578 Conversation with the Double Sighted Youth. [MAY, 



herbage and watch the little brown moorland birds glimmering, ever and anon, 

 like a speck of sun-light among the heather. I had within my ken twenty, at 

 least, of those picturesque dwellings which are so abundantly scattered through the 

 vallies and fields of dear Scotland ; at one time shining afar off upon the bare 

 and desolate hill-side, and at another, lifting up their bright gleesom faces from 

 the dark bosom of the mountain Glen; the gentle whimpling of a far-away brook- 

 let made a soft slumberous music. I lay thus, nearly an hour, in that delightful 

 condition, between sleeping and waking, when all at once a change seemed to 

 come over me, and I trembled as under the influence of a supernatural vision ; I 

 cannot describe my sensations with any precision, but I seemed to be suddenly 

 transported into one of the back streets of Edinbmgh, to which place my mother 

 had recently gone to see a sick relation. In an instant I was by the bedside of 

 my mother, who was dying of the fever which had been some time raging in the 

 city. I cannot go on, Sir, said Gordon, weeping bitterly ; but at that very hour, 

 as we learnt afterwards, my blessed mother breathed her last. This was the first 

 manifestation of the Second Sight; and since that day, I have been in the con- 

 stant possession of the gift. 



The double sighted youth appeared to be lost in meditation for a few minutes, 

 but he soon recovered himself, and he began to talk of the theatres. 



C?G. M. Have you seen Francis the First? 



D S. Y. Yes. 



O'G. If. And the Hunchback ? 



D. S. Y. Yes. 



CfG. M. And which do you think the best? 



D. S. Y. Think the best? Why the Hunchback, to be sure. My Second Sight 

 supplies me with a knowledge of the drama generally, and I can safely say, that 

 a play more harmoniously compacted, or one in which all the gentle and beautiful 

 graces of the heart most amiably flourish, has not been seen for many a long day ; 

 not even in Kean's most palmy days was a more crowded audience assembled 

 within the walls of a theatre than on last Thursday. Tier above tier, nothing but 

 outstretched and anxiously expectant faces : and oh, Sir, such faces ! Mahomet 

 would have purchased them at any price for his Paradise. 



O'G. M. Fie! fie! Gordon. 



D. S. Y. Nay, Sir, but let me go on, for the remembrance is delightful. We 

 had been sitting for some minutes ; the party behind me had nearly finished their 

 arrangement of their apparel, the lady had placed her bonnet upon her knees, the 

 gentleman had located his hat between his in turned feet, the juveniles (it was a 

 family party from Newgate-street) had each secured an orange from the hands of 

 their careful mother, when the bell rang and the curtain slowly rose,- all was 

 silent ! the fat lady, from Newgate, who was in the very act of enticing a banbury 

 cake from a black reticule, held it suspended for an instant between the finger 

 and thumb, and let it fall back into the unknown region of halfpence and ginger- 

 bread. Those listening thousands were a solitude. 



O'G. M. Gordon, 1 am afraid you have taken that thought from one of the 

 Oxford prize poems; I remember to have seen it somewhere. 



D. S. Y. May be, may be. It reminded me of the long summer hours I had 

 been dreaming upon the hill-side, looking up into the blue light, while not a single 

 sound spoke of animated nature around ; but the solitude was so intense, that I 

 could hear the faint sighing of the heather as the wind passed over it; you 

 never read that before, I surmise, Sir. Well, as I was saying, up went the cur- 

 tain, and from that moment until it left my eyes did not wander from the stage. 

 I love poetry, and some of the detached thoughts and images in the Hunchback 

 are exceedingly beautiful, but they arise naturally out of the action of the play, 

 and are not inserted by way of atoning for the want of scenic interest: they come 

 gleaming up like flowers upon a troubled sea, telling of a lovely and verdant land 

 not far distant; and this appears to me one of the distinguishing features of 

 the author of Viryinius ; the passions of his heroes and heroines have a decorum in 

 them. Can any thing be more vividly true than his Julia; and Fanny played it 

 admirably : she seemed to have taken a cast of the very features of the poet's Julia. 

 Her early innocence and incipient vanity, then her reckless and blinded extr ava 



