witchcraft. From ten till twelve at night their cries were most piteous and loud, and though distant a full half mile, were distinctly heard. This morning they cannot move." There was a Mr. William Wright, of Saham Tony in Norfolk, who used to cast his skin every year, sometimes once, sometimes twice; it was an uneasy and distressing effort of nature, preceded by itching, red spots, and swellings; the fingers became stiff, hard, and painful at the ends, and about the nails the pain was exquisite. The whole process of changing was completed in from ten to twelve days, but it was about six months before the nails were perfectly renewed. From the hands the skin came off whole like a glove: and a print representing one of these gloves is given with the account of the case in the Gentleman's Magazine. When this was related to the Doctor it perplexed him. The habit was evidently that of a snake; and it did not agree with his theory to suppose that the Archeus would pass, as it were per saltum, from so low a stage of existence to the human form. But upon reading the account himself he was completely satisfied as soon as he found that the subject was an Attorney. HERE might be the place for inquiring how far the Doctor's opinions or fancies upon this mysterious subject were original. His notion he used to call it; but a person to whom the reader will be introduced ere long, and who regarded him with the highest admiration and the profoundest respect, always spoke of it as the Columbian Theory of Progressive Existence. Original indeed in the Doctor it was not; he said that he had learned it from his poor Uncle William; He did not know, because it was not but that William Dove originated it himknown till Mr. Wilkin published his excel-self there can be little doubt. From books lent edition of Sir Thomas Browne's Works, it was impossible that he should have dethat that Philosopher sent to his son Dr. rived it, because he could not read; and Edward Browne, “the skin of the palm of nothing can be more unlikely than that he a woman's hand, cast off at the end of a should have met with it as a traditional fever, or in the declination thereof. I called opinion. The Doctor believed that this poor it," he says, "exuvium palmæ muliebris, the Uncle, of whom he never spoke without Latin word being exuvia in the plural, but some expression of compassionate kindness, I named it exuvium, or exuvia in the singular had deduced it intuitively as an inference number. It is neat, and worthy to be shown from his instinctive skill in physiognomy. when you speak of the skin. Snakes, and lizards, and divers insects cast their skins, and they are very neat ones: men also in some diseases, by pieces, but I have not met with any so neat as this: a palmister might read a lecture of it. The whole soles of the feet came off, and I have one." If the Doctor had heard of this case, and had not suspected the woman of having once belonged to a generation of vipers, or some When subjects like these are treated of, it should be done discreetly. There should be, in the words of Bishop Andrewes, "Oikovoula, a dispensation, not a dissipation; a laying forth, not diaσкоprioμde, a casting away; a wary sowing, not a heedless scattering; and a sowing xepl, où duráky, by handfulls, not by basket-fulls, as the heathen-man well said." Bearing this in mind I have given a Chapterfull, not a Volumefull, and that Chapter is for physiologists and philosophers; but this Opus is not intended for them alone; they constitute but a part only of that "fit audience" and not "few," which it will find. One Andrew Henderson, a Scotchman, who kept a bookseller's shop, or stand, in Westminster Hall, at a time when lawyers' tongues and witnesses' souls were not the only commodities exposed for sale there, published a tragedy called "Arsinoe, or The Incestuous Marriage." The story was Egyptian; but the drama deserves to be called Hendersonian, after its incomparable author; for he assured the reader, in a prefatory advertisement, that there were to be found in it "the most convincing arguments against incest and self-murder, interspersed with an inestimable treasure of ancient and modern learning, and the substance of the principles of the illustrious Sir Isaac Newton, adapted to the meanest capacity, and very entertaining to the Ladies, containing a nice description of the passions and behaviour of the Fair Sex." The Biographer, or Historian, or Anecdotist, or rather the reminiscent relator of circumstances concerning the birth, parentage and education, life, character and behaviour, of Dr. Daniel Dove, prefers not so wide a claim upon the gratitude of his readers as Andrew Henderson has advanced. Yet, like the author of "Arsinoe," he trusts that his work is "adapted to the meanest capacity;" that the lamb may wade in it, though the elephant may swim, and also that it will be found "very entertaining to the Ladies." Indeed, he flatters himself that it will be found profitable for old and young, for men and for women, the married and the single, the idle and the studious, the merry and the sad; that it may sometimes inspire the thoughtless with thought, and sometimes beguile the careful of their cares. One thing alone might hitherto seem wanting to render it a catholic, which is to say, an universal book, and that is, that as there are Chapters in it for the closet, for the library, for the breakfast room, for the boudoir, (which