own spiritual intrusion on the previous
evening. "I have heard of Doctor Pordage and the Dragon, and of the
Drummer of Tedworth; but when you tell a sane British subject that his
apparition comes before him, and takes, as it were, the froth off his
welcome"----

"No, no, my dear friend," interrupted Colonel Prowley, "you must know
that nothing could do that! As to the obituary I had written, it may do
for some other time,--for, indeed, my felicity in such compositions has
been highly commended, and this by mundane authorities of no common
weight."

"Let us change the subject," said Sir Joseph, dryly; "I have no wish to
test your powers in that direction; and so long as I don't give up the
ghost, I suppose you must."

"I would only say this," observed the Colonel,--"that in your book upon
America I hope you will not fail to declare, that, in folly, deception,
and unmitigated humbug, our Foxden spirits exceed all others ever seen
or heard."

"Sir Joseph Barley would be a foolish chronicler to commit himself to
any such statement," said Dr. Burge, who seemed to feel it his duty to
speak the moral _tag_ to our little Fast-Day interlude. "I cannot allow
that these Foxden manifestations are one whit more silly or equivocal
than many I have seen elsewhere. This shamming the ghost of somebody
still alive is no uncommon deception: several cases of the sort have
come under my recent observation. And it is well that they sometimes
occur; for they must cause reflection in all who are not victims of a
mental disorder which seems to confound the reasoning powers of
man,--causing its subjects to accept as teachers phantoms of their
morbid imaginations, or deceiving intelligences from without. To all, I
say, but such as these, an imposition of the sort here noticed must send
reflections of our total inability to identify any pretended spirit
merely because he flatters our vanity, or talks what may seem _to us_
good morality or sound sense."

Dr. Burge had laid aside his knife and fork, and had launched bravely
forth upon his theme. Sir Joseph moved uneasily. Things were getting
serious. Our host happily interposed,--

"Very true, Doctor, all very true;--yet there is one piece of wisdom
regulating the spiritual practice which now seems worth considering."

"And what is that, pray?"

"They do not recognize Fast-Day."

"Well, well," said Dr. Burge, taking the hint with the utmost
good-humor, "perhaps they were not altogether w