of the bodies. And Socrates lying in the field for quietness' sake, being far from the noise of his brawling wife Zantippe, fell asleep, and being asleep, Euripides espied a thing come out of his mouth very lovely to behold, of a whitish colour, little, but made like a cony running in the grass, and at last coming to a brook side, very busily attempting to get over, but not being able, one of the standers by made a bridge for it of his sword, which it passed over by, and came back again with the use of the same passage, and then entered into Socrates his mouth, and they saw it no more afterwards; when he waked, he told how he dream'd he had gone over an iron bridge, and other particulars answerable to what Euripides and his fellowes had seen before hand; all those that transform themselves into lambs, doves, bryes, or little birds, or conies, have their understandings unchanged, they have the mind and memory of a man as before. In an elected hour they engrave 11 in cast metall, and the numbers, angels and letters belonging to it; and this maketh the bearer to gain in his trade, cureth all diseases in the legs, viz. the gout, &c. And to this appears an angel like a beautiful man, that makes a man prosperous by sea. By this number they know times when to give medicines, and how devils offer themselves; by this number you shall know an angel from a devil, as you shall see in the third book all in order. DIVINGS IN DEMONOLOGY. FYTTE THE THIRD. OF THE VARIOUS KINDS OF DEMONS AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS. ITH the view of illustrating other accounts of apparitions, we shall now return to the doctrine of demonology which was once taught. Although the leading tenets of this occult science may be traced to the Jews and early Christians, yet they were matured by our early communication with the Moors of Spain, who were the chief philosophers of the dark ages, and between whom and the natives of France and Italy, a great communication subsisted. Toledo, Seville, and Salamanca, became the greatest schools of magic. At the latter city, prelections on the black art were, from a consistent regard to the solemnity of the subject, delivered within the walls of a vast and gloomy cavern. The schoolmen taught, that all knowledge might be obtained from the assistance of the fallen angels. They were skilled in the abstract sciences, in the knowledge of precious stones, in alchymy, in the various languages of mankind and of the lower animals, in the belles lettres, in moral philosophy, pneumatology, divinity, magic, history, and prophecy. They could controul the winds, the waters, and the influence of the stars; they could raise earthquakes, induce diseases, or cure them, accomplish all vast mechanical undertakings, and release souls out of purgatory. They could influence the passions of the mind, procure the reconciliation of friends or foes, engender mutual discord, induce mania and melancholy, or direct the force and objects of the sexual affections. Such was the object of demonology, as taught by its most orthodox professors. Yet other systems of it were devised, which had their origin in causes attending the propagation of Christianity. For it must have been a work of much time to eradicate the universal belief, that the Pagan deities, who had become so numerous as to fill every part of the universe, were fabulous beings. Even many learned men were induced to side with the popular opinion on the subject, and did nothing more than endeavour to reconcile it with their acknowledged systems of demonology. They taught that such heathen objects of reverence were fallen angels in league with the prince of darkness, who, until the appearance of our Saviour, had been allowed to range on the earth uncontrolled, and to involve the world in spiritual darkness and delusion. According to the various ranks which these spirits held in the vast kingdom of Lucifer, they were suffered, in their degraded state, to take up their abode in the air, in mountains, in springs, or in seas. But, although the various attributes ascribed to the Greek and Roman deities, were, by the early teachers of Christianity, considered in the humble light of demoniacal delusions, yet for many centuries they possessed great influence over the minds of the vulgar. In the reign of Adrian, Evreux, in Normandy, was not converted to the Christian faith, until the devil, who had caused the obstinacy of the inhabitants, was finally expelled from the temple of Diana. To this goddess, during the persecution of Dioclesian, oblations were rendered by the inhabitants of London. In the fifth century, the worship of her existed at Turin, and incurred the rebuke of St. Maximus. From the ninth to the fifteenth century, several denunciations took place of the women who, in France and Germany, travelled over immense spaces of the earth, acknowledging Diana as their mistress and conductor. In rebuilding St. Paul's