In the case of Isaac v. Gompertz, cited 7 Ves. 61, Lord Thurlow declared an annuity given for the support and maintenance of the Jewish Synagogue in Magpie Alley to be void,-a highly proper decree. A similar fate was awarded to a bequest for the dissemination of Baxter's Call to the Unconverted, 7 Vess. 52. Swinburne, part 4. sect. 6, art. 2, mentions a bequest of a legacy to a person, on condition of his drinking up all the water in the sea; and it was held that, as this condition “could not be performed," it was void. The condition "to go to Rome in a day," which Blackstone mentions in his Commentaries as void because impossible to be performed, may soon, perhaps, cease to be so, and consequently become good, if rail-roads are introduced upon the Continent. In 1 Rol. Ab. 45, it appears that in the country, when men pass cattle, it is usual to say, "God bless them!" otherwise they are taken for witches. This reminds me of the salutation in Bohemia, where, if you meet a peasant, you pass for a heathen unless you say to him, "Blessed be the Lord!" or, in case he salutes you thus, unless you answer, "In eternity, Amen!" In Vanity, The German boasts little; the Englishman despises all other nations; the Frenchman flatters every body; the Italian estimates cautiously; the Spaniard is indifferent. In Eating and Drinking, The German is a drunkard; the Englishman liberally profuse; the Frenchman delicate; the Italian moderate; the Spaniard penurious. In Offending and Doing Good, The German is inactive; the Englishman does both without consideration; the Italian is prompt in beneficence, but vindictive; the Spaniard indifferent. In Speaking, The German and French speak badly, but write well; the Englishman speaks and writes well; the Italian speaks well, writes much and well; the Spaniard speaks little, but writes well. In Address, THE MILLER'S TOMB. At the west end of the miller's tomb on Highdown-Hill is a rude sculpture of "Death running away from Time, who pursues, and is holding him by the right shoulder with his right hand: his left holds a Time glass; Death a spear in his left hand." This is the account in a "Description of the celebrated Miller's Tomb," printed at Worthing on a broadsheet "price three pence. I took a sketch of the sculpture from the stone; it affords the engraving above, and is a tolerably correct representation. Below the stone is the following INSCRIPTION. November 24. SECOND SIGHT. Dr. Johnson, who, a few years before his death, visited Scotland, the country in which a belief in its existence still prevails, has superseded every other account of it by what he has left to us on the subject. He says "We should have had little claim to the praise of curiosity, if we had not endeavoured with particular attention to examine the question of the second sight. Of an opinion received for centuries by a whole nation, and supposed to be confirmed through its whole descent by a series of successive facts, it is desirable that the truth should be established, or the fallacy detected. "The second sight is an impression made either by the mind upon the eye, or by the eye upon the mind, by which things distant or future are perceived, and seen as if they were present. A man his horse; another, who is perhaps at on a journey, far from home, falls from work about the house, sees him bleeding on the ground, commonly with a landscape of the place where the accident befals him. Another seer, driving home his cattle, or wandering in idleness, or musing in the sunshine, is suddenly surprised by the appearance of a bridal ceremony, or funeral procession, and counts the mourners or attendants, of whom, if he knows them, he relates the names, if he knows them not, he can describe the dresses. Things distant are seen at the instant when they happen. Of things future I know not that there is any rule for determining the time between the sight and the event. "This receptive faculty, for power it cannot be called, is neither voluntary nor constant. The appearances have no dependence upon choice: they cannot be summoned, detained, or recalled. The impression is sudden, and the effect often painful. By the term second sight seems to be meant a mode of seeing superadded to that which nature generally bestows. In the Earse it is called Taisch; which signifies likewise a spectre or a vision. I know not, nor is it likely that the Highlanders ever examined, whether by Taisch, used for second sight, thing seen. they mean the power of seeing or the "I do not find it to be true, as it is reported, that to the second sight nothing is presented but phantoms of evil. Good seems to have the same proportion in those visionary scenes as it obtains in real life. "By pretension to second sight, no profit was ever sought or gained. It is an involuntary affection, in which neither hope nor fear is known to have any part. Those who profess to feel it do not boast of it as a privilege, nor are considered by others as advantageously distinguished. They have no temptation to feign, and their hearers have no motive to encourage the imposture. been felt by more than own or publish them; that the second sight of the Hebrides implies only the local frequency of a power which is nowhere totally un"That they should often see death is known; and that, where we are unable to be expected, because death is an event to decide by antecedent reason, we must frequent and important. But they see be content to yield to the force of testilikewise more pleasing incidents. A mony. gentleman told me, that when he had once gone far from his own island, one