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of some previous remarks upon hypochondria whence is derived the subjoined

Extract.

The spectra seen in hypochondriasis, and the gorgeous scenery of dreams under such states of excitement, serve to confirm the now received axiom in physiology, that it is not external objects in general that the mind actually views, but their forms exhibited on the sensorium; for cerebral action will sometimes take place spontaneously and produce visions. We quote the following from a modern writer :

"I know not whether my reader is aware that many children, perhaps most, have a power of painting, as it were, upon the darkness, all sorts of phantoms; in some that power is simply a mechanic affection of the eye; others have a voluntary, or a semivoluntary power to dismiss or to summon them; or, as a child once said to me when I questioned him on this matter, I can tell them to go, and they go; but sometimes they come when I don't tell them to come.' At night, when I lay awake in bed, vast processions passed along in mournful pomp; friezes of never-ending stories, that to my feelings were as sad and solemn as if they were stories drawn from times before Oedipus or Priam, before Tyre, before Memphis, and, at the same time, a corresponding change took place in my dreams; a theatre seemed suddenly opened and lighted up within my brain, which presented nightly spectacles of more than earthly splendor. And the four following facts may be mentioned

as noticeable at this time:-that, as the creative state of the eye increased, a sympathy seemed to arise between the waking and the dreaming states of the brain in one point, that whatsoever I happened to call up and to trace by a voluntary act upon the darkness, was very apt to transfer itself to my dreams; so that I leared to exercise this faculty-for, as Midas turned all things to gold that yet Jaffled his hopes and defrauded his Auman desires, so, whatsoever things copable of being visually represented I did but think of in the darkness, immediately shaped themselves into phantoms of the eye; and, by a process apparently no less inevitable when thus once traced in faint and visionary colors, like writings in sympathetic ink, they were drawn out ly tne fierce chemistry of my dreams irto in

sufferable splendor that fretted my heart. For this, and all other changes in my dreams, were accompanied by deep-seated anxiety and gloomy melancholy, such as are wholly incommunicable by words. I seemed every night to descend, not metaphorically, but literally to descend, into chasms and sunless abysses, depths, below depths, from which it seemed hopeless that I could ever re-ascend. Nor did I, by waking, feel that I had re-ascended. This I do not dwell upon, because the state of gloom which attended these gorgeous spectacles, amounting at least to utter darkness, as of some suicidical despondency, cannot be approached by words. The sense of space, and, in the end, the sense of time, were both powerfully affected. Buildings and landscapes were exhibited in proportions so vast as the bodily eye is not fitted to receive; space swelled, and was amplified to an extent of unutterable infinity. This, however, did not disturb me so much as the vast expansion of time; I sometimes seemed to have lived for 70 or 100 years in one night; nay, sometimes had feelings representative of a millenium passed in thd time, or, however, of a duration far bas yond the limits of any human experience. The minutest incidents of childhood, or forgotten scenes of later years, were often revived; I could not be said to recollect them, for if I had been told of them when waking, I should not have been able to acknowledge them as parts of my past experience: but placed as they were before me, in dreams like intuitions, and clothed in all their evanescent circumstances and accompanying feelings, I recognised them instantaneously.-I was once told by a near relation of mine, that having in her childhood fallen into a river, and being on the very verge of death but for the critical assistance which reached her, she saw in a moment her whole life, in its minutest incidents, arrayed before her simultaneously, as in a mirror, and she had a faculty, developed as suddenly, for comprehending the whole and every part. This, from some experiences of mine, I can believe."

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I am, Sir,

Your well wisher, MINA HILL Row. The General Assembly is the highest court in the church of Scotland. It is a representative body consisting of ministers and of elders, whose office bears a considerable resemblance to that of churchwardens in England, in the following proportions:

200 Ministers, representing seventyeight Presbyteries.

89 Elders representing Presbyteries. 67 Elders representing Royal Burghs. 5 Ministers, or Elders, representing Universities.

The business of the assembly is to decide all appeals and references in cases from inferior courts, as well as to enact general laws in regard to the internal administration of the church, with the consent of a majority of presbyteries.

The general assembly meets annually on the 25th of May, at Edinburgh. It is honored with the presence of a representative of the sovereign in the person of a Scottish peer, with the title of His Grace Lord High Commissioner, but he has no vote nor takes any part in the proceedings. On the evening previous to the day of meeting he holds a levee, when the magistrates are introduced; the Lord Provost makes a complimentary address, and presents the silver keys of the city to him. The present Lord High Commissioner is James Lord Fobres.

