took notice of, and was much frightened, because she | several deep groans, then knocking. He adjured it to thought it had a particular spite at her. I could multi- | speak, if it had power, and tell him why it troubled his ply particular instances, but I forbear."

house, but no voice was heard, but it knocked thrice
bid it if it were, and could not speak, to knock again;
aloud. Then he questioned it, if it were Sammy, and
but it knocked no more that night, which made us hope
it was not against your death.'
John Wesley writes:

"My sisters in the painted chamber had heard noises, and told me of them, but I did not much believe, till one night, about a week after the first groans were "It never came into my father's study till he talked heard, which was the beginning, just after the clock had to it sharply, called it deaf and dumb devil, and bid it struck ten, I went down stairs to lock the door, which I cease to disturb the innocent children, and come to him always do. Scarcely had I got up the best stairs, when in his study if it had anything to say to him. From I heard a noise like a person throwing down a vast coal the time of my mother's desiring it not to disturb her in the middle of the fore kitchen, and all the splinters from five to six it was never heard in her chamber from seemed to fly about from it. I was not much fright-five till she came down stairs, nor at any other time ened, but went to my sister Suky, and we together went when she was employed in devotion. Several gentleall over the low rooms, but there was nothing out of men and clergymen earnestly advised my father to quit the house. But he constantly answered, 'No, let the Devil flee from me, I will never flee from the Devil.' But he wrote to my eldest brother at London to come down. He was preparing to do so, when another letter came informing him the disturbances were over, after things had continued (the latter part of the time day and night) from the 2d of December to the end of January."

order.

"Our dog was fast asleep, and our only cat in the other end of the house. No sooner was I got up stairs, and undressing for bed, but I heard a noise among many bottles that stand under the best stairs, just like the throwing of a great stone among them, which had broken them all to pieces. This made me hasten to bed; but my sister Hetty, who sits always to wait on my father going to bed, was still sitting on the lowest step on the garret stairs, the door being shut at her back, when soon after there came down the stairs be

hind her something like a man in a loose night-gown trailing after him, which made her fly rather than run to me in the nursery.

"All this time we never told our father of it, but soon after we did. He smiled, and gave no answer, but was more careful than usual from that time to see us to bed, imagining it to be some of us young women that sat up late and made a noise. His incredulity, and especially his imputing it to us, or our lovers, made me, I own, desirous of its continuance till he was convinced. As for my mother, she firmly believed it to be rats, and sent for a horn to blow them away. I laughed to think how wisely they were employed, who were striving half a day to fright away Jeffery, for that name I gave it,

with a horn.

"But whatever it was, I perceived it could be made angry. For from that time it was so outrageous there was no quiet for us after ten at night. I heard frequently between ten and eleven something like the quick winding up of a jack, at the corner of the room by my bed's head, just like the running of the wheels and the creaking of the ironwork. This was the common signal of its coming. Then it would knock on the floor three times, then at my sister's bed's head in the same room, almost always three together, and then stay. The sound was hollow and loud, so as none of us could ever imitate.

"It would answer to my mother if she stamped on the floor, and bid it. It would knock when I was putting the children to bed, just under me where I sat. One time little Kesy, pretending to scare Patty, as I was undressing them, stamped with her foot on the floor, and immediately it answered with three knocks just in the same place. It was more loud and fierce if any one said it was rats or anything natural.

I do not think it worth while to discuss Coleridge's notion that the whole thing was nothing but reality in these noises, though they were heard a contagious fancy, and that there was no objective simultaneously by a number of people, loud enough to wake them from sleep, and described by some as enough to break the house down, and referred by all who heard them to the same place. His observations, however, as to the order in which the manifestations took place deserve to be attended to.

"First the new maid-servant hears it, then the new man. They tell it to the children, who now hear it; the children tell the mother, who now begins to hear it; she tells the father, and, the night after, he awakes and then first hears it. Strong presumptions, first, that it was not objective, i. e. a trick; secondly, that it was a contagious disease; to the auditual nerves, what vapors or blue devils are to the eye."

