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  • Sept. 15, 1860
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The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, Sept. 15, 1860: Page 11

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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Literature.

other countries of Europe ; and then proceeds after the following fashion : — " I have been musing so desperately , that I have lost sight of what was going on about me . What awful profanation of the Sabbath ! Could this hallowed day be more sacriligiously desecrated at Petersburg or at Moscow , than it is profaned here in . London ? The streets are crowded with buyers and sellers of the

most objectionable staples . Shops are open ; infidel publications impudently exposed for sale ; poor children , uncared for ancl unprotected , almost publicly trained in broad daylight for the hulks or gallows . What monstrosities and enormities are these ivhich are constantly thronging upon my reluctant observation ! Oh , one half of the treasure which lias been recklessly thrown away on the slaughtering of our flesh and blood , hacl been spent upon tho reformation of our rising generation , what a different aspect might not the streets of London present , especially on the Sabbath-dnv .

"The street is blocked up , a terrific incite , ' with confused noise , garments rolled in blood . ' Some sturdy Britons are fighting out some interesting difference of opinion . Hundreds of fellow subjects watch most attentively the issue of the dispute ; no one attempts to propose a compromise between the parties . Some individuals are very busy examining the pockets of the enraptured spectators . There is ' no go' that way , I am obliged to turn in at a narrow by-lane in order to continue my perambulation and

meditation . Boom , Cannons , boom ! "Interupted again in my walk and in thought . The police are leading three brave fellows to tho station . Multitudes of fellowcountrymen take part in the procession , all of them in very high spirits , so very high that ifc would perplex them to tell whether thoy are in their bodies or out of their bodies . Several , however , are wide awake , and take care of little articles and small properties belonging to their elated friends . ' Who are these parties , who

are forced to go contrary to their own wishes and their own way ?' ' They belong , sir , to a gang of'Chttbb-deners . ' Boom , Cannons , boom ! "Disentangled and stopped once more ! Three females , with tresses unconfineel , and with raiment neglige , are escorted by half-adozen beaux from Bow Street , ancl accompanied by a mixed crowd ot equally facinating females , with equally dishevelled hair , with apparel equally insufficient for the exigencies of neck and shoulders , ankles and feetwho shouting and screaming with

, are an energy ¦ and emphasis which set at defiance all the Ten Commandments The weaker sex is lustily supported by tho stronger . Disentangled and stopped again , and again , and again . Boom , Cannons , boom ! Churchmen ancl statesmen may , peradventure , turn their minds anil their influence to heal the manifold diseases of the daughters of Great Britain . Every loyal ancl patriotic Englishman is obliged to take up the words of the ' llebrow patriot , and say , ' Is it nothing to

you , all ye that pass by ? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow . ' " The bard of 'Anti-Maud' is right , he speaks as he is moved b y genuine loyalty and patriotism : —

" ' Plenty of work to be done in the filthy and crowded street , AVhere the li ght of the gin palace flares in the hollow eyes Of the girl who has pawned her shawl that her starving cliild may eat ; But turns aside for a penn ' orth of drink to comfort her ere she dies . ¦ " 'Plenty of work , where the children stare through the workhouse

gate , Crushed and stunted in body and mind , and doomed to steal or to beg . Hatched into mendicant life by the blundering care of the state , Fatherless , motherless children , paupers anil thieves in the egg . "' Plenty of work to be done . But how to be done , and by whom ? Men's hearts are and hot AVe feast warlike

angry . upon scenes . AVe listen all day for the clash of bells and the cannon ' s triumphant boom . Our hands are full . AVe have wasted our wealth . AVe have neither the time nor the means . '

"Ah ! if half the money which lias been thrown away—worse than thrown away—on the late war , had been spent in ameliorating the condition of the weak and the wicked , how many less prison bouses should we have had ! If the millions which had been lavished upon slaughtering our fellow Christians had been used for the erection of churches , schools , almshouses , and penitentiaries , what different views would not the streets of London , Manchester , Liverpool , Dublin , and all the other large towns present on the » abbath-day !" AVe forbear quoting more from the same chapter , though the whole of it is very much apropos to the present time . The work

Literature.

