in her sleep. A few nights afterward one of Mr. Baird's sons awaked me, and told me that Sarah had got out of bed. I immediately hastened to the apartment where she slept. When I arrived, Mr. and Mrs. Baird, one of their sons, and a servant-maid, Sarah's companion, were present. Sarah was in the midst of them. I took my seat by her. We began immediately to converse. She answered any questions that were put to her pretty distinctly; but she always mistook the person who spoke, which gave us an opportunity of assuming any character within the circle of her acquaintance. vary, as is natural, in different cases; and the causes of this, as well as of the condition itself, are well and forcibly explained by Mr. Macnish in his Anatomy of Sleep. "If we dream that we are walking, and the vision possesses such a degree of vividness and exciting energy as to arouse the muscles of locomotion, we naturally get up and walk. Should we dream that we hear or see, and the impression be so vivid as to stimulate the eyes and ears, or, more properly speaking, those parts of the brain which take cognizance of sights and sounds, then we both see any objects, or hear any sounds, which may occur, just as if we were awake. In some cases, the "I knew that one of the farmer's servants, muscles only are excited, and then we simply whose name was John Porteous, was a lover walk, without hearing or seeing." In other cases, of hers; and, therefore, I addressed her in the for the reasons given, we both walk and see; and style which I supposed John might have somein a third variety, we at once walk, see, and hear. times done. From that moment she began to In the same way, the vocal organs alone may be scold me, and in the most peremptory manner stimulated, and a person may merely be a sleep-forbade me ever to speak to her again on that talker; or, under a conjunction of impulses, he topic. The conversation was accordingly changed. may talk, walk, see, and hear. I talked of her mistress, who was in the room, because I knew that they had occasional quarrels. Till now, I suspected that the whole was a trick, but for what purpose I could not disCover. Sarah, however, abused Mrs. Baird in the harshest terms; she said but the other day she had been accused of stealing and drinking some bottles of ale; that her mistress was suspicious, cruel, and narrow-minded. As the mistress of the house was present when these and other opprobrious terms were used, I began to be shaken in my preconceived notion of imposture, and, therefore, changed the object of my experiments and inquiries. I examined her countenance, and found that her eyes, though These brief explanations may aid in preventing the reader from being puzzled by the philosphy of this curious condition of the bodily system, or from being disposed to discredit the cases related. The simplest and perhaps least surprising cases are those in which the locomotive powers alone of the body are set in action by the vividness of a dreaming impulse. The person rises, strikes his head or body against something, and awakes. A leap from bed is also a comparatively common and slight species of somnambulism. In the belief of being compelled to cross a ditch by the pursuit of a bull, a gentleman bounded some time since from bed, and at one spring found himself placed upon a dressing-open, wild, and staring, were not absolutely fixed. table which stood a short way from the foot of the bed. A few inches farther, and he would have passed through, or at least struck, a window. But such cases have little interest in comparison with those in which the somnambulism is not momentary, but of continued duration. The following case is related by Smellie in his Philosophy of Natural History: "Near thirty years ago, I had an opportunity of examining a striking example of somnambulism. Within a mile of Edinburgh, I happened to reside for some time in a farmer's house. Mr. Baird, my landlord, had a servant-maid, whose name was Sarah. I was not long there, when I learned from the family that Sarah, particularly after receiving an affront, or being angered, was accustomed to rise in her sleep, to go out, and to walk about the fields. My curiosity was excited, and I begged to be informed the first time that Sarah should rise I took a pin, and repeatedly pricked her arm; but not a muscle moved, not a symptom of pain was discoverable. At last she became impatient to leave the room, and made several attempts to get out by the door; but that was prevented by the domestics. Perceiving her inability to force the door, she made a sudden spring at the window, and endeavored to throw herself over, which would have been fatal to her. To remove every suspicion of imposture, I desired the people, with proper precautions to prevent harm, to try if she would really precipitate herself from the window. A seemingly free access was left for her escape, which she perceived, and instantly darted with such force and agility, that more than one half of her body was projected before her friends were aware. They, however, laid hold of her, and prevented the dreadful catastrophe. She was again prevailed | boat's crew, they pushed off and succeeded in picking him up; but, strange to say, he had no idea whatever of his perilous situation, and it was with the utmost difficulty that they could persuade him he was not still in bed. But the most singular part of this novel