went to the hall, a spacious room in the third story of the "Ohio Block," where we met a large company of brothers and sisters, to whom we had the pleasure of an introduction by Bros. Young and Tilton. The hall is elegantly finished, having for a center-piece a curiously wrought carving in wood, from which were suspended the various emblems of the Order. These significant and instructive symbols also graced the sides. From the center-piece is suspended a beautiful chandelier-the gift of a brother, and a memento of his kindness. We understand it is contemplated by the brotherhood of several of the Lodges to have a course of lectures, an arrangement which we think would be conducive to the prosperity of the Order.

CELEBRATION. The members of Exemplar Lodge, No. 210, at Hillsborough, O., celebrated the first anniversary of its institution, on the 22d of February. This Lodge has enjoyed an unusual degree of prosperity during the first year of its existence, numbering now about seventy-five members. The proceedings on the 22d were interesting, and calculated to leave a good impression of the workings of our Order upon the public mind, and warm the hearts of the members to greater vigilance and fidelity. A large procession was formed, including the Daughters of Rebekah, and headed by the Columbian orchestra of Cincinnati, under the direction of the Marshal, Bro. A. R. Butler. At the Methodist church, where a large assembly were collected, they listened to a truthful and appropriate address by the Rev. Wm. H. Fyffe, of Cincinnati, and then proceeding to the hotel, partook of a sumptuous entertainment, prepared under the superintendence of Bro. J. H. Neely. In the evening, the band gave a concert for the benefit of the Lodge.

QUEEN CITY LODGE, No. 229.-This new Lodge was instituted in this city by the M. W. Grand Master, W. G. Neilson, on the evening of the 24th of March. The following officers were elected and installed:

Alexander Pyle, N. G.; William P. Swain, V. G.; Paul Reinlin, Sec.; George George, Treas. Queen City Lodge will be in District No. 13, with Wm. Penn, Woodward, and Mohawk Lodges, and will meet on Monday evenings at the hall, corner of Eighth and Freeman streets.

After the installation, the Grand Master closed his remarks with this beautiful thought: "I notice that the members of this Lodge are principally from Washington, Wm. Penn, Fidelity, and Eagle Lodges. These names are familiar to the ear of every American, and bear to us an important signification. May you ever continue to emulate the nobleness and purity of Washington, the virtue and gentleness of Penn, and with unwavering Fidelity to our principles, may your aspirations soar like the Eagle to the loftiest hights of human attainments."

RARE BOOKS.-We are indebted to the Rev. Dr. Aydelotte of Cincinnati, for some old and valuable books on Theology and other subjects, for which he has our hearty thanks; also some of his own works, published from time to time, which we have read with great pleasure and profit. Speaking of old books reminds us that we have in our library twenty-five or thirty old tomes, the most recent of which are over two hundred years old, and some of them nearly four hundred; one in particular, Comestor's Historia Scolastica, which reaches within a few years the invention of the art of printing. This work is in black letter Latin, illuminated by the pen of some monastic student. Plutarch's Lives, in Italian and Latin, in two quarto volumes bound in vellum, three hundred years old; Suetonus, in Latin; also, Notitia Provinciarum Imperii Romanii, both of which are upwards of three hundred years old.

ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS. -On the 16th ultimo, the members of Crystal Fount Lodge, No. 176, of this city, celebrated their third anniversary in Magnolia Hall. An eloquent address was delivered upon the occasion by Bro. William Wallace, of Indianapolis, Ia., a special dispensation having been granted by our most worthy Grand Master.

The seventh anniversary of Magnolia Lodge, No. 83, was commemorated by conferring the Degree of Rebekah upon a large number of Scarlet Degree members and their wives, on the 29th of March. After conferring the Degree the company adjourned to the Mechanics' Institute, where a social festival was held, and an excellent supper provided.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE G. LODGE.-Grand Secretary Glenn will please accept our thanks for a copy of the Grand Lodge proceedings at the late session. The promptness with which it has been compiled and issued, speaks well for the energy and industry of Bro. Glenn.

THE Odd Fellows of Paris Kentucky, have determined to erect a hall in that thriving town. The building will be three stories high, thirtyfive feet front, and running back seventy feet.

PROF. LIPPITT'S CLASSICAL INSTITUTE.-We have had the pleasure of visiting Bro. Lippitt's Institute, located on Walnut street, and were highly pleased with the general arrangements of his school. Under his able instructions the students make sure and rapid progress in the various branches taught. Parents or wards having scholars to send, could not do better than to patronize this school. Here they can be thoroughly prepared for entering advanced classes in college, or receive an education to fit them for the business of life. As a gentleman of fine classical and scientific attainments we wish him all success in his enterprise.

Literary Notices.

ODD FELLOWS' REST.-A pamphlet with the above title, containing an exhibit of the transactions of the Board of Directors of the Odd Fellows' Cemetery at New Orleans, has been received. Here are facts and figures which are calculated to present in the strongest conceivable light the beneficence of the Order. Some of the interesting statistics we intended to present to our readers, but just as we were about, as we supposed, to put our hand upon it, we found, to our disappointment, that it was missing. Some friend-perhaps some brother-struck with the oddness of the title, had taken it and carried it away. We have no charge to make, no hard things to say, but we hope, should this meet the eye of the person who has taken it, he will consider it a friendly and brotherly hint to return it, as it contains facts which will benefit the Order. Accompanying the book is a map of the cemetery grounds, which are laid off in the form of a triangle, and divided into lots.

THE DESTINY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM, being an epitome of three lectures delivered in Cincinnati, by D. VAUGHAN. With an Appendix on the Theory of Rain. These lectures by Professor Vaughan are exceedingly interesting, and show an acquaintance with Astronomy superior to anything we have seen. They are devoted to a discussion of "The light of suns, meteors, and temporary stars; the rings of Saturn; origin of the Asteroids," etc. Whoever desires a rich intellectual treat should procure these lectures.