concludes with a tale , though small in dimensions , exceedingly comprehensive and voluminous in its suggestive moral lessons . It tells us , in a very taking style and manner , the versatile vicissitudes of the Rev . Stephen Armitage , one of "The Curates of Riversdale . " The novel under review is by no means devoid of the romantic ingredient , nor is it wanting in fun and frolic , but it is all clone in a very refined ancl original style , so that an archibishop or a

lordchancellor might be justified to laugh heartily at the sober drolleries which the work contains . The editor seems to have availed himself of the author ' s permission , ancl added many a note to the foot of many a page , which enhances the interest of the work . From " The Editor ' s Epilogue , " of which the following is the last extract we give for the present , it appears that we are to expect more volumes from the same penthe sooner the expectation is realised the better , say we : —

"When we rashly undertook the responsibility of introducingthe Author's work to the British public , we reckoned without our host . AVe found the manuscript so closely penned , and that in the smallest possible character , as to be capable of shelving a moderate library ,- so that no publisher , notwithstanding the originality , and the immense interest which the narratives possessed , would entertain the project of publishing the work , unless ifc was epitomised , abridged , and reduced to the miserable minimum of

three modern volumes . The alternative proved most perplexing to us . AVe deemed every chapter , every sketch , every biographical notice of paramount interest . AVe were in a strait . AVe knew not which to publish at once , and ivhich to reserve for a future season . "We could not find it in our hearts to leave out ' Maeworthy ' s Course of True Love , ' such a tbrillingly interesting story as it is ! AVe could not spare ' Wright ' s Presbyter in Search of a Bishop ;' it is an affecting tale which might draw tears from many an angel , if not from many a bishop . AVe could not possibly reconcile ourselves to the keeping hack of the fascinating ' Romance in Beal Life , ' which tells so feelingly and so truthfully of all the conflicts and eonciuests ivhich fell to the nortion of A eritv and A'ictoria . Nor

could we pacify our conscience as to the omission of the painfully instructive lesson ivhich the melancholy development of the characters of the Vicars of Brimstone and Hailstone furnish . AVe found ' The Quarrels of Fowl Bentsneak , A'icar of Palenettle , with bis Parishioners'highly entertaining , and jiainfully suggestive . . . . No less interesting did we think the chapters on 'Bishops ' Examining Chaplains '—on ' Pastoral Aids ancl Curates' Aids' — on 'The Death-lied Confessions of Certain Popular Preachers '—on

'The Lewes Sermon Case '—on "The Brimstone Tract Suit' ; and on ' The Justice of Clerical Juries . ' AVe did not like to keep from the public the vicissitudes of the German and French deserter , which furnish so vivid a picture of life in Central Africa . It went to our very soul to be obliged to postpone the chapters on the cities of the Czar , and those of Abdoul Medjid , and a hundred other important aud interesting episodes . But they are all coming —all , all in good time ' . . . . AVe pledge our editorial reputation , that they shall appear , sooner or later , in some of the posthumous works of the late lamented Frederick Verity , one of ' 'The Curates of Rivcrsdale . ' "

At present , however , we cannot too highly recommend the book , of which we have given a somewhat lengthened notice . It will lie plain to many of our readers who is the author of " The Curates of Riversdale . " His learning , travel , profession , brotherhood , all point to one individual Brother of the Order , whose zeal and attainments in the Craft , and out of the Craft , are , as they deserve to be , fully recognised . We shall anxiously expect the continuation of " The Curates of Riversdale . "

ANTIQUITY or STENCII ,. —In the Philosophical Transactions for 1738 , we read that Procopius , in his Hislorice Arcana , says : —The Emperor Justimus , not being able to write his name , had a , thin , smooth piece of board , through which were cut holes in the form of the four letters J . V . S . T ,. wliich , laid on the paper , served to direct the point of his pen—his hand was guided by another . Possibly this way likewise has given the hint to the first of our card-makers , who paint their cards in thesame mannerby plates of pewter or

, copper , or only pastboard , with slits , in them in forms of the figures that are to be painted on the cards . Such is the art of Stencil , wliich has been applied , in our time , to decorating the walls of rooms , as well as tlie making of linen . — ' l'imb ' -s Curiosities of Science , Second Series .

