the native Mexicans find a sort of reed (curer) they call toulé, upon which the boat-flies lay their eggs in preference to other water-grasses. These reeds are made into bundles, and placed in the waters of the lakes; they are soon covered by millions of eggs. In about a month's time, the bundles are drawn out of the water, dried in the sun, and then shaken or beaten over cloths which are spread upon the ground to receive the eggs they bear. The latter, which in this operation fall from the reeds like rain, are ground down to a powder, passed through a sieve, and sold to the people in sacks, as we sell wheaten flour. belonging to the most recent fresh-water formations. we have referred to above. In the lake of Chalco, Near the centre of this vast tract of land are seen two large lakes. The first of these goes by the name of Chalco; the second, near which some salt-works have been established, is called Texcoco. M. Virlet remarked that the bottoms of both these lakes are formed by a sort of gray limestone of modern formation, containing small oolitic globules, which, in this author's eyes, are in every respect similar to those found in the limestone of the Jura. He immediately made known this fact to Mr Bowring, director of the salt-works at Texcoco, who informed him that these globules were owing simply to the incrustation of the eggs of water-insects by carbonate of lime deposited daily from the waters of the lakes. In a second excursion to these lakes, it was observed that their banks were strewed, under water, with an infinite number of insects' eggs, about the size of a pin's head, and which appeared to belong to a species of boat-fly. M. Virlet is not only convinced that these modern oolites of Mexico owe their formation to the eggs of these insects, but thinks, also, that the oolite of the Jura and other ancient strata must be attributed to a similar cause. "This would explain,' says he, 'the irregular distribution of oolitic grains or nodules in the rocks of the Jurassic strata. Where the oolite is found to be hollow, the egg which formed it has been enclosed before being hatched; where the oolitic globules are completely solid, the eggs have had time to hatch, and the cavities left by the exit of the grubs (larvæ) have been filled up by the incrusting calcareous matter.' If these facts are confirmed by future observation, it will not be without interest that we shall recall the Greek origin of the word oolite. I would, however, on this occasion remind our geological readers that a small oolitic bed, bearing great resemblance to the Jura limestone, was formerly discovered by Leopold von Buch, near Teguise, in Lanzarote, one of the Canary islands. This oolite-bed is also, like that of Mexico, of modern formation, and probably continues increasing at the present day. It would therefore be of great interest to ascertain if the oolitic deposit made known to us by Leopold von Buch owes its origin to causes similar to those stated by M. Virlet in reference to the Mexican oolite. Such an investigation, which could be made without difficulty by the English vessels which frequently visit the Canary Islands, would be more likely to decide the question than the examination of ancient oolites, with a view to discover some organic remains that might be attributed to the eggs of insects. But the Mexican boat-flies, which appear to play so important a part in modern rock-formation, are important also in a truly practical sense, inasmuch as they furnish to man, and some of his domestic animals, a plentiful supply of food. The Mexicans consume at their meals immense quantities of the eggs of these aquatic insects. Many authors have written more or less indistinctly on this curious alimentary substance, which is sometimes termed Mexican flour, animal flour, &c., or known under the Mexican epithet of haullé. That it has been employed as food for a long time past, we learn from the fact that Thomas Gage, an ecclesiastic and a naturalist, who was travelling in Mexico in the year 1625, described the loaves and cakes that were then made of it. Brantz Mayer, in a work called Mexico as it Was and as it Is, published in 1844, affirms that the Indians made use of this animal flour' long before the conquest. From the account left us by M. Craveri, who sent to Europe a certain quantity of this Mexican flour, and samples of the insects which produce it, the latter appear to be very common in the waters of the lakes Recent observations made by several travellers, confirm anew the statements we already possess respecting this curious diet; and M. Guérin-Menneville, a French naturalist, has lately made known the exact species of boat-flies which produce the Mexican insect-flour. The principal manufacturers of it are two insects belonging to the genus Corixa of Geoffroy. One of these is the Corixa mercenaria-a species established and described as early as the year 1831, by Thomas Say, who discovered