Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE , SCIENCE , AND ART .

BY BBO . GEORGE MABKHAM TWEDDELL . Author of " Shakspere , Ids Times and Contemporaries , " " The Bards and Authors of Cleveland and South Durham" " The People ' s History of Cleveland and its Vicinage" " The Visitor s Handbook to liedcarCoathamand Saliburn b

, , y the Sea" " The History of the Stockton and Darlington JRailioay" etc ., etc . HPHEY who , like myself , were fortunate enough to witness that mighty triumph of - " - modern engineering skill in placidly placing the hoary monument of antiquity , known as Cleopatra ' s Needle , on its proper basis , so that we of this nineteenth century

may gaze upon the same hieroglyphic-covered obelisk , which Moses often passed at Heliopolis , whither it had been floated down the Nile from its native Syene quarries , would do well to look carefully at the old world bas-reliefs now on the walls of outnoble British Museum , showing the poor harnessed slaves of the by-gone removing a colossal bull , whilst their brutal taskmasters are urging them to strain every nerve to accomplish their object by muscular strength alone . Silently as the pointer of some

immense clock , without even its quiet ticking , did we see this nearly two hundred tons weight of stone changed from its horizontal position to the perpendicular . To me there was a sublime poetry in that glorious achievement . The oldest handiwork of our ancient operative brethren , I feel proud that it is to distinguished brothers of the Craft that we owe both the princely munificence of the cost , and the wonderful skill of removing it from its fallen place in the sands of Egypt to the busy hanks of the Thames

, where the honoured names of our Brothers , Erasmus Wilson and Dixon , will henceforth and for ever be indelibly associated with the truly Masonic achievement . Would that the obelisk could indite for us a faithful epitome of the history of its own times ! AVhat a book that wotdd he !

An English lady in Italy , the daughter of a dignitary of the Church , and wife of a clergyman , communicates the following as the Italian method of curing the whoopingcough , and states that she has tried it with marked success on one of her children , who was suffering severely from that distressing complaint : ¦— " One large tablespoonful of honey to half a pint of water , beat up together thoroughly , and add a ftdl teaspoonM of purified nitre in powder ; half to be taken in the morning , and half at night , and to

be continued while necessary . " In the year 1584 , when Shakspere , although married and a father , was only in his twenty-first year ; when A irginia was first discovered , and Walter Raleigh ( who was not with his expedition ) , was knighted ; when Reginald Scott was attacking the foolish belief in witchcraft ; "the judicious Hooker" was entering upon his Buckinghamshire rectory ; and Seldon , Pym , Massinger , Phineas Fletcher , and others of note , were just making their first appearance on the great stage

of life—Thoinas Ohaloner the younger ( who was kni ghted seven years afterwards ) , produced A Shorte Discourse of the most rare and excellent vertue of Nitre , now a very scarce work , in which he gives directions for its use , inwardly and outwardly , in all manner of diseases ; and , though the whooping-cough does not appear to be there particularized , I find seven different recipes for affections of the lungs and windpipe , some of which it would be worth the while of modern medical men to testand report

, upon ; for if they were really efficacious three centuries ago , I see no reason why they should not be so at the present time . That Sir Thomas Chaloner the younger was a man of some scientific knowledge ( though he tells us that he derived his knowledge of the virtues of nitre from his still more illustrious father , the poet , warrior , and statesman ) , is proved by the fact that he first began the manufacture of alum from the lias formation of the Cleveland Hills ; which , as it interfered with the pope ' s monopoly , is