“The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine: 1860-09-15, Page 11” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 10 July 2025, django:8000/periodicals/mmr/issues/mmr_15091860/page/11/.
  • List
  • Grid
Title Category Page
CLASSICAL THEOLOGY.—XXXII. Article 1
THE CRUSADES AND THE CRUSADERS.* Article 2
ARCHITECTURE AND ARCHÆOLOGY. Article 5
MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES. Article 8
Literature. Article 9
NOTES ON LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART. Article 12
CORRESPONDENCE. Article 13
PROPOSED MASONIC HALL IN NORWICH. Article 13
NEW HISTORY OF CLEVELAND. Article 14
THE MASONIC MIRROR. Article 15
METROPOLITAN. Article 15
PROVINCIAL. Article 15
ROYAL ARCH. Article 19
Obituary. Article 19
THE WEEK. Article 19
TO CORRESPONDENTS. Article 20
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Literature.

other countries of Europe ; and then proceeds after the following fashion : — " I have been musing so desperately , that I have lost sight of what was going on about me . What awful profanation of the Sabbath ! Could this hallowed day be more sacriligiously desecrated at Petersburg or at Moscow , than it is profaned here in . London ? The streets are crowded with buyers and sellers of the

most objectionable staples . Shops are open ; infidel publications impudently exposed for sale ; poor children , uncared for ancl unprotected , almost publicly trained in broad daylight for the hulks or gallows . What monstrosities and enormities are these ivhich are constantly thronging upon my reluctant observation ! Oh , one half of the treasure which lias been recklessly thrown away on the slaughtering of our flesh and blood , hacl been spent upon tho reformation of our rising generation , what a different aspect might not the streets of London present , especially on the Sabbath-dnv .

"The street is blocked up , a terrific incite , ' with confused noise , garments rolled in blood . ' Some sturdy Britons are fighting out some interesting difference of opinion . Hundreds of fellow subjects watch most attentively the issue of the dispute ; no one attempts to propose a compromise between the parties . Some individuals are very busy examining the pockets of the enraptured spectators . There is ' no go' that way , I am obliged to turn in at a narrow by-lane in order to continue my perambulation and

meditation . Boom , Cannons , boom ! "Interupted again in my walk and in thought . The police are leading three brave fellows to tho station . Multitudes of fellowcountrymen take part in the procession , all of them in very high spirits , so very high that ifc would perplex them to tell whether thoy are in their bodies or out of their bodies . Several , however , are wide awake , and take care of little articles and small properties belonging to their elated friends . ' Who are these parties , who

are forced to go contrary to their own wishes and their own way ?' ' They belong , sir , to a gang of'Chttbb-deners . ' Boom , Cannons , boom ! "Disentangled and stopped once more ! Three females , with tresses unconfineel , and with raiment neglige , are escorted by half-adozen beaux from Bow Street , ancl accompanied by a mixed crowd ot equally facinating females , with equally dishevelled hair , with apparel equally insufficient for the exigencies of neck and shoulders , ankles and feetwho shouting and screaming with

, are an energy ¦ and emphasis which set at defiance all the Ten Commandments The weaker sex is lustily supported by tho stronger . Disentangled and stopped again , and again , and again . Boom , Cannons , boom ! Churchmen ancl statesmen may , peradventure , turn their minds anil their influence to heal the manifold diseases of the daughters of Great Britain . Every loyal ancl patriotic Englishman is obliged to take up the words of the ' llebrow patriot , and say , ' Is it nothing to

you , all ye that pass by ? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow . ' " The bard of 'Anti-Maud' is right , he speaks as he is moved b y genuine loyalty and patriotism : —

" ' Plenty of work to be done in the filthy and crowded street , AVhere the li ght of the gin palace flares in the hollow eyes Of the girl who has pawned her shawl that her starving cliild may eat ; But turns aside for a penn ' orth of drink to comfort her ere she dies . ¦ " 'Plenty of work , where the children stare through the workhouse

gate , Crushed and stunted in body and mind , and doomed to steal or to beg . Hatched into mendicant life by the blundering care of the state , Fatherless , motherless children , paupers anil thieves in the egg . "' Plenty of work to be done . But how to be done , and by whom ? Men's hearts are and hot AVe feast warlike

angry . upon scenes . AVe listen all day for the clash of bells and the cannon ' s triumphant boom . Our hands are full . AVe have wasted our wealth . AVe have neither the time nor the means . '

"Ah ! if half the money which lias been thrown away—worse than thrown away—on the late war , had been spent in ameliorating the condition of the weak and the wicked , how many less prison bouses should we have had ! If the millions which had been lavished upon slaughtering our fellow Christians had been used for the erection of churches , schools , almshouses , and penitentiaries , what different views would not the streets of London , Manchester , Liverpool , Dublin , and all the other large towns present on the » abbath-day !" AVe forbear quoting more from the same chapter , though the whole of it is very much apropos to the present time . The work

