the gift of the second-sight, and it may therefore be said to be in the family- we give him a single dram, by way of composing draught, and patiently await the result. Dugald pechs. That, though a familiar magnetic symptom, may be accounted for naturally, the spirit being considerably above proof. But now a fine agitation convulses his furrowed features. His hair begins to bristle, and his legs are jerked as if he were executing a strathspey! There can be no doubt of it now - he is fully possessed by the ancient Caledonian muse. Starting to his feet, he catches up a pair of bellows, which, inserted beneath his left arm, makes no contemptible substitute for the bagpipe; and, marching round the apartment, he delivers the following magnificent fragment, which we hope will silence forever the puny piping of the Yankee spirits: MACTAVISH AND THE QUEEN OF PHAERIE. Communicated by the Shade of Ossian. I will sing you songs To make your heart-strings tingle; Ossian, son of Fingal, In honor of a chief, Called Forquhard Mhor Mactavish; To whom the females were Of their attentions lavish. Half-way up the glen, Near the springs of Aven, Found him on the heather, Was indeed uncommon, To his henchman, Ian, The chieftain had been seeing. Water on his face His foster-brother spluttered, To good Saint Fillan uttered; Signs of animation, The task of his narration. With a pinch of sneeshan, "I have seen a vision ! I shall tell you all, That you may judge the fitness I have been the witness. "I had not consumed More than half a gallon, And Angus, son of Allan ; And was walking home A beauteous apparition. "From a tuft of rushes Rose a splendid figure, Perhaps a little bigger. It was the Queen of Phaerie!" At this point, owing to an unlucky acciA large dent, the recitation terminated. chair, originally from Dunstaffnage, became greatly excited by the strain; and, after attempting to dance a jig, rushed furiously across the room, and came in violent contact with Macvurich's shins. The inspired medium went down like a nine-pin, nor could we again bring him to the scratch. That he was under spiritual influence, however, there can be no doubt; indeed, he muttered something, though incoherently, about "the spirits". employing, to denote them, the Gaelic synonyme of Ferintosh. It is to be hoped that, on some future occasion, the shade of Ossian will condescend to dictate the remainder of this delectable poem. Will any one dare to doubt the authenticity of this "communication?" We are quite prepared to argue that point, and to prove its possibility from antecedents. Homer, a much older poet than Ossian, was called up by the magician Faust, and we have it, on the authority of Marlowe, that he was compelled to improvise. Have I not made blind Homer sing to me We are ready, at all events, to make our affidavit that the Ossianic fragment is quite as genuine as the American spiritual minstrelsy. Well, dear reader, what do you say to all this? Are you a convert to the spiritual manifestations, or do you still remain incredulous? We have positively nothing more to say-we have simply expounded Spicer. He is a believer, though less from anything he has seen (the spirits not being active in his presence) than from what he has heard.. It may, how ever, occur to you, as it occurs to us, that it is somewhat strange that this spiritual intercourse should have been so long deferred Possibly St. Anthony was not tempted by demons, but simply haunted by ghosts; possibly Luther mistook the nature of his annoying interruptions, and was precipitate in shying the ink-bottle at what he imagined to be the head of Sathanas, when he ought to have produced the alphabet, and endeavored selves, philosophers. Many scientific men, in matters of reasoning, are asses; and it is a mercy that it is so, since otherwise, through their crude conceits, they would destroy the equilibrium of the material world. [As long as belief in the "spiritual manifestations" was confined to the class of persons who do not believe in the Bible, it seemed natural enough. Unbelievers in Revelation are proverbially credulous. But now that this belief has gone farther, it enables us to understand the possibility that educated and intelligent people could really believe in the follies of witchcraft many years ago. The Nineteenth Century" people are as ready to deceive themselves as the people of the Seventeenth were. to ascertain whether his visitor was not the | the wake of men who are called, or call themshade of some early reformer. But Anthony and Luther, knowing the Bible, had, both of them, a horror of familiar spirits. And, upon the whole, we think you cannot do better than follow their example. When we find an introduction to the inhabitants of the invisi- Humbug, and deliberate