of which they could not readily divest themselves as they could of their clothes. Decent women would not be likely to have their persons uncovered before men, or before other women; but there were occasions when they were entirely private and unseen, as far as humankind were concerned, when it would be necessary to cast aside garments; but here the hair, nature's covering, would be a veil, because of the angels who could be present without being seen. And now the matter might be dismissed, with this reflection:-It is commanded that women have regard to the presence of the angels. But one text leads the mind to another in strange ways, and as the view seems to open one is loath to turn away from it. There is in Genesis a remarkable passage, which has been much disputed, but which can hardly fail to present itself to the memory after a person has followed the line of thought which I have been taking. It is this: "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose." I am quite aware that many learned men, of whom Milton* is one, have been of opinion that this text does not relate to spirits, but that the "sons of God" are the male descendants of Seth, who were reared in the fear of God, as distinguished from the progeny of Cain, whose daughters are called the daughters of men." many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God," says St. Paul. We read nothing, be it remarked, of the male Cainites having married the daughters of Seth. Then, on the other hand, others have not scrupled to regard "the sons of God" here mentioned as heavenly beings; and we know that two of our foremost poets, Byron and Moore, have in their works adopted this latter view. And surely there are grounds for their choice of it. This connection, whatever it was, seems to have been so displeasing to the Creator, that He repented that He As *Milton, in the 'Paradise Lost,' favors the belief that the " sons of God" were men; but, in the 'Paradise Regained,' Book II., he introduces a contrary idea, and makes Satan charge Belial and his "lusty crew" with being the husbands in these marriages. had made man, and determined to destroy him. The intermarriage of the descendants of Cain and the descendants of Seth does not, so far as we can judge, appear of so heinous a complexion as that it should move the divine wrath so fearfully. But the intermarriage of spirits with human beings, if it were forbidden and unnatural, would, no doubt, have brought down condign punishment. Obedient spirits could not have been guilty of it, the sin must have been that of devils; and the sin could not have been committed unless these devils had been susceptible of earthly love. Some of these spirits may in their natures come very close to us. We are made only a little lower than the angels, and the lowest grades of angels may have much in common with us. We must remember that in old times angels frequently appeared in human forms. They are shown to us as eating before Abraham's tent; and an angel wrestled with Jacob.. So like did they appear to human beings, that St. Paul speaks of it as a possible thing that men might entertain angels unawares. Here, then, on these suppositions, is a very sufficient reason why women should not be without a veil, because of the angels.* It is true that disobedient spirits would, since the Flood, appear to have been restrained from the actual contraction of these unhallowed marriages, but they may still retain the inclination for them. It is a point not to be overlooked, that spirits, having the power to introduce themselves, as they are said to do, into houses and chambers, might be supposed to possess powers of vision that would pierce through matter; and, that being so, a veil would be of little use against them. But we do not know that they see through matter; and upon examination there is reason to think that they do not. The seraphim are represented as covering themselves with their wings, which would be a meaningless act if it had not the effect of concealing, or of shutting out the light. I have set down these thoughts as they Though the remark is foreign to the subject treated of in the text, I cannot forbear to say, that believing women, if they take heed of the things said in this chapter, which speaks of their wearing veils because of the angels, cannot possibly entertain popular ideas as to woman's rights. occurred to me. Wiser heads than mine I am unwilling to turn from these thoughts about spirits without some notice of subjects apparently connected with these beings, which have made their noise in the world, and have been very differently regarded by mankind in different epochs. I mean divination and witchcraft. Two or three centuries ago scarcely a soul doubted the existence everywhere of these practices. So ready was men's belief, that they made most absurd imputations of these crimes, committed horrible cruelties, and at last, by their very zeal and intolerance, produced a reaction in feeling and opinion which steadily increased up to the point which it has now reached, when every person pretending to be educated treats everything relating to the black art as imposture. There is no doubt at all that the pendulum swung much too far in the direction of credulity and persecution. It is just possible that it may have oscillated much too far into the other extreme of complacent, lofty incredulity. The testimony which may be heard in these days of the frequent appearance of spirits suggests the propriety of giving at least a little