incredible velocity is satisfactorily confirmed.
For the rest, the reality of the earth's motion
is absolutely necessary, to render the phenomena
at all explicable. Such an illustration
may serve to explain to the grossest understanding
how it is that, owing to the progressive
motion of light, and the revolution
of the earth in its orbit, the celestial bodies
cannot occupy in the heavens the places
which they appear to fill. The particles of
light from Jupiter take nearly forty minutes
in passing from the planet to the observer's
eye. Meanwhile the earth has progressed in
its orbit some thirty-seven thousand miles,
and the spectator borne along with it must
see the planet, not where it actually is, but
where it was in appearance some forty
minutes before. The same effect in kind is
produced on the places of the fixed stars,
and is called aberration. To bring all this
to mind with clearness and precision, it needs
only to think of the gun-boat, the rifle-barrel,
and the rifle-ball.

THE SANDIMAN MYSTERY.

IT is just fourteen years ago since I discovered
my first grey hair; it was flourishing
(confound it!) in the most ostentatious manner
in my left whisker, and had turned, as I
believe, from black to white in a single
night. It was the morning of my birthday.
I had risen full of matured youth—I was
but. two-and-forty—and in the best of spirits.
From a baseless dream of matrimonial subjection
I had awakened to find myself alone. I
had said in my heart, " There is no need,
Harry Loveless, to take to thyself a wife
these ten years." In the pride of my manhood,
in the glory—if I may say so—of my wounded
beauty I was smitten; that spectral form
which stood out from the raven masses of its
fellows was a warning not to be neglected.
Some evidence of the breaking up of my system
had been apparent to me for years, which I
had striven to account for by temporary
causes, and they now became fearfully significant.
I could not, thenceforward, conceal
from myself that the button of the waistband
of my trowsers was better left unfastened;
that I felt happier when out of my little
patent leather boots. What then was my
conduct upon the discovery of these facts?
I eradicated the grey hair with care, and
burnt it; I became thinner-waisted, smaller-
footed than ever; I was gayer—brighter from
that moment; danced more (waltz, especially),
sang more (sentimental ballads, always), and
gave up whist entirely; in short, apoplectic in
feeling, I became quite boyish in manner; for
I felt there was no time to lose in taking unto
myself a wife.

In the place where I resided the supply of
young ladies far exceeded the demand. On
my right hand dwelt the eight Miss Nogoes;
two red, and one with a squint; on my left
the five Miss Sansous; all so alike that making
love to one would be making four
mistakes; and might lead, eventually, to the
most complicated bigamy. The two Miss
Holdfasts—both in years, and father commercial
—were within a stone's throw; the
terrace towards the town was filled with half-
pay military officers who had daughters
unattached; the terrace towards the sea
with half-pay naval ditto, with daughters
waiting for sailing orders in the brig
Cupid. To all of these the amount of my
income, down to the pence and shillings, had
been interesting for years: what I paid a
month for my lodgings; what I had been
allowed at college; how many horses there
had been to my father's hearse; all that could
throw light, in fact, upon my social position,
had been objects of their closest inquiry. If I
had had the misfortune to be amongst the
landed gentry, they would have known my
age to a minute, for Burke—the only Burke
they had ever heard of—was never out of
their minds. The few military men who
shone amidst our petticoat parties at Sandwith
were dancible, flirtable, go-down-to-
supper-with-able enough, but they were far
from eligible; the three men in the regiment
who had more than a hundred a-year besides
their pay, were, singularly enough, the only
married ones. In such a state of things, then,
Harry Loveless needed not to have gone
to the length of advertising for a bride.

I know not to whose bow and spear—to
whose crinoline and "whiskers"—I might have
speedily fallen a prey, had not the Sandiman
family, fourteen years ago, arrived amongst
us. There was a Mr. Sandiman, and there were
three Miss Sandimans; and there was Mrs.
Sandiman; we knew there was a Mrs. S. by
the cards which they left, sparely enough, in
returning calls, "Mrs. Sandiman and the
Misses Sandiman "(or the Miss Sandimen, as
we were wont to term them), but we knew nothing
more of her for many months. The family
lived a retired life, and picked and chose out
of their neighbours for their friends. They
were therefore described by some as " nice
people when you came to know them," but by
the majority as "not moving in our best
circles by any means;" the young ladies were
certainly far too good-looking to be popular
at Sandwith. In consideration of their charms
and of the execution they effected amongst
the hundred-and-first, they were denominated
respectively by that gallant corps—" Battle,"
"Murder," and " Sudden 'Death." They were
all three blondes, but " Sudden Death " was
the blondest. I saw her first upon the sea-
beach, walking and reading at the same time,
upon a rather windy July day; her parasol
—a pagoda parasol it was, of no sort of use,
but of the greatest possible ornament—was
carried off suddenly by a zephyr and revolved
rapidly in the direction of the deep. I started
immediately—as also did the button of my
waistband—in headlong pursuit, and arrived