ment of every comfort attending on domestic happiness; and if their lot was not splendid or magnificent, they were rich in mutual affection, and they experienced that happy medium which, far removed from indigence, aspires not to the accumulation of immense wealth, and which laughs at the unenvied load of pomp and splendour, which it neither seeks nor desires to obtain.

THE SPECTRE UNMASKED.

"WE will now begin No. 2," said the professor, as he tied the strings of his portfolio of prints, and looked towards another which was lying by the table: "this will, I think, afford you still more pleasure; but, madam, you look so frequently at the clock, that I fear

"I only fear," said the counsellor's lady, "that it is growing too late to begin another; and it would be really a pity to hurry over such well-selected works. If your engagements will permit some other time

'It is not yet very late," her husband replied, as he was lifting a heavy folio on the table; we shall have

plenty of time to look over this part leisurely enough. What makes you in such a hurry to-night?"

"I think it best for every one to be at his own home in the evening," observed the wife of the counsellor ; 66 it is much safer."

"Safer?" asked the counsellor, laughing, "" you pay a fine compliment to our police! in what may the danger consist, which you seem to fear so much, now the mili

tary, who are generally the greatest destroyers of safety, have left the town."

"That is the very cause of my fear," rejoined the lady; they would not have left us if they had not doubted of their own security; the enemy are, I fear, approaching, and disturbances often arise when they are least expected."

"Oh! if that be your only ground of alarm," said the professor, laughing, we may proceed with our prints very safely; it will be long enough before the enemy arrive here; and I think we are more likely to see our protectors (as they term themselves) again than our foes, for they are no longer our enemies. In the mean time, your apprehensions are not without foundation, for here, in the very first leaves, I shall show you some of these Tartarian tribes, at least in effigy."

Another time, I beg,” replied the anxious lady; "if you knew my uneasiness you would yourself be glad to have me at home."

"But really," said the counsellor, endeavouring to tranquillize her, " you are needlessly alarmed; according to the latest news, a few days may possibly bring about some military events, or send us some strange guests; but I will answer for to-morrow; and as to this evening, there is not the remotest probability of any thing happening."

It was in vain they sought to convince the lady of the groundlessness of her alarm; she became obviously more

and more anxious; and finally, not to destroy the pleasure of the party, she proposed that the professor should accompany them home, and that he and her husband might there look over some prints and pictures together, on which discussions had formerly arisen between them. The scheme was acceded to; the professor laughed at her earnest exhortation, while he double-locked his doors, and the party proceeded, with many jests and much merriment, to the house of the counsellor, where the conversation on the latest works of art soon resumed its former vivacity.

"Would one not believe," observed the counsellor during the absence of his lady, "that my wife had second sight? Her strange solicitude makes me almost anxious myself; it is not customary with her."

"Let us come to the discussions which are the order of the day," observed the professor; "you surely cannot believe in such things; we shall be able to look at your beautiful works of art as perfectly at our ease as if we only knew Cosaks and Bashkirs from the descriptions of travellers."

The counsellor seemed not of this opinion; he became somewhat absent, and the remarks of the professor on the antiquities of Germany, which had been reserved for this evening's discussion, and which he uttered with all the enthusiasm of an antiquary, scarcely gained attention. The professor laughed repeatedly at the belief in forebodings which his friend's anxiety manifested, and

adduced many arguments, founded on natural history and experience, to prove its fallacy.

"I can object nothing to your reasoning," said the counsellor at last, except the numerous results of experience, which should seem to confirm the reverse of your doctrine, and which would open to us a temporary view into realms inaccessible to human knowledge. We cannot entirely reject the testimony of men worthy of credit, and who must be acquitted of any attempt to deceive."

Why not," replied the professor, "when the doctrine itself is opposed to all the laws of possibility? Men of the greatest veracity and sincerity may be deceived themselves; it is, in truth, with these forebodings as with ignes fatui-many tell you they have heard of them, but not one with whom I have ever spoken has himself witnessed them. Till I meet with a ghost-seer, who assures me seriously and on his word that he has experienced the truth of them himself, when wide awake, and in full possession of reason and consciousness-till then I reject the whole as futile."

"And if such a person were to be found," said the counsellor, "would you then believe?"

"Hum," replied the professor, shrugging his shoulders, 'only after a very close investigation. Deception is so easy; it is in all cases only a more apparent or more hidden deception that cherishes this credulity."

"In all cases!" repeated the other: "I cannot agree