I am gone to the bottomless pit, am I? Well, I have come back again, to pay such ungrateful rascals as you are." A chase was immediately commenced, by the dead man after the living, to the petrifying consternation of many of the spectators, at sight of a corpse, in all the horrors of the winding sheet, running through the streets. After having exercised himself into a copious perspiration by the fantastic race, the hypochondriac was brought home by Dr. Stevenson, freed from all his complaints; and by strengthening food, generous wine, cheerful company, and moderate exercise, was soon restored to perfect health.

POTENT CHARM.

In the Charity House at Haerlem, a girl under an impression of terror, fell into a convulsive disease, which returned in regular paroxysms. One of the by-standers, intent upon assisting her, was seized with a similar fit, which also recurred at intervals. On the day following, another was attacked. In short, almost the whole of the children, both girls and boys, became affected with these convulsions. No sooner was one seized, than the sight brought on the paroxysm in almost all the rest at the same time. Under these distressing circumstances, the physicians exhibited all the powerful antiseptic medicines with which their art furnished them, but in vain. Application was then made to the celebrated Boerhaave; who compassionating the wretched condition of the poor children, repaired to Haerlem. At the very moment he was inquiring into the matter, one of them was

seized with a fit, and immediately he saw several others attacked with a species of epileptic convulsion. It presently occurred to Boerhaave, that as the propagation of the disease from one to another appeared to depend on the imagination, by preventing this impression upon the mind, the disease might be cured; and this suggestion he successfully followed up. Having previously apprised the magistrates of his views, he ordered, in the hearing of all the children, that some irons should be made red hot, observing that all medicines were in their case of no use, and that the only remedy with which he was acquainted, was, that the first who should be seized with a fit, whether boy or girl, must be burnt in the arm to the very bone by a red hot iron. He spoke this with great dignity and gravity; and the children, terrified at the thought of so cruel a remedy, when they perceived any tendency to the recurrence of the paroxysm, immediately exerted all their strength of mind to subdue it; and in a short time they got all completely better of their morbid propensity.

VENTRILOQUISM.

M. St. Gille, a grocer at St. Germain en Laye, near Paris, whose powers as a ventriloquist gave occasion to many singular and diverting scenes, once sought shelter from a storm in a neighbouring convent. The Community was in mourning; and on enquiring the cause, he was told that one of their body, much esteemed by them, had lately died. Some of the monks attended him to the church; 2nd showing him the tomb of their deceased brother,

spoke very feelingly of the scanty honours that had been bestowed on his memory. Suddenly a voice was heard apparently proceeding from the roof of the choir, lamenting the situation of the defunct in purgatory, and reproaching the brotherhood with their want of zeal on his account. The whole community being afterwards convened in the church, the voice from the roof renewed its lamentations and reproaches, and the whole convent fell on their faces, and vowed a solemn reparation. Accordingly they first chanted a de profundis in full choir; during the intervals of which, the ghost occasionally expressed the comfort he received from their pious exercises and ejaculations in his behalf. The Prior, when this religious service was concluded, entered into a serious conversation with M. St. Gille, and inveighed against the absurd incredulity of our modern sceptics and pretended philosophers on the article of ghosts and apparitions; and M. St. Gille found it difficult to convince the fathers that the whole was a ludicrous deception.

ADMIRAL HOSIER'S GHOST.

Dr. Glover was on a visit at Stowe, when he wrote his celebrated ballad of Admiral Hosier's Ghost, perhaps the most spirited of all his productions. The idea occurred to him during the night; he rose early, and went into the garden to compose. In the heat of his composition, he walked into the tulip bed: unfortunately, he had a stick in his hand, and with a true poetical fervour, he hewed down the tulips in every direction. Lady Temple was particularly fond of

tulips, and some of the company, who had seen the doctor slashing around him, and suspected how his mind was occupied, asked him at breakfast, how he could think of thus wantonly destroying her ladyship's favourite flowers? The poet, perfectly unconscious of the havoc he had made, pleaded not guilty. There were witnesses enough to convict him. He acknowledged that he had been composing in the garden, and made his peace by repeating the ballad.

GENERAL WALSTEIN.

He

In 1625, General Walstein, who joined to great intrepidity a large share of enthusiasm, was at Gross Meseritsch in Moravia, and completely absorbed in laying the plan of the ensuing campaign. His custom was, to pass part of the night in consulting the stars. One night being at his window lost in contemplation, he felt himself violently struck on the back. turned himself round instantly, knowing that he was alone, and his chamber door locked; this warrior, bold as he was in battle, was seized with fright. He did not doubt but what this blow was a sign from heaven to warn him of impending danger. He fell into a deep melancholy; nor could any of his friends obtain the secret from him. His confessor, a Capuchin, undertook to discover it, and had art enough to induce one of the pages of the generallissimo to acknowledge, that being intent on playing one of his comrades a trick, he had hid himself in the apartment to which Walstein had retired, and mistaking him for his object, had struck him with all his might. Having discovered his error, while his master was examining the room, he jumped out of the window. The confessor

pledged his word of honour to the page, that o evil should befall him, on this account; and he thought himself happy in being able to quiet the trepidations of the general. But what was his despair, when he heard Walstein order the immediate hanging of this rash youth! His orders were absolute; the gibbet was ready; and the page delivered to the executioner, in the presence of the general. The principal officers of the army were seized with indignation; the lower classes exclaimed against such barbarity; the miserable confessor threw himself repeatedly at the feet of this inexorable commander. The page had mounted the ladder, when suddenly the general cried out, Stop!" then with a voice of thunder he said to the page, "Well, young man, hast thou now experienced what the terrors of death are? I have served you as you served me now we are quit."

DREAMING.

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The following letter from Cardinal Bembo to a nobleman of the House of Medici, written in 1512, gives a curious account of a dream of the cardinal's mother, which was but too unhappily realized.

"MAGNIFICENT LORD-I reply to a letter, in which you have expressed a wish to know the nature of a dream of my mother's, which revealed to her during the night what was to happen to me the next day. To satisfy your curiosity, I shall add to my answer an account of its accomplishment.

"At the time my father was ambassador from your nation to Rome, under the pontificate of Pope Innotent, I found myself detained at Venice, with my.