Branchless and shattered stand; the rocks, drawn down The limits of the dead and living world, Of man, flies far in dread; his work and dwelling V. Mont Blanc yet gleams on high-the power is there, And many sounds, and much of life and death. In the calm darkness of the moonless nights, In the lone glare of day, the snows descend Or the star-beams dart through them :-Winds contend And what were thou, and earth, and stars, and sea, Silence and solitude were vacancy? July 23, 1816. The imprint of the History of a Six Weeks' Tour is as follows: Reynell, Printer, 45, Broad-street, [With the History of a Six Weeks' Tour &c. ends the series of prose volumes and pamphlets issued by Shelley during his life. The remainder is posthumous, and to a great extent fragmentary. The following Journal is taken out of its chronological position among the posthumous prose writings because it connects itself with the letters forming the latter portion of the Six Weeks' Tour volume, having been written by Shelley during the continental trip of 1816. Mrs. Shelley published it in the second volume of the Essays, Letters, &c. (1840), from which it is now simply reprinted.-H. B. F] JOURNAL. Geneva, Sunday, 18th August, 1816. SEE Apollo's Sexton,' who tells us many mysteries of his trade. We talk of Ghosts. Neither Lord Byron nor M. G. L. seem to believe in them; and they both agree, in the very face of reason, that none could believe in ghosts without believing in God. I do not think that all the persons who profess to discredit these visitations, really discredit them; or, if they do in the daylight, are not admonished by the approach of loneliness and midnight, to think more respectfully of the world of shadows. Lewis recited a poem, which he had composed at the 1 Matthew Gregory Lewis, M.P. for Hindon, author of The Monk, The Castle Spectre, Tales of Terror, &c., thus addressed in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers: Oh! wonder-working Lewis! monk, or bard, Who fain wouldst make Parnassus a churchyard! Lo! wreaths of yew, not laurel, bind thy Thy muse a sprite, Apollo's sexton thou! asked him earnestly,-'Why did you call me Apollo's Sexton.' The noble Poet found it difficult to reply to this categorical species of reproof." Some of these stories had appeared in print when Mrs. Shelley published the Journal in 1840; but, "as a ghost story depends entirely on the mode in which it is told," these were justly thought worth preservation as having been "written by Shelley, fresh from their relation by Lewis." request of the Princess of Wales. The Princess of Wales, he premised, was not only a believer in ghosts, but in magic and witchcraft, and asserted, that prophecies made in her youth had been accomplished since. The tale was of a lady in Germany. This lady, Minna, had been exceedingly attached to her husband, and they had made a vow that the one who died first, should return after death to visit the other as a ghost. She was sitting one day alone in her chamber, when she heard an unusual sound of footsteps on the stairs. The door opened, and her husband's spectre, gashed with a deep wound across the forehead, and in military habiliments, entered. She appeared startled at the apparition; and the ghost told her, that when he should visit her in future, she would hear a passing bell toll,. and these words distinctly uttered close to her ear, "Minna, I am here." On inquiry, it was found that her husband had fallen in battle on the very day she was visited by the vision. The intercourse between the ghost and the woman continued for some time, until the latter laid aside all terror, and indulged herself in the affection which she had felt for him while living. One evening she went to a ball, and permitted her thoughts to be alienated by the attentions of a Florentine gentleman, more witty, more graceful, and more gentle, as it appeared to her, than any person she had ever seen. As he was conducting her through the dance, a death bell tolled. Minna, lost in the fascination of the Florentine's attentions, disregarded, or did not hear the sound. second peal, louder and more deep, startled the whole company, when Minna heard the ghost's accustomed whisper, and raising her eyes, saw in an opposite mirror A |