We have read the rare books of the wise ones of old, But their tomes and their spells are as old things to new two, And woo Nature, and sing with her shouting cuckoo,Cuckoo, and cuckoo, and cuckoo! LITERARY CHIT-CHAT AND VARIETIES. We understand that Messrs Longman and Co. are preparing for speedy publication, among other works,-Sermons on various Subjects, by the Rev. Ralph Wardlaw, D.D.,-A System of Surgery, by John Burns, M.D., Regius Professor of Surgery in the University of Glasgow,-A Practical Treatise on the Discases of the Eye, by William Mackenzie, Lecturer on the Eye in the University of Glasgow, and senior Surgeon to the Glasgow Eye Infirmary,-Beatrice, a Tale founded on Facts, by Mrs Hofland,-The Venetian Bracelet, and other Poems, by L. E. L., &c. &c. Mirza Mahommed Ibrahim, a Persian gentleman resident in England, who is attached to the East-India College, is employed, and has made considerable progress, in translating Herodotus from the English into Persian:-thus the earliest accounts of his country which Europe received, and of the dynasty which was overthrown by Alexander, is, after a lapse of twenty-two centuries, likely to be introduced to the present inhabitants of that country in their vernacular tongue. One of the most interesting works lately published in Paris is the "Memoirs of the Duke of St Simon." It comprehends the history of the character of Louis XIV. and his mistresses; and some very curious details relating to the Revolution of 1688. Theatrical Gossip.-A part of the original "Der Freischutz" has been performed at Covent Garden, by native Germans. The performance went off well enough, but we do not see any great merit în the innovation.-It is said that the present season has been a bad one both at Drury Lane and Covent Garden, and that the managers of both establishments will find themselves minus several thousand pounds. We cannot say that we regret this, as we hope it will teach them the propriety of reducing, to one-fourth or fifth, the extravagant salaries now paid to leading performers. Laporte, the manager of the Italian Opera, is believed to have been, on the whole, more fortunate, though he has had a hard push for it. Matthews and Yates, at the Adelphi, have made the most successful hit; Astley's also is doing well; but the Surrey, Sadler's Wells, and the Coburg, have not been very prosperous.-Liston has been engaged for the Haymarket, which is to open immediately, at £20 per night,-a shameful sum to be paid by a small summer theatre.-It is rumoured in Paris that Miss Smithson is about to be married to a French Count. It is the best thing she could do.-Miss I. Paton entered upon an engagement at the Liverpool Theatre on Monday last. She played Letitia Hardy in the "Belle's Stratagem," to Vandenhoff's Doricourt.-Miss Foote, who is about to leave the stage, is concluding her theatrical career, by a short engagement in Plymouth-her native town.-Kean is now at his country residence in Rothsay, and we are glad to understand he is much reinstated in health. He will do us a personal favour if he will perform a week or ten days here at his first convenience.-Caradori's Polly, on Saturday last, was, as we anticipated, one of the most brilliant things we have seen on this stage. She is to repeat the performance this evening.-Denham takes He plays his benefit on Tuesday, and deserves to have a good one. Virginius, which is a bold attempt, but he will do it well.-We are glad to understand that a new dramatic piece, written by a literary gentleman of some eminence in this city, has been read in the Green-Room, and is to be brought out soon. It is entitled "Willie Armstrong, or Durie in Durance;"-the principal parts to be supported by Messrs Murray, Mackay, and Denham. The plot is founded on an interesting anecdote told by Sir Walter Scott, in his "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border." We are well pleased to see some of our own literary characters thus rallying round our own national Theatre, in which honourable ambition, it ought not to be forgotten that the fair authoress of " Aloyse" led the way.-OLD CERBERUS informs us, that he proposes making a few remarks on the present state of the Edin Rochefoucauld's Maxims have been translated into modern Greek, burgh Company next Saturday.-The Caledonian Theatre opens toand published with an English version. A French and Arabic Dictionary is about to be published, which will be exceedingly useful to all Europeans travelling in the East. SIR HUMPHREY DAVY.