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THOUGH there are many authors who have written on dreams, they have generally considered them only as revelations of what has already happened in distant parts of the world, or as presages of what is to happen in future periods of time.

I shall consider this subject in another light, as dreams may give us some idea of the great excellency of a human soul, and some intimations of its independency on matter.

In the first place, our dreams are great instances of that activity which is natural to the human soul, and which it is not in the power of sleep to deaden or abate. When the man appears tired and worn out with the labours of the day, this active part in his composition is still busied and unwearied. When the organs of sense want their due repose and necessary reparations, and the body is no longer able to keep pace with that spiritual substance to which it is united, the soul exerts herself in her several faculties, and continues in action until her partner is again qualified to bear her company. In this case, dreams look like the relaxations and amusements of the soul, when she is disencumbered of her machine; - her sports and recreations, when she has laid her charge asleep.

In the second place, dreams are an instance of that agility and perfection which is natural to the faculties of the mind when they are disengaged from the body. The soul is clogged and retarded in her operations, when she acts in conjunction with a companion that is so heavy and unwieldy

It is usually observed, that a good reign is the only proper time for the making of laws against the exorbitance of power: in the same manner, an excessive head-dress may be attacked the most effectually when the fashion is against it. I do therefore recommend this paper to my female readers, by way of prevention.

I would desire the fair sex to consider how impossible it is for them to add any thing that can be ornamental to what is already the masterpiece of nature. The head has the most beautiful appearance, as well as the highest station, in a human figure. Nature has laid out all her art in beautifying the face; she has touched it with vermilion, planted in it a double row of ivory, made it the seat of smiles and blushes, lighted it up and enlivened it with the brightness of the eyes, hung it on each side with curious organs of sense, given it airs and graces that cannot be described, and surrounded it with such a flowing shade of hair as sets all its beauties in the most agreeable light. In short, she seems to have designed the head as the cupola to the most glorious of her works; and when we load it with a pile of supernumerary ornaments, we destroy the symmetry of the human figure, and foolishly contrive to call off the eye from great and real beauties, to childish gewgaws, ribands, and bone lace.

EXERCISE CXLIV.

ATTEMPTS AT DOMESTIC EDUCATION.

Mrs. Gilman.

[From "Recollections of a Southern Matron."]

AFTER the departure of our Connecticut teacher, papa resolved to carry on our education himself. We were to rise by daylight, that he might pursue his accustomed ride over the fields, after breakfast. New writing-books were taken out and ruled, - fresh quills laid by their side, our task carefully committed to memory; and we sat with a mixture of docility and curiosity, to know how he would manage as a teacher.

to Rome, where his zeal led him to reprove the enormities of the papal court, and the dissoluteness of the Romish clergy. On this, he was imprisoned, tried, and condemned to the flames for heresy: a punishment which he suffered with great constancy in 1434.

whilst they are awake, are in one common world; but that each of them, when he is asleep, is in a world of his own. The waking man is conversant in the world of nature: when he sleeps, he retires to a private world, that is particular to himself. There seems something in this consideration that intimates to us a natural grandeur and perfection in the soul, which is rather to be admired than explained.

I must not omit that argument for the excellency of the soul, which I have seen quoted out of Tertullian, namely, its power of divining in dreams. That several such divinations have been made, none can question who believes the holy writings, or who has but the least degree of a common historical faith; there being innumerable instances of this nature in several authors, both ancient and modern, sacred and profane. Whether such dark presages, such visions of the night, proceed from any latent power in the soul, during this her state of abstraction, or from any communication with the Supreme Being, or from any operation of subordinate spirits, has been a great dispute among the learned: the matter of fact is, I think, incontestable, and has been looked upon as such by the greatest writers, who have never been suspected either of superstition or enthusiasm.

