121

ideas to be "the immediate, or nearest
objects of the mind when it perceives any
thing." Mallebranche demonstrates the
reality of their existence, by displaying
their qualities, which never can belong to
He
nothing, that have no properties.
then distinguishes between sentiments and
considers the five different ways,
ideas;
whereby the mind comes at the view of ex-
ternal objects; shows the fallacy of four of
them, and establishes the preeminence of
the fifth, as being that alone which is con-
formable to reason, by saying, that it is
absolutely necessary God should have in
himself the ideas of all essences, otherwise
he never could have given them existence.
He undertakes to prove, that God, by his
presence, is nearly united to our souls; in-
somuch, that he may be called the place of
spirits, as space is of bodies; and thence
he concludes, that the soul may discern in
God whatever is representative of created
things, if it be the will of God to communi-
cate himself in that manner to it. He re-
marks, that God, or the universal intelli-
gence, contains in himself those ideas which
illuminate us; and that his works having
been formed on the model of his ideas, we
cannot better employ ourselves than in
contemplating them, in order to discover the
nature and properties of created things.

Mallebranche was treated as a visionary
for having advanced these sentiments, al-
though he accompanied them with the most
solid and judicious proofs that metaphysics
could afford; but he was never charged
with plagiarism, though his system and
manner of proof exist literally in ancient
authors. After reciting passages from the
"Oracula Chaldæorum," which he reveres
as a divine oracle, he says, "The gods here
declare where the existence of ideas is to
be found, even in God himself, who is their
only source; they being the model accord-
ing to which the world was formed, and the
spring from which every thing arose.
Others, by applying immediately to the
divine ideas themselves, are enabled to dis-
cover sublime truths; but as for our part,
we are content to be satisfied with what
the gods themselves have declared in
favour of Plato, in assigning the name of
ideas to causes purely intellectual; and
affirming, that they are the archetypes of
the world, and the thoughts of the supreme
father; that, in effect, they reside in the
paternal intellect, and emanate from him
to concur in the formation of the world."

Pythagoras and his disciples understood
almost the same thing by their numbers,
that Plato did by his ideas.. The Pythago

66

122

rists expressed themselves with regard to
numbers in the same terms as Plato uses,
calling them "rà örs övra, real existences,
the only things truly endowed with essence,
eternally invariable." They give them also
the appellation of incorporeal entities, by
means of which all other beings participate
of existence.

Heraclitus adopted those first principles.
of the Pythagoreans, and expounded them
"Nature," says he, "being in a perpetual
in a very clear and systematic manner.
flow, there must belong to it some perma-
nent entities, on the knowledge of which
as the rule of our judgment in fleeting and
all science is founded, and which may serve
sensible objects."

Democritus also taught, that the images
are themselves divine; and that our very
Whether the
of objects are emanations of the Deity, and
mental ideas are so too.
doctrine be true or erroneous is not here a
subject of inquiry: the present purpose
being merely to show the analogy between
the principles of Mallebranche and those of
the ancients.

Plato, who, of all the ancient philoso-
the clearness and accuracy wherewith he
phers, deservedly ranks the highest, for
gives the appellation of "ideas" to those
hath explained and laid open this system,
eternal intellectual substances, which were,
or types of all that he created; and are,
with regard to God, the exemplary forms
with regard to men, the object of all science,
and of their contemplation when they
"The world," according to Plato,
would attain to the knowledge of sensible
"always existed in God's ideas; and when
things.
at length he determined to produce it into
being, such as it is at present, he created it.
according to those eternal models, forming
the sensible into the likeness of the intel-
lectual world." Admitting, with Heracli-
tus, the perpetual fluctuation of all sensible
no foundation for science, unless there were
things, Plato perceived that there could be
things real and permanent to build it upon,
which might be the fixed object of know-
course, whenever it wanted to inform itself
ledge, to which the mind might have re-
We clearly see that this
was Plato's apprehension of things; and
of sensible things.
we need only look at the passages quoted
from him to be convinced, that whatever
Mallebranche said on the subject, he de-
rived from Plato.