-Private letters have reached this country, announcing the death of this eminent man, who expired at Geneva, on the 29th of May, after a lingering illness. Science and Great Britain have thus lost one of their brightest ornaments. FRENCH LANGUAGE.-We had much pleasure in attending, on Saturday and Monday last, the examination of the pupils of Mr Espinasse, one of the most successful French teachers now resident in Edinburgh. The rooms were, on both days, crowded with a fashionable assemblage of ladies and gentlemen, who must have been equally pleased with the proficiency which the pupils evinced in reading, translating, writing, and speaking French, and with the enthusiasm and earnestness of the teacher. There was evidently no collusion between the two parties;-the whole was an intellectual display of a very interesting and delightful kind. FRANCE. We heartily recommend to our readers a new descriptive Road-book of France, just published by Samuel Leigh. It contains an account of all the post-roads, cross-roads, cities and towns. bathing-places, natural curiosities, rivers, canals, modes of traveling, diligences, packets, inns, expense of living, coins, passports, weights and meacures, together with an excellent map and plans of several of the principal towns. It is a work which every Englishman who crosses the Channel ought to take with him. THE ISLE OF MAN.-We have read with much pleasure a little work, recently published, entitled, "Sketches of the Isle of Man, by a Tourist." It is from the pen of Mr Bennet, Editor of the Glasgow Free Press, and dees him much credit. Whoever bends his excursive steps, in these blue and sunny days, to the Kingdom of Manx, will do well to provide himself with a copy of the "Sketches." This may be set down as a puff collateral; but it is not, any more than praising a book which deserves to be praised is a puff. THE MODERN ATHENS.-We observe that our arbitri elegantiarum are again beginning to "agitate" regarding the improvements of Edinburgh. Mr Gourlay has done us the favour to send us a copy of his "Plans," which, we think, contains some very sensible remarks; but as we shall probably have something to say more at length upon the subject soon, we shall not at present enter into the question of their superiority or inferiority to those already suggested. One thing we are clear of, that, seeing the gross blunders, in point of taste, some of our juntos of wise men have already made, the public should look well to it before they allow any decided steps to be taken. night under a new Manager-Mr Bass, of the Dundee and Montrose Theatres;- we shall inform our readers what we think of his arrangements in our next. TO OUR CORRESPONDENTS. THE able Article by the Author of "Anster Fair," will appear next Saturday. Mr Brydson's verses shall have a place soon.-We are obliged to postpone several interesting poetical articles which are in types.-We reserve Dr Gillespie's amusing anecdote for the next appearance of the " Editor in his slippers."-We have to request of the Editor of a Newspaper north of the Forth, when he favours us by copying into his columns articles communicated to the LITERARY JOURNAL by Dr Gillespie, or any other person of eminence, to acknowledge the source from which they are taken, as his not doing so may be fully as disagreeable to our correspondents as to ourselves.-We cannot at present find room for a notice of the last number of the Monthly Magazine.-There is considerable promise in the verses "To F-y;" and likewise in the Lines by Edwin." The author of one of the articles in to-day's Number will perceive that we have been under the necessity of curtailing it to adapt it to our limits; but we have no intention of abridging the other able communication with which he has favoured us. "R. C." is informed that we cannot possibly give a place to documents connected with Mr Galt, which originally appeared in a Liverpool Newspaper. We observe that a writer in the Weekly Journal has misapprehended the tenour of our remarks on Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, reviewed in our last. We did not complain of the paucity of materials in that work, but of the Editor having, to a certain extent, neglected to ar. range these materials in the most judicious manner. In 3 vols. 12mo, price 21s. bds. A DICTIONARY of QUOTATIONS from the In 12mo, with