some of these insects on the market-places of Mexico. The other is a new species described for the first time by M. Guérin-Menneville, a few weeks ago, under the name of Corixa femorata. The eggs of these two species are seen fixed in countless numbers on the triangular leaves of the carex or reed employed by the natives to collect them. They are small, of an oval shape, with a slight prominence at one end, and a minute stem at the other; by means of the latter, they are attached to a small round disc, which the mother-insect secretes on the leaves. Amongst these eggs, which lie very close, and are even seen fixed sometimes one on the top of the other, are observed some of a different description, considerably larger than the former, long and cylindrical, and which belong to a third species of insect that M. Guérin has described as a new species under the denomination of Notonecta unifasciata. Such are the remarkable facts we wished to make known concerning the boat-flies of Mexico. They would form interesting objects for the British Museum; and we hope M. Guérin-Menneville will not forget to send some fine specimens of both insects and eggs to London. These little creatures bear a certain resemblance to the less useful, but not less interesting inhabitants of our English ponds and ditches, of which we have already said a few words, and which are doubtless well known to our readers. SONNET-THE SKY-LARK'S NEST. NOT in secluded incense-breathing grove, Nor tangled brake, nor coppice privacySweet haunts of nests fashioned so cuuninglyWeaves the bold sky-lark his retreat of love, But on heath, marsh, or green, where cattle rove, He scratches out a cupful of loose ground, And straggling hay within the hollow wound His humble nest completes. But oft above From out the grass-fringed edge the daisy peeps, And bends her golden eye o'er eggs or young, And never seemeth half so fair as then; So like sweet spirit to protect from wrong The minstrel's home, exposed to eager ken Of village boy, as through the grass he creeps. J. E. Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON, and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH. Also sold by WILLIAM ROBERTSON, 23 Upper Sackville Street, DUBLIN, and all Booksellers. Science and Arts. CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS. No. 258. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1858. PRICE 1d. whether the journey which he is about to undertake, when that lace is tied, will be prosperous; in which case, The New Forest Gipsy is ready to his hand. It was, we confess, under pretence of purchasing a pennyworth of peppermint-drops, that we ourselves obtained, at different emporiums, the five remarkable volumes which form the subject of this paper; and our whole outlay, exclusive of the above refreshments, did not exceed fourpence halfpenny. All these works, save one, are illustrated, although not profusely, and one of them is coloured to that extent, that the paint of its single picture has run through and dyed all the rest of the pages. Diagrams of Futurity, Oracles of Love, Marriage, and Destiny, Tablets of Prophecy, and Trees of Fate, are also interspersed through each -a little embarrassing in themselves, perhaps, but made clear by copious references to the letterpress. The Universal Book of Fate has even a preface in the form of a memoir, written, as it seems, by way of tribute to the memory of one of the fathers, or rather of the mothers, of the Art of Divination. The anonymous biographer who has undertaken this labour of love, is somewhat eccentric in his spelling, and altogether unique in his grammatical arrangement, but his facts are doubtless indisputable; and here we have them: RULING THE PLANETS. SINCE one murder and several score of serious larcenies have recently taken place among us by means of supposed Planetary Influences, it really becomes high time to investigate their phenomena with some care. Even in these days, it seems-in this so much bepraised nineteenth century of ours -householders, men that have two coats, and women of the crinoline social status, are found to go, day after day, and week after week, with money in their hands, to Wise Women, for aid in their distresses; while maid-servants, by the hundred, are accustomed to exhaust their scanty finances upon the same ingenious persons; and when their own money is gone, to despoil their unbelieving masters and mistresses for rewards for these Searchers of the Stars. In every city, nay, in every smallest country town, a belief in Soothsaying is still found to be widespread and well rooted; while the Art of Ruling the Planets, besides having professors in abundance all over the land, has a Literature at least as extensive as any of those Sciences, of the popularity of which our social leaders are just now so boastful. It is not prominent, indeed, in Regent Street, nor even in Paternoster Row, although the specimens of it which