pay for but a little. All the figures of his enchanting ealculation were suddenly turned into cyphers. The piles of timber he had collected were left to rot on the ground, the workmen were dismissed, and he retired to invent a new scheme.

His next undertaking was making buckets to catch the sap of the sugar maple. Surely, said he, people love sugar, and will buy as many buckets as I can make. At it he went, with the same zeal and confidence of success, as he had done basket making. He would sit down with all the accuracy of a good arithmetician, and tell you how many buckets he could make in a day, how much they would all come to, and by multiplying that sum by 313, the number of working days in a year, he could tell to a cent how much he should be worth at the year's end. But when his year ended, he was obliged to subtract some days of sickness, some days of contrivance, and no work, the doctor's bill, a few other items, and the greatest part of his ware unsold, and found himself in debt fifty dollars.

He scratched his head with vexation, and set his wits at work a third time. About this period, he had a small nursery of apple trees, which he sold at a great price. A hint was all he wanted-he took it in a moment. Raising apple-trees, said he, will make me rich. The slate and pencil were taken down immediately. A gill of apple seeds brought and counted, and when the number was ascertained, multiplication was set at work to find out how many gills were contained in twenty-five bushels. He next operated in the rule of three, and the answer of the whole number of seeds was brought out, which was several millions-say three.

He still proceeded in arithmetical order, and soon made himself worth the immense sum of three hundred thousand dollars !!!

What a wonderful prospect! he cried-I shall pay all my debts, and be the richest man in the country, and live like a gentleman all the rest of my days!

The whole number of seeds was collected and distributed, in four years he reviewed his calculation, and found himself five hundred dollars in debt, and ran away.

When Charles had reviewed these, he reflected on the contrast, which appears in the disposition of other men. They never dare calculate or execute any thing, for fear of disappointment. They do little else but frighten themselves with gloomy pictures of their own making. Every calami. ity is drest in the most horrible attire-famines and plagues are forever haunting their imaginations. They give them selves up to melancholy and despair.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

In the evening the old family physician came in, to spend a social hour. The General enquired after the health of his neighbor Hypochondrikos.

He is not dead, replied the Doctor, but has been dying every day for twelve months. I have been persuading him to take a little exercise, but he is sure it will kill him to go out; and he knows also, that none of his acquaintance wish to see him; for they either despise him, he says, because he is poor; or they think him spleeny and laugh at him; beside it would be an awful thing to die from home. His wife and children wish him dead and out of the way, that they may be rid of the trouble and expense of doctoring and nursing. The fear of taking cold and increasing his dying langour, induces him to shut from his room every particle of fresh air; and July finds him under bed clothes enough for January and his head wrapped round with a flannel of four thicknesses. He keeps a book which treats on the symptoms of diseases, in which he reads daily. Every symptom is felt, and he is terrified with an assurance, that, afflicted as he is, he cannot long survive. With a look of dispair he feels his sinking pulse, and clasps his withered limbs. The glass is visited to see a face overspread with a deathlike paleness, or bloated with a drowning dropsy, or the cheeks painted with a hectic glow, shrinking back from the dreadful sight, and falling head-long upon his bed, he groans in the agonies of death for several hours.

Recovering a little, and hearing one of the family say, a near neighbor has the typhus fever, he is instantly seized with shivering, and a severe pain in the back of his neck and head-the action of the arterial system goes on rapidly decreasing, till he is confident putrefaction has already taken place. He next hears of one extreme,y sick with an inflamatory fever, suddenly his pulse changes to an increased action, and the burning blood presses through the veins with the rapidity of lightening. The next day he is dying with a consumption-the pain in his head and a violent cough are sure evidences of being in the last stage..

Being told the small pox is five miles off, and knowing that the wind blew from that quarter the day before, he is instantly taken with the symptoms-a sore throat, alternate

heats and colds, indicate the dreadful disorder. But being told no one could feel the symptoms so soon after taking the disease, he acknowledged that may generally be the case, but one so weakly and in such a dying state as himself, would certainly feel them in twenty four hours.

Sometime after, being in the field and thinking himself actually dying, he thought it would be dreadful to die alone and rot above ground; and if he died there he had no hope he should be found and buried. Accordingly, he set out, and putting forth all his strength, he ran to the cow pasture bars, hoping the cow-boy would find him at night. But arriving at the bars and finding himself yet alive, he next ran for the orchard; hoping some one might be after fruit and pick him up before night. The orchard being gained by the second race, he made the garden the next mark, and ran with all violence a third time; believing if he died in the garden his dying groans would reach the house, and call some one to his assistance. But having won a third time, his last attempt at running was to reach the house, which he did before death overtook him! and having the curiosity to see the appearance of a dying man, went directly to the glass. His several races had put him into a strong perspiration, and throwing the blood into his face, made him appear so healthy and strong, he was quite offended, and soon delivered from the pangs of death.

