JOHN RIDHAM.-We fully concur with our worthy critic's opinion of the matter, but he must be well aware of the extra expense which such an arrangement would involve. The harassing multiplicity of his literary labours totally precludeeven were it desirable-the Editor's interference with the publisher's department; but the insertion was from the first productive of a remonstrance, and now the original contract has expired, will never again be repeated. By adopting our correspondent's suggestion-however much we might ourselves wish it the circulation of this periodical would be confined to a few, instead of appealing, as it now does, to the thoughts and sympathies of the million. We promulgate the art in its general, not individual, sense.

C. W. M.-You will eventually surmount the difficulties under which you at present labour, but we are afraid the application will not prove a successful one. For all fortunate days, consult our Calendar.

A WELL-WISHER.-You have only anticipated an announcement that will be made this next week. It is our intention to publish, early in the autumn, "The Astrologer's Almanac" for 1846, which will contain all the information you require. A diary of fortunate and unpropitious influences will be ap pended, and other valuable and exclusive matter will be included, for a price so moderate as to place it within the reach of all.

PELEG. The sixth year will lead to a very serious illness, but

we judge the boy will recover. In his sixteenth danger again

awaits him, but the opposing benevolence of Jupiter averts the threatening evil, and he bids fair, on the attainment of manhood, to marry well and live prosperously.

sire).-M. B. R. (You have seen him, and next year will marry him.)-ELIZA M. (You will have a very long time to wait, if you ever marry at all.)-P. M. R. (Marriage will improve your condition, but wait ere you close the present offer.) -E, VIRGO (Your future prospects are good, but repeated change of place is indicated).-F. L. T. (Six weeks.)-J, M. (He will not.)-E. K. E. (You will not leave this year.)H. E. P. (Beware of a false lover and an accident by water.) -M. A. COLES (When April next arrives, be happy and contented).-ELIZa D. (You will, sooner than you expect.)— E. C. H. (You impose upon us too great a task at once.) J. L. (You must calmly await the result of circumstances.)P. R. (We question the permanence of the attachment.) MABEL VINE (Neither of the proposed queries come within the scope of astrology).-B. LY (You do not know him. Of your own country. Yes, in your twenty-sixth year).-E. F: (Wait for a time.)-MARY ANN LEWIS (You will soon remove. Your twenty-third year).-JOSEFH M. (Your prospects are good, but your genius seems of a mechanical cast. Success would not attend you in the quarter mentioned.)-ANN E. (The situation will be ultimately gained, but the offer will lead to no good result.)--MAUD (Adopt it).-ELIZABETHIAN (You will speedily find out the perpetrators of the robbery. Expect a change in November).-JOHN (The party will not be your wife).-DE LACY (To return).-B. C. B. (Send address, &c., and it shall be done.)-E. R. (He must write himself.)-Others in our next.

RECEIVED TOO LATE FOR FURTHER NOTICE THIS WEEK."M. P. J.," "Fide et Fortitudine," "T. H.," "E. Spooner," "W. T. G.," &c. &c., who shall all have our earliest attention.

to ensue by the month of May following.

R. S. S. (Leeds.)-The property will not be recovered. SATURNIUS CAPRICORNUS.-The copies have been forwarded, as requested, to the address enclosed.

E. H. From the indications given, we judge your relative is now abroad, in good circumstances and health. In December next you will have a clue afforded you probably to his loca

tion.

VIATOR. The prompt realisation of our prediction must have indeed startled you, but to us it is far from being a matter of surprise. We daily receive similar letters, testifying to what our correspondents are pleased to call the "wonderful accuracy" of our replies. There is nothing supernatural about it at all; it is a pure matter of logarithms and mathematical calculation, that should no more create astonishment than that two and two make four. We feel obliged for the recommendation.

