Imatges de pàgina
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with bitter expressions, with words even more bitter than the gall and vinegar which they handed him to drink; not one of all that witnessed his pains, turned the head aside, even in the last pang. Yes, there was one, that glorious luminary (pointing to the sun) veiled his bright face, and sailed on in tenfold night."

A SENSIBLE HAT.

A needy beggar swept the streets for bread; All weathers beat on his defenceless head. Sam saw the wretch, and, pitying his state, Gave him a hat to shield his naked pate.

Pleased with the gift, the beggar made a bow, And cried, "This hat has got some sense in now!"

Varieties.

SCOLDING. I cannot forbear citing, (says a lively law authority,) two odd cases I have discovered in the history of a manor in Somersetshire-Seaborough-In the third year of the reign of Richard III., two women, Isabella, the wife of William Pery, and Alianore Slade, were presented for common scolds and fined one penny each, with two pence were the whole perquisites of the Court. And at the same time, an order of the court was made, that the tenants of the manor should not scold their wives, under pain of forfeiting their tenements and cottages. Now this was all very well and extremely fair, as apparently binding upon both parties. But see the mischief of it; at least of the last order of the Court. In the 23rd year of Henry VII. the immediate successor of Richard the Third, I find an other order made that the tenants' wives should not scold (their husbands of course) under the penalty of a six and eight-penny fine, half to go to the repairs of the Chapel, and halfto the Lord of the Manor. So that in fact, it would appear, that by the restraint laid upon the husbands in the third of Richard, the wives gained such an advantage over them, as in the 23rd of his successor, (i. e. only 22nd years afterwards), to render it absolutely necessary to raise the fine for female scolding from one penny to six shillings and eight pence! Was ever any thing like it? I am entering now, I am aware, upon one of the most hacknied topics of banter and ridicule, in the whole history of male and female foibles. Scolds and hen-pecked husbands have supplied food for the satirists, essayists, journalists, poets, and prose writers, of all ages, (that is, if we may believe the Jews,) for the latter, it seeins, have dis

covered that of all the hen-pecked husbands in the world, Adam was not only of necessity the first, but the worst ; having not merely (as the common belief is), been hoaxed or beguiled into submission, but absolutely scolded and beaten into it. For,' says a certain Jewish Rabbi upon Gen. iii. 12. ‘by giving him of the tree is to be understood a sound rib-roasting; that is to say, in plain English, Eve finding her husband unwilling to eat of the forbidden fruit, took a good crab-tree cudgel, and laboured his sides till he complied with her will."

RELIEF BY PERSPIRATION.-A candidate at Surgeon's Hall, London, after a variety of questions, was thus interrogated:" In such a case, sir, how would you act?" "Well, sir, if that did not operate!" "But if that did not produce the desired effect, what remedy have you left?"-"Why, gentlemen," said the worried student, "if all these should fail, I would direct the patient to be brought here for examination!"

IMPORTANT TO TEA-DRINKERS.-A small quantity of carbonate of soda put in upon the tea, softens the water when added to it, and increases the strength almost one-half, in cases where the water is particularly hard.

GEORGE I. AND DR. LOCKIER.The following curious circumstance, with regard to church preferment in this reign, has been related: The king was very partial to Dr Lockier, and seeing him one day at court, desired the Duchess of Ancaster to ask him to join his evening party. The doctor, however, declined the honour, sending his duty to the king, and hoping he might be excused just then, as he was soliciting preferment from the ministers, and feared it might do him harm, should it be known that he had the honour of keeping such good company. The king laughed, and said, he thought he was right. In a few weeks, Dr. Lockier kissed hands for the deanery of Peterborough; and, as he rose from kneeling, the king, goodhumouredly, whispered in his ear,

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Well, now, doctor, you will not be afraid to come in the evening, I hope."

EPITAPH ON AN OLD PYE-WOMAN.

Beneath in the dust, the mouldy old crust,
Of Moll Batchelor lately was shoven,
Who was skill'd in the arts of pies and tarts,

And in every device of the oven.

When she'd liv'd long enough, she made her last puff,

A puff by her husband much praised;
And here she doth lie, and makes a dust pie,
And hopes that her crust may be rais'd.

G. K.

on theyre," by Miss H.S.T. E are inadmissible. espnents, are requested to be

To Correspondents :-" True Tale," by E. L.-" The Rebel"-" M.P.'s Daug.iter," and several lighter pieces are under consideration. "The Deserted Wife"-Stanzas Lines" on Hope." by H.T.. with Pleasures of a Country Life," New Works intended for immediate notice, and articles from Co forwarded in the early part of the week.