we have now before us* profess, with a vague magnificence, to be published for the booksellers;' but it is to be seen and sold in every back-street of inferior neighbourhood in London, as in every other place. The shops which it affects mostly are not those where The London Journal, Reynolds's Miscellany, The Family Friend, and other cheap periodicals, are exposed for sale, but establishments of a still more humble character. These treatises upon astrology and the mysteries of the future are content to stand in the same shop-windows, side by side with peppermint bulls-eyes, with boot-laces, with advertisements of a mangle within,' with artificial flowers, with marbles, and with exceedingly red and high-dried herrings. Their sale is enormous, in spite-or, perhaps, in some measure because-of the miscellaneous company which they are thus wont to keep. A young woman may be of opinion that artificial flowers become her, and also be desirous of knowing, by means of The Bohemian (or other) Fortune-teller, what This lady was, it seems, born on the spot where sort of young man he is whose affections they may she lived,' and gifted with an early propensity to assist to captivate. A gentleman may want a boot-prescience, which evinced she had it instincted in lace, and at the same time may be glad to learn The Bohemian Fortune-teller. The New Forest Gipsy. The Universal Book of Fate. The Golden Dreamer. The Universal Dream-book. 'TO THE REader. 'In ushering into the world such a performance as this, it may be necessary to give our readers some account of the life of the person who left the following little work for the benefit and instruction of the world, a person whose fame, though not recorded among the roll of those whose heroic actions have trumpeted them to the world, yet her discerning eye, and her knowledge in prescience, render her not unknown to the generality of those who devote any attention to this interesting study. 'Mrs Bridget, vulgarly called Mother Bridget, lived, in her peregrinage through this life, in a kind of cave, or rather a hollow, formed by nature above ground, with the assistance of a little art, and comprising an exceeding warm shelter from the air: company of all sorts resorted to her, nobility, gentry, tradesmen, and mechanics-men, women, girls, and boys, of all degrees and classes.' her by nature.' She would sit up whole nights when the atmosphere was clear, 'as intent on considering the stars, as the greatest astrologers with their glasses;' and she made use of the knowledge thus gained of the signs of the weather, to predict concerning it. 'Not a farmer would go to plough, not a sower would put the seed in the ground, without first asking the young gipsy-for so they then styled her -her opinion, and following according to her dictates.' From this small beginning her fame became the topic of conversation of the politest circles, many of whom came in their equipages to consult her; and she never asked for any particular sum, so the unbounded generosity of those who applied to her oracles, put her in possession of more money than was sufficient to maintain her. • ... 'As she grew in years, like the generality of old folks, she became fond of dumb animals, which were her chief companions; and of these she always had numbers: people, indeed, have said hundreds, and others have declared she could call as many on the earth as she pleased; but this is fabulous, for I never saw more than ten at a time. Dogs and cats were the principal companions of her retirement, which, being of the smallest breed, would, as she sat, creep from different parts of her garments, and not a little surprise those that came to see her, and, indeed, frightened many. "Though this famous old woman had never been taught to write, yet by long practice she had formed to herself a kind of hieroglyphical characters, in which she deciphered her observations, knowledge, and remarks: these I found concealed within the thatch of her cave, but as they were so unintelligible, I thought it would be impossible to make head or tail of such a heap of monsters, and other figures as were attempted to be drawn; but as I am rather of a studious turn, I thought as I had made it my business formerly to transcribe the Egyptian hieroglyphics, which, when they were as unintelligible to me as these, I might by perseverance get at the depth of this valuable manuscript, or, at least, it would serve to deposit in the British Museum, as the remains of a woman who was so famous, and whose name was so well known among mankind. 