RECEIVED.-D. E. G. (You will remain some time where you now are, but do not think of marriage for three years longer. It will not be the one you think, and you will not travel).-E. H. S. (You will never marry, but your circumstances will soon improve).-GEMINI KOEN (The person will be a future acquaintance. The tales will not be reprinted, from their length).-J. L. W. (We see no chance, and advise you to give up all hope).-MARGARET ELIZABETH (We are afraid not).-Y. M. (Success will be denied you).--C. HARVEY (The first opportunity).-M. J. C. (Not for two years to come).-P. G. (No).-JOHN G-N (We can say no more on the subject, other than advising you to follow the course recommended by your friends).-JULIA DI MONI (You may antici pate a realisation of your wishes).-CONRAD (We cannot now spare the time, but in a few weeks we shall have more leisure). -ELIZABETH (Seek employment through service, and you will both wed and prosper).-E. B. (Already answered.)DAVID (Business will improve in the month ensuing, but you had better obtain a situation).-SENECA (You will recover, but circumstances will cause a change of place).-LITTLE BILL (Try a divorce, and adopt "patience" for your motto). -W. H. L. (We judge you will go abroad next spring.)CAROLINE H. (You cannot expect the sweets without the sours.)-M. CLARCK (It will emanate from the party you de.

supernatural lore. Our friends should give early orders to the booksellers and newsvenders.

GENERAL NOTICE.

All the back numbers of this unique and original publication have been reprinted, and can now, without extra charge, be obtained through any bookseller in town or country. For a small sum like eighteen-pence, the purchaser would be thus in possession of a complete volume on the OcCULT SCIENCES, and the general tendency of its pages to elevate and refine will be admitted by all who have had the opportunity of perusal. For those gratifying and encouraging letters which he has received from men of high intellect and lofty station, the Astrologer here begs to offer his sincere, though comprehensive, acknowledg ments, and urges his friends and subscribers generally to recom mend a work which aims at disseminating a creed of TRUTH and BEAUTY, inculcating the highest doctrine which the human mind is capable of receiving, and endeavouring to sow the seeds of hope and concord, that may ripen into a future harvest of "peace and good will to all men." ESTO PERPETUA !

question startles them into delight with its magnificence, and they feel, to employ the exquisite imagery of Keats, "like some mute watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken." Who shall answer our inquiry in the negative Are there spirits among the clouds?

Doubtless many have remarked, in their springtime rambles, upon a tree, otherwise of delicious green, a single leaf red prematurely with something like the autumnal russet; and they have wondered that upon that insignificant fragment of vegetation a horde of insects in countless numbers have found repose and nourishment, and that their presence imparted to the foliage its dun crimson hue. Is the conjecture too quaint to imagine that the gorgeous colours which are so frequently visible at the dawning and the dying of the day, are suffused among the clouds by legions of bright beings thronging together in the etherial dome? Are those fairy battlements and cities which are repeatedly formed by the upper clouds, or the cirrus, tenantless and lonesome? Those mimic fanes and temples which are raised in an instant by the fickle vapours above, and which mock us with their evanescence—are they solitary and desolate? Or rather, may not creatures of impalpable loveliness reign among those cloudlets, hover above the pleasant regions of the world, bodiless but seeing? Who shall answer, "Nay?" These reflections may appear extravagant to some, but we are influenced in their utterance by the calm dictates of judgment; we look upon the ineffable glory of those realms amid the cloud, and amid the sunshine, we paraphrase the before-mentioned saying of the philosophers, and exclaim, God loves not the void! But even conceding that such thoughts are visionary (which, nevertheless, we boldly deny), our most unimaginative cavillers must confess, at least, that they are not the less beautiful-and a thing of beauty is a joy for ever!" We would, however, simply question these uncompromising materialists if it be probable that the twenty millions of miles and upwards which intervene between this world and Sirius, the nearest of the stars, may be regarded as a sheer vacuity? The supposition, as we have already remarked, is preposterous. This prodigious territory, therefore, must be inhabited: our organs of vision inform us that the beings which people that space can scarcely be substantial; the deduction is self-evident. Of the monsters which glide in the secret depths of the gigantic ocean, man has, without doubt, but a dreamy and superficial cognizance; and it is more than possible that marine reptiles, of a loathsome and enormous character, crawl among the weeds and coral rocks in the profundity of the great seas, such as human eyes have never beheld. In a similar manner we are ignorant of the population of the immeasurable ether, which it is obvious cannot, according to the acknowledged laws of nature, be a silent and dismal wilderness.

