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Wherewith they passed into a larger room, where already the fussy mistress of the "mansion" as in Brighton they call a lodging househad assembled an elegant crowd of ladies and gentlemen in full dress, The Professor sank into an easy chair in the corner. Spiridion brought to his side a small table, on which he placed the magnesium lamp and a silver censer. Then the Greek commenced to tell the assembly-but especially the ladies-that he could not be responsible for the character of the séance; that it must entirely depend upon them; that if they were nervous they had better go away; that whatever happened, he could not stop the proceedings till they came to a natural or preternatural end. “Now, ladies," he said, by way of peroration, "are you afraid? Shall we go on ?"

The vote being unanimously affirm ative, he took from his pocket a gold box, and from the box a large pastille. Tais he ignited; then, feaning back in his chair, he closed his eyes, and seemed to secp. The young page stood behind him, unmoved as a statue.

There was silence for about five minutes. Then a grand piano which stood in the room was flung open, and one of Mendelssohn's songs without words was played in masterly fashion. Goy Luttrel noticed that two or three young ladies exchanged giances, very mun as if they knew the player's style. He also observed that the air seemed suddenly chilled.

But all the time he was concentrating his will upon a certam question wich he intensely desired to ask and to have answered.

Presently a young lady rose from her chair, and begin to waltz round the sacon as if with an invis, de partner, the piano supplying grain tous miste The pace was tremendous, and the poor gil was regularly done up when she returned to her seat.

After an inte.val another young lady was cane apparemly by the waist, and atted close to the ceiling

a tolerably lofy one. There she flated gracefu ly, just long enough for Gay to admire her symmetrical ankles.

“ lisa hyperbolical fierd,” thought Litl, "and cares for nothing but

The next manifestation was proHalf-a-dozen ladies were digious. raised from the floor about half way towards the ceiling; and there, hand in hand, they were whirled round in a vertiginous dance, their ample clothing producing a miniature hurricane,

Next, a pretty little girl was seen to walk up the wall like a fly, and walk across the ceiling from one end of the saloon to the other; the attraction of gravitation being so completely suspended that her long hair hung upwards toward the ceiling.

I need not multiply phenomena, for which I am dependent on Guy Luttrel's testimony. The masterspirit among the unseen visitors became rather rough towards the end of the seance, kissed two or three young ladies of the party with considerable effusion, and wound up the proceedings by taking the mistress of the house, a stout lady of about fifteen stone, up to the ceiling, and keeping her there so long that she exclaimed-"Oh, let me down! let me down!"

Professor Odysseus subsequently informed Guy Luttrel that the invisible influence was a young gentleman much given to music and flutation, who had frequented mansion, and was very popular there; and who lately had joined the diplomatic service, as attaché at Copenhagen.

When the charivari had ceased, Luttrel said to the Professor-"There seems no reply to my question."

"Let us see," said Odysseus,

Sheets of paper, with quills and ink, had been placed on a centre table, in case the visitors should be writing, instead of waitzing, spirits. Looking among these they found a sentence in feminine handwriting, the ink still wet.

Is it Cassandra or Le Normand i" asked Odysse 118.

This was the sentence, four words only, which answered the question that perplexed Guy Luttrel—

"SHE WILL KILL HIM." “Egvd!" thought he, "that would be cutting the Gordion knot.”

If any reader thrks this chapter “stranger than fiction," I beg to say that it is word for word what Guy Luttrel told Lady Vivian next mornin asthey were driving to the Devil's Dike. The Earl had gone to lunch with Mr. Mome

CHAPTER X.

"The man who drinks beer, thinks beer."-Dr. Johnson.

COPSE HILL is a small scattered vil lage, a few miles from Riverdale. It takes its name from its common, which rises in its midst, a very respectable hill, crowned with two groups of trees. From this hill you can see a good many miles every way: Riverdale, smoke-veiled, with the ruined castle rising above it-the court, amid its mighty oak-trees-the great house of Mauleverer, high above the surrounding plain-are all visible from Copse Hill. The village contains the houses of a few retired doctors and tradesmen; the best waggon-builder in the county lives there, bearing the appropriate name of Wainwright - his forefathers having doubtless built waggons from time immemorial; there are two or three shops, and almost as many beer-houses as shops; and next in importance to the little district church is the chief hostelry, the Seven Stars, pleasantly situate at the foot of the hill. Its landlord is the chief carrier from Riverdale to towns and villages untouched by the railway. Curiously enough, he is a teetotaler, not by choice, but of necessity.

