The Wheeling repository — Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.], 1808-02-18 00:00:00, page 2

which he was wounded ? This is the
same scar: look at it.” “Good God !”
exclaimed the stranger, “ 1 do, indeed,
perfectly remember the circumstance,
and have every reason to believe this to
be the man, though I had entirely for
gotten his lace : but, ray lord,” added
the stranger, “I can put it to a certain
ty* lor 1 have a memorandum of the day
f arrived at Dover from Calais.” The
date was compared with the day laid in
the indictment, and found to be the
Game. I he whole court felt the impres
sion, and joy was visible in every face ;
when, alter swearing and examining the
gentleman as to his name and place of
ubode, the foreman of the jury pronoun
ced, Not Guiltv.
A few evenings only had elapsed,
when the prisoner, the stranger, and his
livery servant, were taken upon th • road
in their original capacities of experienced
highwa\ men.
ri. '1
x ml tiliu\ c siory may serve as a useful
wesson, to show the power of dec ption,
when it presents to the imagination a
.natural association of ideas, and con
nects a probable chain of circumstances
togethe r.
I his much, however, is certain, that
a man has never so much reason to be
Satisfied with the deception practised
upon him, as when humanity has misled
his judgment. Though rigid justice
may frown at tlu fraud, mercy will re
joice at the event of the life of a fellow
creature being saved.
( redulity is seldom unnmiable,though
frequently imprudent; and p rhaps, after
all, t.n re is as much danger in being in
credulous, as in credulity : the dogma
tist and the sceptic are Hike wide from
the truth. A reasonable man views a
thing on all sides be lore he determines,
and searches for truth with care and at
tention, separating from the < on si 'ra
tion the prejudices of sense and passion*
It not unfmjuentlv liappi ns, that the
credulous and incr. d tlous man change
characters. Without any established
principle of true reason, tlu y fly off from
c»n< prejudice to anoto r: the enthusiast
becomes i freethink r, and the infidel a
3Up r:>titious bi got.
T test* extraordinary changes of opi
nion are generally produced by a n- w
anil casual association of idea . conn -cl
od strongly by the imagination, and in
which rca on has little share.
Thus we become dupes to fancy, and
•laves to nonsense.
Another of the strongest sources of
false judgments proceeds from the me
lancholy impression of fear. Thus the
belief of supernatural appearances, en
gendered by some old nurse, and fos
tered by fancy, becomes a fruitful spring
of misery.
1 hough the narratives of ghosts and
apparitions, spirits and Supernatural ap
pearances, all want proof, yet frequently
the circumstances attending them are so
wrapt up.in mystery, that the yet unra
velled story is sufficient evidence to a
weak mind.
Perhaps a more remarkable instance
cannot be easily produced than the fol
lowing, authenticated by several respec
table persons now alive.
Some lew years since, before ghosts
and spectres were properly introduced
among us by means of the pantomimes
and novels cf the day, a gentleman of
a philosophical turn of mind, who was
hardy enough to deny the existence of
any thing supernatural, happened to vi
sit an old house in Gloucestershire,
whose unfortunate owner had just be
ia. iMUjji, v, uii .i \ lev,- to Oiler suen
assistance and consolation ns he could
bestow: when on one rainy dull evening
»n the month of March, the family being
seated by the kitchen hi e-side, the con
versation turned on supernatuial ap
pearances. J he philosopher was endea
vouring to convince his auditors of the
folly and absurdity of such opinions,with
ruli 'i an unbecoming levity, when the
wile left the party and went up stairs,
but had harbk quitted the kitcln n three
minutes, before a dreadful noise was
heard, mingled with the most horrid
screams, i he poor maid changed coun
tenance, and her red hair stood erect in
every direction ; the husband trembled
in liis chair, and the philosopher began
to look furious. At last the husband
rose from his si at, and ascended the
| stairs in search of his wife, w hen a se
cond dreadful scream was heard. The
maid mu tired resolution to follow her
master, and a third scream ensued.—
1 he philosopher, who was not quite at
ei’se, now thought it high time for him
to set out in search of a cause ; when,
i. .\ i.'-g at the landing place, he found
ine mai 1 in a fit ; the master lvintr fiat
with his lace upon the fl >or, which was
stained with blood; aid, on advancing a
i:tlle further, the mistress in neaily the
j same condition. To her the phil sopb< t
j paid i:n ir iliao. attention ; and find ■ g
1 she had only spooned away, brought
her in his arms down stairs, and placed
her on the floor of the kitchen ; the
pump was at hand, and he had the pre
sence of mind to run to it, to get some
water in a glass ; but what was his asto
nishment, \v hen he found he only pump
ed copious streams of blood ! which ex
traordinary appearance, joined to. the
other circumstances, made the unbe
liever tremble in every limb ; a sudden
perspiration overspread the surface of
his skin, and the supernatural possessed
his imagination in all its true colours of
dread and horror. Again and again ho
repeated his efforts, and again and again
threw away the loathsome contents of
the glass.
Had the story stopped here, what
would not superstition have made of it® ■
But the philosopher,who was still pump
ing, now found the colour grow' paler,
and at last pure water filled the ve. stl.
Overjoyed at this discovery, he threw
the limpid stream in the face of the
mistress, whose recovery was assisted
by the appearance of her husband and
Betty.
The mystery, when explained, turned
cut to he simply this : the good house
iviie, when she knew th it a docket had
been struck against her husband, had
taken care to conceal some of her choice
cherry-brandy from the rapacious gripe
oi the messenger to the commissioners
ol bankrupts, on some sh ves in a close'
up stairs ; which also contained, agreea
bly to the ancient architecture of the
building, the trunk of the pump below;
anti in trying to move the jars to get a
drop lor the party at the kitchen lire,the
shell g ive way with a tremendous crash,
the jays were broken into a hundred
pieces, the rich juice descended in tor
rents down the trunk ol the pump, and
tilled, with its ruby current, the sucker
beneath ; and this was the self-same flu
id which the philosopher, in his right,
had so madly thrown away, 'i he wife
hud swooned at the accident; the hus
band in his haste had fallen on his nose,
which r-in with blood ; and the m tick's
legs, in her hurry, coming in contact
with her laden master’s ribs, she, like
“ vaoiling ambition,” ovt rUapt herself, '
and fell on the other side.
Oiten has the story be n told, by one .
who ! new the philosopher, with g. at
tfi ct, (ill the last ait, or denouement^
v. lien disappointment was mostly visi
ble i - fllt. looks of his auditors, at find
ing ' lore was actu :!ly nothing superna
l tural m the affair, and no ^host.