numerous Cuts, and a Portrait of the Author, engra- Domestic Management: Containing a complete System of Carving with Accuracy and Elegance; Hints relative to Dinner Parties; the Art of managing Servants, and the Economist's and Epicure's Calendar, showing the Seasons when all kinds of Meat, Fish, Poultry, Game, Vegetables, and Fruits, first arrive in the Market, earliest Time forced, when most plentiful, when best and cheapest. To which are added, a Variety of Useful and Original Receipts. By the late WILLIAM KITCHENER, M.D. PART I. Containing Quotations from SHAKSPEARE, price 6s. 6d. XV. In 12mo, the Ninth Edit. revised and improved, price 7s. 6d. bds. A DICTIONARY of QUOTATIONS in most frequent Use, taken chiefly from the Latin and French, but comprising many from the Greek, Italian, and Spanish Languages, translated into English; with Illustrations, Historical and Idiomatic. By E. D. MACDONNEL, of the Middle Temple. XVI. In one large and closely-printed volume, 8vo, price 15s. bds. The HISTORY of the INQUISITION of SPAIN, from the time of its Establishment to the Reign of Ferdinand VII. Composed from the original Documents of the Archives of the Supreme Council, and from those of subordinate Tribunals of the Holy Office. Abridged and translated from the original Works of D. JUAN ANTONIO LLORENTE, formerly Secretary of the Inquisition, Chancellor of the University of Toledo, &c. &c. XVII. In two large volumes 8vo, price 30s. The HISTORY of ITALY, from the Fall of the Western Empire to the Commencement of the Wars of the French Revolution. By GEORGE PERCIVAL, Esq. XVIII. In small 12mo, the Fourth Edition, price 5s. extra boards, The SECRETARY'S ASSISTANT; Exhibiting the various and most correct modes of Superscription, Commencement, and Conclusion of Letters, to Persons of every degree of Rank; including the Diplomatic, Clerical, and Judicial Dignitaries with Lists of Foreign Ambassadors and Consuls. Also, the forms necessary to be used in Applications or Petitions to the King in Council, Houses of Lords and Commons, Government Offices, and Public Companies with a Table of Precedency, and Abbreviations of the several British and Foreign Orders of Knighthood. XIX. In 12mo, the Fourth Edition, newly arranged, and very materially improved, with an entirely new Set of Copperplate Engravings, price 88. handsomely half-bouud, sure. SYLLABIC SPELLING; or, a SUMMARY METHOD of TEACHING CHILDREN to READ and SPELL with facility and pleaThe Fourth Edition, with an entirely new Set of Copperplate Engravings, and an improved Arrangement adapted to them. By MIS WILLIAMS, Author of the Conversations on English Grammar. N.B. This Edition contains a variety of testimonials in favour of the System, from some of the most respectable Professors of the English Language, as well as from several parents, whose children jamused and interested by this novel mode of instruction) have learned, in the course of a very few months, to read correctly, and with perfect ease, the longest and most difficult words. Boxes, with appropriate Counters, for the Amusement of Young Beginners, may be had, if required, of the Publishers. PART I.-Precepts for the Improvement and Preservation of the Sight; and Plain Rules, which will enable all to judge exactly when and what Spectacles are best calculated for their eyes. Observations on Opera Glasses and Theatres. Price 6s. in boards. PART II.-OF TELESCOPES; being the Result of Thirty Years' Experiments with Fifty-one Telescopes, of from one to Nine Inches in Diameter, in the possession of WILLIAM KITCHENER, M.D. To which are added, an Abstract of the Practical Parts of Sir W. HER SCHELL'S Writings on Telescopes, Double Stars, &c.; some Observations thereon, and Original Letters from Eminent Opticians. Price 9s. boards. OTTOMAN EMPIRE, FROM ITS ESTABLISHMENT TILL THE YEAR 1828. By EDWARD UPHAM, Esq. M.R.A.S. NEW WORK by the AUTHOR of the SKETCH BOOK. A CHRONICLE of the CONQUEST of GRA NADA, from the MSS. of Fray Antonio Agapida. By WASHINGTON IRVING. JOHN MURRAY, Albemarle Street, London. CALEDONIAN THEATRE. THE Nobility, and Gentry, and Public of Edin burgh and its Environs, are most respectfully informed, that the Illustrated with a Map of the Seat of War in Turkey-a View of above Theatre will be opened for the Summer Season "We think the translators of M. Malte-Brun's Geography have done good service to the public, by rendering so valuable a work accessible to the English reader. If the part which is to treat of the United Kingdom be as well executed as that which treats of the United States of America, it will do something to supply one of the greatest desideratums in British literature,-a tolerable account of the British dominions."