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THE THUNDER-STRUCK.

(Continued from p. 108.)

As soon as I had dispatched the few morning patients that called, I wrote imperatively to Mr. N- at Oxford, and to Miss P-'s mother, entreating them by all the love they bore Agnes to come to her instantly. I then set out for Dr. D-'s. whom I found just starting on his daily visits. I communicated the whole case to him. He listened with interest to my statement, and told me he had once a similar case in his own practice, which, alas! terminated fatally, in spite of the most anxious and combined efforts of the elite of the faculty in London. He approved of the course I had adopted-most especially the blister on the spine; and earnestly recommended me to resort to galvanism, if Miss P- should not be relieved from the fit before the evening-when he promised to call, and assist in carrying into effect what he recommended.

"Is it that beautiful girl I saw in your VOL. X.

pew last Sunday, at church?" he enquired, suddenly.

The same the same!" I replied with a sigh.

Dr. D-continued silent for a momoment or two.

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"Poor creature!" he exclaimed, with an air of deep concern, one so beautiful! Do you know I thought I now and then perceived a very remarkable expression in her eye, especially while that fine voluntary was playing. Is she an enthusiast about music?"

"Passionately-devotedly"

"We'll try it!" he replied briskly, with a confident air-" We'll try it! First, let us disturb the nervous torpor with a slight shock of galvanism, and then try the effect of your organ.'

I listened to the suggestion with interest, but was not quite so sanguine in my expectations as my friend appeared to be. In the whole range of disorders that affect the human frame, there is not one so extraordinary, so mysterious, so incapable of management, as that which afflicted the truly unfortunate young lady whose case I am narrating. It has

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given rise to almost infinite speculation, and is admitted, I believe, on all hands to be if I may so speak-a nosological anomaly.

On returning home from my daily round-in which my dejected air was remarked by all the patients I had visited-I found no alteration whatever in Miss P-. The nurse had failed in forcing even arrow-root down her mouth, and, finding it was not swallowed, was compelled to desist, for fear of choking her. She was, therefore, obliged to resort to other means of conveying support to her exhausted frame. The blister on the spine, from which I had expected so much, and the renewed sinapisms to the feet, had failed to make any impression! Thus was every successive attempt an utter failure! The disorder continued absolutely inaccessible to the approaches of medicine. The baffled attendants could but look at her, and lament. Good God! was Agnes to continue in this dreadful condition till her energies sunk in death? What would become of her lover! of her mother! These considerations totally destroyed my peace of mind. I could neither think, read, eat, nor remain anywhere but in the chamber, where, alas! my presence was so unavailing,

Dr. D-made his appearance soon after dinner; and we proceeded at once to the room where our patient lay. Though a little paler than before, her features were placid as those of the chiselled marble. Notwithstanding all she had suffered, and the fearful situation in which she lay at that moment, she still looked very beautiful. Her cap was off, and her rich auburn hair lay negligently on each side of her, upon the pillow. Her forehead was white as alabaster. She lay with her head turned a little on one side, and her two small white hands were clasped together over her bosom. This was the nurse's arrangement for poor sweet young lady," she said, "I couldn't bear to see her laid straight along, with her arms close beside her like a corpse, so I tried to make her look as much asleep as possible!" The impression of beauty, however, conveyed by her symmetrical and tranquil features, was disturbed as soon as lifting up the eyelids, we saw the fixed stare of the eyes. They were not glassy or corpse-like, but bright as those of life, with a little of the dreadful expression of epilespy. We raised her in bed, and she, as before, sate upright, but with a blank absent aspect that was lamentable and unnatural.

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Her arms, when lifted and left suspended, did not fall, but sunk down again gradually. We returned her gently to her recumbent posture; and determined at once to try the effect of galvanism upon her. My machine was soon brought into the room; and when we had duly arranged matters, directed the nurse to quit the chamber for a short time, as the effect of galvanism is generally found too startling to be witnessed by a female spectator. I wish I had not myself seen it in the case of Miss P-! Her colour went and came-her eyelids and mouth started open-and she stared wildly about her with the aspect of one starting out of bed in a fright. I thought at one moment that the horrid spell was broken, for she sate up suddenly, leaned forwards towards me, and her mouth opened as though she were about to speak!

