this singular transaction.

There was something so judicious in the plan of study which Provost
Smith had formed for his pupil, that it deserves to be particularly
considered. He regarded him as destined to be a Painter; and on this
account did not impose upon him those grammatical exercises of language
which are usually required from the young student of the classics, but
directed his attention to those incidents which were likely to interest
his fancy, and to furnish him at some future time with subjects for the
easel. He carried him immediately to those passages of antient history
which make the most lasting impression on the imagination of the
regular-bred scholar, and described the picturesque circumstances of the
transactions with a minuteness of detail that would have been
superfluous to a general student.

In the midst of this course of education the Artist happened to be taken
ill of a slight fever, and when it had subsided, he was in so weak a state
as to be obliged to keep his bed, and to have the room darkened. In this
situation he remained several days, with no other light than what was
admitted by the seams and fissures in the window-shutters, which had the
usual effect of expanding the pupil of his eyes to such a degree that he
could distinctly see every object in the room, which to others appeared in
complete obscurity. While he was thus lying in bed, he observed the
apparitional form of a white cow enter at the one side of the roof, and
walking over the bed, gradually vanish at the other. The phenomenon
surprised him exceedingly, and he feared that his mind was impaired by his
disease, which his sister also suspected, when on entering to inquire how
he felt himself, he related to her what he had seen. Without, however,
saying any thing, she went immediately and informed her husband, who
accompanied her back to the apartment; and as they were standing near the