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FRAGMENTS FOR THE FANCIFUL.

PROPHETS THAT NEVER ERR.-Virtue and vice are both prophets, the one of certain good, the other of pain or peni

tence.

TIME.-Time never slackens his speed; on he goes without let, check, or stop. The season round, night and day, he wings his flight, as though he had an end to gain; and yet to time there is no end. So years flee away, and ages roll, and the tomorrows, from infancy to age, are but the echoes of our yesterdays.

ADVERSITY exasperates fools, dejects cowards, draws out the faculties of the wise and ingenious, puts the modest to the necessity of trying their skill, awes the opulent, and makes the falling industrious. Much might be said in favour of adversity, but the worst of it is, it has no friends.

DIFFUSION OF BLESSINGS.-The joy resulting from the diffusion of blessings to all around us is the purest and sublimest that can enter the human mind, and can be conceived only by those who have experienced it. Next to the consolations of Divine grace, it is the most sovereign balm to the miseries of life, both in him who is the object of it, and in him who exercises it; and it will not only soothe and tranquillise a troubled spirit, but inspire a constant flow of good humour, content, and gaiety of heart.

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TO OUR QUERISTS.-This department of our work involves the solution of "horary questions," so called from a figure of the heavens being erected for the hour in which the question is asked, and from the indications manifest in which the corresponding answers are derived. It will, therefore, be absolutely necessary for all correspondents to specify the exact hour and day on which they commit the question to paper for our judgment, and the replies will then be given accordingly. As this important feature of the starry science will necessarily occupy considerable time which he is willing to devote, without reward, to benefit the public, THE ASTROLOGER hopes that the liberality of his offer will protect him from the correspondence of those who desire adjudication upon frivolous subjects, or who are merely actuated thereto by motives of idle and foolish curiosity. All subjects on which they may be really anxious, can be solved with absolute certainty; and the election of favourable periods for marriage, speculation, or commencing any new undertaking with advantage, will be cheerfully and readily pointed out from week to week. All communications addressed to "THE ASTROLOGER" will be considered as strictly confidential, and the initials only given in the

oracle.

TO CORRESPONDENTS..

QUESTOR." As it merely requires the date of a person's birth to be known to enable the Astrologer to trace out that person's future career, might not several disputed occurrences in the lives of eminent men of past times be cleared up by the Astrologer, if the date of their birth be ascertained ?" Most certainly; but the want of the true time of birth would be the chief difficulty. You cannot rectify a nativity by doubtful

events.

TYRO.-There are a few spots visible on the surface of the sun at present, but we do not consider that their appearance or disappearance exerts any palpable effect on the temperature of our earth. The sun is, doubtless, environed by a luminous atmosphere of several thousand miles in thickness, and the one beneath being more dense and highly reflective, throws back the light of the upper regions, and forms the shady belt of the solar spots. There is no reasonable doubt of the "golden orb of day" being inhabited; but reasoning by analogy, we may suppose the dwellers on that vast and lucid globe are of a more etherial and exalted nature than ourselves. The notion of it being a mere region of fire has been long exploded, and was indeed never generally believed. VINDEX.-There are many such instances on record. The 18th day was always associated with some strange events in the life of Napoleon. Besides many more for which we cannot here find space, there were the engagements from which he assumed the consulate, that of Torlina, on the river Beresina, the battles of Leipsic and of Waterloo, all which were fought on the 18th of the month. On that day, also, his corpse was landed on St. Helena, and on the 18th, also, the Belle Poule sailed with his remains for France.

INGRAM.-August will prove a most beneficial month to you, and an appointment will be made in your favour, though possession may not immediately follow. The other question does not fall within our province to decide, though we should suggest south of the Thames.