adventure was, that the man had left his house at twelve o'clock that night, and walked through a difficult, and to him dangerous road, a distance of nearly two miles, and had actually swum one mile and a half when he was fortunately discovered and picked up." The state of madness gives us, by analogy, the best explanation of the condition of these climbers and swimmers. With one or more organs or portions of his brain diseased, and the rest sound, the insane person has the perfect use of his external senses, yet may form imperfect conclusions regarding many things around him. The somnambulist, with his senses upon, though with much reluctance, to sit down. activity, but with some of his cerebral organs in a torpid state, is in much the same position as regards his power of forming right judgments on all that he hears or sees. In the preceding case there is one point worthy The story of the sleeping swimmer is borne lates that on one occasion, while bathing in a Sometimes, in the case of a person liable to somnambulism, it is possible to direct the thoughts of the dreamer to any given subject, by acting on the external senses. Smellie, the writer already quoted, gives the subjoined instance: The somnambulist in Smellie's case had not apparently the perfect power of vision. She did not or could not recognize the persons about her, yet she saw a window, and would have leaped through it, knowing that a passage was practicable. The true condition of the vision in somnambulism is, indeed, the point most difficult to comprehend. The boy who, according to the common story, rose in his sleep and took a nest of young eagles from a dangerous precipice, must have received the most accurate accounts of external objects from his visual organs, and must have been able to some extent to reason upon them, else he could never have overcome the difficulties of the ascent. He dreamed of taking away the nest, and to his great surprise found it beneath his bed in the morning in the spot where he only thought himself to have put it in imagination. The following case, mentioned by Mr. Macnish, is scarcely less wonderful. It occurred near one of the towns on the Irish coast: "About two o'clock in the morning, the watchmen on the Revenue Quay were much surprised at descrying a man disporting himself in the water, about a hundred yards from the shore. Intimation having been given to the revenue "Mr. Thomas Parkinson, then a student of medicine in the university of Edinburgh, was accustomed to talk and answer questions in his sleep. The fact was known to his companions. To amuse ourselves, two of us went gently into his chamber while he was asleep. We knew that he was in love with a young lady in Yorkshire, the place of his nativity. We whispered her name repeatedly in his ear. He soon began to toss about his hands, and to speak incoherently. He gradually became more calm and collected. His imagination took the direction we intended. He thought he was stationed under the lady's window, and repeatedly upbraided her for not appearing and speaking to him, as she had so often done on former occasions. last, he became impatient, started up, laid hold of his books, shoes, and every thing he could easily grasp. Thinking his mistress was asleep, he threw those articles against the opposite wall of his chamber. By what he said, we learned At that his imaginary scene lay in a street, and that he was darting the books and shoes at the lady's window, in order to awake her. She, however, did not appear; and after tiring himself with frequent exertions, he went quietly into bed without awakening. His eyes were nearly shut; and although he freely conversed with us, he did not seem to perceive that any person was present with him. Next day we told him what had happened; but he said that he had only a faint recollection of dreaming about his mistress." It is consistent with our own knowledge, that many country surgeons, who ride much by night, and pursue a most laborious life generally, sleep perfectly well on horseback. This, however, although a position in which the bodily motion is not entirely passive, is not properly somnambulism. Perhaps the most perfect sleep-walkers were Sir John Moore's soldiers, many of whom, in the disastrous and fatiguing retreat to Corunna, were observed to fall asleep on the march, and yet go on, step by step, with their waking companions. Many tradesmen have been known to get up by night and work for a time at their usual employments, without being at all aware in the morning of what they had done. Gall mentions a miller who did this. One of the most extraordinary cases of this order, however, is that of a student of divinity at Bordeaux, who was accustomed to rise in the nighttime, and to read and write without the use of his eyes. This case is stated in the French Encyclopedie, under the word Noctambule, and is attested by the Archbishop of Bordeaux. This prelate, in order to test the young man, interposed an obstacle between his eyes and the paper on which he was reading or writing, but he read and wrote with equal facility and equal accuracy as before. Macnish, who repeats this story, does not mention the fact of the eyes not being used, though this is the most marvelous feature in the case. The reading may not have been aloud, and may only have been apparent. But as for writing accurately without the use of the eyes, this was certainly