An English wayside inn is very picturesque. The Seven Stars had been a coaching-house, had a good farm attached to it, and was well provided with stabling. Any hour of the day it was astir. Great waggons loading and unloading; farmers on horseback or in fast traps, stopping for a glass of strong ale; Romany chals with their nomad tents upon wheels, going to or from Riverdale's numerous fairs; all the multifarious traffic of a great road leading to London. Any artist who wanted fresh studies of human nature might do worse than take up his quarters at the Seven Stars, Copse Hill.

In an upper room of this inn, bowwindowed, with a pleasant view both up and down the road, two men were sitting. One was a Frenchman, evidently. He sipped some weak brandy and water, and smoked cigarettes, which he made with great rapidity and skill. A plausible, cunning face had this man the most elementary of physiognomists would look upon

him with suspicion. The other was a curious mixture of lout and knave; a fellow dressed in a smock frock, with corduroys and leather gaiters; in whose eye craft and imbecility seemed to hold a perpetual struggle for the mastery. A pint mug of fourpenny ale stood before him, and he was smoking vile tobacco from a long clay pipe.

Both these men were discharged servants from Mauleverer. Louis Chartier had been Hugh the younger's valet; Giles Spindlo had been an under-keeper. Hugh had found each of them out in some misdemeanor at about the same time, and had summarily turned them off.

Now Spindlo fancied himself the possessor of a great secret. Of course the terms on which Mauleverer was held by its present owner were well known through the county; but among servants and labourers such a story has always its added circumstances of romance: they imagine things which have no existence, and impute motives which educated minds perceive to be absurd. Giles Spindlo, however, had some foundation for his theories; his mother, old Betty, now almost imbecile and wholly deaf, had told a few people that “she seen Miss Edith run away"-that "she weren't drownded, she knew." The discharged keeper and valet were drawn together by community of hatred to the man who had discharged them. Giles revealed his suspicions to Lewis; and the astute Frenchman jumped to the conclusion that the true heir to Mauleverer was ignorant of his or her rights, and would gladly give a noble reward to any one who brought the important information. But how to find that heir?

Giles had just lighted another pipe and commenced another mug of fourpenny. Charlie was looking at him with ill-concealed disgust.

"The brute, with his beer and coarse tobacco! And such a fool, too. What am I to do with such a fool ?" "She weren't drowned, she weren't," Spindlo broke out. "Old Betty had her eyes about her. She seen Miss Edith go down to the

river, and throw down her hat and cloak, and stop a minute, like as though she meant drownding herself. And old Betty nearly shrieked out, so they tells L

"Well, what next?" asked the Frenchman.

"Whoy, she jumped up, and runned away. And Betty that's the old woman, you know---she were a girl then, I suppose. Yes," he continued, shaking his head with half intoxicated wisdom, "the old woman must have been a girl then. Well, she runned after she, and she jumped through a gap into the road, and there a gentleman came up to she and talked to she."

"And what did your mother do " “My mother "Oh, old Betty Whoy, she hid herself behind the hedge, and tried to listen but couldn't hear, and then the gentleman and Miss Edith they walked off arm in arm so thick as thieves."

Bah," said Louis Chartier to himself. What am I to do with this gross man's stupid story It must be almost fifty years ago. That old Betty is as deaf as a corpse; but, if not, she has toid ail she knows. She did not know the man who took the girl away. There is no trace ?"

And he muttered beneath his breath a string of th »e curions execrations in which Frenchmen der gut.

Sp.ndio called for more beer.

"I am a fool -a fool,” soltioquized the Frenchman. "Why am I wasting time here, and giving this lout beer and tobacco for no use at all!" I hate that Hugh Muleverer, but I can't harm him. I hate him."