ZOROASTER.-Thou must inquire of thy spirit, which is within, and not seek communion with our's, which is without. Say unto it, "Thou, my spirit, thou that knowest this, that speakest to thyself, what art thou? What wast thou ere this clay coat was cut for thee?-and what wilt thou be when it is gone, crumbled, into the earth whence it arose? Whence didst thou come? Whither wilt thou go? Darkness is before and behind thee. Thou art the pause between two eternities. Where are ye, yet invisible essences, as yet unclothed, uninvested with this material garment? Know ye that ye be? Know ye that ye were ?-that ye are as we are, or otherwise in eternity? Do ye work within us when a holy thrilling darts through us like lightning, where not the skin trembles, but the soul within us? Tell me, then, oh! spirit, what is death?" Thus commune with thy soul at midnight-in solitude and silence-and fear not that the invocation will be responded to. THE VERITABLE DEE.-You are quite wrong in your supposition. It is well known there is the greatest difficulty in conceiving the nature of spirit, but, if we are required to prove its existence, we may answer, by analogy, that we cannot always prove the existence of matter, alhough we know it to exist. The electric fluid may remain for an indefinite period invisible-nay, may never meet the sight-it may even traverse a space without any evidence but that of its wonderful influence, and at length be collected in a jar. Now, as light, existing in remote stars, has not yet reached our earth, so the electricity is now residing in myriads of bodies which will never be elicited, and thus the principle of life, whatever it may be, may have an independent existence during life-may yet leave the body and not perish. Here we have a fine illustration of the soul without the body, for here even a grosser matter, yet invisible, is evinced by its passage from one thing to another, although it is inert when involved in the substance. Our correspondent possesses some talent, or we should not have thought it worth while to have answered him at this length, but he should remember a kind and generous disposition is always one of the most valued characteristics of genius.

REMONSTRATOR.-You should remember that the belief in the existence of beings out of the common course of nature has been linked even with the very history of the world. Johnson confessed that "a belief in the apparitions of the dead could only become universal by its truth," and afterwards added, that "although all argument might be against it, yet all belief is for it." Under these circumstances, it would be at least advisable to suspend any opinion at variance with the possibility of these occurrences, until we have a more decided knowledge of the nature of our etheriality than we have at present.

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SATURNIUS. It is your own fault. Behold the silver moon; it | T. B. (Kirkintilloch).-You will receive a private answer. The is to the poet's eye an orb of unsullied beauty, and the planets and their satellites glitter like diamond-studs in the firmament. Yet, shift but the lens of the star-gazer to your own eye, and dark and murky spots will be found to o'ershadow its purity. So is it with the deeds to which you refer.

J. R. W.-The ancient Hindus are most probably entitled to the priority, having made observations on the stars at a very early period, with an entire reference to either astrology, religion, or policy of state. The Hindu tables claim an epoch of 3,102 B.C., and fix a general conjunction of the sun, moon, and planets at that era, the beginning of the caliyug, or iron age of their mythology.

VENI, VIDI, VICI.-The measurement of time, according to the rules of Naibod, give three months, four days, and fourteen hours, which, we calculate, is about the time that will elapse before you are established according to your wishes. Having ascertained this, we erected a second figure, to know whether it would be at home or abroad, and, from the indications therein, we judge that you will first be stationed in England (seemingly in the capacity for which you have become qualified), but that, after a brief period of time, an appointment will be gained which will render a continental residence ne. cessary. We perceive no reason to fear the loss of that friendship your merits and misfortunes have contributed to gain. T. E. G.-Nothing would give us greater pleasure than to accede to our waggish friend's jovial invitation, and, when the event occurs, we hold him responsible for a magnum. Indeed, we give a kind of half-promise to stand sponsor to "the first." J. R.-You may rely upon our discretion, and shall have the greatest attention paid to your instructions. We perceive nothing to promise a change this month.

LEO.-The change will be favourable to you. Your thirtieth year is the period indicated for marriage, which will be accompanied by an increase of wealth and business; but we do not judge you will ever leave your native country for a long time. There is a friend with whom you are in constant communication likely to be of great service to you. Do not neglect him. More anon.