During the ten days of the assembly's sitting the commissioner holds daily levees and public entertainments, which are attended by the members of assembly and the leading nobility and gentry in the city and neighbourhood. On the day appointed for the meeting he walks in state

to the high church, attended by the no bility, magistrates, and gentry, with his personal attendants, and a military guard of honor, where a sermon is preached by the moderator (or speaker) of the last assembly; after which his grace proceeds to the assembly house, which is an aisle of the church, where a throne is prepared for his reception. The moderator then opens the meeting with prayer, the roll of the new assembly is read, and a minister from that roll is appointed moderator. The royal commission is then delivered to the assembly from the throne by the nobleman who bears it, accompanied by a letter from the sovereign, which having been respectfully read and recorded, the commissioner addresses the assembly in a speech from the throne, to which a suitable reply is made by the moderator, and a committee is appointed to prepare an answer to the king's letter. These and other preliminary proceedings being finished, the assembly proceeds to the transaction of its legislative and judicial bu siness, in discussing which it has adopte some of the forms which are established in parliament, and other great assemblies for the preservation of order and decorum In the case of a division the sense of the house is collected, by the names on the roll being called by one of the clerks, and the votes being marked by the principal clerk, under the eye of the moderator.

On the tenth day of its sitting, the assembly is closed by an address from the moderator, followed by prayer and singing. It is then dissolved, first by the moderator, who, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as the head and king of his church, appoints another assembly to be held on a certain day in the month of May the year following; and then by the Lord High Commissioner, who in his majesty's name appoints another assembly to be held on the day mentioned by the moderator.

As the General Assembly is the only great deliberative body which now meets in Scotland, and its proceedings often give rise to animated and even brilliant debates, its meeting is generally regarded with a great, and of late years an increasing, degree of interest in the northern metropolis, and over the country P.

A Puny EPISTLE TO Kirk of SCOTLAND. A FRAGMENT.

Somervilie, 26th May, 1830. DEAR Kirk,-Agreeably to my promise, made to give you an account of my

late visit, last Whitsonday, to my friend Mr. Hendry Constable, Baillie of Landsborough, of which, by the bye, I have had the honour of being made a Burgess and Guildbrother, I now sit down to give you a short detail of my journey, and of which I Begg you will Grant me the favor of your perusal, and Hope it may amuse, and you'll Kenn-e-dy more about it. Having made my arrangements the previous evening, I started at the Grey of the morning; (I wish to Findlater hours to rise at), and although it threatened to be Rennie, it turned out only Sommers showers. After passing Aiton, the name of which I have forgot, and where I was sadly Bisset with Biggars, one of whom, of the clan Gregor, with a Brown hat, and very few Clason, holding out a Primrose in his hand, said (to Currie favor with me)" Smellie tat ;" and through Easton, where a Frenchman, inquiring the time of day, asked me if it was yet Denoon? and Middleton? At this latter place I was amused in hearing a recruiting serjeant haranging a crowd, and bawling out Liston my lads! Liston! Not being very well acquainted with the remainder of the road, I inquired of a Shepherd, and no Manson could be more civil; he directed me to go by the Burnside, turn round by the end of a Milne, (Adam Sivewright is the Miller), then to cross the Ferrie, which would lead me to a Muir, on the other side of which was a Glen or Shaw, where I would find a Winehouse, at the sign of the Reid Lyon, kept by Curdie Lamb, and there get farther information.

Being an excellent Walker I set out with vigour, although I had previously climbed a high Hill, and from whence I had a fine view of Colville and Melville on the Lee side, and passed a Cunningham lass on a Carr, carrying a Wemyss, almost Stark naked, in her arms. Having arrived at the Muirhead, I observed several Cairns at the side of a Wood, which a Black Smith with a White Baird, who was Brunton the hand, and firing a Canaan, told me were frequented by a Bogle, and made people as frightened as Duncan in Macbeath.

By the time I came to the hostelrie, I found, from my long walk, my bones Aitken. It is pleasantly situated by the side of a Burn, at the bottom of a Craig of Alpine height, and had a Kidd browsing on it; a Bower of Roses (with a Goldie chiruping in it,) made by a Gardiner, and sweet fragrance of Flowerdew; a bowling