'I was therefore immediately determined on renewing my labours with redoubled ardour and unwearied application; and at length, as perseverance and resolution will conquer difficulties, I found it, and the whole mystery was opened unto me. The first chapter of this inspired work-consisting, however, of only fourteen pages-is devoted to an explanation of the circles of the sphere and some other terms in astrology,' which, so far from being of a supernatural nature, might have been written by the Astronomer-Royal himself. But when we get to 'Of the planetary days and hours, and how to know what planet a man is born under,' we seem to have our feet within the Magic Circle indeed. There is a table by which every man may find out his own horoscope; and we ourselves, who were born on the first hour of a Thursday, and therefore under the influence of Jupiter, have the pleasure of learning that we are (or ought to be) 'of a ruddy or sandy complexion, fair hair, well-proportioned body, and of a lovely countenance;' our face is rather broad than long; and we are also 'courteous, of a very affable carriage, moral, and deeply religious.' That the art of Mother Bridget is an old one, is evident enough from the continual references to minution or bloodletting, which was wont to be such a favourite recreation with our ancestors. The second and fifth days of the new moon are, it seems, extremely propitious for our being bled (whether we want it or not), but on the seventeenth and one-and-twentieth days, 'by no means let blood;' and if a child be born unto us in those days, let us not rejoice, since, though he may be witty and ingenious, he will surely be addicted to stealing.' Beside the canicular or dog days, which are fraught with the greatest peril and danger to everybody-and wherein, if you must let blood, be sure to do it before the middle of the day there are more or less unlucky days in every month, from eight in January to one in October. In a brief prognostication concerning children born on any day of the week,' we learn that Sunday is the most fortunate day, and Tuesday the least. We ourselves, who came into the world on a Thursday, are again elevated by the information that we shall 'arrive at the greatest honour and dignity;' whereas, if we had been but a day younger, we might have been of a strong constitution, but probably far too amatory.' It is worthy of remark, that the lucky days are the same in all these books; and the predictions almost identical; so that either a miraculous similarity of prophetic power must have pervaded all our authors, or else they must have plagiarised from one another to an extent unknown in any other literature. The most curious part of Mother Bridget's work is that devoted to Judgments deduced from the nails.' Those who have broad nails are of a gentle disposition, bashful, and afraid of speaking before their superiors, or indeed to any, without hesitation and a downcast eye.' 'When the end is black,' says Mrs Bridget, 'the person loves agriculture.' Finally, 'if the nails be red and spotted, the individual will be choleric and martial, delighting in cruelty and war; his chief pleasure being in plundering of towns, wherein every ferocious particle in human nature is glutted to satiety.' The New Forest Gipsy bears evidence of a higher culture, but of a less inspired character. Its style is not so good as Mr Macaulay's, nor yet so eccentric as Mr Carlyle's, and is subject to the ills to which mediocrity is heir, in the shape of tameness and overprudence. 'Astrology,' it says, 'is a celestial science that treats of the doctrine of the stars, which are placed in the firmament of heaven for the use and benefit of man; and it is proved by daily observation and experience, that the fate of every person in existence is not only written in the heavens at the time of each of their said births, but that the same is also stamped and marked out in the face and hands of every man-the one is called Physiognomy, the other Palmistry.' After which spirited commencement, who would believe that not one syllable about the stars occurs again throughout the volume? With regard to hair, we learn that' a gentleman with dark-brown, long and smooth hair, is generally of a robust constitution; obstinate in his temper, eager in his pursuits, a lover of the fair sex, fond of variety, in his ordinary pursuits exceedingly curious, and of a flexible disposition. He will live long, unless guilty of early intemperance.' Again, selecting at random, we find, 'the gentleman or lady that squints, or have their eyes turned away, will be of a penurious disposition, but punctual in their dealings!' Again, 'a red, or what is vulgarly called a saucer eye, denotes the person to be selfish, deceitful, proud, furious in anger, and fertile in plots!' while, in conclusion, we find this remarkable statement, that if the hair falls off the forepart of the head, the person will be easily led'-which must, most obviously, be directly contrary to the fact. In Fortune-telling by lines in the Hand, be careful to 'chose always the left hand, because the heart and brain have more influence over it than the right; and observe further, that it is better to examine these lines when the body is in good health, for then they appear full..... The table-line, commonly called the line of