CANCER. You have supplied us with the day, but not the hour of the child's birth, which prevents any approach to the indication of time. From a judgment on the nativity, taken at six, a.m. (which, rectifying the nativity from the circumstances, induces us to believe is about the right hour), we find several narrow escapes from wounds and blows, particularly on the head, will occur, until the native attains his eleventh year; but we do not judge any of these will be fatal. Our work has been regularly published since its commencement, and may be obtained by order of any bookseller. We have had, of course, great opposition to contend with, and can only attribute the neglect of the Manchester agent to this feeling, so general amongst the bigoted portion of mankind.

VIRGO. We have read our correspondent's letter with much interest, and will from time to time endeavour to render him all the assistance in our power. The result of our present calculation is this: you will not now find happiness in the matrimonial state, and, therefore, it would be judicious to avoid it, at least until the February of 1846, when more favourable influences will prevail. If your inventive faculties are concentrated on the production of one novelty at a time, you will succeed; but much energy will be required to obtain the remuneration it deserves. December is the only month we see likely to affect you beneficially this year, although some good directions fall out a short time previously; but the D being in 8 to at birth, will always render you liable to have impediments thrown in your way by legal quibbles and delays. The other next week.

JOHN (Dublin).-We interpret thy kindly suggestion in a right cordial and responsive spirit. For what thou seekest after, learn that Jupiter was quartile to the ascendant, foreshadowing, in the words of the ingenious Zadkiel, "losses of money, deceptions, and injuries by churchmen and magistrates. The native is careless and improvident, and false friends betray." When thou shalt penetrate the mazes of our modern Babylon, thou shalt find a boon, a blessing, and a welcome.

day alluded to will have a beneficial effect either way, but chiefly for commencing the business transactions with the public, in which way we would advise your friend to understand it. For the kind feeling displayed in your letter we tender our sincere acknowledgements.

A. B. (Manchester.)-An excess of speculation will be the cause of his downfall this autumn. Those days on which you find, as indicated in our Calendar, favours may be asked, will tend to the fulfilment of your wishes. The letter with enclosure has only been received a few days, but it will meet with attention.

PENSIEROSO. We have again studied the figure, but see no reason to contravert what we before stated. It is from a matrimonial alliance that your present circumstances will receive a beneficial impetus; but if you are not likely, as we suspect, to be one of the principal parties concerned, it will be in the alliance of one of your intimate acquaintances. The party to whom you allude is evidently in a position to confer great advantages upon you; but, should an opportunity conveniently occur, call upon him on the 24th, and again on the 29th of this month, and let us know the result. About the time this number will fall into your possession, we anticipate a new incident will have occurred in your eventful life. J. P. (Liverpool.)-We all of us have a mission to fulfil on earth, and, without arrogance, we begin to believe our's is a most peculiar and influential one, tending to bind the broken hopes of many who would otherwise despair, and infusing a spiritual solace in the homes of poverty and penury. Here we have a letter from one in very humble circumstances, who has enlisted under our banner, and offers himself as a disciple, with lofty thoughts and intelligence, beyond what might have been anticipated from his station, and an original metaphysical turn of mind, that, in a more favourable position, would have made him a Locke, a Hobbes, or a Berkeley: a letter like that we have received does credit to the head, heart, and hand, which shared in its dictation. Be, then, our friend J. P.-whoever thou art-of good cheer. We have read the book of the stars for thy behoof, and learn that thy troubles will soon cease, and that thy brother will communicate with thee in six months.

ANXIETY.-We will subject your question anew to the rules of our art, and, if we can possibly spare the time, will enclose the result to your private address, as requested. The advertisement may probably not have yet developed its good effects. Even an arrow requires time to reach the mark. AROJUS.-Both that day and the day following, at the same hour, should produce the train of circumstances we indicated; but you must court, not shun, the sunshine. Our paper had gone to press last week when your letter arrived. NERVOUS ANXIETY (Vauxhall).-Taking the question of speculation as the horary one, we do not advise you to be too sanguine respecting its success; nevertheless, to retrieve your former losses, it will be necessary for you to quit London. An arrangement, amicable, with one very troublesome exception, will soon after follow.

