from the din and hubbub that reigned in the passage, it appeared that the affrighted damsels had encountered in their retreat a party of grave virtuosi, who were making their way up stairs, (and had reached the second landing-place,) with the solemn intent of holding a scientific inquest over me. Cities have been sorely alarmed, and even whole armies have been put to route, by very insignificant causes. In truth, the doctrine of impulse, in contradistinction to that of ratiocination, cannot be better elucidated, than by exhibiting the human mind in a positive state of panic. The wise as well as the foolish--the learned as well as the unlettered-the valiant as well as the timorous-are all acted on by a common power, and urged to a common movement, without being able to explain the reason wherefore. But I had a sense, that it was not for a humble being, bagged like a badger, to presume to solve the wonderful anomalies of nature. Even had I possessed a disposition towards such high speculations, the manifold emblems of science, which in every shape and position surrounded me, would have been enough to repress my presumption-all I can do at present, therefore, is to go on with my story. By this time, the phalanx of worshipful philosophers, by whom the quiet of my privacy was so nearly threatened, had fairly taken to their heels, and left my dreamy fancy as unfettered by any train of imagined incidents of their suggesting, as when the leisure of a steeple abode enabled it to sit in solemn judgment upon the moral properties of created man. Nevertheless, the spirit within me had now got a jog; an impetus to be doing, with which a sort of prudential concern, a dim perspective of apprehension, began to mingle itself, as I cast about and bethought me as to the probable purpose of those strange destinies, which had done me the honour of taking me under their special charge. As I disengaged myself as quietly as possible from my bag, an old mahogany-framed mirror, at the opposite end of the room, sent back the image of my parti-coloured figure, lumbering forth, as it were, from its chrysalis state, a fair subject for the curious investigator of wonderful things. Within the power of such an investigator, I did not doubt myself to be placed-and my misgivings were in no wise appeased by a side glance which I cast towards the partly opened door of a closet, from behind which a grinning death's head greeted my view. Not without a sensation of gloomy presage, did I contemplate the extent to which the indulgence of a vein of research might carry even philosophy itself. I hugged hard in my mind certain notions of safety and comfort, and bitterly deprecated any zeal for the interests of

science that might perchance threaten to invade their cherished limits. This many-coloured skin of mine to be dried and stuffed, and hung up in relief to the dull and uniform brown of a crocodile's hide!a cold sweat broke from every pore at the thought-my perturbation increased every instant-the glassy eyes of the bald eagle seemed to ogle me with a deathlike gleam I could not persuade myself that the alligator did not traverse upon the wire with which it was suspended, like a huge magnet, still keeping me as the polar point of its attraction ; and I more than once fancied that I heard a rattling among the dry bones in the closet. Still a secret self-reproach seemed to admonish my pusillanimous fears, and under its chidings I approached, with a sort of desperate resolution, towards the closet door, and even ventured to peep within the recess. A good part of a skeleton or so; but then that wig, hanging so composedly, frizzled and powdered-schemes of direful purpose were surely never hatched beneath such serene curls; and then those jack-boots, water proof I'll be bound, emblems of good care and precaution; and this ivory handled staff, as true, I'll be sworn, to detect the lack of an inch in the eight feet long, four high, and four broad, that should go to make up an honest cord of wood, as if it had been duly sealed at the city office of weights and measures. "Pshaw, a philosopher is, after all, no more formidable than any other man”—and under cover of this soothing apostrophe, I made a bold pass with the old man's staff into a dark corner of the closet, thrusting at what seemed vacuity-when, bounce--an involuntary leap towards the door-another bound to the stairway-but the TOM CAT distanced me over the balustrade! Had there been a flap-dragon or two in my wake, or the devil himself, I should have counted it good fortune, and should have been spared the mortification I now felt. Confound all tom cats in dark closets, say I-and making up in measured stateliness (as I uttered the ejaculation) for the precipitate commencement of my career, I folded my arms, held up my head, and marched deliberately out at the street door. Amidst the jostling and elbowing to which my dignity was now fairly exposed, my attention was arrested by the accents of a familiar voice, evidently addressed to me Well met, Mr. Harlequin. Why you seem as strange and as muzzy as an owl brought suddenly into daylight-sure you can never expect to thrive with that grave face; but hold, let me throw my cloak about your shoulders, for there comes Will Wrenchcharter-yonder little skinny fellow that you see turning the corner. Will is just getting through with his last commercial difficulties, and is

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now petitioning for a new bank, to help to ruin him for the fifth time. Should he get the slightest hint of your being a wizard, he'll engage you to go to Albany, as a lobby member, to push his suit; therefore, ensconce and stand close.' Will is, indeed, a man of expedients, and does not stick at trifles ; and let me tell you, half the world is kept in motion by shifts and devices of some sort or other, so that a man need not fear of countenance in the use of them. What is your tender conscience but a self-destroying engine? Modest merit may trundle a barrow, and think itself happy if it gets a nod from a truckman; it is only assurance that can expect to roll in a coach. Assurance forestalls opinion, and is the best passport on the road to preferment and consequence. Perhaps, by this time, you may begin to recollect a certain hopeful young monk whom you sent capering forth from seclusion. Yes, Mr. Harlequin, that wand of yours gave the impetus, and chance, and change, and expedients, have done the rest and made me what I am no less sir, than a member of the high court of literary impeachment; an infallible propounder of the laws of criticism; an oracle in the beau monde.

