shutting the door I heard Mr. Robinson sing out, Sally Turner! why that is my old cook!' and he looked at Mr. Hilton in great surprise."

"Well?" said Hamilton, who was now as much interested in the conversation as he had been before annoyed by it.

"Well," continued Harry, " Mr. Hilton fixed his eyes on the gov. and said, I think your apprentice said that Mr. Hamilton was with you?' He was,' says the gov. ; you know in these serious cases we cannot do without an assistant to hand the instruments, hold the patient, and so on.' 'But I should have thought,' said Mr. Hilton, that a lad would do for that office, your own apprentice for instance.' 'True,' said he, looking wise, but then Hamilton is a clever, inquiring young man, and likes to see good operations.' I think, Mr. Wyliehart, says he, laying a great stress on the Wylie, you scarcely allow your friend his due. I had the good fortune to be introduced to him a few evenings ago, and the case of this poor woman was talked of; he gave me to understand that he at least assisted in the operation, if he did not entirely perform it. But you know best, Mr. Wyliehart, you of course know best.' The gov. was all colours for a few moments, and then replied, in a careless tone, 'Yes, yes, he did assist me; but we always call it our operation when the patient is ours."

"Is this really true?" said Hamilton; "why I was compelled to introduce both the probe and the style for him, because of the tremor of his hand. I can scarcely believe the tale; and yet, what could induce you to tell me such falsehoods ?"

"Nothing," replied Harry; and without waiting for any further conversation, he rang the surgery-bell and announced to his master, at the topmost pitch of his voice, that Mr. Hamilton was waiting.

"How often am I to tell you, Harry," said Wyliehart, as he entered, "that it is disrespectful of you to stand there and shout. Either come and tell me who wants me, or, if it is any one you cannot leave, merely ring the bell" Master Wilde made no reply till the street door was closed behind his master and his friend, and then he shouted with all the strength of his lungs, "I shan't.” Having thus given vent to his feelings, he looked round the room for some subject of amusement, and his eye lighting upon a small spirit-lamp, near which was a very tempting-looking glass retort, it immediately occurred to him that he had now a splendid opportunity of making some phosphureted hydrogen. Accordingly, having put some water into the retort, he took down a bottle marked" POTASS: Fus:" deposited a piece of its contents in the water, added some phosphorus, trimmed and lighted the spirit-lamp, hung the flask close over the flame, and sat down to watch the experiment. After some time, the beautiful little globes of light, and small blue flames, began to show themselves on the surface of the water, and Harry was congratulating himself upon the success of his first effort, when a terrific explosion, and a sharp cut upon the forehead, brought his scientific investigations to a premature conclusion. Dorothy, the housekeeper, rushed half frantic into the surgery.

"Good Heavens! Master Harry," said she; 66 are you going to blow the house up? I declare you might be the devil himself for

mischief. If I was your master, it's many a good wholloping I'd give you, and bring you down from your flights, I'd warrant you." Dorothy paused, in the hope that Master Harry would take up the quarrel, and give her an opportunity of paying him for the fright he had caused her, but there he stood, with his hands thrust into his pockets, whistling one of his merriest tunes, with the fragments of the glass retort scattered all around him, and the blood dropping from the end of his nose.

"Why, dear heart o'me," said Dorothy, as she saw the crimson fluid falling to the floor," and the poor child has hurt himself! Come and let me put a plaister on your forehead, though you have frightened me almost to death." Harry followed her, shrugging his shoulders, and exclaiming in a chuckling voice, "Goodness, gracious, Dolly-shan't I catch it!"

THE PARENTAGE OF THE VIOLETS :

A SONNET.

Not from the verdant garden's cultur'd bound,
That breathes of Postum's aromatic gale,
We sprung; but nurslings of the lonely vale,
'Midst woods obscure, and native glooms were found!
'Midst woods and glooms, whose tangled brakes around
Once Venus sorrowing traced, as all forlorn
She sought Adonis, when a lurking thorn
Deep on her foot impressed an impious wound.
Then prone to earth we bow'd our pallid flowers,
And caught the drops divine; the purple dyes
Tinging the lustre of our native hue:
Nor summer gales, nor art-conducted showers,
Have nurs'd our slender forms, but lovers' sighs
Have been our gales, and lovers' tears our dew.

L. M.

TO TWO FAIR CHILDREN,

MY COMPANIONS IN A SUMMER DAY'S RAMBLE.
FAIR be your lot, dear children, in this land
Of many changes; may untimely ruth,
Or carking care, or envy's serpent tooth,
Never disturb or harm you; may His hand
Who clothes the lilies-feeds the waiting band
Of all creation, robe your tender youth
With wisdom, nourish you with heavenly truth,

And strengthen you all evil to withstand.
Our paths are different: I may ne'er again

Listen, while falleth on my ear the sound
Of your young voices, sweet as "latter rain"

To weary earth, spreading new life around;
But oft will Thought bring back that day to me
When o'er green fields we wandered happily!

DELTA.

THE CASTAWAY.

THOUGH lovely be this lonely Isle; For me in vain its fruits and flowers Their perfume yield;

In vain for me do smile

Its glorious scenes-its ever-blooming bowers.

Banish'd from all this heart holds dear, Far from lov'd friends and native land, Hourly I pine;

Its beauties sad appear

Lost and despairing, 'midst its sweets I stand.

I wander thro' its tufted grove,
Which throws around a checquer'd shade,
With mournful steps;

Oft wishing as I rove

That I beneath its trees were calmly laid.

