Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

the charge now preferred against the Civil Service . Had he spent his leisure in smoking cigars ancl chatting small talk over a glass of grog in a bar parlour , all AVOUIC ! have been " quite the thing , you know , "—but to indulge in any literary occupation , Avas , in their poor jaundiced or purblind eyes , simply unbearable . My friend ' s employer found the complaint to bo as foolish as I am sure the great British public will find that to be against the Civil Service . Charles Lamb persuading his learned antiquarian , but absent-minded friendGeorge Dyerthat Lord Castlereagh was the author of the

, , Waverley Novels , and that tlie Persian Ambassador ancl his suite , as true fire-worshippers , Avent every morning to the top of Primrose Hill , to pay their devotions to the rising god of day , Avas not half so ludicrous as the charge of literature gravely preferred by enlightened editors in their luminaries against the Civil Service . I hope the curators of our museums will carefully preserve said charges , for future collections of the Curiosities of Literature .

Bro . T . B . Whytehead , an intelligent ancl energetic worker both in the Craft ancl Chivalric Degrees , has favoured me with a copy of his paper on " Freemasonry in York , " read before the members of the Yorkshire College of the Soe . Rosier ., at their meeting in old Ebor , on the 20 th of January last . In addressing the " R . W . Oh , Adepts and Praters , " Bro . Whytehead remarks : — - "It has always appeared to me , that the study of Freemasonry is so intimately connected with that of Arclneology , that the tAvo may be fairly regarded as kindred or sister sciences . Not that every

Archroologist must necessarily be a Freemason , although I quite think that such a condition of enlightenment Avould materially aid the student of the beautiful ancl the antique in architecture ; but the converse certainly holds good ; I mean , that every intelligent Freemason , and more especially a Rosicrucian , must be to a great extent an Archaeologist . I do not , of course , suggest that he must be possessed of a vast quantity of technical knoAvledge , ancl have at his tongue ' s end all the patois of the architect or the builder . He need , not

qualify himself to talk learnedly of crockets and corbels , of foils ancl finials , of nnilhons ancl transoms , of spandrils ancl soffits , but he should certainly possess a general , what I may call a dilettanti , sort of knoAvledge of the general principles of that great science , and its history , Avhich Ave are bound to regard as synonymous , throughout all past time , Avith the science ancl practise of that Royal Art , Avith which we pride ourselves on being connected . " This is good , and the gradual groAvth of such ideas throughout our immense fraternity is one of the most hopeful signs of the times for Freemasonry . " The old capital city of the north , " as Bro . Whytehead well remarks , "is so associated with both the legendary ancl the recorded history of Freemasonry , that over the AA'hole globe ,

wherever that Avondrous organization flourishes , the name of York is sufficient to warm into activity , in the breast of every brother , thoughts of our great unwritten history of the past . " Referring to " the story of the Athelstane Charter , " he remarks : — " Perhaps I ought not to use the term ' legend' in reference to this document , since our Avorthy Deputy Provincial Grand Master , Dr . J . P , Bell , AVIIO , you know , is not only an earnest Masonic student , but an author of mark , is firmly convinced that the charter

' ' in question , is still in existence , or at any rate that it did exist up to within a very recent period . Until this charter can be found , however , we can only regard it as a legend ; but had the York Masons of former years possessed a quarter of the intelligent zeal for discovering the true history of the Craft which distinguishes Bro . Whytehead ancl others , Ave should have been in a very widely different position , as they would have aided us in our researches indeed , instead of mouthing words with maudlin

simplicity , and thinking , more of a flowing boAvl than the progress of humanity . It is interesting to learn from Bro . Wh ytehead that a York brother has "been at very considerable pains to Avacle through the old minute books of the Corporation of York , in order to discover if any entry relating to the alleged visit of Sir Thomas Sackville to York is in existence , but he has discovered no allusion to anything of the kind ; and I fear that Ave must admit thatso farthere is not a of evidence as to visit

, , scrap any having been paid by the knight in question . " I , for one , Avould have been delighted to have been able to prove Sackville a brother Mason ; for he could write of Remorse of Conscience , as in the famous Mirrour for Magistrates , seven years before the birth of Shakspere;—