Johnson, where the astronomer is admired as a person of sound intellect and great acquirements by Imlac, who is himself a philosopher, and a man of the world. His intercourse with the astronomer is frequent; and he always finds in his society information and delight. At length he receives Imlac into the most unbounded confidence, and imparts to him the momentous secret. "Hear, Imlac, what thou wilt not, without difficulty, credit. I have possessed, for five years, the regulation of weather, and the distribution of the seasons. The Sun has listened to my dictates, and passed from tropic to tropic by my direction. The clouds, at my call, have poured their waters, and the Nile has overflowed at my command. I have restrained the rage of the Dog-star, and mitigated the fervours of the Crab. The winds alone, of all the elemental powers, have hitherto refused my authority; and multitudes have perished by equinoctial tempests, which I found myself unable to prohibit or restrain. I have administered this great office with exact justice, and made to the different nations of the earth an impartial dividend of rain and sunshine. What must have been the misery of half the globe, if I had limited the clouds to particular regions, or confined the Sun to either side of the Equator?" A real case came under my observation some years ago, and which is equally apposite to the subject. A young man had become insane from habitual intoxication; and, during the violence of his disorder, had attempted to destroy himself. Under a supposed imputation of having unnatural propensities, he had amputated his penis, with a view of precluding any future insinuations of that nature. For many months, after he was admitted into the hospital, he continued in a state which obliged him to be strictly confined, as he constantly meditated his own destruction. On a sudden, he became apparently well, was highly sensible of the delusion under which he had laboured, and conversed, as any other person, upon the ordinary topics of discourse. There was, however, something in the reserve of his manner, and peculiarity of his look, which persuaded me he was not well, although no incoherence could be detected in his conversation. I had observed him for some days to walk rather lame, and once or twice had noticed him sitting with his shoes off, rubbing his feet. On enquiring into the motives of his doing so, he replied, that his feet were blistered, and wished that some remedy might be applied to remove the vesications. When I requested to look at his feet, he declined it, and prevaricated, saying, that they were only tender and uncomfortable. In a few days afterwards, he assured me they were perfectly well. The next evening I observed him, unperceived, still rubbing his feet, and then peremptorily insisted on examining them. They were quite free from any disorder. He now told me, with some embarrassment, that he wished much for