possessed the elastic property of rebounding, and he replied with the
cool self-possession so peculiarly his characteristic.
The process

of thought carried on by electric converts, would, doubtless, be very
serviceable to some men, and perhaps the learned Doctor himself has
already acquired the secret, seeing that his sentiments are uttered in
total defiance of all sound reason.' Many such remarks were levelled
against the Doctor by the embryo statesman, and as the worthy Phi-
losopher found he was no match for the light wits of his opponent, he
was constrained to sullen silence. Balance then affected to agree with
him; and in order to encourage his sanguine anticipations, and to give
the club some notion of the astonishing powers of animal magnetism,
he said he would relate some circumstances which transpired while he
was in Germany.

"I hope you will have a little modesty in relating them," said the Poet. "Believe me, Dick, as modest as a bridesmaid; and if I blush, catch the lie on my tongue. My story shall be as genuine as any the Major ever told in his life; and who can doubt him, seeing the truth shining like a beacon in the centre of his face?"-" Your tongue, Ned, makes a greater clatter than a troop of dragoons at a charge; hold in, or, my head on't-you'll gallop on fixed bayonets!" The Major struck the subject of Ned's jest rather quickly, as he made this observation, for his temper was somewhat ruffled. "Never fear, Major, returned the other," a keen sword cuts deep, but the Doctor is present, and will drop a little balsam into the wound: the bravest soldier always gets the worst of the fray; a very perverse way of remunerating good deeds." "A truce to thy railing, Ned, interrupted the Poet, can'st thou not amuse us in a better way, by narrating that German tale, full I warrant of hazy mountains, dark dungeons, grim giants, and wandering spirits ;-but I forget, 'twas a tale of Mesmerism you were going to relate." "True; I thank thee for the hint, Dick;" and saying thus, Balance immediately put himself into a posture that indicated his determination to tell a long story. The Major requested that he would not begin until he had lit another cigar; and Manlove, as preparatory to an intent application of his mental powers, took a huge ladle of snuff. A pause of proper length having succeeded, Balance thus begun :

"We know, my friends, that a river never runs into the sea, without meeting a cataract in its course, which is only a symbolical illustration of an old adage, that the course of true love never did run smooth. Taking this point, then, for my text, I shall discuss the misbaps of a love adventure, which was happily brought to an agreeable termination by the agency of animal magnetism.' The countenance of the Doctor brightened with an unusual glow; but Balance, heedless of his newly awakened interest, continued, "The Germans are a scientific people, and would go as far to see a sheep with two tails, or a man with two faces,-by no means an uncommon occurrence in this country, to the advantage of philosophy,-as would an Englishman to witness the performances of a trained lion, or the exhibition of common sense in a political economist. It is owing, perhaps, to this inherent and inextinguishable love of the marvellous, that the Germans

N. S.-VOL. I.

4 c

precede all the rest of the world in their researches after the hidden and sublime; and that the science of animal magnetism has obtained such an enviable distinction from the sages of science." "Balance is not altogether irrecoverable," whispered the Doctor to Manlove. "Whatever exists in nature" continued Ned," doubtless demands investigation; and such pursuits, are luckily within the compass of an ordinary degree of intellect; but that higher branch of study which belongs particularly to the most acute and comprehensive minds, and which has lately glowed like a sunbeam in the system of Mesmerism, has not, as yet, had that attention paid to it, which it deserves;—I mean the science of discovering natural laws where they do not exist. This is a branch of investigation, which will assuredly be carried to perfection by future generations."

The Major puffed the smoke from his mouth, and shook his head; Subtle rolled his large eyes round upon the speaker in absolute astonishment; but having a great respect for the talents of the other, he said nothing; while we thought we perceived a smile curling on the lip of Dick Careless, as if he were conscious of some stroke of merri

ment.

"But let us not expatiate too long," continued Balance, “on a subject, in the mazes of which our intellects are likely to become entangled; but let us proceed at once to the more interesting part of our story. If you expect to hear a tale of a German castle, with a deep dungeon, containing a captive, who has languished the whole of his life, and baffled expectations, and bodily tortures, and who has never heard a noise, save that of the clanking of his chains, you will be mistaken; for mine is a story of modern days, the incidents of which happened, for the most part, in the ancient city of Weimar.

