of steps from a certain point, or at least so that as either his right or left foot (I am not certain which) should constantly make the first movement when he came close to the door or passage. Thus I conjecture: for I have, upon innumerable occasions, observed him suddenly stop, and then seem to count his steps with a deep earnestness; and, when he had neglected or gone wrong in this sort of magical movement, I have seen him go back again, put himself into a proper posture to begin the ceremony, and, having gone through it, break from his abstraction, walk briskly on, and join his company."

§ 346. Of casual association in connexion with particular days. The same marked tendencies of mind may sometimes be discovered in connexion with particular days or other periods of time. Pinel mentions a lady who fancied that Friday was a day of ill omen and ill luck.

"She at

length carried this notion so far that she would not leave her room on that day. If the month began on a Friday, it rendered her extremely fearful and miserable for several days. By degrees, Thursday, being the eve of Friday, excited similar alarms. If ever she heard either of those days named in company, she immediately turned pale, and was confused in her manner and conversation, as if she had been visited by some fatal misfortune."*

Statements, much to the same effect, have been made of an individual no less distinguished than Lord Byron. From some circumstance or other, he became deeply impressed with the belief that Friday was destined to be, in relation to himself, an unlucky or ill-omened day. This was not a mere transitory feeling, which was under the control of his philosophy, but was deeply seated and operative. And, with his characteristic frankness, he did not hesitate to declare, or, rather, he took no pains to conceal, that his mind was actually under the despotism of this strange influence.t

We will subjoin here, as bearing some affinity to the cases which might properly be arranged under this head, an instance mentioned in the Encyclopedia Americana *Treatise on Insanity, Davis's translation, p. 140. + Moore's Life of Byron, vol, ii,, p. 458.

by the author of the article on Memory. The statement is as follows: "How strange are the associations of ideas which often take place in spite of us. Every one must have experienced such. The writer recollects a melancholy instance in the case of an insane boy in a hospital, whose derangement was referred to an irreverent association with the name of God, which occurred to him while singing a hymn in church, and of which he could not divest himself, the painfulness of the impression making it occur to him more forcibly every time he sung in church, till his reason became unsettled."

347. Antipathies to animals.

Nothing but the fact of the existence and great power of casual associations can explain the circumstance that individuals have, from time to time, discovered a very great antipathy to certain animals. Tasso, according to his biographers, would fall into convulsions at the sight of a carp. Henry III. of England could not be persuaded to sit in the room with a cat. Admiral Coligni, a name justly renowned in the history of France, was so afraid of a mouse, that he could not be induced to admit one to his presence unless he had his sword in his hand.

No man ever gave more decided proofs of courage than the celebrated Marquis de la Roche Jacquelin; but it is a singular fact (although no account is given of the origin of this strange association), that he could not look in the face of a squirrel without trembling and turning pale. He himself ridiculed his weakness in this respect, but with all his efforts he could not prevent the physical effects which have been referred to whenever he was in the presence of that harmless animal.

But we have an incident nearer home, which appears the less surprising, because we know the origin of it. The late Governor Sullivan, of Massachusetts, when a boy, fell asleep under a tree, and was awaked by a serpent crawling over him. He arose in great terror, ran towards the house, and fell down in a convulsive fit. Afterward, through life, he retained such aversion for everything of the serpent kind, that he could not see one, or even the picture of one, without falling into convulsions.

Peter the Great, of Russia, who certainly was not wanting in expansion and force of mind, was subject to a strong and invincible aversion of this kind. His biographer, without giving any explanation of it, merely mentions the fact as follows: "Nothing was so much the object of the Czar's antipathy as a black insect of the scarabeus or beetle kind, which breeds in houses that are not kept clean and especially in places where meal and other provisions are deposited. In the country, the walls and ceilings of the peasant's houses are covered with them, particularly in Russia, where they abound more than in any other part of the world. They are there called taracan; but our naturalists give them the name of dermeste, or dissecting scarabeus.