66

There is a tradition prevalent among the Chinese, and which a few years ago was narrated in the shape of a tale by a popular author-a tradition of an ancient seer who, through some mysterious and occult studies, was enabled to increase the scope of his vision with regard to material objects-in other words, to endue his eyes with the power of microscopes of marvellous

efficacy; insomuch that the fairest landscape became to this sage repulsive and terrible, since in it he could discern the smallest animalculæ; so that the crystal draught from the fountain, which had previously alleviated his thirst, became a a subject of abhorrence, being to his sight instinct with astounding life; the fragrant moss, which used to afford him agreeable repose, appeared swarming with creeping things; the breeze, which once revived him by its freshness, made him shudder with the multitude of its insect populac; until the overmuch wisdom of the philosopher became a bane and a torment to himself, conveying hideous visions to his mind through the malific influence of his senses.

What matchless spectacles, on the contrary, would be unfolded to our imaginations, were those veils torn aside which conceal from the gaze and scrutiny of man the dwellers in the fields of space! Then might our souls be ravished with the effulgence of an unsubstantial universe; the dim vistas of the atmosphere might appear animate with glorious phantoms, and the still twilight might be visibly haunted by beings of celestial aspect! It is no phantasy of an overwrought brain to meditate upon the creatures that populate the intermediate portions of creation. Common sense declares that the boundless expanse of space is not merely fraught with existences on the different spheres which intersect it with their orbits, and that the stupendous regions of the heavens between the planets constitute one " cold, grey, dark, illimitable void." How, then, can common sense deny that there are SPIRITS AMONG THE CLOUDS?

mineral could never have entered into the creed of the old GOLD. The undecomposed indivisibility of this worshipped alchemists, else its production, except from its own invisible atoms, would have shown the impossibility. And is not this of the reality of "unseen things") when we contemplate the invisibility palpably shown (giving a splendid proof, by analogy, £50,000 worth of this indestructible metal annually used in one town, Birmingham, in gilding, which vanishes away, and will be for ever lost to human ken, save Nature, in her wonderous processes, re-collects the atoms in her secret mines, or some seer, with his magic wand, attracts the golden vapours, and again forces their glittering form on human vision? A FOREST THOUGHT" BY A POET.-Wandering again into this uncultivated grove, crackling between its entangled twigs, treading down the matted brambles-how exquisite rugged elm trunks, many-branched alders, and straggling privet to recline on a verdant slope!-silver-barked sycamores and clumps surrounding us with their apparently endless variegated vista; to watch the vermillion berries on the sturdy thorn rattling its wooden fruitage to the ground; to lie back and bush; to hear the timid lapwing flutter from a fir tree. gaze on that little scrap of ether peeping down among the wavy boughs, to fathom its fathomless blue depth, and stray, thought-lost, into eternal space, intoxicated with never terminating immensity; these, these are precious moments of unbroken enjoyment, when the world and its withering anxieties, life and its toilsome woes are forgotten and cast aside for blissful mid-day visions. Globes may roll on their giant axis then, suns may glow in their glorious pride above, cities be wide enveloped in lurid, heaven-licking conflagrations, and sink huge hills to valleys deep and gorges black-one earthquakes heave level plains to mighty mountain heights, little, gossamer-winged seedling from a prickly thistle top would heap oblivion on all sublunary things, and bear our mind far on its boundless course up to the Good Supreme.-The Oocotian.

from a third a madman."

