THE LAST DAY AT CHEE-IIA. 231 



rush maddening through the glades yet utter no 

 sound, nor shake the leaves, while they flit by like 

 meteors ! It is the ghost of May, doing penance for 

 the sins done in the flesh, under the form of the ani- 

 mal which he most persecuted when living." 



" You speak as earnestly as if you gave credit to 

 the legend," said E. "Is it possible that you can 

 believe in ghosts ?" 



" Doctor Johnson did" said I. 



" Aye ; but he was eminently superstitious, and 

 strained himself into the opinion, because the Scrip- 

 tures recognized spirits; and he would not be 

 thought to gainsay them." 



" Yet," said I, " it is clearly within the compe- 

 tency of God to create ghosts as well as men ; be- 

 ings of vapor, as well as of flesh and blood sensible 

 to sight, yet impalpable to touch beings bearing 

 the same relation to man, as the thin vapory comet 

 to the more solid planetary bodies of our sys- 

 tem !" 



" Yet, to what end," said E., " should they be 

 created ? God creates nothing in vain ; and what 

 authentic story is on record to show that ghosts, 

 even if they exist, have ever exerted any agency, 

 either for good or evil, on human affairs ? Show 

 me that they have served for warning, or for in- 

 struction and I yield the point ; but, until then, 



