Again I gazed on the starry spark in the form of the man. And I murmured to myself, "But if this be the soul, why is it so undisturbed and undarkened by the sins which have left such trace and such ravage in the world of the brain!" And gazing yet more intently on the spark, I became vaguely aware that it was not the soul, but the The azure light equally permeated the frame, halo around the soul, as the star we see in heaven crossing and uniting with the red, but in a sepa-is not the star itself, but its circle of rays. And if rate and distinct ray, exactly as, in the outer world, a ray of light crosses or unites with a ray of heat, though in itself a separate individual agency. And again I murmured to myself, "Is this the principle of intellectual being, directing or influencing that of animal life; with it, yet not of it?"

But the soul itself in the heart of the light But the silvery spark! What was that? Its reflected back on my own soul within me its centre seemed the brain. But I could fix it to ineffable trouble, humiliation, and sorrow; for no single organ. Nay, wherever I looked those ghastly wrecks of power placed at its sovethrough the system, it reflected itself as a star reign command it was responsible: and, appalled reflects itself upon water. And I observed that by its own sublime fate of duration, was about to while the red light was growing feebler and carry into eternity the account of its mission in feebler, and the azure light was confused, irregu- time. Yet it seemed that while the soul was lar-now obstructed, now hurrying, now almost still there, though so forlorn and so guilty, even lost-the silvery spark was unaltered, undis- the wrecks around it were majestic. And the turbed. So independent of all which agitated and soul, whatever sentence it might merit, was not vexed the frame, that I became strangely aware among the hopelessly lost. For in its remorse that if the heart stopped in its action, and the and its shame, it might still have retained what red light died out, if the brain were paralysed, could serve for redemption. And I saw that the that energic mind smitten into idiotcy, and the mind was storming the soul in some terrible reazure light wandering objectless as a meteorbellious war-all of thought, of passion, of desire,

through which the azure light poured its restless flow, were surging up round the starry spark, as in siege. And I could not comprehend the war, nor guess what it was that the mind demanded the soul to yield. Only the distinction between the two was made intelligible by their antagonism. And I saw that the soul, sorely tempted, looked afar for escape from the subjects it had ever so ill controlled, and who sought to reduce to their vassal the power which had lost authority as their king. I could feel its terror in the sympathy of my own terror, the keenness of my own supplicating pity. I knew that it was imploring release from the perils it confessed its want of strength to encounter. And suddenly the starry spark rose from the ruins and the tumult around it,-rose into space and vanished. And where my soul had recognised the presence of soul, there was a void. But the red light burned still, becoming more and more vivid; and as it thus repaired and recruited its lustre, the whole animal form which had been so decrepit, grew restored from decay, grew into vigour and youth: And I saw Margrave as I had seen him in the waking world, the radiant image of animal life in the beauty of its fairest bloom.

In that marvellous penetration with which the Vision endowed me, I perceived that in this mind, though in energy far superior to many, though retaining, from memories of the former existence, the relics of a culture wide and in some things profound; though sharpened and quickened into formidable, if desultory, force whenever it schemed or aimed at the animal self-conservation, which now made its masterimpulse or instinct; and though among the reminiscences of its state before its change were arts which I could not comprehend, but which I felt were dark and terrible, lending to a will never checked by remorse, arms that no healthful philosophy has placed in the arsenal of disciplined genius; though the mind in itself had an ally in a body as perfect in strength and elasticity as man can take from the favour of nature-still, I say, I felt that that mind wanted the something, without which men never could found cities, frame laws, bind together, beautify, exalt the elements of this world, by creeds that habitually subject them to a reference to another. The ant, and the bee, and the beaver congregate and construct; but they do not improve. Man improves because the future impels onward that which is not found in the ant, the bee, and the beaver-that which was gone from the being before me.

