to hurt my Lord Ross; upon which she brought down a glove, and gave it to her mother, who stroked Rutterkin, her cat, (the Imp) with it; after it was dipped in hot water, and so pricked it often, after which, Henry Lord Ross fell sick, and soon after died. She farther said, that finding a glove about two or three years since, of Francis Lord Ross's, she gave it to her mother, who put it into hot water, and afterwards rubbed it on Rutterkin, (the Imp) and bid him go upwards, and afterwards buried it in the yard, and said, 'a mischief light on him, but he will mend again.' She farther confessed, that her mother and her sister agreed together to bewitch the earl, and his lady, that they might have no more children; and being asked the cause of this, their malice and ill will, she said that, about four years since, the countess taking a dislike to her, gave her forty shillings, a bolster, and a mattrass, and bid her be at home, and come no more to dwell at the castle; which she not only took ill, but grudged it in heart very much, swearing to be revenged upon her; on which her mother took wool out of the mattrass, and a pair of gloves, which were given to her by Mr. Vovason, and put them into warm water, mingling them with some blood, and stirring all together; then she took them out of the water, and rubbed them on the belly of Rutterkin, saying, 'the lord and the lady would have children, but it would be long first." She farther confessed that, by her mother's command, she brought to her a piece of a handkerchief of the lady Catharine, the earl's daughter, and her mother put it into hot water, and then, taking it out, rubbed it upon Rutterkin, bidding him fly, and go,' whereupon Rutterkin whinned and cried 'mew,' upon which the said Rutterkin had no more power of the said lady Catharine to hurt her.

"Margaret Flower, and Phillis Flower, the daughters of Joan Flower, were executed at Lincoln for Witchcraft, March 12th, 1618."

The reader must make his own comments on this very common, yet to us at this time, very extraordinary affair. But being given from an entry in a church book, made in a regular manner, at that superstitious period, it displays in vivid colours, the manners and the minds of the people, of these reigns, far better than any other sort of description. In fact, if given in any other form, I much doubt whether the narration would be believed; and the time spent in transcribing it, would be as useless as running after a locomotive engine to light a cigar.

"Credulity flourished as vigorously in the early part of the eighteenth century, as it ever did." Ay, and does now to a considerable extent, as far as astrology is concerned! Take the three kingdoms through, and I will engage that in four out

of five of the farm houses, lambs and calves are not to be altered, nor pigs killed, when the moon is in certain signs.

The following is the scale by which these superstitions are regulated; the parts are said to be thus effected:

The head by Aries.

"neck" 8 Taurus.

arms "Gemini. "breast" Cancer. "heart" Leo.

The reins by Libra.
"secrets" Scorpio.

"thighs" Sagittarius.
(( knees "Capricornus.
legs " Aquarius.

(( feet

* Pisces.

"bowels m Virgo. How it came into the head of any human being, that the twelve signs of the Zodiac, or indeed, any of the visible heavenly bodies, can have any effect, good, bad, or indifferent, on the human or animal frame, is only to be ascribed to the common folly of letting the imagination usurp the place of the reasoning faculties.

No event can offer so strong a proof of this folly continuing, as the vast increase in the sale of that most foolish of all foolish publications," Moore's Almanac."

In the year 1834, the stamp duty was taken off almanacs, and then there were sold 521,000 copies of this one, being nearly 100,000 more than all the other almanacs in the year 1828. In this outrageous publication, there are columns respecting the moon, prognostications about the weather, and prophecies about political events, which thousands of the moon struck noodles believe in equally with the Bible. Indeed, it has for hundreds of years been a common belief; we read of "Daphnus, a Roman physician, who preferred a supper to a dinner, because he conceived the moon helped digestion. (Lempriere's Classical Dictionary.")

Lord Bacon writes, " brains in rabbits, wood cocks, and calves, are fullest at the full of the moon:" which makes me think the head of this luminary of learning was not in that aspect, when he wrote so; surely his head must have been rather gibbous, and the digits eclipsed.

The celebrated John Dee, the mathematician, was a great astrologer, he was assisted by Ned Kelly, as his confederate, thus alluded to by the author of Hudibras :

This inimitable writer, in a fine vein of timely satire, severely lashed all the astrologers; thus he wrote of Cardan:

"Carden believed great states depend,

Upon the tip o' th' bear's tail end,

That as he whisk'd it toward the sun,
Strewed mighty empires up and down;
Which others say must needs be false,
Because your true bears have no tails."

Physiognomy and Chiromancy, were more respected in the reign of Charles II., than they have been since; they were regarded as next in dignity to their sister art, astrology.

The first book on Chiromancy, was published by George Wharton, in 1652.

The mercurialists, physiognomists, chiromancers, philomaths, &c., were more numerous in this reign, than they have been at any other period: the ridiculous absurdities promulgated by those men, and the ready reception which a too credulous public gave to their trash, was truly surprising, and it is lamentable to reflect that the press should ever have been prostituted in the dissemination of such foolish superstitions. The names of Dee, Kelly, Heydon, and Ramsey, stand conspicuous for their daring in this respect; and there were many of inferior note.