imposture, are the ble world charged, according to the tariff of mildest terms we can apply to the American the Fish and Fox tribe, at one dollar per head," spiritual manifestations, " and with that we cannot avoid forming a most contemptible expression of opinion we dismiss the subject. opinion of the spirits who thus officiate upon hire. And as to the alleged readiness of the spirits to appear, we greatly doubt that. It is wholly in opposition both to inspiration and vulgar tradition. The spirit of Samuel, when evoked by the Witch of Endor, complained that he was disquieted. Ghosts are said in later times to have appeared, and to have haunted dwellings; but, whenever addressed, they have supplicated as a boon that they might be laid at rest. The new theory is quite otherwise. Your disembodied spirit has not only the entrée to every circle, but it enjoys the amusements exceedingly-plays, in fact, the first fiddle-and the dead jackass has the advantage of figuring as a living lion. But we shall not conclude in so light a strain. In dealing with the details laid before us, so utterly ludicrous of their kind, it was impossible to avoid banter; but the prevalence of such a delusion—if it really be so prevalent is most deeply and sincerely to be deplored. It is the worst and rankest form of infidelity which has ever been promulgated. It is utterly opposed to the Christian tenets, for it implies there is no judgment hereafter. A miserable debauchee like Poe, who had lived without the thought of a Redeemer, dies; and straightway, through a medium, announces himself to be in glory. Blasphemy must be common and 'congenial in the United States, before any one, capable of perpetrating a stanza, would venture upon such an experiment. But impostors stick at nothing. With the dollar per head in their view, they will produce any kind of phantasmagoria; and enact, on a small scale, the same kind of swindle which was practised at the Eleusinian mysteries. - Let us make one suggestion: The miracles of the Church of Rome are better proved than any of these manifestations. More people have witnessed them, and testified to them. Why do the present believers set them aside? Can they hereafter venture to call that church superstitious? We do not see how they can resist the alleged miracles which go to establish the divine authority of that Church. Ed. Living Age.] DOMESTIC HABITS OF OUR ANCESTORS.- Erasmus, who visited England in the early part of the sixteenth century, gives a curious description of an English interior of the better class. The furniture was rough; the walls unplastered, but sometimes wainscotted or hung with tapestry; and the floors covered with rushes, which cats had free access to the eating-rooms, and were not changed for months. The dogs and fragments of meat and bones were thrown to them, which they devoured among the rushes, leaving what they could not eat to rot there, with the draining of beer-vessels and all manner of unmentionable abominations. There was nothing like refinement or elegance in the luxury of the higher ranks; the indulgences which their wealth permitted consisted in rough and wasteful profusion. Salt beef and strong ale constituted the principal part of Queen Elizabeth's breakfast, and similar refreshments were served to her in bed for supper. At a series of entertainments given in York by the nobility in 1660, where Keep your mind easy, dear reader! You are not, one whit, more likely to be disturbed by ghosts than your father or grandfathers were- - and you may set them thoroughly at defiance. Comport yourself well, and you may be assured that neither your shavingbrush nor razor will spontaneously smash the each exhausted his invention to outdo the others, window-go to church regularly, and we it was universally admitted that Lord Goring shall give our guarantee against your being won the palm for the magnificence of his fancy. affixed to the ceiling. Be easy on the score The description of this supper will give us a of your furniture, until you observe it to be good idea of what was then thought magnificent; inconveniently locomotive; in which case, no it consisted of four huge, brawny pigs, piping doubt, you will be able to dispose of it to hot, bitted and harnessed with ropes of sausages some railway company. And, above all to a huge pudding in a bag, which served for a things, despise humbug, and do not follow in chariot. The Silent Revolution. From the Times. Stowe would prepare the slave for freedom, THE BEECHER STOWE DEMONSTRATION. and give him meanwhile the benefit of Christian usages and laws; and so little is she It has been the fate of all the great epics prepared to see the whole three millions that their moral has not been very discerni- emancipated, that when she