the family, less for the reasons assigned by Mrs. I acquit the servants of having played a trick on Wesley than on the following grounds. First, the spirit, however troublesome, showed itself to be under certain restraints of right feeling. It scrupulously complied with Mrs. Wesley's request that it would not disturb her during the time she had set apart for devotion. It was evidently unwilling to enter into communication with Mr. Wesley the father, having manifested itself to the rest of the household some three weeks before it ventured to trouble him. When, however, Mrs. Wesley fell into serious distress of mind lest her husband's death should be portended by his inability to hear, Jeffery overcame his reluctance, and knocked Mr. Wesley up the very next night. And again, when the parents were uneasy lest it should be the spirit of their son Samuel which visited them, and asked the ghost to knock if that were so, Jeffery went away and knocked no more that night. And here I must remark, in passing, how near the world then was to wait for more than a century. It had been the a great discovery for which it had afterwards to vulgar opinion that spirits could talk if they would, a belief evidently shared by Mr. Wesley, who sharply rebuked Jeffery as a deaf and dumb spirit, an incivility of which he would not have been guilty "We persuaded your father to speak and try if any had he supposed the spirit's silence to proceed from voice could be heard. One night, about six o'clock, we natural infirmity, and not from obstinate sullenness. went into the nursery in the dark, and at first heard | But it has been proved by modern experiments that

I could tell you abundance more of it, but the rest will write, and therefore it would be needless. I was not much frightened at first, and very little at last, but it was never near me except two or three times, and never followed me, as it did my sister Hetty. I have been with her when it has knocked under her, and when she has removed has followed, and still kept just under her feet, which was enough to terrify a stouter per

son."

I give one or two more quotations. Mrs. Wesley

writes to her son Samuel:

the powers of spirits had been much overrated, and that many who will freely hold intercourse by knocking are incapable of vocal communication. Jeffery showed on this occasion every willingness to answer questions as far as knocks could enable him to do so, and if only the idea of using the alphabet had suggested itself to Mr. Wesley, the discoveries of this century might have been anticipated.

But to return, my second reason for thinking that the servants were not in any trick is, that Jeffery, whose chief haunt is stated to have been the nursery, appears to have had the power of hearing the conversation of the girls (as he testified by appropriate knocks) to a greater degree than the servants were at all likely to have had. Thus, the youngest little girl stamps while being undressed, and is instantly answered by Jeffery. Emilia says that Jeffery was always more loud and fierce if any one said it was rats or anything natural. Other instances of the same kind will be found in the documents.

told that the principal scene of the disturbances was the nursery, where Hetty slept, and that when her parents came into the room to hear the noises, they found her not yet waked by Jeffery, but sweating and trembling violently in her sleep. On another occasion, when her father was waked by the spirit, he obtained the assistance of Hetty in examining the chambers, because she was the only person up in the house. And it would seem that Hetty was usually one of the last persons up, it being her office to take away her father's candle after he had gone to bed. Against the supposition, however, that Hetty was the contriver of the tricks which so completely puzzled her family, two things may be said, first, that it is incredible that she could have produced, without assistance, all the varied noises and other phenomena which were ascribed to Jeffery. Secondly, that even if she could, it is incredible that she would have done so. I take the moral difficulty first, as far more formidable than the physThirdly. The spirit was a Jacobite, as he showed ical one. Is it conceivable that an amiable young by constantly interrupting the prayer for the king girl, well and piously brought up, should have been and royal family. It will be remembered that, in guilty of what her mother fairly calls "such villany," respect of politics, the Wesleys were a divided as to terrify her whole family for a couple of months; household, the father being a loyal subject of King that she should have succeeded in keeping her secret George, the mother being a stanch adherent of the from father, mother, sisters, and servants, and carexiled family. We have reason to think that it was ried that secret to her grave? And can the smallthe mother's opinion which prevailed in the family.est motive be assigned for such a series of pranks? No doubt the temper of the ladies must have been severely tried by the prayers for King George daily offered by Mr. Wesley, and in which they were supposed to join, and to which they were expected to say Amen. But I see no reason for supposing that the servants were likely to have held strong Jacobite opinions, and to have felt the prayers for the king to be offensive. On the whole, then, these reasons inclined me to acquit the servants of any share in the trick, if trick there were, and rather to consider whether there could be any truth in Mr. Wesley's own first supposition, that his daughters or their lovers must have been the contrivers of the disturbances. When, however, I read the letters written by the young ladies to their brother, I felt myself constrained to acquit the sisters one after another. As I read each letter I was forced to say, "This is written with the artlessness of truth. The writer of this is honestly telling of what she firmly believes to be supernatural, and is a party to no imposture."

