was nearly finished. By this time Lady Lauder came in, and I begged that the children might be brought. I took each of them to him in succession, and he patted their heads; but the ceremony, though tolerated, seemed to give him little pleasure. A tray now appeared, and I led him to a seat at the table. I put a napkin on his knee, and comprehending what he was to be employed in, he drew his chair very close to the table, as if to prevent accident to the carpet, and spread the napkin so as to protect his clothes. I helped him to some broth, and guided his spoon for two or three times, after which I left him to himself, when he leaned over the table, and continued to eat the broth without spilling any of it, groping for the bread, and eating slice after slice of it with seeming appetite. The truth was, he had been wandering for some days, had been at Ardclach, his native place, had had a long walk that morning, and was very hungry. My house, you know, is seventeen miles from Nairn. I then cut some cold meat for him, and he helped himself to it very adroitly with his fork, drinking beer from time to time as he wanted it, without losing a drop of it. After he had finished, he sat for a few minutes, and then he arose, as if he wished to go. I then gave him a glass of wine, and each of us having shaken him by the hand, he moved towards the door, where I got him his hat, and taking him by the arm, I led him down the approach to the lodge. Having made him aware of the obstruction which the gate presented, I opened it for him, led him into the road, and giving his arm a swing in the direction I wished him to take, I shook hands with him again, and he moved away at a good round pace as I had indicated. Some years ago Mitchell paid a visit to Relugas, but I was unfortunately from home at the time, and as he was known to no one else, his awkward gait occasioned his being mistaken. for a drunk or insane person; and the doors being shut against him, he went away. He never repeated his visit until the late occasion; but I am not without hope that the kind treatment he last met with may induce him to come here the next time he takes a ramble. His countenance is so intelligent, and its VOL. IV. 2 A expression in every respect so good, that he interested every individual of the family, and delighted us all. Will you have the goodness to say to Mr. Stewart, with my best compliments, that I consider myself highly honoured by his application to me. I have given him all the circumstances I can at present remember; and I beg you will assure him, that should he have any queries to propose, it will give me great pleasure to satisfy him to the best of my power, and I hope he will have no scruple in commanding my services. Believe me, my dear Napier, ever yours most sincerely, After reading the foregoing letters, (the minutest details in which were to me deeply interesting,) I could not help feeling much additional regret at the failure of the plan which I had formed for attempting the farther education of Mitchell. See pp. 333, 336, 337, of this volume. His intellectual capacity (manifested in that prudential sagacity which has been the gradual result of his very limited experience, and still more remarkably in that foresight which enables him to look forward with dread to the possibility of future contingencies) seems to me now to be far superior to what I had previously apprehended. How invaluable was the opportunity which has been thus lost of adding to the Natural History of the Human Mind! No exertion certainly was wanting on my part, aided by the cordial co-operation of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, to accomplish the objects we had in view.1 1 [For information in regard to James Mitchell's present state, see Appendix, p. 388.-Ed.] NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. TO PART SECOND, SECOND DIVISION. NOTE A, p. 141.-Law of Sympathetic Imitation. THE following anecdote of Campanella is told by an old French author, who represents himself as having been an eye-witness of the particulars he relates. As I have never happened to see the book in the original, I shall copy the words of the English translator, whose work, I believe, is seldom to be met with but in the libraries of the curious. "If a man endeavour to counterfeit any other man's countenance, and that he fancy himselfe to have his haire, eyes, nose, mouth, and all other parts like him; and, in a word, if he imagine himselfe to be like him in his physiognomy, he may by this means come to know what his natural inclinations, and what his thoughts are, by the same which he finds in himselfe, during the time of this his making of faces. This opinion is grounded upon the experience of Campanella, who expresseth himselfe in these words:- Cum quis hominem videt, statim imaginari oportet, se nasum habere, ut alter habet, et pilum, et vultum, et frontem, et locutionem et tunc qui affectus, et cogitationes in hac cogitatione illi obrepunt, judicat homini illi esse proprios, quem ita imaginando contuetur. Hoc non absque ratione et experientiâ. Spiritus enim format corpus, et juxta affectus innatos ipsum fingit, exprimitque.'-(De Sensu Rerum et Magia.) I alwaies thought that the opinion of Campanella was, that a man should only imagine himselfe to have the same countenance with the other, as his words seem to mean; but when I was at Rome, understanding that he was brought into the Inquisition, I did, out of curiosity to be satisfied in this particular, take the pains to visit him there. Being therefore in the company of some abbots, we were brought to the chamber where he was; who, as soon as he perceived us, came to us, and entreated us to have a little patience till he had ended a little note, which he was writing to Cardinal Magaloti. When we were sate down, we observed him oftentimes to make certain wry faces, |