has got only one ble, or at least, so separable from the story, of the three millions, and him a very superior and so dependent on the caprice of the reader, specimen, free from the yoke, and on British that we are at liberty to adinire to our heart's soil, her only resource is to send him to Licontent without drawing any inference what-beria, where we will venture to say he will ever. The Iliad was construed by subsequent not go. ages to prove an inveterate grudge between Accustomed as Mrs. Stowe must be at home Europe and Asia, which nothing could expiate to idle exhibitions of barren zeal, to indignabut the conquest of the latter by the former tion meetings that burn like stubble and leave in the person of Alexander. The Encid was nothing behind, and all other forms of plausiwritten to prove the divine mission and de- ble folly, she must have been pained, not to scent of Augustus, and the eternal destinies say disgusted, with the frantic impotence of of Rome. The Lusiad taught the right of the Exeter Hall abolitionists. They rose as Portugal to the East, and the leading feature she entered the room and received her with of the Paradise Lost is a very earthly repre- more than loyalty. She deserves it, and we sentation of Heaven and the Divine mysteries. honor their enthusiasm. They repeated their On these great precedents, we do not scruple homage at her departure. But what was to admire Uncle Tom as warmly as Lord really done meanwhile? What was said that Shaftesbury, or Lord Carlisle, or any gentle- could by any means help the poor slave and man or lady at Stafford-house, without sur- resolve this fearful enigina? Absolutely nothrendering the right of private judgment as to ing. Lord Shaftesbury spoke as he is too apt the political doctrine of the story. We will to speak when he has discovered what he do all fitting homage to Mrs. Stowe, as a thinks a religious principle. He spoke as if novelist beyond compare, at least in the he had never read of slaves in the Bible-as living generation; but when it comes to the if slaves had not been therein told to remain tremendous question how we are to deal with content with their lot- -as if compulsory three millions born and bred in slavery and service was incompatible with social laws or in the most intimate servile intermixture with moral obligations; and as if three millions of a free people still more, when it comes to slaves could be safely emancipated by a single the question how we, another people—a rival vote of the American Congress, or any State nation and a rejected mother country—are Legislature, any more than all the infants in to interfere we must beg to consult those the Union could be as summarily invested high political considerations which find little with the rights of full age. Indeed, he did not place in novels, and are particularly distaste- altogether blink the adverse testimony of the ful to the warm hearts of fair writers and Bible, but he disposed of that testimony by the readers. We take the liberty, therefore, of summary expedient of declaring that all who regarding Mrs. Stowe quite distinctly from rested on it were of the synagogue of Satan. the meeting at Exeter-hall on Whit-Monday This is rather a loose way of talking when it -quite distinctly from the reverend gentle- comes to a question of doctrine, and to numen and professors assembled on that occasion merous texts with a definite meaning. Let -distinctly from the resolutions then adopted us beg to suggest to Lord Shaftesbury that, and even distinctly from herself, so far as invaluable as his labors are in the work of she has been compelled to commit herself to social and material reforms, he would do well any definite proposal for the abolition of sla- to take counsel of some learned minister bevery. But even while we write we remember fore he resigns the texts of Scripture to the that Mrs. Stowe could not possibly agree with synagogue of Satan. Indeed, he has not done the very first resolution carried unanimously. even Mrs. Stowe that justice out of Scripture If we remember right, she has emphatically which she has a right to expect. The Lord, repudiated any such doctrine as that "the he says, will sell this Sisera, that is, the antiprinciple of immediate and unconditional abolitionists, into the hands of a womanemancipation is the only one that is consist- viz., Mrs. Stowe. Now, we protest, on the ent with the rights of the slave and the duty behalf of Mrs. Stowe, that she is not the of the master. She does not think it the woman into whose hands the Lord has sold right of anybody, however deserving, however the anti-abolitionists. She is the Deborah of miserable, to be utterly ruined, which would this question; the judge, the prophetess, the be the case of the Carolina