a feat which few waking persons could have accomplished. In addition to these cases, many others might be gathered, and particularly from Mr. Macnish's Anatomy of Sleep; but that book is so accessible, that it is enough to refer to it for further information. We shall only mention one other case which is there given. It is that of Dr. Blacklock, who "on one occasion rose from bed, to which he had retired at an early hour, came into the room where his family were assembled, conversed with them, and afterward entertained them with a pleasant song, without any of them suspecting he was asleep, and without his retaining, after he awoke, the least recollection of what he had done." Being blind, his family would have the more and greater difficulty in discovering his unusual condition. Somnambulism, it was stated at the close of the farm-servant's case, had of late years assumed a new and more interesting aspect. This has arisen from the discovery-if it be allowable to call it a discovery-that animal magnetism is capable of inducing a peculiar state of somnambulism, and that, during the continuance of that state, sensation or sensibility is destroyed. It has been seen that Smellie found the farm maidservant to have lost sensibility in her arms. This is a statement corroborative of the account given of magnetic somnambulism. Taking advantage of this absence of sensibility, surgeons, it is said, have performed upon magnetic somnambulists the most severe and painful curative operations, without inflicting on the parties a moment's suffering of the slightest kind. The patient's mind, meanwhile, seems in a perfectly sound and active state, but without the power of remembering any thing that passed in the unmagnetized state. A Parisian lady, aged sixty-four, who had a cancerous breast, was magnetized, and it was found that somnambulism could be induced. In her waking state she was deeply averse to the operation; but in her magnetized state it was proposed to her, and she consented at once. The breast was operated upon, and cut off without the slightest seeming pain to her. On waking, she was, it may be believed, much surprised. This case, it has been alleged, is but one of several, where the like has been done; and some of the most respectable medical men of Paris have borne witness to the truth, or at least apparent truth, of these allegations. On this score alone, animal magnetism seems worthy of a full and fair inquiry. It would be a wonderful thing, indeed, if we could arrive at means by which all the painful operations to which the human body is rendered liable by disease or accident, could be performed without suffering to those who undergo them. Somnambulism, or a tendency to it, most commonly arises from causes not apparent or discoverable. Where it occurs in persons not accustomed to exhibit any such propensity, some disorder of the digestive functions may generally be suspected, and the restoration of these functions to a healthy state may put a stop to the practice. But in confirmed cases, nothing can be done but to lock the doors, bar the windows, and keep dangerous objects or instruments out of the way; or a cord may be affixed to the bedpost and the arm of the sleep-walker. As a general rule, the somnambulist should be taken to bed before being waked.—Chambers's Home-Book. A CHILD'S FANCIES ABOUT HEAVEN. BY MISS SERENNA BALDWIN. SOMETIMES I think of dying, but I don't know how 'twill seem, Only I think I'll shut my eyes, and go like in a dream; Then the angels they will meet me, all dressed in shining white, And take me up to heaven, like a little cloud of light. Then we'll sail, and keep on sailing, all over lovely bowers, And I shall smell the sweetness of all the heavenly flowers; And then we'll hear the music they make on harps of gold, And see the ancient prophets who lived in days of old; But we'll go, and keep on going, till we come to God's dear Son; Then he'll smile, and take me by the hand, and say, "I'm glad you've come;" Then my mother she will kiss me, and say, dear, dear boy," 66 My And the angels will be very glad to see us have such joy. Then I'll be like an angel, with a beautiful bright wing, And a golden harp to play on whenever I shall sing, And I'll see the sapphire pavement, and the walls of dazzling stone, And the streets of gold like crystal, and the rainbow round the throne; And when I'm there in heaven, I'll tell you what I'll do: In the sky I'll break a little hole, so I can look down and see you. May be I'll be an angel, and when you come to die, I'll come with them, and fetch you to our place in the sky. O won't we be so happy, when we all get there together! Then all the trouble will be passed, and all the stormy weather. I never shall get hurt then, nor have an ache or pain, Nor hear a cross word spoken, nor suffer any blame. THE DISENCHANTED. BY MRS. H. C. GARDNER. You ask me why no more I love I see the dark, exquisite eye, The jetty bands of shining hair, The cheek where rose and lily vie, The faultless form, and regal air. Most beautiful! and yet in vain You bid me worship at her shrine; Not all the treasures of the main Could tempt me now to call her mine! There is a charm, half undefined, That makes the plainest features fair; The peerless beauty of the mind, The disposition sweet and rare. Not such the charm that Meta wears! Go, ask the aged mother why She trembles when the step she