In one of his paroxisms he sent for me to come with great haste, or I should find him dead. When I arrived he was taking leave of his wife and children. Doctor, said he, as I entered the room, I am just gone-you are too late-I hope not, said I, but am sure I can give you relief.-Can you ! can you! said he, with a strong full voice.-Do be quickdo be quick! exclaimed he with a kind of impatience.Stepping aside, I prepared some pills of brown bread, and administering them, they afforded instant relief; and the neighbours were dismissed to see him die another day.

The company smiled, and Mr. P. said, the strength of imagination is very surprising. I have been acquainted with several persons of like condition, and have smiled with pity to witness their distress.

"Nature's meaner springs

Fir'd with impetuous ferment, broke all order;
When little restless atoms rise and reign

Tyrants in sovereign uproar, and impose

Ideas on the mind; confus'd ideas
Of non-existants and impossibles,

Who can describe them? Fragments of old dreams,
Borrow'd from midnight, torn from fairy field's
And fairy skies, and regions of the dead,
Abrupt, ill sorted. O'tis all confusion!
If they but close their eyes, strange images
In thousand forms and thousand colors rise,

Stars, rainbows, moons, green dragons, bears, and ghosts,
An endless medley, rush upon the stage,

And dance and riot wild in reasons court.
Without control. They're in a raging storm,
Where seas and skies are blended, while their soul,
Like some light, worthless chip of floating cork,
Is tost from wave to wave: Now overwhelm'd
With breaking floods, they drown and seem to lose
All being: Now high mounted on the ridge
Of a tall foaming surge, they're all at once
Caught up into the storm, and ride the wind,
The whistling wind; unmanageable steed,
And feeble riders! Hurried many a league
Over the rising hills of roaring brine,
Through airy wilds unknown, with dreadful speed
And infinite surprise; till some few minutes
Have spent the blast, and then perhaps they drop
Near to the peaceful coast; some friendly billow
Lodges them on the beach, and they find rest;
Short rest they find; for the next rolling wave
Snatches them back again; then ebbing far
Sets them adrift, and they are borne off to sea,
Helpless, amidst the bluster of the winds,
Beyond the ken of shore."

A patient of mine, said the Doctor, some years ago, laboring under the same malady, slept in a dark room with a man much smaller than himself. His companion having risen before him, and putting on another suit of clothes, left those in the room he pulled off the night before; which my patient put on through mistake, and finding them too small, fancied himself just ready to burst with the dropsy. He came out of his room in the greatest terror, displaying the evidence of his disease with all imaginable assurance of immediate death. The owner of the clothes being absent, he found no relief for several hours, till on the owner's return he discovered his mistake, and was instantly delivered.

Though there are some things, said the General, truly laughable in the conduct of such people; yet, on the whole, they are certainly to be pitied. All seems real to them, however imaginary it may appear to others.

It is certainly so, said the Doctor, but still could they be made to understand the nature of their disease, they might have their distresses greatly alleviated. No person in good health has those strange imaginations; they are owing to a debilitated state of the nervous system. In this condition nature seems sinking into ruin, and the imagination becomes strong, in proportion as fortitude and judgment become weak; hence these unhappy subjects of disease are soon the slaves of a misguided imagination; which in general, sees little else but spectres, discouragements, diseases, and death. This is a proof, said Charles, among other things, how much men need a steady confidence in God; relying on the wisdom, power, and goodness of the Creator; they would see things in a very different light.

Of this there is a proof, said Mrs. Americus, in this vicinity. A neighbor of ours was laboring under a complication of diseases for many years; being extremely debilitated, yet he never was gloomy or impatient; he did not die ten thou sand deaths in fearing one. He kissed the rod which smote him, and blest the hand that held it. All that was done for him was pleasing, nor did he ever complain of being neglected. He died at last, full of Christian triumph, and doubtless rests in heaven from all his sufferings.

If men would be persuaded, said Prudentia, to embrace religion in health, and keep a steady eye on the perfections, government, and grace of God; it would abate the real and imaginary evils.

Religion no doubt, said the Doctor, is the sovereign good of man; but a sinking of the spirits is almost as symptomat ic of a nervous disorder, as the beating of the pulse is of a fever. Though impatience and dispair will be prevented by the presence of the Christian graces, and the spirits will not sink as low, as where there is no evangelical hope in God; yet the faith of the best of saints may be severely tried with the very same things, which so completely destroy the comfort of others. There are instances however, when those afflicted with nervous langor, have such an ascendency by grace, that their spirits are borne above all their gloom. I do not fail, therefore, to recommend religion to all my patients.

Mr. P. observed, it is what all physicians should do.

It is unhappy, replied the Docter, that so many of my pro fession are inclined to infidelity. They will say nothing to