Notes On Literature, Science And Art.

hold the same rank in society . But as the genuine principles of Freemasonry become practised , and not merely prated about , as they too oft are by unworthy candidates who have rushed into the noble Craft without respect to their OB ., the pride of

caste Avill g ive way ; the good man will love his brother man , without regard to the colour of his skin , his peculiar sect in religion , or his political party ; ancl , Avhilst his benevolent heart yearns to do acts of kindnesseven to the most unworthy of his

, fellow-creatures , he Avill seek to associate more closely Avith the gifted and the good —for " the internal , ancl not the external qualifications of a man are Avhat Masonry regards , " and "there need no ghost rise from the dead to tell us" that as men

increase in knoAvledge , they will consequently improA'e in social intercourse . Freemasonry lias done much to bring about this glorious result , and is fully capable of doing more ; and , when once its sublime precepts are generally reduced to practice , it will be found , as Macaulay sings in his spirit-stirring Lays of Ancient Rome . —

" Then none Avas for a party ; Then all Avere for the state ; Then the great man help'd the poor man , And the poor man loved the great . " Mr . Joseph B . Baker , I am informed ,

intends bringing out an enlarged edition of the History of Scarborough published b y our Avorthy brother , the late Thomas Hinderwell , in 1798 . Bro . Hinderwell Avas then a respected member of the corporation of Scarborough , and produced a

history of the borough Avhich still maintains a respectable position in the too-oftenunderated ranks of local literature ; and I trust that Mr . Baker , will do justice to his industrious and discriminating predecessor , by giving us a first-rate memoir of Bro .

Hinderwell in this new edition ol his History , for Avhich Cole ' s Memoir will assist him , Scarborough has marched on , with giant strides , since . Richard Brindsley Sheridan , about a century ago ( viz . in 1777 ) produced his play of the Trip to

Scarborough , or even since Bro . Hinderwell published his History of the famous watering place . Indeed the great fault of Scarborough is that it has become too fashionable for persons of limited means ,

in this day of excess in dress , when nobody seems to believe the poet Thompson that " Beauty when unadoru'd ' s adorn'd the most . " Sheridan ' s Trip to Scarborough Avas but a

re-hash of "that graceless wit , " Vanbnrgh ' s , Relapse , neither of Avhich anybody now cares for as plays ; but in the same year he produced his School for Scandal , which as Leigh Hunt remarks , " with the exception of too great a length of dialogue without

action in its earlier scenes , is a very concentration and crystallization of all that is sparkling , clear , and compact , in the materials of prose comedy ; as elegantly elaborate , but not so redundant or apparently elaborate , as the Avittiest scenes

of Congreve , and containing the most complete and exquisitely wrought-up bit of effect in the whole circle of comedy—the screen scene . " The great fault of Bro . Hinderwell ' s History is the entire omission of all Folklorewhich would have been a

, rich mine if properly worked seventy-eight years ago ; as much which was then what Falstaff would call as " plenty as blackberries , " has now almost entirely disappeared .

If Mr . Baker can throAv any light on the long-lost giant Skardyng , he will confer a boon on the lovers of our earl y literature . Anyhow , with Bro . Hinderwell ' s really good book for a foundation , he will be able , I have no doubt , to build up a literary

structure Avorthy of the nineteenth century ; ancl 1 sincerely wish success to this , and to all similar undertakings , —knowing , by bitter experience , the sacrifices which any conscientious local historian has to make , to whom the wish to do full justice to his

subject is superior to a craving for fleeting popularity or the love of pecuniary profit . In the MASONIC MAGAZINE for January , I briefly alluded to a very useful invention for saving life , the Avorking model of Avhich had been shoAvn and explained to me by

the secretary of the North Yorkshire Miners' Association . It is called a Patent Safety Detaching Hook , and I am now thoroughly convinced that it is really what its name implies . It is no part of my duty to puff patentsor even to advertise them ;

, and in my own opinion our present system of granting patents at all is a wrong one . I consider whenever a man makes a discovery likely to be of use to- humanity ,