Faithful Unto Death.

Edwin aud Alfred , the two worthy Masons , were found lying on one bed , fast locked in the embrace of death ! Faithful to the last , unlike many others , the two friends were not separated by the cholera plague .

Visible Speech.

VISIBLE SPEECH .

Mr . Alexander Melville Bell , who has for many years attended to the removal of defects in pronunciation , produces a method of writing sounds : this method is submitted to the severest tests with perfect success . It consists in picturing by totally new symbols the actions of the several organs of speech—tongue , lips , teeth , & c . The number of fundamental symbols is 39 . Each one of

them is a direction to do something .- so that if the user of it had forgotten the sound it represents , he would be taught again by merely following directions . The symbols , of course , represent the most elementary actions of the organs ; put together , they produce compounds . A full sneeze , for example , is a complex operation—it comes ¦ among what are called inarticulate sounds ; but Mr . Bell

writes it down , and , for aught we know , could undertake to furnish every member of tbo House of Commons with a symbol representative of his own peculiar sneeze , as distinguished from those of all his colleagues . We . and many others , have seen this method tested in the following way . Mr . Boll sends his two sons out of the room , and then invites the company to make words in any language , pronounced rightly or wrongly , and sounds of any kind , no matter how absurd or original ; for it is the success of this method that whatever the

organs of speech can do , the new alphabet can record . Mr . Bell tries each sound himself , until the proposer admits that he has got it : he then writes it down . After a score of such attempts have been recorded , the young gentlemen are recalled , and they forthwith read what is presented to them , reproducing to a nicety , amidst general laughter and astonishment , al ! the queer Babelisms which

a grave party of philologists have strained their muscles to invent . The original symbols , when read sound after sound , would make a Christian fancy himself iu the Zoological Gardens . The utility of such a method is obvious : it is clearly one of those steps of which people admit the utility so long as thoy can deny the practicability ; and then , when obli

ged to admit the practicability , they deny tho utility . Mr . Bell has formed a wide opinion of the range of application of his invention . He may , or may not , be fully justified ; but every one can see a great deal of what he sees . To communicate through the telegraph by pure sounds , independently of meaning , so that Arabic or Chinese may travel from a cleric who knows not a word to another just as unlearned as himself ; to teach the

dumb bow to speak by instructing them in the actual use of their organs ; to tako down the sounds of foreign languages , especially those of savages , and to transmit them home ; to learn how to pronounce a foreign language by interlinear use of the alphabet of sounds—will be a very pretty instalment . And while this is being gained , the rest may be discussed . Boll

Mr . comes forward with a petition to the Government . Ho asks just this—that the nation will be at tho expense of casting his types and circulating his method ; also that he may be enabled to give to a sufficient number the requisite oval instruction . He submits that , if he should be obliged to do all this for himself , his system wdl be freely given to all the rest of the world , but restrictedwithin the

, British empire , by the action of the ktv of copyright . We sincerely hope that he will be taken up , either by the Government or by the part of the public especially concerned . To us it seems that the Missionary Societies alone would find it worth their while te bear the whole expense . But we should best like to see the Crown forward in putting before the world—after still further and sharper testing , of

Visible Speech.

course—a discovery which , if it be what we cannot doubt it is , must be called the final victory over a difficulty as old as written language , and an obstacle which has seemed to inhere in the nature of writing itself . This system was perfectly completed in April , 1864 . As long ago as 1849 Mr . Bell published a work in which , he said , "It would really bo a matter of but little

difficulty to re-construct our alphabet , and furnish it with invariable marks for every appreciable variety of vocal ' and articulate sound . " But when he came to the attempt he found some lions in the path which , as is the nature of that sort of lion , did not show themselves until the huntsman came close to their dons . The monsters were successfully attacked ; but they took a long time to

conquer . That they are conquered has been seen . All that has hitherto been tried is the attempt to put the letters of a language or languages into symbols . We remember a work of the last century , which professed to symbolise accent , rhythm , and cadence . A great many efforts have been made to spell words ; but the system before us spells spelling . —Athenaeum .

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

MASONIC ARCHIVES ANB MASONIC LIBRARY . I have read with deep interest the propositions of our learned Bro . Matthew Cooke on these heads , but I can perceive very strong objections to these Jesuitical schemes , and looking to the present aud prospective state of our funds , I think it is the duty of the G-rand Lodge authorities to set their faces

against such innovations . If they once give their sanction there can be no reasonable doubt that without any expenditure on their part , very large collections will be got together . The Grand Lodge archives will form a valuable nucleus , many private lodge archives will be

contributed , and there will be large and magnificent donations and bequests of collections , pictures , engravings , books , aud objects of vertu aud art . This is the infallible result in all such cases , and this is why I and the Grand Lodge authorities object ; only just consider , the moment something of a collection of any value is got- together , we shall have Masons from all parts of the world resorting to it , and we shall hear on all hands about " the valuable

aud interesting collection , " & e . Then comes the further infallible result —the usual set of literary men , zealous Masons , and other busy bodies will cry out for space and proper accommodation for " the valuable and interesting collections , " & c . Who knows what will happen to us ? We have already spent a large sum in buildingbut in the

, course of time we may have given to us ' * valuable aud interesting collections " to the extent of £ 50 , 000 or ¦ 6100 , 000 , and then we shall have to waste £ 05 , 000 or £ 10 , 000 may be in providing rooms , besides a yearly expenditure for librarians to attend to the constant resort of idle aud si ghtseeing brethren from the

metropolis , the country , and the continent , and we shall have superannuated Tylers walking about comfortably with white wands , as bad as at the British Museum ! , There is no telling what the end of this thing would be . As by experience it would not be confined to

Masonic objects , we might get an expensive gallery of pictures , and a large and costly public library . We have done without such things as yet , and 1 for one say obsta principiis !—P . M .