slave suddenly inspired songstress. The craven-hearted Barak emancipated; nor does she think it the duty would not give chase to Sisera and his charof any man, however responsible, to ruin iots of iron, unless Deborah might be allowed his dependents, as the slave-owners certainly to go with him; so, to punish him, the victory would do if they gave in to this plan. Mrs. was to be utterly inglorious, at least to him; a woman was to invite Sisera into her tent, receive him with pretended hospitality, and kill him in his sleep; but in which respect Mrs. Stowe is like Jael, the wife of Heber, the Kenite, except that she has hit the right nail on the head, Lord Shaftesbury himself would be puzzled to say. Good advice, it is commonly said, is the cheapest currency in the world, except bad advice, which is cheaper still, and impossible advice, which is the cheapest of all. Our anti-slavery people advise the Americans to emancipate all the slaves at once, as we did the slaves in our West India Islands, though even that was not quite at once. We believe the advice to be about as impracticable as if we were to recommend the negroes to wash themselves white, or to change places with their masters forthwith on the receipt of our letters. It cannot, however, be denied that the Americans are paying us off in our own coin, for we never heard more impracticable advice, if it means anything at all, than what Professor Stowe liberally presented to the meeting at Exeter Hall. The advice is, that the people of England are to use free cotton, and they are to get the cotton grown free by the importation of Chinese laborers into the United States, who will work, the professor says, for sixpence a day. In the first place, how are we to discriminate between two bales of cotton from New York-which was picked by Cassy and Uncle Tom, and which by Chinamen? Then, who are to import the latter? It would be very imprudent philanthropy in the English, to carry a set of poor, ignorant creatures across the whole globe into the heart of an independent nation, particularly jealous of our interference a nation, too, the states of which are not less jealous one of another. What if the slave states find the Chinamen exceedingly disagreeable people, and were to declare them all slaves or expel them? It is found impossible to import Chinese laborers into our own sugar islands without a great deal of suffering and hardship. If it is anybody's place to import them into the United States, it falls rather to those who will have some sort of voice in their disposal for the future. No man of common prudence will ever undertake a charge which he will not be allowed to discharge, according to the dictates of his own discretion. We will say, however, plainly, that we respect Professor Stowe; we respect all who fairly attempt to grapple with the practical difficulties of the question. The more we ask what is to be done, and the more answers are recorded, the nearer and more likely we seem to exhaust the subject at last. We think, ourselves, that nothing is to be done except gradually to ameliorate the condition of the slaves, and to extend to them the first rights of humanity. We have always protested against the separation of husband and wife in our workhouses at home, and we cannot do less than protest against the separation of slave couples. The same analogy holds of mother and child, up to a certain age. The slave ought certainly to have some protection, more than he now has, against excessive punishment, for, without some power of punishment left to the master, there can be no slavery at all, and we are rather for its mitigation than its immediate abolition. As to mere animal comforts, amusement, instruction, secular and religious, we suspect the American slave is quite as well off in these respects as the English laborer—at least, if Mrs. Stowe is to be trusted. But these are remedies which, so far from being advocated or facilitated by our anti-slavery agitation, are only rendered more and more impracticable. We have on this point the express word of Professor Stowe, who says that in his own early days black children were admitted into the same schools as white. If it is not so now, it is not owing to the progress of the cotton cultivation, but to the excessive bitterness provoked by the abolitionists, and the increasing difficulty of dealing with free persons of color. Like many other people in the world's great comedy of errors, the abolitionists must retrace their steps and eat a little humble pie. They must give up - indeed, Mrs. Stowe herself does give up-immediate and certain abolition, and return to the safer and less offensive plan of gradual amelioration. Let them put it in the power of every slave to purchase his own freedom, or have it purchased for him, at a not exorbitant price; and thus prepare them for that state of liberty which so few men born free know how to use properly. From the Southern Literary Messenger. TO MICHAEL ANGELO TITMARSH, ESQ. OH, Titmarsh, Thackeray, or De La Pluche, Jeames, Chawls, or dear, delightful Mr. Brown, Wielding the author's pen or artist's brush, Or lecturing in some provincial town; All hail! King Satirist without a crown, But still of shillings fortunately flush, And able quite to "go it with a rush" (Don't treat this pretty sonnet with a frown), If, in your tour from Boston to the South, From Athens to Boeotia, you should see RIAGE. fraud!" 