ASTRAL.-We have received your second sympathetic epistle, and instructed our publisher to comply with your request Mercury, the Sun, and even the strange and wayward Herschel, are all immediately concerned in your nativity. Change of place and scene will frequently occur after May, 1846. Do not be uneasy concerning the vision. Look to our next. The fragment alluded to would interest us mightily.

UN AMI. The scheme of your nativity lies before us. You are not deceived, but, as an union does not appear likely until your twenty-fifth year has passed by, we would earnestly caution you to be wary in continuing the connection. Broken hearts are not such fables as the cold sons of mortality would have us believe. Your success in the present undertaking will much depend upon your own unceasing and untiring energy. Have regard to your health in the month ensuing, and subdue all approaches to an irritable and restless disposition, which would otherwise materially interfere with your future happiness and prosperity, nor let a love of argument seduce you into a love of display. Be warned in time.

FIDE ET FORTITUDINE.-To win a disciple such as thou art is the most gratifying tribute to our exertions. Welcome, oh, searcher after the hidden and inscrutable within our mystic circle! Thou hath said sooth and believed aright. One of the veritable brothers of the Rosy Cross doth exist-one who humbly hath attained the pinnacle he sought. From the tenor of thy letter, which hath touched responsive chords within our own heart, we judge thee worthy to be one of the initiated. Await the appearance of our following number, and learn further.

RECEIVED.-E. A. B. (No).-AN OLD SUBSCRIBER (You will quit your present abode, but not travel for some time).CAROLINE GRANT (Yes).-EMMA CARTER (Your health will improve before your circumstances).-MARY Cox (Keep where you are, and you will have what you wish).-AMI (You will at first meet with some opposition, but, by renewing your claim with ardour, will overcome it, and be successful).— C. MN (The perpetrator of the theft will not be discovered. You may expect to see the father).-Cook (In less than a month).-MILTON (The young lady must write herself, and send her time of birth).-GEORGE GREENHOUGH (You must write more intelligibly).-S. E. (No, you will not).MEGGY P. (Consult thy former choice).-S. E. (Do not be too sanguine, and keep what Heaven gave).-EMILY BELL (An offer of hand and heart).-ANNE P. (You will never be married).-P. G. (Such a step would be injudicious).-LOUDA(We have in another periodical been much pleased with your poetical lucubrations; but for the sake of our worthy printer, as well as ourselves, do take six lessons in caligraphy from somebody). T. W. (You may tell your friend Mr. Stephens to continue his present employment, for a glimmering of good fortune will be soon at hand. If he moves, let him turn to the “ sunny South").-O. N. E. (Your future occupation will be in connection with lands or metals).-A. B. C. (Advise your son to remain where he now is for five years longer, and he will prosper).-TENANT (Let her not lose her own self-respect, and she will soon be on the road to happiness).-CHARLES THE SECOND (Thy dream portendeth some connection with the mazes of the law).-JUPITER IN AQUARIUS (We judge the sick will recover).-CORNELIA BURTON (Already answered. It will live).-S. W. PUGH (Your fortune will improve with the waning of the year. The suit will not be settled this term, but an advantageous union will take place).-ELIZA EMMA (He is not happy, but the 25th year will produce the change). -H. H. H. H. (It will lead to a final separation).-CORNELIUS HODSON (Remain as you now are, but an application made in the quarter mentioned will produce a satisfactory result).-KIRK (You have not been forgotten, but we are perfectly overwhelmed with correspondence at present).-JAMES CHARLESWORTH (A mercantile situation will be offered).A. X. I. (You will not marry again at all).-LILYAN (Your brother seems at present safe).--B. O. Y. (Get Zadkiel's "Grammar of Astrology," price five shillings, which you can order through your bookseller. Then write again).-C. EADES (With every wish to oblige, we must say you are becoming too encroaching. We will see, however, what time and patience can accomplish).-MARY ANN FRANCIS (Take heed of false promises and broken vows this year, and look forward with hope to the next).-GEORGE MORTON (See our last number). -P. V. (We should like to have a perusal of the paper on dreams. Prosperity would ultimately attend business, but in the interim an advertisement would be beneficial. By no means open on your own account in the same profession).K. C. B. (Await the 27th of August, and then you will be in a better position to arrange the prospects of the future).SUN IN LEO (The eclipse would produce the falling off of some friends and business, but be of short duration).-M. T. (It will be the fault of both).-S. L. M. (She is alive, and a speedy return may be expected).-SAMUEL HOWARD (We are afraid not).-ANNE TODD (You will have to wait 18 months yet).-C. TEMPLE (If you had been a "constant subscriber," you would have read a reply addressed to you some weeks since. You will please to remember the obligation is on your side. We devote our days and nights to ceaseless toil for the benefit of our fellow-creatures, and reap no reward).-EMILY H. H. (You have already seen him, and must "bide your

