It is altogether unnecessary to attempt an enumeration of the numerous hypothetical explanations which have been attempted to be given of the phenomenon of incubus, and which have been detailed by Awen, Bond, and other writers. The disorder has commonly been supposed to proceed from astagnation of the blood in the sinuses of the brain, or in the vessels of the lungs, or from too great a quantity of blood being sent to the head. The horizontal posture, in time of sleep, and the pressure of the stomach upon the aorta, in a supine situation, have been thought sufficient to occasion a more than usual distention of the sinuses and other vessels of the brain; and the weight of the heart, pressing on the left auricle and large trunks of the pulmonary veins, may, it is supposed, prevent the easy return of the blood from the lungs, and thus produce an oppression and sense of weight and suffocation in the breast. But without entering into a particular examination of these opinions, which are far from being satisfactory, we may observe, with Dr. Whytt, that, if they were true, some degree of the nightmare ought to happen to every body that lies upon his back, especially after eating a full meal. Further, if a horizontal situation could overcharge the brain with blood, so as to occasion the incubus, how comes it that people, who remain for some time in an inverted posture, do not feel this disease beginning to attack them? And why does a slighter degree of the nightmare sometimes seize people who sleep in an erect situation in a chair? a circumstance which sometimes occurs, not only after eating, but when the stomach is out of order, and troubled with wind. As the weight of the stomach, even when filled with food, can have scarcely any effect upon the motion of the blood in the aorta, so the pressure of the heart is by much too small to be able sensibly to retard the motion of that fluid in the pulmonary veins; otherwise, people exhausted by tedious diseases, who generally lie on their back, would be constantly affected with the incubus.
We know that certain medicines or poisons, worms, and even corrupted bile, or other humours, by disagreeably affecting the nerves of the stomach, produce an oppression about the breast, wild imaginations, frightful dreams, raving, and insensibility; and there is no doubt that low spirits, melancholy, and disturbed sleep, often proceed from a disordered state of the stomach. It seems, therefore, more probable that the seat of nightmare is principally in that organ. It is well ascertained, that some forms of epilepsy, and of hysterical fits, originate from disorder in that viscus; and Galen considered the incubus as a nocturnal or slighter epilepsy. People troubled with nervous and hypochondriac affections, and who have delicate or flatulent stomachs, are more peculiarly subject to this disorder; and it is observed, that a heavy or flatulent supper greatly aggravates the nightmare, in those who are predisposed to it. The sympathy of the stomach with the head, heart, lungs, and diaphragm, is so remarkable, that there can be no difficulty in referring the severalsymptoms of the incubus to a disagreeable irritation of the nerves of the stomach.
The incubus is most apt to seize persons when lying on their back, because, in this position, on account of the stomach and other abdominal viscera pressing more upon the diaphragm, we cannot inspire with the same ease as when we sit up or lie on one side. Further, in that situation of the body the food seems to lie heavier on the stomach, and wind in it does not separate so readily by the æsophagus and pylorus, as in an erect posture, when these orifices are higher than the other parts of the stomach. The nightmare only occurs in the time of sleep, because the strange ideas excited in the mind, in consequence of the disordered feelings of the stomach, are not then corrected by the external senses, as they are when we are awake; nor do we, by an increased respiration or other motions of the body, endeavour to shake off any beginning uneasy sensation about the stomach or breast. The incubus generally occurs in the first sleep, and seldom towards morning, because at the earlier period the stomach is more loaded with food, and that in a more crude and indigested state than in the morning. A lesser degree, amounting only to frightful dreams, is almost a constant concomitant of overloaded stomach in some habits.
In fact, if the nightmare were owing to a stagnation of the blood in the lungs from the weight of the heart, or in the sinuses and other vessels of the brain, from the horizontal posture of the body, it would become greater the longer it continued, and would scarcely ever go off spontaneously. But we know that this disease, after affecting people for some time, often gradually ceases, and is succeeded by refreshing sleep: for as soon as the load of meat, or wind, or other cause disagreeably affecting the nerves of the stomach, is removed, the oppression and weight on the breast, wild imaginations, frightful dreams, &c. vanish; as all these proceed originally from the disorder of the stomach. It may be remarked, however, that, as neither flatulency, phlegm, nor crudities in the stomach, ever produce the symptoms of hypochondriasis, unless the nerves of that organ be indisposed; so neither a horizontal posture, sleep, nor heavy suppers, ever produce the nightmare, at least in any considerable degree, unless the person be already predisposed to the complaint, from the particular condition of the nerves of the stomach.
