character, full of Johnsonian antitheses and triads, but without any periods, protracted in one long, overloaded, intertwisted and inextricable series of sentences, running round and round like the lines in the puzzle, which children call the walls of Troy. At first he seemed to utter something which sounded like an apologetical exordium, for his not being prepared to address so numerous and respectable an assembly; out of which modest introduction, without coming to any conclusion, he got afloat on the drift of his unintelligible argument, or convoluted rigmarole; his object being, as he intimated with violent gesticulations, "to enunciate to his audience didactic precepts, calculated to evolve their energies for those aptitudes which were now ineffectual." And then he talked about soirées, races and operas; coaches, carriages and curricles; houses, horses and harnesses; diamonds, damask and drapery; fandangos, fêtes and failures. He said that large three-story houses were better than small two-story ones. That a man who could ride in a glass coach with four fat horses, was better off than one who had nothing to carry him but his own two legs: and he dwelt much on some subjects thought very mystical at that day, though now familiar to every broker's apprentice, such as buying charters, flying kites, and raising

Y

the wind.

On these things he expatiated at great length, and with many repetitions. He also stated that high duties were good things, because honest men might make a living by evading them. During the latter part of these observations, Dr. Magraw disappeared from the post he had long occupied with immoveable gravity and silence. All at once, as the preacher was winding up one of his longest expectorations, or rather sliding out of it for want of breath, the doctor appeared behind him, seized him by the nape of his neck, and held him up, shaking like a scarecrow in the wind, quite off from the edge of the rock, displaying the nether part of the creature's figure more particularly than its proprietor seemed to have wished. The surplice flying all abroad, discovered a little pair of red breeches, ending in a knotty pair of knees; while the crooked shanks below, in the black silk stockings, terminated in two stumpy, hoof-like, clubbed knobs, cased in a pair of black velvet bags, which figured and flourished about lustily, as the doctor kept their owner suspended. After holding him awhile in this manner, while he screamed and hallood and begged, and kicked and lost his cocked hat, he set him down again on his feet or hind paws, griping him in the same place with his left hand, and belabouring him with his huge orange

walking stick, every thwack of which resounded as if the effect of its application must have been peculiarly uncomfortable to the patient. Still brandishing this about his ears, he asked, “ Are you not the same tattling devil, that told the oracle in old times what Croesus was about when he was cooking turtle soup after a bad receipt?" And he gave him a whack to enforce his attention to the question. "Yes, my lord;" said the preacher in a small voice. "Are you not the prying, impertinent devil of Livonia, that told the German ambassador to Sweden what clothes his wife had on, and what she was doing?" "Yes, your highness," whined the goblin, as a couple of buffets made all his members rattle. "And are you not the same poor, miserable devil, that in Rabelais' time, when the great devils were raising storms to destroy armadas, was blowing a whirlwind in a parsley bed?" "I am, indeed, your excellency;" here he got a whack that made him whimper like a whipt spaniel. "And are you not the same helpless and contemptible devil, that Paracelsus carried about in the hilt of his sword, in the shape of a bluebottle-fly?" "Alas! yes, your high mightiness!" and here he got a kick to boot, with strappadoes nowise desirable. "And are not you the same foolish devil, that troubled the people at Maçon, by thumping behind the

wainscoats, singing filthy songs, and frightening the little children, and then was decoyed by the prior of St. Deny's into an empty Burgundy bottle, where you were corked up, and soused into holy water?" "Oh yes, your Majesty!" screamed the tormented spirit, as a terrible knock half demolished his wig, and discovered a crooked corneous projection, growing behind a pricked

up, hairy ear. "And are not you the abominably impudent devil, that, for two years, has been frightening my friend, the Rev. Mr. Wesley, scratching behind the children's beds, making the plates rattle on the dresser, and ringing all the bells?" "Oh dear, yes, I and the rats," faintly replied the almost exanimate catechumen. "And now you have come here, have you-you paltry, sneaking, despicable devil-to stuff nonsense into the heads of my poor people of New-York, and teach them, before their time comes, how to lie, and cheat, and have lotteries and banks, and to shave and smuggle?" Here he suddenly took hold of him by what seemed an extraordinary excrescence, from behind, hitherto concealed by his surplice, took out of his own pocket a little book with a green cover and gilt edges, which he put to the poor devil's nose, saying, “ Now, Sir, I will give you a dose that will last you half a century;" and then he whirled him about, and

dashed him down, and a crack was heard, and a light flashed before the eyes of the spectators like that produced by the galvanic battery, and the devil vanished, and a smell like that of phosphorus was perceptible, and the enormous rock of the pulpit was split from the top to the bottom, as it remains to this day. The sailors uttered a shout of horror and fear, the cow rung her bell, the jackass yelled as if he was mourning for all his relations, the macaws and parrots squalled, the monkey whooped, the dogs howled, the mules and cows uplifted a wail, and the two black ferrymen in red jackets, sent up a guttural, hysterical, hoarse, demoniac laugh from their deep diaphragms, more appalling than all the other noises together.

When this uproar had subsided, Dr. Magraw was still standing on the pulpit cushion, and gave orders, in a voice of thunder, to the soldiers," to seize those smuggling rascals," pointing to the sailor-looking men. This command was executed with business-like celerity, method and decency. The Highlanders produced whipcords; and the surprise and terror of the smugglers at the castigation and disappearance of their preacher, made them submit to be bound without resist

ance.

These gentry having been pinioned, and the Y *