time").—JAMES W. (You will find a friend at a time and place that he will be least expected).-A. G. (There has already occurred a slight change in your prospects).-E. FENTON (We judge not).-MARY JANE (You have nothing to fear from any thing but your own imprudence).-T. L. (You will see him in the course of the present autumn, when, if your claim is urged, it will be duly responded to).-CLARA HART (Time of birth must be given).-J. B. (We decline answering; it is not a question that should be asked).-J. B. M. (To the first in the negative; to the last an affirmative).-S. M. VINEROW (The present year will produce a decided change).-G. D. (Your wife will not receive the legacy she expects).-DE GRUNWELL (The business will be prosperous. Consult our Calendar. The work by Gadbury is scarce, but generally obtains a high price-say seventeen shillings-in the book market).—C. H. (In your 26th year).—E. E. B. (If the time of birth be correct, you will never be married at all).-L. M. N. (Your 30th year. Tall, dark, and of a mechanical turn of mind).-M. Ě. V. (Yes!)-ANNETTE (Your future life will not be similar to the past. You will this next September meet one to whom your vows must be given).-ELIZABETH VELVET (She hath already determined on the kind of person, and in March next will solve your remaining doubt).-C. B. [Brighton] (We are afraid not; at least some obstacle appears likely to rise, that may retard your happiness).-ADELINE MOURDENT (Take notice of what passes on August 30th, 1845, and your mind will be set at rest).-M. S. D. (No).-H. ISAACS (She is doing well, but will not return for some time).-P. C. (You have been answered before).-SUSANNAH B. (You will not be).-E. B. (No, but the year after).-□ (You will see the information you require).-MARIA E. (You must wait hopefully and trustfully until next October, when a change for the better will happen).-R. C. H. (You have a good prospect even now before you take advantage of it).-P. W. (You are quite mistaken. Look again).-THOMAS WEBB (You would be much benefited by a change of place. Your wife will receive it).-ELIZABETH DAYBROOKE (It depends upon your own exertions and your sweetheart John).-THOMAS HIRST (It will not tend to your prosperity).-M. Á. E. (Wait a month, and then decide).-All querists not answered this week must consult our next.

GENERAL NOTICE.

All the back numbers of this unique and original publication have been reprinted, and can now, without extra charge, be obtained through any bookseller in town or country. For a small sum like eighteen-pence, the purchaser would be thus in possession of a complete volume on the OcCULT SCIENCES, and the general tendency of its pages to elevate and refine will be admitted by all who have had the opportunity of perusal. For those gratifying and encouraging letters which he has received from men of high intellect and lofty station, the Astrologer here begs to offer his sincere, though comprehensive, acknowledgments, and urges his friends and subscribers generally to recommend a work which aims at disseminating a creed of TRUTH and BEAUTY, inculcating the highest doctrine which the human mind is capable of receiving, and endeavouring to sow the seeds of hope and concord, that may ripen into a future harvest of peace and good will to all men." ESTO PERPETUA!

