dle, desired her to look at it, and asked, whether she saw it. She answered, "Yes," in a low and feeble voice. She now proceeded gradually, and in a very few minutes, to regain all her faculties; but was so weak as scarcely to be able to move. Upon being interrogated respecting her extraordinary state, she mentioned, that she had no knowledge of any thing that had happened; that she remembered indeed, having conversed with her friends at the former awakening, (Friday afternoon, 30th of June,) but felt it a great exertion then to speak to them; that she recollected also having heard the voice of Mr. Cowie, minister in Montrose, (the person who spoke to her on the forenoon of Tuesday the 8th of August,) but did not hear the persons who spoke to her on the afternoon of the same day; that she had never been conscious of having either needed or received food, of having been lifted from the bed, or of any other circumstance in her case. She had no idea of her having been blistered; and expressed great surprise, upon discovering that her head was shaved. She continued in a very feeble state for a few days, but took her food nearly as usual, and improved in strength so rapidly, that, on the last day of August, she began to work as a reaper in the service of Mr. Arkley of Dunninald; and continued to perform the regular labour of the harvest for three weeks, without any inconvenience, except being extremely fatigued the first day.

After the conclusion of the harvest, she went into Mr. Arkley's family, as a servant; and on the 27th day of September, was found in the morning by her fellow-servants, in her former state of profound sleep, from which they were unable to rouse her. She was conveyed immediately to her father's house, (little more than a quarter of a mile distant,) and remained exactly fifty hours in a gentle but deep sleep. Upon awakening, she arose apparently in perfect health, took her breakfast, and resumed her work as usual at Dunninald. On the 11th of October, she was again found in the morning in the same lethargic state; was removed to the house of her father, where she awoke as before, after the same period of fifty hours sleep and returned to her service, without seeming to have experienced any inconvenience. Dr. Henderson, physician in Dundee, who happened to be on a visit to his friends at Dunninald, prescribed some medicines; and she has ever since been in good health, and able to continue in service.* JAS. BREWSTER, Minister of Craig.

* On the morning of Sept. 21, 1816, Margaret Lyall, whose case is described above, was found in an out-house at Dunninald, hanged by

EXTRAORDINARY ANECDOTES OF A YOUNG MUSICIAN. Jean-Baptiste Raisin, a native of Troyes in the province of Champagne, and by profession an organist, was burdened with a numerous family, besides a coquettish extravagant wife, whose want of economy had brought him into distressed circumstances, though himself prudent and economic, and possessing considerable abilities in his art. Necessity whetting his industry, he carefully instructed his children in music. Among the number was one who showed remarkable aptness and capacity: it was the youngest, a boy, whom at the early age of three years he already taught to touch the harpsichord; and the tiny performer made a very rapid progress within a few months.

Astonished at the application and success of young Raisin, his father now conceived the project of giving a different complexion to his future fortune. He built his chief hopes on that child; nor was he disappointed in his expectations. The organist first contrived a spinette of novel construction. It was furnished with three sets of keys, was about three feet in length, and fifty-two inches in breadth. The belly was double the usual size, for a reason which will appear in the sequel of the story.

When the artist had completed his contrivance, he quitted his native place, and repaired to Paris with his wife and children, having taken good care not to forget his new invented spinette. Having presented himself at the office of the police, he declared his intention of giving to the public a most curious and extraordinary exhibition, and readily obtained permission to perform at the fair of Saint Germain.

To fix the attention of a fickle public, it frequently becomes necessary to call in the aid of the marvellous, and sometimes of a little innocent deception. Jean-Baptiste printed and cir

her own hands. No cause could be assigned for this unhappy act. Her health had been good for nearly a year, and she had been comfortable in her situation. It was thought by the family, that a day or two preceding her death, her eyes had the appearance of rolling rather wildly; but she had assisted in the usual occupations the day before, and been in good spirits that evening. On the following morning, she was seen to bring in the milk as usual, and was heard to say in passing rather hurriedly, that something had gone wrong about her dairy; but was not seen again till found dead about half an hour after. She was known to have a strong abhorrence of the idea of her former distress recurring and to have occasionally manifested, especially before her first long sleep, the greatest depression of spirits, and even disgust of life.

culated handbills, in which he promised that his wonderful instrument should, on his pronouncing certain words, play any tunes that were called for.

His first exhibition attracted an audience so numerous as far to surpass the most sanguine expectations of the musician. His second was still more encouraging: and his astonishing spinette was considered as a prodigy of mechanism. Its fame rapidly spread through the extensive capital; and people eagerly flocked from all quarters to hear, admire, and applaud. In the first place, the eldest of Raisin's children, a boy not exceeding the age of five years and a half, sat down with his sister Babet, and his father-each to his own range of keys— and the three musicians together played a concert in the presence of the public. When the piece was finished, they raised their hands above their heads; when another row of keys, moving without hands, repeated the whole symphony from beginning to end, and with a degree of correctness and melody which astonished and delighted the audience.