"Agnes! Agnes! dear Agnes! Speak, speak! but a word! Say you live!" I exclaimed, rushing forwards, and folding my arms round her. Alas, she heard me she saw me-not, but fell back in bed in her former estate! When the galvanic shock was conveyed to her limbs, it produced the usual effects-dreadful to behold in all cases

but agonizing to me, in the case of Miss P—. The last subject on which I had seen the effects of galvanisın, previous to the present instance, was the body of an executed malefactor; and the associations revived on the present occasion were almost too painful to bear. I begged my friend to desist, for I saw the attempt was hopeless, and I would not allow her tender frame to be agitated to no purpose. My mind misgave me for ever making the attempt. What, thought I, if we have fatally disturbed the nervous system, and prostrated the small remains of strength she had left? While I was torturing myself with such fears as these, Dr. laid down the rod, with a melancholy air, exclaiming-" Well! what is to be done now? I cannot tell you how sanguine I was about the success of this experiment! * * * Do you know whether she ever had a fit of epilepsy?" he enquired.

"No-not that I am aware of. I never heard of it, if she had."

"Had she generally a horror of thunder and lightning?"

"Oh-quite the contrary! she felt a sort of ecstasy on such occasions, and has written some beautiful verses during their continuance. Such seemned

rather her hour of inspiration than otherwise!"

"Do you think the lightning itself has affected her?-Do you think her sight is destroyed?"

"I have no means of knowing whether the immobility of the pupils arises from blindness, or is only one of the temporary effects of catalepsy."

"Then she believed the prophecy, you think, of the world's destruction on Tuesday ?"

"No I don't think she exactly believed it; but I am sure that day brought with it awful apprehensions-or at least, a fearful degree of uncertainty." "Well-between ourselves—there was something very strange in the coincidence, was not there? Nothing in life ever shook my firmness as it was shaken yesterday! I almost fancied the earth was quivering in its sphere!" "It was a dreadful day! One I shall never forget! That is the image of it," I exclaimed, pointing to the poor sufferer" which will be engraven on my mind as long as I live!-But the worst is, perhaps, yet to be told you Mr. N-, her lover-to whom she was very soon to have been married. He will be here shortly to see her."

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My God!" exclaimed Dr. D-clasping his hands, eyeing Miss P-, with intense commiseration-" What a fearful bride for him!-Twill drive him mad!"

"I dread his coming-I know not what we shall do!-And, then, there's her mother-poor old lady!-her I have written to, and expect almost hourly!"

"Why--what an accumulation of shocks and miseries! it will be upsetting you!"-said my friend, seeing me pale and agitated.

"Well!"-he continued-"I cannot now stay here longer-your misery is catching; and besides, I am most pressingly engaged: but you may rely on my services, if you should require them in any way."

My friend took his departure, leaving me more disconsolate than ever. Before retiring to bed, I rubbed in mustard upon the chief surfaces of the body, hoping-though faintly-that it might have some effect in rousing the system. I kneeled down, before stepping into bed, and earnestly prayed, that as all human efforts seemed baffled, the Almighty would set her free from the mortal thraldom in which she lay, and restore her to life, and those who loved her more than life! Morning came

it found me by her bed-side as usual, and her, in no wise altered-apparently neither better nor worse! If the unvarying monotony of my description should fatigue the reader-what must the actual monotony and hopelessness have been to me!

While I was sitting beside Miss P-, I heard my youngest boy come down stairs, and ask to be let into the room. He was a little fair-haired youngster, about three years of age,and had always been an especial favourite of Miss P-'s-her "own sweet pet"- -as the poor girl herself called him. Determined to throw no chance away, I beckoned him in, and took him on my knee. He called to Miss P-, as if he thought her asleep; patted her face with his little hands, and kissed her. "Wake, wake!-Cousin Aggy— get up!"-he cried-"Papa say, 'tis time to get up!-Do you sleep with your eyes open? - Eh ? - Cousin Aggy?" He looked at her intently for some moments-and seemed frightened. He turned pale, and struggled to get off my knee. I allowed him to go-and he ran to his mother, who was standing at the foot of the bed and hid his face behind her.