cathedral, in London, remains of several of the animals used in her sacrifices were found; for slight traces of this description of reverence subsisted so late as the reign of Edward the First, and of Mary. Apollo, also, in an early period of Christianity, had some influence at Thorney, now Westminster. About the eleventh century, Venus formed the subject of a monstrous apparition, which could only have been credited from the influence which she was still supposed to possess. A young man had thoughtlessly put his ring around the marble finger of her image. This was construed by the Cyprian goddess as a plighted token of marriage; she accordingly paid a visit to her bridegroom's bed at night, nor could he get rid of his bed-fellow until the spells of an exorcist had been invoked for his relief. In the year 1536, just before the volcanic eruption of Mount Etna, a Spanish merchant, while travelling in Sicily, saw the apparition of Vulcan, attended by twenty of his Cyclops, as they were escaping from the effects which the overheating of his furnace foreboded. To the superstitions of Greece and Rome we are also indebted for those subordinate evil spirits called genii, who for many centuries were the subject of numerous spectral illusions. A phantasm of this kind appeared to Brutus in his tent, prophesying that he should be again seen at Philippi. Cornelius Sylla had the first intimation of the sudden febrile attack with which he was seized, from an apparition who addressed him by his name; concluding, therefore, that his death was at hand, he prepared himself for the event, which took place the following evening. The poet Cassius Severus, a short time before he was slain by order of Augustus, saw, during the night, a human form of gigantic size-his skin black, his beard squalid, and his hair dishevelled. The phantasm was, perhaps, not unlike the evil genius of Lord Byron's "Manfred :-" "I see a dusk and awful figure rise Like an infernal god from out the earth; Robed as with angry clouds; he stands between The emperor Julian was struck with a spectre clad in rags, yet bearing in his hands a horn of plenty, which was covered with a linen cloth. Thus emblematically attired, the spirit walked mournfully past the hangings of the apostate's tent. Dio of Syracuse was visited by one of the furies in person, whose appearance the soothsayers regarded as indicative of the death which occurred of his son, as well as his own dissolution. We may now advert to the narratives of the middle ages, which are replete with the notices of similar marvellous apparitions. When Bruno, the Archbishop of Wirtzburg, a short period before his sudden death, was sailing with Henry the Third, he descried a terrific spectre standing upon a rock which overhung the foaming waters, by whom he was hailed in the following words:-"Ho! Bishop, I am thy evil genius. Go whither thou choosest, thou art and shalt be mine. I am not now sent for thee, but soon thou shalt see me again." To a spirit commissioned on a similar errand, the prophetic voice may be probably referred, which was said to have been heard by John Cameron, the Bishop of Glasgow, immediately before his decease. He was summoned by it, says Spottiswood," to appear before the tribunal of Heaven, there to atone for his violence and oppressions." We shall not pursue the subject of genii much farther. The notion of every man being attended by an evil genius was abandoned much earlier than the far more agreeable part of the same doctrine, whch taught that, as an antidote to this influence, each THE ASTROLOGER. individual was also accompanied by a benignant spirit. "The ministration of angels," says a writer in the Athenian oracle, "is certain, but the manner how is the knot to be untied." "Twas generally thought, by the ancient philosophers, that not only kingdoms had their tutelary guardians, but that every person had his particular genius, or good angel, to protect and admonish him by dreams visions, &c. We read that Origin, Hierome, Plato, and Empedocles, in Plutarch, were also of this opinion; and the Jews themselves, as appears by that instance of Peter's deliverance out of prison. They believed it could not be Peter, but his angel. But, for the particular attendance of bad angels, we believe it not, and we must deny it, till it finds better proof than conjecture." and from the same attributes being assigned to them as to the Per- THINKING.-Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking makes what we read ours. We are of the ruminating kind, and it is not enough to cram ourselves with a great load of collections; unless we chew them over again, they will not give us strength and nourishment. HUMANITY.