The better to mislead his auditors, the cunning and ingenious organist had recourse to a most excellent stratagem, which deceived the most knowing among them, and puzzled the very best instrument makers in the whole city. After the prelude above described, he pretended to wind up his famous machine, which he did by turning a denticulated wheel that made a most dreadful and discordant noise. He appeared to labour very hard at the wince: and the late pleasure of the company was succeeded by sensations of a terrific kind; for, the sounds produced by this manœuvre were so grating and frightful, that one would have suspected a chorus of dæmons to lie concealed in his magical spinette.

"Pooh!" said many persons present,- "there's no such mighty conjuration in the business: 'tis only a simple foolish contrivance-nothing more than a barrel.organ, with some weights or springs to turn the barrel."

Such was the very idea which the organist wished to encourage, and in which he triumphed. For, suddenly calling away his two children from the instrument, and addressing it in an authoritative tone," Spinette !" he cried, " play such a tune;" when immediately the obedient spinette paid punctual attention to his command, and performed the piece that had been called for.-Again he said, " Spinette, be silent!" and the spinette ceased to play." Spinette, go on," and the spinette began anew. "Spinette, give us a light flourish ;" and the spinette poured forth frolic sounds of sportive melody, which wafted delight and rapture to the hearts of all the audi

ence.

Naturally struck with just surprise, and no less delighted, the company alternately stared at the instrument and at each other, exclaiming" Astonishing! The fellow must certainly be a magician!"

Although the supposed magician understood as little of the black art as any one of his auditors, he collected in less than five weeks above twenty thousand crowns, which now enabled him to live in comfort, and compensated the poverty and distress which he had before suffered.

Meantime the fame of the magical spinette and of its contriver hourly increased, till at length it reached the ears of the reigning monarch, who wished to see the organist and his instrument, and to regale the queen and the whole court with a specimen of his performance. The musician accordingly repaired to Versailles, resolved to exert every effort to support his lately acquired reputation. Military marches, tender airs, complex pieces of the best composers, were well executed by the two children, but still more excellently by the invisible performer.

But the organist, too punctually observant of his usual trick: and not reflecting, that, on a change of scene, he ought also to have changed his plan-took care as usual to set his great wheel in motion. The hideous noise with which it filled the royal apartments was so dreadfully grating to the delicate ears of her majesty and the attending ladies, that they shuddered at the din. The queen in particular, more affected than the others, immediately ordered him to open the instrument, and discover what it contained.

The disconcerted musician at first declined obeying, under pretence that he had lost the key. "Well," said the king, "can't somebody break it open ?"-Hereupon, Raisin, seized with terror, stammered out some apology, but was forced to comply with the royal will.

When the interior of the spinette was exposed to view, how great was the astonishment of all present, to behold a little puppet concealed in the hollow of the instrument, and seated before a row of keys contrived withinside! This discovery explained the mystery of that magical performance, which had tortured the sagacity of so many persons in vain attempts to account for it.

The poor little prisoner was speedily released from his confinement, where he was by this time nearly suffocated, having remained much longer shut up than usual in that close box where the air had no circulation. He was moreover quite terrified by the adventure, and ready to faint with terror: but he

was gradually revived by the application of the ladies' smelling-bottles.

When the young musician had perfectly recovered from the effects of his confinement and fright, he singly performed for the entertainment of their majesties and the court. While his elder brother beat time, he touched the keys, and played to the entire satisfaction of all present. He was loaded with wellmerited encomiums; and such a shower of sweet-meats and louis-d'ors was poured around him, that he and his father were together scarcely able to pick them up.

Finding that the discovery of his secret had not produced an effect so adverse to the success of his projects as he had apprehended, the organist conceived new hopes of yet being able to gain a few more thousands of crowns by means of his little performer and his spinette. He therefore made his appearance again at the fair of Saint Germain in the following year he distributed new handbills, in which he set forth the brilliant success which he had experienced at court, and concluded by promising a disclosure of his secret.

He accordingly made the disclosure, amid the reiterated applauses of the public, whose admiration was equally excited by the ingenious industry of the father, and by the extraordinary talents of his children. With unsatisfied curiosity every eye gazed on the youthful performers, but more particularly on the youngest, who, though scarcely exceeding in dimensions a large sized doll, executed pieces of music equally elegant as difficult. The ladies fondled and caressed him; and each mother wished to possess a child so pretty and engaging, and who already displayed such talents and abilities at so tender an age.

In many cases, drinking increases thirst: the thirst of money in vulgar souls, is inflamed by the acquisition; and they seldom are satisfied. Such was the temper of Jean-Baptiste Raisin. He now had it in his power to rear his family with decency, and to place himself in a respectable situation, to pass the remainder of his life in comfort and ease, since he was already possessed of above a hundred thousand livres which his youngest child had enabled him to acquire in less than fifteen months. But he knew not how to set bounds to his avaricious desires, and suffered himself to be urged on by the lust of accumulation.

Founding his greedy calculations on the avidity of mankind in general for pleasure and amusement, ai.d daily discovering in his children an increasing aptitude correspondent to the culture which he bestowed on them, the organist felt no shame