But there is a remarkable omission in this collection of letters. There is no letter from the sister, whom we otherwise know to be the cleverest, and the most ready at her pen. Susannah, indeed, says that it is needless for her to write at length, "because Emilia and Hetty write so particularly about it." It seems hard to imagine that Samuel, who so carefully preserved the letters of his other sisters, would not have taken equal care of Hetty's letter, had he received one from her. But whether it be that Hetty never wrote, although she had declared to her sisters her intention of writing, or that her letter was not preserved, no letter of hers on this subject is now to be found. It is the more to be regretted that we have not the same means of freeing her from suspicion which we had in the case of her sisters, because the story itself would lead us to conclude that if Jeffery used any of the sisters as his "medium," it must have been Hetty. We are told that Jeffery seemed to have a particular spite against her, that he followed her about, rapped under her feet, and, when she moved to another place, followed, and still kept under her feet. We are

Before attempting to answer these questions, I thought it well to ascertain if there were any information what kind of person Hetty at this time was. I find from Dr. Adam Clarke's history of the Wesley family, that she was at this time a lively, handsome, and unusually clever girl of nineteen. Her great talents had been taken notice of by her parents, and had been cultivated accordingly. She is said to have been able to read the Greek Testament at eight years of age, and she showed much taste for poetical composition, which she continued to practise for many years after the events now under consideration. Dr. A. Clarke gives the following character of her :

--

"From her childhood she was gay and sprightly, full of mirth, good-humor, and keen wit. She indulged this disposition so much, that it was said to have given great uneasiness to her parents, because she was in consequence of it betrayed into little inadvertencies which, though of small moment in themselves, showed that her mind was not under proper discipline, and that fancy, not reason, directed that line of conduct which she dangerous disposition, and is rarely connected with a thought proper to pursue. A spirit of this kind is a sufficiency of prudence and discretion to prevent it from injuring itself, and offending others. She appears to have had many suitors; but they were generally of the airy and thoughtless class, and ill suited to make her either happy or useful in a matrimonial life.”"

Now if we bear in mind the order in which Jeffery's successive manifestations occurred, I think it is not impossible to give a probable account of them which shall not impute to the contriver of these tricks any peculiar depravity, but merely a character such as has been just described, thoughtlessness and high spirits. It is to be remembered that certainly the first, and probably the first two or three disturbances were heard in the dining-room, out of which a door opened into the garden. My explanation of these first noises is as follows. A little before ten one night, and probably after her parents had retired to rest, Hetty is out in the garden, either, as her father conjectured, to meet a lover, or, as I rather believe, for another and more commonplace reason. On her return she finds the man-servant

mence the appearances to Mr. Wesley, which, however, as well as I can collect, continued in their violence only for a week.

and the maid sitting in the dining-room, through death should be portended by his inability to hear which she had intended to enter. Not choosing to Jeffery, a daughter who, in spite of thoughtlessness, be seen by them coming in, she groans and knocks, really loved her mother, would have no choice left gives them a thorough frightening, sends them off but either to make full confession, or to carry her to bed, and then re-enters at her leisure. Some-imposture a step further. At this time, then, comthing of the same kind may have occurred on another occasion, when her sister Molly was in the same room. I imagine these first tricks to have been played on the spur of the moment, and without the least intention of continuing them. I come now to the second stage of the disturbances, that in which the noises were heard up stairs, and heard by the Wesley girls, and I have still to inquire, assuming that Hetty could cause these sounds, whether there was any conceivable motive which could account for her doing so. The first disturbance causes a much greater sensation in the household than its author had calculated on. The frightened servants tell their story, probably with some exaggeration, to their fellow-servants and to the young ladies, and are received with some incredulity, and many valorous speeches. "What a couple of fools are you," cries the other maid. "I defy anything to fright "I wonder," says Miss Susannah Wesley, "you are so easily frighted; I would fain see what could fright me." And the story proceeds, "Presently a knocking began under the table." Assuming, as I say, that Hetty had the power to produce this sound, I cannot see that there is anything astonishing in her, exercise of the power. Nay, rather, when a girl full of fun and high spirits heard these very courageous speeches, the difficulty would be for her to forbear testing the vaunted courage of the speakers, supposing that she had the power to

me."

do so.

