I am not, however, without some curious stories of very modern date; one anecdote may be recognised on the Stock Exchange. A wealthy Hebrew, who was wont to fling his gold even into the lap of kings, was once standing on a certain stone, at the Post Office, when he received a letter, on which he speculated, and lost 20,000_l._ On this he cautioned his friends never to stand on that stone, lest a similar ill-fortune should attend _them_. The mind of this man was a storehouse of superstition—an omen was his leading star. A drove of pigs would check the completion of a mighty bargain, and a flock of sheep would prompt him to sign his name to a million. The three brothers of his great house were once on their way to Lord Liverpool, in order to the completion of a loan to the Treasury; when, lo! 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 waited twenty-four hours for the Hebrews’ gold. With Brinsley Sheridan, _Friday_ was a sort of holiday; neither journeys were undertaken, nor new plays allowed to be produced, on that day. I presume you were ashamed to adduce ornithoscopy, or the divination by birds, as an illustration. Do you forget the mystic influence of three crows on man’s destiny? But I will tell you an oriental fable; how an accomplished Jew, named Mosollam, puzzled an augur, by shooting a beautiful bird, from which the augur was about to prophecy on the fate of an expedition. “Why,” said Mosollam, “did not the bird foreknow the fate which awaited it? why did it not fly away—or why come at all?” ASTR. I believe the augur did or might answer, that “a prophet may be ordained to tell the fate of nations, but _not his own_.” EV. Another vague supposition, Astrophel: there is much virtue in these _may be’s_. I have listened to your legends, and you will now listen to me, while I presume to illustrate my own proofs, searching for my causes in the beautiful eccentricities of nature alone; and a scholar like yourself, Astrophel, with whom I have so often chopped Oxford logic, will grant it is a precept in philosophy not to seek for more causes, than the explanation of the fact requires. * * * * * On this scroll I have sketched an arrangement of phantoms or ghosts, in two grand classes. GHOSTS OF THE MIND’S EYE, or PHANTASMA. Illusive _per_ception, or ocular { _Conversion_ of natural objects spectra. into phantoms. Illusive _con_ception, or spectral { _Creation_ of phantoms. illusion. GHOSTS OF THE EYE, or OPTICAL ILLUSION. Atmospheric. { Refraction. { Reflection.