is in modern habitations what the oriel was in ancient ones,) for the drawingroom, and for the kitchen, if you please, (for whatever you may think, good reader, I am of opinion, that books which at once amuse and instruct may be as useful to servant men and maids, as to their masters and mistresses)—so should there be one at least for the nursery. With such a chapter, therefore, will I brighten the countenance of many a dear child, and gladden the heart of many a happy father, and tender mother, and nepotious uncle or aunt, and fond brother or sister; Ηδεῖαν φάτιν Φέρομεν αὐτοῖς. For their sakes I will relate one of William Dove's stories, with which he used to delight young Daniel, and with which the Doctor in his turn used to delight his young favourites; and which never fails of effect with that fit audience for which it is designed, if it be told with dramatic spirit, in the manner that our way of printing it may sufliciently indicate, without the aid of musical notation. Experto crede. Prick up your ears then, My good little women and men † ; and ye who are neither so little, nor so good, favete linguis, for here follows the Story of the Three Bears. Bear. And they had each a chair to sit in; a little chair for the Little, Small, Wee Bear; and a middle-sized chair for the Middle Bear; and a great chair for the Great, Huge Bear. And they had each a bed to sleep in; a little bed for the Little, Small, Wee Bear; and a middle-sized bed for the Middle Bear; and a great bed for the Great, Huge Bear. One day, after they had made the porridge for their breakfast, and poured it into their porridge-pots, they walked out into the wood while the porridge was cooling, that they might not burn their mouths, by beginning too soon to eat it. And while they were walking, a little old Woman came to the house. She could not have been a good, honest old Woman; for first she looked in at the window, and then she peeped in at the keyhole; and seeing nobody in the house, she lifted the latch. The door was not fastened, because the Bears were good Bears, who did nobody any harm, and never suspected that any body would harm them. So the little old Woman opened the door, and went in; and well pleased she was when she saw the porridge on the table. If she had been a good little old Woman, she would have waited till the Bears came home, and then, perhaps, they would have asked her to breakfast; for they were good Bears, a little rough or so, as the manner of Bears is, but for all that very good-natured and hospitable. But she was an impudent, bad old Woman, and set about helping herself. So first she tasted the porridge of the Great, Huge Bear, and that was too hot for her; and she said a bad word about that. And then she tasted the porridge of the Middle Bear, and that was too cold for her; and she said a bad word about that too. And then she went to the porridge of the Little, Small, Wee Bear, and tasted that; and that was neither too hot, nor too cold, but just right; and she liked it so well, that she ate it all up: but the naughty old Woman said a bad word about the little porridge-pot, because it did not hold enough for her. Then the little old Woman sate down in the chair of the Great, Huge Bear, and that was too hard for her. And then she sate down in the chair of the Middle Bear, and that was too soft for her. And then she sate down in the chair of the Little, Small, Wee Bear, and that was neither too hard, nor too soft, but just right. So she seated herself in it, and there she sate till the bottom of the chair came out, and down came her's, plump upon the ground. And the naughty old Woman said a wicked word about that too. Then the little old Woman went up stairs into the bed-chamber in which the three Bears slept. And first she lay down upon the bed of the Great, Huge Bear; but that was too high at the head for her. And next she lay down upon the bed of the Middle Bear; and that was too high at the foot for her. And then she lay down upon the bed of the Little, Small, Wee Bear; and that was neither too high at the head, nor at the foot, but just right. So she covered herself up comfortably, and lay there till she fell fast asleep. By this time the Three Bears thought their porridge would be cool enough; so they came home to breakfast. Now the little old Woman had left the spoon of the Great, Huge Bear, standing in his porridge. “Somebody has been at my porridge ?” said the Great, Huge Bear, in his great, rough, gruff voice. And when the Middle Bear looked at his, he saw that the spoon was standing in it too. They were wooden spoons; if they had been silver ones, the naughty old Woman would have put them in her pocket. at his, and there was the spoon in the porridge-pot, but the porridge was all gone. "Somebody has been at my porridge, and has eaten it all up!" said the Little, Small, Wee Bear, in his little, small, wee voice. Upon this the Three Bears, seeing that some one had entered their house, and eaten up the Little, Small, Wee Bear's breakfast, began to look about them. Now the little old Woman had not put the hard cushion straight when she rose from the chair of the Great, Huge Bear. Somebody has been sitting in my chair!" said the Great, Huge Bear, in his great, rough, gruff voice. And the little old Woman had squatted down the soft cushion of the Middle Bear. "Somebody has been sitting in my chair!" said the Middle Bear, in his middle voice. And you know what