-Good nature and humanity have even a larger extent than mere justice; for the obligations of law and equity reach only to mankind, but we may extend our kindness and beneficence to irrational creatures; for we ought not to use living creatures as we do shoes or household goods, which we throw away when worn out with use; and were it only to learn benevolence to mankind, we should habituate ourselves to tenderness and compassion in these lower instances. THE LINK OF THE CHAIN.-Man is that link of the chain of are almost infinite, so probably are those of the former, his superiors; and as we see that the lives and happiness of those below us are dependant on our wills, we may reasonably conclude that our lives and happiness are equally dependant upon the wills of those who are above us-accountable, like ourselves, for the use of this power, to the Supreme Creator and Governor of all things. Such were the objects of reference derived from the Pantheon of Greece and Rome, the whole synod of which was supposed to consist of demons, who were still actively bestirring themselves to delude mankind. But in the west of Europe a host of other demons, far more formidable, were brought into play, who had their origin in Celtic, Teutonic, and even Eastern fables; as their existence, as well as influence, was not only by the early Christians, but even by the Reformers, boldly asserted, it was long before the rites to which they had been accustomed were totally eradicated. Thus, in Orkney, for instance, it was customary, even during the last century, for lovers to meet within the pale of a large circle of stones, which had been dedicated to the chief of the ancient Scandinavian deities. Through a hole in one of the pillars, the hands of contracting parties were joined, and the faith they plighted was named the promise of Odin, to violate which was infamous. But the influence of the Dii Majores of the Edda was slight and transient, in comparison with universal existence, by which spiritual and corporeal beings are that of the duergar or dwarfs, who figure away in the same my-united; as the number and variety of the latter, his inferiors, thology, and whose origin is thus recited. Odin and his brothers killed the giant Ymor, from whose wound ran so much blood that all the families of the earth were drowned, except one that saved himself on board a bark. These gods then made, of the giant's bones, of his flesh, and his blood, the earth, the waters, and the heavens. But in the body of the monster several worms had, in the course of putrefaction, been engendered, which, by order of the gods, partook of both human shape and reason. These little beings possessed the most delicate figures, and always dwelt in subterraneous caverns or clefts in the rocks. They were remarkable for their riches, their activity, and their malevolence. This is the origin of our modern fairies, who, at the present day, are described as a people of small stature, gaily dressed in habiliments of green. They possessed material shapes, with the means, however, of making themselves invisible. They multiply their species; they have a relish for the same kind of food that affords sustenance to the human race, and when, for some festal occasion, they would regale themselves with good beef or mutton, they employ elf arrows to bring down their victims. At the same time, they delude the shepherds with the substitution of some vile substance, or illusory image, possessing the same form as that of the animal they had taken away. These spirits are much addicted to music, and, when they make their excursions, a most exquisite band of music never fails to accompany them in their course. They are addicted to the abstraction of the human species, in whose place they leave substitutes for living beings, named changelings, the unearthly origin of whom is known by their mortal imbecility, or some wasting disease. When a limb is touched with paralysis, a suspicion often arises that it has been touched by these spirits, or that, instead of the sound member, an insensible mass of matter has been substituted in its place. In England, the opinions originally entertained relative to the duergar or dwarfs have sustained considerable modifications, Sir Walter Scott has supposed that this mythological account of the duergar bears a remote allusion to real history, having an ultimate reference to the oppressed Fins, who, before the arrival of the invaders, under the conduct of Odin, were the prior possessors of Scandinavia. The followers of this hero saw a people who knew how to work the mines of the country better than they did; and, therefore, from a superstitions regard, transformed them into spirits of an unfavourable character, dwelling in the interior of rocks, and surrounded with immense riches.-Border Minstrelsy, v. ii, p. 179. THE ORACLE OF DESTINY. In which all Questions from Correspondents are answered gratuitously, in accordance with the true and unerring principles of Astrological Science. TO OUR QUERISTS.