Social Problems And Their Peaceful Solution.

Some lady has hair of some outrageous colour , the height of her rank is the height of her beauty , and forthwith every woman , whether the fashion suit her or not , is dyed to match . Some courtly gentleman is afflicted with some terrible deformitylo 1

, on every courtier springs the hump . So it is in everything else , even in food ; aud , 'though a supply of it be ready to their hand , yet will the people refuse it , if they think it he not such as their betters partake of . Thus we see the poor refusing

the proffered tin of meat , even as a gift , and purchasing the coarse and refuse lump of string , bone , and fat , that has lain for hours upon the butcher ' s board , which said lump has been twenty-times handled by every dirty passer-by .

Surely , surely , there is a heavy responsibility imposed upon us here ; would that the well-to-do would recognise their duty in rendering to God ' s poor that best of all assistance , helping them to help themselves better , far better , than any mere almsgiving , is the setting a bright example of Social and Economic Reform .

Freemasonry.

FREEMASONRY .

BY WILLIAM EOUNSEVILLE . From the " Voice of Masonry" we believe . You may smite with a feather the granite rock , You may bombard the oak with the

player ' s ball , * et you shall not hear the expected shock , And may wait for ay for the oak to fall . ¦ And Masonry stands like the granite rock—Like the giant form of the forest oak ; rlas stood through ages the battles

shock—Has received unharmed the heaviest stroke . And Masonry spreads like the heaving sea—It shines like the stars in the vaulted sk

v y ; J-or your wrath it will never cease to be , -bike the ocean deep it will never dry . •^ sMasonry m es like the noon-day sun , Resistless its march as Niagara ' s tide ; " 1 continue to shine as the years run on , Aud bless like the rushing river wide .

Freemasonry.

Thus Masonry sweeps like a whirlwind the world , Devastating error , intolerance , sin ; For this is the banner forever unfurled , And these its labor where ' er it has been .

The Ravenna Baptistery.

THE RAVENNA BAPTISTERY .

WE take this most interesting paper from the "Times , " of September 15 th , for two especial reasons . First because it is a most admirable contribution to Ecclesiastical History and Architectural Study , a subject quitecognate with Freemasonry , and secondly because in a passage printed in large letters

later on , we have as it appeal's to us proof so early as the third century , that the Masonic Guilds and Sodalites , left their marks even on the creations of art , on walls and windows , on the " Opus Musivum , " on the decorated ceilings of churches . If such a fact be established , it is another interesting and important item in the history of the Masonic Guilds .

It is , perhaps , fortunate for the interests of Art that from the time when Gaston de Foix laid siege to Ravenna , and fell while pushing his victory over the relieving army too far , she has gradually sunk into the background until she has become the lonely ,

unvisited , melancholy city she is now . Her churches have been more than enough for her decreased population—some , like that dedicated to the sainted Shoemaker-Bishop , the dove-chosen Severus , have certainly disappeared altogetherbutwith

, , one or two exceptions , the others have had the good fortune to be only neglected , and the neglect of edifices built with the faithful solid workmanship expended even during the decline of the Roman Empire , is careful preservation when compared to

repairs and restorations of the nature now obliterating the last vestiges of the Cathedral Church of the Popes of the first 15 centuries . Such as they were built the churches of Ravenna have been , more or lessallowed to remainlike the

out-of-the-, , way unused Basilicas of Saints Nereo and Achilleo , St . Cesario , aud others at Rome . They have been left " uuembellished " b y Renaissance altars aud post-Raphaelite p