Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-11-05

shoes up and down. Once it threw
open the nursery door. The masiff barked
violently at the first, yet whenever it came
afterward, he ran whining or quite silent
10 shelter himself behind some of the COM
pauy. Scarcely any of the family could go
from one room to another, but the latch of
the door they approached was lifted up be-
fore they touched it. II was evidently, says
Southey, Jacobite goblin, and seldom suf-
fered Mr.. Wesley to pray for the king with
out disturbing the family. John says it
gave LAUNDERING knocks" at the Amen, and
the loyal rector, waxing angry at the
insult, sometimes repeated the prayer with
defiance. He was thrics pushed by it" with
no little violencej ii never disturbed him,
however, till aftef he had rudely denounced ii
as a dumb and deaf devil, and challenged il
10 cease annoying his innocent children, and
meet him in his study if it had anything TO
say. 1t replied with IA knock, as if it would
shiver the boards in pieceP," and resented
the affront by accepting the challenge At
one time the trencher danced upon the table
without anybody's touching either. At an
other, when several of the daughters were
smusing themselves at game OF cards upon
one OF the beds, the wall seemed to trembie
with the noise; they le5ped from the bed.
and it was raised in the air, as described
BY Cotton Mather in the Witehc1of
If NeU England. Sometimes moaus were
heard, as from a person dying; at others, it
swept through the halls aud along the stairs,
with the sound of person trailing a loose
gown on the hlor, and the chamber walls,
meanwhile, shook with vibrations. 1t would
respond to Mrs. Wesley if she stamped on
the floor and babe If answer, and il was more
loud and fierce whenever it was attributed TO
rats or any natural cause. These noises
continued about two month";, and occurred
the latter part of the lime every day. The
family soon came TO consider them amusing
freaks, as unattended with any serious harm;
they all, nevertheless, deemed them prefer
natural. Adam Clark assures US that, though
they subsidized at Epwortb, they continued
10 modest some members of the family for
many years. Clark believed them to be de-
moniacal; Southey is ambiguous respecting
their real character; Priestley supposed
them trick of the servants or ueighbors.
but without any other reason than that they
seemed not TO answer any adequate purpose
OF miracle" 10 which Southey Justly
replies that with regard to the good design
which they may be supposed 10 answer il
would be sufficient If sometimes one of
these unhappy persons who, looking
through the dim glass of in6delty, see
nothing beyond this fe'and the narrow
sphere of mertal existence, should, from
the well-established truth If one such story.
triiing and objectless as it might otherwise
appear, De led to conclusion that there
are more things in heaven and earth than
are dreamed of in their philosophy. Isaac
Taylor considers them neither Celestial"
nor "infernsl," but extra-terrestiaI, iutrud-
Jog upon our sphere occasionally, as the
Arabian locust is som times found in Hyde
Park. Oh the influence of these facts on
Wesley's character, this author re m ir ks thai
they took effect upon him in such a manner
as to lay open his faculty of belief and
create right of way for the supernatural
through his mind, SO that to the end of his
life there was nothing so marvellous that
it could not freely pass where these
mysteries had passed before it. Whatever
may b. thought of this very hypothetical
suggs sion and of its iucompatibility with
with the disposition OF the writer, and, in
deed, OF most OF Wesley's critics, TO impute
TO him natural and perilous crrdulity, it
cannot be denied that in an age which was
characterized by skepticism strong sus-
ceptibility of faith a necessary qdalif-
cation for the work which devoIved upon
him, and less dangerous by far than the OPP
posite disposition; for though the former
might mar that work, the latter must have
been fatal to il,