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CHAPTER XIV.

Good morrow, fool, quoth I; no, sir, quoth he,
Call me not fool, till Heaven hath sent me fortune;
And then he drew a dial from his poke,
And looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
Says very wisely, It is ten o'clock !

SHAKSPEARE.

ST. CLYDE, that evening, led Mr. Thornhill into a discourse on the received opinion of seers, or secondsighted folks. The minister was a little hurt to hear so foolish a subject broached by a man of St. Clyde's information and travels.

But the matter was not to be dismissed so easily. Colin, though in no ways superstitious, could not cease to be very strongly impressed by the strange story of Carr. Whiggans he

knew to be no credulous man, and Levingstone was of the same opinion.

The belief in seers owed its origin to the imposture of some fellow many centuries before Carr was born, and the prejudices of the people to believe what they wished to be true, or to fear what their superstitious imaginations dreaded. And though it were no difficult matter to wind up the mind to a general denial of the whole of the jargon about seers; the partial confirmation of predictions and prophecies, and oracular responses through a series of successive facts, was not to be got rid of, till the truth should be established, or the fallacy detected.

Mr. Thornhill gave what he conceived to be the rational interpretation of this extraordinary faculty: "It was an impression made either by the eye upon the mind, or by the mind on the

eye; by which things distant or future are perceived as if they were present.

"A man on a journey," continued he, "as, for example, our friend Mr. Gillies, fell from his horse; and a She, mus Macalester, who was then a servant at Mill-hole, started suddenly, surprised to see his master and borse both falling to the ground. Shemus saw Mr. Gillies bleeding, and described the landscape or scenery of the place where this happened."

"But do you place no reliance on such reports?" said St. Clyde. "It is not to be doubted," replied Mr. Thornhill," that Mr. Gillies was very se verely bruised by his fall; and no one ever doubted the fact that Macalester, at work in the dye-house, pretended to see his master fall, and to describe the place and fix the time the accident happened."

"But, Mr. Thornhill," said Leving

stone," did the vision of this man coincide with the accident Mr. Gillies met with?"

"There is still less doubt," answered Mr. Thornhill," that the vision of She, mus coincided accurately, both as to place and time, to what befel Mr. Gillies. But then," continued he, "I have heard of another taishtar, (Don. nocha an Amrigh,) Duncan with the cap, of Scalasdale, in the isle of Mull, who driving home his cattle, or wandering in idleness, or musing in the sunshine, or cruning his evening ditty, would be suddenly surprised by the appearance of a bridal ceremony, or funeral procession; and would count the number of attendants or mourners, of whom, if he knew them, he would relate their names; and if he knew them not, he would describe their dresses, But why do you start, Mr. St. Clyde?

You are not agitated by an account of these impostors, I hope?"

"Whether they are impostors or not," replied Colin, "it seems indeed very odd, that these people can perceive things the instant they happen, even though miles from the scene. But do you know, Mr. Thornhill, that of things future they have any rule for determining the time between the sight and the event?"

"That I cannot tell. The perceptive faculty, for power it cannot be called, seems neither voluntary nor constant; the appearances have no dependence upon choice; they cannot be summoned, detained, or recalled; the impression is sudden, and, as I have been told by Shemus Macalester himself, the effect is often painful: Sors in divisione bonorum funis sortis vel distributionis."

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