Literature.

concludes with a tale , though small in dimensions , exceedingly comprehensive and voluminous in its suggestive moral lessons . It tells us , in a very taking style and manner , the versatile vicissitudes of the Rev . Stephen Armitage , one of "The Curates of Riversdale . " The novel under review is by no means devoid of the romantic ingredient , nor is it wanting in fun and frolic , but it is all clone in a very refined ancl original style , so that an archibishop or a

lordchancellor might be justified to laugh heartily at the sober drolleries which the work contains . The editor seems to have availed himself of the author ' s permission , ancl added many a note to the foot of many a page , which enhances the interest of the work . From " The Editor ' s Epilogue , " of which the following is the last extract we give for the present , it appears that we are to expect more volumes from the same penthe sooner the expectation is realised the better , say we : —

"When we rashly undertook the responsibility of introducingthe Author's work to the British public , we reckoned without our host . AVe found the manuscript so closely penned , and that in the smallest possible character , as to be capable of shelving a moderate library ,- so that no publisher , notwithstanding the originality , and the immense interest which the narratives possessed , would entertain the project of publishing the work , unless ifc was epitomised , abridged , and reduced to the miserable minimum of

three modern volumes . The alternative proved most perplexing to us . AVe deemed every chapter , every sketch , every biographical notice of paramount interest . AVe were in a strait . AVe knew not which to publish at once , and ivhich to reserve for a future season . "We could not find it in our hearts to leave out ' Maeworthy ' s Course of True Love , ' such a tbrillingly interesting story as it is ! AVe could not spare ' Wright ' s Presbyter in Search of a Bishop ;' it is an affecting tale which might draw tears from many an angel , if not from many a bishop . AVe could not possibly reconcile ourselves to the keeping hack of the fascinating ' Romance in Beal Life , ' which tells so feelingly and so truthfully of all the conflicts and eonciuests ivhich fell to the nortion of A eritv and A'ictoria . Nor

could we pacify our conscience as to the omission of the painfully instructive lesson ivhich the melancholy development of the characters of the Vicars of Brimstone and Hailstone furnish . AVe found ' The Quarrels of Fowl Bentsneak , A'icar of Palenettle , with bis Parishioners'highly entertaining , and jiainfully suggestive . . . . No less interesting did we think the chapters on 'Bishops ' Examining Chaplains '—on ' Pastoral Aids ancl Curates' Aids' — on 'The Death-lied Confessions of Certain Popular Preachers '—on

'The Lewes Sermon Case '—on "The Brimstone Tract Suit' ; and on ' The Justice of Clerical Juries . ' AVe did not like to keep from the public the vicissitudes of the German and French deserter , which furnish so vivid a picture of life in Central Africa . It went to our very soul to be obliged to postpone the chapters on the cities of the Czar , and those of Abdoul Medjid , and a hundred other important aud interesting episodes . But they are all coming —all , all in good time ' . . . . AVe pledge our editorial reputation , that they shall appear , sooner or later , in some of the posthumous works of the late lamented Frederick Verity , one of ' 'The Curates of Rivcrsdale . ' "

At present , however , we cannot too highly recommend the book , of which we have given a somewhat lengthened notice . It will lie plain to many of our readers who is the author of " The Curates of Riversdale . " His learning , travel , profession , brotherhood , all point to one individual Brother of the Order , whose zeal and attainments in the Craft , and out of the Craft , are , as they deserve to be , fully recognised . We shall anxiously expect the continuation of " The Curates of Riversdale . "

ANTIQUITY or STENCII ,. —In the Philosophical Transactions for 1738 , we read that Procopius , in his Hislorice Arcana , says : —The Emperor Justimus , not being able to write his name , had a , thin , smooth piece of board , through which were cut holes in the form of the four letters J . V . S . T ,. wliich , laid on the paper , served to direct the point of his pen—his hand was guided by another . Possibly this way likewise has given the hint to the first of our card-makers , who paint their cards in thesame mannerby plates of pewter or

, copper , or only pastboard , with slits , in them in forms of the figures that are to be painted on the cards . Such is the art of Stencil , wliich has been applied , in our time , to decorating the walls of rooms , as well as tlie making of linen . — ' l'imb ' -s Curiosities of Science , Second Series .

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