"Ah, Monsieur! I cannot hold myself down upon a chair, on a day like this. I am happier than a prince."

"Tant mieux, parlez."

"Monsieur, you are the friend of my master-the proprietor of this house."

"I am not his friend; but proceed."

"Ah, Monsieur, you have been stopping here but a few months, and you do not know the history of Monsieur B. who is in fact the father of the unfortunate."

Après !" I said with impatience. "Well, sir, I will confess to you that, if I am now a living man, if I am at my ease, if my poor Rosalie is beautiful and accomplished, it is to Monsieur B. that I owe it all."

"You!" I cried, looking at the wretched father with the liveliest interest.

"Oui, Monsieur, oui, moi-même! I was dying of hunger-had no clothes-no asylum. Rosalie, too, ce pauvre enfant, was in rags and misery. I presented myself before him-I did not supplicate him-I did not throw myself on my knees. Yet this good Monsieur B. placed me here, in this house; for six years he has supported, clothed, befriended me. Et puis, Monsieur ! he has taken the charge of my daughter's education, placed her at one of the first pensions in Marseilles, and taken as much care of her as if she were a duchess! To-morrow, yes, to-morrow he is going to restore her to me, too charming, it is true, for me to look on her without being dazzled. But this is not all. He has promised to make her a cadeau, which will ensure her happiness for life. Ce brave homme est mon Dieu, Monsieur !!"

"And what do you desire me to do for you, my friend?"

"Monsieur, I know you to be a man of prudence, and I came to ask your advice."

"Eh bien !"

"You cannot but feel, Monsieur, that I can ill bear the burden of this debt, without acquitting myself, as far as my humble means will permit, towards my noble benefactor."

VOL. II.

"Eh bien! Que voulez-vous faire?" Ah, voilà! I am not rich: and my six years' savings do not amount to a large sum. But my intention is good, and that suffices. I have long thought of the means of proving my gratitude towards Monsieur B. But my imagination is none of the liveliest; and it is not without a world of pains, that I have thought of consecrating all my savings to immortalize my saviour's generosity."

"To immortalize! His saviour!"

'Yes, to immortalize him! Tenez, regardez," he said, as he opened the wooden case which he held in his left hand. "Here is what they call a 'group.' It is of the finest marble, and the resemblance is striking. It represents Monsieur B. rescuing us from misery, covering us with his protection, and pointing to a brilliant future. How shall I introduce this into his sleeping apartment, so that to-morrow morning at waking he may find it for his étrennes? I should never dare to make my appearance with it before him. Pray, give me your advice, Monsieur; and tell me first whether you think it prettily executed?" both an

"Eh bien, I shall give you advice and a warning-listen to me attentively, and without interruption." Oui, Monsieur."

66

"Break this marble into a thousand pieces! Your pretended benefactor-your Sauveur, your Dieu-Monsieur B.-is an infamous seducer, who for six years has been making you the victim of a cowardly deception! He has made an accomplished woman of your daughter, not for your sake, not for her's, but for himself!"

"Comment cela ?" said the old man sharply.

"Chut! Malheureux père! You shall see to-morrow. T'o-morrow, instead of restoring to you your daughter, he will present you, for your étrennes, with a bag of crowns (a mere trifle to him), and will make himself a present of your daughter."

G

"Mais, c'est un horreur ! Ce n'est pas possible!"

"A' demain! Inform me of the moment when you shall be all three together, and then you will see whether I have deceived you."

The poor old man had turned white as paper, and shook as in a palsy. His footsteps wavered as he took his leave, and I heard stifled sobs in my

anti-chamber.

"Such is human delusion," I thought within myself. "Virtuous ignorance raises statues to vice!"

The first of January, 1820, was a lovely winter's day. Every roof in Marseilles was gilded by the sun. The streets were crowded with persons eager to partake the joies de famille; and the rich dashed the mud from their chariot-wheels upon the garments of the poor, as on most other days of the year. A splendid britschka stopped before my porte cochère. A woman of admirable beauty descended from it. Monsieur B. gave her his arm. The portier made me a sign to follow him; but I could not comply with his wish, for Monsieur B. politely shut the door in my face.

At the expiration of half an hour, the portier came down stairs, holding his daughter by the hand. His air was calm and dignified, and he seemed to me to be taller by six inches than before. I ran to the door, and endeavouring to hide his tears, he said:

"Monsieur B. is a demon, who has given me a glimpse of hell!" "What do you intend doing?" "He will pursue us."

"I shall take you under my protection."

"Alas! alas!" said the old man. His daughter was bathed in tears.

For twenty years past, Rosalie has been my wedded wife. Her fa

ther was the most excellent beaupère that the world ever saw As for Rosalie, I shall keep to myself the radiant record of the sole wedded history that never has had one blot upon its page!

"Mort de ma vie!" exclaimed a shrill female voice, "what farra you make yourself von grand cochon? Come-a to-bed direckily tout de suite, or I makes you, sacré blagueur !

Penrailway's eye quailed, and his whole frame trembled, as he rose from his seat and accepted the bed-room candle which his “bitter-half" offered him.

The fact is that Penrailway, with all his grandiloquent talk and decided manner, was horribly henpecked. Even Davie could perceive this, and as, cowed by the minacious lightnings of the matron's eye, he sought his hat and the door at the same moment, he could not help reverting to Penrailway's enthusiastic description of the joyous hour when first he set eyes on his "charming Rosalie,” and exclaiming, "Tampora mutawntur ! Weel, in a' my boarn days!"