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I passed breakfast time in great apprehension-expecting the two arrivals I have mentioned. I knew not how to prepare either the mother or the betrothed husband for the scene that awaited them, and which I had not particularly described to them. It was with no little trepidation that I heard the startling knock of the general postman; and with infinite astonishment and doubt that I took out of the servant's hands, a letter from Mr. N-, for poor Agnes! -For a while I knew not what to make of it. Had he received the alarming express I had forwarded to him; and did he write to Miss P-! Or was he unexpectedly absent from Oxford, when it arrived?-The latter supposition was corroborated by the post mark, which I observed was Lincoln. I felt it my duty to open the letter. Alas! it was in a gay strain-unusually gay for N~; informing Agnes that he had been suddenly summoned into Lincolnshire, to his cousin's wedding

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sweet Pythonissa?-Are you and I at this moment on separate fragments of the globe? I shall seal my conquest over you with a kiss when I see you! Remember, you parted from me in a pet, naughty one!-and kissed me rather coldly! But that is the way that your sex always end arguments, when you are vanquished!"

I read these lines in silence ;-my wife burst into tears. As soon as I had a little recovered from the emotion occasioned by a perusal of the letter, I has tened to send a second summons to Mr. N-, and directed it to him in Lincoln, whither he had requested Miss P-to address him. Without explaining the precise nature of Miss P-'s seizure, I gave him warning that he must hurry up to town instantly; and that even then, it was to the last degree doubtful whether he would see her alive. After this little occurrence, I could hardly trust myself to go up stairs again and look upon the unfortunate girl. My heart fluttered at the door, and when I entered, I burst into tears. I could utter no more than the words, " poor-poor Agnes!" -and withdrew.

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I was shocked, and indeed enraged, to find in one of the morning papers, a paragraph stating, though inaccurately, the nature of Miss P-'s illness. Who could have been so unfeeling as to make the poor girl an object of public wonder and pity? I never ascertained, though I made every enquiry, from whom the intelligence was communicated.

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One of my patients that day happened to be a niece of the venerable and honoured Dean of at whose house she resided. He was in the room when I called; and to explain what he called "the gloom of my manner," I gave him a full account of the melancholy event which had occurred. He listened to me till the tears ran down his face.

"But you have not yet tried the effect of music of which you say she is so fond! Do not you intend to resort to it?" I told him it was our intention; and that our agitation was the only reason why we did not try the effect of it immediately after the galvanism.

"Now, Doctor, excuse an old clergyman, will you?" said the venerable and pious Dean, laying his hand on my arm, "and let me suggest that the experiment may not be the less successful with the blessing of God, if it be introduced in the course of a religious service. Come, Doctor, what say you?" I paused."Have you any objection to my calling at your house this evening, and reading

the service appointed by our church for the visitation of the sick? It will not be difficult to introduce the most solemn and affecting strains of music, or to let it precede or follow." Still I hesitated -and yet I scarce knew why. "Come, Doctor, you know I am no enthusiast— I am not generally considered a fanatic. Surely, when man has done his best, and fails, he should not hesitate to turn to God!" The good old man's words sunk into my soul, and diffused in it a cheerful and humble hope that the blessing of Providence would attend the means suggested. I acquiesced in the Dean's proposal with delight, and even eagerness; and it was arranged that he should be at my house between seven and eight o'clock that evening. I think I have already observed, that I had an organ, a very fine and powerful one, in my back drawing-room; and this instrument was the eminent delight of poor Miss P-. She would sit down at it for hours together, and her performance would not have disgraced a professor. I hoped that on the eventful occasion that was approaching, the tones of her favourite music, with the blessing. of Heaven, might rouse a slumbering responsive chord in her bosom, and aid in dispelling the cruel "charm that deadened her." She certainly could not last long in the condition in which she now lay. Every thing that medicine could do, had been tried-in vain; and ifthe evening's experiment-our forlorn hope, failed-we must, though with a bleeding heart, submit to the will of Providence, and resign her to the grave. I looked forward with intense anxietywith alternate hope and fear-to the engagement of the evening.

On returning home, late in the afternoon, I found poor Mrs. P- had arrived in town, in obedience to my summons; and heart breaking, I learnt, was her first interview, if such it may be called, with her daughter. Her shrieks alarmed the whole house, and even arrested the attention of the neighbours. I had left instructions, that in case of her arrival during my absence, she should be shewn at once, without any precautions, into the presence of Miss P-; with the hope, faint though it was, that the abruptness of her appearance, and the violence of her grief, might operate as a salutary shock upon the stagnant energies of her daughter. "My child! my child! my child!" she exclaimed, rushing up to the bed with frantic haste, and clasping the insensible form of her daughter in her arms, where she held

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