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THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE.

FOR Some thousands of years we have been gradually gathering knowledge, plucking, dreamily, leaves wholesale from the forbidden tree, and strewing them over the pathways we have trodden for sixty centuries. We must have learned something in this time, so let us see the result of our garnerings.

The distance of the sun from the earth has been reduced to figures, which expressed a sum scarecely perceptible from its enormousness to human faculties. The distance of the stars was found to exceed this by a proportion not more appreciable. The milk which gushed from the deep bosom of the flying goddess was found to be of stars, of suns, in pairs and groups. Every advance in the practice of optics revealed to us a region in comparison to which the one we had previously known proved but a miniature. The myriad-sunned boundary of our so called "universe" now seems but the frame and exterior of one among a host of individuals; it is no longer the firmament, but one of multitudes, and not even the vastest among its race. Balked in the desire to reach a final boundary, the mind leapes forward-anticipates the space that is to be realised at the next change in optical practice, and consoles its unsatisfied

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yearnings for an end by assuming that there is none. But if we arrive at the conclusion that space outwards-if the term be precise enough to be allowed-is infinite, we find it no less infinite inwardly. The drop of water is a sea to the gigantic monsters which infest it, and withal so fertile that even they can no more depopulate it than the less horrid devastators of the Atlantic. What must be the size of that object which to their prey seems small? Yet we cannot but believe that myriads of creatures surround these, who were themselves latent to our sight, until the recent improvements of the microscope-unseen, unguessed at-a microscopic world beyond the world of our microscope. Thus, outwards and inwards, we are driven to the conclusion that space is infinite. But as nothing which is subject to the strict examination of our senses is found desert, nothing, in fact, but what is teeming with life, in endless varieties subsisting upon one another, as if even, in the infinity of space, the most rigid economy were employed to crowd into it the greatest possible quantity of living species, and, as the earth appears to hold many things in common with the planets, the planets with the solar system, the solar system with the whole firmament, and the firmament with all the rest that glow in the profound space, we cannot resist the belief that life warms throughout that vast expanse

* which mocks the power of language to express it. We have literally been compelled to exhaust worlds and then imagine new. We have guaged, with Herschel, the star-lit dome of heaven, and plumbed, with Buckland, the spreading labyrinths of earth; yet to what has this unceasing train of discovery tended?-what wondrous truths have we learned that left nothing to desire beyond?-what goal have we sought, and, seeking, attained! We are but at the base of the mountain, when we fancy we have reached the summit.

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LEAVES OF LEGENDARY LORE. No. VI.-THE ROSICRUCIAN, OR THE SPIRIT SEEKER.

"Princes and peers

Of this dim realm!-shapes of this lower world!
Ghosts of this confined solitude! and sprites
Lurking 'midst shadows and 'midst monuments,
Ye are around me in most baleful court,
The moon's blue glimmer, and the still cold air
Of wizard midnight, weaving an airy fane
To dome your presence-awe. I stand i' the midst
Of a spectre circle, where pale face, and face,
Ices the gaze. No motion, but a crowd

Of shadows ring me. Now for my task of dread."

ASTOLFO.

"And, after all," said Lubeck Schieffel, soliloquising aloud, of the university-have learned all the professors can teach, "what do I know? It is true I have obtained the first honours and am considered the ablest scholar in Gottingen; still, how little do I know, and how unsatisfactory that knowledge is. Ay, what do you know?" said a voice so near that it made "I know," said Lubeck, "that you are some idle fool to be prating here at this time of night," for he felt both shame and anger gave way to surprise, when, upon turnashamed and angry his soliloquy had been overheard; but ing suddenly round to discover the speaker, he was not able to perceive any one, though the moon shone brightly and for a single tree or other object which could have afforded conceal considerable distance around was a level plain, without a ment.