"Fashion is the engine by which mind and matter are set in motion, from high life downwards. Coats and opinions are shaped by the sovereignty of the mode; authors and tailors are alike obedient to its dictates. You seem surprised, but I assure you that baubles and top-knots have had their day, and now give place to the passion of bookism in the gay world. It would delight you to take a peep at our coteries, to see grace of feature gathering to itself a sentimentality of mind from the gently measured accents of a votary of the muses-to observe us of the lettered fraternity, with our peculiar propriety of manner and studied dignity of carriage, distributing delectable morceaus of sentiment and fancy, as one would deal cards from a pack. And to remark the deference that is every where paid to our order-why, sir, a roystering dandy will be fain to turn on his heel, and yield quiet precedence to one of the high literary(this very appellation, by which our fraternity are distinguished, carries a dread with it)—and a bevy of young dames, in full giggle, will have their animation quite subdued, and their pretty little countenances screwed up, 'to look sensible,' by the time he passes them in review. And then to mark the mild, condescending complacency of air with which we carry the matter out, so that even masters of ceremonies are brought to feel themselves honoured by our notice. Thus you perceive in what estimation mind is held in high life, and what importance is derived to those who are accounted to VOL. II.

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be the upholders of its interests. And can you imagine that such an order would be insensible of the value of their prerogative? Are they not, to a great degree, the conservators of public opinion? Do we not fashion it?" Truly, you do fashion it, and are, it would seem, the very artificers of taste. And yet, with all due deference to the polite, I am prone to believe that nature may fashion tolerably well for herself. Methinks there are strong tendencies in the human soul, that dispose it to commune with God's works in their simplicity; wide reaching perceptions, opening the intellectual being to a delightful sympathy with the ideal world, in all its freshness and grandeur; the sensibility, delicate, and pure, and native, as the mountain stream; the engrossing passion, awful in its fixedness; the active faculty of humorous association; the joyous and free spirit of merriment "Tut! tut! Mr. Harlequin, what has all this to do with the beau monde? How long do you suppose our fraternity could maintain its ascendency, if we encouraged gentility to run loose after such phantoms? I protest you have made me nervous already. But we have a clever little system of management, that must keep all snug in the right quarter. Ah, Mr. Harlequin, you rail like a novice in the world, and depend on it, you would only be jeered at for your pains by the fashionable part of it. There are knowing ones of the drawing-room, as well as of the racecourse, or the exchange. Stocks, fashions, and horse-flesh, are all matters for keen perspicacity and adroit contrivance. A fashionable philosopher must be a practical philosopher; that is, he must practise by the rules of his own school. He must catch the key-note of opinion, and echo the judgments of those who are in the secret. The despotism which fashion exercises over the mind, is not less unrelenting and arbitrary, than that to which it subjects the body and its movements. You have seen the savage warriors of our western wilderness. You have remarked their lofty port, and the elastic ease of their gentler movements, which seem to derive their charm from native power and subdued energy. The graces of fashion, you know, are quite a different sort of thing. What beau is there that does not retain a lively recollection of his early days of penance at the shrine of the graces; the wooden stocks, skilfully contrived to subdue the obstinacy of the lower muscles of the feet, at the hazard of dislocation to the ancles; the poise upon one leg, that seemed to set at defiance all the laws of gravitation? Who will easily forget that master-spirit of nimbleness and genuflexion, under whom he first waged this war against the natural tendency of limb and feature; the fantastic

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Monsieur Violon, with feet spread asunder, gliding about the floor like the wings of a swallow over a meadow; and then how he would fiddle and fume, pitching the notes of his ire high above the efforts of rosin and horse-hair, as we laboured and floundered to bring out the measure part to the music and this doughty monsieur is a potent personage in his department--he fastens habits of body upon us, which we could hardly get rid of if we would. But it is no matter-fashion devises a grace of her own; monsieur is her artizan, and the polite world are her creatures and slaves-so that nothing remains to the stubborn comeliness of nature, but to stalk out of genteel society. So much for externals. Now for the immortal part, the mind. It is our province to form its carriage, as the dancing-master does that of the body. Minds that throw off for effect faster than they can create, must necessarily be a dependent order of minds. They use literature as a necessary sort of ammunition for their perpetual feu-de-jois of epithet, and it is our business to supply the magazines. It is a part of our system to circumscribe the scope of natural thought, and by this means we have tamed down impulse into a very harmless thing. In this worthy enterprise, we have put the term refinement to marvellous good service; by an ingenious perversion of its meaning, have succeeded in crying down all pictures from rustic life, and got them to be voted shockingly vulgar, and downright humour to be pronounced insufferable coarseness, and discarded altogether. In short, we manage to pervert healthful sentiment and feeling, and contrive to make the interests of letters synonymous with our own glorification. Notwithstanding all this, I freely confess to you, that my spirit is as far from being satisfied as ever. Experience has taught me, that the ambition of this world is without limits-nor will its promptings suffer me to repose but within the temple of fame itself, towards which I am bending my steps."

These last accents had just died upon my ear, when I found myself brought suddenly at a pause, as if through the power of some fresh spell of enchantment. I raised my eyes, and beheld, full before me, a huge pile of crags, that rose and frowned aloft like the Rock of Gibraltar. Turning for an explanation of so strange an appearance, I perceived that my companion had vanished from my side. Myriads of human beings were stirring about me, but they all seemed too intent upon some great concern of their own to give the slightest heed to my inquiries. I therefore was left to gaze in silent amazement. Upon the summit of the immense mount, appeared a structure of dazzling brightness. Ah! thought I, that must be the temple of