"It happened in the twilight of an evening, as we approached a little village where we were to pass the night, that, at a turn of the road, we came suddenly on a small burying-ground, the most spectral and dismal place of the kind I had ever seen. It was indeed like no other. Tall, black, and fantastical wooden memorials served for tombstones: some of them bore a mysterious resemblance to hatchments and funeral banners, others reminded me of skeletons: they suggested frightful associations, and I could not helpsaying, "These are surely the sepulchres of men who have made dreadful confessions.'

"It was at that moment his countenance was strangely changed from its wonted pensiveness; but I then ascribed the change to his participating in the momentary superstition with which I was affected, nor did I afterwards think of what I had noticed till our host, in his jocular sallies, derided the communion of spirits, and the visitation of ghosts. His remarks were playful and ingenious, and to some of the guests afforded amusement. To me they were disagreeable; not how'ever, I frankly confess, so much from their irreverence as from their visible effect on Von Hesse.

"It was at this turn of the conversation that the slow and meditative eye of professor Khull was fixed upon him so earnestly, that I could not but think he was actuated by a curiosity similar to my own. Strange! I had traveled four weeks with Von Hesse without discovering any symptom of his mysterious disease, and yet the professor who had never seen him before, had discerned in less than an hour that he was one of those peculiar beings who have that within which passeth show.' But the extraordinary metaphysical discernment of Khull has often been the wonder of his friends.

"Falling in with the current of the conversation, Khull remarked, in reply to our host, that, whatever the generality of mankind might think of the communion of spirits, and of ghosts and dreams, it was impossible to dissipate by reason the faith of those who believed in them, 'because,' he added, looking at Von Hesse,

'their faith is built on experience. The believers do not adopt their creed upon persuasion, but have had testimonials to its truth in themselves, influencing them to believe. The soundness of a man's judgement would not suffer much, in my opinion, by his assuring me that he had seen a ghost.'

This singular observation drew from the banker one of his sharpest jokes: for the professor was not considered very orthodox, but suspected of cherishing notions adverse, not only to every kind of superstition, but even to some of the popular dogmas of religion. Von Hesse interfered, and said, with evident emotion, But you must allow, professor, that the experience of such mysteries can only affect ourselves; we have no faculty by which we can adequately convey the horror of our experience to others. should infer from that, Sir," replied Khüll, that you have tasted of that horror.'-'I have,' said Von Hesse firmly,

I

but I have seen no ghosts, nor held communion with spirits, nor-but I will give you an instance of my experience.'

"The table was solemnly hushed as he spoke. All, save our host, were touched with awe; his attempt however to rally by pushing round the wine was interrupted by Khull saying, A good metaphysical tale is worth a tun of Johannisbergerpray do let him proceed.'

"At the close of the war,' said Von Hesse, I was ordered, with three other officers, to investigate some of the army accounts which remained at Basle unsettled. Being at the time slightly indisposed, I found it necessary to travel by easier stages than my companions: I accordingly allowed them to go on before. On the morning after they left me, I was sensible of a remarkable change in my disease: the slow fever with which I had for weeks been affected went suddenly off-I should say it passed from the body to the mind; for, although the corporeal hectic was extinguished, an acute moral excitement succeeded, and my reflexions became so hurried and morbid, that a dread of madness fell upon me. sleep was unrefreshing, and filled with dismal and ominous dreams, the imagery of which was sometimes fearfully distinct, at others dark, undistinguishable, and prophetical. I was depressed without cause, and apprehensive without reason; and often, in the still of the evening, while solitary in the inns where I halted for the

My

will hear of me in my own character :if I fall, I must-I will-I do claim a tear from Anne of Geierstein. If I escape, I have yet a horse, a lance, and a sword; and you shall hear nobly of him whom you have thrice protected from imminent danger.''Arise, arise,' repeated the maiden, whose tears began to flow fast, as, struggling to raise her lover, they fell thick upon his head and face. 'I have heard enough to listen to more were indeed madness, both for you and myself. Yet a single word, 'added the youth; while Arthur has a heart, it beats for you; while Arthur can wield an arm, it strikes for you, and in your

cause.

MISCELLANEOUS VARIETIES.

The fortunate Abduction.-A young Tartar, finding that the parents of a girl whom he loved were unwilling to accept him as a son-in-law, resolved to carry her off in despite of their opposition. He had quitted his tribe, and entered into the service of Abbas, son of the present king of Persia. The consequence of his voluntary exile seemed to be that he must abandon his passion or die in despair; but he did neither. Absence served only to increase his love; and he was a youth of too much energy and enterprise to yield to despondence. He stole out one evening from the encampment of his own party, passed the frontier, and rode to the spot which he knew contained his treasure. He reached the neighbourhood of this place in the evening, and remained concealed for some hours in a forest. About midnight he advanced toward the camp of the party to which the family of his sweetheart belonged, and, dismounting from his steed, which he tied to a tree, he crept into the tent where the lady lay sleeping among her parents and kindred, according to the usual custom of the Elauts. He moved softly to the spot where she lay, and pulling the covering gently over her face, and gagging her with it to prevent her screaming, he contrived to drag her from the tent without awakening the rest of the family. He, bore her to the place where his horse was tied, mounted with her before him, carried her off at full speed, and did not stop before he reached the other side of the river, where he married her. He

venge.