I shrank appalled into myself, covered my face with my hands, and groaned aloud: “Have I ever then doubted that soul is distinct from

A hand here again touched my forehead, the light in the lamp was extinguished, I became insensible, and when I recovered I found myself back in the room in which I had first conversed with Sir Philip Derval, and seated, as before, on the sofa by his side.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

And over this rich vitality and this symmetric mechanism now reigned only, with the animal life, the mind. The starry light fled and the soul vanished, still was left visible the mind: mind, by which sensations convey and cumulate ideas, and muscles obey volition; mind, as in those animals that have more than the elementary in-mind!" stincts; mind, as it might be in men, were men not immortal. As my eyes, in the Vision, followed the azure light, undulating, as before, through the cells of the brain, and crossing the red amidst the labyrinth of the nerves, I perceived that the essence of that azure light had undergone a change; it had lost that faculty of continuous and concentred power by which man improves on the works of the past, and weaves schemes My recollections of all which I have just to be developed in the future of remote gene- attempted to describe were distinct and vivid; rations; it had lost all sympathy in the past, except, with respect to time, it seemed to because it had lost all conception of a future be- me as if many hours must have elapsed yond the grave; it had lost conscience, it had since I had entered the museum with Marlost remorse. The being it informed was no grave; but the clock on the mantelpiece met longer accountable through eternity for the em- my eyes as I turned them wistfully round ployment of time. The azure light was even more the room; and I was indeed amazed to pervivid in certain organs useful to the conserva-ceive that five minutes had sufficed for all which tion of existence, as in those organs I had ob- it has taken me so long to narrate, and which in served it more vivid among some of the in- their transit had hurried me through ideas and ferior animals than it is in man-secretive-emotions so remote from anterior experience. ness, destructiveness, and the ready perception of things immediate to the wants of the day. And the azure light was brilliant in cerebral cells, where before it had been dark, such as those which harbour mirthfulness and hope, for there the light was recruited by the exuberant health of the joyous animal being. But it was lead-like, or dim, in the great social organs through which man suborns his own interest to that of his species, and utterly lost in those through which man is reminded of his duties to the throne of his Maker,

To my astonishment, now succeeded shame and indignation-shame that I, who had scoffed at the possibility of the comparatively credible influences of mesmeric action, should have been so helpless a puppet under the hand of the slight fellow-man beside me, and so morbidly impressed by phantasmagorical illusions; indignation that by some fumes which had special potency over the brain, I had thus been, as it were, conjured out of my senses: and, looking full into the calm face at my side, I said, with a smile to which I sought to convey disdain:

was induced to believe that he saw the most frightful apparitions.

"I congratulate you, Sir Philip Derval, on having learned in your travels in the East so expert a familiarity with the tricks of its jugglers." However extraordinary such effects, they were "The East has a proverb," answered Sir Philip, not incredible-not at variance with our notions quietly, "that the juggler may learn much from of the known laws of nature. And to the vapour, the dervish, but the dervish can learn nothing or the odours which a powder applied to a lamp from the juggler. You will pardon me, however, had called forth, I was, therefore, prepared to for the effect produced on you for a few minutes, ascribe properties similar to those which Bacon's whatever the cause of it may be, since it may serve conjecture ascribed to the witches' ointment, and to guard your whole life from calamities, to which the French traveller to the fumigations of the it might otherwise have been exposed. And African conjuror. however you may consider that which you have just experienced to be a mere optical illusion, or the figment of a brain super-excited by the fumes of a vapour, look within yourself and tell me if you do not feel an inward and unanswerable conviction that there is more reason to shun and to fear the creature you left asleep under the dead jaws of the giant serpent, than there would be in the serpent itself could the venom return to its breath ?"

I was silent, for I could not deny that that conviction had come to me.

But, as I came to that conclusion, I was seized with an intense curiosity to examine for myself those chemical agencies with which Sir Philip Derval appeared so familiar;-to test the contents in that mysterious casket of steel. I also felt a curiosity no less eager, but more, in spite of myself, intermingled with fear, to learn all that Sir Philip had to communicate of the past history of Margrave. I could but suppose that the young man must indeed be a terrible criminal, for a person of years so grave, and station so high, to intimate accusations so vaguely dark, and to use means so extraordinary in order to enlist my imagination rather than my reason against a youth in whom there appeared none of the signs which suspicion interprets into guilt.

