Sonnet.

Be still ; —be thine , a silent , a mute plea ; While the Muse Avhispers to the poet ' s heart Sweet strains;—Avhose sweetness he can but impart To kindred hearts , Avhich share song ' s

ecstacy ; Indwelling strains of mystic melody ; Whose breath is hush'd save in each conscious breast , For which its still small voice of harmony Hath golden chords , with golden accents

blest ; Rich strains;—which folly's cold unheeding eat-Like the deaf adder ' s , ne ' er can brook to hear .

Tribil And Mechanical Engineer's Society.

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7 , Westminster Chambers , Victoria Street , S . W . THE TRANSPORT OF CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE FROM EGYPT TO LONDON .

AT the last meeting of this societ y , held by permission of the Council in the hall of the Institution of Surveyors , Great George Street , Bro . R . M . Bancroft ( of the Great Northern Railway ) , president of the society , in the chair , an interesting lecture on " The Means of Transport from Egypt

, and the Erection in London , of Cleopatra ' s Needle , " was given by Mr . John Dixon , C . E ., who has undertaken to bring the obelisk to England . Mr . Dixon commenced by observing that the obelisk known as " Cleopatra ' s

Needle " Avas of great historical interest , because it had sculptured upon it the history of the man who quarried it from the old quarries of Syene ( the modern Assouan ) , and the reason why he quarried it . There were few monuments extant , so far as we knew , which could , like this , date back 3 , 400 years . In addition to its historical interest , however , the obelisk in

question was . of interest to engineers , in consideration of the means which were resorted to in order to quarry and transport in safety such huge monoliths . Cleopatra ' s Needle was not alone among obelisks , and possessed no peculiar features . In point of size , it stood only about eighth or ninth on the list of obelisks with which we Avere

acquainted . The largest of whicli we knew was the Lateran Obelisk in Rome , Avhich Avas brought by the Romans , Avith about twenty smaller ones , from Egypt , as the most curious objects they could lay hold of to decorate their imperial city . The Lateran Obelisk had a height of something

like 90 ft ., and was 10 ft . 6 in . square at the base , whereas Cleopatra ' s Needle was only 69 ft . 3 in . high , Avith a base of 7 ft . square . Ten years ago , Avhen the lecturer , Avas in Egypt , his attention was especially directed to this obelisk , which he saw lying in the sand on the shore at Alexandria . He

dug around it ancl under it for the purpose of examining it , and it appeared to be little the Averse for wear , except that tAvo of its sides Avere somewhat weatherworn , and did not retain the polish Avhich still existed on the other two sides .

Nevertheless , the hieroglyphic inscriptions were quite distinct enough to be read by those learned in those matters , and it therefore retained its history as clearly as on the day when it was set up by Thothmes III ., circa 1400 B . C . Egypt in those clays was the leading country of the worldnot only

, in arts and commerce , but in learning and science , and to her great university of Heliopolis came Strabo , Pliny , Herodotus , and others . Thothmes went to the old

quarries of Syene foi the material of his obelisks . From these quarries for generations before him the Egyptians had been accustomed to sculpture those great blocks of granite which even to this day were our wonder ancl admiration . The granite of Syene Avas micaceous and somewhat coarse

in texture and pinkish in colour , and in the quarries to the present clay there existed au obelisk , half cut out , much larger than any other we knoiv of . That obelisk , if it had ever been completely quarried and set upAvould have been 96 ft . high

, ancl about 11 ft . square at the base . The proportion of height of these obelisks to the square of base was generally about 10 to 1 , or , in other words , the height was 2 o 2