Such was the credulity at that period, that there was scarcely a country town in which there was not a calculator of nativities, and a caster of urine. Many, to their great emolument, united both professions, as a student in physic and astrology, was by the generality of the vulgar esteemed much superior to a mere physician; and planetary influence was (as it is very much now the case,) supposed to be of the greatest efficacy in human life, especially in love affairs. Gentleman's Magazine.

FORTUNE-TELLING was a thriving occupation even in London, where the vain customers of the seers, or sybils, or rather d-ls, were not mere love sick waiting maids and amorous apprentices, but often men and women, or rather bipeds of the highest rank.

The most celebrated fortune-teller, was a Dr. Campbell, a Scotchman, born deaf and dumb; De Foe has written his life, and some particulars about the impostor; he was attended by all ranks, and implicit confidence was placed in his preternatural sagacity and prescience; it was said,

"In omens he's unutterably skilled,

If ever man spoke with the tongue of destiny, 'tis he."

When goods were lost, the cunning man was applied to, and thus he became a sort of rival to Jonathan Wild. Even the would be thought wise and learned, had not shaken themselves loose from this degrading, unintellectual, unnatural thraldom: proving that

"Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one,
Have ofttimes no connexion."

Dryden calculated nativities, so also did Burton, the author of the "Anatomy of Melancholy." Steele almost ruined himself in seeking after the grand magesterium. And Whiston, the profane writer against Scriptural miracles, not only believed in the miracle of Mary Tofts, who is said to have brought forth a whole warren of rabbits, but wrote to prove, that she was announced in the prophecies of Ezekiel. These beastly, these worse than brutish hallucinations, continued to linger among literary men, I am sorry to say, until they were finally laid, by that grand of all grandest impostures, the Cock-lane Ghost!

MEDICAL QUACKS were more numerous, and flourished more gloriously, even than astrologers and fortune-tellers, and some of them enjoyed such extensive practice, that they were enabled to parade about the country in a style that outvied the wealthiest nobility. One fellow, named Smith, used to ride his circuits in a coach drawn by six bay horses, a calash and four followed, and then a chasse marrie, with four more; this imposing equipage was attended by four footmen, in splendidly laced yellow liveries, trimmed with silver; while the pannels of the carriage, wherein the crafty oracle rode, to administer trash to gazing fools, was decorated with this punning motto: ARGENTO LABORET FABER.*

This splendid train, however, was not wholly for show, though the show was contrived to produce its well intended effect; the footmen in yellow, were his tumblers and trumpeters; some in blue were merry Andrews, apothecaries, and speech makers; while the lady, who sat by his side in the coach, was a dancer on the tight rope. Macky's Journey.

Such was the credulity on one side, and such was the effrontery on the other, for without the one the other could not prosper, that the foot of the mountebank's stage was often covered with patent medals and certificates, purporting to have come from the Great Mogul, the Sultan of Egypt, the Emperor of Persia, the King of Bantam, and other remote potentates, in attestation of his wonder-working cures.†

This fellow cured every human disease for sixpence. Every street and lane was filled with quack advertisements, in which all impossibilities in healing were promised, while every trick was adopted by the writers to catch the unwary eye, and excite their besotted imagination. Sometimes the crafty trickster stated, that he had studied 30 years by candle-light. But the best recommendation was of one that had not studied at all, The artist labours for silver. † Tatler, No. 240.

but received his knowledge by a certain divine intuition. This was rank blasphemy, but it succeeded, for then, as now, it is believed that a seventh son was born to be an healing physician, and the seventh son of a seventh son was an infallible physician as soon as he was born. Yet this was going on in a Protestant country-all sneering, and many persecuting the Catholics and other sects-with two Universities full of learned men, and a royal society formed to make experiments.

These fellows could only be exceeded by that cunning fellow who advertised: What think you, reader? now do tell; well, then, don't laugh! the "Unborn Doctor."*

Even respectable chymists and druggists indulged in the same style, though not quite so inflated, in advertising the miracles of their laboratories; their medicines were not only absolute curers, but might be taken with pleasure and delight.

The following specimens of their announcements are taken from the newspapers of the first twenty years of the 18th century. There was angelic snuff, which cures all diseases of the head, besides deafness, megrims, palsy, apoplexy, and gout; and there was royal snuff, which was of course more potent in its effects, and therefore more costly. There was a medicine which cured the vapours in ladies by a single application, aye, and so effectual was its application, that the fit never returns. What effect it had upon the other sex it does not state, which is unfortunatly a great omission; for a poet of that time said:

"Sometimes the sexes change their airs,

My lord has vapours, and my lady swears!"

Perhaps, in such case, it might have the same effect upon both. There was another medicine for leanness, by which the most attenuated hop-pole frame would expand, after a few doses, into the dimensions of a civic dignitary. By one, an electuary, weak memories were completely renovated, so that the whole past was vividly revealed before the mind's eye in an instant. One does not know what success this nostrum had, one would think it must have been small, because one would scarcely think either fools or rogues would take it, they surely would not like to have their fooleries and rogueries reproduced; but, from an after advertisement, it had a considerable sale, because no memory was as bad as being cursed with the helpnesses of "mere oblivion." Another, by only a few drops, hyphochondria was banished, and all those blessed effects produced upon the mind, for which Macbeth's physician would have received a knightly fee. For who would have cared for a “mind dis

Tatler, No. 240.-Goldsmith's Citizen of the World.