"Fabella Exoleta Rediviva."

of body and mind , and which hi the elasticity and buoyancy of my spirit , renders the sensation of mere -existence an enjoyment . Though I reside in the country Avinter has for me no gloom . Nature has prepared herself for its rigours , they are customary , ancl everything seems to harmonize Avith their infliction ; but for tho same reason that the solitude of a toivn

is desolating and oppressive , Avhile tno loneliness of the country is soothing and grateful , I do feel tho sadness of perpetual fogs and rains in July , although they excite no melancholy feeling at the season of their natural occurence . To sen one ' s favourite

floivers laying doivn their heads to die ; one ' s plantations stowed with leaves not shaken off in the fulness of age , but beaten to earth in the bloom of youth ; hero a noble tree laid prostrate , and there a valuable Hold of com lodged in the swampy soil , ( ivliich Avere familiar objects in July

last ) , is sufficient to excite melancholy associations in the most cheerful temperament . Confessing that mine ivas not altogether proof against their influence , and leaving to the caviller ancl the sceptic the the full benefit of this admission , I proceed

to a single statement of the fact which has elicited these preliminary observations . Actuated by the disheartening dulness of tho scene to whicli I have alluded , I had written to my friend , Mr . George Staples , of Exeter , requesting him to Avalk over some day ancl dine Avith me , as I AVOII kneAv his presence Avas an instant antidote

to mental depression ; not so much from the possession of any Avit or humour , as from his unaffected kindness and amiability , the exuberance of his animal spirits , the inexhaustible fund of his laughter , Avhich Avas perpetually Availing for the smallest excuse to burst out of bis heartand the

, contagion of his hilarity , Avhich had an instant faculty of communicating itself to others . On the day following the transmission of this letter , as I Avas sitting in an alcove to indulge my afternoon meditation , I found myself disturbed by Avhat I

imagined to be the ticking of my repeater ; but recollecting that I had left it in the house , I discovered the noise proceeded from the little insectof inauspicious augury , thedeath-Avatch . Despising the puerile superstitions connected Avith this pulsation , I gave it no further notice , ancl proceeded toAvards the house , when , as I passed an umbrageous

plantation , I Avas startled by a loud Availing shriek , and presently a scrooch-OAvl IICAV Out immediately before mo . It Avas the first time one of those ill-omened birds had evei crossed my path ; I combined it Avith the memento mori I had just heard , although

I blushed at my own Aveakness in thinking them Avorthy of an association . As I Avalked forward , I encountered my servant , Avho put a letter into my hands , Avhich I observed to bo sealed Avith black Avax . It Avas from the clerk of my poor friend

, informing me that ho hacl been that morning struck by an apoplectic fit , Avhich had occasioned his almost instantaneous death ! The reader may spare the sneer that is flickering upon his features ; I draw no inference Avhatevor from the omens that

preceded this intelligence ; I am willing to consider them as curious coincidences , totally unconnected Avith the startlingapparition which shortly afterwards asailed mo . Indifferent as to death myself , I am little affected by it in others . The doom is so

inevitable ; it is so doubtful whether the parties be not generally gainers by the change ; it is so certain that we enter not at all into this calculation , but beivail our deprivation , Avhother of society , protection , or emolument , with a grief purely selfish ,

that I run no risk of jdacing myself in the predicament of the inconsolable widow , Avho Avas reproached by Franklin Avith not having yet forgiven God Almighty . Still , hoAvever , there Avas something so aAvful in the manner of my friend ' s death , tho hilarity I had anticipated from his presence formed so appalling a contrast Avith his

actual condition , that my mind naturally sunk into a mood of deep sadness and solemnity . Eeaching the house in this frame of thought , I closed the library AvindoAv shutters as I passed , and entering the room by a glass door , seated myself in

a chair that fronted the garden . Scarcely a minute had elapsed when I was thrilled by the strange wailful howl of my favourite spaniel , who hacl followed me into the apartment , and came trembling ancl crouching to my feetoccasionally turning his

, eyes to the back of his chamber , and again instantly reverting them Avith every demonstration of terror ancl agony : mine instinctively took the same direction , when , notwithstanding the dimness of the light , I plainly ancl indisputably recognized the