-Edinburgh Review, No. 97. ADAM BLACK, Edinburgh; and LONGMAN & Co. London. Published this day, In 12mo, containing above 550 closely-printed pages, price only 7s. 6d. boards, THE FOURTH EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED, OF THE COOK and HOUSEWIFE'S MANUAL: a Practical System of Modern Domestic Cookery and Family Management. Containing a Compendium of French Cookery, and of fashionable Confectionary, Preparations for Invalids, a Selection of cheap Dishes, and numerous useful miscellaneous Receipts in the various Branches of Domestic Economy. By MISTRESS MARGARET DODS, On SATURDAY Evening next, June 13, 1829, Under the sole management of Mr C. BASS, of the Theatres Royal, Dundee, Perth, &c. In introducing himself to the notice of the Public of Edinburgh, Mr Bass refrains from advancing any claims to their patronage; which he is conscious must depend entirely on his exer ions to please. Nevertheless, impressed with a just sense of what is due to the inha bitants of this enlightened city, he trusts, from his arrangements for the general conducting of the Theatre, and from the nature and va riety of the entertainments that will be submitted to 'heir judgment, to merit their approval; his constant aim being to blend instruction with delight, and to verify the popular sentiment, "that the evening's amusement may ever bear the morning's reflection." The Scenic Department will be entirely new; also a new stage will be built, and various improvements will be effected to secure the accommodation and comfort of the Audience. Separate entrances will be constructed to each part of the Theatre. The Box entrance from Broughton Street. The Upper Box, Pit, and Gallery entrances from King Street. In submitting the following list of the performers already engaged, Mr B. trusts the Company will be found efficient as it is numerous, -the Ballet Department being decidedly equal to any at either of the Theatres-Royal, London. Principal Dancers of the Theatre Royal, Covent-Garden, and the Whose first performance will be duly announced. From the Royal Amphitheatre, London. And a number of Assistants. The arrangement of the BALLETS, &c. under the superintendence of Mr Auston, Ballet-Master of the Theatre Royal, CoventGarden. Mr Lawrence Frazer, Mr Mann, and Mr Turner, principal Artists to the Theatre. The ORCHESTRA will be complete. THE WOMAN OF THE TREE. A variety of ELEGANT DANCING by Mademoiselle Rosier. To conclude with the popular Pantomine of Don Juan, by Mademoiselle Rosier. Places for the Boxes to be taken at the Theatre from 10 till 2. Doors opened at half-past six ; to commence at seven precisely. Boxes, 3s.; Upper Boxes, 2s. 6d.; Pit, 2s.; Gallery, 1s. Second Price at half-past eight.-Boxes, 2s.; Upper Boxes, 1s. 6d. ; Pit, Is.; Gallery, 6d. Edinburgh: Published for the Proprietors, every Saturday Morning, by CONSTABLE & CO. 19, WATERLOO PLACE; Sold also by ROBERTSON & ATKINSON, Glasgow; W. CURRY, jun. & Co, Dublin; HURST, CHANCE, & Co. London; and by ll Newsmen, Postmasters, and Clerks of the Road, throughout the United Kingdom. Price 6d. or Stamped, and sent free by post, 10d. Printed by BALLANTYNE & Co. Paul's Work, Canongate. LITERARY CRITICISM. The Five Nights of St Albans. In three volumes. Edinburgh. William Blackwood. 1829. THIS is a romance from the pen of Mr Mudford, who was for a considerable period editor of the London Courier. We have read the book with some attention, and we regret to say that our verdict concerning it cannot be a favourable one. PRICE 6d. are goblins, we have so minute an account of their hideous sayings and doings, that terror is, for the most part, merged either in disgust or amusement. Mr Mudford seems to be profoundly ignorant that there is but one step between the sublime and the ridiculous. Having supped full of horrors, he seems anxious to treat his readers to a similar banquet, simply by crowding together all the loathsome and fantastic images which ever came, in the shape of nightmare or stifling dreams, to the unhappy wretch who has eat at supper seven or eight pounds of pork sausages, and an unweighed quantity of toasted cheese. Do not let us be