of his laboring servants predicted his return, and described the livery of his attendant, which he had never worn at home; and which had been, without any previous design, occasionally given him. "It is the common talk of the Lowland Scots, that the notion of second sight is wearing away with other superstitions; and that its reality is no longer supposed but by the grossest people. How far its prevalence ever extended, or what ground it has lost, I know not. The Highlanders of all degrees, whether of rank or understanding, universally admit it, except the ministers, who universally deny it, and are suspected to deny it in consequence of a system, against conviction. One of them honestly told me that he came to Sky with a resolution not to believe it. "Strong reasons for incredulity will readily occur. This faculty of seeing things out of sight is local, and commonly useless. It is a breach of the common order of things, without any visible reason or perceptible benefit. It is ascribed only to a people very little enlightened; and among them, for the most part, to the mean and ignorant. "To the confidence of these objections it may be replied, that by presuming to determine what is fit, and what is beneficial, they presuppose more knowledge of the universal system than man has attained, and therefore depend upon principles too complicated and extensive for our comprehension; and that there can be no security in the consequence, when the premises are not understood; that the second sight is only wonderful because it is rare, for, considered in itself, it involves no more difficulty than dreams, or perhaps than the regular exercises of the cogitative faculty; that a general opinion of communicative impulses, or visionary representations, has prevailed in all ages and all nations; that particular instances have been given, with such evidence as neither Bacon ror Boyle has been able to resist; that sudden impressions, which the event has verified, have "To talk with any of these seers is not easy. There is one living in Sky, with whom we would have gladly conversed; but he was very gross and ignorant, and knew no English. The proportion in these countries of the poor to the rich is such, that, if we suppose the quality to be accidental, it can rarely happen to a man of education; and yet on such men it has sometimes fallen. There is now a second sighted gentleman in the Highlands, who complains of the terrors to which he is exposed. "The foresight of the seers is not always prescience; they are impressed with images, of which the event only shows them the meaning. They tell what they have seen to others, who are at that time not more knowing than themselves, but may become at last very adequate witnesses, by comparing the narrative with its verification. "To collect sufficient testimonies for the satisfaction of the public or ourselves, would have required more time than we could bestow. There is against it, the seeming analogy of things confusedly seen and little understood; and for it, the indistinct cry of national persuasion, which may perhaps be resolved at last into prejudice and tradition." Dr. Johnson concludes with observing,-"I never could advance my curiosity to conviction; but came away, at last, only willing to believe." Rowlands, in his "Mona Antiqua restaurata," says, "The magic of the druids, or one part of it, seems to have remained among the Britons, even after their conversion to Christianity, and is called Taish in Scotland; which is a way of predicting by a sort of vision they call second sight: and I take it to be a relic of druidism, particularly from a noted story related by Vopiscus, of the emperor Dioclesian, who, when a private soldier in Gallia, on his removing thence, reckoning with his hostess, who was a druid woman, she told him he was too penurious, and did not bear in him the noble soul of a soldier; on his reply, that his pay was small, she, looking stedfastly on him, said that he needed not be so sparing of his money, for, after he should kill boar, she confidently pronounced he would be emperor of Rome, which he took as a compliment from her; but, seeing her serious in her affirmation, the words she spoke stuck upon him, and he was afterwards much delighted in hunting and killing of boars, often saying, when he saw many made emperors, and his own fortune not much mending, I kill the boars, but 'tis others that eat the flesh. Yet it happened that, many years after, one Arrius Aper, father in law of the emperor Numerianus, grasping for the empire, traitorously slew him, for which fact being apprehended by the soldiers and brought before Dioclesian, who being then become a prime commander in the army, they left the traitor to his disposal, who, asking his name, and being told that he was called Aper, i. e. a boar, without further pause he sheathed his sword in his bowels, saying et hunc Aprum cum cæteris, i. e. • Even this boar also to the rest' which done, the soldiers, commending it as a quick, extraordinary act of justice, without further deliberation saluted him by the name of emperor. I bring this story here in view, as not improper on this hint, nor unuseful to be observed, because it gives fair evidence of the antiquity of the second sight, and withal shows that it descended from the ancient druids, as being one part of the diabolical magic they are charged with: and, upon their dispersion into the territories of Denmark and Swedeland, continued there, in the most heathenish parts, to this day, as is set forth in the story of the late Duncan Campbel." In Collins's "Ode