WITCHCRAFT.

The reigns of Philip and Mary and James I. were not sufficiently removed from the darkness of the middle ages to render enactments like the following ridiculous, even in the mouths of the legislature:—

“All persons who shall practise invocation or conjuration of wicked spirits, any witchcraft, enchantment, charm, or sorcery, whereby any person shall happen to be killed or destroyed, shall, with their aiders and abettors, he accounted felons, without benefit of clergy; and all persons practising any witchcraft, &c., whereby any person shall happen to be wasted, consumed, or lamed in his or her body or members, or whereby any goods or chattels shall be destroyed, wasted, or impaired, shall, with their counsellors and aiders, suffer for the first offence one year’s imprisonment and the pillory, and for the second the punishment of felony without clergy.”

The like penalties are annexed to declaring by sorcery where any hidden or stolen treasure or goods may be found.

Again, “if any person shall consult, covenant with, entertain, employ, feed, or reward any evil or wicked spirit, or take up any dead man, woman, or child out of his, her, or their grave; or the skin, bone, or any other part of any dead person to be employed in any manner of witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or enchantment^[1],” &c., he shall suffer death as a felon, without benefit of clergy.

Let us thank God, who has put the means of civilization in our way, that (in the words of Sir Walter Scott) “the grosser faults of our ancestors are now out of date; and that whatever follies the present race may be guilty of, the sense of humanity is too universally spread to permit them to think of tormenting wretches till they confess what is impossible, and then burning them for their pains.”

Heraldry.—A sanguine Frenchman had so high an opinion of the pleasures to be enjoyed in the study of heraldry, that he used to lament, as we are informed by Menage, the hard case of our forefather Adam, who could not possibly amuse himself by investigating that science, nor that of genealogy.

A Threat explained.—“Your unchristian virulence against me,” said a Huguenot who had been persecuted for preaching, “shall cost hundreds of people their lives.” This menace brought the author into trouble; he was cited to a court of justice, and was charged with harbouring the most bloody designs against his fellow-subjects. “I am innocent,” said he, “of all you lay to my account. My only meaning was, that I intended (since I could not act as a minister) to practise as a physician.”—If the Huguenot had practised without the requisite knowledge he would have kept his promise.

Pride.—A Spaniard, rising from a fall, whereby his nose had suffered considerably, exclaimed, “Voto a tal, esto escaminar por la tierra!” “This comes of walking upon earth!”

Advertisements.—We are sometimes astonished at the impudent assertions of quacks in their public announcements at the present day. Their predecessors, however, went somewhat further, as the two following advertisements taken from the original edition of the Spectator will show:—“An admirable confect which assuredly cures stuttering and stammering in children or grown persons, though never so bad, causing them to speak distinct and free without any trouble or difficulty; it remedies all manner of impediments in the speech, or disorders of the voice of any kind, proceeding from what cause soever, rendering those persons capable of speaking easily and free, and with a clear voice, who before were not able to utter a sentence without hesitation. Its stupendous effects in so quickly and infallibly curing stuttering and stammering, and all disorders of the voice and difficulty in delivery of the speech, are really wonderful. Price 2s. 6d. a pot, with directions. Sold only at Mr. Osborn’s Toy-shop, at the Rose and Crown, under St. Dunstan’s church, Fleet-street.”

“Loss of memory, or forgetfulness, certainly cured, by a grateful electuary, peculiarly adapted for that end; it strikes at the primary source, which few apprehend, of forgetfulness, makes the head clear and easy, the spirits free, active, and undisturbed; corroborates and revives all the noble faculties of the soul, such as thought, judgment, apprehension, reason, and memory, which last in particular it so strengthens as to render that faculty exceeding quick, and good beyond imagination; thereby enabling those whose memory was before almost totally lost to remember the minutest circumstance of their affairs, &c. to a wonder. Price 2s. 6d. a pot. Sold only at Mr. Payne’s, at the Angel and Crown, in St. Paul’s Church-yard, with directions.”

Doubtful Improvement.—A set of parish officers applied to Snetzler (a celebrated organ builder) to examine their organ and to make improvements on it—“Gentlemen,” said the honest Swiss, “your organ be wort von hondred pound, just now—well—I will spend von hondred pound upon it, and it shall then be wort fifty.”

200