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Green in front, and in view of Lochore, and a Swan on it. I resolved to dine there, and, upon knocking at the door, some one called out," Cumming;" upon entering and going into the Spence, I inquired at the Cook, who was sitting at the Inglis side, what I could have for dinner; when she told me that the landlord was not at Home, and the only thing she could give me was a Cock, which I might have done on the Brander; but this, I considered, would be too Tough for me, so would not Touch a Tait o't. My appetite by this time beginning to Craik and Cron, I rung the Barr Bell, on which the landlord who had been calling on the Laird concerning Humphry Cooper, the Glover, having been fighting with a Taylor, a Souter, and a Baxter, about a Gunn-made his appearance, and, upon stating my wish to him, he told me to Boyd till I see, and I'll Mc 'All right to ye;" and on his return said, that I had had a Story put upon me, for that I could have a steak off a free Martin, but it proved as hard as Steel, a Craw pye (they never will again cry Caw!) or a Dow dressed with Butter-this I picked to the Bayne-and perhaps a Garvie Heron, but of Salmon he had not so much as a Phin, having mislaid the Lister. I accordingly ordered the whole, being determined to Mc Lean work; and, while thus occupied, the landlord, a Jollie enough personage, with a bald Pate, who professed the Cottart, or breaking of horses, and merry as a Greig, but withal Wyllie as Tod Lawrie told me he was a Welchman, and loved the Scott. He had been a great traveller, having been at Leith, Forfar, Dingwall, Stirling Hamilton, Lockerby, Irvine, Traquhair, Dunbar, and even as far as Lunan, and seen the King attended by a Noble. He appeared to be well acquainted with the Burgh. He said that it could scarcely be called a Freeland, for that there were-I Add is on words," o'er Monilaws in't ;" and since the Temperance Society began, (Menz' ies are now opening,) there was only one Brewster in the place. The Sherriff, Mr. Lawson, who is a terrible Flyter, and has got Roger Maule appointed Dempster; and his Clerk, who is very Gleig, he was intimate with, and also with Mr. Herdman, the minister, who is very Meek, Gentle, and Sage, and as worthy an Adamson as ever mounted a pulpit, and though an Auld man is married to a Young wife, and still Putters-on in his accustomed old

way.

He has an excellent band of Singers in his Kirk, which is led by Davie Sangster, the precentor, who has a pair of Cruick shanks, but is a first rate Singer. One peculiarity is, that all Cosins go there in Capples, carrying a pair of Tawse in their hands; and the females with a Paton on one Foote only, and that they call the Proudfoot; this was a Les-lie than I expected! Eadie, lately the people were not a Little alarmed by a Dunn Bullock bolting into the church, just as he had given out for his text, "Asher shall not save us;" however, Peter Meiklejohn ty Hunter (although in general no Turnbull) and Paul Littlejohn the Forrester, soon turned him out-the latter having a cudgel, part of the Firewood, g ven him by a Wright, in his hand.

By this time it was beg nning to Macknight, although the Moon

ORIGIN OF TEJ TS.

The taking of a text seet is to have originated with Ezra, who, accompanied by several Levites, in a public congregation of men and women, ascended a pulpi', opened the book of the law, and, after addressing a prayer to the Deity, to which the people said Amen, " read in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading." Previously to that time, the Patriarchs delivered, in public assemblies, either prophecies or moral instructions for the edification of the people. It was not until the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, during which period they had almost lost the language in which the Pentateuch was written, that it became necessary to explain, as well as to read, the Scriptures to them; a practice adopted by Ezra, and since universally followed. In later times the books of Moses were thus read in the synagogue every sabbath day. To this custom our Saviour conformed; and, in the synagogue at Nazareth, read a passage from the prophet Isaiah; then closing the book, returned it to the priest, and preached from the text. This custom, which now prevails all over the Christian world, was interrupted, in the dark ages, when the Ethics of Aristotle were read in many churches, on Sunday, instead of the Holy Scriptures.

October 23.

23rd of October, 1707, Sir Cloudesly Shovel perished at the age of forty-seven with all his crew, on the rocks of Scilly. He was then a rear-admiral, and commander-in-chief of the fleet, with other official distinctions. He had been the son of a poor man at Norwich, and had run away from his apprenticeship to a shoemaker, in order to enter into the navy, in which his attention and diligence, under admiral Sir John Narborough, raised him from being a cabin boy to the rank of lieutenant. He rapidly attained to the highest honors of the service. Plain in his manners, and open and honest, the nation loved the man who seemed to have no aim but to advance its interests, when splendor was necessary, he observed it. He once entertained on board his ship the duke of Savoy, with sixty covers, and an attendance of sixty halberdiers; and every thing was conducted in so much appropriate order, that the duke said to the admiral at dinner, "If your excellency had paid me a visit at Turin, I could scarce have treated you so well.” He was lost on his way home from Toulon, with 900 seamen of all stations;

Yet,

of whom not an individual survived to tell to what the fatal accident was owing. His body was found, and buried with public distinction, in Westminster Abbey,

where there is an immense but tasteless monument to his memory.

In the formulary prepared by archblessing on our fleets and armies," in the bishop Tenison "for imploring the divine month of April preceding, there was this expression, "the rock of our might,"

which some heartless wit remembered in the following

Verses laid on Sir Cloudesly Shovel's tomb in Westminster Abbey.

As Lambeth prayed, so was the dire event,
Else we had wanted here a monument:
That to our fleet kind Heaven would be a rock ;
Nor did kind Heaven the wise petition mock:
To what the metropolitan did pen,
The Bishop and his Clerks replied Amen.

The rocks of Scilly are called by the people of the country, and mariners in general," the Bishop and his Clerks."

The loss of Sir Cloudesly Shovel and all his crew has been attributed to excess of liquor, in drinking their "safe arrival," after a perilous cruise in the Mediter ranean. Indeed," says Mr.Noble, "whe the dangers of Scilly are recollected,

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