A remarkable Instance of artful Re.-Mohammed Kasem, having conquered a part of India for the khalif Walid, in the eighth century, sent two Hindoo princesses to his master's harem. The khalif neglected them for some years; but he at length summoned them to his presence, from a motive of curiosity. The attractions of the elder sister made such an impression upon him, that he made licentious proposals to her. She immediately burst into tears, and declared that she was unworthy of him, because Kasem had dishonored her. The enraged prince sent an order to his general, requiring him to clothe himself in a raw hide, and embrace that death which he deserved. The faithful subject submitted to this unjust decree, and caused himself to be sewn up in a raw skin, which produced his death, after which his body was sent to the khalif. On the arrival of the corpse, the prince, sending for the ill-treated lady, said, "Behold Kasem in his shroud; it is thus I punish the sins of those servants who insult the deputy of the prophet of God." The lady replied, with a smile full of triumph and of sarcasm, "Know, oh khalif, that Kasem respected my person as that of his own sister, and would no more have polluted my bed than that of his mother. He, however, put to death my father, my mother, my brother, and my countrymen; and by his death, indifferent to my own fate, I have gratified that revenge which has so long been consuming me.' The khalif was confounded; and, having dismissed the damsel, he lamented over the body of his faithful and innocent

servant.

Merit of a celebrated Conqueror.-The rev. Mr. Williams, a new biographer of Alexander the Great, says, "If the Macedonians had made themselves masters of India, we might have derived most valuable information on points concerning which we must now remain ignorant; for hitherto the literary remains of the ancient Hindoos have not presented any distinct notices that can be referred to the æra of Alexander. All is enveloped in the clouds of mythology and allegory, where

nothing definite can be discerned. Per haps my opinion may be condemned; but, according to my views, much false logic and fictitious humanity have been expended upon the conquests of Alexander; for I see not how the progress of a civilised and enlightened conqueror among barbarous nations can be regarded otherwise than beneficial. An Alexander in Africa would be the greatest blessing that could visit that great continent. Since history has recorded the annals of nations, colonisation and conquest have been the two main instruments of civilisation. Nor do I see why Ashantees, Caffres, or any other dominant tribes, should be supposed to have a prescriptive right to murder and enslave their fellow Africans, and to renew their atrocities three or four times in a century, much less why a Christian sovereign should be blamed, were he effectually to subjugate the barbarians, and put an end to all such enormities in future." Character of Masaniello. All antiquity cannot furnish us with such another example as his; and after-ages will hardly believe at what height of power this ridiculous sovereign arrived, who, trampling barefoot on a throne, and wearing a mariner's cap instead of a diadem, in the space of a few days raised an army of above 150,000 men, and made himself master of one of the most populous cities in the world. In short, it may be averred without contradiction, that, neither the most formidable tyrants, nor the princes the most beloved, were ever so much dreaded, or so soon obeyed, as Masaniello was, during his short but stupendous reign. His orders were without reply, his decrees without appeal; and the destiny of all Naples might be said to have depended upon a single motion of his hand.

-

Humility of a great Potentate.-In the year 1519, the emperor Maximilian ordered that his hair should be cut off after his death, and his teeth be ground to powder, and burned to ashes publicly in the chapel of his court. He desired, moreover, by way of showing the nothingness of human greatness, that his body, after having lain exposed the whole day, should be put into a sack full of quick lime, covered with taffeta and white damask, and thus laid in the coffin prepared for it: after which it was to be buried in a chancel, the head and heart

being so situated that the feet of the priest officiating at the altar should in a manner tread upon them.

Different Kinds of Servitude.—“ If a groom (says Cowley) serves a gentleman in his chamber, that gentleman a lord, and that lord a prince, the groom, the gentleman, and the lord, are as much servants one as the other; the circumstantial difference of one getting only his bread and wages, the second a plentiful, and the third a superfluous estate, is no more intrinsical to this matter than the difference between a plain, a rich, and a gaudy livery. I do not say that he who sells his whole time and his own will for one hundred thousand, is not a wiser merchant than he who does it for one hundred pounds; but I will swear they are both merchants, and that he is happier than both who can live contentedly without selling that estate to which he was born."

