Effingstone's chamber. The nurse and George told me he had been raving deliriously all night long. I found him incredibly altered in countenance, so much so, that I should hardly have recognised his features. He was mumbling, with his eyes closed, when I entered the room.

"Doctor!" he exclaimed, as soon as he saw me, "it's no use keeping up this damned farce any longer, human nature won't bear it! D- -n! I'm going down to HELL! I am!" said he, almost yelling out the words. "Why," he continued, in a tone and manner as if he had lost all self-control, "what is it that has maddened me all my life, and left me sober only at this ghastly hour-too late?" In about ten minutes time, neither of us having broken the silence of the interval, he said, in a calmer tone, "Doctor, be good enough to wipe my forehead-will you?" I did so. "You know better, doctor, of course, than to attach any ime portance to the nonsensical rantings extorted by death-bed agonies, el? Don't dying people, at least those who die in great pain, almost always express them selves, so? How apt superstition is to rear its dismal flag over the prostrate energies of one's soul, when the body is racked by tortures like mine."

Friday, 3d. He was in a strangely altered mood to-day; for though his condition might be aptly described by the words" dead alive" his calm demeanour, his tranquilized features, and the mild expression of his eye, assured me he believed what he said, when he told me that his disorder had taken a turn" that the "crisis was past ;" and he should recover Alas, was it ever known that dead mortified flesh ever resumed its life and functions! To have saved himself from the spring of a hungry tiger, he could not have moved a foot or a finger, and that for the last week! Poor, poor Mr. Effiingstone began to thank me for my attentions to him during his illness; said, he "owed his life to my consummate skill," he wonld trumpet my fame to the Andes, if I succeeded in bringing him through,"

"It has been a very horrible affair, doctor-hasn't it?" said he,

"Very, very, Mr. Effingstone; and it is my duty to tell you, there is yet much horror before you!"

"Ah! well, well! I see you don't want me to be too sanguine-too impatient-it's kindly meant very! Doctor, when I leave here, I leave it an altered man! Come, does not that gratify you, eh ?"

I could not help a sigh. He would be an altered man, and that very shortly! He mistook the feelings which prompted the sigh. "I'm bent on leading a different

life to what I have led before--I am, by --!"?

"Mr. Effingstone, pardou me” —— "Ah-I understaud-'twas a mere slip of the tongue-what's bred in the bone, you know.”

"I was not alluding to the oath, Mr. Effingstone; but-but it is my duty to, warn you."

"Ah-that I'm not going the right way to work-eh? Oh, doctor, look at that blessed light of the sun! Oh, draw aside. the window-curtain, let me feel it on me! What an image of the beneficence of the Deity! A smile flung from his face over the universe!" I drew aside the curtain.. It was a cold clear frosty day, and the sun shone into the room with cheerful lustre. Oh, how awfully distinct were the ravages which his wasted features had sustained! His soul seemed to expand beneath the genial influence of the sunbeams; and he again expressed his confi dent expectations of recovery.

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"Mr. Effingstone, do not persist in cherishing false hopes! Once for all,” said I, with all the deliberate solemnity I could throw into my manner, I assure you, in the presence of God, that, unless a. miracle takes place, it is utterly impossible for you to recover, or even to last a week longer!" I thought it had killed him. His features whitened visibly as I con cluded-his eye seemed to sink, and the eyelids. fell.

His lips presently moved, but uttered no sound. I thought he had received, his death-stroke, and was immeasurably shocked at its having been from my hands, even though in the strict performance of my duty. Half an hour's, time, however, saw him restored to nearly the same state in which he had been previously. I begged him to allow me to send a clergyman to him, as the best means of soothing and quieting his mind; but he shook his head despondingly. I pressed my point, and he said delibe rately, "No." He muttered some such words, as." The Deity has determined on my destruction, and is permitting his devils to mock me with hopes of this sort

Let me go, then, to my own place!" Inthis awful state of mind I was compelled to leave him. I sent a clergyman to him but he refused to see him, saying, that if he presumed to force himself into the room, he would spit in his face, though he could not rise to kick him out! The temper of his mind had changed into something perfectly diabolieal, since my interview with him.

by his bedside full half an hour, listening to him uttering nothing but groans that shook my very soul within me. He did not know me when I spoke to him, and took no notice of me whatever. At length his groans were mingled with such expressions, as these, indicating that his distored fancy had wandered to former

scenes.

