Whimsicalities Of Insanity

A literary gentleman of some celebI rity, who, in conseqnence of a slight affection of the brain, was for several months the inmate of an insane asyluni in Scotland, has recently published his ! " impressions" of life thercin. He says tliut imo of the most singular of his follow sufferers wis i gentleman -who was a very beautiful billiard-playér, an okl inmate of tlie house; and quite a psyonological study. He seemeu like a man in a waking dream, and liistorioal events and personages, from the dreamland of his memory, wcre pcrpetually mirrored 011 his brain. He coniplimented the wríter by supposing hini 4,000 years oíd, and considered the events and persona of the present generation unworthy of notice. The folkvwing is a specimen of his extraordinavy reminiscences : " Olí, yes, Mr. , I know vei-y well. There were two Noahs ivhom I knew, but oíd Mr. Xiiiili lived some thousand years bef ore the Noah yon refer to, who built the ark. I had a good deal to do with the construction of the ark, and furnishcil some very useful hints in regard to the mlmission of air and light and so forth. He was a vcry respectablc man, Noah, with a decent family,but, unfortunately, he got into very dissipated habits in Iris oíd age, and, in spite of all I eould say to him, he indulged in wine to a very hurtful excess. Juiius Qtpsar was a very olever man, with a bald iorehoad; bnt I was more intímate with Alexander the Great, of Macedonia, as I was long in the military profession myself. I one time cominanded three battalions of men abont three-(juarters of an inch (all. Nu; they ere not Lilliputians. I knew Capt. Gulliver very woll. And they were smart enough little fellows ; but my men were excellent marksmen - they always aimed at the eyes and never missed. ï'll teil you, Mr. ■- , the most extraordinary thing you ever heard, whicli beats railroads. I was once transported from the farthest shores of India to the oester of África in three minutes! Uy what m(;ans?" he repeated, in reply to aquestionres))ceting bis method of transit - "By a boinb!" In reply to my remark on tos danger of being wafted so rapidly over vast occans, he continued : " Yes, it was attended with considerable danger. I once carne down sonso into the ocean; but fortunately I hailed a vessel, which came to my relief, and I pursued my journey to thi; wilds of África with tlie loss of only two minutes." Komctimes, however, the poor gentleman would seem doubtful of his own veracity, or the strength of his memory, and remark : " My memory is not so good as it was, and my health, for the last 100 years, lias rather failed me, which malies my head a liltle confused." And tlius lic moves about in his waking dream, wearing out Jiis existence between liis pipe and at a game of billiards, diversifled, occasionally, by a short excursión in the neighborhood, in charge of an attendant. Tm; latest swindle in niral districts is for two oily-tongued fellows to cali upon a farmer ostensibly to obtain statistics for the Agricultura! Burean. They remain to dinner or over niglit, and insist upon paying for the acoomiiiiiiliitions furnislied them, when they ]ass a (oiiuti-iiCit. liil! upon their liost and reoeivé good money in exchango. From all parts of Nova Scotia come reporta of drought almost unexampled.