French ventriloquist." M. St. Gill, the ventriloquist, and his intimate friend, returning home from a place whither his business had carried him, sought for shelter from an approaching thunder-storm in a neighbouring convent. Finding the whole community in mourning, he inquired the cause, and was told that one of the body had died lately, who was the ornament and delight of the whole society. To pass away the time, he walked into the church, attended by some of the religious, who showed him the tomb of their deceased brother, and spoke feelingly of the scanty honours they had bestowed on his memory. Suddenly a voice was heard, apparently proceeding from the roof of the choir, lamenting the situation of the defunct in purgatory, and reproaching the brotherhood with their lukewarmness and want of zeal on his account. The friars, as soon as their astonishment gave them power to speak, consulted together, and agreed to acquaint the rest of the community with this singular event, so interesting to the whole society. M. St. Gill, who wished to carry on the joke a little farther, dissuaded them from taking this step, telling them that they would be treated by their absent brethren as a set of fools and visionaries. He recommended to them, however, the immediately calling the whole community into the church, where the ghost of their departed brother might probably reiterate his complaints. Accordingly, all the friars, novices, lay-brothers, and even the domestics of the convent, were immediately summoned and called together. In a short time the voice from the roof renewed its lamentations and reproaches, and the whole convent fell on their faces, and vowed a solemn reparation. As a first step, they chaunted a De profundis in a full choir; during the intervals of which the ghost occasionally expressed the comfort he received from their pious exercises and ejaculations on his behalf. When all was over, the prior entered into a serious conversation with M. St. Gill; and on the strength of what had just passed, sagaciously inveighed against the absurd incredulity of our modern sceptics and pretended philosophers, on the article of ghosts or apparitions. M. St. Gill thought it high time to disabuse the good fathers. This purpose, however, he found it extremely difficult to effect, till he had prevailed upon them to return with him into the church, and there be witnesses of the manner in which he had conducted this ludicrous deception." Had not the ventriloquist, in this case, explained the cause of the deception, a whole body of men might have sworn, with a good conscience, that they had heard the ghost of a departed brother address them again and again in a supernatural voice.

It is highly probable, that many of those persons termed witches and necromancers in ancient times, who pretended to be invested with supernatural powers, performed their deceptions by the art of ventriloquism. The term literally means,

speaking from the belly; and, in accordance with this idea, we find that the Pythoness, or witch of Endor, to whom Saul applied for advice in his perplexity, is designated in the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, "a woman that speaks from her belly or stomach," as most magicians affected to do; and some authors have informed us, that there were women who had a demon which spake articulately from the lower part of their stomachs, in a very loud, though hoarse tone. Umbræ cum saganâ resonarent triste et acutum. Hor. Sat. viii. lib. i.

Our English translation "familiar spirit," in Hebrew, signifies "the spirit of Ob or Oboth." The word Ob in its primitive sense, denotes a bottle or vessel of leather, wherein liquors were put; and it is not unlikely that this name was given to witches, because, in their fits of enthusiasm, they swelled in their bellies like a bottle. The occasion of this swelling is said by some authors to proceed from a demon's entering into the sorcerers per partes genitales, and so ascending to the bottom of her stomach, from whence, at that time, she uttered her predictions; and for this reason, the Latins call such persons Ventriloqui, and the Greeks Eyyaargiulo, that is, people who speak out of their bellies. Cælius Rhodiginus (Antiq. lib. 8. c. 10.) says, in reference to such cases, “While I am writing concerning ventriloquous persons, there is, in my own country, a woman of a mean extract, who has an unclean spirit in her belly, from whence may be heard a voice, not very strong indeed, but very articulate and intelligible. Multitudes of people have heard this voice, as well as myself, and all imaginable precaution has been used in examining into the truth of this fact:"-" Quando futuri avida portentus mens, sæpe accersitum ventriloquam, ac exutam amictu, ne quid fraudis occultaret, inspectare et audire concupivit." The author adds, "This demon is called Cincinnatulus, and when the woman calls upon him by his name, he immediately answers her.”Several ancient writers have informed us, that in the times of Paganism, evil spirits had communion with these ventriloquæ per partes secretiores. Chrysostom says,-" Traditur Pythia foemina fuisse, quæ in Tripodes sedens expansa malignum spiritum per interna immissum, et per genitales partes subeuntem excipiens, furore repleretur, ipsaque resolutis crinibus baccharetur, ex ore spumam emittens, et sic furoris verba loquebatur," &c.

Spectres have also been produced by such optical exhibitions as the phantasmagoria. By means of this instrument, a spectre can be made apparently to start up from a white mist, and to rush forward towards the spectator with a horrific aspect. If a thin screen were placed in a dark room, and the lautern of the phantasmagoria, with its light properly concealed, the most terrific phantoms might be exhibited, which would confound and appal every one previously unacquainted with

the contrivance, especially if the exhibition was suddenly made at the dead hour of night. By means of such exhibitions, combined with the art of ventriloquism, and the assistance of a confederate, almost every thing that has been recorded respecting spectres and apparitions might be realized.

I shall conclude these illustrations of apparitions, by presenting the reader with a description of the ghost of a flea, by Mr. Varley, formerly alluded to, as a specimen of the folly and superstition that still degrade the present age.

