12 Isle of Man. 



The most extraordinary instance of the force 

 of habit I ever witnessed was about forty years 

 ago, on a visit to the Isle of Man. On stopping 

 at the Calf of Man, a small islet on its south- 

 western extremity, I found that the warrener's 

 cot, the only human abode on the islet, was 

 kept by his sister. For several months in the 

 year, these two persons were completely iso- 

 lated ; and never even heard the sound of a 

 third human voice, unless when the intervals of 

 the raging storm conveyed the unavailing cries 

 of the shipwrecked mariner. To support such 

 an existence seemed to require, in a rational 

 being, nerves of supernatural strength, or the 

 influence of habit from the earliest period of 

 life. Curious to ascertain how she could endure 

 so desolate a life and such complete banishment 

 from all human intercourse, I inquired " if she 

 were not very miserable if she had always been 

 accustomed to dwell in that dreary abode?" 

 To the first I was answered in the negative ; to 

 the last, my surprise was converted into perfect 

 astonishment, when I understood that, in the 

 outset of her life, she had passed six and twenty 

 years in St. James's-street. This communica- 

 tion excited still more my wonder, and made 

 what I then saw and heard incomprehensible. 

 Time, however, has since disclosed truths, of 

 which I had then no suspicion. 



