Masonic Notes And Queries.

ANNO MUNDI . What Masonic event is alluded to by a reference to Anno Mundi 2995 ? I saw this on an old Masonic jewel . —P . E . MEDIEVAL HYMNS AND MASONRY . As so many of the Mediaaval Hymns have lately appeared in various formsI should like to know if any of them have

, been adapted to Masonic uses ?—PRESBYTER . —[ Tes ; years ago Creator alma siderum was thus rendered to suit the Kni ghts ofthe Holy Sepulchre . Created of the radiant light , Dividing day from sable night , AVho , with the Lights ' s bright origin The world ' s creation did begin .

AA'ho of the morn and evening ray , Made ' st measure light , and called it day ; Black night began to close the sphere , Vow'd safe to hear our vocal tears . Whilst with our crimes we burthen'd are And fallen a prey to Satan's snare ; AVhilst fading pleasures us deceive ,

Let not our souls and bodies leave , Let us at Heaven for mercy knock , To us the gates of life unlock ; All threatening evils let us fly , And punish past iniquity . Merciful Father , bend thine ear , Co-equal Son , our prayers hear ,

0 Holy Spirit , hear our cry , AA * ho lives all three Eternally . ] THE THREE TASKS . The late Bro . William Hawes , of Her Majesty ' s Chapels Royal , composed the music to a glee , sung at the Masonic Asylum dinner in 1838 , entitled " The Three Tasks . " Can any brother oblige one of Bro . Hawes ' s old pupils by a copy of the Music ?—f MATTHEW COOKE .

Notes On Literature Science And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE SCIENCE AND ART .

The Kev . Frederick Metcalfe , M . A ., in The Oxonian in Ireland , or Notes of Travel in that Island in the Summer of 1860 , relates the following : — " In this humble abode dwelt one of those men who are to be found only in Iceland . Thorsten Thorstensen , a tall , gaunt , grey-haired man , his cheeks arabesqued by the cares and hardships of three score winters , was mending a fishing-net outside

his dwelling . Upon being informed hy Snorri that the English priest had eome to see his library , he conducted us with great readiness into a narrow chamber ; the receptacle of much learning and—more dirt . Here were piled in utter confusion several printed books and manuscripts . Thorsten is the son of a student , and grandson of a clergy man , ancl himself a great reader , book-collector , and transcriber . AVherever a leaf was missing from a printed volume , I found its place supplied by a pen ancl ink copy of what

was gone , in a hand almost like copperplate . Here is a hook published without date , by __! . Fischer of Amsterdam , being a collection of verses in Butch , French , English , German , and Latin , descriptive of the most remarkable events in the Bible , with many good engravings . Taking up a very musty fusty tome , I find it is the life and acts of Dr . Faustus . A woman enters the cell at this moment most opportunely with a bowl of fresh milk , which helps to wash down the dustthat had escaped from its leaves into

, my throat . " Here , again , is an old manuscript containing ballads , lullabies , and charades . Here is a copy of a saga , never printed : entitled Barthi Birtu og Skanfi Skinu , relating the doings of some of the ancient dwellers in these part ' s , before Thangbrand came to drub them into Christianity . How that a mystic light was seen hovering over Gravaros three nights running ; and how a man , gifted with second sight , upon being consulted thereon , said it portended a coming change of religion ; and how all the bonders round

soon became Christians , save and except the functionary of the heathen temple . AVhereupon the converts tumbled the temple about his ears , and showed him how his gods were no gods , hut mere idols of wood and stone . By the bye , I cannot hear that any such mysterious light has been seen , since the Romish priests have come to convert the country . So the portents are not encouraging for them . Meantime , Thorsten has rummaged out of the dust and cobwebs a beautiful written copy of the Jansbok , the book of laws sent by King Magnus Lagabeter of Norway to Iceland . As is often the case with Icelandic manuscripts

the paper was very brown . This is clue , I am told , to the ink , which was a decoction of willow sprigs , & c , which , though black and bright at first , dried very slowly , and in process of time gave the above tint to the paper . This prize , which I acquire for a small consideration , was sold to the bibliomanist by one Magnus , who assured him that it was ' eldgammel , ' at least three hundred years old . A beautifully illustrated example of this book may be seen at the Museum in Copenhagen . ' And now , Thorsten , ' said

Snorri , coaxingly , 'just recite to us a hit out of one of the sagas ; the stranger wishes to satisfy himself whether your memory really is so good as he has heard it is . ' Thorsten seemed to have become quite a different being , all life and animation , the moment be got among his books , like that giant of the classic mythology who acquired a fresh lease of vital energy the moment he touched his mother earth . His wrinkled face was flushed , and his eye lit up with a new lustreand he gave a strange look of conscious pride

, and humility mixed—if that is a bull it must be taken by the horns and removed in the second edition— ' What is it to be then ?' he asked . ' From Grettisaga , ' replied I , ' there , where he is murdered , ' holding the book in my hand to verify his accuracy . Off the old fellow started , reciting the very words of the saga with extreme volubility . Siiorri then tried him in the Eyrbyggia saga , the Laxdaela saga , and the Svarfadal saga , with the same result .