"Oh!-oh!Pitch it into him, Bob! Ten to two on Cribb!-Horrible! These dice are loaded, Willmington, by I know they are?-Seven's the main ! Ha! -done, by Hector, yes-[he was alluding to a favourite race-horse] wont't 'bate a pound of his price!-Your Grace shall have him for six hundred Fore-legs, only look at them! There, there, go it! away! away! neck and neck-In, in, hy Hannah! what the 's become of her-drowned? No, no, no What a fiend incarnate that Bet is! .. Oh! horror, horror, horror! Rottenness! Oh, that some one would knock me on the head, and end me!" Such was the substance of what he uttered-it was in vain that I tried to arrest the torrent of vile recollections.

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Doctor, doctor, I shall die of fright! he exclaimed an hour afterwards-"What d'ye think happened to me last night? I was lying here, with the fire burnt very low, and the candles out. George was asleep, poor fellow, and the woman gone out to get an hour's rest also. I was looking about, and suddenly saw the dim ontline of a table, set, as it were, in the middle of the room. There were four chairs, faintly visible, and three ghostly figures came through that door and sat in them, one by one, leaving one vacant. They began a sort of horrid whispering, more like gasping-they were DEVILS, and talked about MY damnation! The fourth chair was for me, they said, and all three turned and looked me in the face. Oh! hideous shapeless-damned!" He uttered a shuddering groan.

[Here follows an account of his interview with two brothers—the only members of the family-whom he had at last permitted to be informed of his frightful condition - who would come and see him]. He did little else than rave and howl, in a blasphemous manner, all the while they were present. He seemed hardly to be aware of their being his brothers, and to forget the place where he was. He cursed me-then Sir his man George, and charged us with compassing his death, concealing his case from his family, and execrated us for not allowing him to be removed to the west end of the town, In vain we assured him that his removal

was utterly impossible-the time was past; I had offered it once. He guashed his teeth, and spit at us all! What! diedie-DIE in this damned hole won't die here--I will go to Street. Take me off! - Devils, then, do you come and carry me there!-Come-out, out upon you! You have killed me, all of you! -You're twisting me!-You've put a hill of iron on me I'm dead !—all my body is dead-[ . why are you Where do you I'm flooded Scorched! .

-George, you wretch! lading fire upon me?— get it?-Out-out-nt!with fire! Scorched!Now now for a dance of devils-Ha-I see! I see !-There's and and, among them!— What! all three of you dead-and damned before me?-W- -! Where is your d-d loaded, dice ?-Filled with fire, eh? SO, YOU were the three devils I saw sitting at the table, eh ?-Well, 'I shall be last-but, d-e, I'll be the chief of you!-I'll be king in hell!" He began to shake his head violently from side to side, his eyes glaring like coals of fire, and his teeth gnashing. I never could have imagined any thing half so frightful. What with the highly excited state of my feelings, and the horrible scents of death which were diffused about the room, and to which not the strongest salts of ammonia, used incessantly, could render me insensible, I was obliged to leave abruptly. I knew the last, act of the black tragedy was closing that night! I left word with the nurse, that so soon as Mr. Effingstone should be released from his misery, she should get into a hackney-coach, and come to my house. I was in bed when a violent ringing of the bell startled me. was the nurse come to tell me all was over. I dressed directly and went to her. I asked her when Mr. Hardy expired. "Exactly as the clock struck three," she replied. "George, and I, and Mr.

It

the apothecary, whom we had sent for out of the next street, were sitting and standing round the bed. Mr. Hardy lay tossing his head about for nearly an hour, saying all manner of horrible things. A few minutes before three he gave a loud howl, and shouted, "Here, you wretches-why do yon put the candles out-here-here-I'm dying!'

"God's peace be with you, sir!—The Lord have mercy on you!'-we groaned, like people distracted.

"Ha-ha-ha!-D-n-you!-D-n you all!-Dying?-D-n me! I won't die!-I won't die!-No-no!-D-n me

I wont't-won't-won't-' and made a noise as if he was choked. We looked yes, he was gone!"-He was interred in an obscure dissenting burying-ground in

the immediate neighbourhood, under the name of Hardy, for his family refused to recognize him.

