created when
the discovery was made that the wolf was no other than a certain
deceased burgomaster of unhappy memory, who as every body knew, had
stood looking out of an upper window of his house to watch his own
funeral. The night-watchman was ready to swear to his identity; and
as, putting all things together, no doubt existed any longer in the
mind of any reasonable person, the formidable wolf, when taken,
instead of being disposed of in the usual manner, was hung on a high
gallows, in a brown wig, and a long gray beard, by way of completing
his likeness to the burgomaster."--(P. 95.)

Those who indulge in, or applaud practical jests, should read on farther
in the same chapter (p. 102.) We heartily wish that the professors of this
species of wit were every one of them conducted in his turn into the
"Paradise" here described; of which it may be sufficient to intimate that
"it was provided with a bench and a good store of rods."

On monastic institutions, Mrs Sinnett has some very just and equitable
remarks.

"Monasticism was a resolute attempt to subject the outward to the
inward life; and through whatever devious paths it may have wandered,
it set out from the true and high principle, that the spiritual and
immortal man should attain dominion over the mere animal nature; and
it grounded itself on the undeniable truth that the indulgence of the
senses 'wars against the soul.' The objects it has in view are to us
also true and holy, though we may differ as to the means of their
attainment; yet even in these, the monks were not perhaps wholly
wrong. Solitude and silence are unquestionably amongst the means of
spiritual elevation; poverty is, in most instances, healthful to the
soul, a means of obtaining a simplicity good for both body and mind;
obedience is, beyond doubt, the school of patience, in which we best
learn to combat our original sins of pride and self-will; but we have
learned, from the experience of the Ascetics, a juster measure for
these things, which, perhaps, _a priori_, we might not have been able
to discover. They have tried the experiment for us; and now that its
history is before us, it is easy to determine that the attempt to
rend asunder the two natures so wonderfully combined in us, to put
asunder what God has joined, is one that cannot come to good.
S