' And now a bit of lS . _ a . la , ' said I ; and away went the reciter at the same rapid pace . In short , he was not to be posed . The Landnama was the only saga he did not profess to remember ; and no wonder , for it contains some three thousand names of persons , and fourteen hundred names of places , and is often merely a dry catalogue . This was all very remarkable ; bnt Snorri informed me that he is not the only man in the neighbourhood gifted with these extraordinary powers of memory .

The following are the Fine Arts class-committees for the Great International Exhibition of 1862 : —For Class 37 ( Architecture ) , AA " . Tite , Esq ., M . P ., President of the Institute of British Architects ; A . J . B . Beresford Hope , Esq . ; T . L . Donaldson , Esq . ; G . G . Scott , Esq ., TB . A . ; M . Digby AA ' yatt , Esq . ; Sydney Smirke , Esq ., TR . A ; James Fergusson , Esq . ; and Arthur Ashpitel , Esq . For Class 3 S ( Paintings in Oil and AVater Colours ancl Drawings ) , Sir Charles EastlakePresident of the Eoyal Academy ; Sir J . YA ' atsou Gordon

, , TR . A ., President of the Koyal Scottish Academy ; S . Catterson . Smith , Esq ., President of tne Eoyal Hibernian Academy ; F . Y . Hurlstone , Esq ., President of the Society of British Arts ; Frederick Tayler , Esq ., President ef the Society of Painters in AVater Colours ; Henry Warren , Esq ., President of the New Society of Painters in AVater Colours ; R . S . Lauder , Esq . U . S . A . ; and Richard Redgrave , Esq . TR . A . For Class 39 ( Sculpture , Models , Die-sinking , and Intaglios ) the . Marquis of Lansdowne 5 T . tr . ; the Earl of Gilford

, , _ , M . P . ; J . H . Foley . fEsq . M . A . ; A . H . Layard , Esq ., M . P . ; R . AVestmacott , TR . A . For Class 40 ( Etchings and Engravings ) , AA ' . H . Carpenter , Esq . ; D . Colnaghi , Esq . ; G . T . Doo , Esq ., TR . A . ; R . J . Lann , Esq ., A . TR . A . ; and AV . Smith , Esq . A curious volume might be made by collecting the very opposite characters which have been drawn of the indomitable Oliver

Cromwell ; that drawn by Dr . Tulloch in his new work , TEnglisTt , Puritanism and its Leaders , has evidently been largely influenced , by the publication of Mr . Thomas Carlyle ' s work on the Lord Protector : — " The secret of Cromwell ' s character appears to lie where he himself supposed—in the depth and power of his religious sentiment . This we must either admit or hold him throughout to have been an hypocrite . The alternative of hypocrisy in the face

of his letters involves a series of suppositions so incredible as to compel every candid student to part with it . These letters are written in all circumstances—when as yet he was but a Puritan , farmer and friend of persecuted ministers , when first the great contests of the parliament began to stir his tumultuous energies , on the eve of battle , and when the excitement of victory was yet on him—regarding the most ordinary domestic details ancl the most broad general principles of religion and policy . They all bear

a natural impress ; they show the man , the politician , the warrior the father , the husband , and patriot , and not merely the religionist . The religious ideas and phraseology in which they abound are in no sense factitious ; they are the living essence of his common thought ; they are mixed up with everything he says and does . The same tone pervades the letters throughout—the same cast of earnest , grave , and tender feeling—the same air of reality . As we read them and try to our minds of all remembrance of

purge the traditionary Cromwell , with his hypocrisies and grimaces , there is nothing whatever that could excite such an image within ^ us . His character rises before us plain , massive , and grand ; rude in its features , irregular in its outline , but glowing with an intensely concentrated meaning , radiant with a Divine fire in every feature- — an earnest , practical , strong man , ' in the dark perils of war , and in the high places of the field ; hope shone in him like a pillar of