Sept. 11, 1885.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



young man, a patient of his, one morning heard himself 

 addres.sed by name, and yet could see no one. He replied 

 to this invisible, and in reality imaginary, interlocutor ; 

 and a conversation followed, in the course of which the 

 ghostly visitor informed him that he — the visitor — re- 

 joiced in the name of Gabbage. After thi.s, he was 

 often favoured with visits from M. Gabbage. Unfortu- 

 nately, the suggestions of M. Gabbage were generally 

 open to objection. At one time M. Gabbage urged the 

 patient to give an overdose of chlorodyne to a friend's 

 child, at another his idea was that the young man would 

 do well to jiimp out of a second-floor window. 



Prof. Ball thought — naturally enough — that the young 

 man needed watching. It was presently found that the 

 patient was suffering from one-sided hallucination ; that 

 is to say, a strong but false impression, affecting one side 

 only of the brain, appeared to come from some external 

 cause, the healthy side rejecting the evidence as false. 

 (Without doubt many superstitions, many false religious 

 beliefs, and also many crimes, have been suggested in 

 this way.) 



Mr. Horsley finds nothing in this or similar cases to 

 suggest the duality of the brain ; but I take it that the 

 evidence is precisely analogous to that which showed me 

 not only the duality but the diversity of my own visual 

 powers. Usually, of course, the two sides of the brain 

 would give the same sort of evidence respecting external 

 objects ; just as — usually — the two eyes do : but in cer- 

 tain cases one side of the brain is defective or peculiar in 

 some way or other, and so gives evidence which the 

 better and sounder side rejects ; just as in my case one 

 eye gave evidence of large diffuse lights where I knew, 

 from the sound evidence of my better eye, that small 

 bright flames were burning. The analogy seems as per- 

 fect as it can be ; and the necessary conclusion is that 

 the brain's action, in ordinary cases, is as essentially dual 

 as the action of the eyes in vision. 



MYSTERIES AND MORALITIES. 



By Edward Clodd. 



WHATEVER afforded material for more vivid pre- 

 sentment of incidents connected with the birth 

 of Christ was gladly utilised by the dramatiscrs, and in 

 the meagreness of the canonical narratives, as well as in 

 their silence, the Apocryphal Gospels, with their freer 

 treatment of the mysteries of the miraculous conception 

 and their record of the scandal to which it was assumed 

 to give rise, were largely drawn upon. 



This is especially noticeable in the Coventry series, in 

 which eight plays bearing upon events preceding and 

 surrounding the Nativity are based upon the Protevange- 

 lium or Gospel of James, the Gospel of Mary, and the 

 History of Joseph the Carpenter. They treat of the 

 barrenness of Anna, of Mary in the Temple, of her be- 

 trothment, of the salutation and conception, of Joseph's 

 jealousy, of the visit to Elizabeth, and of the trial of 

 Joseph and Mary. 



Joseph's Jealousi/, or TroulU ahout Mary, is the subject 

 of a pliiy in each series, the Cli.sirr .■xr.'i.tvd, In xvl,i,'h 



years," leei, as^ ,,ne ef the liens/ ef Davi.'l, been eite.l « ith 



the "Holy Gost is .syttjTige," he .should be betrothed to 

 Mary. Joseph, who says : — • 



I have be maydon evyr, and evyr more wele ben, 



1 chaungyd not yet of alle my long )yff ; 



And now to be maryed sum man wold wen (gnesj), 



It is a straunge thynge an old man to take a yonge wyff, 



is appalled when, despite his striving to keep in the back- 

 ground, the "ded stok beryth floures," and he is told 

 that he must take Mary to wife. 



Nay, nay, sere, lett bene, 

 Xuld I now in age begynne to dote, 

 If I here chyde she wolde cloi 

 Blere myn ey, and pyke out a 

 And thus oftyn tymes it i 





But when told that God has ordained it he assents, and 

 the betrothal follows, Joseph " hiring a \jiy\ praty 

 hous " for Mary, where he leaves her to the care of five 

 maidens while he travels to a " fere countre " — 



The course of events is broken in the Coventry series 

 by a pageant of the Parliament of Heaven, or, as Hone 

 calls it, A Council of the Trinity, opening with a pro- 

 logue by Contemplacio, who recites the fall of man and 

 his need of redemption. Veritas, Justitia, and Miseri- 

 cordia alike supplicate the Divine mercy, and as the 

 result of a council between the persons in the Trinity, 

 the angel Gabriel is commanded to visit Mary and 

 announce to her that " the son of the Godhead of here 

 xal be bore." He salutes her with an anagrammatic pun 

 if the reading " av ye " instead of "ar ye" is correct : 



Heyl, fful of grace, God is with the, 

 Amonge alle women blyssyd art thu ; 

 Here this name Eva is turnyd Ave, 

 That is to say withoatte sorwe av ye now. 



A lilt 1. I Til I till- (he following stage direction occurs : 



// ' I ,/,'.i-cniltt Kith it/, bemi/s to nnr L,id<i, the 



iom • < nth iij. hemys to the Ilohj Goft, !/„■ f,„lyr 



Godl^ I thisone,a7idsoentreaU,thrcto i.tr bosom, 



and Ma,y ^Lijth- 



Maria. Ah ! now I ffele in my body be 

 Parfyte God and parfyte man, 

 Havyng alle schappe of chyldly carnalylf, 

 E\-Tn al at onys thus God began* 



At the end of n 

 Mary pregnant, n 

 wed, then meets her with reproaches for her faithless- 

 ness and with questions as to who has thus wronged 



l^i'^-t . . ■ . . 



He will not believe the strange answer which she gives 

 him, and will steal away and leave her, but that an 



» Coventry Mysteries, : 

 t York Mysteries, p. 1( 



Mar. Sir, Goddis 



Ton-neley Mysteries, j>. 



Who owe tl 



Maria. Syr, ye and 



Coventry Mysteries, p. 



Ow! dame. 



With child. 