So lived and died a 66 man about town" -and so, alas, will yet live and die many another MAN ABOUT TOWN!

A RECIPE FOR GETTING FAT.

"THERE'S nothing here on earth deserves
Half of the thought we waste about it,
And thinking but destroys the nerves,
When we could do as well without it;
If folks would let the world go round,
And pay their tithes and eat their dinners,
Such doleful looks would not be found,

To frighten us poor laughing sinners.
Never sigh when you can sing,
But laugh, like me, at every thing!

"One plagues himself about the sun,

And puzzles on, through every weather, What time he'll rise-how long he'll runAnd when he'll leave us altogether:

. Now matters it a pebble stone,

Whether he shines at six or seven? If they don't leave the sun alone,

At last they'll plague him out of Heaven! Never sigh when you can sing, But laugh, like me, at every thing!

"Another spins from out his brains

Fine cobwebs to amuse his neighbours, And gets, for all his toils and pains, Reviewed, and laughed at for his labours: Fame is his star! and fame is sweet;

And praise is pleasanter than honeyI write at just so much a sheet,

And Messrs. Longman pay the money! Never sigh when you can sing,

But laugh, like me, at every thing!

My brother gave his heart away

To Mercandotti, when he met her; She married Mr. Ball one day

He's gone to Sweden to forget her!
I had a charmer, too-and sighed,

And raved all day and night about her;
She caught a cold, poor thing! and died,
And I am just as fat without her!
Never sigh when you can sing,
But laugh, like me, at every thing i

"For tears are vastly pretty things,

But make one very thin and taper; And sighs are music's sweetest strings; But sound most beautiful-on paper! Thought' is the sage's brightest star, Her gems alone are worth his finding; But as I'm not particular,

Please God! I'll keep on never minding.'
Never sigh when you can sing,
But laugh, like me, at every thing!

"Oh! in this troubled world of ours,
A laughter-mine's a glorious treasure;
And separating thorns from flowers

Is half a pain, and half a pleasure:
And why be grave instead of gay?

Why feel a-thirst while folks are quaffing? Oh! trust me, whatsoe'er they say,

There's nothing half so good as laughing! Never sigh when you can sing, But laugh, like me, at every thing!"

Souvenir.

THE EAST INDIA COMPANY'S ENCOURAGEMENT OF HINDOO IDOLATRY.†

THERE is in this metropolis a mansion of very considerable size and splendour, to which, about twice in the twelve months (oftener, however, for other purposes), a large concourse of persons repair, their object being the very legitimate one of receiving the monies which become due to them at these auspicious periods of the year. The funds from which these payments are made, are constituted in rather a singular way. They are composed, to a great extent, of small contributions, levied on every man, lady, and child, of these realms, who cannot breakfast without tea, or take their soup without pepper. But there is another branch of the revenue which goes to complete this annual fund— the profits which are derived from entertainments prepared on a grand scale in the East Indies, for imposing on the superstition of the Hindoos. We are then distinctly alluding to the East India Company, and the revenue which it draws, in the shape of a tax on the native pilgrims in India, who resort, at stated periods, to the several temples of their worship in that country. By far the most explicit, ample, and (as it would appear from numerous eye-witnesses) authentic account of the Hindoo worship, as it is practised in the Indian dominions of his Britannic Majesty, is that to be found in the work of the Abbé Dubois. This ecclesiastic is now living; and his manuscript was thought worthy of being purchased for 800l. by the East India Company, on the recommendation of some of the first oriental scholars of our day. The Company, whose munificence, in matters of science, outstrips the generosity of any other body in the universe, granted to the abbé the privilege of printing his work in Paris, a few years ago. It would be impossible for us to give a consecutive passage descriptive of the Hindoo worship, from this work, without grossly violating decency. shall therefore select our extracts from British authors chiefly; and those shall be such men as can well afford to incur the responsibility of diffusing this sort

We

+ From the Monthly Review.-No. LXIV., ofSpeech of John Poynder, Esq, at a General Court of Proprietors of the East India Company, on September, 22, 1830, containing Evidence in Proof of the direct Encouragement afforded by the Company to the licentious and sanguinary system of Idolatry, and demonstrating the net amount of Pecuniary Profits derived by the Company from the Tax imposed on the Worshippers at the different Temples. London, 1830. Hatchard.

of knowledge amongst their own country

men.