mistaken. We are perfectly willing to admit that considerable genius may be shown in successfully grouping together a number of strange and grotesque images, whether of heaven or of earth; but if the leading object be to excite terror, no little caution and delicacy will be necessary, in order to keep this grouping within proper bounds, and likely to produce the end in view. A very good illustration of what we mean may be had by contrasting the Temptation of St Anthony, as painted by Teniers, with the same subject as treated by several Italian artists. The latter commonly represent The plot or machinery upon which the romance is founded is simple enough. Two persons, of the name of Peverell and Clayton, returning home one night to the town of St Albans, where they live, observe an old abbey in the neighbourhood supernaturally illuminated. Next day they inform their fellow-townsmen of what they had seen; and, in conjunction with the rest of the inhabitants, they determine to watch that night for the recurrence of the phenomenon. The phenomenon not only takes place, but is accompanied with still more extraordinary appearances than on the preceding evening. This induces twelve of the bravest citizens of St Albans to form themselves into an association, for the purpose of watching in the Abbey, till they have discovered the cause of these fearful portents. Their watch is held for five nights, in the course of which innumerable horrible and supernatural events occur; and with a detailed ac-loathsome beasts, crawling reptiles, and all the similar count of these the three volumes are entirely occupied. By fortitude and perseverance the powers of darkness are at last overcome; and, in conclusion, a very ridiculous and unsatisfactory explanation is given of the cause which induced the goblins and malicious spirits to fix upon St Albans as the scene of their nocturnal revels. It will thus be perceived that the author, avoiding all the usual subsidiaries of romance, wishes to rest the interest and success of his work solely upon its uninterrupted appeal to the superstitious feelings of our nature. But he has undertaken to handle a weapon, with the mode of using which he is very imperfectly acquainted. In the first place, the very assumption upon which the whole book proceeds, is, in these days, much more calculated to excite mirth than to create awe. It stoutly sets out with the tangible introduction of devils and "demogorgons dire," and leaves the reader no hope that towards the conclusion of the third volume a long string of mysterious circumstances will be satisfactorily cleared up, and shown to have been nothing counter to the established laws which regulate the material universe. Before we have proceeded six pages, we find that we must, with our author, cut the cable of reason, and drift away on the wildest tide of imagination. To get at all interested in the work, we must be content to believe, not only that supernatural appearances are possible, but that the earth, the air, and the sea, are, in reality, peopled with beings of a nature different from our own, with whom we are brought into immediate contact, and, as it were, rendered familiar. In the next place, besides the absence ab initio of all doubt, (one of the great engines of superstition,) and the consequent certainty that what appear to be goblins the saint in a dark cave, through which the surrounding horrors glimmer dimly upon the eye, stimulating, but not satiating, the imagination; whereas the former brings every thing into view with the most laborious minuteness, and fills his picture with shapes of unclean birds, disagreeables of a vivid, perhaps, but certainly a far less poetical fancy. The consequence is, that, in the first case, we sympathize with the undefined terror of St Anthony's situation, and in the other, wish only for a good sword or sturdy stick to drive the four-feeted abominations away. In the same manner, in fictitious composition, there is a certain boundary, past which terror changes into disgust. None but a man of coarse feelings would, for a moment, suppose that a full, true, and particular account of a raw-head-and-bloody-bones was nearly so spirit-stirring as one or two mysterious and indistinct hints of some undescribed horror. Mr Mudford entirely overlooks this fundamental law in the use of the terrible in composition; and he has been pleased, therefore, to present us with a tissue of