"Count Carl Wilhelm von Neustadt, was the representative of a noble race, and inherited, with large estates, all the virtues and vices that had ever distinguished his numerous ancestry. The latter, indeed, were not many or weighty; for, setting aside a little ferocity, when the will of a German noble was opposed; the chiefs of the house of Neustadt, were generally esteemed a liberal, frank, high-spirited, and ignorant race of men. They were always the first in the killing a boar, and the last to rise from his roasted carcase. The wine-flagon never rested under their hands; and if the guests did not confer the due honour on the best Johannisberg, by dishonouring themselves, they were not regarded as welcome to the castle board. When the nation was called to arms, the Counts of Neustadt were the first to buckle on their helmet; and whether honour or plunder were the reward, they were sure to obtain the greatest share. They could kill an enemy with the sword, with as much gratification, as they would kill a friend with the bottle; and neither act seems to have caused them the least compunction in later years. One feature in the character of these noble chiefs, was their strict adherence to their word; and if they had threatened an indulgence in good Rhenish, or menaced a serf with castigation, the promise was inviolably performed. In this particular, as in all others, the present Count was the worthy representative of his house. If modern heroes, to their shame, have declined from the virtues of their progenitors, the family of Von Neustadt must be exempt

from this disgrace, for its present head accurately represented the intellectual cultivation and polished manners of its founder. Added to these, he possessed also certain qualities distinctive of himself. He was extremely irritable, desperately firm in the accomplishment of his resolutions, and had contracted a quick petulant mode of locution. While he would bear the wound of a sabre with the most stoical fortitude, the sting of a nettle would worry him almost to distraction. He had a short, thick person, with a round ruddy face, in which two grey eyes twinkled incessantly; his head was covered by a few straggling hairs of an ambiguous colour, between brown and grey, and which were carefully brushed over the vertex to conceal a bald patch, which had within the last two or three years begun to appear. There was a certain portion of artificial dignity in his manner, which, however, soon thawed in conversation, before his hot, eager temper. Such then was the present Count.

"But there was another inmate of the Count's mansion,-the beautiful Adelheid von Marienburg. She was the daughter of the Count's most intimate friend, who, when dying, left her as a ward, under his protection and guidance. She was then a child, and the Count, not having a daughter of his own, loved her with an affection that is generally given only to our own blood. But who could have resisted the light graceful figure, dashing like a roe among the trees of the forest, the winning manner, artless and lively, as if unconscious of the existence of earthly sin, and the mutable intelligent glance, descriptive of each passing emotion of the mind, of the lovely Adelheid von Marienburg? Even the stern bosom of the Count was softened, and compelled to own its submission. The ice of ages dissolves from the mountain top, at the glance of the sun; and thus every hard resolve was dissipated from his breast, when the eye of Adelheid darted on him its bright and thrilling beams. The snowdrop with which she was fond in the spring of the year to add charms to her beauty, possessed not a more delicate hue than the bosom on which it rested. The blush of the morning was not more rich or mellow, than the bloom which mantled her cheek. She was now in the morning of her life, when every wish or thought had its lively index in her features; and before her large blue eye had learned, from necessity, the habit of disguising the changeful feelings that rushed there for expression. But the beauty of her morning was overshadowed by clouds; her hours of joy were mixed with griefs, which took their origin from circumstances in which she was a passive sufferer."

"A beautiful woman always makes you poetical, Ned," interrupted Dick Careless. "True, Dick, if there were no women, there would be no poetry 'tis they that inspire us, and it is for them we write. There's nothing in creation equal to a fine woman!" "Excepting a fine man!" slyly interposed the Major. "Let the women decide be tween us, I am willing to abide their sentence," answered Ned, and continued.

"The Count, anxious to fulfil his responsible charge in the most creditable manner, and desirous of advancing the interests of his beloved ward, had early promised her in marriage to the son of a noble. man of high rank, and the matter would probably be settled without much consultation of the junior parties. The plan might have suc

ceeded if all contingencies had been well guarded against; but onfortunately for the wise provisions of the Count, he found an obstacle where he least expected one; but where any other sensible man would have been first inclined to suspect,-in his own son! The young Alexis had been educated from his childhood with Adelheid, had studied in the same books, had accompanied her in her long walks, and had been to her, in all respects, as a brother. They often wandered together on the adjacent hills; and it was the delight of Alexis, to gather the most lovely flowers, and to weave them into a garland, to encircle the clear forehead of his companion. She would receive the chaplet with an arch smile, place it on her head, and bound away, to hide herself among the green shrubs; while Alexis would run off in pursuit, calling her, as he ran, his dear Adelheid!