"Henceforth, when you recover from the confusion or anger which now disturbs your impressions, you will be prepared to listen to my explanations and my recital, in a spirit far different from that with which you would have While thus musing, I lifted my eyes and saw received them before you were subjected to the Margrave himself there, at the threshold of the experiment, which, allow me to remind you, you ball-room-there, where Sir Philip had first invited and defied. You will now, I trust, be pointed him out as the criminal he had come to fitted to become my confidant and my assistant-L to seek and disarm; and now, as then, you will advise with me, how, for the sake of Margrave was the radiant centre of a joyous humanity, we should act together against the in-group; not the young boy-god, Iacchus, amidst his carnate lie, the anomalous prodigy which glides through the crowd in the image of joyous beauty. For the present, I quit you. I have an engagement on worldly affairs, in the town this night. I am staying at L, which I shall leave for Derval Court to-morrow evening. Come to me there the day after to-morrow; at any hour that may suit you the best. Adieu."

Here, Sir Philip Derval rose, and left the room. I made no effort to detain him. My mind was too occupied in striving to recompose itself, and account for the phenomena that had scared it, and for the strength of the impressions it still retained.

I sought to find natural and accountable causes for effects so abnormal.

Lord Bacon suggests that the ointments with which witches anointed themselves might have had the effect of stopping the pores and congesting the brain, and thus impressing the sleep of the unhappy dupes of their own imagination with dreams so vivid that, on waking, they were firmly convinced that they had been borne through the air to the Sabbat.

nymphs could, in Grecian frieze or picture, have seemed more the type of the sportive, hilarious vitality of sensuous nature. He must have passed, unobserved by me, in my preoccupation of thought, from the museum and across the room in which I sat: and now there was as little trace in that animated countenance of the terror it had exhibited at Sir Philip's approach, as of the change it had undergone in my trance or my phantasy.

But he caught sight of me-left his young companions-came gaily to my side.

"Did you not ask me to go with you into that museum about half an hour ago, or did I dream that I went with you?"

"Yes; you went with me into that muscum." "Then pray what dull theme did you select, to set me asleep there?"

I looked hard at him, and made no reply. Somewhat to my relief, I now heard my host's voice:

Why, Fenwick, what has become of Sir Philip Derval?"

'He has left; he had business." And, as I I remembered also having heard a distin- spoke, again I looked hard on Margrave. guished French traveller-whose veracity was His countenance now showed a change; not unquestionable-say, that he had witnessed ex-surprise, not dismay, but rather a play of the lip, traordinary effects produced on the sensorium by a flash of the eye, that indicated complacencycertain fumigations used by an African pretender even triumph. to magic. A person, of however healthy a brain, "So! Sir Philip Derval. He is in Lsubjected to the influence of these fumigations, he has been here to-night. So! as I expected.'

"Did you expect it?" said our host. "No one else did. Who could have told you?"

"The movements of men so distinguished need never take us by surprise. I knew he was in Paris the other day. Natural he should come here. I was prepared for his coming."

various courses constantly interrupted or retarded by the fresh arrival of guests and bands of hungry families. The black waiters ran over each other in a fussy, good natured, but rather irrational way. I stripped my last banana and scooped out my last pecan-nut, drank some iced win-water, and, taking my hat from the pile of others on the table by the door, descended to the barroom to smoke a quiet cigarette, and think how I should spend the afternoon.

Margrave here turned away towards the dow, which he threw open and looked out. There is a storm in the air," said he, as he continued to gaze into the night.

Was it possible that Margrave was so wholly unconscious of what had passed in the museum,

as to include in oblivion even the remembrance of Sir Philip Derval's presence before he had been rendered insensible, or laid asleep? Was it now only for the first time that he learned of Sir Philip's arrival in L, and visit to that house? Was there any intimation of menace in his words and his aspect?

I felt that the trouble of my thoughts communicated itself to my countenance and manner; and, longing for solitude and fresh air, I quitted the house. When I found myself in the street, I turned round and saw Margrave still standing at the open window, but he did not appear to notice me; his eyes seemed fixed abstractedly on space.

