Though, over all this earthly ball, Throughout the time-worn world- And after the archangel's wand By all the glories of the sky By all that's awful or sublime, Ye sons of men, improve your time. The man who could pour out such cheering heart-felt utterances, which find an echo in the breasts of the great majority of the civilised world, may yet, let us hope, be brought back through Spiritualism to his early religious aspirations and proclaim once more his belief that— The soul will flourish and expand Through all eternity. WONDERS OF DREAM LIFE. THE shadowy realm of dreams in which the external senses are locked in the repose of sleep, lies around us, weird, mysterious, unexplored, a border-land lying between the glorious realities of the purely spiritual life and this material sphere of existence. In a recent interview with a patient, an English lady of culture and refinement, the conversation turned upon dreams, and she related several most remarkable dreams from her own experience, that cannot fail to interest our readers. We give them here as related to us, suppressing only the names of the parties. While yet a girl at boarding school, she dreamed that her father sent for her to come home, and taking her into the library said to her, "Now, my dear, you have been long enough at school. I wish you to marry, and the gentleman I wish you to marry is here in the house, and I shall introduce you to him in the breakfast room." Presently her father rose, led her into the breakfast room, and there introduced to her a gentleman whose every feature she saw in her dream most vividly, and distinctly remembered on waking. Three nights in succession this dream haunted her sleeping hours. In about a week there came a letter from her father, summoning her home. She went, and on the morning after her arrival, her father took her into the library, and announced to her in the literal language of her dream, his wishes and intentions regarding her, and then leading her into the breakfast-room, he introduced to her the identical stranger whose face she saw in her dreams, and so clearly did she recognize the same form and features, that she nearly swooned from the excess of her emotions. This lady had an aunt living in the city of London, England. She had visited there when about five years old. In the meantime a cousin of her own age had grown to look marvellously like her. But she had not seen this cousin since the time of her visit there, and knew not of the striking resemblance that existed between them. She dreamed that she was in her aunt's house in London standing at the foot of a staircase in the hall, and on looking up she saw her aunt stumble and fall down the stairs and lie as if dead, while some one that she thought was herself bent over her in an agony of grief. She woke as she thought fully, and threw her hand out of the bed over one side, and to her horror it rested upon the cold face of a dead person, who seemed lying in a coffin by the side of her bed. She screamed with terror, sprang from the bed and procured a light; all was serene and quiet around her. The dream made such an impression upon her mind that with a pencil she wrote down upon the wall the date, April 25th, 18-. In due time there came a letter from England informing her father that on the very date of her dream, his sister had fallen downstairs and died instantly from dislocation of the neck. In the letter was a picture of the cousin who in her dream she mistook for herself. The same lady related an experience that can hardly be called a dream, and yet so full of interest is it, that we cannot forbear relating it in this connection. She was in the habit of employing a young person in the capacity of seamstress. But she was taken very ill with consumption and obliged to give up her work. After the disease had progressed to that extent that she was confined to her room, this lady would often go in and read to her, and in many ways minister to her comfort. The disease culminated in death, and for several days previously Mrs. Mherself had been quite ill and unable to get in to see her. One evening she was lying in her bed looking out upon the Bay of Halifax. It was a glorious night. Her servant had just left her. The moon was very brilliant, but slightly obscured for the passing moment by a floating cloud, throwing a dark shadow upon the water, while in the background a distant flag-ship lying at anchor was bathed in the full radiance of the lustrous moonlight. She was thinking what a lovely picture the scene would make could it be transferred to canvas, when she heard the door of her room open. Supposing it to be the servant who had returned for something, she spoke and said, "What is wanted." Hearing no answer, she turned in bed and to her astonishment beheld standing in her room, the sick girl as she last saw her. She exclaimed "Why, S, what does this mean? Have those crazy people let you come out to-night?" She made no reply to this exclamation but advancing towards her said, "Oh, Mrs. M, I do want to kiss your hand," and reaching out she touched her, but the hand was icy cold, and startled her so that she screamed with fright. The servant came rushing in, but the apparition had vanished. She told the servant what she had seen, and bade her put on her bonnet and go directly to the house of the sick girl and ascertain why she had been allowed to go out at night. Before the servant could leave the house, a messenger arrived with the intelligence that S was dead. was dead. She died a few minutes before she presented herself to Mrs. Mand her last words in dying were, "Oh, Mrs. M-, I do want to kiss your hand." By what power did the mind reach forward to events in the future, and listen to conversations that seemed dependent on circumstances and sudden mental emotions? How did this spirit recognize persons not known, and appear in scenes not yet transpired? To admit these facts admits almost the whole phenomena of Spiritualism, since we may not limit the capacity of the mind to our sphere, but must recognize its far-reaching power. The body does not intensify mental action, and the spirit far from the body must retain its faculties, and in its wider range must exhibit more perfectly their free action.