fortune, begins under the little finger, and ends near the forefinger. The line of death is a counter-line to the line of life, and is by some called the sister-line,' which is, probably, a corruption of 'sinister.' In the Table of Fate, in this volume, we had the curiosity to investigate our own future fortunes, and received, in doing so, this exceedingly unpleasant rebuff: Let the gentleman or lady who chooses this unlucky number look well to their conduct; justice, though slow, is sure to overtake the wicked.' But of all this select library of divination, commend us to The Bohemian Fortune-teller, which we have reserved, with our usual foresight, 'to finish with,' as the postboy reserves one gallop for the avenue. This volume plunges at once in medias res, without any sort of preface, heading, or explanation. Its opening words are these: The star denotes happiness in the clear and at the top of the cup; clouded, or in the thick, it signifies long life, though exposed to various troubles. If dots are about it, it foretells great fortune, wealth, respectability, and honour.' The grounds upon which this strange prediction is made are not stated, and we have to refer, in another work, to the article 'Divination by means of Tea and Coffee Grounds.' Conceive how well known must this abstruse science be among the people to whom it is addressed, since a matter to us so mysterious, needs for them no explanation beyond that afforded by the frontispiece, wherein as appears to the common eye-a young woman is being persuaded by a young man to take a little physic in a tea-cup! "The Art of Fortune-telling by Cards,' to which several pages are devoted, is commonplace enough; and we merely remark of it, that the Ace of Spades -contrary to the opinion of whist-players-is considered the worst card in the pack; while the "Tray of spades shews you will be unfortunate in marriage, and your partner inconsistent'—by which term, we believe, The Bohemian Fortune-teller intends to imply inconstancy. The main attraction of this volume consists in its directions for obtaining or executing 'charms, spells, and incantations;' and it is observable that these are almost exclusively addressed to the softer sex, with the avowed object of procuring for them lovers, or for informing them what their lovers will be like. 'To see a Future Husband in a Dream.-The party inquiring must lie in a different county from that in which she commonly resides, and on going to bed must knit the left garter about the right-leg stocking, letting the other garter and stocking alone; and as you rehearse the following verse, at every comma knit a knot: This knot I knit, to know the thing I know not yet, And what he does all days and years.' Beside this charm, there are, strange to say, only three others which are in verse; of which the following bears, perhaps, the most evident trace of antiquity: The Nine Keys.-Get nine keys; they must all be your own by begging or purchase (borrowing will not do, nor must you tell for what you want them); plait a three-plaited band of your own hair, and tie them together, fastening the ends with nine knots; fasten them with one of your garters to the left wrist on going to bed, and bind the other garter round your head; then say: St Peter, take it not amiss, To try your favour I've done this. You are the ruler of the keys, Favour me then, if you please; Let me, then, your influence prove, And see my dear and wedded love. This must be done on the eve of St Peter's day, and is an old charm used by the maidens of Rome in ancient times, who put great faith in it.' Here follows a doubtless excellent, but somewhat complex receipt for knowing Whether a Lady will have the Gentleman she wishes. Get two lemon-peels, wear them all day, one in each pocket; at night, rub the four posts of the bedstead with them: if she is to be successful, the person will appear in his sleep, and present her with a couple of lemons; if not, there is no hope.' If our maid-servants do indeed practise the device which forms our next extract, there is no wonder that robberies are sometimes committed with such incomprehensible ease: Any unmarried woman fasting on Midsummer-eve, and at midnight, laying a clean cloth, with bread, cheese, and ale, and sitting down as if going to eat, the street-door being left open, the person whom she is afterwards to marry will come into the room, and drink to her by bowing; and afterwards filling the glass, will leave it on the table, and making another bow, retire.' We fear that this mysterious Unknown, without imputation upon his polite behaviour, would scarcely vanish so easily satisfied, if any plate or other valuables were within reach. To know what fortune (rank in life) her future husband will have, a young woman must observe the following precautions: Take a walnut, a hazel nut, and a nutmeg; grate them together, and mix them with butter and sugar, and make them into small pills, of