The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1846-04-17

5 Try, ana on the instant That ms eye
e fell on his drawingroom chairs an,
: table, the illusion came airesh Oh hi
2 mind. BY influence of association
the green fgurantes came friSkins
, and caporing into his room, shout
ing in his unwilling ears, 'here ",
) are . here we are"
, "Not long after the death of Lore
Byron, Sir Walter Scott was enra.
ged in his study, during the darkcn.
/ ing twilight of an autumnal evening
) in reading sketch Of his form and
habits, his manners and opinions -
On sudden, he saw, as he laid
down his book and passed into the
hall, the figure of his departed friend
before him. He remained sometime
impressed by the intensity of the il
fusion, which had thus created a
phantom out of skins and scarls.
and plaids hanging on screen in
the Gothic hall of Abbotsford."
CDR. Dendy gives the following,
as a very modern date A wealthy
Hebrew, (Rothschild) who was
wont to fling his gold even in the
lap of kings, was opce standing on a
certain stone at the London post Of
flee, when he received a letter, On
which he specialized, and lost GEO.
900. On this he cautioned his
friends never to stand on that stone,
lest similar misfortune should at
tend them. The mind of this man
was a storc-house of superstition
an omen was his leading star. A
drove of pigs would check the COM
pletion of mighty bargain, and a
flock of sheep would prompt him to
sign his name to a million. The
three brothers of this great house
were once on their way to Lord Lii
verpool, in order to the completion
of loan to the treasury, when 10 !.
an army Of swine met them on their
way: there was no more progress to
Downing street that day; but they
retired to Stamford Hill, and the
lord treasurer had to wait twenty
four hours longer for the Hebrews
| gold"
| Spectral WuSionS.-"The phos.
phoresccnce of the marshes, the 10
mis- fatuus, Willo'- Wisp, Jack o'the
Lantern, or Friar Rush, and the
Corpse Candles, are mere luminous
eXhalations strained into the mar
vellous by the vulgar and thus set
down as heralds of Immortality"
"The Parhelia, or mock suns, are
produced by the reflection of the
suns light on frozen cloud"
"The Corona, or halo around the
sun, moon and stars, is easily illus
trated by the zone, formed by plac-
ing during a frost, lighted candle
in "a cloud Of stream or vapor."
"The Aurora Borealis, is arctic cleo
tricity, and is beautifully initiated
by the passage of an electric flask
through an exhausted glass cylin-
der" "The rainbow is a combin-
alton of natural priSSuS, break
ing the light into colors; and
it may be seen in the cloud, or in
the spray of the ocean, in the cas-
eade of Niagara or, indeed, in any
ioaming spray on which the merI-
dian sunbeams fell, or even in the
dewy grass, lying, as it were, on TIC
ground"
"The Spectre of the Brockcn' is
a mere shadow of the spectator, on
a gigantic scale. The phantom, the
'scatterrmann,' according to vulgar
tradition, haunts the lofty range of
the Hartz mountains, in Hanover.
1t is usually observed that when the
suns rays are thrown horizontally
on their heecy clouds, or vapor, Of
highly reflective power, assuming
the shape of a gigantic shade on the
cloud"
"Whcn Franklin set his bells a.
ringing by drawing down the cleo
trio fluid from the thunder-cloud.
and when Columbus told the hour
of the suns eclipse, can we wonder
that the Indians listened as to one en-
ducd with pertunatural knowledge,
or that the other might be thought
superhuman? And wien the king
of Siam was assured that water
could be congcaled into ice on which
the sounding skate could glide, can
we wonder that lie smiled in abso-
lutte disbelief of such a change, and
called the tale a lie? Thus, with
peasants of Cardigan, who were not
versed in Pontinc architecture,
looked on the bridge which the
monks had thrown across the torrent
Monach, they could not believe 1t
a work of human, but of inEirn0I
hands and called it tie Devils
Bridge?"
Illusions ofart.-"In the reign of
Henry the VIII, this bloody secret
was unfolded. At Hales, in the
county Of Gloucester, England,
there had been shown during sever
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