He uttered the last words aloud. “Hate 'un" said the ex keeper. "Ay, and so I hate 'un. He hut broke my arm wi' thik stone he flung at me from the terrace; but what's the good --us can't harm 'un."

At this moment the two men were aroused by the clatter of hoots. They looked out, and b hid, a gay assemblage of scarlet coats and back thickening before the Seven Stars.

Lord Riverdale's hounds met at this point this morning. The thorough sportsman on his handsome thoroughbred; the retired doctor or lawyer, who wanted to be considered a country gentleman, and rode all day in a funk; the fast shopkeeper from Riverdale, on a hired hack; the young farmer on a clever half-bred; the old farmer on a cob. These, and many other classes, were represented. Presently come the hounds - a lady pack; and the Earl on his favourite dark chesnut, Sultan; and others of the Earl's set, among whom Chartier and Spindio recognized the object of their hatred, Hugh Mauleverer.

The bully teetotal landlord and carrier was very busy, bringing to various horsemen small glasses of some alcoholic fluid. Unwise are they who warm their blood in this fashion before following the fox. A rump steak, a single cup of tea, these form the best preparation for a hard day's hunting. Hugh Mauleverer was not thus imprudent, but he rode up to speak to the landlord.

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Wickens," he said, "there are two chests of plate to be carried from Mauleverer to Coutts's. Take them up to-morrow, if possible. A couple of my men will go with the waggon in case of accidents."

"Grrrrr," snarled Chartier. "Now if this Spindio were not a drunken fool; or if my old friend, Tessier-Achille Tessier-were in Leicester-square. Achilie! Achille the fearless where are you? I will go to London at once. I will seek Achille. If only he should be there.”

Spindio had fallen asleep. Chartier ran down stairs, sneaked out of the front door, and hurried off towards Riverdale to catch the train. Hugh Mauleverers quick eye caught the expression of his countenance, which Was Vilianous enough.

"What a scoundrel that is," thought Hugh. "I wonder I ever employed him.”

LECTURES ON THE SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE.*

A COUPLE of years have elapsed since Professor Muller published his first volume on Language-a work which amplifying the advanced views contained in his previous essays, formed the first popular treatise on the Science in English or any language. Until the last century, as is well known, most philologists attempted to derive all languages from the Hebrew, at which period the discovery of the fossil tongue of Northern India, the Sanscrit, affording as it did a means of tracing and classifying the groups of languages now denominated IndoEuropean, completely revolutionized the views of philologists. Somewhat later several books appeared which contributed largely to stimulate the study and place it on a more general basis-books such as those of Adelung and Hervas, Klaproth, Bopp, &c., in the first of which many of the European and Oriental languages; and in the second, many of the American and other tongues were vocabularized, and grammars of several of them attached. While forming materials, however, they made no pretension to place this branch of learning on a scientific basis, as they merely arranged languages geographically, instead of identifying their groups on the ground of grammatical similarity; for however a language may become changed by dialectical regeneration or phonetic decay-and this is one of the fundamental principles of the science-its grammatical forms remain intact. The Sanscrit grammar of Pranioni-a miracle of research, and analogical and analytical skill-cleared the way toward comprehending the original source whence the successive waves of European speech issued; and the comparative grammar of Bopp raised the first superstructure of the science, to which the labours of Muller have so largely contributed.

Muller's first volume-embodying and illustrating the principles of the science of language-was more interesting than the present, as therein

dealing chiefly with the generalities and philosophy of the subject, he found it necessary to omit much of the elementary details of the subject now expounded, so that in the order of study his last lectures should be read before his first issue. Language is a young and crescent science, like geology, of which the entire world is the domain; while its principles and dialectical varieties may be brought under survey in any village visited by the student; while the more amply the idioms of the most remote and barbarous races are examined, the greater will be the light thrown on all civilized languages, classic or current, as by their means will be elicited those general laws governing their formation, whose discovery would elude the efforts of the scholar who limited his studies to the classic alone. Thus every new contributionfrom a vocabulary and phrase-book of the tongue of the Hawaian islanders to the deciphering of the rock inscriptions of Persia, the brick writing of Babylon, or hieroglyphics of Egypt, to the idioms of the Samoides, or Pacific islanders-affords materials for examining the genius and development of human speech. Hitherto the scientific domain of the study resembled-now a map of the world of Homer, in which all beyond a district of the Mediterranean and Aegean was doubtful or blank-now like that of the Roman Empire, confined to Europe, Asia, and a part of Africa; but in which the remote east and west was a cloudland or region unrecognised. At present, however, it embraces the globe, and every year some voyager makes public his discoveries in the most distant points-north, south, east, west and printing presses are active in Polynesia, Greenland, and Kaffirland in fixing the forms of the respective tongues, and tracing the grammatical construction of speech for the generalizing, scientific minds in the centres of European civilization.