The first appearance to Mr. Wesley was on the 21st of December. On the 26th he rebuked the spirit sharply, and charged it not to disturb his innocent children, but to come to him in the study, if it had anything to say. On the next day it came by appointment to the study, and continued to be troublesome, until being asked to knock if it were Samuel's spirit, it went away for the night. It might possibly have then retired altogether, but that on the next day, the 28th, a neighboring clergyman is brought to the house to exorcise the ghost, and accordingly a grand exhibition takes place for his benefit. But after this, as well as I can ascertain, Jeffery is silent for more than three weeks; and Mr. Wesley is able to leave home to pay a promised visit, and the family is undisturbed during his absence. The account of Jeffery's reappearance on the 24th of January confirms my conviction that a member of the family was concerned in the imposture. The talk in the house on the subject of the phantom would naturally have nearly died away, when it suddenly revived on the 23d by the arrival of letters from their brother Samuel, who has just heard of the ghost, and is full of curiosity for information on the subject. Mr. Wesley reads out for his family the account which he has written for Samuel's information, and the very next mornThe next step in the proceedings I take to be, that ing, at family prayers, Jeffery begins again to knock after Hetty, emboldened by success, has continued during the prayers for the royal family. That Jef to play tricks on her sisters for some days, one morn- fery absented himself for three weeks at the time ing, about seven o'clock, while Jeffery is in full Mr. and Mrs. Wesley began to be anxious about swing, the eldest Miss Wesley brings in her mother Samuel's safety, and returned the very day after to hear. Hetty must then on the moment decide their uneasiness was removed, is a fact which has whether she will allow it to appear that Jeffery can not been noticed, and which is to my mind demonbe silenced by her mother's appearance, or whether strative. With regard to the knocks at prayershe will continue the rappings in her presence. time, when it is remembered what stress Mr. WesHere again it does not seem to me unnatural that ley laid on his family duly answering Amen at the she should have taken the latter course; and the end of these prayers, it will be seen that the loud ice having been once broken, she would thencefor-knocks which occurred at the place of the Amen ward have no scruple in repeating the raps in her were very convenient to cover the silence of any mother's presence. Mrs. Wesley next imagining member of the family who disliked the response. that the noises might be caused by rats, causes a I do not find that on this second occasion Jeffery horn to be sounded to frighten them away. Her knocked at any other time, and his visit only condaughter Emilia pronounces that this will be sure tinued a few days. The performer would by this to insult Jeffery, and cause him to be more trouble-time be pretty well tired of the trick, and the prosome. And this proves to be the case; for whereas posal to bring Samuel down from London would be he had hitherto come only by night, he now comes an additional reason for discontinuing it. I ought day and night. It is easy to understand both that not to omit to take notice of one other fact. Jef Hetty would take her sister's hint, and also that fery's first appearance outside the house was her while formerly her attempts had been confined to alded by loud groans; but from the time that he the bedrooms where the sisters were alone, or to came inside the house it seems to me doubtful places where only the servants could hear, now that whether any such sounds were heard. Some "two she gains courage to knock in her mother's hearing, or three feeble squeaks, a little louder than the she can do so down stairs, and in the daytime. I have chirpings of a bird," were the only exercise of it already noticed that she was careful never to disturb vocal organs that Mr. Wesley's invocations coule her mother at her hours of devotion. If Hetty may elicit. We find that Jeffery had a voice, but that have been led on thus far step by step in thought-after the first day, something prevented him from lessness and gayety of spirit, the next step was one in which she had scarcely a choice left her. It seems evident that of her own will she would not have ventured to trouble her father, who seems to have inspired as much awe in his household as fathers ordinarily did in those days. But when her mother became seriously unhappy lest her husband's

using it. This is easily understood on my hypothe sis; for a girl might try to frighten her sisters b noises of every other kind, but sounds made b her own voice are precisely those which she woul find it hard to venture on without danger of detec tion.

Lastly, the fact that Jeffery's secret was neve

my

for which our children will be the better.

