mostultra-Calvinistic divine of the present day : — As the wicked ( says Drexelius ) delight to consume their days in a circle of pleasure , God will appoint them a circle , but it shall be a circle of torments , which will never have an end . This was foretold by holy David : " Thine arrows , " says he , " went abroad ;

the voice of thunder was heard round about . " ( Ps . lxxvii . 17 , 18 . ) Famine , war , pestilence , disease , calamities , death , and all other afflictions , under which we often languish in tliis life , are ihe arrows of the Lord ; these , however , soon fly over us : they swiftly pass from one another ; but the voice of His thunder , the voice of His anger and heavy displeasure , like a wheel that is always in motion ,, shall sound about the infernal regions irom everlasting to everlasting .

This wheel , as if filled with gunpowder , when once it takes fire ,, shall burn to all eternity . " A fire is kindled in mine anger , and shall burn unto the lowest hell . " ( Deut . xxxii . 22 . ) There is another circle which is likewise eternal ,- —a continual changing from the extremes of heat and cold . " Drought and heat consume the snow-waters , and so does the grave those which have sinned . " ( Job , xxiv . 19 . ) This is more expressly intimated to us by the " weeping and gnashing of teeth , " which are mentioned by St .. Matthew .

Speculative opinions as to the future state , and other very curious matter , follow ; ihe compiler having selected his materials from authors of very diverse opinions , but including some of the highest names in literature . To the book itself our readers must go if they wish to form a clearer opinion upon it , for it would fill many columns of this Journal were we to give an analysis of these "Mysteries "

The following extract on melancholy or poetic feeling will give some idea of the varied nature of its contents : — Hypochondriacal feelings aro , no doubt , in a great measure , connected with constitution or temperament . Melancholy is much more common than is generally conceived , and may be , perhaps , in some degree inseparable from a mind which highly appreciates the beautifulhas quick sympathies with all aroundand a thoughtful

, , regard to the possibilities and even probabilities of a changing world . On this account it has always been considered by the poets as a poetic feeling . Ben Jonson alludes to this notion , with respect to melancholy , as an accompaniment of sensibility , in his Every Man in his Humour : —

Stephen . —Ay , truly , sir , I am mightily given to melancholy . Matthew . —Oh ! it's only fine humour , sir ; your true melancholy breeds your perfect wine wit , sir . I am melancholy myself divers time ,, sir ; and then do I no more but take pen and paper presently , and overflow your half a scoreor a dozen of sonnets at a sitting . —Act iii . sc . 1 . Again , Stephen says , in Act 1 , "I will be more proud and melancholy , and gentlemanlike than I have been . " Sir AValter Scott , in his Diary ( Jlay , 1327 ) , says : — Imagination renders us the victim of occasional low spirits . All belonging to this gifted , as it is called , Imt . often unhappy class , must have