I do not suppose that the soul, in these instances, is entirely loose and unfettered from the body: it is sufficient if she is not so far sunk and immersed in matter, nor entangled and perplexed in her operations with such motions of blood and spirits, as when she actuates the machine in its waking hours. The corporeal union is slackened enough to give the mind more play. The soul seems gathered within herself, and recovers that spring which is broken and weakened, when she operates more in concert with the body.

EXERCISE CLXXIV.

SONG OF THE MAY FASHIONS.

Anon.

FAIR May, to all fair maidens of May-Fair!
Ye matrons, too, the poet's greeting share;
May many a May to matron and to maid
Return without a grief, without a shade;

May all be gay from Middlesex to Mayo,
May never sigh be heaved or heard a heigh-ho!

All poets have their impulses and passions;
And mine it is to sing a song of Fashions,
Of bonnets, frills, and parasols, and capes,
Of gauzes, guipures, marabouts, and crêpes, -
Of dresses, ribands, stomachers, and bustles,
And all that floats or flounces, waves or rustles; -
Of trimmings, flowers, feathers, fringes, shawls,
For fêtes and dinners, operas and balls.

Be gracious, Maia, queen of merry May!
As smooth as velvet make my summer lay;
And if you be a millinery muse,

Airy Muslina, don't your aid refuse,
But come with Fancy in your gauzy train,
And leave the Gallic for the British plain;
Like your best needle let my verses shine,
And with your thimble shield each fearful line.

Oh! be propitious! Make me glib on
Cambrics, and profound on ribbon,
Learned in lamas, bright on satin,
Chemisettes and corsets pat in;
Aid me, lest I make a hash mere
Of mantilla, scarf, and Cashmere,
Thus involve me in dilemmas

With the Graces, Maudes, and Emmas,

Lest I get into quandaries,

Misdirecting Lady Maries;

Or damages may have to pay,

For leading Bell or Blanche astray;
Dishing Kate, deceiving Ellen,
Or misguiding Madam Helen,
By some costume which afar is
From the present mode of Paris.

Paris still is Helen's passion,
Paris still the glass of fashion.
Come Iris, too, with all your vivid hues!
Come Flora, with the dew-drops on your shoes!
For there will now be need of vernal dyes,

To suit young May, and charm the charmer's eyes,

Pale pinks, blue lilachs, and the softest greens,
For bonnets, ribands, silks, and bombazines;
And, Flora! mind you order all your bowers
To be profuse and prodigal of flowers.
Pray make the lazy lilies leave their bed,
To join in weaving crowns for beauty's head,
And bouquet-sceptres, for her royal hand;-
Beauty is queen of all by sea and land!
The daffodilly will not leave his cup;
But sure the temperate jonquille might be up.
Draw largely now upon your violet banks,

Your drafts will honoured be with ladies' thanks:
Mind, Flora! mind you order all your bowers
To be profuse of May's delicious flowers.

Say, first, what cap shall head of beauty wear,
Though seldom cap should be admitted there.
Tulle chiffonnée, with heather blossoms gay,
Or any other tiny flowers of May.

Plain on the forehead are the caps in vogue,
A matron's air they give each charming rogue;
Broad at the back a pretty curtain placed,
With flowery wreath is elegantly graced,
And where, on each side, at the ear it closes,
Deck it with bunches of the same small roses;
Or place a point, with fluted tulle surrounded,
Or with raised lappets, "à la paysanne" bounded,
And held in bonds of double-tinted gauze,

Lest in "the pride of place" it break through Fashion's laws.

Pass we now from caps to bonnets,

Hard to be discussed in sonnets;
What should be their shape and size,
To engage all female eyes?

In what hues should we baptize them,
That the fair may not despise them?
Bonnets now, list, maidens all, -
Bonnets now are rather small;
Fashioned in the prettiest shapes,
Of satins overlaid with crêpes.

Some with ribands trimmed, and some,
Trimmed with lace of France, become.
Of the pretty, prettiest far

Those in gros de Naples are;

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