descriptions, much more calculated to turn our stomach than to freeze our blood. It would be unfair to make this assertion without proving its truth; and with this view alone we shall introduce into our pages a few passages, to which we should certainly never have given a place on any other account. We need only open any one of the three volumes to meet with whole pages of coarse and loathsome bombast like the following :-" His flesh was one putrid mass of dissolving jelly; his face livid, with here and there broad blotches of cadaverous green; his features bore no distinguishable resemblance to what had been their character in life; while the black mark round his throat, which had been observed in the first instance, had eaten itself, as it were, into a trench or gash of fluid corruption." Or again,"This imp of Acheron dwelt in a cave or den, a mile beyond the city, whose entrance was guarded by a monster, engendered, as it was said, by his necromantic art, from the seed of the serpent, cast into the seething blood of infants (the first-born of their parents) during an eclipse of the moon; and kept boiling for nine times nine hours, by a fire fed with maidens' eyes." Or again,-" Peverell stood, for a moment, gazing on the shocking object that lay before him. The eyes were staring-the features distorted, and smeared with blood-the wound gaping; but the sun shone brightly-all nature smiled around-while a bloated toad, unscared by the presence of Peverell, was dabbling in, and sucking up, the clotted lumps that lay congealed upon the ground." Or again, "If any neighbouring farmer, or his wife, sickened, it was because the hag Margery had stuck a heart of wax full of magic needles; or had made an exact image of the sick person, in wax, and roasted it before a slow fire; the marrow of the sufferer melting away, drop by drop, as the image itself dissolved." Or again,-" Some human bones, a skull, and what seemed to be the body of a new-born infant, with the dried skin of a water-snake coiled tightly round its neck, and two glow-worms shining in the sockets instead of eyes, stood on a table, in a dark corner, near the fire-place. In the opposite corner was a brood of enormous rats, weltering in blood, which was contained in a brazen cauldron." The sketch of the interior, which follows immediately afterwards, is still more delightful : "The interior was lighted, if light it could be called, with that kind of dusky gloom which is shed over every object by the descending shadows of evening. The eye could distinguish neither the height, nor the length, nor the breadth of the aisles. But pale phantoms, in shrouds and windingsheets, and in every stage almost of mortal decay, were visible. Some looked as if life had just departed-others with that green and yellow hue, as if they had not lain in the earth a week-some showed incipient rottenness, in the loss of lips, and eyes, and cheeks-others, with the features dissolving into putrid liquefaction-some were brushing away the worms that crawled out of their ears and mouth-and some, more horrible still, seemed to dress up their dry, fleshless bones, in the living characters of thought and passion! On every side these hideous spectres were seen, sweeping slowly along in the air, or gliding upon the ground, or stalking backward and forward with noiseless motion. Sometimes they would bring their pestiferous faces close, and their smell was of corruption; but if the uplifted hand was raised to put them back, it passed through mere vacancy." We doubt not our readers think that we have now favoured them with a sufficient number of extracts; but there is one other we beg to recommend to their attention, as peculiarly characteristic of Mr Mudford's style. We shall entitle it AN INCANTATION SCENE. "Margery now laid herself flat down, with her mouth veral minutes, writhing her limbs and pronouncing strange close to the ground, and remained in that position for sewords. Sometimes she was still and motionless. "She arose. Her look was angry. There is some power near, or at work,' said she, which he dreads. I heard his groan in the centre of the earth.' "Helen remembered the signet, and felt it clip her finger with a burning pressure. "I will tear him up,' she continued, stamping her foot violently, though his yells affright the dead, and drive back the moon from her path in the heavens! I am strong enough for that. These examples would probably be enough