What is the amount of that part of the whole universe of which we have any settled and tolerably certain ideas? How large is the section of that portion to the nature of whose constituent parts we have the smallest clue? And which part of that section makes any respectable item in our catalogue of elementary knowledge ? The last is confined to the earth itself, the microscopic speck (if size, indeed, mean anything to aught but our limited sense) which we inhabit. This we pre-him start. sume to be that part which we can most intimately examine How much do we know of that? Every fresh turn in the path of inquiry shows us so much beyond what the wildest speculations might lead us to expect, that we are forced to conclude that since the recent period at which free and systematic inquiry commenced, a most infinitesimal portion of the journey towards consummate knowledge has been accomplished. Of the earth itself we know but the outside of the crust. Of the creatures that inhabit it-even those visible to us-we know little more than their forms and external actions. Their

motives, feelings, reasons, instincts (oh! word of obscurity and disputation), are for the most part unintelligible to us. Of the plants, we know some of the conditions of their individual existence, and some of their effects upon ourselves and a few other animals, and upon each other; but whether they have consciousness, is one of our vaguest and most tantalising surmises. Of ourselves, how much do we comprehend? Do we know where we come from, and whither we are going? Do we know how we support life, or a hundredth part of what our bodies are doing? Are not all the functions of our body still a mystery? And if this be so with the body, how stands the case with the mind? Do we know what it is, and how it acts for us upon us, or with us, or by us bodily ?-or how does the body retaliate upon that OTHER US, the mind? Can we analyse our own motives, feelings, or sensations? The operations of our being and its conditions, physical and mental, are known to us no further than the mere service they render. And yet we prate of the wondrous knowledge of the nineteenth century,

and our lecturers hold forth on the mass of scientific crudities we have been ages scraping together. Oh! ye of little lore! of a verity the tree of knowledge is yet unplucked—its leaves are scathless!

MORNING IN THE COUNTRY.-The country is so calmly beautiful in the morning, that it seems rather to belong to the world of dreams which we have just quitted--to be some paradise, which suffering and care cannot enter, than to form a portion of a busy and anxious world, in which even the very flowers must share in decay and death,

The astonishment of Lubeck was beyond description; he tried to persuade himself that it was some trick, but the nearness of the voice, and the nature of the place, forbade such a conclusion. Fear now urged him to hasten from the spot ; being resolved, however, that if it were a trick of a fellowstudent, he should have no advantage, he exclaimed in as jocular a tone as he could command, Tush, I know you, and wish you better success the next time you attempt the incognito." He then made the best of his way to the high road, and, musing upon this curious and unaccountable circumstance, returned to his apartments.

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Next morning Lubeck went to the site of the preceding night's adventure, with the intention of ascertaining the manner in which this curious trick had been performed (for with returning daylight he felt re-assured that it was such), but his dismay was very considerable when he arrived at the spot, for, owing to the nature of the ground, he was at once compelled to decide that it could not be a trick performed by human

actors.

How unsteady is the balance of the human mind. The manner in which the strongest understandings are sometimes swayed by the most minute circumstances is perfectly unaccountable; and the smallest foundation, like the stem of a tree, often carries a wide-spreading superstructure. The wild stories of his romantic countrymen were, for a time eagerly perused by Lubeck; and the mind, which had before delighted attention which admitted the possibility of their reality. in them as entertaining compositions, lent them that deep

Expecting that the invisible person (for such he was now night after night to the same spot, but in vain. Till at length, persuaded existed) would again address him, Lubeck went as the event became more remote, the impressions of that night became more faint; at last, he felt convinced that the whole must have been the result of his own imagination, and was quietly pursuing his studies, when one morning a stranger was ushered into his apartment.

"I believe," said the stranger, "I am addressing Lubeck Schieffel, who gained, with so much honour, the last prize of this university."

Lubeck bowed assent.

"You may probably feel surprised," continued he, "that a perfect stranger should obtrude himself upon you, but I concluded that a person who had already obtained so much information would naturally be desirous of embracing any means

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