OUR OLD AND NEW COTTON-FIELDS.

Ir was my tenth day in New Orleans, and Yellow Fever had not yet stuck his livid claws into me. My apprehensions subsided, and I began to enjoy what there was to enjoy in the great slave city.

To my astonishment, instead of the usual that hour, and the two or three loafers taking somnolent repose of the great marble hall at "General Jacksons" in a critical way at the counter, the scene was all bustle and animation. bill of it I found pasted up on one of the pillars, A slave sale had just concluded. The following and as rather a curiosity, I append it :

SALE AT AUCTION
OF CHOICE

PLANTATION SLAVES.

BY C. E. GIRANDOLE & CO.
OFFICE, No. 37, OPELO USAS STREET.
ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1860,
AT 12 O'CLOCK, AT

THE ST. CHARLES HOTEL,
Will be sold at Public Auction, the following Slaves,
to wit:

HARRISON, black, aged 22 yrs, No. 1 fleld hand & teamster

ALECK,

ANDY,

EMELINE,

WARREN,

DAVE, mulatto,
WILLIS, black,

FRANCIS, yellow, do 20 do
HENRY, black,

JIM,

LEWIS,
SUSAN,
JERRY,

do

do

axe-man.

rough carpenter, &c. wife of Andy, field hand.

cook, washer and ironer.

do
do
superior house boy.

do

do 19 do do

do

do 22 do do

do

do 21 do

do

do 21 do

No. 1 field hand.

do 21 do

ostler and carriage driver.

do 22 do

do

24 do

do.

house servant and child's

nurse.

My appetite quickened, as the excellent dinners at the magnificent St. Charles's Hotel soon found to their cost. The great gilt-looking Red Fish was from the Mexican Gulf; the gumbo-soup was a pure Southern dish mixed MINERVA, do with a glutinous plant, and very delicious; SABAH, the green peppers were West Indian; the hominy was of Indian extraction; the crabs à la Créole were cooked in the Cuban FRANK, way; the rice casseroles stuffed with oysters were JOSEPH, do of French origin; the orange tomatoes, observe, were raw; the egg-plant is peculiar to America; so is the succotash and the lima beans; for this is a paradise of vegetables. For MARY, the brandied peaches we are indebted to the clever descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers. Great emphasis was laid in the bewildering bill of fare on Kentucky beef" and on "" potatoes" in contradistinction to the soapy "sweet potatoes." The dessert reminded me that I was near the West Indies, for the pineapples were fresh picked, and the oranges were green, or but slightly yellowed, as they should be. Those long sallow bananas, too, a week ago, were sunning themselves in the fiery air of Cuba; the pecan-nuts are American, and are much in request among a people who attach more value to dessert than we do, mixing many French customs with their own in these

matters.

Irish

The dinner had been tediously long, with its

CLARISSA, do

field hand, likely & active. carriage driver and house

servant, superior dining-room ser

vant, etc.

waiter and dining-room ser

vant.

do 13 do creole house servant and child's nurse. superior creole cook,

washer and ironer.

do 42 do

do
ESSEX,
RIGHT, do
VIRGINIA, do
All fully guaranteed against the Vices and Maladies prescribed

by law.

minutes with two bottles of German wine, a bowl of sparkling ice, a box of cigars, and some tumblers.

My friend gave a sigh of satisfaction, took up with an air of reflection a feather fan of Mrs. B.'s that lay on the table, spat three times at a special knot on the floor, and, throwing his feet over the back of a very high chair, began to open the conversation on the subject of the cotton supplies of England.