-This department of our work involves the solution of "horary questions," so called from a figure of the heavens being erected for the hour in which the question is asked, and from the indications manifest in which the corresponding answers are derived. It will, therefore, be absolutely necessary for all correspondents to specify the exact hour and day on which they commit the question to paper for our judgment, and the replies will then be given accordingly. As this important feature of the starry science will necessarily occupy considerable time which he is willing to devote, without reward, to benefit the public, THE ASTROLOGER hopes that the liberality of his offer will protect him from the correspondence of those who desire adjudication upon frivolous subjects, or who are merely actuated thereto by motives of idle and foolish curiosity. All subjects on which they may be really anxious, can be solved with absolute certainty; and the election of favourable periods for marriage, speculation, or commencing any new undertaking with advantage, will be cheerfully and readily pointed out from week to week. All communications addressed to "THE ASTROLOGER" will be considered as strictly confidential, and the initials only given in the oracle. TO CORRESPONDENTS. CADMUS.-Persevere publicly in the course you are now adopting, and you will gain her you love and the esteem of her relatives, which at present is withheld from want of confidence. DUBIOUS. Our speculations were not assumed. They were based upon unanswerable and well established facts. The vast extent of creation staggers the mind in contemplating such infinity of space and power. The nearest and most beautiful nebula with which we are acquainted is one in the girdle of Andromeda. Quick as light proceeds, the enormous distance which this strange nebulous system is from us would prevent all intelligence of its existence from reaching us for six thousand years. Consequently the ray that now meets the eye must have left its source before the creation of man, and a ray of light now leaving it will not reach our earth until it is six thousand years older. These are some of the startling truths of astronomy which impress more reverential awe upon the mind than all the mere moral homilies that were ever penned. L. K.-You will obtain one in the course of the month of August, which will prove highly lucrative. WIZARD OF THE EAST.-We are exceedingly well provided with the material but other reasons have been the cause. AUDACES JUVO.-You are a wonderful being, and shall have your wishes gratified. The gallery will appear from time to time. E. M. P.-No, he will not, for evident reasons, with which you are well acquainted. W. L.-Your success will be at first but moderate. Do not, however, relax your exertions on that account. There is nothing to prevent ultimate good fortune. E. DE B.-You have to struggle with much before the means will be accomplished, but it will at last arrive through the exertions of a friend to whom you are now deeply indebted. GUSTAVE. The time of birth is requisite before the question can be answered. M. A. G.-No, you will never again be linked in wedlock, and it will be more fortunate for you. The evil influences of the past would operate disadvantageously. MARY RN.-You have had to contend with many difficulties, but do not despair. The time is fast arriving when yon will be released from them. SARAH SHAW.--Considerable time will elapse before a final decision is made, but the recovery of a portion is certain. PENSIEOSO. With renewed acknowledgments, we would here strenu ously advise you to wait a short time before you finally decide on quitting England, for, unless we have greatly erred in our calculations, there is an eligible matrimonial settlement at hand which will tend considerably to your benefit. The succeeding loss which we predicted is the last material one, but do not anticipate an unrippled sea of fortune. A continuance in the present line of business must depend on circumstances. EMMA D. D.--You had better break off the connexion at once, for fa happier and more suitable union is likely to occur this year. There is no indication of travel. INGRAM. We are afraid you will this time be disappointed in your ex. pectations, for the indications are too palpable to admit of doubt. There is still hope for the future, remember. O. J. P.-From an inspection of the figure, we find you have expe. rienced considerable losses and strange disappointments through your past life, and this year you will have a repetition of the same until the latter end of August, when an increase of pecuniary matters will take place. J. W.-He will obtain the consent of your parents in August, and the marriage will take place in the month following. They are already favourably disposed towards him. W. WOODARD.-The kind offer made to us was not willingly repulsed. One portion, he will see, has appeared, and the other is in type. The original MSS. will be carefully preserved. B. (Manchester).-Your brother is alive, and will be with you before long, when the benefit expected will be derived. A letter has miscarried. EMURE.