But although the stomach is the part commonly affected primarily in the case of incubus; yet symptoms like those of the nightmare may sometimes arise without any fault of the stomach, when the lungs, or even the brain, are affected. Thus Dr. Whytt observes, that asthmatic patients, whose lungs are much obstructed, are sometimes disturbed, in timeof sleep, with distressing dreams, and oppressed with a sense of suffocation. Startings and oppressions about the præcordia, with painful dreams, are indeed common occurrences from hydrothorax, chronic coughs, and other pulmonary obstructions; but they are not strictly analogous to the common nightmare. Dr. Lower mentions a patient, who, though he could sleep pretty easily with his head inclined forward; yet, in the opposite situation, he was always soon awaked with horrid dreams and tremors; the cause of which appeared, after his death, to have been a great quantity of water in the ventricles of the brain. At all events, a plethoric state of habit, by rendering the circulation through the lungs less free, may help to produce, or at least increase, the oppression of the breast in the nightmare.
The Cure.—As incubus, then, is only a symptom of disordered or loaded stomach, and arises out of the irritation and morbid feelings which are thus produced during sleep, the relief of the disease, generally speaking, lies within a narrow compass. Temperance in eating and drinking, especially at late hours; taking, in fact, either extremely light suppers or none at all; and when the dinner is so late as to be only a supper with another name, being cautious that that also should be moderate in quantity, and easily digestible and unstimulating in its nature; drinking thin, sub-acid liquors, where these are agreeable to the constitution,—these are the principal remedies required. Brisk active exercise, by which the digestive powers may be aided and the stomach strengthened, is also advisable. It were useful, too, to sleep with high pillows, and to lie on the side as much as possible, in preference to the back. If the functions of the stomach are much disordered with flatulency, heartburn, acidity, or oppression, with pain, or nausea, after taking food, the usual remedies recommended for indigestion must be resorted to. The bowels should be kept open. See Whytt on Nervous Disorders, chap. vi. § 18.
Celebrated Speech on Religion.
The Editor of this work well recollects, many years ago, reading in a newspaper a most interesting speech on religion, delivered by a French priest; it made a great impression on his mind at the time, and he frequently regretted he had not transcribed it. He made all inquiry possible, but could not meet with the interesting article till seventeen years had elapsed, when it was published by a person who had preserved the paper in question. It is now presented to the reader as a curiosity worthy of his notice.—This speech was delivered atthe Bar of the French Convention, and is copied from the Cambridge Intelligencer of March 24th, 1798.
A few days after the archbishop of Paris and his vicars had set the example of renouncing their clerical character, a rector from a village on the banks of the Rhone, followed by some of his parishioners, with an offering of gold and silver saints and chalices, rich vestments, &c. presented himself at the bar of the convention. The rector, a thin venerable-looking man, with gray hairs, was ordered to speak.
“I come (said he) from the village of ——, where the only good building standing is a very fine church: my parishioners beg you will take it, to make an hospital for the sick and wounded of both parties, they being both equally our countrymen. The gold and silver, part of which we have brought to you, they entreat you will devote to the service of the state, and that you will cast the bells into cannon, to drive away its foreign invaders. For myself, I came with great pleasure to resign my letters of ordination, of induction, and every deed and title by which I have been constituted a member of your ecclesiastical polity. Here are the papers; you may burn them, if you please, in the same fire with genealogical trees and patents of nobility. I desire, likewise, that you will discontinue my salary; I am still able to support myself by the labour of my hands, and I beg you to believe, that I never felt sincerer joy than I now do in making this renunciation. I have longed to see this day! I see it, and am glad.”
When the old man had thus far spoken, the applauses were immoderate. The rector did not seem greatly elated with these tokens of approbation: he retired back a few steps, and thus resumed his discourse:—
“Before you applaud my sentiments, it is fit you should understand them; perhaps they may not entirely coincide with your own. I rejoice in this day, not because I wish to see religion degraded, but because I wish to see it exalted and purified. By dissolving its alliance with the state, you have given it dignity and independence. You have done it a piece of service; a service which its well-wishers would perhaps never have had courage to render it, but which is the only thing wanted to make it appear in its genuine beauty and lustre. Nobody will now say of me, when I am performing the offices of religion, ‘It is a trade; he is paid for telling the people such and such things; he is hired to keep up a useless piece of mummery.’ They cannot say this, and therefore I feel myself raised in my own esteem, and shall speak to them with a confidence and a frankness, which before this I never durst venture to assume. We resign without reluctance our gold and silver images, and embroidered vestments, becausewe never have found that looking upon gold and silver made the heart more pure, or the affections more heavenly; we can also spare our churches, for the heart that wishes to lift itself up to God, will never be at a loss for a place to do it in: but we cannot spare religion, because, to tell you the truth, we never had so much occasion for it. I understand that you accuse us priests of having told the people a great many falsehoods. I suspect this may have been the case, but till this day we have never been allowed to inquire whether the things which we taught them were true or not. I cannot but hope, however, that the errors we have fallen into have not been very material, since the village has in general been sober and good; the peasants honest, docile, and laborious; the husbands love their wives, and the wives their husbands; they are fortunately not too rich to be compassionate, and they have constantly relieved the sick and fugitives of all parties, whenever it has lain in their way. I think, therefore, what I have taught them cannot be so much amiss.