hears That speaks her beauteous daughter nigh. See the fair cheek with passion glow, The angry bosom swelling high, The lightning in her dark proud eye! She sings the same delicious air, In tones as thrilling as of yore; The sweet delusion blinds no more. KEEP THE NARROW WAY. BY MRS. M. A. BIGELOW. CHRISTIAN, keep the narrow way Let thy course be onward ever; What if earth attempt to move thee? And when from thy fainting heart BARNUM. BY REV. T. M. EDDY. "I have been a farmer's boy and a merchant, a clerk and a manager, a showman and a bank president. I have been in jails and in palaces; have known poverty and abundance; have traveled over a large portion of two continents; have encountered all varieties of men; have seen every phase of human character; and I have been, on several occasions, in imminent peril."-Preface to Barnum's Autobiography. believed, with Maximus Tyrius, "there is nothing decorous in truth, save when profitable;" or with Plato, "He may lie who knows how to do so in fit season." These apparently harsh statements will be sustained before this article is finished. We shall see in him examples of untiring energy, indomitable perseverance, with unequaled craft and deception. Phineas Taylor Barnum was born in the parish of Bethel, town* of Danbury, Connecticut, on the HE materiale of this sketch is from the book 5th of July, A. D. 1810, and was named after his THE materiale of this iis of trumpets, maternal grandfather, who was so delighted that by Redfield. The reverse side of the title-page is an advertisement of the American Museum, in the shape of a dedication "To the Universal Yankee Nation," stating that the pages are dated "from the American Museum, where the public first smiled upon me, and where, henceforth, my personal exertion will be devoted to its entertainment." There spoke the showman, and thus he constantly speaks. The book is throughout an advertisement, and the preciousness of the humbug is manifested in this-the public greedily buy it at the exorbitant price of the publisher. If the publishers of this magazine were to issue such a sized and such a "got-up" book at one dollar and twenty-five cents, the public and preachers would never be done grumbling. he immediately executed, in behalf of his namesake, a deed of gift for Ivy Island—a tract of five acres lying in the parish and town aforesaid. The old gentleman was an inveterate wag and practical joker, and being slightly older than his grandson, there seems some probability in Barnum's conclusion, that he "was a chip from the old block." His paternal grandfather was a captain of the Revolutionary militia, and much noted for waggery. Hence he claims to have "come honestly" by his love of fun and "practical jokes." Early in life began the development of his future character-"the boy was father to the man." He never liked "hard work," but was addicted to "head work," as manifested in shirking. The organ of acquisitiveness was large and active. He saved the pennies received from his grandsire, and soon began to "dicker." On "training days" he sat up peddler and sold molasses-candy, called "Cookania," ginger-bread, candies, and cherry rum. Thus he amassed, what then seemed, a princely fortune. About twelve years of age he made his first trip to New York, in the capacity of assistant to a cattle-drover. The ways and sights of Gotham Whoever reads the autobiography will imagine that the author had contracted to furnish a book of given size, and found the matter hard to obtain. The first one hundred and five pages contain but little of the author's history. They are almost entirely a rehearsal of "practical jokes" and smart sayings, most of which are ascribed to the wits of Bethel. This may be all right, but subsequent developments teach us that Mr. Barnum thinks nothing of changing the birthplace of subjects to secure a popular hit. And, further-interested him greatly, especially a toy-shop in more, we have glimmering recollections of certain profusely illuminated comic almanacs in which more veracious relations, strangely similar to those gravely located at Bethel and Danbury. The trial of the eccentric minister before the consociation is too much like the case of Rev. Zeb. Twitchell, related by the Knickerbocker, a year or two ago, for us to avoid thinking that either Barnum or Old Knick has "uttered" a literary forgery. But even this part of the book is useful as a key to the showman's character. It proves that he did not consider deception, when for the sake of gain, fun, or cuteness, as any wrong. This idea, implanted and cultivated in youth, he never lost. His life and history ignore the essential importance of truth. He has acted as though he the neighborhood of his hotel. Having a whole dollar to spend, he bought a variety of attractive articles. On a second visit he saw others which pleased him better, and he proposed "a swop” to the lady merchant. To this she consented "for a consideration," and received back his first purchases, and he became the happy possessor of a knife, a gun, which would "go off" and propel an arrow, a watch, and a number of torpedoes. Thus equipped, he thought himself an object of envy to the whole city. Making one more visit, he saw a white molasses-candy, far superior to Bethel "Cookania," and he paid out his last eleven cents. Then he proposed another swop, and for candy went, one by one, the gun, the Township. |