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT of the Young Men's Bible Society, of Cincinnati.

This vigorous Society, the object of which is to circulate the Scriptures, without note or comment, among all the destitute of the city and county, has reached the eighteenth year of its benevolent labors, during which time it has issued 135,359 copies of the Bible. The number of copies issued from the Depository the past year amounted to 12,158. The amount of receipts from donations of churches and individuals, and from sales of books the past year, is $5,261.50. This great and good enterprise should receive the encouragement and support of every friend of humanity.

NEW PAPERS. Since the first of January, no less than eleven new publications have been issued in Cincinnati, and presented to the public for their approval and patronage. One, the Daily Unionist, has recently been suspended.

The Literary Journal, devoted to the interests of woman, and edited by ladies, is a handsome and interesting sheet, published semi-monthly.

The Forest Garland is a weekly literary paper, edited by Stephen R. Smith. It presents a neat appearance, and is filled with choice and entertaining matter.

The Sunday Mercury is what its name indicates, and the Gem and National Cadet are two monthly papers issued by the Cadets of Temperance. The Phonographic Magazine and the Phonographic Reporter, published monthly by Pitman & Prosser, are well adapted for the use of those who desire a perfect knowledge of the system of Phonography. Newton's Express is the title of a monthly paper, containing articles on medical subjects, with a variety of miscellaneous matteredited and published by Dr. R. S. Newton. A paper called the Pathfinder, and our own Casket, complete the number.

Odd Fellows'

LITERARY CASKET.

"FRIENDSHIP, LOVE AND TRUTH.

VOL. I.

MAY, 1854.

Truth.

"Truth needs no flowers of speech." POPE.

NO. 5.

Friendship and Love are rooted and grounded in Truth. Between these high-born virtues, and Falsehood and Deceit, there is as wide a difference as there is between the pure heavens and the corrupt earth. The parent of Truth is the Great Spirit of the heaven of heavens, and the family of Truth is the aggregate facts of the universe. The home of Truth is the great temple of immensity, and her work is to harmonize all things with herself. She is happy because she loves, healthful because she is active, lovely because she is pure, successful because she is wise and persevering, cheerful because she hopes for final and universal conquest, calm because she is mighty, and unwithering because she is eternal.

"The eternal years of God are hers."

Truth hates nothing but Falsehood. Between these there never was agreement; there is not, and there cannot be. Their natures are so diverse that they never can be united, and by an unalterable necessity they must be both present and eternal antagonisms. The time was when Truth was without an enemy or a rival; then she spoke out from the chambers of eternity, and her mellow voice vibrated through all space, while universal nature was joyful in but one responsive anthem, and that was an anthem of universal and harmonious praise. The morning song of the bird, the cooing of the dove, the skipping of the lamb, the green carpet of the earth with her ten thousand variegated flowers, the rivulet, the ocean, the sunbeam, the pure atmosphere, the vaulted heavens bespangled with myriads of stars, Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, were but parts and signs of her coronation psalm. Wherever she looked touched upon her own beauty, and beheld her own nature and

her

eye

vol. 1-17

perfections, deep down in the life power and motion of both matter and spirit. And whatever she heard, whether from man or beast, or bird or insect, or from angel or seraph, was but the voice of praise and blessing.

But what a change! Some enemy of truth, and some father of falsehood, has set up a rivalship, an opposite and tremendous antagonism, the source of whose power is deep in the refuge of lies. The very first stroke of his malice, fiendish as hell itself, and accumulating with burning rapidity and violence, plunged a world of intelligent beings, who knew nothing but truth, into ruin and revolt. Not content with the mere apostasy and negative state of the death stroke which followed the revolt, and keenly awake to the unalterable intensity of his own anguish, he did not stop short of positive, and direct, and hellish opposition to the great Fountain of truth. "Thou shalt not die," was the parent falsehood, and with it was the beginning of all earthly corruption-deceit, falsehood, fraud, hypocrisy, false religion, ignorance, mistakes, disease, death, and eternal exile from Truth.

The creations of falsehood are seen in religion, in science, in literature, in commerce, in legislation, agriculture, and the mechanic arts. There is a religion corresponding in all its parts with truth, and whose object is the spread of truth, and the restoration of moral beings to the love of truth, and the practice of virtue. But God-like and glorious as is this religion, man is so blinded with falsehood, and so intoxicated with deceit, and so fully the slave and servant of lies, that he cannot, he will not, behold its beauty and exact proportions, nor will he willingly submit to its washing and elevating power. The Father of Lies, feeling that he could not erase from the human mind the instinct of worship, turned his powers to the creation of a false religion and a false worship, and now falsehood itself is an object of worship. Idols have taken the place of the true God, and the smoke of their sacrifices has so darkened the moral canopy that the thoughts of God are not in the minds of the people. And, as if to consummate the last hellish experiment in the prostration and perversion of truth, the last and most malicious invention of falsehood stands up in the person of that atheism and blind infidelity that rejects all gods, and all religion. False religion, founded in falsehood as it is, and not content with its deceits as they are practiced in the barbarous state, and longing for a total perversion of all moral truth, reaches down its withered hand into the bosom of modern civilized life, bringing with it the pictures, the shadows, the gloom, the ignorance and superstitions of darker ages, and the idolatry whose roots reach far down into the heart of paganism. In the fearful and death-like progress of this organized body of falsehood it meets with its most formidable antagonist in Christian houses of pure worship, in seminaries of correct learning, in Bible houses, and in the Bible itself. No less dreadful to the prospects