The constitutional union., 1860-11-30
4 RE.H1RKABLE STORY.
THE LIFE OF CELEBRATED SCHOLAR SAVED BY
 AN EXPIRATION.

A writer in The Atlantic Monthly for NO vember narrates the following strange story, which superstitionists will, of course, greedily swallow:
 Dr. DeWette, the famous German bibll- cal critic, returning home one evening, be- tween nine and ten o'clock, was surprised, upon arriving opposite the house in which he resided, to see bright light burning in his study. In fact he was rather more than sur prised, for he distinctly remembered to have extinguished the candles when he went out and put the key in his pocket, which, upon feeling for 1t, was still there. Pauslng mo- ment to wonder by what means and for what purpose any one could have entered the room, he perceived the shadow of a person, appa- rently occupied about something in remote corner .Supposing it to be burglar employed in rihing his trunk, he was upon the point ot alarming the police, when the man advanced to the window, into full view, as if for the purpose of looking out into the street. A 1rdS Dr. De Hette hjmScIf! The scholar, author, professor-his night, size, figure, stoop--hls head, his face, his features, eyes, mouth, nose, chin. every one-skull-cap, study-gown, neck tie-all, everything. There was no mistaklng him. no deception whatever; there stood Dr, DeWette in his own library, and he stood out in the street. Why, he must be somebody else The doctor, instinctiye y, grasped hIs body with his hands, and tried himself with the psychological tests of self-consciousness and identity doubtful, if he could believe his senses, that black were not white, that he no longer existed in his former self. and stood perplexed, bewlderedand contounded, gazing at his own likeness. looking out of the win dow. Upon the persons retiring from the window, which occurred ill few minutes, Dr. DeWette resolved not to dispute the posses sion of his study with the other doctor before morning. and ringing at the door of a house opposite, where an acquaintance resided, he asked permission to remain over night.
 The chamber occupied by him commanded a full view of the interior of his library, and from the window he could see his other self engaged in study and meditation; now walk ing up and down the room immersed in thought; now sitting down at the desk to write; now rising to search for a volume among the book-shelvcs and initiating i'll all respects the peculiar habits of the great doc tor. engaged at work and busy with cogIta- tions. At length, when the cathedral clock had finished striking through first four and then eleven strokes, as German clocks are won't to do an hour before twelve De Wette, number two. manifested signs of retiring to rcst-t0oll out his watch, the identical large gold one the other doctor in the other cham Der felt sure was at that moment safe in his waistcoat pocket, and wound 1t up; removed a portion of his clothing, came to the window, closed the curtains, and in a few moment, the light disappeared. De Wette, number one, waiting a little time till convinced that num- Der two had disposed himself to sleep, retired also himself to bed, wondering very much what all this could mean.
 Rising the next morning, he crossed the street and passed up stairs to the library The door Was fastened; he applied the key opened it. and entered No one was there :; everything appeared in precisely the same condition in which he had left 1t the evening belore-his pen lying onthe paper where he had dropped 1t on going out, the candles on the table and mantcpcce evidently not hay ing been lighted, the window-curtains drawn aside as he had left them; in fine, there was not a single trace of anybody having been in the room. " Had he been insane the night before He must have been. He was growing old; something was the matter with his eyes and brain Anyhow he had been deceived, and 1t Was very foolish of him to have remained away all nieht.'
 Endeayoring to satisfy his mind with some such reflections as these, he remembered he had not yet examined his bedroom. Almost ashamed to make the search now convinced it Was an halucnation of the senses, he crossed the marrow passage way and opened the door. He wls thundcrstuck. The ceiling. a massive brick arch, had fallen du- ring the night filling the room with rubbish and crushing his boI to atoms De Wctte, the appm ition, had saved the life of the great German scholar.
 ThoIuck who was walking with me in the fields near iIollc when relating the anccdote, added, upon concluding: Il do not pretend to account for the phenomenon; no knowl- edge, scientific or metaphysical, in my pos session is adequate to explain it: but have no more doubt it actually, positively, literally did occur, than have of the existence of the sun i2 himmcl da.'
 RDCr-I, rrru o+I,. 41,.o1