apparently calculated to do so. There is a curious case illustrative of this in the life of the celebrated physiologist, John Hunter. This gentleman had among a collection of animals two leopards, which by some accident escaped one day. Hunter was aroused from his studies by their noise in endeavouring to get away; and on running down, found them attempting to scale the walls of the court-yard. He courageously sprang forwards, grasped each by the neck, dragged them back to their den, and secured them; but on retiring again to his study, he was so struck with the risk he had run, and the extreme hazard of the attempt, that the thought almost maddened him. The longer he thought, the more forcibly was he struck with the thought of what danger he had been exposed to. To adduce another case, in one of the autumnal months a summer or two ago, walking along one of the tributary streams of the Tweed, I was struck with the appearance of an old castle near the river. This castle (the Drochil) being in excellent preservation, I walked up to it, and after viewing its external excellences, began to examine the internal accommodation of the donjon-keeps. Looking into one, I saw it had a hard, firm floor, and jumped down through the window to examine it. Unfortunately I had made a very great mistake as to the consistence, and instead of landing on solid ground, I descended to my knee in a mass of mud and green weeds and water. Immediately on feeling myself sinking, I made a convulsive spring at the window, and grasping the stone lintel with supernatural energy, raised myself with the utmost ease from this quagmire, although unassisted by the desperation of the moment, I believe I could not have made my way as I did. My first feeling on reaching solid ground was amazement, succeeded by involuntary laughter at the absurd mistake of thinking a ditch

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GREATLY INCREASED SENSIBILITY.

27

of water terra firma. With the utmost alacrity I immediately proceeded to remove the mud from my nether limbs, and an adjournment to the neighbouring river soon removed all the adventitious stuff I had acquired in my luckless leap. I laughed a good deal on thinking of it, and soon banished it from my mind, nor the whole of that day did I think of it. But at night while lying alone on my bed in utter darkness, when the circumstance came back on me, it awakened thoughts of a fearful description; for the keep might have been fourteen feet deep, as well as three or four, and I might have sunk and died a most horrible death, and my mysterious disappearance must have been a source of great sorrow to my friends; and when I thought of all these things, I was so horrified that I eagerly courted sleep to banish thoughts of so terrible a description; and even yet, after the lapse of many a month, my heart throbs with unusual emotions, and the thoughts excited are still painful and horrible.

"The two preceding cases are curious in showing how false the common idea is, that when causes of joy or grief are over, the effects will cease; but in all minds of any power, both will be immeasurably increased by reflection deepening their hues and heightening their effects, and producing deep and ineffaceable impressions on the heart of the thinker.

"January 12th.—What a great and wondrous change comes over the mind emerging from boyhood to youth, at sixteen or seventeen. What a change spreads itself over every thought and feeling, and how does it deepen and render more intense every emotion. When I was a boy at school, my thoughts were brilliant, my wishes ardent, and my cares few; and, lo! now what an alteration that

which was liked is now beloved, and that which was disliked is now abhorred. The pleasure of school-boy life was in a great measure the result of a consciousness of animal life; the feeling of being a living creature, as Moore has beautifully expressed it in 'Lalla Rookh,' is sufficient to give happiness; but when sixteen or seventeen has arrived, along with the striking and rapid development of the body, the mind also increases in all its capabilities. With what different feelings do I now look on objects calculated to excite strong emotions. What rapturous feelings of delight are excited in my heart by the contemplation of the 'Beautiful,' whether it be the beautiful in physical or mental conformation, or in composition, elocution, poetry, or means to an end. Whatever can claim title to the term beautiful in my estimation, awakens in my heart feelings of uncontrollable emotion. How delightedly do I gaze on works of art or design, such as Martin's or Turner's or the sculpture of the renowned masters, the Medicean Venus, or the Graces of Canova. How rapturously and passionately do I dwell on beautiful poetry, or the wild imaginative works of rare genius; and how pleasing it is to contemplate God's provision in this world! So great an ecstasy of happiness have I felt from the above-mentioned causes, that it seemed that death could be the only termination of feelings which were utterly opposed to the daily occurrences of the world. But in sad subjects as much are my feelings deepened in intensity: the cries of distress, the moanings of anguish, break on my heart far more acutely, and sink into my heart far deeper, than they ever did heretofore; and the prospect of evil and misery, and sin and woe, affects me much more powerfully than it did of old. In short, now my mind is much more developed than two years ago, and can ascend and descend much more widely than it

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DEATH OF TWIN-BROTHER.

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could at that time, and my joy or sorrow is much more the result of legitimate causes than it was then."

"January 14th.-What a horrible thing remorse is how fearful in its influence over the soul; clouding all the gay prospects that have been opened to its view; throwing a black and gloomy shroud over the fair and beautiful, and tinging every emotion of the same ghastly hue, whether the mind may have been turned to really proper or merely frivolous pursuits; and how balefully and abhorredly gleams back on my own mind the recollection of the multitude of accursed sins I daily commit ;-my exceeding and ungrateful unkindness; my wayward temper, and my excessive irritability so much increased lately, that even the slightest noises are sufficient to enrage me. Would that I could, with Divine assistance, overcome, banish them, and turn the mental activity to more useful purposes."

In the year 1836, the household was once again darkened by the shadow of sickness unto death. John, the gentle, loving twin-brother of George, had never been robust, and pulmonary symptoms had caused anxiety for some years past. Those now became so marked as to leave little ground for hope, and some months of lingering illness brought him to his heavenly home, when his eighteenth year had scarcely begun. The contrast to his brother in personal appearance became more striking as his life approached its close. He had attained nearly six feet in height, and when, with his lustrous black eyes and raven hair, he was seen beside George's slender little figure and fair complexion, none could have guessed the close tie that united them.

No record of George's sorrow at this mournful separation exists it was a grief too deep for much expression. A friend remembers a walk they had together in this time of sadness, and George with great earnestness telling him

there was no text in the Bible he thought so beautiful as this, "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." As a child this had been a favourite, and was to have been the text of his first sermon had he ever mounted the pulpit, but now new beauty was seen in it. To one or two intimate friends he frequently spoke tenderly of John; and the only wish he was known to express regarding his burial was in conversation with a friend: "I should like to be laid beside my twin-brother." This desire has been fulfilled; side by side they lie as in the happy dreams of childhood, safer now and happier than then; for them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him, and they shall be satisfied when they awake in His likeness.

The two following letters were written during a holiday season. His host in Rothesay, and companion to Arran, Mr. Campbell, had been a fellow-student, whose acquaintance had been made at the defunct Zetalethic Society.

"Rothesay, Saturday, September, 1836.

"MY DEARLY BELOVED BROTHER,-As the weather up to the Thursday of the week has been delightful, I have seen the country under its most beautiful aspect, and the rain and clouds which now overspread the sky give rise to scenes which could never have been presented to the eye in sunlight. Before I say anything of my own views or actions, allow me to tell you one thing which I gathered from my companion on the coach to Glasgow. He had resided for a winter in Banffshire, and often saw the Aurora Borealis, in beauty far excelling its appearance in our more southerly locality. One appearance which occasionally preented itself was that of a great sheet of light waving backwards and forwards in the sky. You know to what delightful ideas such a description gives rise. In pleasing meditation