"With respect to the vision of the ghost of the flea, as seen by Mr. Blake, it agrees in countenance with one class of people under Gemini, which sign is the significator of the flea, whose brown colour is appropriate to the colour of the eyes, in some full-toned Gemini persons, and the neatness, elasticity and tenseness of the flea, are significant of the elegant dancing and fencing sign Gemini. The spirit visited his imagination in such a figure as he never anticipated in an insect. As I was anxious to make the most correct investigation in my power of the truth of these visions, on hearing of this spiritual apparition of a flea, I asked him if he could draw for me the resemblance of what he saw. He instantly said, ' I see him now before me.' I therefore gave him paper and a pencil with which he drew the portrait, of which a fac-simile is given in this number. I felt convinced by his mode of proceeding, that he had a real image before him; for he left off and began on another part of the paper, to make a separate drawing of the mouth of the flea, which the spirit having opened, he was prevented from proceeding with the first sketch, till he had closed it. During the time occupied in completing the draw, ing, the flea told him that all fleas were inhabited by the souls of such men as were by nature blood-thirsty to excess, and were, therefore, providentially confined to the size and form of such in sects; otherwise, were he himself, for instance, the size of a horse, he would depopulate a great part of the country. He added, that, if in attempting to leap from one island to another, he should fall into the sea, he could swim, and could not be lost.' This spirit afterwards appeared to Blake, and afforded him a view of his whole figure, an engraving of which I shall give in this work."

N. B.-Blake, who died only two or three years ago, was an ingenious artist, who illustrated Blair's Grave, and other works, and was so much of an enthusiast, that he imagined he could call up from the vasty deep, any spirits or corporeal forms. Were it not a fact, that a work entitled "Zodiacal Physiognomy," written by John Varley, and illustrated with engravings, was actually published in the year 1828, by Longman and Co., we should have deemed it almost impossible, that amidst the light of the present age, any man capable of

writing a gramatical sentence, would seriously give such a description as that quoted above, and attach his belief to such absurdity and nonsense. But amidst all our boasted scientific improvements and discoveries, it appears, that the clouds of ignorance and superstition still hang over a large body of our population, and that the light of the millennial era, if it have yet dawned, is still far from its meridian splendour.

After what has been now stated respecting the circumstances. which may have led to the popular belief of spectres and apparitions, it would be almost needless to spend time in illustrating the futility of such a belief. There is one strong objection against the probability of apparitions, and that is, that they scarcely appear to be intelligent creatures, or at least, that they possess so small a degree of intelligence, that they are unqualified to act with prudence, or to use the means requisite to accomplish an end. Ghosts are said often to appear in order to discover some crime that had been committed; but they never appear to a magistrate, or some person of authority and intelligence, but to some illiterate clown, who happens to live near the place where the crime was committed, to some person who has no connexion at all with the affair, and who, in general, is the most improper person in the world for making the discovery. Glanville, who wrote in defence of witchcraft and apparitions, relates, for instance, the following story: "James Haddock, a farmer, was married to Elenor Welsh, by whom he had a son. After the death of Haddock, his wife married one Davis; and both agreed to defraud the son by the former marriage, of a lease bequeathed to him by his father. Upon this the ghost of Haddock appeared to one Francis Taverner, the servant of Lord Chichester, and desired him to go to Elenor Welsh, and to inform her that it was the will of her former husband that their son should enjoy the lease. Taverner did not at first execute this commission, but he was continually haunted by the apparition in the most hideous shapes, which even threatened to tear him in pieces, till at last he delivered the message." Now, had this spectre possessed the least common sense, it would have appeared first to Elenor Welsh, and her husband Davis, and frightened them into compliance at once, and not have kept poor Taverner, who had no concern in the matter, in such constant disquietude and alarm.

Another odd circumstance respecting apparitions, is, that they have no power to speak, till they are addressed. In Glanville's relations, we read of an old woman, that appeared often to David Hunter, a neat-herd, at the house of the Bishop of Down. Whenever she appeared, he found himself obliged

to follow her; and, for three quarters of a year, poor David spent the whole of almost every night in scampering up and down through the woods after this old woman. How long this extraordinary employment might have continued, it is impossible to guess, had not David's violent fatigue made him one night exclaim, "Lord bless me !-would I were dead !--shall I never be delivered from this misery ?" On which the phantom replied, "Lord bless me too!-It was happy you spoke first, for till then I had no power to speak, though I have followed you so long!" Then she gave him a message to her two sons, though David told her he remembered nothing about her. David, it seems, neglected to deliver the message, at which the old beldam was so much provoked, that she returned and hit him a hearty blow on the shoulder, which made him cry out and then speak to her. Now, if she could not speak till David addressed her, why might she not have applied this oratorial medicine, the first time she appeared to him? It would have saved both herself and him many a weary journey, and certainly David would much rather have had half a dozen blows from her choppy fists, than have wanted so many nights' sleep. To complete the story, it must be added, that when David's wife found it impossible to keep him from following the troublesome visitor, she trudged after him, but was never gratified with a sight of the enchantress.-See Ency. Brit. Art. Spectre.

What imaginable purpose can be served by such dumb spectres that cannot speak till they are addressed, or by sending apparitions from the invisible world that appear destitute of common sense? It is remarked by Glanville, that ghosts are generally very eager to be gone; and, indeed, they are frequently so much so, that like children and thoughtless fools, they do not stay to tell their errand. It appears altogether inconsistent with any rational or scriptural ideas of the overruling providence of the Almighty, to suppose that such beings would be selected for administering the affairs of his kingdom, and for maintaining an intercourse between the visible and invisible worlds. It is also stated to be one peculiarity of spectres that they appear only in the night. But if they are sent to this sublunary region on affairs of importance, why should they be afraid of the light of the sun? In the light of day their message would be delivered with as much ease, and with more chance of success. As it would excite less fear, it would be listened to with more calmness and attention; and were they to exhibit themselves before a number of intelligent witnesses in the full blaze of day, the purposes for which they were sent would be more speedily and securely accomplished. The celestial messengers whose visits are recorded in Scripture, appeared most frequently during the light of day, and communicated their messages, in many