Notes On Literature, Science And Art.

day or night duty ; and Avith all the songs of birds , and beauty of Avild flowers and trees , and perfumes of new hay and blossoming beanfields , as no mean addition to his scanty pay ; Avhy should not SAveet Poesy sometimes come to him , as she has

come , a benignant goddess , to many others in humble life , and as she -will come , like many other of God ' s best gifts to man , to all Avho will humbly receive her . WOKDSAVORTH has told us truly that "there are many poets who ne ' er penn'd their

inspirations . " But for many years past , Mr . James Conway ( who for fifteen years has been a rural policeman , and once or more has been nearly killed in doin

duty manfully , when having to deal with human beings sunk beneath savagery ) , has not only burst frequently into song , but has found the local newspapers , both in Scotland and in England , glad to insert his poetical contributions in their Poets ' Corners . These have been collected into

two little volumes , each complete in itself ; the first , " Saint Godric ancl other Poems , " published some three years ago , immediately reached a second edition ; the second book , entitled " Home Lyrics , " has just been issued . I hopein a future

, number of the "Masonic Magazine , " to notice , tbe somewhat eventful life of this humble but Avorthy man , and to give the reader a few fair specimens of his poetry ; in the meantime , I am happy to bear my

testimony to the worth and ability both of the man and his books , at a time when ill health , Avhich has attacked both himself and his family , is compelling him to resign his humble post as a policeman . Those AVIIO remember reading Bro . George Augustus Sala's descrition of

p the vagaries of the Spiritualists in ' ' HOAV I tamed Mrs . Cruiser , " Avill not think the picture overdraAvn when they peruse the French police reports of the trial ancl conviction of the hypocritical charlatans Avho have been reaping a golden harvest

from their credulous dupes in Paris , under tbe pretence of photographing tbe spirits of their departed friends ; a game that was first played in America , ancl has since been used in England , and Avhich seems fair to call for a considerable amount of

reformatory prison discipline for the plunderers , and for careful lunatic treatment for the poor deluded dupes , AVIIO will not believe that they have been duped , even when

their dupers make a clean breast of it after conA'iction , and sboAv up tbe duplicity tbey bave practised in open court . A t least the latter is the case in France . Buguet , the professed photographer of spirits ; Leymarie , the editor of the Spirit Review ; and

Firman , a medium from America , haA'e been unfortunate enough to have amongst their numerous customers a few clever detectives , AVIIO soon saAV sufficient to arrest them on a charge of swindling ; and the Paris Correctional Tribunal has sentenced Firman ,

tbe " medium , " to six months' imprisonment , and Leymarie and Buguet to be kept " in durance A'ile" for a year . But as they pretend , like Owen Glendower , to be able to " call spirits from the vasty deep , " time cannot hang heavy on their hands

, Avith or without oakum picking , or other prison employment . The mere laying of three rogues by tbe heels in hold , and that too in a foreign country , and none of them of greater interest to us than the numerous army of scoundrels in generalwould

, scarcely' of itself constitute matter for a paragraph on Literature , Science or Art . But the richest part of the Avhole affair is , Buguet , the spirit-photographer , produced

in open court Ms swindling apparatus , and shoAved plainly IIOAV the Avhole thing Avas done . Photographic appliances , such as are necessary for taking the likeness of one still in the flesh , a musical box , ( surely the spirits cannot be much used to hear the golden harps of the angelsconsidering how

, delighted they seem always to be Avith the commonest earthly musical toy , ) a big doll , jointed ancl dressed in gauze , but Avithout a head , just as the dupes it Avas for were AA ' itbout brains ; and some hundreds of photographic portraits of menwomenancl

, , children , these Avere the Avhole and sole requisites for producing as many photographs of spirits as there Avere dupes able and Avilling to pay twenty francs a piece for . If the lady-cashier of the studio could Avorm out of the Availing dupe the

important information of the age at the time of death , the sex , and any other particulars of personal appearance , a spirit-photograph was at once secured , Avhich the pleased dupe declared to be able to recognize at once ; but ifas in the case of M . Cassonade

, , a grocer , AVIIO wanted a spirit-photograph of his son , a lad of ten years at the time of death , and got the portrait of an old man of sixty instead , as our Avily spiritualists did