When on my leafy couch I lie,
And shadowy Night is brooding o'er
This Solitude,

Bright visions round me fly,

Voices, like music from my own lov'd shore,

And gentle forms do near me stray.
With waving hair, and eyes of light,
Starting, I wake;

Nought but the Moon's pale ray,
Streaming thro' the dim Cave, falls on my sight.

I listen to the treach'rous wave
Low murm'ring on the rocky shore

With dreamy sound:

There sleep my Comrades brave,

Its hoarsest tones shall never wake them more.

Oh! that upon its heaving tide
Some vessel on her rapid wing
Would hither speed,

And on its surges ride;

How would this wave-beat shore with welcome ring.

Mild Resignation, leave me not!
Here-all alone-on this wild strand

With darken'd soul,

Cheer thou my bitter lot.

Assuage my griefs, and in thine accents bland,

Teach me that on this spot so drear, (Far from the home and land I love, Far from all friends,)

The Hand that cast me here

Upholds me still, and guards me as I rove.

A. W.

213

MESMERISM.

BY HENRY GOODE, B.A., OF CAMBRIDge.

MESMERISM! What a strange subject! To how many doubts and perplexities has it not given rise? Less than a twelvemonth ago we were among those who thought, and wondered, and disbelieved. We had seen a few paragraphs in the newspapers, professing to be true accounts of the proceedings of certain charlatans, who were said to collect together a large roomful of dupes; and these dupes were to be mystified by certain strange motions of the said charlatans, into a belief that some persons, before whose faces the motions were made, were thrown into a trance; and lastly, the charlatans affirmed, that the entranced persons could read the newspaper through their elbows or stomachs, as they chose best: all of which was stoutly denied by the newspaper writers. We were, therefore, very much surprised when a friend of ours vigorously maintained that the phenomena attributed to Mesmerism were facts. He answered our ridicule by asserting, that he had himself witnessed the operations; and gave us a written account of what he had seen, merely exhorting us to suspend our judgment until we had seen for ourselves. He also procured us a sight of the mesmerizing process: but not having allowed ourselves sufficient time fully to investigate the affair, we went away nearly as great unbelievers as before. We, however, determined to come to no decision until we had tested the phenomena ourselves; and accordingly, having studied from books the methods of proceeding, we soon applied our knowledge to practice.

It is often asked, "How did you find out that you possessed the power of mesmerizing? Why, everybody has this power, if they care but to use it. Our first experiment was on a young man of a good constitution, which we repeated three or four times-once for an hour, the other times for half an hour-but could not find any marked effect; so we thought our power must be imperceptibly small. However, we did not despair.

After an interval of a month or so we obtained greater facilities for testing the truth of the alleged mesmeric phenomena. A Miss A., who had been for some time in a bad state of health, had occasionally been urged to be mesmerized; but, not having seen anything of it, she, like most persons in her case, had too great a horror of Mesmerism to submit herself to its influence. However, a young person who lived with her, and had read a little of the subject in Townshend's work, expressed a desire to be operated upon. We being present, and conjecturing that this person, whose name was Mary, would be subject to our influence if any one was, immediately proposed to operate on her; and a time was appointed for her to come to our house the next evening for that purpose. We took care to acquaint as few people as possible with our intentions, that we might not be ridiculed if a failure ensued.

At the time appointed Mary came, accompanied by Miss A.: we sat down according to the method prescribed, anticipating a weary hour of disappointment. But, lo! in a few seconds the work is

done. She fixed her eyes on ours, and appeared incapable of removing them, until the eye-ball rolled up, displaying only the white. The eye-lids closed, the head dropped on one side, and the trance appeared complete.

We were now anxious to test the truth of the asserted mesmeric phenomena. The books on Mesmerism allege,

1st-That entranced persons are altogether deprived of the power of sensation, so that the ordinary action of all the senses is suspended but

:

2nd-That, in lieu of this, they participate in, and are conscious of, the sensation of the mesmerizer-their perceptions according accurately with his, by whatever sense they are conveyed to him. This faculty has been named community of feeling :

3rd-They were said to have an attraction towards the mesmerizer, and never liked to be left by him but :

4th-Manifested a great aversion for all other persons, together with all objects not mesmerized; insomuch that when such objects were presented to them, they became subject to violent shudderings, and endeavoured to escape by repelling, or retreating from, the object of their aversion.

5th-They were also said to exhibit a faculty called lucidity, ultravision, or clairvoyance. By this some new mode of perception

was

6th-Called into existence in some cases, which far exceeded all the range of the ordinary senses. The faculty appeared to correspond in some degree with an extension of the power of vision; so that the perception of objects was not confined to the retina, as in the natural state, but was communicated to other parts of the body: and not only so, but the power of perception was not limited by objects impervious to ocular vision, or to distances which the eye can reach.

Mesmerism was also described as being eminently serviceable in certain diseases, and in affections of the nerves, of which the greater part were before deemed almost incurable. The medical men were called to task for neglecting so valuable a remedy and opposing its introduction, to the injury of their patients.

Having read all this, as soon as Mary was entranced we were on the tiptoe of expectation, proud of our success so far, but looking for further results.

We accordingly began to test her powers of feeling, and pricked her hand for that purpose; but she started, rubbed her hand, and was evidently displeased-she was as capable of feeling as ever. We next ate a biscuit, then drank a glass of wine; but she manifested no community of taste. We had our hands pricked, but she seemed totally unaware of the circumstance.

We presented a hand before her face, and then behind her head; she could not discern what it was-there was no approach to lucidity. Thus all the phenomena, except the mere trance, had failed to show themselves still we were gratified to think that our mesmeric fervour was not so small after all, since we had actually succeeded in throwing our patient into the perfect state of magnetic sleep, or, as it is more properly denominated, mesmeric sleepwaking. There our