patient consideration to these things. Beyond all doubt there have been pretenders to a knowledge of sorcery who were the rankest impostors; also a multitude of harmless people popularly suspected of sorcery whose efforts against the tide of opinion were ineffectual to clear their reputations. But besides the jugglers and the persecuted, there may have been some few real accomplices of familiar spirits who have been whitewashed along with the general crowd by the verdict of this superior age. Enchanters there certainly were in Egypt in the old days, and witches and wizards among the Jews throughout their abode in Palestine. What we have heard of magic in other nations may of course be contemptuously rejected by those who will not tolerate the idea of such a thing; but I do not see why it should be so treated. If we could prove the impossibility of the action of familiar spirits in general, we should be justified in the rejection of every particular story and of the whole lore of witchcraft in the mass, as is our method this day. But we can prove nothing of the kind, whatever we may choose to affirm, and evidence is setting in the opposite direction. A man in these days may reasonably examine well-attested accounts of uncanny operations, notwithstanding that a few years. ago he may have thought such investigations mere waste of time, and quite beneath a person pretending to enlightenment. I must say that I am disposed to look on now as very suspicious circumstances some things which in former days either happened within my own knowledge or were told me by persons on whom I could entirely rely; although there was a time when I put them by as mere nonsense, not because I could say anything against them, but because I did not choose to receive such stuff, and the proper enlightened way was to scoff at them. I believe that some feats of socalled sorcery are known to have occurred in India, in which the keenest observers were unable to detect imposture. Very strange and inexplicable things are also reported to have occurred in the West Indies among the Obeah people. And we are all well acquainted with the pretensions of the gipsies to the power of divination. A black or colored woman informed the Empress Josephine that she would one day sit on a throne, long before Napoleon was heard of by the world, and long before she knew him. A lucky shot, or a curious coincidence, condescendingly say those who cannot dispute the fact; but why may it not have been the forecast of a spirit of divination, if we can believe that there are about us everywhere spirits who are willing to communicate with men? When I was young I once was in a town which I did not often visit, at some distance from my own home. Just without the town I met a gipsy woman, who asked me for silver in the usual way. I gave it; and she immediately told me something which rather startled me, and demanded a further fee for more particular information. I was led on in this way until I had parted with several shillings, but the woman told me things concerning myself which I hardly thought it possible that any one could know by ordinary means. It might, perhaps, with some trouble have been learned, but I have not the least idea that it was so learned; and I believe my meeting with the gipsy to have been as accidental on her part as it was on mine. Again, two near relations of mine, sisters, were at school together in Scotland, and went with several companions to visit a magician then celebrated. A good many of the party received vaticinations in return for their money; but my two relatives, though they made repeated attempts to get an augury, never succeeded. The wizard at length, not knowing how longer to excuse himself, spoke aside to a lady who had gone in charge of the party, and said, "I wish to avoid saying anything to those two young ladies, for they have lost a near relation, and do not know it." Soon after this the party left. Some little time after arrived a ship from one of the northern islands with the news that their mother had died there about the time of the consultation of the seer. There had been no earlier communication from their home since the death; the young women had not the least expectation of such an event. They were not informed of what the man had said until after his saying had been proved to be correct. The thing happened long before the days of electric telegraphs. I never heard any probable explanation of it suggested. I give one more case, trusting that I do not try my reader beyond endurance. In one of our West India Islands there went about a rumor that a certain house and premises in the country were enchanted. I heard of it and laughed at it, as did many others. One is never surprised at anything of this kind being believed by the black people, who have entire reliance on the powers of Obeah. But after a while some white people began to speak of the thing as a fact and a nuisance. Magistrates were applied to, and went and saw the state of things for themselves: they also stationed white policemen on the premises, because it was said that a person walking in the grounds had been seized in some mysterious man ner and maltreated, though not seriously injured. I went myself as a matter of curiosity to the place, and at first saw nothing unusual; but a negro took me into a yard at the back of the house, and desired me to call out, which I did, and immediately there descended into the yard a shower of sticks, stones, mangoes, and leaves. I called again, and