one knows they did, that not every one was
privileged to see the spirits of the departed wandering over their
graves. In fact, it was at all times only the sensitive who could see
the imponderable emanations from the chemical change going on in
corpses, luminous in the dark. And thus I have, I trust, succeeded in
tearing down one of the densest veils of darkened ignorance and human
error."

So far speaks Reichenbach; and for myself, reverting to the few comments
with which we set out, I would suggest, that Reichenbach's book, though
it is very likely to push things too far--to fancy the tree by looking
at the seed--is yet not such a book as men of sense are justified in
scouting. The repetition of his experiments is very easy if they be
correct. There are plenty of "sensitives" to be found in our London
hospitals and streets and lanes. Unluckily, however, though we live in
an age which produces, every day, new marvels, the old spirit of
bigotry, which used to make inquiry dangerous in science and religion,
still prevails in the minds of too many scientific men. To be
incredulous of what is new and strange, until it has been rigidly
examined and proved true, is one essential element of a mind seeking
enlightenment. But, to test and try new things is equally essential.
Because of doubting, to refuse inquiry, is because of hunger to refuse
our food. For my own part, I put these matters into the livery of that
large body of thoughts already mentioned, which walk about the human
mind, armed each with a note of interrogation. This only I see, that, in
addition to the well-known explanations of phenomena, which produce some
among the many stories of ghosts and of mysterious forebodings, new
explanations are at hand, which will reduce into a natural and credible
position many other tales by which we have till recently been puzzled.

From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.

THE WOLF-GATHERING.

One winter evening, some years ago, I sat with a small circle of friends
round the fire, in the house of a Polish gentleman, whom his
acquaintance agreed in calling Mr. Charles, as the most pronounceable of
his names. He had fought in all his country's battles of the
unsuccessful revolution of 1831; and being one of the many who sought
life and liberty in the British dominions, on the failure of that last
national effort, he had, with the spirit worthy of an exiled patriot,
made the best of his unchosen fortunes, and worked his way