But there is an air of gentility inborn and inbred to some people, and even when they aim to be awkward, a certain grace will attend all their minutest actions and gestures, and command love, respect, and veneration. I must therefore own that there was not need of a man's being a conjurer to guess who ought to be the lady and who the maid; but to know absolutely who was the lady and who was the maid did require that skill. For how many such real ladies have we that are made so from such upstarts, and how many genteel waiting-women of great descent, that are born with a grace about them, and are bred to good manners. Mr. Campbell's art made him positive in the case; he took the patches from the face of the maid and placed them on the mistress's; he pulled off her hood and scarf and gave it to the lady, and taking from the lady her riding-hood, gave it the maid in exchange; for ladies at that time of day were not entered into that fashion of cloaking themselves. Then he wrote down that he should go out, and ought to send his maid in to undress them quite, and give the mistress her own clothes and the maid hers, and with a smile wrote down both their names and commended her contrivance; but after that it was remarked by the lady that he paid her less respect than she expected, and more to her footman, who was in gentleman's habit, whom he took by his side, and told a great many fine things; whereas he would tell the lady nothing further. The lady, nettled at this, wrote to him that she had vanity enough to believe that she might be distinguished from her maid in any dress; but that he had shown

was.

his want of skill in not knowing who that gentleman Mr. Campbell told her her mistake in sharp terms; and begging her pardon, assured her he knew several chambermaids as genteel and as well-born as her, and many mistresses more awkward and worse born than her maid; that he did not go, therefore, by the rule of guess and judging what ought to be, but by the rule of certainty, and the knowledge of what actually was. She, however, unsatisfied with that answer, perplexed him mightily to know who the man was. He answered, he would be a great man. The lady laughed scornfully, and said she wanted to know who he was, not what he would be. He answered again, he was her footman, but that she would have a worse. She grew warm, and desired to be informed why, since he knew the fellow's condition, he respected her so little and him so much; and accused him of want of practising manners if he had not want of knowledge. He answered, "Madam, since you will be asking questions too far, this footman will advance himself to the degree of a gentleman, and have a woman of distinction to his wife; while you will degrade yourself by a marriage to be the wife of a footman. His ambition is laudable, your condescension mean, therefore I give him the preference; I have given you fair warning and wholesome advice, you may avoid your lot by prudence, but his will certainly be what I tell you."

This coming afterwards to pass exactly as was predicted, and his disappointing so many that had a mind to impose upon him, has rendered him pretty free from such wily contrivances since, though now

and then they have happened, but still to the mortification and disappointment of the contrivers. But as we have not pretended to say, with regard to these things, that he has his genius always at his elbow or his back, to whisper in his ear the names of persons, and such little constant events as these; so, that we may not be deemed to give a fabulous account of his life and adventures, we think ourselves bound to give the reader an insight into the particular power and capacity which he has for bringing about these particular performances, especially that of writing down names of strangers at first sight, which I do not doubt will be done to the satisfaction of all persons who shall read the succeeding chapter concerning the gift of the second-sight.

CHAPTER SEVEN

CONCERNING THE SECOND-SIGHT.

R. MARTIN lately published a book, entitled "A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland, called by the ancient geographers, Hebrides." It contains many curious particulars relating to the natural and civil history of those islands, with a map of them; and in his preface he tells us, that perhaps it is peculiar to those isles that they have never been described till now by any man that was a native of the country, or had travelled them as himself has done; and in the conclusion of the said preface he tells us he has given here such an account of the second-sight as the nature of the thing will bear, which has always been reckoned sufficient among the unbiassed part of mankind; but for those that will not be satisfied they ought to oblige us with a new scheme by which we may judge of matters of fact. The chief particulars he has given us concerning the second-sight are here set down, by way of abstract or epitome, that they may not be too tedious to the reader.

1. In the second-sight the vision makes such a lively impression on the seers, that they neither see nor think of anything else but the vision as long as

it continues; and then they appear pensive or jovia according to the object which was presented to them.

2. At the sight of a vision the eyelids of the person are erected, and the eyes continue staring till the object vanish, as has often been observed by the author and others present.

3. There is one in Skye, an acquaintance of whom observed, that when he sees a vision the inner part of his eyelids turn so far upwards, that, after the object disappears, he must draw them down with his fingers, and sometimes employs others to draw them down, which he finds to be much the easier way.

4. The faculty of the second-sight does not lineally descend in a family, as some imagine, for he knows several parents that are endowed with it, but not their children, and so on the contrary. Neither is it acquired by any previous compact; and after a strict inquiry he could never learn from any among them that this faculty was communicable any way whatsoever.

Note, that this account is differing from the account that is given by Mr. Aubrey, a gentleman of the Royal Society; and I think Mr. Martin's reason here against the descent of this faculty from parents to children is not generally conclusive. For, though he may know parents endowed with it, and not children, and so vice versa, yet there may be parents who are endowed with it, being qualified, as Mr. Aubrey has said (viz., both being second-sighted, or even one to an extraordinary degree), whose children may have it by descent. And as to this faculty