66 "With this ring I thee wed," old Baxter feebly repeated after the clergyman. "With this fiddlestick!" whispered Mrs. Brill, carrying on her commentary loud enough for me to hear her. "I have no patience with an old man who paints his cheeks, and dyes his hair, and comes to church clothed in such abominable falsehood." "Yea, and thou shalt see thy children's children," said the minister. "Children's children, indeed! Now, the very idea," said Mrs. Brill. AN OLD GENTLEMAN'S SECOND MAR-1 pered to me, "He 'll be poorer pretty soon, I warrant you. Give thee my troth!" she repeated after the colonel. Bring her on the COLONEL BAXTER'S nuptials! We the fund, and give her a pension! I say it's a whole regiment - turned out in full-dress to witness their celebration. Even Mrs. Brill went to the expense of a white satin slip and a bonnet trimmed with orange-blossoms for the occasion. (Brill had been appointed BrigadeMajor of the Division.) The colonel looked about forty years of age. The bride was certainly a very pretty girl. Major Green gave her away. I wished Mrs. Brill had stayed at home; for her mind was always running on matters of business, and she made me laugh in the church, close to the altar, by saying seriously, in a whisper "She 'll come nicely on the fund, cornet, as a colonel's widow, if anything happens to old Baxter. It's a fraud! He ought to be ashamed of himself! I wish the old woman's ghost could walk in just now, and see what was the use of her saving and pinching as she did. This young woman will spend it all, you know. I should like to catch Brill making such a fool of himself, after I'm dead and gone, and ducks and drakes of all I have scraped together. When I'm dying, I'll burn every bit of Company's paper, or tear it into little bits, and throw it into the chicken broth I shall call for on purpose; and then, if Brill likes to marry again, let him. It will be quite optional. Hush!" said I. "The parson is looking at you." Well, let him look, the pasty-faced man," said Mrs. Brill. "I think he might have put on a clean what-you-may-call-itsurplus (she meant surplice) "although it is a dirty business he is engaged in marrying an old painted man to a mere child. There were we pitying old Baxter not long ago, when the old lady died; and now you see there are all the cornets envying him. The world is full of hypocrisy and humbug. What can that young girl care about that old thing? It is not in human nature. She wants to be Mrs. Colonel Baxter, and have a carriage-and-pair, and all the rest of it." "So long as ye both shall live," said the clergyman, concluding the vow. "I will," said the colonel. "I will!" echoed Mrs. Brill in a loud "You had better leave the church, Robert," whispered my wife, "if you cannot behave better." Mrs. Brill heard her, and replied, "He had better stay where he is. You wouldn't have him cry, would you? ?"" "Hush!" said I, in an agony of fear lest Mrs. Brill should come to words with my wife, and interrupt the ceremony. "Spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." When the minister came to these words Mrs. Brill was very indignant. Spot or wrinkle!" she repeated. "He has filled up all the wrinkles with white paint and putty! I could pick it out with a penknife! The old man is a walking fraud! I've no patience with him; and I will say so at the breakfast. Brill is on the staff, and can no longer be bullied by any ragamuffin of a commanding officer." My wife, when we came out of church, begged of me not to sit near Mrs. Brill at the breakfast. But of what avail was my promise, since Mrs. Brill was determined to sit next to me? 66 Robert, there is room for you here," said my wife, when we were about to be seated, and she pointed to a vacant chair. Mrs. Brill observed her look, and said, "Don't be alarmed, Mrs. Wetherby. Although bolting, they say, is catching when it gets into a regiment, don't suppose I'd be so weak as to go off with the cornet. Brill is on the staff." Sophy roared with laughter; and so did every one who heard Mrs. Brill's remark. "Have you congratulated the colonel?" I inquired of Mrs. Brill. |
