The Origin And References Of The Hermesian Spurious Freemasonry.

but unattainable good , Avholly absorbed a midst the endless jargon of philosophical speculation . Tims the doctrine of tho resurrection , aiid a state of reivards and punishments otter death , derived originally from the

patriarchal religion , Avas used by the Egyp tians , and after them by the Greeks , as a poAverful engine to establish and confirm the influence of the hierophant ; ancl accordingly it Avas taught in the exoteric or preliminary doctrines of the initiatory

degrees . Indeed , it Avould be difficult to pronounce IIOAV their influence could have been supported for so many centuries without the assistance of a belief capable of being converted to such a powerful use .

The doctrine was enforced by a means so horrible that the most sceptical gainsayer Avas made to feel and tremble under an exhibition ivhich penetrated at once to the very deepest point of superstitious awe ; for Avhile he beheld virtuous men shining Avith a transmitted glory in the

blessed mansions of light , during the initiations , he was struck with horror at the sight of his most valued friends and relatives in the gloomy regions of darkness , under the guardianship of Hermes and his associates , and attended by eAdl demons ,

AVIIO inflicted upon them the most excruciating tortures Avithout pity or remorse . ( To be Continued . )

Objects , Advantages, And Pleasures Of Science.

OBJECTS , ADVANTAGES , AND PLEASURES OF SCIENCE .

{ Continued from page 152 . ) Iv - APPLICATION 0 F NATUEAL SCIENCE TO THE ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE AVORLD . * J DT > for the purpose of further illustrating the advantages of Philosophy , its tendency to

enlarge tho mind , as well as to interest it igreeahl y , and afford pure and solid gratification , a feAV instances may be given of the S 1 "gular truths brought to light by the "Pphcation of Mathematical , Mechanical , jj « Chemical knowledge to the habits of , nil « als and plants ; and some examples

may be added of the more ordinary and easy , but scarcely less interesting observations , made upon those habits , without the aid of the profounder sciences . We may remember the curve line which mathematicians call a Cycloid . It is the path Avhich any point of a circle moving

along a piano , and round its centre traces hi the ah ; so that the nail on the felly of a cartwheel moves in a Cycloid , as the cart goes along , and as the Avheel itself both turns round its axle , and is carried along the ground . NOAV this curve has certain

properties of a peculiar and very singular kind , with respect to motion . One is , that if any body Avhatever moves in a cycloid by its OAVU weight or sAving , together with some other force acting upon it all the while , it Avill go through all distances of

the same curve in exactly the same time ; and , accordingly , pendulums hav ' e sometimes been contrived to SAving in such a manner , that they shall describe cycloids , or craves very near cycloids , and thus move in equal times , whether they go through a long or a short part of the same curve . Again , if a body is to descend from any one point to any other , not in the perpendicular ,

by means of some force acting on it together Avith its weight , the line in which it Avill go the quickest of all will be the cycloid , not the straight line , though that is the shortest of all lines which can he drawn between the tAvo points ; nor any other curve Avhateverthough many are much

, flatter , and therefore shorter than the cycloid—but the cycloid , Avhich is longer than many of them , is yet , of all curved or straight lines Avhich can be drawn , the one the body will move through in the shortest time . Suppose , again , that the body is to

move from one point to another , by its weight and some other force acting together , but to go through a certain space , —as a hundred yards—theAvayitmust take to do this , in the shortest time possible , is by moving in a cycloid ; or the length of a

hundred yards must be draAvn into a cycloid , and then the body Avill descend through the hunched yards in shorter time than it could go the same distance in any other path whatever . NOAV it is believed that Birdsas the EagleAvhich build in the

, , rocks , drop or fly doAvn from height to height in this course . It is impossible to make very accurate observations of their N 2