Mr. Ward, author of the "History, Literature, and Religion of the Hindoos," says

"In the year 1805, I was present at the worship of the Goddess Doorga, as performed at Calcutta. Four sets of singers were present; who entertained their guests with filthy songs, and danced in indecent attitudes before the goddess. The whole scene produced on my mind sensations of the greatest horror. The dress of the singers-their indecent gestures the abominable nature of their songs-the horrid diu of their miserable drums-the lateness of the hour-the darkness of the place with the reflection, that I was standing in an idol temple, and that this immense multitude of rational and immortal creatures, capable of superior joys, were, in the very act of worship, perpetrating a crime of high treason against the God of Heaven, while they themselves believed they were performing an act of merit-excited ideas and feelings in my mind, which time can never obliterate.

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"I would have given, in this place, a specimen of the songs sung before the image; but found them so full of obscenity, that I could not copy a single line. All those actions, which a sense of decency keeps out of the most indecent English songs, are here detailed, sung, and laughed at, without the least sense of shame. A poor ballad singer in England would be sent to the House of Correction, and flogged, for performing the meritorious actions of these wretched idolaters."

Again

"As soon as the well-known sound of the drum is heard calling the people to the midnight orgies, the dance and the song, whole multitudes assemble, and almost tread one upon another; and their joy keeps pace with the number of loose woinen present, and the gross obscenity of the songs. Gopalu, a Pundit employed in the Serampore printing-office, and a very respectable man among the Hindoos, avowed to a friend of mine, that the only attractions on these occasions were the women of ill-fame, and the filthy songs and dances; that their songs were so abominable, that a man of character, even amongst them, was ashamed of being present; that if ever he (Gopalu) re.mained, he concealed himself in a corner of the temple. He added, that a song was scarcely tolerated which did not contain the most marked allusion to unchastity, while those which were so abominable, that no person could repeat them out of the temple, received the loudest plau

dits. All this is done in the very face of the idol; nor does the thought, "Thou God seest me!" ever produce the slightest pause in these midnight revels. In open day, and in the most public streets of a large town, I have seen men entirely naked, dancing, with unblushing effrontery, before the idol, as it was carried in triumphant procession, encouraged by the smiles and eager gaze of the Brahmins. Yet sights even worse than those, and such as can never be described by the pen of a Christian writer, are exhibited, on the rivers, and in the public roads, to thousands of spectators at the Doorga Festival, the most popular and most crowded of all the Hindoo Festivals in Bengal; and which closes with libations to the gods, so powerful as to produce general intoxication. I have more than once been filled with alarm, as this idolatrous procession has passed my house, lest my children should go to the windows and see the gross obscenity of the dancers. What must be the state of a country, when its religious institutions and public shows, at which the whole population is present, thus sanctify vice, and carry the multitude into the very gulph of depravity and ruin!"

The account of the female dancers attached to the temples, we are obliged to take from the Abbé Dubois, as no other author has described their real character with more confidence. We are anxious that this class of the "ministers" of the Hindoo worship should be completely understood, for reasons which will be apparent before the close of this article. The abbé says,

"To every temple are attached female dancers, called the attendants of the Deity, but really prostitutes; who are regularly retained, to grant their favours to any who may choose to pay for them; although, it appears, they were originally confined to the service of the Brahmins. These profligate women are, however, peculiarly consecrated to the worship of the Indian gods; and every temple of any consideration has a band of eight, twelve, or upwards. Their official duties consist in dancing and singing twice every day, in the interior of the temples, and in all the public ceremonies besides. Their attitudes and gestures are lascivious, and opposed to decency; while their songs consist of obscene poetry, descriptive of the amours of their gods. They assist at marriages and other domestic ceremonies, in displaying their talent; and employ all the time which remain at their disposal in intrigues of infamy: nor is it unusual to see the residence of their gods become the theatre of their licentiousness. They are