Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

The Rev . Canon GreemveH , a most competent critic , remarks of Durham Cathedral —one of the noblest AA'orks of our ancient operative bretliren : — " Tho Bemician see , at the time of the flight from Ghester-le-Street , and the settlement of Saint Cuthbort ancl his congregation at Durham , Avas presided over by Aldhun , AA'ho thus became Avhat , by anticipation , may be called the first Bishop of Durham . A church was built by him for the reception of the body of Saint Cnthbertin Avhich it Avas deposited in the year 999 . This building did not

, remain for quite an hundred years , and in 1093 , Bishop William of Saint Carilef , who had previously established the Benedictines at Durham , commenced that magnificent Cathedral , AA'hich , after various changes and additions , still exists . It crowns the rocky height of Durham , not only one of the most glorious examples of Norman architecture in England , but , in virtue of its great beauty of proportion , its solemn and most impressive massiveness , and the peculiar but strikingly effective details of its various parts , one of the grandest churches of a country which is second to none in Europe in those marvellous Creations of Christian art . "

In the year 1616—AA'hen William Sbakspere Avas just passing through "the dark A'alley of the shadoAV of death "—John Withie , the arms-painter , finished an heraldic MS ., not Avithout its A'alue to the student of the history of our great metropolis . It is entitled , " The Names and Armes of them that hath been Aldermen of the Warde of Aldersgate since the tyme of King Henry 6 , beginninge at the 30 yeere of his Reigne until this present yeeare of our Lorde 1616 . Which names ancl Armes AA'ere collected

out of reeorde 1616 . J [ ohn ] W [ ithie ] . " The armorial bearings are beautifully coloured ; and the AA'ork is noAv being reproduced , and briefly annotated , by Mr . P . C . Price , Fac-simUist to the British Museum , ancl is to be published by Golding and LaAvrence , the antiquarian booksellers opposite the Museum gates . The Family Novelist Avdl shortly consist of a complete story in twelve chapters , entitled " The Gable in DreAv Court , " from the pen of Mr . John ' DaAA'son . The same

AA'riter has also recently finished a short serial tale , entitled " The Black Tarn , " AA'hich Avill be run through a popular periodical . Seeing that it is only by means of stirring tales that AA ' can get the masses to begin to read , every such effort , made in a pure spirit , is breaking up the barren soil , ancl preparing it for higher things . We are too apt to blame tlie poor for their love of sensation tales ; but is not the very spirit of all our popular preaching , platform oratory , neAA'spaper leaders , ancl theatrical exhibitions ,

sensational ? Nay , are not the most prosaic lives of our traders and commercial men sensational in the extreme ? Men rush beyond their strength to make fortunes fast : those AA'ho do succeed run OA'er the sprawling prostrate forms of their brothers fallen in the mad race for Avorldly Avealth , and have not time or inclination to hold out to them a helping hand ; ancl Avhen they have succeeded in being able " to retire , " retirement to their bacUy cultivated minds is almost as bad as solitary confinement to a cul prit . Such is the boasted civilization of the nineteenth century : much to admire , but also much deeply to deplore .

Samuel Osgood , D . D . and LL . D ., in an able address dclh'ered before the New York Genealogical ancl Biographical Society , on " Life ancl its Records in this Generation , " says " the great revival of common school education , " in the United States , " is dated from 1817 , ancl its movement continued throughout that whole generation , and entered into the third generation , AA'hich we call especially our own . There AA'as in connection AA'ith this moA'ement a rise of interest in classical study that had so much

importance as to be fitly called a renaissance of letters . " Having given credit to the scholars , McVicar , Verplanek , Bethime , Alexander , ancl others , in NOAV York , ho adds : "lam most familiar AA ' ith the history of classical learning in New England , especially in its oldest seat , Harvard University . Classical culture there may be said almost to haA'e begun AA'ith the last generation in the endoAvment of the Professorships of Latin and Greek in 1811 and in the endoAvment of the Professorshiof Greek

, p Literature in 1815 , and the call of Edward Everett to the chair , the most brilliant young man of his clay . With this rising taste came the new culture of Massachusetts , AA'hich has so made its mark upon history , poetry , romance , elides , and theology . Ifc Avas virtually the re-birth of the classic spirit , ancl especially of the Greek thoug ht under the old Puritan ride ; ancl with it there came the research for the standard of