-A speedy termination is indicated, but a further inquiry shall be made. IN THE SECOND.-If the time be correct, the girl will not only be the longest liver, but also the most fortunate. She is likely to prosper in life. THERESA B.-You may look forward, with confident hopes, to the future for all the necessary arrangements will be made to ensure a provision for you and your offspring. No re-union can ever take place between the parties alluded to, but having erred in the first instance from too ardent a disposition you must guard against such entanglements for the future. W. R. II.-The figure, with some unimportant errors excepted, is perfectly correct although we think the directions will cause the events specified to fall two years later. You will decidedly have occasion to visit foreign countries, and this most probably through the mercantile engagement to which we before alluded. J. H. T.-You have merely made a statement. There is no question given. Horary questions must come from, the parties immediately interested. T. G.-The communication containing the nativity shall be sent as soon as the necessary and laborious calculations can be completed. T. CHETHAM. We have calculated the period of recovery for the 36th year, and find that at this time some remission of the complaint will take place. A letter to Dr. Curtis, the eminent aurist, would doubtless produce the result we have given. Human agency must work out the starry decrees. INQUISITO. The moon in conjunction with the sun at birth is a dangerous sign, and will produce fevers, and injury to the eyes. Much, however, will depend upon the accompanying aspects. All the former numbers of our work can be obtained. RECEIVED.-H. L. (Accept a country situation which will be offered you).-E. E. (You will have to encounter many trials, but by perseverance you will get through them all).-E. W. (There is some imme. diate good awaiting you).-SARAH THE PERSECUTED (She will be suc cessful, but to detail more the hour of birth is necessary).—HELEN CARTER (A matrimonial connexion will release your doubts).-BERTHA and BERNETTA (The parties must write themselves).-G. Y. (You will marry him, but not for some time).-SARAH NIXON (Yes, if you are not unreasonably jealous).-H. E. Z. (It depends on the nativity)MARY ANNE (He is faithful, but he is not the one).-O. P. (It will not be this year).-AMINE J. (You will soon remove. Expect a dark suitor).-J. BEESOM (Your brother will recover, but not be liberated for some months).-SARAH WOOD (Remain as you now are).-E. G. (You will wed another).-X. Y. (You will benefit others by your classical skill, but not yourself. Honours, but not profit, await you.—— H. Y. (You will remain in the state of single blessedness, but remove shortly from your present abode of business).-M. S. F. (The death is not likely for some time, but it will make a difference).-S. A. R. (That event will occur next year).-ELIZA C. (You will wed one above you in station, and your equal iu age, towards the close of your twenty-fourth year).-W. MAYO (You will recover a little from its unjust possessor, but hardly enough to make it worth going to law).-JAMES W. (You have lost sight of a good opportunity lately of bettering your condition; be wiser for the future and you need not fear).-P. J. L. (She is dark, and rather tall, but we do not think possessed of much wealth) HENRY WEAVER (You will be this next autumn more advantageously employed in Devonshire or Cornwall, where your health will be restored).-W. T. B. (We can hold out no hope uf the property, but moderate success will attend the opening of the shop). Our table is still covered with unanswered letters, but our querists must have patience, for the utmost attention is invariably bestowed on each, and none but those engaged in similar pursuits can properly estimate the laborious duty of making such calculations as are required to give true and mathematical solutions. No really anxious correspondent is unanswered, and all who find no reply in this number must consult our next Oracle. ⚫. The great increase in the number of letters we now receive weekly, renders it imperative on the "ASTROLOGER" to remind his correspondents that real anxiety, and not frivolous curiosity, must prompt the questions. A little delay is necessarily occasioned; but all querists may rely upon being answered in their turn. The trifle charged for this work is, we need not say, wholly unremunerative, and it is only by recommending it to their friends that our querists can repay us ultimately for the time bestowed on their letters. The congratulations and good wishes we daily receive will stimulate us to increased exertions; and to the rapidly-increasing friends we are gaining throughout the country, this general acknowledgment of their kind courtesy and co-operation must be held sufficient. All subscribers should hasten to complete their sets