"Although the Russian monarch was far from being subject to childish fears or womanish fancies, one of these insects sufficed to drive him out of an apartment, nay, even out of the house. In his frequent journeys in his own dominions, he never went into a house without having his apartment carefully swept by one of his own servants, and being assured that there were no taracans to fear. One day he paid a visit to an officer who stood pretty high in his esteem, at his country house, which was built of wood, at a little distance from Moscow. The Czar expressed his satisfaction with what was offered him, and with the order he observed in the house. The company sat down to table, and dinner was already begun, when he asked his landlord if there were taracans in his house.

"Not many,' replied the officer, without reflecting, 'and, the better to get rid of them, I have pinned a living one to the wall.' At the same time he pointed to the place where the insect was pinned, and still continued to palpitate. Unfortunately, it was just beside the Czar, in whom the unexpected sight of this object of his aversion produced so much emotion, that he arose instantly from table, gave the officer a violent blow, and left his house with all his attendants." ""*

Stalhin's Original Anecdotes of Peter the Great.

APPENDIX ON LANGUAGE

CHAPTER I.

NATURAL SIGNS.

1. Of the natural and necessary communication of the mental states from one to another.

It requires but a slight acquaintance with the predominant traits and the history of the human race, to be fully satisfied of the intention of Providence, that our internal experiences, including both the suggestions of the intellect and the emotions of the heart, shall be communicated to others. The saying is not more common than true, that man is not born for himself alone. Not only his family, and the friends who share in his private personal intercourse, but his country and the whole human race, possess a positive degree of interest in him. He comes into existence in society; he is trained up in society; his home, his permanent residence, is in society. It is there that he finds the theatre of his sufferings and his joys; of all that he expects to endure, and of all that he permits himself to hope for, in the present life.

And if it were otherwise; if man had not, in fact, the society of his fellows, he would still not be in utter solitude. Let him be doomed to suffer the fate of the King of Babylon, to be driven out, and to dwell with the beasts of the field, and he will not fail to make companions of them, and will take delight in it. He will even, where nothing else can be found to respond to the wants of his heart, converse with inanimate nature, with the flowers and trees, with the storms and the lightning; he will bless the fruit that nourishes him, and the shade that protects him; he will thank the blossom for its fragrance, and the distant waterfall for its pleasant sounds.-It may be asserted, therefore, with good reason, that a foundation is evidently laid in the human constitution for the intercourse of man

with his fellow-man, and that such intercourse is essential to his existence and his happiness. And hence it happens that not merely our thoughts and feelings, in themselves considered, but the mode in which they are to be communicated from one to another, becomes an interesting subject of inquiry. The mode, or, rather, the instrument by which this communication takes place, is Language in its various forms.

§ 2. Mental states first expressed by gestures and the countenance. The term LANGUAGE, which is employed here in its most general sense, and as standing for all signs of thought and feeling, embraces everything that proposes itself for consideration in this part of our inquiries. But, in order to render what we have to say the more easily understood, we shall consider the general subject under the distinct and important forms of Natural signs, Oral or spoken signs, and Written signs. And in the prosecution of this plan, we are first to consider NATURAL SIGNS, or such as a person would use who found himself incapable of employing either written signs or speech.

It is worthy of notice in respect to any individual who is separated in very early life from the human family, and permitted to grow up without any instruction in the use of the organs of speech, that he will be entirely ignorant in what way to employ such organs, with the unimportant exception of being able to utter a few inarticulate cries. The story of the wild boy found in the forests of Lithuania in 1695, which is introduced, with some comments of his own, in Part First of Condillac's Origin of Knowledge, may be referred to, among other instances, by way of confirming this remark. The same inability of articulate speech is noticed in those unfortunate individuals who are born deaf, and are commonly known under the designation of DEAF and DUMB persons.

But these persons are not without language, although they are incapable of articulate speech, and although we may suppose them ignorant of all artificial aids whatever in communicating thought. The kindness of nature has not failed to make a provision for them, which serves, although in a limited degree, to enable them to reveal to