In infinite progression. But I lose EXERCISE CXV. A REMARKABLE INCIDENT. DE QUINCEY. 1. During a residence upon Ulleswater (winter of 1800,) it was, that a very remarkable incident befell Miss Smith. I have heard it often mentioned, and sometimes with a slight variety of circumstances; but I here repeat it from an account drawn up by Miss Smith herself, who was most literally exact and faithful to the truth in all reports of her own personal experience. 2. There is, on the western side of Ulleswater, a fine cataract, (or, in the language of the country, a force,) known by the name of Airey Force, and it is of importance enough, especially in rainy seasons, to attract numerous visitors from among "the Lakers." Thither, with some purpose of sketching, not the whole scene, but some picturesque features of it, Miss Smith had gone, quite unaccompanied. 3. The road to it lies through Gobarrow Park, and it was usual, at that time, to take a guide from the family of the Duke of Norfolk's keeper, who lived in Lyulph's Tower,-a solitary hunting lodge, built by his Grace for the purposes of an annual visit which he used to pay his estates in that part of England. She, however, thinking herself sufficiently familiar with the localities, had declined to encumber her motions with such an attendant; consequently she was alone. 4. For half an hour, or more, she continued to ascend; and, being a good "cragswoman," from the experience she had won in Wales, as well as in northern England, she had reached an altitude much beyond what would generally be thought corresponding to the time. The path had vanished altogether, but she continued to pick out one for herself among the stones, sometimes receding from the force, sometimes approaching it, according to the openings allowed by the scattered masses of rock. 5. Pressing forward in this hurried way, and never looking back, all at once she found herself in a little stony chamber, from which there was no egress possible in advance. She stopped and looked up. There was a frightful silence in the air. She felt a sudden palpitation at her heart, and a pani from she knew not what. Turning, however, hastily, she soon wound herself out of this aerial dungeon; but by steps so rapid and agitated, that at length, on looking round, she found herself standing at the brink of a chasm, frightful to look down. 6. That way, it was clear enough, all retreat was impossible; but, on turning round, retreat seemed, in every direction alike, even more impossible. Down the chasm, at least, she might have leaped, though with little or no chance of escaping with life; but, on all other quarters, it seemed to her eye, that, at no price, could she effect an exit, since the rocks stood round her in a semicircus, all lofty, all perpendicular, all glazed with trickling water, or smooth as polished porphyry. 7. Yet how, then, had she reached the point? The same track, if she could hit that track, would surely secure her escape. Round and round she walked; gazed with almost despairing eyes; her breath came thicker and thicker; for path. she could not trace by which it was possible for her to have entered. Finding herself grow more and more confused, and every instant nearer to sinking into some fainting fit or convulsion, she resolved to sit down, and turn her thoughts quietly into some less exciting channel. 8. This she did; gradually recovered some self-possession, and then suddenly a thought rose up to her, that she was in the hands of God, and that he would not forsake her. But immediately came a second and reproving thought that this confidence in God's protection might have been justified, had she been ascending the rocks upon any mission of duty; but what right could she have to any providential deliverance, who had been led thither in a spirit of levity and carelessness? I am here giving her view of the case; for, as to myself, I fear greatly, that, if her steps were erring ones, it is but seldom indeed, that the rest of us can pretend to be treading upon right paths. 9. Once again she rose, and, supporting herself upon a little sketching-stool that folded up into a stick, she looked upward, in the hope that some shepherd might, by chance, be wandering in those aerial regions; but nothing could she see, except the tall birches growing at the brink of the highest summits, and the clouds slowly sailing overhead. Suddenly, however, as she swept the whole circuit of her station with her alarmed eye, she saw clearly, about two hundred yards beyond her own position, a lady, in a white muslin morning robe, such as were then universally worn by young ladies until dinnertime. 10. The lady beckoned with a gesture and in a manner that, in a moment, gave her confidence to advance,—how, she could not guess, but, in some way that baffled all power to retrace it, she found instantaneously the outlet which previously had escaped her. She continued to advance toward the lady, whom now, in the same moment, she found to be standing upon the other side of the force, and, also, to be her own sister. 11. How, or why that young lady, whom she had left at home, earnestly occupied with her own studies, should have followed and overtaken her, filled her with perplexity. But this was no situation for putting questions; for the guiding sister began to descend, and, by a few simple gestures, just serving to indicate when Miss Elizabeth was to approach, and when to leave the brink of the torrent, she gradually led her. down to a platform of rock, from which the further descent was safe and conspicuous. www 12. There Miss Smith paused, in order to take breath from her panic, as well as to exchange greetings and questions with her sister. But sister there was none. All trace of her had vanished; and when, in two hours after, she reached her home, Miss Smith found her sister in the same situation and employment, in which she had left her; and the whole family assured her, that she had never stirred from the house. EXERCISE CXVI. THE TALKING LADY. MISS MITFORD. 1. The manner of her speech has little remarkable. It is rather old-fashioned and provincial, but perfectly lady-like, low and gentle, and not seeming so fast as it is; like the great pedestrians, she clears her ground easily, and never seems to use any exertion; yet, "I would my horse had the speed of her tongue, and so good a continuer." She will talk you sixteen hours a day, for twenty days together, and not deduct one poor five minutes for halts and baiting time. Talking, sheer talking, is meat, and drink, and sleep to her. She likes nothing else. Eating is a sad interruption. 2. For the tea-table she has some toleration; but dinner, with its clatter of plates and jingle of knives and forks, dinner is her abhorrence. Nor are the other common pursuits of life more in her favor. Walking exhausts the breath that might be better employed. Dancing is a noisy diversion, and singing is worse; she can not endure any music, except the long, grand, dull concerto, which nobody thinks of listening to. Reading and chess she classes together, as silent barbarisms, unworthy of a social and civilized people. 3. Cards, too, have their faults; there is a rivalry, a mute eloquence, in those four aces, that leads away the attention; besides, partners will sometimes scold; so she never plays at cards; and, upon the strength of this abstinence, had very nearly passed for serious, till it was discovered, that she could not abide a long sermon. She always looks out for the shortest preacher, and never went to above one Bible-meeting in her life. "Such speeches !" quoth she; "I thought the men never meant to have done. People have great need of pa. tience." 4. Plays, of course, she abhors; and operas, and mobs, and all things that will be heard, especially children; though, for babies, particularly when asleep, for dogs, and pictures, and such silent intelligences as serve to talk of and talk to, she has a considerable partiality; and an agreeable and gracious flattery to the mammas, and other owners of these pretty dumb things, is a very usual introduction to her miscellaneous harangues. The matter of these orations is inconceivably various. Perhaps the local and genealogical anecdotes, the sort of supplement to the history of *****shire, may be her strongest point; but she shines almost as much in medicine and housewifery. Her medical dissertations savor a little of that particular branch of the science called quackery. 5. She has a specific against almost every disease, to which the human frame is liable; and is terribly prosy and unmerciful in her symptoms. Her cures kill. In house-keeping, her notions resemble those of other verbal managers; full of economy and retrenchment, with a leaning toward reform, though she loves so well to declaim on the abuses in the cook's department, that I am not sure, that she would very heartily thank any radical who should sweep them quite away. For the rest, her system sounds very finely in theory, but rather fails in practice. 6. Her recipes would be capital, only that, some way or other, they do not eat well; her preserves seldom keep; and her sweet wines are sure to turn sour. These are certain ly her favorite topics; but any one will do. Allude to some anecdote of the neighborhood, and she forthwith treats you with as many parallel passages as are to be found in an |