like
cracked vases, let their contents ooze out by slow degrees. Objects of
sight become commingled with those of sound; and I can half understand
the blind man Locke tells us of, who imagined "the colour scarlet to be
like the sound of a trumpet."

Mesmerism affects the power of transferring the operations of one sense
to the organs of another; can it be that, in certain states of the
brain, the nervous fluids become intermixed?

It is night--calm, still, and starlit! How large are the stars compared
with what they appear in northern latitudes! And the moonlight, too,
is pale as silver, and has none of the yellow tint we see with us.
Beautifully it lies along that slope of the mountain yonder, where the
tall dark yew-trees throw their straight shadows across the glittering
surface.

It is the churchyard of St. M------; and now in the church I can
perceive the twinkle of lights--they are the candles around the coffin
of him whose funeral I saw this morning. The custom of leaving the body
for a day in the church before consigning it to the grave is a touching
one. The dimly-lighted aisles, and the solemn air of the place, seem a
fitting transition from Life to the sleep of Death.

I have been thinking of that very old man, who came past the window
yesterday, and sat down to rest himself on the stone-bench beside the
door. Giordano never took a finer head as a study: lofty and massive,
with the temples deeply indented; and such a beard, snow-white and
waving! How I longed for strength enough to have wandered forth and
seated myself beside him! A strange, mysterious feeling was on me--that
I should hear words of comfort from his lips! This impression grew out
of his own remarkable story. Yes, poor and humble as his dress, lowly
as his present condition may seem, he was a "Captain of the Imperial
Guard"--a proud title once! He was taken prisoner during the retreat
from Moscow, and, with hundreds more, sent away to eternal exile in
Siberia! At that period he was in all the pride of manhood, a true
specimen of his class--gay, witty, full of daring, and a sceptic; a
Frenchman of the Revolution grafted on a gentleman of the old _regime!_
The Fatalism that sustained them--it was their only faith--through long
years of banishment, brought many in sadness to the grave! It was a
gloomy-religion, whose hope was but chastened despair! He himself lived
on, the reckless spirit of a bold heart hardening him against grief as
effectu