respect the prophecy which was made to Josephine by one of the negro soothsayers in the West Indies, that she should rise to the highest pinnacle of modern greatness, but without ever being a queen; that she should fall from thence before her death, and die in an hospital. I can myself (says the writer) vouch for the existence of this prophecy before the events which it was supposed to predict; for it was told me many years ago, when Bonaparte was only general of the army of Italy, by a lady of rank who lived in the same convent with Josephine. The coincidence of the fortune teller's presages with the fact, would have been marred by the circumstance of the ex-empress's death, had not somebody's ingenuity discovered that her house, as the name mal-maison implies, had once been a hospital. Bonaparte, it is well known, had strange and visionary ideas about his own fated destiny, and could think of fortune like the Wallenstein of the stage. The following lines from that drama, more grand in the translation of Coleridge than in the original of Schiller, seem almost to trace the career of Napoleon :

"Even in his youth he had a daring soul :
His frame of mind was serious and severe
Beyond his years; his dreams were of great objects
He walked amid, as if a silent spirit

Communing with himself: yet have I known him
Transported on a sudden into utterance

Of strange conceptions: kindling into splendour,
His soul reveal'd itself, and he spoke so,
That we look'd round perplex'd upon each other,
Not knowing whether it were craziness,

Or whether 'twere a God that spoke in him.

*

*

*

Thenceforth he held himself for an exempted

And privileged being; and, as if he were
Incapable of dizziness or fall,

He ran along the unsteady rope of life,

And paced with rapid step the way to greatness;
Was count, and prince, duke regent, and dictator;
And is all, all this too little for him;

He stretches forth his hands for a king's crown,
And plunges in unfathomable ruin.”

SUPERSTITION, AN ENGINE OF
OPPRESSION.

Urban Grandier, Minister and Canon of Loudon, in France, was a great preacher and a man of much literary merit. His sermons, which were honest and eloquent, drew on him the envy of the brethren in a neighbouring monastery; the consequence of which was, that he received sentence to suffer penance for a crime he did not appear to be guilty of, and was deprived of all his benefices. Being relieved, however, from this unjust decree, by the parliament of Paris, his enemies were obliged to find out new means for his destruction. In order to this, a nunnery of Ursulines, at Loudon, were prevailed upon to feign themselves possessed, and to accuse Grandier of being the magician. Cardinal Richelieu, then in full power, was a man of a vindictive temper; means were found to set him against this poor priest, by insinuating that he was the author of a libel against his eminence. Although the piece was a mean performance, quite unworthy a man of Urban's genius, orders were sent for his prosecution, and twelve credulous judges were

packed on purpose to try him. According to the cardinal's wish, they condemned him, and the unfortunate man was burnt alive.

What a striking instance have we here, both of the weakness of a people, and of the malice which a great minister may be guilty of!

It is also one of the innumerable proofs which show that wherever superstition prevails, the powerful are sure to make use of it to oppress and destroy the weak.

It is amusing enough to read the terms of Urban's indictment, as it was exhibited in a public court of judicature. It ran upon the deposition of Astaroth, a demon of the order of Seraphims, and the chief of those who possess people; Easus, Celsus, Acaos, Cedon, and Asmodeus, of the order of Thrones; Alex Zabulon, Nephtalim, Cham, Uriel, and Achas, of the order of Principalities. These were the names which the nuns were taught to give to the imaginary spirits, by which they pretended to be possessed.

At Grandier's execution, a large fly was seen to buzz about his head. Some of his enemies having learning enough to know that Beelzebub signifies the prince of flies, it was immediately given out, and believed, that Beelzebub was come for the soul of the malefactor.

ENTRANCING.

Hieronymous Cardanus, of Milan, writes of himself that he could pass as often as he pleased into such an ecstacy, as only to have a soft hearing of the words of such as spoke to him, but not any understanding

of them. Nor at such times was he in the least sensible of any bodily pains; though troubled with the gout, he felt none of its twiches or pullings. The beginning of the transition was at first in the head, and thence it spread all down to the back bone. At first he could find a sort of separation from the heart, as if the soul was departing; and this was communicated to the whole body, as if a door opened." He adds, that he saw all that he desired with his eyes, and that images of whatever he wished to summon before him, woods, mountains, living creatures, &c. appeared distinctly. Cardanus ascribes this extraordinary faculty to an extreme vivacity of imagination; but something more seems required to account for it. He had probably in his physical organization, some share of the same transitive power which has, in later times, been so memorably exemplified in the case of Colonel Townshend, thus related by Dr. Cheyne.

Colonel Townshend, a gentleman of honour and integrity, had for many years been afflicted with a nephritic complaint. His illness increasing, and his strength decaying, he came from Bristol to Bath in a litter, in autumn, and lay at the Bell Inn. Dr. Baynard and I (Dr. Cheyne) were called to him, and attended him twice a day; but his vomitings continuing still incessant and obstinate against all remedies, we despaired of his recovery. While he was in this condition, he sent for us one morning; we waited on him, with Mr. Skrine, his apothecary. We found his senses clear, and his mind calm; his nurse and several servants were about him. He told us he had sent for us, to give him some account of an odd

sensation he had for some time observed and felt in himself: which was, that, composing himself, he could die and expire when he pleased, and yet by an effort, or some how, he could come to life again: which he had sometimes tried before he sent for us. We heard this with surprise; but as it was not to be accounted for from common principles, we could hardly believe the fact as he related it, much less give any account of it; unless he should please to make the experiment before us, which we were unwilling he should do, lest, in his weak condition, he might carry it too far. He continued to talk very distinctly and sensibly, above a quarter of an hour, about this surprising sensation, and insisted so much on our seeing the trial made, that we were at last forced to comply. We all three felt his pulse first; it was distinct, though small and thready; and his heart had its usual beating. He composed himself on his back, and lay in a still posture some time; while I held his right hand, Dr. Baynard laid his hand on his heart, and Mr. Skrine held a clean looking-glass to his mouth. I found his pulse sink gradually, till at last I could not feel any, by the most exact and nice touch. Dr. Baynard could not feel the least motion in his heart, nor Mr. Skrine the least soil of breath on the bright mirror he held to his mouth; then each of us, by turns, examined his arm, heart, and breath, but could not, by the nicest scrutiny, discover the least symptom of life in him. We reasoned a long time about this odd appearance as well as we could, and all of us judging it inexplicable and unaccountable, and finding he still continued in that condition, we began to conclude tha