without delay, as the great demand for back numbers will soon cause a reprint, when an extra price must be charged. Any newsvender or bookseller will obtain them, if ordered, and, should any difficulty occur in getting them, all applications to our Office, as below, will be promptly and punctually attended to. Numbers 1 to 14 are now ready. TO OUR QUERISTS AND SUBSCRIBERS. The Astrologer is happy to announce to his readers, and the public generally, that the arrangements which have been some time in progress for enlarging and otherwise materially improving this work are now completed, and on Saturday, the 31st of May, "THE ASTROLOGER" will appear, enlarged to double its present size, containing thirty-two columns of letter-press and embellished with numerous illustrations and explanatory diagrams, drawn and engraved by the most eminent professors of the illustrative art. Confident that these alterations will meet the generally-expressed opinion of his numerous readers, and, from the growing increase of his correspondents, finding that such enlargement was positively demanded, the Astrologer requests a continuation of that support from his old subscribers which this will ensure him from the new. A full detail of the plan adopted in the new series will be given in the next number which will conclude the third part. Parts I. and II. of" The Astrologer" are now ready, in a handsomely embellished Wrapper, with numerous Illustrations, price Sixpence; and may be obtained through every Bookseller in town and country. All letters and communications are requested to be addressed to "The Astrologer," 11, Wellington-street North, Strand, London. London Printed by S. TAYLOR, George-yard, Drury-court, Strand. Published at the Office, 11, Wellington-street North, Strand; and sold by Vickers, Strange, Cleave, Berger, Purkess, Clements, Barth, and all Booksellers. principle applies to both cases; and, from what we have re- doors carefully, and stirred the blazing, sputtering, and ferred to respecting the organ of sight, it will be perceived that cheerful wood fire. A disagreeable feeling of something like the thing which is seen ought not to be relied upon one jot dimensions of his sleeping room, of which he was almost loneliness stole over him, as he glanced his eye over the wider more than that which is-and which always must be, from its ashamed. Throwing off his dress, and enwrapping himself very nature-invisible. The innate promptings of the mind-by the fire, crouching nearly into the broad chimney place, comfortably in a furred damask dressing gown, he sat down and eyed the furniture and decorations of the apartment with a somewhat anxious and interested countenance. There were tinted, and fitted into lacework leaden frames. The roof was three lofty windows, great part of the glass of which was dark oak, arched, and curiously ribbed; and appended to it crimson draperies, and in convenient situations were suspended was a small gilded branch. The walls were hung with decayed a few old portraits. The bed was sufficient to accommodate half a dozen people. The whole was in a most woful state of unpleasing aspect. neglect and deterioration, and bore a most melancholy and the mysterious consciousness that dwells within, and whispers to us of a world beyond-is far more deserving of our reliance than the grosser organs of our senses, on which so many daily place dependance. Yet the one is unjustly ridiculed or neglected, whilst the other is erroneously regarded as the only true source of all intelligence. Though we have but five senses, properly speaking, other beings may possess many, of which we have no conception; and it would appear that we have something like an inferior instance of this in the torpedo, and those fishes that give the electrical shock. Knowing this to be the case, then, how can we, with any degree of fairness, presume to deny existences and influences of which our present organs are, doubtless, incapable of bringing intelligence, but which, nevertheless, are palpable and demonstrable to those exalted beings who are more etherially constituted? Let those who would deny, without examining, the grand truths of astrology, "chew upon this." LEAVES OF LEGENDARY LORE. No. V.