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large hoo ae idea took place o' anither, for he was what is ca'd a great metaphysician. The mind, he said—for I hae read his lectures-had nae power-frae which I conclude that, according to him, it's aye passive-a doctrine I beg leave maist positeevely to contradick, as contrar to the haill tenor o' ma ain experience. The human mind is never, by ony chance, ae single moment passive-but at a' times, day and nicht

North. "Sleep hath her separate world, as wide as dreams!" Shepherd. Tuts. What for are you aye quotin that conceited cretur Wudsworth? Canna ye follow his example, and quote yoursel ?

North. I should despise doing that, James-I leave it to my brethren of mankind.

Shepherd. Day and nicht is the mind active; and indeed sleep is but the intensest state o' wakefu'ness.

Tickler. Especially when through the whole house is heard a snore that might waken the dead.

Shepherd. Just sae. It's a lee to say there can be sic a state as sleep without a snore. In a dwawm or fent man nor woman snores nane-for that is temporary death. But sleep is not death-nor yet death's brither, though it has been ca'd sae by ane wha should hae kent better-but it is the activity o' spiritual life.

you on dreams.

Tickler. Come, James, let us hear Shepherd. No-till after sooper-whan we shall discuss Dreams and Ghosts. Suffice it for the present to confine mysel to ae sentence, and to ask you baith this question-what pheelosopher has ever yet explained the behaviour o' ideas, even in their soberest condition, much less when they are at their wildest, and wi' a birr and a bum break through a' established laws, like "burnished flees in pride o' May," as Thomson says, through sae mony speeders' wabs, carryin them awa wi' them on their tails up alaft into the empyrean in amang the motes o' the sun?

North. None.

Shepherd. The Sowl has nae power!!! Hasna't??? Hae Ideas, then, nae power either? And what are Ideas, sir? Just the Sowl hersel, and naething but the Sowl. Or, if you wad rather hae't sae, the Evolutions and Revolutions, and 1 "Death and his brother Sleep."-SHELLEY.

Transpositions and Transfigurations, and Transmigrations and Transmogrifications o' the Sowl, the only primal and perpetual mobile in creation

North and Tickler. Hear! Hear! Hear!

Shepherd. What gies ae idea the lead o' a' the rest? And what inspires a' the rest to let him tak the lead-whether like a great big ram loupin through a gap in the hedge, and followed by scores o' silly sheep-or like a michty coal-black stallion wi' lang fleein mane and tail, galloping in front o' a thousand bonny meers, a' thunderin after the desert-born—or like the despot red-deer, carryin his antlers up the mountain afore sae mony hundred handsome hinds, bellin sae fiercely that the very far-aff echoes are frichtened to answer him, and dee fently awa amang the cliffs o' Ben-y-Glo?

North. Tickler!

Tickler. North!

Shepherd. Or like the Sovereign Stork, that leads "high overhead the airy caravan

Tickler. Or like the great Glasgow Gander, waddling before his bevy along the Goose-dubs

Shepherd. Haw! haw! haw! What plausible explanation, you may weel ask, could ever be gien o' sic an idea as him— were you to be aloo'd to confine yoursel even to his doup, an enormity alike ayont' adequate comprehension and punishment!-But the discussion's gettin ower deep, sir, for Mr Tickler-let's adapt oursels to the capacities o' our hearers -for o' a' conversation that is, if not the sole, the sovereign charm.

Tickler. An old saying, Hogg-throw not pearls before swine.

Shepherd. It aye strikes a cauld damp through me, Mr North, to hear a man, for whom ane entertains ony sort o' regard, wi' an air o' pomposity geein vent to an auncient adage that had served its time afore the Flood, just as if it were an apothegm kittled by himsel on the verra spat. And the case is warst ava, when the perpetrawtor, as the noo, happens to be in his ain way an original. Southside, you sometimes speak, sir, like a Sumph.

Tickler. James, what is a Sumph?

Shepherd. A Sumph, Timothy, is a chiel to whom Natur has 1 Ayont-beyond.

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denied ony considerable share o' understaunin, without ha'in chose to mak him just a'thegither an indisputable idiot.

North. Hem! I've got a nasty cold.

Shepherd. His puir pawrents haena the comfort o' bein able, without frequent misgivings, to consider him a natural-born fule, for you see he can be taucht the letters o' the alphabet, and even to read wee bits o' short words, no in write but in prent, sae that he may in a limited sense be even something o' a scholar.

North. A booby of promise.

Shepherd. Just sae, sir-I've kent sumphs no that illspellers. But then, you see, sir, about some sax or seven years auld, the mind of the sumphie is seen to be stationary, and generally about twal it begins slawly to retrograwd; sae that at about twenty-and at that age, if you please, sir, we shall consider him-he has verra little mair sense nor a sookin babby.

North. Tickler-eyes right-attend to the Shepherd.

Shepherd. Nevertheless, he is in possession o' knowledge ayont the reach o' Betty Foy's son and heir, so rationally celebrated by Mr Wudsworth in his Excursion

North. "Lyrical Ballads."