Mallebranche would not have been railed against as impious, had his antagonists known to whom he was indebted for his opinions and reasonings; and that St.

THE GRETNA GREEN PARSONS.

The first person that twined the bands of Hymen this way is supposed to have been a man named Scott, who resided at the Rigg, a few miles from the village of Gretna, about 1750 or 1760. He was accounted a shrewd, crafty fellow, and little more is known of him.

George Gordon, an old soldier, started up as his successor. He always appeared on marriage occasions in an antiquated full military costume, wearing a large cocked hat, red coat, jack boots, and a ponderous sword dangling at his side. If at any time he was interrogated "by what authority he joined persons in wedlock?" he boldly answered, "I have a special license from government, for which I pay fifty pounds per annum.' He was never closely examined on the subject, and a delusion prevailed during his life, that a privilege of the kind really existed.

"

Several persons afterwards attempted to establish themselves in the same line, but none were so successful as Joseph Paisley, who secured by far the greatest run of business, in defiance of every opposition. It was this person who obtained the appellation of the "Old blacksmith," probably on account of the mythological conceit of Vulcan being employed in rivetting the hymeneal chains. Paisley was first a smuggler, then a tobacconist, but never, at any time, a blacksmith He commenced his mock pontifical career about 1789. For many years he was careful not to be pub- licly seen on such occasions, but stole through by-paths to the house where he was called to officiate, and he there gave a certificate miserably written, and the orthography almost unintelligible, with a feigned signature. An important trial arose out of one of his marriages; and on being summoned to London in consequence, to undergo an examination, he was so much alarmed that he was induced to consult a gentleman of the Scotch bar on the occasion. His legal adviser stated as his opinion, that using a feigned name was decidedly a misdemeanour, and recommended the mock parson to effect, if possible, the destruction of the original certificate, and substitute another in which he should appear by his own name, and merely as a witness to the parties' declaration that they were married persons. Afterwards, he invariably adopted the plan of merely subscribing his own name as a witness in future; and this has been the usual course of his successors. From that period he

made no secret of his profession, but openly
walked the street when called upon to
officiate, dressed in his canonicals, with the
dignity of a bishop! He was long an ob-
ject of curiosity to travellers. He was tall,'
and had been well proportioned, but at his
death he was literally an overgrown mass
He
of fat, weighing twenty-five stone.
was grossly ignorant, and insufferably coarse
in his manners, and possessed a constitu-
tion almost proof against the ravages of
spirituous liquors; for though an habitual
drinker, he was rarely ever seen drunk: for
the last forty years of his life he daily dis-
cussed a Scotch pint, equal to two English
quarts, of brandy. On one occasion, a
bottle companion, named "Ned the turn-
er," sat down with him on a Monday
morning to an anker of strong cogniac, and
before the evening of the succeeding Satur-
day they kicked the empty cask out at the
door; neither of them were at any of the
time drunk, nor had they had the assistance
of any one in drinking.

After the decease of Paisley, the field
lay more open for competition in the
trade, and the different candidates resorted
to different means to acquire the best share
Ultimately the post-boys were taken into
partnership, who had the power of driving
to whichever house they pleased each
mock-parson had his stated rendezvous;
and so strong did this description of oppo-
sition run, that at last the post-boys ob-
tained one entire half of the fees, and the
The rates
business altogether got worse.
were lowered to a trifle, and the occupation
may now be said, in common with others,
to have shared the effects of bad times and
starvation prices.

There are two principal practitioners at present, one of whom was originally a chaise-driver; the other, David Laing, an old soldier, who figured as a witness on the trial of the Wakefields. At home they exhibit no parade of office; they may be seen in shabby clothes at the kitchen firesides of the pot-houses of the village, the companions of the sots of the country, and disrespected by every class.

A BLACK DREAM.

A number of years bygone, a black man, named Peter Cooper, happened to marry one of the fair towns-women of Greenock, who did not use him with that tenderness that