ever put me into the position with respect to his | is what most human beings can enter into with ease; book-I mean as to intelligence only-in which but suppose it were not so, how would the excepted the author strove to place me. I may read him a people relish the poem? Obviously they would hundred times, and not catch the precise right point lack the very first requisite for the enjoyment of it. of view; and may read him a hundred and one Now, in proportion as a writer, poet or not, addresstimes, and hit it the hundred and first. The driest es himself to compound sensibilities, which may not and hardest book that ever was contains an interest have shaped themselves yet in average minds, he over and above what can be picked out of it, and takes rank, no doubt, below the first order of his laid, so to speak, on the table. It is interesting as craft, but we need not be unjust to him. He has his friend is interesting; it is a problem which in- own burden to bear; and, since writers of this kind vites me to closer knowledge, and that usually means must arise in times of rapid and complicated intelcloser love. He must be a poor friend that we only lectual transition, we should be on our guard in care to see once or twice, and then forget. forming opinions of books. For the reasons just 2. It never seems to occur to some people, who pointed out, we may not fully understand or like deliver upon the books they read very unhesitat-such writers, but they are, perhaps, fighting a battle ing judgments, that they may be wanting, either by congenital defect, or defect of experience, or defect of reproductive memory, in the qualifications which are necessary for judging fairly of any particular book. Yet the first question a practised and conscientious reader asks himself is, whether he has any natural or accidental disability for the task of criticism in any given case. It may surprise many persons to hear of the possibility of such a thing; but perhaps it may be made clear by examples. As to congenital defect. We all admit that some individuals are born with better "ears for music, and better "eyes" for color, and more "taste" for drawing than others, and we willingly defer, other things being equal, to the decisions upon the points in question of those who are by nature the best gifted. It is quite a common thing to meet people who, in spite of culture, continue unmusical all their lives long, or unable to catch perspective, or draw a wheel round or a chimney straight, or discriminate fine shades of color at all. What is the value of the opinions of such persons upon questions of the fine arts? Scarcely anything, of course. Now a book is in no wise distinguished, for our present purpose, from a picture or a sonata. It is sure, if it be a good book, to appeal, in some of its parts, to special aptitudes of sensibility on the part of its readers; but if the reader lacks the aptitudes, where is the poor author? And cases in point are not so rare as might be supposed.

It is obvious to apply the same kind of remark to our own imperfections of experience, or our peculiarities of experience. We are all very fond of telling the young who are about us that they will one day understand the wise saws in which they now see nothing; but among our peers, do we lay the same thing to heart? What flashes of light do experiences of fresh emotion, such as meet us suddenly upon turning corners in our lives, often throw upon all our past store of facts! It may very well be that the book we slight, or the particular page we slight, is written by some fellow-creature who has happened to receive from events a quickening touch which has not yet fallen to our own lot. Poor indeed must our experience be as readers of books if we have never found a page, which once we thought empty, now full of life and light and meaning. True, it is the business of the artist to make us feel with him and see with him; some fault may be his,

and yet not all the fault. At least, he may claim that we should bring to him a tolerably patient and receptive mind, not a repelling, refusing mind; in a word, that we should treat him with decency, if we profess to attend to him at all.

Akin to defect of experience is defect of reproductive memory. It is very common for a man to take up a book which he once admired with passion, and to find scarcely anything in it. What, then, is the natural thought, the one that he is most likely to There are thousands of people who are wanting make? That his judgment is more mature, I supin sensibility to beauty in general; in the feeling of pose. Well, it may be, and it ought to be; but cerpersonal attachment; in the feelings of the hearth; tainly the author of the work may claim that his the feelings of the forum; the feelings of the altar. reader should ask himself another question, namely, It is not at all uncommon to come across characters Have I lost anything in general or specific sensibilin which the ordinary natural susceptibility to de-ity since I first read this book? I have myself had votional ideas, nay to fervid ideas in general, seems to ask this question, and to answer it against myself. wholly left out. It is as if they had come into the Lapse of time must alter us; and we are, perhaps, world with a sense short. Again, you may meet too apt to fancy ourselves wiser when we are only people who have no idea of humor. Allow any lat- something more hard, and something more dull. It itude you please for taste in this matter.—and, of has happened to me, indeed, to agree with a writer course, taste differs, it still remains true that a to- upon first reading; to disagree with him upon sectal absence of the sense of fun is occasionally seen ond reading, after an interval of a year or two; and in society. Now, we must remember that in speak- then again, upon third reading, after another intering of qualities we, after all, draw arbitrary bound-val, to have to come back to my first opinion. ary lines. There are many deficiencies, as many as there are human beings, which cannot be labelled, compound deficiencies, so to speak, which affect the total appreciativeness of our minds to a degree which we ourselves cannot measure, though a healthy self-consciousness may keep us on our guard; and, of course, our estimates of literature, as of other forms of art, must be affected by such shortcomings in our natural make. The staple of the In Memoriam is the tender regret of faithful friendship for the friend lost, this, I say, is the staple, much as the poem contains in addition. Fortunately this

--

3. We do not sufficiently discriminate, when we speak of the reception of books, in our use of the word public. Which public? There are a hundred. A square book will no more suit a round public than a square thing will go into a round hole; but if a square man shuns to read a square book because a round public has rejected it, he is clearly a loser. Again, there are small, peculiar publics, which are, notwithstanding their smallness, well worth considering. The currents of feeling, opinion, and culture are enormous, with a thousand eddies in them; creeks and bays and little inlets where strange pleas