to prove that, in this particular style of writing, the “ Five Nights of St Albans" will not yield to the most consummate trash that ever issued from the Minerva Press; but as the charge we make is a serious one, we must, however reluctantly, add a specimen or two additional. The whole scene in the witch Margery's cottage, which occupies a prominent part in the second volume, is in the highest degree disgusting, and almost unfit to be read by persons possessing minds of the most common degree of refinement. Here is one short sample of it:-"There stood a coffin, not a span long, with the untimely yielded burden of an abortive womb in it; and close by its side the delicate white pap of the dead mother, seemingly fresh severed from the body. A knife, crusted with blood, was fitted into the throat it had cut, which lay, still dripping, in the hellish circle. There, too, was a cadaverous heart, half gnawed away, as if it had been tossed for food to the blood-weltered rats. A grey scalp, with the skeleton fingers of a clenched hand, tugging at the thinly-scattered hairs, was beside it; and Helen fancied it might have belonged to some despairing wretch, who had died blaspheming! Between these horrible objects, burned low, red flames, issuing from human fat and flesh, and emitting a most noisome smell." What can any one think of the taste and dispositions of the ex-editor of the Courier, who allows himself to gloat over such descriptions as these? The story of Alice Gray, the midwife, is, if possible, (and one would think it barely possible,) still worse. Here is a brief sample of this most amiable episode:-" The maddened husband, and selfdenying father, with the look and gesture of a demon, cast the innocent babe upon the blazing fire, and then heaped upon it the burning embers! Its screams were loud and terrific! The noise of its crackling flesh, as it shrivelled up in the fierce flames, could be distinctly heard!" These are not accidental passages, for we could, with equal ease, quote pages of similar stuff. As the main horrors of the book are connected with the Abbey of St Albans, it may be proper to give one short specimen "She then poured some of this precious syrup' into the of what these horrors are. On one of the nights that cauldron, and walked to the four corners of the room, exPeverell and his companions went to watch, the follow-claiming, I call you from the east-I call you from the ing is a short view of the exterior of the Abbey: "As they approached the Abbey, the voices were redoubled. Monstrous shadows reared themselves in threatening attitudes along the walls-the bell tolled, and its beat was like the roaring of cannon-purple and sulphureous flames seemed to burst from the windows-the earth trembled beneath their feet-the rushing winds blew from every quarter of the heavens :-blazing meteors flashed across the darkened sky-fiery hail fell before them at each step, as if "She threw her crutch upon the ground, and exclaimed, Unfold thyself!' "Helen gazed with mute terror, as she saw the crutch heave, and swell, and enlarge itself, till it gradually assumed the shape of an enormous black serpent, curling and waving about in massy folds. "Suck me one drachm of blood!' continued the hag, uncovering her withered neck, and dragging out a shrivelled breast. "The reptile coiled itself round her body with a hissing noise, and its eyes gleaming like two rubies. Helen shuddered; and the hag herself screamed, when the serpent darted its forked tongue into her nipple! 666 'Bravely done!' she exclaimed. Hold it till I bid thee; and then void it, drop by drop, in the cauldron ! Each charmed drop is able to confound the elements, and make turreted castles rock to their foundations in the sudden tempest. But it must fall on the precious syrup made of child's grease, melted by a blue fire, kindled with lizard's brains, or it will not have power to compel Alascon when he is moody.' west-I call you from the south-I call you from the north!' She next stood in the middle of the room, and whirled round three times, saying all the while, I call you from graves, from woods, from fens, and from rocks! I call you from the deep river and the stagnant pool-I call you from charnel houses, and the grave of the unbaptized babe!' "Helen remained motionless-silent-but almost frenzied! Her cheek was pale-her eye wildly following every motion of Margery-her body trembling. The incantation had |