The Serena, modernized "Serenade," as used by the Troubadours, was an amatory poem in which the lover sighed for the arrival of the evening (the name being derived from sers," soir"), and accused the tedious length of the day, which separated him from his beloved. Delicate and graceful imagery, and tender sentiment, were particularly characteristic of this description of poem. It is somewhat difficult to determine the precise distinctive character of the Bref-double, a species of poem which did not spring into existence until a late period, and of which but few specimens are to be found amongst the productions of the Troubadours. Most probably the title

made allusion to the limited number of couplets of which each piece was composed, as well as to the few verses of which these couplets consisted.

The specimen of the "Bref-double" here presented, is founded on a composition of Giraud Riquier, a Troubadour who attained to great fame, and whose writings are imbued with tender and passionate feeling. The last couplet in the original contains a specimen both of the simple and downright mode of expression in which the Troubadours indulged, and of their occasional terseness :

'Mos Belhs Deportz" (my sweet delight) he says, "this name makes me a liar! Mos dobles mals se tersa!" (My twofold wo becomes threefold.)

A.

So despotic is the power of interested prejudice that the most sensible people bow to its influence, and we often conclude unreasonably without examining a subject, because its decision has been adjudged by persons more eminent than ourselves. Many important discoveries have thus been prevented from securing a fair degree of notice, and this has been peculiarly the case with the doctrine of Mesmer. Dr. Sigmond is wrong in stating that after being many years consigned to oblivion it has again started into notice, unless he mean the remark to be confined to Eng

land, for it has never been so consigned on the Continent. In France the theory has never been relinquished from the time of Mesmer's first introducing it to the present day. In Prussia it is highly esteemed and encouraged. Under the patronage of the king himself, an establishment has been formed at Berlin, with the eminent Dr. Wolfort at its head, for cultivating its sanative powers, in which medical students are instructed in the modes of operating with

success.

The decline of magnetical treatment in England may be thus ac

counted for. Few persons choose to devote themselves to those anxious cares which accompany the practice, or can reconcile themselves to the privations and voluntary subjection to troublesome attendances which it demands; and upon the death of De Maineduc, there was a mighty host of opposition raised against it, the smoke-sellers fearing a decay of their trade, and verifying the philosophic remark, "L'interet parle toutes sortes de langues et joue toutes sortes de personnages, meme celui de désinteressés." The diplomatic conclusum of interested men was successful in checking its progress, honest inquiry was stifled in its cradle, and Mesmerism was untruly urged to be opposed to all medical science, although in cases where the usual medical means do not appear of pressing necessity, or where these have proved unavailing, or (as it does not impede the action of medicaments) where the proceedings of physic can be associated with it, its advocates fairly allege that it may be safely tried; and physicians would act more justly, instead of despising and decrying, to make experiment of its efficacy in quickening and accelerating the effect of their own curative endeavours.

The action of animal magnetism on the human nerves, its application to the alleviation of diseases, and the greater part of the phenomena which it produces, have been noticed in all ages. Many authors have described and endeavoured to account for these phenomena; but their descriptions are unfortunately mingled with absurd details, and their explanations founded on physical errors or superstitious opinions. The observations of Mesmer led him to distinguish what belonged to it from that which depended upon adventitious circumstances, and to inform mankind that they could give it such a direction as to make it instrumental in curing most of the diseases incidental to the human frame.

Animal magnetism has been much objected to on account of its speculative nature. But it is the dictum of a sound philosopher that:-" Pour assurer q'une chose existe, il n'est

point du tout necessaire de concevoir la maniere dont elle existe, ou dont elle peut exister." And this objection is destroyed by the numerous facts which have been irrefragably established. Magnetists acknowledge this truth:-"Ars medica ab eo quod molestum est liberat, et id ex quo cui ægrotat auferendo sanitatem reddit, idem et natura per se facere novit." In the principles upon which they act, they are fortified by numerous authorities. Van Helmont says, "I have hitherto deferred to make manifest a great mystery, namely, that in man there is placed an efficacy whereby he may be able to act out of himself, and to imprint a virtue-a certain influence which afterwards perseveres or subsists by itself, and acts on an object beneficially; for there lurks a certain spirit in the whole universe, which we call the great magnal or sheath, which is the pander of sympathy or fellow-feeling, and dyspathy or difficulty of suffering doth act as a communicator and promoter of actions, by reason whereof magnetism or attraction is, by a vehicle or instrument of conveyance, extended to an object even at a distance. There is a magical virtue, being as it were abstracted from the body, which is wrought by the stirring up of the more inward power of the soul, from whence there are made most potent procreations, most famous impressions, and most strong effects." And Paracelsus affirms: "To know this philosophic secret truly is necessary to a physician. None can be certain of his art except he cleave to this science. Certain diseases of the mind in particular are healed without the aid of natural physic; for in the minds of men there is a hidden virtue of changing, attracting, and binding, that it desireth to attract," &c.

The names of the Marquis de Puysegur and M. Deleuze are above suspicion; and the instances of cures performed and published by them are sufficient at least to shake incredulity, if not to disarm opposition. Deleuze remarks, "In diseases that are well known, but of which the cure is impossible or extremely diffi