and did not return to release me till it was almost night. But I never recollect having passed a more agreeable evening.

LXXXIX. MURDER IN STOCKHOLM.

A few days before our journey to Sweden, a strange incident occurred in Stockholm. A young man, by no means deficient in fortune, and whose conduct had always appeared extremely correct, laid hold of a child in broad day-light, as it was playing before its father's shop, and cut its throat. He was instantly seized and carried before the judges. Being interrogated as to his motives for the commission of such a crime, "Gentlemen," said he, "I confess my guilt, and admit that I am deserving of death: far from seeking to justify my conduct, or to obtain pardon for my crime, you would yourselves be guilty were you to pardon me. I have looked on life with attention-I have studied death. The one appeared to me a source of misery and crime, the other a state of innocence and peace. After much reflection, seeing that I could attain my object only by the commission of a crime, I determined on that which I have perpe trated, as the most excusable. I have killed a child during his period of innocence, and thereby insured his salvation. I have relieved his father, who is burdened with a numerous family, and has not the means to provide for them. Nevertheless, I acknowledge that I am guilty; I only hope that the punishment to be inflicted upon me, and the manner in which I shall receive it, will procure from God the pardon of my crime." He went to the scaffold singing, and suffered with a firmness and serenity that astonished every one who was

present.

XC. CONTAGION.

Neither naturalists nor physicians have yet been able to inform us why certain diseases are contagious, while others are not so. The gout, the stone, the epilepsy and apoplexy, are not communicated from one person to another; the plague, on the contrary, dysentery, flux, small-pox, &c. are easily communicated, become epidemical, and cause the greatest ravages by their infection. Whence does this difference in these effects proceed? I think I can imagine a cause, which, though not apparent, is very far from being on that account improbable. I would say, in general, that all those diseases which are contagious, produce certain small insects contained in abscesses, ulcers, or pustules, on the surface of the body, some more, some less, and of different kinds. I do not at present inquire into the cause that produces these insects, but the effect is common, constant, and frequently visible. We know that these insects, by a natural revolution, change into flies or gnats. As soon as they can manage their wings, they hasten to use them, and to fly about in the air. Then spreading themselves on all sides, and entering into the human body by respiration, they carry thither the same venom by which they have been engendered, and communicate the corruption which has given them birth. This is the reason why, during great contagions, large fires have been successfully employed in different places to purify the air. This is done, not by rarefying and changing its constitution, as seems to be imagined, but by burning and destroying these creatures with which the atmosphere is filled, and which, attracted by the glare of the fire, are drawn to death like moths

round a candle. Another cause, totally the reverse of this, produces the same effect, 1 mean severe frost, which either totally, or in a great measure, destroys these insects; for sometimes their number is so great that some escape the rigour of the season, and keep up the contagion, as was the case during the black plague, which desolated Denmark and the neighbouring countries some centuries ago.

XCI. FIDELITY OF A DOG.

In a village between Caen and Vire, called the Bocage, a countryman of a savage temper was in the custom of maltreating his wife so severely, that his neighbours, attracted by her cries, had frequently been obliged to interfere for her assistance. The husband, tired of her society, determined to get rid of her at once. He pretended to be reconciled to her; changed his conduct entirely, and on holidays indulged her with walks and pleasure parties. One summer day, after severe heat, they sat down together on the brink of a fountain, in a very solitary and retired situation. The husband pretended to be very thirsty, and, attracted by the clearness of the water before them, lay down and drank largely, praising the coolness of the fountain, and wishing his wife to follow his example. She believed him, and had just placed herself in the same situation, when the husband seized hold of her and plunged her head into the water, with the intention of drowning her. She fought hard for life, but would infallibly have perished, but for the assistance of her dog, who was greatly attached to her, and had followed her hither. He threw himself upon the husband, seized him by the throat, com

pelled him to abandon his hold, and thus saved the life of his mistress.

XCII. THE JUDGE AND THE ADVOCATE.

In legal procedure, the duties of the judge and advocate are opposed in every point to each other. The judge labours to discover the truth; the advocate to conceal or disguise it. The judge seeks the golden mean, which is the seat of equity; the advocate the extremes. The judge must be rigid, inflexible; the advocate ought to be supple, pliant, accommodating, entering into the views of his client, and espousing his interests. The judge should be constant, uniform, invariable, walking always in the same path; the advocate should assume all shapes. The judge ought to be passionless; the advocate labours to excite the passions, and to appear impassioned even in a cause in which he feels but a slender interest. The judge should hold the balance in equilibrium; the advocate throws into it the weight which makes his own side preponderate. The judge is armed with the sword of the law; the advocate seeks to disarm him.

XCIII. NORTHERN TRIBES.

The whole of the ancient world is now governed by northern tribes. To begin with the westthe Normans and Saxons have rendered themselves masters of Normandy and England; the Francs, the Goths, the Visigoths, and Vandals, of France, Spain, and Africa. The Ostrogoths conquered Italy; others, such as the Getæ, Cimbri, Scythians, and Bulgarians, subdued Germany: Other Scythian tribes, the Tartars and Turks, took possession of Greece and the beautiful provinces of Asia Minor. The Persians are also of the Scy

thian and Tartar race. The descendants of Tamerlane, a Tartar prince, reign at this moment in Judea; and the great empire of China has been conquered within a century by the Tartars. The Circassian Mamelukes reigned in Egypt when they * were conquered by Selim, Emperor of the Turks.

XCIV. Sound.

Sound is a strong movement of the air, which we perceive by the impression made on the tympanum of the ear.* When the sonorous body is struck and agitated, it communicates to the surrounding air the movement impressed upon it, and this movement takes place by means of undulations similar to those which we observe on water when a stone is thrown into it. The quicker and more frequent these undulations are, the acuter the sound is; as the sound of the treble string of a violin is more acute than the bass, only because, its movements being more rapid, it produces quicker and more frequent undulations. For if, by relaxing the cord, we render its movements slower, the undulations it produces will also be slower, and the sound less acute. This being properly understood, it is easy to perceive the causes of consonance and dissonance. When the undulations produced by two cords are equal, and coincide exactly at the same moment, the result is unison, or the most perfect of concords. If they never coincide at all, they produce complete discord. If they occasionally coincide at certain regular intervals, they produce the different concords which constitute the charm of music.

• We quote this article; not from its novelty. but its clearness and brevity.