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the author of the Freischutz; and though supernatural agency forms the basis of all, the superstructures vary with the varying characters of the authors. It may be said, that reason has nothing to do with any of them, either with sylphs or gnomes, spectres or sorcerers, and this no doubt is true; but reason is not always the most agreeable companion, nor is her constant presence any way condusive to the expansion of the kinder feelings; fiction is the natural point of rest for the mind, when worn out by the stern realities of life: those realities present little that is agreeable, and it is no wonder, therefore, if we seek to escape from them in the dreams of falsehood. There is something too, in such tales, that touches a spring common to all hearts; the connexion between the visible and