the little old Woman had done to the third chair. "Somebody has been sitting in my chair, and has sate the bottom of it out! Somebody has been lying in my bed,— and here she is!" said the Little, Small, Wee Bear, in his little, small, wee voice. The little old Woman had heard in her sleep the great, rough, gruff voice of the Great, Huge Bear; but she was so fast asleep that it was no more to her than the roaring of wind, or the rumbling of thunder. And she had heard the middle voice of the Middle Bear, but it was only as if she had heard some one speaking in a dream. But when she heard the little, small, wee voice of the Little, Small, Wee Bear, it was so sharp, and so shrill, that it awakened her at once. Up she started; and when she saw the Three Bears on one side of the bed, she tumbled herself out at the other, and ran to the window. Now the window was open, because the Bears, like good, tidy Bears, as they were, always said the Little, Small, Wee Bear, in his little, opened their bed-chamber window when they small, wee voice. Then the Three Bears thought it necessary that they should make farther search; so they went up stairs into their bed-chamber. Now the little old Woman had pulled the pillow of the Great, Huge Bear, out of its place. “Somebody has been lying in my bed!” said the Great, Huge Bear, in his great, rough, gruff voice. got up in the morning. Out the little old Woman jumped; and whether she broke her neck in the fall; or ran into the wood and was lost there; or found her way out stable and sent to the House of Correction of the wood, and was taken up by the confor a vagrant as she was, I cannot tell. But the Three Bears never saw anything more of her.* The lamented Southey was very much pleased with the Story of the Three Bears as versified by G. N., and And the little old Woman had pulled the published specially for the amusement of " little people," bolster of the Middle Bear out of its place. lest in the volumes of The Doctor, &c.," it should "escape their sight." O DEAR little children, you who are in the happiest season of human life, how will you delight in the Story of the Three Bears, when Mamma reads it to you out of this nice book, or Papa, or some fond Uncle, kind Aunt, or doting Sister; Papa and Uncle will do the Great, Huge Bear, best; but Sister, and Aunt, and Mamma, will excel them in the Little, Small, Wee Bear, with his little, small, wee voice. And O Papa and Uncle, if you are like such a Father and such an Uncle as are at this moment in my mind's eye, how will you delight in it, both for the sake of that small, but "fit audience," and because you will perceive how justly it may be said to be - a well-writ story, Where each word stands so well placed that it passes Inquisitive detraction to correct.* It is said to be a saying of Dr. Southey's, that "a house is never perfectly furnished for enjoyment, unless there is a child in it rising three years old, and a kitten rising six weeks." Observe, reader; this is repeated upon On-dit's authority, which is never to be taken for more than it is worth. I do not affirm that Dr. Southey has said this, but he is likely enough to have said it; for I know that he sometimes dates his letters from Cat's Eden. And if he did say so, I agree with him, and so did the Doctor; he specialiter as regards the child, I specialiter as regards the kitten. Kitten is in the animal world what the rosebud is in the garden; the one the most beautiful of all young creatures, the other the loveliest of all opening flowers. The DAVENPORT. rose loses only something in delicacy by its development, enough to make it a serious emblem to a pensive mind; but if a cat could remember kittenhood, as we remember our youth, it were enough to break a cat's heart, even if it had nine times nine heart strings. Do not the flowers spring fresh and gay, It is another saying of the Laureate's, according to On-dit, that, “live as long as you may, the first twenty years are the longest half of your life." They appear so while they are passing; they seem to have been so when we look back upon them; and they take up more room in our memory than all the years that succeed them. But in how strong a light has this been placed by the American teacher Jacob Abbott, whose writings have obtained so wide a circulation in England. "Life," he says, “if you understand by it the season of preparation for eternity, is more than half gone ;life so far as it presents opportunities and facilities for penitence and pardon, —so far as it bears on the formation of character, and is to be considered as a period of probation,-is unquestionably more than half gone, to those who are between fifteen and twenty. In a vast number of cases it is more than half gone, even in duration: and if we consider the thousand influences which crowd around the years of childhood and youth, winning us to religion, and making a surrender of ourselves to Jehovah easy and pleasant, — and, on the other hand, look forward beyond the years of maturity, and see these influences losing all their power, and the heart becoming harder and harder under the deadening effects of continuance in sin, — we shall not doubt a moment that the years of immaturity make a far more important part of our time of probation than all those that follow." That pious man, who, while he lived, was the Honourable Charles How, and might properly now be called the honoured, says + LUSTY JUVENTUS. |