patterns which they were examining. A second time he heard his father call, and again answered, and the maid, who heard it too, answered, "He is coming, Mr. W-." Still continuing to look at the pattern book, he saw his father come out of the door, with an angry look, call in an emphatic tone, and, going in, bang the door after him, with a loud sound. Both the mistress and maid told him to be gone at once. On reaching the door, however, he found it locked, and, on going round to the back door, he found no sign of dinner, and his mother-in-law told him his father was not at home, and would not dine at home that day. His astonishment and horror were great, for he imagined it a sign of his father's death. This, however, was not the case, but his uncle, a gunner on board the ship Biddeford, then stationed at Leith, died that day, and about the same hour. Why the father, instead of the uncle's image, appeared is beyond the knowledge of such things yet possessed to explain; but the writer says that it made a serious and religious man of him for life.

A BOY WHO PREACHED IN HIS FITS.

In the Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. XXX., p. 236, we have the following account:-A boy about 16 years of age, named Joseph Payne, went to live with a Captain Fisher, of Reading. He had been previously a servant to a farmer, at Lambourn Woodlands. This farmer was a Quaker, and not only gave him instructions in religion, but had him in at the family readings of the Scriptures, which are regular in the society. After being sometime at Captain Fisher's he fell down one day in a fit, greatly alarming the servants. Several persons soon got about him, and were astonished at seeing him sit up, and with his eyes closed, begin a sermon which he continued in a regular and pertinent manner for half an hour. This being reported to his master, he ordered him to be narrowly watched to see if he were practising any imposture. In about a week he went into another fit, and preached another sermon. His eyes were, as before, closed and fixed in his head, and, as before, on coming out of the fit, he declared that he knew nothing either of what he had said or what had been done. On a third occasion a Dr. Hooper was present, and to test the insensibility of the lad, he held a lighted candle to his hand as he held it out in his discourse; it raised a blister but produced no sign of sensation whatever. The discourse which he gave on this occasion is printed at length in the Magazine. It is on the words,-" They led Him away to erucify Him," and extends to upwards of five columns of the Magazine. It is a much better sermon than you could have

heard in most country pulpits of that day. It is, however, something rambling, and evinces a memory stored with passages of Scripture, and with the reflections naturally deducible from them, rather than anything original and supernatural. The fact of a country lad, however, in a state of catalepsy, regularly pronouncing such discourses, shews a peculiar condition of mind in a state of catalepsy, which borders on the spiritual, and deserves the close attention and enquiry of those who are interested in advancing our psychological knowledge.

THE COCK LANE GHOST.

This story is told in Vol. XXXII., p. 43, and is set down as a piece of imposition in a man of the name of Parsons to obtain money from a Mr. Kent, who was supposed to have murdered a young woman in his keeping. There is no proof, however, that Parsons ever attempted any such extortion of money, and both he and his daughter, a child of twelve years old, who was the medium, stedfastly denied any imposition. Parsons was clerk of St. Sepulchre's Church, near Cock Lane. The knockings and scratchings which frightened the child were very much of the character of such manifestations now-a-days; and these going away on one occasion, and making themselves heard in a house several doors off, to the great alarm of the people there, is not accountable for by anything discovered. Great stress was laid on the ghost having said that it would make itself evident in the vault of St. Sepulchre, where the corpse of the lady in question lay; and that on several gentlemen going there at the time proposed nothing was heard. This, indeed, was not likely, for these wise men did not take the little girl with them, and not having the medium, they of course had no manifestation. On their return, they strictly questioned the girl, but could draw no confession from her; in fact, the inquirers were totally ignorant of the conditions of such enquiries. Kent, however, the person accused by the ghost, as a matter of course, indicted Parsons, his wife, and one Mary Frazer, the Reverend Mr. Moore, and a Mr. James, for a conspiracy to defame him, and got Parsons set in the pillory, and himself, the wife, and Mary Frazer imprisoned for different terms, and Mr. Moore and Mr. James smartly fined. Parsons lost his post as clerk and went mad. Dr. Johnson being mixed up in the enquiry about the ghost, has given greater notoriety to the affair; but a careful examination of this story by modern lights, and the rules of regular evidence, have only tended to prove that the manifestations of the ghost were genuine enough,

A TESTIMONY TO SPIRITUAL ATTENDANTS AND TO AUDIBLE SPIRIT VOICE IN 1765.

