the fish, on which they prey in fine weather in the sea, leave the surface and go deeper in storms. The search after food, as we agreed on a former occasion, is the principal cause why animals change their places. The different tribes of the wading birds always migrate when rain is about to take place; and I remember once, in Italy, having been long waiting, in the end of March, for the arrival of the double snipe in the Campagne of Rome, a great flight appeared on the 3d of April, and the day after heavy rain set in, which greatly interfered with my sport. The vulture, upon the same principle, follows armies; and I have no doubt that the augury of the ancients was a good deal founded upon the observation of the instincts of birds. There are many superstitions of the vulgar. owing to the same source. For anglers, in Spring, it is always unlucky to see single magpies, but two may be always regarded as a favorable omen; and the reason is, that in cold and stormy weather one magpie alone leaves the nest in search of food, the other remaining sitting upon the eggs or the young ones; but when two go out together, it is only when the weather is warm and mild, and favorable for fishing.

Poict. The singular connections of causes and effects, to which you have just referred, make superstition less to be wondered at, particularly amongst the vulgar; and when two facts, naturally unconnected, have been accidentally coincident, it is not singular that this coincidence should have been observed and registered, and that omens of the most absurd kind should be trusted in. In the west of England, half a century ago, a particular hollow noise on the sea-coast was referred to a spirit or goblin called Bucca, and was supposed to foretell a shipwreck; the philosopher knows that sound travels much faster than currents in the air, and the sound always foretold the approach of a very heavy storm, which seldom takes place on that wild and rocky coast without a shipwreck on some part of its extensive shores, surrounded by the Atlantic.

Phys. All the instances of omens you have mentioned are founded on reason; but how can you explain such absurdities as Friday being an unlucky day, the terror of spilling salt, or meeting an old woman? I knew a man of very high dignity who was

exceedingly moved by these omens, and who never went out shooting without a bittern's claw fastened to his button-hole by a riband, which he thought insured him good luck.

Poict. These, as well as the omens of death-watches, dreams, etc., are for the most part founded upon some accidental coincidence; but spilling of salt, on an uncommon occasion, may, as I have known it, arise from a disposition to apoplexy, shown by an incipient numbness in the hand, and may be a fatal symptom; and persons dispirited by bad omens sometimes prepare the way for evil fortune, for confidence in success is a great means of insuring it. The dream of Brutus before the field of Pharsalia probably produced a species of irresolution and despondency which was the principal cause of his losing the battle; and I have heard that the illustrious sportsman to whom you referred just now, was always observed to shoot ill, because he shot carelessly, after one of his dispiriting omens.

Hal. I have in life met with a few things which I have found it impossible to explain, either by chance coincidences or by natural connections, and I have known minds of a very superior class affected by them-persons in the habit of reasoning deeply and profoundly.

Phys. In my opinion, profound minds are the most likely to think lightly of the resources of human reason; and it is the pert superficial thinker who is generally strongest in every kind of unbelief. The deep philosopher sees chains of causes and effects so wonderfully and strangely linked together, that he is usually the last person to decide upon the impossibility of any two series of events being made independent of each other; and in science so many natural miracles, as it were, have been brought to light, such as the fall of stones from meteors in the atmosphere, the disarming a thunder-cloud by a metallic point, the production of fire from ice by a metal white as silver, and the referring certain laws of motion of the sea to the moon, that the physical inquirer is seldom disposed to assert confidently on any abstruse subjects belonging to the order of natural things, and still less so those relating to the more mysterious relations of moral events and intellectual natures.

UA

JOHN RUSKIN.

OHN RUSKIN was born in London, England, February, 1819. Having inherited a large fortune from his father, he was enabled to make complete preparation for his life work and to devote his entire time to art and literature. In 1842, he graduated at Oxford, and further prepared himself by studying art and learning water-color painting. His literary work may be recorded as follows: In 1839, he gained a prize for a poem entitled Salsetto Elphanta; in 1843, Modern Painters: Their Superiority in the Art of Landscape Painting to all the Ancient Masters. The fifth volume of this treatise was published in 1860.

The Seven Lamps of Architecture appeared in 1849; Pre-Raphaelitism and The King of the Golden River, in 1851; The Stones of Venice, 1851-3; Lectures on Architecture and Painting; 1854; Elements af Drawing, 1857; The Political Economy of Art, 1858; The Two Paths, 1859; Unto This Last, 1862; Sesame and Lilies, 1864; The Ethics of the Dust, 1865; The Crown of Wild Olive, 1866; and The Queen of the Air, 1869. He has also written extensively for periodicals.

In 1867 he was appointed Rede Lecturer at Cambridge, and in 1869 was elected Professor of Fine Arts at Oxford. At Oxford he endowed a chair of drawing. He is also prominent as a popular public speaker.

Those who love the true and beautiful in Nature and Art, and who admire an attractive statement of pure and ennobling thoughts, will be amply repaid for their time in reading Ruskin.