which exactly nine must be taken on going to bed, and according to her dreams, so will be the state of the person she will marry. If a gentleman, of riches; if a clergyman, of white linen; if a lawyer, of darkness; if a tradesman, of odd noises and tumult; if a soldier or sailor, thunder or lightning; if a servant, of rain.' We do not know how highly a knowledge of the future may be valued by 'persons about to marry;' but we ourselves would not take nine pills, at one go, for the sake of obtaining all the partners as well as the fortunes of the Revd. Brigham Young, of the Salt Lake. Finally, there is a device, To discover theft by means of the sieve and shears, which, in its form, very singularly assimilates to 'tableturning;' but whether it is of ancient or modern origin, we do not know: 'Stick the points of the shears in the wood of the sieve, two persons supporting it balanced upright with their two fingers, then read a certain chapter in the Bible, and afterwards ask St Peter and St Paul if A or B is the thief, naming all the persons you suspect. On naming the real thief, the sieve will suddenly turn round.' Reader, however these misshapen children of ignorance and superstition may provoke your smiles, you must not forget that they are the acknowledged genii of no small number of your countrymen, and especially of your countrywomen; and so long as the question of popular education is left to the factious quarrels of sects, and to the supine indifference of those most in need of its benefits, they will always remain 80. Poor, much abused secular enlightenment,' whatever it may fail to do, would at least destroy under its first foot-tread such miserable and evil fungi as The Bohemian Fortune-teller and The Universal Book of Fate. DR JOHN BROWN'S 'LOCKE AND SYDENHAM,' &c.* DR JOHN BROWN is one of a numerous class of men in the professional and middle ranks of life, who use their spare time in an unobtrusive cultivation of literature, writing an anonymous paper now and then, which the public does not willingly see die,' but seldom coming out into the blaze of literary notoriety. He has here collected his few occasional writings into an elegant volume, and placed them with his name before the public judgment. Natures of a refined and Locke and Sydenham, with other Occasional Papers. By John Brown, M.D. Edinburgh: Constable. 1858. delicate cast, gentle meditative spirits, lovers of elegant phraseology, especially if they belong to the medical world, will relish the book highly, and give it a good place in their libraries. With the great mass of the public-notwithstanding the presence of one popular element, a rich quaint humour-we should think there will be less appreciation. Let them judge for themselves, however, after reading a specimen. When a boy at the High School of Edinburgh, the author made acquaintance with a dog called Rab, the guardian of the wain of the Howgate carrier, in consequence of seeing him comport himself nobly in a fight with one of his own species. The acquaintance was kept up till Mr Brown was a medical student and clerk in the Minto House Hospital. We had,' says he, much pleasant intimacy. I found the way to his heart by frequent scratchings of his huge head, and an occasional bone. When I did not notice him, he would plant himself straight before me, and stand wagging that bud of a tail, and looking up, with his head a little to the one side. His master I occasionally saw; he used to call me "Maister John," but was laconic as any Spartan. 'One fine October afternoon, I was leaving the hospital, when I saw the large gate open, and in walked Rab, with that great and easy saunter of his. He looked as if taking general possession of the place; like the Duke of Wellington entering a subdued city, satiated with victory and peace. After him came Jess, now white from age, with her cart; and in it a woman, carefully wrapped up-the carrier leading the horse anxiously, and looking back. When he saw me, James-for his name was James Noble-made a curt and grotesque "boo," and said: "Maister John, this is the mistress; she's got a trouble in her breest -some kind o' an income, we're thinkin'." 'By this time I saw the woman's face; she was sitting on a sack filled with straw, her husband's plaid round her, and his big-coat, with its large white metal buttons, over her feet. I never saw a more unforgetable face-pale, serious, lonely, delicate, sweet, without being what we call fine. She looked sixty, and had on a mutch, white as snow, with its black ribbon; her silvery smooth hair setting off her darkgray eyes-eyes such as one sees only twice or thrice in a lifetime, full of suffering, but full also of the overcoming of it; her eyebrows black and delicate; and her mouth firm, patient, and contented, which few mouths ever are. 