"An illuminato, perhaps?"

"No, not exactly so. There is nothing, as it seems, political in his reveries; nothing relative to the ordinary concerns of humanity. He mixes with no one. It is not known that he keeps up any correspondence by letters. His manners are mild and urbane, and his demeanour, as you may observe, serious and contemplative. You now know all that any one appears to know of his habits or character."

What is his name?"

"Since you ask me, I do." "Very well, come and see."

name."

"Half after eight."

"So late?-I must be gone. Farewell."

The individual who had given rise to the young man's inquiries was a man whose appearance was at once striking and prepossessing-the latter phrase is, perhaps, too weak. His large frame, it is true, gave him, at the first glance, a somewhat ungainly appearance, which, however, vanished when his countenance was observed. It was pale and clear. The features of the face were deeply traced, the forehead broad and capacious, the temples full and bare. Merler gazed and gazed, and became more and more anxious for a more intimate knowledge of this visionary, if such he was.

The room began to assume the mellow deep tinge of an autumn evening. The stranger laid down the paper he had been reading, and left the house.

Day after day Carl Merler resorted to the same place, and it generally happened that he saw the individual of whom he was, in fact, though almost unconsciously to himself, in quest. Still he was not better acquainted with him than before. If he made inquiries, he learnt nothing from the answers which added to his previous stock of information. It happened, too—remarkably, as he thought-that no opportunity ever occurred for the interchange between them of those little civilities that continually take place between persons whom habit or accident brings together. His curiosity increased.

One evening, it chanced that all the company had left the room except Carl Merler and the object in whom he felt so unaccountable an interest. The latter was reading a pamphlet; the former, as usual, alternately studying the appearance of his companion, and creating theories of his real character and station.

It was while involved in one of these reveries that his attention was awakened by some one's drawing a chair to the table where he sat. He looked up and saw, opposite to him, the subject of his thoughts. He was confused-rose up-resumed his seat, and looked hesitatingly at his companion, who calmly returned his glance.

The stranger smiled. "Do you want anything with me?"

Rhine.

The sun just sinking over the green levels of the vine plantations, the rapid waters rejoicing in his purple glow, the little neat cottages of the peasants, and the gay song and happy step of the peasants themselves, as they rejoiced in the work of the harvest, fell at once on the eye and ear with such a lively accordancy, that the spirit was charmed, and forgot that the days of poetry and bliss-the reign of Paradise-were no longer of the earth.

They walked on still admiring the scene that changed every instant, looking now at some lazy vessel that came floating down the stream, with its great sails flapping idly about in quest of the breeze; and now at some half ruined tower, or dismantled dwelling, that stood gloomy and discontented, where everything around was jocund, fresh, and delightful. It was at one of those habitations, in somewhat better repair than the others which they had seen, that the stranger stopped, and announced to his companions that their journey was at an end.

Taking its external aspect, it was a sombre and comfortless building, half French and half Gothic, surrounded by a garden, dark, cheerless, and neglected. The gate in the garden-wall creaked dolefully as it opened, and again, as the owner of the pile closed and locked it as they entered.

The path along which they proceeded was overgrown with thick weeds, and here and there a fallen garden statue interrupted their progress. They arrived at the door of the mansion, a wicket in which was opened by an old and feeble

woman.

"Let me now introduce you to my mansion," said Merler's host; 66 no very splendid one, perhaps, for one whose fame has passed through the converse of all the good people of Manheim. It suffices, however, for my wants, and more is not needed. This is my library."

It was a spacious room, three sides of which were covered with shelves well stocked with books. The third was occupied partly by the window, which admitted light to the apartment, partly by a cabinet, the doors of which were open, and partly by one or two full-length portraits, suspended in huge, heavy, painted frames. A large table occupied the centre of the floor, upon which, as well as around the room, were arranged numerous mathematical and philosophical instruments, books, maps, and papers. The shelves of the cabinet were loaded with phials.