I asked Mr. Quackenboss if there were many English cotton agents at that time in New Orleans?

as they always are at sales, to attract the buyer. I gave a groan at the thought of buying and selling human hearts and brains; and to keep down any more philanthropic groans (rather dangerous demonstrations in the slave states), I went to the bar, and called for a corpse reviver;" a medicinal and potent drink indeed for persons troubled with philanthropic scruples. The bar-keeper-who, in America, generally asserts all the rights of a gentleman-leaning across the marble counter, with a bunch of mint in one hand and a tin cup full of the most silvery and glittering ice in the other, begged leave to introduce me to Mr. Quackenboss, a "A crowd-perfect crowd," said Mr. Quackencotton-planter of Bâton Rouge. We both took boss; "and I reckon, if old Abe is left out in off our felt hats and shook hands; for Ame- the cold (this was before Abraham Lincoln's ricans hate all cold formalities, and are generally election), as we Southerners hope he will be, your friends or your enemies in a minute; we Southern cotton men will have a good time despising your philosophical indifferentists. of it with the English trade. Let us once pass After "glasses round," a necessary commence-a law to hang every darned Yankee (Northern ment of most American bar-room friendships, men are all called Yankees in the South), and my new friend invited me to walk with him to we New Orleaners, I tell you, mister, will have Good Children-street, on the Pontchartrain- a good time of it, with the great staple production of that stupendous and chawing up river the Mississippi."

road.

I asked my enthusiastic cotton-planting friend if he thought that the freedom of the South would surely bring free trade.

We walked off together. My new friend was a pale-faced, brown-skinned person, with clear hazel eyes, and a black fringe beard. He wore a suit of black, and, over his black satin wrinkly waistcoat, hung an enormous watch-chain that resembled a gold bridle. With the exception of this error in dress, and this extraordinary infatuation for our modern melancholy and ugly evening dress, which gave him the look of an owl by daylight, Mr. Quackenboss was an amusing and a wide-minded planter. He had been all over South America, and had been for years in Liverpool. He had deeply examined all the bearings of the cotton question; he had studied the old and new cotton-fields of England; and all the bearings of the war upon our future supply; he could explain to me the intentions of the Southerners to trade direct with England, and the prospects our Manchester men had of obtain-it as his opinion that Louisiana cotton can be ing cotton in sufficient quantities from India and Australia.

But now we are at his house let me describe it. It is not near the Hôtel de Ville and the French quarter of the city; it is not near the public gardens where the bananas cast forth their great arching green leaves; no, it is quite in the suburb, near the Second Bayou; a great shapeless road, ankle deep in white dust, lies before it, fringed by those loathsome open drains that are the curse of New Orleans, and the chief originators of the yellow fever. In this road negro children roll and scramble, and pigs rout and grunt. Before Mr. Quackenboss's house there is a row of huge mangolia-trees, at this time covered with tufts of pink and scarlet flowers, which contrast prettily with the small dark myrtle-green leaves. My hospitable friend pushes open a wicket-gate, and we pass up a garden-walk, and enter the cool verandah'd house. Mrs. Quackenboss and the little Quackenbosses are on a visit to Cuba, so we are alone. My friend claps his hands, and a negro boy appears, receives an order, and returns in a few

"Sure as Sam Walker's in Memphis, we shall get free trade, and send our own cotton to England in our own ships, without any darned Yankee setting finger on it, and cutting off half our profits. Still, I don't say, mister, that the Northerners ain't right in their way, for those taxes of theirs on trade prevent foreign competition with their own manufacturers; but we producers have other views on these things, and all we want is a good free market for our cotton to tempt more purchasers. Perhaps you are not aware that Mr. Rufus Stoat, one of the most remarkable men of the present day, and at present an actuary at No. 3, Opelousas-street, has given

sent from our levee in this very city to Manchester, and brought back made up in prints, cheaper than it now reaches us from the Northern mills. This idea has fired our chivalrous and en-lightened minds in the South-has fired our minds-yes, sir."

I bowed and sipped my hock. My Southern friend's theories were sanguine; but I made allowances for the enthusiasm of election time.

"I fear, Mr. Quackenboss," said I, "that your quarrel with the North is somewhat like the nose falling out with the mouth in the old fable. The South produces, the North manufactures. You are husband and wife: whatever form of government you have, your interests must ever be the same. They starve without your cotton; you pine without their hardware, their prints, their luxuries of all kinds. You must have customers, they must have raw produce."

"No, siree, we shan't; we can do very well without them. We can get all we want straight from England; we want none of those cold cal culating Yankees' produce. We are the chivalry