The purity of this platonic affection, had never been disturbed, until, on one occasion, Alexis read a portion of an amatory poem by Schiller, to the listening beauty; and before he had finished three lines, he stopped, there was nothing particular in the verses, for he had read such to her fifty times before, but still he stopped,-and blushed; the pause was an awkward one; he essayed again to read, but the words lingered on his tongue,-he sighed deeply-began again with a free bosom,-it was most provoking-his heart became full, he stopped again; and Adelheid perceiving his confuson, and, feeling a strange commotion in her own bosom, hastily arose, and trembling, and blushing over neck, ears, and forehead, fled from the apartment. The consciousness that each felt, and the shame attending it, were something like the feelings which overwhelmed our first parents, when they ate the forbidden fruit. Adelheid had no necessity for fig-leaves; but as if to make good the comparison, she hid her face with her hands. From this time Alexis was a miserable youth; for he was well acquainted with the future destination of Adelheid, and he believed his father to be unrelenting in his determinations."

"I think," said the Doctor, gravely interrupting the speaker, "that the passion of love was in some way connected with that scene in Paradise many learned treatises have been written upon it, and these have clearly proved to my mind-""That they prove nothing ;" answered Balance: "We know now-a-days, that passion is the forbidden fruit, though I don't see why love should be fixed on as the great father sin of the world: yet, doubtless, without love, sin would soon come to an end; but I don't know,—it's a puzzling question, Doctor.” Hartshorn insinuated something about animal magnetism being a good substitute, and remedy for passion; but Ned was not inclined to debate the point, and continued his narration.

"The young Alexis, was now in a humour, much disposed, but little fit, for studying these abstract questions; and certainly, whether he discovered it or not, his love was the father of all his griefs for many months to come. He took a great inclination to study, and conned over most of the volumes in his father's library,—no difficult matter to an industrious reader; but what was extraordinary, notwithstanding his application, he did not become a wiser man. The longer he associated with the charming Adelheid; the more fully her various graces opened and bloomed upon him, the more difficult did he find it

to estrange her from his thoughts. Many a solitary walk did he now take in his father's forests; and he was hardly conscious of the folly of his conduct, until, one day, he lay, like another Narcissus, on the banks of a silvery stream, which wound its wandering way through the valley, and as he dropped his scalding tears upon its bosom, he caught a glance of his lugubrious face upon the bright surface; and although deeply afflicted, truth demands the confession, he could scarcely forbear a smile. He rose, fully resolved never again to trust himself beside a stream." "That is very like the truth," said the Major, "a man hates to be reminded of his folly; and although he will cherish the fault, he will be careful to avoid the friend.-Go on!" After this interruption, Balance recommenced.

"The fair Adelheid loved scarcely less than she was beloved; and sweet to her were the stolen moments, when, conscious of their mutual affection, Alexis came to breathe his sighs, and tender his vows of undying affection.

"Their love was, at length, discerned by the Count, and although much grieved that his son should thus have set himself in opposition, he resolved that his plan should not be frustrated, and that his word should remain inviolate. Many and severe were the lectures to which poor Alexis was doomed to listen, respecting the control of the passions, and filial obedience; but which, however, instead of calming his grief, served only to augment it. The Count, perceiving that his advice and censure administered to the passion he strove to quell, and believing his son to be a little wilful, he determined that the marriage should be forthwith solemnised; and thus he would terminate successfully his favourite scheme. But he never reflected on the powers of animal magnetism, and Alexis did, and prospered; which proves very satisfactorily, that this agent is of some importance in human calcula

tions.

"When Alexis was assured that his father was bent on the completion of his project, he became ill, and found it necessary to send for a physician. Some of the household whispered that he was crossed in love, others that there was nothing at all the matter with him, but spleen; to which opinion his father also leant: but let me observe, that when a man is in love, he has a very serious mental complaint; and if a man have matter in his spleen, there is no small degree of bodily hurt too. I am not a physician, but a historian, and all I know is, that Alexis fell ill of a disease of the heart, and sent for Doctor Trapander to cure him of his malady.

"Now, let us imagine the unhappy lover lying prostrate in an oldfashioned baronial bed, protruding a trembling hand, and exhibiting a feverish flush upon his cheek; and let us fancy a tall gaunt figure, with lank black hair, brushed over his forehead like an ass's mane, a grave mouth, a long nose, and holding his hands, with his fingers knit together, over his chest, entering most awfully, like the minister of death, at one end of the room.

"I want thee, Doctor,' said the youth, with a doubtful expression playing about his lips, which were not so much discoloured, as a legitimate patient's ought to be- The worse for you,' answered the doctor, attempting to be smart. Odds, man, you don't mean that for