ena, unless we
are prepared to follow Hume in his assertion that what is contrary to
our experience can be proved by no evidence of testimony whatever,--and
that, though we have here nothing, save the marvellous character of the
events, to oppose to the cloud of witnesses who attest them, that alone,
in the eyes of reasonable people, should be regarded as a sufficient
refutation.[64]

The mental and psychological phenomena, only less marvellous than the
physical because we have seen more of their like, will, on that account,
be more readily received.

HOUSE AND HOME PAPERS.

BY CHRISTOPHER CROWFIELD.

III.

It is among the sibylline secrets which lie mysteriously between you and
me, O reader, that these papers, besides their public aspect, have a
private one proper to the bosom of mine own particular family.

They are not merely an _ex post facto_ protest in regard to that carpet
and parlor of celebrated memory, but they are forth-looking towards
other homes that may yet arise near us.

For, among my other confidences, you may recollect I stated to you that
our Marianne was busy in those interesting cares and details which
relate to the preparing and ordering of another dwelling.

Now, when any such matter is going on in a family, I have observed that
every feminine instinct is in a state of fluttering vitality,--every
woman, old or young, is alive with womanliness to the tips of her
fingers; and it becomes us of the other sex, however consciously
respected, to walk softly, and put forth our sentiments discreetly and
with due reverence for the mysterious powers that reign in the feminine
breast.

I had been too well advised to offer one word of direct counsel on a
subject where there were such charming voices, so able to convict me of
absurdity at every turn. I had merely so arranged my affairs as to put
into the hands of my bankers, subject to my wife's order, the very
modest marriage-portion which I could place at my girl's disposal; and
Marianne and Jennie, unused to the handling of money, were incessant in
their discussions with ever-patient mamma as to what was to be done with
it. I say Marianne and Jennie, for, though the case undoubtedly is
Marianne's, yet, like everything else in our domestic proceedings, it
seems to fall, somehow or other, into Jennie's hands, through the
intensity and liveliness of her domesticity of nature. Little Jennie is
so bright and wide-awake, and with so many active