ring counties, and set them a barking too."

If mesmerism did no more than demonstrate, as it has done, that all the
supposed evidences of modern inspiration, as well as of modern demoniacal
possession and ghost-craft, are but the manifestations of a physical
disorder, capable of being induced by ordinary agencies, it would have
done a great service to the cause of social and religious stability. In
addition to this, it has furnished surgery with a new narcotic, perhaps
with a new anti-spasmodic. It is not impossible that here, at length, a
means may have been found for combating the horrors of hydrophobia. Its
higher pretensions of clairvoyance and provision, if not proved, are at
least not yet satisfactorily disproved. Its admitted usefulness may,
perhaps, counterbalance its perils; but in every exercise of it, whether
curative or speculative, it is never to be forgotten, that the phenomena
are those of disease, and that the production of disease, save for the
counteraction of other maladies more hurtful, is in itself an evil.

S. F.

A CHAPTER OF EPITAPHS.

From Sharp's Magazine.

By F. Lawrence.

The best epitaphs, according to our notion, are generally the shortest and
the plainest. In no description of composition is elaborate and ornate
phraseology so much out of place. Where a world-wide reputation has been
achieved, the name alone, with the addition perhaps of a date, is often
calculated to produce a more impressive effect than an ostentatious
inscription. It has been observed that the simple words--

CATHERINE THE GREAT TO PETER THE FIRST,

inscribed on the monument erected by the Empress Catherine to the memory
of her husband, arrogant as they are, contain the essence of the sublime.
And, in like manner, among the most impressive memorials in Westminster
Abbey are the words, "O rare Ben Jonson," chiselled beneath the great
play-wright's bust, and the name of J. DRYDEN, with the date of his birth
and death, and the simple statement, that the tomb was erected, in 1720,
by John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. We doubt whether the effect of the
latter would have been improved by the addition of the couplet written for
it by Pope, admirable as it is:

This Sheffield raised: the sacred dust below
Was Dryden once--the rest who does not know?

Among the best epitaphs in the Poet's