Even new theories, subversive of

* By Max Muller. Second Series. Longman. 1864.

the importance of Sanscrit, as the original of the western tongues, are springing up. Taus an essay has appeared, printed at Honoiuzu, in which an attempt is made to trace the IndoEuropean languages to the Polynesian, which the writer (Dr. Rae- believes "gives the key to the original funetion and whole mechanism of language itself. Another writer has lately discovered that the great collection of African languages range under two divisions, the Kathir and Hottentot, and is of opinion "that while equal results would attend their study as arose from the investigation of Sanscrit, that the origin of grammatical forms, gender and number, etymology of pronouns, &c., and many other questions of highest interest, will find their true solution in South Africa.'

The first part of Professor Muller's Lectures refers chiefly to the outside of language, roots, words, and their changes, as the second part deals with their consonant thoughts. One of the most interesting chapters is that on Etymology. Many writers before Voltaire, who sarcastically called etymology the science in which the vow is count for nothing, and the consonants for hardly anything, had nevertheless attempted, by forming analogal voe Collaties, to trace the relation of the languages of modern Europe to the Latin, but though they occasionaly it on an obv.ous truth, being without any derivative test or scientifi method, such as is now possible since the rise of compactive philology, tí ey, nine times out of ten, ran into the most a surd mistakes. Tous in Perion's “Dalogue on the Origin of the French Language,” we find bibig, a sheep, derivest, not from the Lat nezer, but the Greek probaton; envoyer, from peapea; hereus, from ouring; bonheur, from bona hora, malheur, from mala kona, &c.; whereas the latter word, whose gender is feminine, not mas mine, was written mal au în old Lanen, meaning in rium anpuraAUER aburium its if being derived from any a bird, and pur, ta 12, ofte fed wita girre, and the band gar, to

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and similarity of sound and meaning in words is no proof of their fination whatever. "Sound etymology," says Mr. Mailer, “has nothing to do with sound; what it now assumes to teach, is not that one word is derived from another, but how to prove that one word was regularly and necessarily changed into another." Proceeding then to establish his thesis, he sets himself to prove the following four points namely, that the same word takes different forms in different languages; and different forms in the same language, that different words take the same form in duferent languages, and difle rent words the same form in the same tongue.

Scientifically viewed, the difference between ancient and modern languages disappears. At present the praciple of distinguishing between old and young languages becomes as absurd as though botany should place old and young trees in a different classification. The tree, like human speech, must be studied as a whole, from its seed or root, upwards. Nothing can be more false than the view which regards modern languages as exhibiting merely the decay and corruption of the ancient. The one is now as vital as the other once was; and each throws a reciprocal light upon their respective formation and growth. Thus the group of Romance dialects afford the most valuable existing evidence in this respect. If, for example, the origin of a word or of a grammatical form is doubtful in the French, it is cleared up by a reference to the Italian or Spanish; whereas in the study of Greek, Lat n, or Sanserit, it is only now possible to apply inductive rea

It is in modern languages that the most ample means exist of tracing the interchangablity of guttural and labai tenues, of watching tie secret growth of new forms. Mo dern dialects, in short, let out the Beccets of language, and elicit the simple means by which the entire structure is erected.

The same etymological principle aptides equia, y to the form and meaning of WOTAS It, considering the kr own relation between Sanserit and the Europan tongues, We were told that the word winch meant good in Sat-crit meant bad in Greek, we Wond ou disposed to doubt, yet it is

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