'As I have said, I never saw a more beautiful countenance, or one more subdued to settled quiet. Ailie," said James, "this is Maister John, the young doctor; Rab's freend, ye ken. We often speak aboot you, doctor." She smiled, and made a movement, but said nothing; and prepared to come down, putting her plaid aside and rising. Had Solomon, in all his glory, been handing down the Queen of Sheba at his palace-gate, he could not have done it more daintily, more tenderly, more like a gentleman, than did James the Howgate carrier, when he lifted down Ailie, his wife. The contrast of his small, swarthy, weatherbeaten, keen, worldly face to hers-pale, subdued, and beautiful-was something wonderful. Rab looked on concerned and puzzled, but ready for anything that might turn up-were it to strangle the nurse, the porter, or even me. Ailie and he seemed great friends. "As I was sayin', she's got a kind o' trouble in her breest, doctor; wull ye tak' a look at it?" We walked into the consulting-room, all four; Rab grim and comic, willing to be happy and confidential if cause could be shewn, willing also to be quite the reverse, on the same terms. Ailie sat down, undid her open gown and her lawn handkerchief round her neck, and, without a word, shewed me her right 66 breast. I looked at and examined it carefully-she and James watching me, and Rab eyeing all three. What could I say? there it was, that had once been so soft, so shapely, so white, so gracious and bountiful, so full of all blessed conditions "-hard as a stone, a centre of horrid pain, making that pale face, with its gray, lucid, reasonable eyes, and its sweet resolved mouth, express the full measure of suffering overcome. Why was that gentle, modest, sweet woman, clean and lovable, condemned by God to bear such a burden? 'I got her away to bed. "May Rab and me bide?” said James. "You may; and Rab, if he will behave himself." "I'se warrant he's do that, doctor;" and in slunk the faithful beast. I wish you could have seen him. There are no such dogs now; he belonged to a lost tribe. As I have said, he was brindled, and gray like Aberdeen granite; his hair short, hard, and close, like a lion's; his body thick-set, like a little bull-a sort of compressed Hercules of a dog. He must have been ninety pounds-weight at the least: he had a large blunt head; his muzzle black as night; his mouth blacker than any night, a tooth or twobeing all he had-gleaming out of his jaws of darkness. His head was scarred with the records of old wounds, a sort of series of fields of battle all over it; one eye out, one ear cropped as close as was Archbishop Leighton's father's-but for different reasons the remaining eye had the power of two; and above it, and in constant communication with it, was a tattered rag of an ear, which was for ever unfurling itself, like an old flag; and then that bud of a tail, about one inch long, if it could in any sense be said to be long, being as broad as long-the mobility, the instantaneousness of that bud was very funny and surprising, and its expressive twinklings and winkings, the intercommunications between the eye, the ear, and it, were of the subtlest and swiftest. Rab had the dignity and simplicity of great size; and having fought his way all along the road to absolute supremacy, he was as mighty in his own line as Julius Cæsar or the Duke of Wellington; and he had the gravity of all great fighters. 'Next day, my master, the surgeon, examined Ailie. There was no doubt it must kill her, and soon. It could be removed-it might never return-it would give her speedy relief-she should have it done. She curtsied, looked at James, and said: "When?" "To-morrow," said the kind surgeon-a man of few words. She and James and Rab and I retired. I noticed that he and she spoke little, but seemed to anticipate everything in each other. The following day at noon, the students came in, hurrying up the great stair. At the first landing-place, on a small well-known black board, was a bit of paper fastened by wafers, and many remains of old wafers beside it. On the paper were the words: "An operation to-day. J. B. Clerk." Up ran the youths, eager to secure good places: in they crowded, full of interest and talk. "What's the case?" "Which side is it?" 'Don't think them heartless; they are neither better nor worse than you or I: they get over their professional horrors, and into their proper work; and in them pity-as an emotion, ending in itself, or at best in tears and a long-drawn breath, lessens, while pity as a motive is quickened, and gains power and purpose. It is well for poor human nature that it is so. "The operating theatre is crowded; much talk and fun, and all the cordiality and stir of youth. The surgeon with his staff of assistants is there. In comes Ailie: one look at her quiets and abates the eager students. That beautiful old woman is too much for them; they sit down, and are dumb, and gaze at her. These rough boys feel the power of her presence. She walks in quickly, but without haste; dressed in her mutch, her neckerchief, her white dimity short |