nd conveyed thither, and that I had been attacked by
the brain fever, and that my life had been despaired of by my medical
attendant.

The body which had been found in the stream, and which was supposed to be
mine, was that of my dear friend, Hoffmeister. In his agitation,
previously to his committing the dreadful act of suicide, he had
inadvertently mistaken my garments for his own.

When I became convalescent, I determined upon leaving, as soon as
possible, the scene of my recent suffering. Before doing so, I proceeded
to the village which I had previously visited. I called upon the gentleman
who had not recognized me on a former occasion; but, strange to say, he
now remembered me perfectly, and received me very kindly indeed. I
referred to the circumstance of our late interview, but he had no
recollection of it. While we were thus conversing, a third person entered
the room, the very image of my friend, and who, it appeared was his
brother. An explanation at once ensued.

These matters I have thought it necessary to explain. There are, however,
occurrences in the narrative, of which I can give no solution, though I
may premise, that my conviction is, that those which took place in the
village, arose from natural causes, with which I am nevertheless
unacquainted. The body of the man, who, I have reason to believe, was not
quite dead when he was brought to me, I conveyed with me to Berlin. The
old woman I never again beheld.

THE SUN. (FROM CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH JOURNAL.)

Of all the links in the stupendous chain of the cosmos, the sun, next to
our own planet, is that which we are most concerned in knowing well, while
it is precisely that which we know the least. This glorious orb has always
been involved in the deepest mystery. All that had been revealed to us
concerning it, till very recently, was derived from the observations and
deductions of the elder Herschel. His discovery of a double luminous
envelopment, at times partially withdrawn from various portions of the
sun's surface, afforded, on the whole, a satisfactory explanation of the
numerous spots that are always seen on his disk. This glimpse merely of
the external changes which happen on his surface made up the sum of our
knowledge of that great luminary on which the animation of our planetary
system depends! One main cause of this utter ignorance on the subject,
besides its own intrinsic difficulty, lay in the comparatively slight
attention it