on the popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland" are the following lines on this subject: Or, if in sports, or on the festive green, Their destin'd glance some fated youth descry, Who, now, perhaps, in lusty vigor seen, And rosy health, shall soon lamented die. To Monarchs dear, some hundred miles astray, Oft have they seen Fate give the fatal blow! The Seer, in Sky, shriek'd as the blood did flow When heedless Charles warm on the scaffold lay!" The minister of Applecross, in the county of Ross, speaking of his parishioners, in 1792, says, "With them the belief of the second sight is general." The following passage is in Waldron's Description of the Isle of Man." 66 "The natives of the island tell you, that, before any person dies, the procession of the funeral is acted by a sort of beings, which for that end render themselves visible. I know several that have offered to make oath that, as they have been passing the road, one of these funerals has come behind them, and even laid the bier on their shoulders, as though to assist the bearers. One person, who as sured me he had been served so, told me that the flesh of his shoulder had been very much bruised, and was black for many weeks after. There are few or none of them who pretend not to have seen or heard these imaginary obsequies (for I must not omit that they sing psalms in the same manner as those do who accompany the corpse of a dead friend), which so little differ from real ones, that they are not to be known till both coffin and mourners are seen to vanish at the church doors. These they take to be a sort of friendly demons; and their business, they say, is to warn people of what is to befal them : accordingly, they give notice of any stranger's approach by the trampling of horses at the gate of the house where they are to arrive. As difficult as I found it to bring myself to give any faith to this, I have frequently been very much surprised, when, on visiting a friend, I have found the table ready spread, and every thing in order to receive me, and been told by the person to whom I went, that he had knowledge of my coming, or some other guest, by these good-natured intelligencers. Nay, when obliged to be absent for some time from home, my own servants have assured me they were informed by these means of my return, and expected me the very hour I came, though perhaps it was On the 25th of November, 1724, the ship Bouevia, of London, burthen about 250 tons, Captain Brooks commander, set sail from the coast of Holland, having two pilots, one English, and the other Dutch; and the captain's wife on board with him. The day had been fair and clear; but in the evening, about six, it blew hard at south and by west. The gale increased into a violent storm, and continued for about seven hours, veering to the west, and north and by west; during which the ship was stranded off Enchuysen, in the Texel. In order to save themselves, if possible, the men all got into the longboat, and were just ready to put off, but, not seeing their captain among them, they called to him to hasten down, while the sea broke over the boat, and endangered her beating to pieces against the sides of the stranded vessel. The captain, in this perilous point of time, rushed to his seasick wife in the cabin, and earnestly laboured to bring her along with him. But she, who had heard the men cry out that the boat would sink under the weight of two persons more, embraced him passionately, and refused to go. She wept, and told him, in the most moring manner, that a woman in such an extremity would prove a dangerous incumbrance. She implored him not to think of dividing his care, but to employ it all for the preservation of his single life, much dearer to her than her own was. He at length prevailed upon her to ascend upon deck; where the first observation they made was, that the boat, having been beaten off from the ship by the force of the swell, was out of sight. The captain gazed in mute despair on his wife's face, when a billow, breaking over the midship, washed him headlong into the sea, and left her shrieking and alone behind him, till, after fell forward senseless. The boat, in the a succession of the bitterest outcries, she mean time, endeavouring to return to the ship, passed providentially near the captain, who was yet faintly swimming; her crew discerned him in the sea, and snatched him up, spent and speechless. In this condition they laid him at the bottom of the boat, and coming along the ship's side, one of the sailors saw his wife with her arms and clothes entangled in the shrouds. At the moment of her fall she had been saved and supported against the rigging. The boat's crew redoubled their efforts to save her; and succeeded in dragging her into the boat. They laid her apparently dead by the side of her husband, who was in the same condition, and put off again. With great difficulty they got ashore upon one of the islands in the Texel. Here the captain, on coming to himself, told his crew that they would have done more kindly had they let him perish in the sea, since his life would be for ever imbittered by the unhappy death of her for whose sake only he had thought it worth preserving. His wife was sufficiently recovered, and near enough to hear and answer this noble instance of her husband's tenderness. In a moment they were in each other's arms, with transports of joy, less capable of description than of being imagined. This relation was taken from the mouth of an eye-witness to their providential rescue, and happy discovery of each other's safety.❤ |