Dr. J. Cook, a physician of Leigh, but which place of that name is not said, in a letter published in the Gentleman's Magazine, and dated September 18th, 1765, says, "Ever since I was three and twenty years of age I have had an invisible being or beings attend me at times, both at home and abroad, and that has by some gentle token or other given me warning and notice that I should shortly lose a particular friend, or a patient. They began and continued from our marriage till the decease of my first wife, in May, 1728, and her infant daughter, who lived with me but seven months, and but six weeks after her mother, when they were very frequent and troublesome about my house, as was well known, and noticed by many of our friends and neighbours. After that they came seldom, but so gentle, civil, and familiar, that I chose rather to have them about my house than not, and would not, if I were to tell it, part with the same without some extraordinary consideration upon that very account, and I really hope that they will never leave me as long as I live, though my spouse wishes otherwise, to whom they are not so agreeable.

"I may be reckoned a whimsical visionary, or what not, but I know I am far from it, being neither superstitious, enthusiastic, or timorous; and I am certain, too, I am not deceived by others, we all having had many and various impressions from invisible agents; and I, myself, by no fewer than three of my senses, and those so often repeated that they became quite easy and familiar without any terror or amazement. I take the hint at once, and wait for the certain and infallible issue. I have spoken to them often, but never received any answer, and think I have courage enough to stand a private conference.

Sometimes we have had their hints frequent and close together; at other times, but seldom, and at a great distance of time. But this I have observed, that rarely any patient or friend that I respected, or that valued me, departs hence, but I have some kind of sensible notice or warning of it, but yet so discreet and mild as never to flutter or frighten me. This notice which is either by seeing, feeling, or hearing, is not fixed to any certain distance of time previous to their death, but I have it a week, a month, or more, before their decease, and once only three days, when I actually heard the spiritual agent form an articulate voice, as I was abed, with a most pathetic emphasis, "I am gone;' which was fulfilled the Monday morning following by the sudden death of my cousin's daughter who was upon a visit at my house, and was well two days before.

"At first, in 1728, I kept a book of account, where I entered every notice of warning, with the particular circumstances attending, and the event that succeded such notices, but! they were then so frequent and numerous that I grew quite weary in writing them down, so left off that method, resolving to take them in future just as they came. The very last hint I had was on Saturday night, the 6th of July, 1765, in my chamber, about eleven o'clock, as I was walking to my bed, being from home, attending a patient, to whom I was that morning sent for, and whom I lost on the 10th of the same month. I lay no stress on such notices, so as to affect my practice, but exert myself for the patient all the more for conscience sake."

Dr. Cook proceeds to say that he had received such warnings above a hundred times. Twice only he had seen apparitions, but had heard and felt them times innumerable. He imagined that they were neither angels nor demons, but a middle race of spirits, kindly disposed towards men. One of the apparitions presented itself, he says, at noonday in his house, and his attention was drawn to it by the barking of his little dog, who saw it first. He answers the cui bono question by his consciousness of how much such revelations confirm the truth of a future life, and of the stimulus which it must afford to every reflective person to thank God for such assurances, and to prepare for that invisible existence. This case is peculiarly interesting, from the occurrence of an audible voice, showing that the audible voices now so frequently heard, had a well-authenticated precedent a hundred years ago.

EMOTIONS AWAKENED BY ANGEL VISITS.

THE joys of spiritual intercourse are the joys of the new-born soul, and the philosophy of spiritual intercourse is the philosophy of the enlightened soul. In these joys and in this philosophy the trembling heart finds a source of heavenly peace, and derives a pleasure which earth cannot afford. When the storm arises in the sky, and the clouds are blackened with their hidden wrath, the soul looks up to heaven for light; and when the rolling billows heave in the commotion of the angry winds, the radiance of the cheerful morn throws its calm upon the troubled deep. So when the world has become tempest-tossed and darkened in its course, and when the throbbing bosom has had no rest in its fearful agony, the blessed and blessing spirits have visited the earth, that the storm may sink into the silence of nature's harmony, and that the clouds may float from their azure home.-Rev. R. P. Amber.

PRESERVATION BY SPIRITUAL AGENCY FROM THE EFFECTS OF FIRE.

IN the third chapter of Exodus we read that while Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, he came to Mount Horeb

And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

In the third chapter of the Book of Daniel the narrative sets forth how Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, set up a gigantic image of gold in the plain of Dura, and commanded all people at the sound of music to fall down and worship it, under pain of being the same hour cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Certain Jews whom he had placed in high authority were accused to him of disregarding this mandate; whereupon, in rage and fury he commanded these men to be brought before him. They were brought to him, and the king enquired of them if this report was true, warning them that if they disobeyed him the threatened punishment would at once be visited on them. To this they answered boldly to his face that they would not serve his gods, nor worship the image he had set up.

Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heat.

And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.

Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Therefore, because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.

And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.

He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, came forth of the midst of the fire.

And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.

Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own God.