A new Species of Misery.-The ancient groaner, Heraclitus, and the modern weeper, Beresford, have omitted the notice of a misery in human life, of which the following is a faint picture. When you have with great difficulty persuaded yourself that a dose of salts is necessary for your health, and have with still greater difficulty swallowed the draught, you take up a news-paper to beguile the time between its intromission and exit: the first paragraph that strikes your eye is headed Caution.-The elderly gentleman, with a cast in his eye, and a pigtail, who bought an ounce of Epsom salts at a chemist's shop last night, is requested not to use them." Rushing to the glass in a state of inconceivable agitation, you discover, what you never before observed, that you do squint, that you are getting old-and that you have swallowed poison!

A Strange Figure, or a Man seemingly "made by one of Nature's Journeymen.'

"In the construction of Jack Flanagan's eyes, Nature had deviated from her general plan; they might indeed well be said to be matchless, inasmuch as they bore no kind of resemblance to each other, one of them squinting in a most unusual degree, and the other having what is called a cast. The former, with a bewildering dubiety of direction, seemed to ogle two or three objects at once, while the latter, which occupied a station about half an inch higher in the face, like a jealous guardian, seemed to keep a watchful outlook upon the little leering

libertine below, lest it should wander away after the dark-eyed donnas of the land. Collapsed cheeks, and a mouth having a leaning to one side of his face, formed its remaining peculiarities; and his cravat, or stock, he wore so loose, as to afford a distinct view of a long scraggy neck, rising from a narrow pedestal of shoulders, one of which ambitiously overtopped the other, and terminated in a sharp knob, whereon his epaulette, like the dove of the ark, finding no resting-place, slid from its bony pinnacle, and hung down upon his back in drooping repose; and his cap he wore so high upon his brow, that the back part of it rested under the neck of his coat. His figure altogether was very spare, and looked as if it had been flattened by pressure. His legs, or rather walking-sticks (for they had long been deserted by their calves), were of the smallest upon which warrior ever toddled forth to battle; and Jack, with an infatuation common to men of his make, constantly exposed them in tights. They were assisted, however, in carrying him on by the co-operation of his arms, and an auxiliary wriggle of his whole body."

Progress of Steam, and consequent March of Intellect! Mr. Gurney's steam-carriage has been repeatedly tried with success; but the scheme is not suffered to proceed without clamor and interruption. The machine lately drove itself (as some would say) from London to Melksham, where it was surrounded by a number of people, many of whom were impressed with the notion that the steam-carriage was calculated to diminish manual labor; and cries arose, "We are starving already; let's have no more machinery! Down with the machinery! Knock it to pieces!" &c. The mob quickly increased, and the gentlemen composing the party were grossly in sulted, stones being thrown at them from all directions. The carriage was about 12 feet in length from the end of the boiler to the dashing board in front, and weighed about 16 cwt. Its speed on level ground was very great; it performed the journey from Cranford-bridge to Reading, at the rate of 16 miles in an hour. Hills were ascended and descended with the greatest facility and safety. Marlborough hills, the ascending of which, it was thought, would put the powers of the carriage to a severe test, appeared to afford not the slightest obstacle; and, as to the tractability of the

machine, it far surpasses that of horses, or indeed any idea that could be formed of it. The proprietors consider this trial so decisive, that it is supposed they will take immediate measures to bring carriages of this sort into action on the great roads.

Origin of Paper Currency.-It may seem remarkable that the Chinese, who are not so ingenious as the Europeans, or the Monghols (a race still less enlightenea), should have introduced a currency which the most refined nations deem the most applicable to their trading concerns. Yet, if we reflect on the subject, we must allow that those who could make use of the smallest and most valueless shells as a circulating medium might easily think of using paper for the same purpose, as soon as they could write or read. The idea is the same in both cases,—that is, the attribution of an imaginary value to a very trifling article.

Schloetzer says, that the Monghols invented a currency of paper in the thirteenth century; but it appears from the Chinese annals, that it was used by the celestial nation as early as the seventh century, and passed by the name of flying money.

A Panegyric upon the Medical Science. -Mr. Laurence the surgeon, in a recent lecture, advised his pupils to study the whole range of the healing art, without which preparation, he hinted, they would not become skilful surgeons. At the close of his lecture, he said, "Consider, gentlemen, that, in selecting the medical profession, you have set yourselves no very easy task. This study is, indeed, an arduous undertaking. The most comprehensive mind, and the greatest industry, might find occupation for many years in acquiring the whole circle of medical knowlege; you will have reason to lament that you cannot employ a longer time in the preliminary studies which are necescary as a qualification for the active duties of your profession; and you will see the necessity of improving, with the greatest diligence, the opportunities of information that you now possess. Let me add, that, among the various objects that can engage the human mind, there is no better exercise of the intellectual faculties, no more attractive and interesting pursuit, than the medical profession, while its practice has the most salutary moral tendency of repressing selfishness, calling forth and strengthening all the benevolent and