nitory,
above the power of fancy, and impressed upon us by some superior
intelligence. For of such dreams we have plain and undeniable instances
in history, both sacred and profane, and in our own age and observation.
Nor shall I so value the laughter of sceptics, and the scoffs of
epicureans, as to be ashamed to profess that I myself have had some
convincing experiments of such impressions." _Bishop Bull's Sermons and
Discourses_, Vol. II, pp. 489, 490.]

[Footnote 2: If I mistake not, the same Bishop Konn is the author of a
_midnight hymn_ coinciding with these words:

"May my ethereal Guardian kindly spread
His wings, and from the tempter screen my head;
Grant of celestial light some passing beams,
To bless my sleep, and sanctify my dreams!"

As he certainly was of these exactly parallel lines:

"Oh may my Guardian, while I sleep,
Close to my bed his vigils keep;
His love angelical distil,
Stop all the avenues of ill!
May he celestial joys rehearse,
And thought to thought with me converse!"]

[Footnote 3: See Appendix I.]

CHAPTER VII.

DOMESTIC RELATIONS.

I meet not with any other remarkable event relating to Major Gardiner,
which can properly be introduced here, till 1726, when, on the 11th of
July, he was married to the Right Hon. Lady Frances Erskine, daughter to
the late Earl of Buchan, by whom he had thirteen children, five only of
which survived their father, two sons and three daughters, whom I cannot
mention without the most fervent prayers to God for them, that they may
always behave worthy the honour of being descended from such parents,
and that the God of their father and of their mother may make them
perpetually the care of his providence, and yet more eminently happy in
the constant and abundant influences of his grace.

As her ladyship is still living,[*] (and for the sake of
her dear offspring, and numerous friends, may she long be spared,) I
shall not here indulge myself in saying any thing of her, except it be
that the colonel assured me, when he had been happy in this intimate
relation to her more than fourteen years, that the greatest imperfection
he knew in her character was, "that she valued and loved him much more
than he deserved." Little did he think, in the simplicity of heart with
which he spoke this, how high an encomium he was making upon her, and how
lasting an honour such a testimony must leave upon her name, long as the
memory of it shall co