the same thing occurred. This was in daylight. We searched all round, but could find no person lurking about. It must have taken several people placed about in the trees, and at different points, to have produced the effect. Afterwards, when I tried the shouting, the shower was not invariably so plentiful as at first, but there was always a fall of some kind. I remained at the place all that day and through the night assisting the police, and very anxious to find out the perpetrators of these marvels, but nobody at all was seen about. Next day I left, deciding that though I couldn't see into the affair, it was some piece of jugglery not worth thinking of; and so I dismissed it from my mind, and soon forgot it while occupied with the affairs of life. What other persons reported was all in the way of knocking things about and wanton disorder. on looking back to it, it seems so like to the tricks reported of spirits in its perplexing and yet meaningless character, that it is more easily accounted for as some of their diversions than in any other way. Now, I ought to state that, although I appear to favor belief in spiritualism, I do so entirely in deference to what seems to me to be candid testimony. My natural bias did not prejudice me in its favor; and I never in my life attended a séance or witnessed any medium's performances. The evidence for it seems strong, and has never been fairly rebutted. If we reject testimony simply because it witnesses something disagreeable to us, or something that we arbitrarily pronounce to be false because it is extraordinary, how much are we better than those opponents of Christianity who have decided to reject the miracles of Scripture "because they are contrary to experience"? We reasonably expect that the record of eye-witnesses and contemporaries should have more weight than a philosophic idea or axiom which a man may have taken into his mind. HER DEAREST FOE. BY MRS. ALEXANDER, AUTHOR OF THE WOOING o't," etc. CHAPTER XXXIV. THE long bright morning hung heavily on Kate's hands. She wrote a description of the previous day's adventures to her friend and partner; but that did not fill up all the time, though it carried her on well towards her midday chop. She tried to read, but an odd nervous anticipation distracted her attention. That Hugh Galbraith would make his appear ance, she was quite sure the only question was, when? Kate was too wise and womanly a woman, however, to be without the resource of needlework, which, as many a weary sister could testify, has a calming, satisfying influence of its own. She had carried with her a large piece of cloth appliqué work, and the intricacy of the pattern served to divert her thoughts. She had, however, hardly thus disposed of an hour, when the sound of a rapidly-approaching cab woke the echoes of the dull little street. The sound came near, ceased an instant, and then the conveyance seemed to drive away. An uncomfortable, uneasy beating of the heart made Kate's fingers unsteady. 66 I had hoped to be here earlier, Mrs. Temple," he said, in the easiest tone pôssible; for all his native pertinacity was roused and concentrated on preserving the character of friendship which he had adopted, until it led him-where?-well, he did not at present care to ask. “I had hoped to be earlier, but I was kept waiting for an immense time in Scotland Yard, and then sent to another office; however, here I am at last." He laid aside his hat as he spoke, and sat down, uninvited, at the opposite side of the table. "And I fear," said Mrs. Temple, taking courage as she noticed his manner, and the tranquil glance with which he met her eyes-"I fear you have had your trouble for nothing." "Not absolutely. The police are not quite without hopes of recovering your money. They know that a certain swellmobsman was at a sale of somebody's stud, near Lillington, and they are on his tracks. If you knew the number of your note, I fancy it might be all right." "It is very unfortunate! I drew it out of the bank the afternoon before I started for London, last Monday, and as I was very busy, I omitted to enter the number-a disgraceful oversight for a woman of business," she added smiling. "I fear you will have to pay a rather heavy forfeit in consequence. By the way, the bank people would know the number! Why don't you telegraph to them? I'll go to the nearest office and do it for you-they can telegraph back directly—and if you send me a line tonight, I can see the inspector to-morrow, the first thing." He stretched out his hand towards his hat as he spoke. Stop, stop!" cried Kate, let me think for a moment." "There is really nothing to think about," said Galbraith, who could not understand her hesitation, while she confusedly thought of all the mischief that would possibly and probably arise from his becoming mixed up with her affairs. It would be better to telegraph herself, so she said, looking earnestly into Galbraith's grave eyes, and then she remembered her bankrupt condition. But the nearest office is a long way off," he urged-" somewhere near Oxford Street, I suspect" (it was before the days of postal telegraphs)--“better leave it to me.' But the bank people will not tell you anything-they will only do so to me.' "I will telegraph in your name, and give your address.' "Then telegraph to Fanny!" cried Mrs. Temple eagerly. "She can go to the bank; they know her, and will give her the information, and she will lose no time." "What's the hour now?" said Galbraith, looking at his watch-two-thirty |