-The Present Age. America has added to the literature of Spiritualism, The Physical Media in Spiritual Manifestations. The Phenomena of Responding Tables and the Planchette, and their Physical Cause in the Nervous Organism, illustrated from Ancient and Modern Testimonies, by G. W. Samson, D.D., President of Columbian College, Washington. The Rev. Author is described as having too little mental discipline for such a subject.-Athenæum. NOTES AND GLEANING S. A MEMORANDUM CONCERNING BURNS BY HIS WIDOW. The late Mr. M'Diarmid, of the Dumfries Courier, was an intimate friend of Mrs. Burns, widow of the poet. For fifteen or sixteen years preceding her death, in 1834, he was her adviser on all occasions, her amanuensis, and the safe and kind depositary of her thoughts and feelings on most subjects. During their intercourse he appears to have from time to time noted down particulars concerning the poet, such as he conceived would illustrate the kindly nature of Burns or remove erroneous impressions of his biographers. These memoranda have just been published in the new and careful edition of the Life and Works of Burns by Mr. Waddell, Glasgow, to whom they were communicated by Mr. W. R. M'Diarmid. Among these memoranda is the following: Soon after her husband's death, Mrs. Burns had a very remarkable dream. Her bedroom had been removed to the family parlour, when she imagined that her husband drew the curtains and said, "Are you asleep? I have been permitted to return and take one look of you and that child; but I have not time to stay." The dream was so vivid that Mrs. B. started up, and even to this moment the scene seems to her a reality. แ We alluded in our last number to a letter written by one Faulkner to support Mr. J. H. Addison in his attempt to expose spiritual phenomena, and published under the auspices of the Editor of the Standard. Mr. Faulkner's letter went the round of the papers, and we have been favoured with a number of slips sent by friends anxious for our welfare, and desirous of exposing our weakness in believing that there is something more in the "raps," than is explained by Mr. Faulkner's prepared tables and electric wires, "of which he has supplied quantities." We have now to announce, on no less an authority than Mr. Faulkner himself, that he never fitted up any but Mr. J. H. Addison's house with the trick machinery, "calculated to mislead the most wary;" and he can by such an admission see pretty clearly, that, in addition to the impostures practised upon Captain Hamber, the Editor of the Standard, in the matter of fictitious letters-that Faulkner's letter though signed was not written by him, and that he could hardly have known its contents. Our friends will therefore see that that is not a strong enough case to disturb our convictions, though it may have been enough to confirm Captain Hamber in his prejudices. RECOVERY OF A LOST DIAMOND RING THROUGH A DREAM. A few nights ago a lady, while taking a walk, lost a valuable diamond ring from her finger in some unaccountable way. Diligent and extensive search was made, without any clue to the ring, and the lady gave it up as gone "for good and all." Before daylight the following morning the lady was surprised by the calls of her nurse, a small negro girl. On being admitted to her mistress, the girl, who had not heard of the ring being lost, said she had just had a dream, in which she was apprised when, where and how the jewel had been lost, and that, if allowed, she felt sure she could find it. She then described the place and manner in which the ring disappeared, and begged her mistress to go with her and test the dream. This strange circumstance was made known to the household, but all treated it with the utmost incredulity. It was afterwards concluded to humour the girl, however, and she and several white members of the family proceeded to the designated spot, more than one hundred yards from the house. Here the dreamer told her mistress that, as directed in her dream, she must drop another ring, and it would roll as a guide to the missing one. A plain gold ring was handed the girl; she let it fall, and sure enough, it rolled and stopped within two inches of the lost diamond ring, which had got into a crevice between two bricks of the pavement. It may be imagined that the ring-hunters were somewhat astounded at the miracle. There is not the least fiction about this curious dream and its result.-Louisville Courier Journal. THE MIDNIGHT DRUMMER. A correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, writing from Columbia City, Indiana, under date of June 29th, reports the following remarkable case of evident spirit manifestation : "Our usually quiet town has, during the last few days, been thrown into a state of feverish excitement by a strange and unusual spiritual phenomenon heard in and about a woollen factory and the neighbouring buildings, situated in the southwestern suburbs of the town. For some time past, the employés who sleep in the factory have been disturbed by noises like that caused by opening and closing doors, persons walking about the rooms, rattling loose boards, &c., &c. At first the employés supposed these unusual sounds proceeded from some burglarious depredation on the premises, and accordingly thoroughly searched and guarded the premises, but without success. The closest examination revealed nothing, but the |