Cursory Remarks On Freemasonry. —V.

¦ —• "Lively skulkers , Witty wags , and lusty drinkers ; Lords of life , who was their liver , And arc dry and thirsty ever . " For their especial improvement , should they ever read this paper , we beg to recommend to their attentive perusal the following extracts from our Antient Charges : —" After

the Lodge is over , you may enjoy yourselves with innocent mirth , treating one another according to ability , [ not drinking the funds mark ! J but avoiding all excess , or forcing any brother to eat or drink beyond his inclination , or hindering him from going when his occasions call him , or doing or saying anything offensive , or that may forbid an easy and

free conversation ; for that would blast our harmony and defeat our laudable purposes . " And again : " You must also consult your health by not continuing together too late or too long from home after Lodge hours are past ; and by avoiding of gluttony or drunkenness , that your families be not neglected or injured , nor you disabled from working . " We should also bear in mind that temperance is the first step in the Masonic ladder : it is the foundation of all the cardinal virtues .

; If thou well observe The rule of not too much , by temperance taught , In what thou eut ' st and drink ' st , seeking from thence . Due nourishment , not gluttonous delight ! Till many years over thy head return : So may ' st thou live , till , like ripe fruit , thou drop Into thy mother's lap , or be with ease

Gathered , not harshly plucked , in death mature . " I have often thought that much good would be done to the Craft if each Lodge were obliged to make a return to Grand Lod ge every year of their total receipts and expenditure , with the full particulars of each . I would not deprive Lodges of that local self govermnent which in all ages has

been the safeguard of libert y ; but it is but fair that the Order to which they belong , and into which they claim the privilege of admitting as many members as will pay their initiation fee , should know whether the funds are spent in promoting knowledge and virtue , in relieving distress , and are altogether devoted to Masonic pm * poses ; or whether , on the other hand , the great bulk of the Lodge funds is spent in

festivity , to the disgust of such true brothers as reall y belong to us—thus in numerous cases holding out an inducemient to improper characters to seek admittance amongst us , and driving from our ranks the very men who ought to be ranged under our banner . Freemasonry is cither a hi gh and holy thing or it is a mockery , a delusion , and a sham . Those

highminded Masons who are thoroughly convinced of the benign influence of the royal Craft should unhesitatingly call upon every true brother of the Order to exert himself and save it from its false friends . We have it in our power to compel all those who have gained admittance among us , either to become true and faithful brothers or to leave our

ranks . We live in an enli ghtened age , in which we must either work according to our noble profession or be content to die out amongst institutions which have had their day . We are convinced that what Ben Jonson said of Shakspeare is true of Freemasonry , it is " not for an age , but for all time , " and we have only to be true to the teachings of the Craft to convince all good men and women that though , as Addison observes ,

; " The friendships of the world are oft Confederacies in vice or leagues in pleasure ;" yet our Masonic gatherings have other objects : that in our Lodges arc inculcated the principles of moral truth . We could show that b y tho aid of Freemasonry we are enabled to contemplate the intellectual faculties and trace them from their development through the paths of heavenlscience

y , even to the throne of God himself ; that the secrets of nature and the princi ples of moral truth are thus unveiled before us ; that we learn the just estimate of those " wondrous faculties with which God has endowed the being formed after His own

Cursory Remarks On Freemasonry. —V.

image , and feel the duty which he has thereby imposed upou us of cultivating this divine attribute with the most diligent and unremitting care and attention , that we may be enabled to show forth His glory and render ourselves useful to the happiness of mankind . The world would learn that—having aided us to model our minds to virtue and science , and having taught us that great and useful lesson "the knowledge of

ourselves "— -Masonry prepares us , by contemplation , for the closing hours of our existence , and finally teaches us how to die . To die—not as the poor wearied beast escaping from , its burden only with its life , but to die the death of the righteous , who , after a life spent in the service of God and humanity , looks forward with joy to a glorious eternity ; for "Death to the virtuous , no terror brings . "

Archæology. Roman Remains.

ARCH ? OLOGY . ROMAN REMAINS .

THE excavations which are being made at the bathing establishment at Aix , on the site occupied in the time of the Romans by the baths of Sextius , have brought to light a fragment of antiquity calculated to excite the curiosity of archaxilogists . It is in Carrara marble twenty and a half inches high , by eleven and three-quarters wide , and has evidently been detached from a monument of much larger dimensions . The side best preserved

represents a river nymph crowned with reeds , aud holding a palm branch in her hand . She is reclining in a majestic attitude , and leaning on an urn from which water is flowing . On the other side is to be seen , but in a very dilapidated state , a figure with the tail of a fish , and intended to represent a Triton or marine deity . The arm and hand , which are extended , are iu better preservation than the other part . There were found near this

fragment a Corinthian capital , in stone , but in bad condition ; also some remnants of common earthenware . The recent verdict of antiquarians , concerning the precise locality of the great battle in the Teutoburgian woods , has received the additional support of matter-of-fact evidence . At Beckiun , a small town in the province of AVcstphalia , a large tumulus has been discovered , containing a great many skeletons

of men and horses , together with every variety of Roman weapons . Of the latter several are inscribed with the numeral XIN ., this being the distinctive number of one of the legions related to have been destroyed by the Germans on that memorable occasion . The discovery , which was made while draining a field , has not failed to awaken great attention in Germany , where the battle in question is generally considered a most glorious achievement , and one of the decisive conflicts in the history of the Roman empire .

DEATH OF FATHER MARCIII . Padre Marchi , the Jesuit Father , whose name is popular al over the world among antiquarians , has just died at Rome , where he was curator of the Kirsche Museum , and where he had lived an active , busy life amongst the antiquities it contains without stirring a single mile beyond its walls in search of any other company , for a great part of a long and laborious life . It is to Father

Marchi that the world owes the restoration of subterranean Rome ; and , giving unto Cicsar the things which are Caesar ' s , restored to Etruscan art what had hitherto been considered as belonging to the Greeks . The collection of coins treasured up by Father Marchi , contains the most ancient in the world . Some of them were current during the first era of the creation of Rome , bearing the cubic form of dicewithout pretension to inscription .

, any Then the heavy coins struck on one side only , and some of them weighing as much as four pounds . These , the Father had ascertained to have been in use during the reigns of the first kings of Home . Of course he regarded them as Etruscan , and was ready to lay down his life in defence of his opinion , but Lenormant did not wish the sacrifice , aud like a true savant , preferred laying down his own life that they were not . The calm and innocent life of a

man who had never left the Kirsche Museum for more than forty years , has but little matter for record ; hut the loss of Father Marchi has been severely felt by his brother savans , and the Academie proposes to pronounce its eulogy in its next public sitting . EGYPTIAN AECIIiEOLOGY . THE Viscount de Rouge has opened his course of E gyptian archeology at the College of France , The following curious