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Globe, Volume II, Issue 188, 15 January 1875, Page 4

Professor Tyndall has given the first of a series of six popular science lectures at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. The subject was " Crystalline and Molecular Forces." Towards the close of his lecture, after a successful experiment showing the tendency of atoms to follow an architectural instinct, Professor Tyndall said although he had seen this experiment hundreds and hundreds of times he had never looked upon it without feelings of astonishment. The revelations of science were not in the least degree calculated to lessen one's feelings of astonishment. We were surrounded by wonders, by mystery everywhere. He had often in the spring-time watched the advance of the sprouting leaves, and observed the general joy of opening life in nature, and he had asked himself this question—Can it be that thjere is no being or thing in nature that knows more about these matters than I 'dej? Do I in my ignorance represent the highest knowledge of these things existing in this universe? The man who put the question fairly to himself, if he were a man capable of being penetrated by a profound thought, would never answer that question by professing that creed of atheism which had been so lightly attributed to him. It is nojt (Professor Tyndall said) always those who are charged with scepticism that are the rrjil sceptics, and I confess it is a matter of Horne grief to me to see able, useful, and courageous men running.to and fro upon the earth wringing their bands over the threat-

ened destruction of their ideals. L would exhort them to cast out scepticism, ; for ; this fear has its.rqot in scepticism. In theh.um.in mind.we have the substratum of, all ideals, and as surely as string responds to. string when the proper note is sounded, bo surely, when words of truth and npb.lepess are uttered by a living human soul, will these words have a resonant reponse in other souls. , It is stated in the European Mail that "at the semi-annual meeting of the Grand Lodge of Masons, Scottish Rite of the Orient, of Palermo, Italy, held in that city on March 27th, Mastai Ferretti was expelled from the order for violating his vow and for perjury. Mastai Ferretti is no other person than Pius IX., Pope of Rome. The decree of the lodge at Palermo is published in the official paper of the Order of Freemasons at Cologne, Germany, and dated March 27th. It is preceded by the.minuteß.of the lodge in which Mastai. Ferretti;, in .1826, was initiated into the order.uudertheold Scottish Rite. The decree read as follows:—'A man named Mastai Ferretti, who received the baptism of Freemasonry, and solemnly pledged his love and fellowship, and who afterwards was crowned Pope and King under the title of Pio Nono, has now cursed his former brethren, and excommunicated all members of the *>rder of> Freemasons. .Therefore, said Mastai Ferretti is < herewith, by the decree of Grand Lodge of the Orient, Palermo, expelled from the order for perjury.' The charges against Mastai Ferretti were first preferred in his .lodge at Palermo in 1865, and .notification and copy thereof sent to Rome, with a request to attend the lodge for the purpose of his vindication. To this the Pope made no reply, and for divers reasons the charges were not pressed until the Pope urged the clergy-of Brazil to aggressive measures against the Freemasons of that country. Then the charges were pressed, aud the second and third notifications sent, and after a formal trial a decree of expulsion was entered, and caused to be published. The decree bears the signature of Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy, Grand Master of the Orient of Italy." The disappearance is reported from Trinity College library, Dublin, of St Columbkill f s " Book of Kells." The book is valued at £12,000, and great excitement is said to have been caused by the discovery that it is missing. It is said to have been sent some time ago to the British Museum to be bound, and a demand' for its " immediate delivery " has been forwarded by a special legal messenger to the Museum trustees. A rather peculiar application (says the Pall Mall Gazette) was made the other day at York. At the City Brewster Sessions, a Mr Lawson applied for a licer se for a public house on the express ground of. its,close proximity to the cemetery. .."There was," it was stated, "at present no place for persons to go to for a stimulant when depressed W grief at the gravesides .of ."their friends." Th> request was. oddly enough, supported by the chaplain of the cemetery, and on better grounds perhaps, aud even more earnestly by the lodtfekeeper. The- latter, indeed, seemed to have urged it as a personal favor to himself. "At present," -he said, 'these' depressed persons come to his lodge, and he had to give ; them his own brandy ; for he would be hie sold its* to them." The Magistrates, hOwever, 'iwere hard-hearted enough to refuse the application. It seems bard indeed that this generous and tender-hearted lodgekeeper should continue to have his little private store of brandy so cruelly drawn on by these depressed creatures, especially as it may not occur to them, after their depression has passed away, to make it up to him in kind.