-THE SPECTRE OF OAKHAMPTON. (Concluded from our last.) Sir Herbert, anxious to render the cold and desolate suite of apartments which his guest had determined to occupy for the night, as convenient and agreeable as possible, had ordered fires to be kindled in the sitting chamber and bed-room, and the whole put in as much order as was practicable. They faced, as I have before said, the east, and, that side of the hall being much elevated, commanded a delightful and romantic view of the opposite country. The evening approached; Mervyn sat, as usual, in the library, conversing with Sir Herbert and his daughter on various subjects of interest, and occasionally beguiling the time with a game at chess. eleven o'clock they each sought their apartments. Preceded About by a servant with a tray containing wine, &c., and followed by another, bearing a couple of lights, he mounted the wide gusty staircase of the old mansion, and, directed by his conductor, turned short off on arriving at the landing, and threaded a long and lofty corridor, terminating in a ponderous door of oak in two leaves. This led to a short flight of disused stairs, which brought their ascenders to the long ante-chamber of the haunted rooms. These consisted of an entrance chamber of good size, with cold wainscoted walls, and floored with polished oak-boasting little furniture, and that in a very decayed condition; a large room, fitted up with elm book-cases, scantily furnished with groups of dusty volumes; a sitting apartment of more comfortable appearance, the walls hung with tapestry, and adorned with ancient pictures in tarnished gilded frames, edged with heavy arm chairs, partially mounted with gold, and filled with stout cushions; and a bed chamber, ted up in an expensive style of antique splendour. The domestics, who had followed him thus far, somewhat hastily laid down their burdens, and giving a leer of curiosity about them, wished our hero a good night, and made their exit. Mervyn listened for a long time to their retreating footsteps; at last, all sound gradually died away, and he was left to examine his new accommodations in utter solitude. He rose, and thinking himself likely to feel more snug with the other apartments shut from him, closed the sitting-chamber Mervyn began to half repent his inconsiderate choice, and as the night deepened, felt that he would much rather be at that than watching in the most venerable and interesting one in moment going off in his former modern and cheerful apartment, Christendom. But such ruminations were of little avail. The changed since the morning. What, at an earlier period seemed light in which he viewed his present task, had singularly to carry with it a pleasing excitement, dwindled now to an act of disagreeable and unnecessary hardihood. Night and day things, and have a most extraordinary effect upon our mode of regarding past eleven o'clock" in a solitary and haunted apartment, though romantic and fascinating in theory, is anything but delightful in practice. Ridiculous what should I be afraid of?" ejaculated Mervyn, as some such thoughts as these floated through his brain. "I'll to bed, and see if I cannot enjoy as sound a sleep here as elsewhere. By sitting and looking at these old walls and grim shadows, I might conjure up a legion of monstrosities. A glass of wine will do me no harm, and the fire looks as if a slight acquaintance with the poker would not be inapplicable.' faster, in his eagerness to get to sleep. than was his wont. All Tossing off a glass of wine, he began to undress, rather was still as death, except now and then a slight rattle of the crazy old casements, and a prolonged and melancholy moan of the apartments to which his bed-chamber conducted. the wind, playing by the range of heavy buttresses that flanked The moon, though partially clouded, with few interruptions, poured bed and floor, and the deep blue distant hills lay reposing in a chaste and softening light through the windows upon the mild and peaceful beauty. But at long intervals the far and Mervyn, laying a pair of loaded pistols within his reach, now desultory roll of thunder broke mournfully upon the stillness. sought his pillow, taking care to rake together the dying embers of his wood fire, and disposing one of his tapers for as long burning as possible. Ere he had laid down, he fancied a surprise, and greatly to his mortification, a most provoking moment or two would send him to sleep: but somewhat to his wakefulness came upon him. minutes together shut his eyes close, thought chaotically on He lay without motion for purpose, and tried hard to persuade himself he was nearing a doze-but all in vain. about his room, peering suspiciously into every shadowy corner, He started up impatiently looked turned from side to side, beat up his pillow, regulated the bed clothes, and counted a hundred. Morpheus seemed to have fled from his eyes for ever inclination for company; a bat whizzing at his window would He had never felt so great an have been delightful; but all was quiet as possible ghost has driven sleep from me fairly," muttered he; I had be anything in the tales they tell of these apartments. I am better lie broad awake, and try to compose an ode Can there not superstitious, but these cursed old-fashioned rooms, ghost-stories, put a man s courage and firmness of mind to the test. "The and What had I to do with the rooms, or the traditions fool,' with a vengeance. I wish I could detect a glimmering of either? I think I may truly say with Othello, Fool, fool, the day. What can be o'clock Where's my watch!-ticktick-my repeater for the first time annoys me d ; no |