Shepherd. I mean Bauldy Foy's excursion for the doctor. North. Well?

Shepherd. Kens sun frae moon, cock frae hen, and richt weel man frae woman; for it is a curious fact that your sumph is as amatory as Solomon himsel, and ye generally find him married and standin at the door o' his house like a schule-maister.

North. Like a schoolmaster-How? Shepherd. The green before his house owerflows wi' weans, a' his ain progeny; and his wife, a comely body, wi' twins on her breist, is aiblins, wi' a pleased face, seen smilin ower his shouther. North

"O fortunati nimium! sua si bona norint

Sumphiculi!"

Shepherd. I doubt, sir, if you hae ony authority for the formation o' that diminutive. Let's hae gude Latin, or nane. North. Mine is always good-but in Maga often miserably marred by the printing, to the horror of Priscian's ghost.

Shepherd. Sumphs are aye fattish-wi' round legs like

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women generally wi' red and white complexions - though I've kent them black-a-viced, and no ill-lookin, were it no for a want o' something you canna at first sicht weel tell what, till you find by degrees that it's a want o' everything—a want o' expression, a want o' air, a want o' mainner, a want o' smeddum, a want o' vigour, a want o' sense, a want o' feelin — in short, a want o' sowl-a deficit which nae painstakin in education can ever supply; and then, oholoos! but they're dour, dour, dour obstinater than either pigs or cuddies, and waur to drive alang the high road o' life. For, by tyin a string to the hint leg o' a grumphie, and keepin jerk-jerkin him back, you can wile him forrits by fits and starts; and the maist contumacious cuddie you can transplant at last, by pourpourin upon his hurdies the oil o' hazel; but neither by priggin nor prayin, by reason nor by rung, when the fit's on him, frae his position may mortal man howp to move a sumph.

North. Too true. I can answer for the animal.

Shepherd. Sometimes he'll staun' for hours in the rain, though he has gotten the rheumatics, rather than come into the house, just because his wife has sent out ane o' the weans to ca' in its faither at a sulky juncture-and in the tantrums he'll pretend no to hear the denner-bell, though ever so hungry; and if a country squire, which he often is, hides himsel somewhere amang the shrubs in the policy.

North. Covering himself with laurel.

Shepherd. Then, oh! but the sumph is selfish selfish. What a rage he flees intil at beggars! His charity never gangs farther than sayin he's sorry he happens no to hae a bawbee in his pocket. When ane o' his weans at tea-time asks for a lump o' sugar, he either refuses it, or selects the wee'est bit in the bowl-but taks care to steal a gey big piece for himsel, for he is awfu' fond o' sweet things, and dooks his butter and bread deep into the carvey. He is often in the press

North. What! an author?

Shepherd. In the dining-room press, stealin jam, and aften lickin wi' his tongue the thin paper on the taps o' jeely-cans --and sometimes observed by the lad or lass comin in to mend the fire, in a great hurry secretin tarts in the pouches o' his breeks, or leavin them in his alarm o' detection half

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eaten on the shelf, and ready to accuse the mice o' the rubbery.

North. What are his politics?

is a

Shepherd. You surely needna ask that, sir. He belangs to the Cheese-paring and Candle-end Saveall School follower o' Josey Humetrenchment.

North. His religion?

and's aye ready to vote for re

Shepherd. Consists solely in fear o' the deevil, whom in childhood the sumph saw in a wudcut-and never since went to bed without sayin his prayers, to escape a charge o' hornin.1 North. Is all this, James, a description of an individual, or of a genus?

True

Shepherd. A genus, I jalouse, is but a generic name for a number o' individuals ha'in in common certain characteristics; so that, describe the genus and you hae before you the individual-describe the individual and behold the genus. that there's nae genus consisting but o' ae individual-but the reason o' that is that there never was an individual stannin in nature exclusively by himsel—if there was, then he would undoubtedly be likewise his ain genus. And, pray, why not? Tickler. What is the meaning of all this botheration about sumphs?

Shepherd. Botheration about sumphs! In answer to some stuff of Southside's, I said, he spoke like a sumph. Mr Tickler then asked me to describe a sumph—and this sketch is at his service. 'Tis the merest outline; but I have pented him to the life in a novelle. Soon as the Reform Bill is feenally settled, Mr Blackwood is to publish, in three volumms, "The Sumph; by the Shepherd." He'll hae a prodigious rin.

North. Cut out Clifford.

Shepherd. Na, Bullwer's1 a clever chiel—and, in ma opinion, describes fashionable life the best o' a' the Lunnoners. North. Except the author of Granby.

Shepherd. I hae never read the Marquis o' Granby. Send him out to the Forest.

Tickler. In your opinion!

Shepherd. Ay-in ma opinion. What's to prevent him that

1 A charge of horning is, in Scotch law, a suit for the recovery of a debt. 2 Bulwer.