“You want to extirpate priests: but will you hinder the ignorant from applying for instruction, the unhappy for comfort and hope, the unlearned from looking up to the learned? If you do not, you will have priests, by whatever name you may order them to be called; but it is certainly not necessary they should wear a particular dress, or be appointed by state letters of ordination. My letters of ordination are my zeal, charity, and my ardent love for the children of the village: if I were more learned, I would add knowledge; but, alas! we all know very little: to a man every error is pardonable, but want of humanity. We have a public walk, with a spreading elm-tree at one end of it, and a circle of green around it, with a convenient bench. Here I shall draw together the children that are playing round me: I shall point to the vines laden with fruit, to the orchard, to the herds of cattle lowing round us, to the distant hills stretching one behind another; and they will ask me, how came all these things? I shall tell them all I know; what I have heard from the wise men who have lived before me; they will be penetrated with love and adoration! They will kneel; I shall kneel with them; they will not be at my feet, but all of us at the feet of that good Being, whom we shall worship together, and thus they will receive within their tender minds a religion.
“The old men will come sometimes, from having deposited under the green sod one of their companions, and place themselves by my side: they will look wistfully at the turf, and anxiously inquire,—Is he gone for ever? Shall we soon be like him? Will no morning break over the tomb? When the wicked cease from troubling, will the good cease from doing good? We will talk of these things: I will comfort them; Iwill tell them of the goodness of God; I will speak to them of a life to come; I will bid them hope for a state of retribution.
“You have changed our holidays; you have an undoubted right, as our civil governors, so to do: it is very immaterial whether they are kept once in seven days, or once in ten; some, however, you will leave us, and when they occur, I shall tell those who choose to hear me, of the beauty and utility of virtue, and of the dignity of right conduct. There is a book out of which I have sometimes taught my people; it says we are to love those who do us hurt, and to pour oil and wine into the wounds of the stranger. In this book we read of Christ Jesus: some worship him as a God; others, as I am told, say it is wrong to do so; some teach that he existed before the beginning of ages; others, that he was born of Joseph and Mary. I cannot tell whether these controversies will ever be decided: but, in the mean time, I think we cannot do otherwise than well in imitating him—for I learn that he loved the poor, and went about doing good.”
Addenda toVesuvius.—Seepage 441.
A grand eruption of Vesuvius took place on Sunday night, Feb. 24, 1822. It continued for several days. The following is an extract from a private letter, dated Naples, March 8, 1822.—
“Towards the evening of Tuesday, February the 26th, as appearances promised a good night’s work, we set off from Naples to view the operations nearer; the road to Resina was covered with people going and returning, as if a fair had been in the vicinity. When we reached the spot where strangers are on common occasions surrounded by guides, and asses, and mules, to conduct them up to the mountain, we found that no animals were to be procured, and it was with difficulty we could get a stupid old man for acicerone, who rendered us no other service than carrying a torch. The ascent was thronged with people, some pushing on eagerly to the object of their curiosities, and others returning, and discussing what they had seen. Far below San Salvator we saw the stream of fire rolling along a wide hollow, and approaching the path by which we were going up: it was then, however, at a considerable distance, and its course was very slow. On reaching the hermitage, we refreshed ourselves as well as the crowd there assembled would permit; we then continued our journey, and approached the lava, which was chiefly formed by the eruption of January, 1821. We found it about thirty feet wide; it was not liquid lava, but consisted of ashes, ignitedstones, and old masses of volcanic ejections, swept away by the present eruption, and heated again. These lumps, rolling over each other, produced a strange clinking noise. Some of them were of a very great size; and the whole stream, though descending a steep cone, moved but slowly.
“Beyond this principal stream, midway up the cone, was an opening, whence very large stones and other burning matters were continually thrust out. This mouth fed a scattered stream, beyond which was another narrow stream, proceeding like the principal one from the crater. They both united with the main body in the deep hollow below, and rolled on towards the road which leads from Resina up to the hermitage. The multitude of the spectators standing by the sides of the burning river being seized with astonishment, we, with a great many of the more adventurous, determined to ascend the cone; we therefore passed a little to the left of the great stream, and began to scramble to the deep loose cinders and ashes which cover this part of the mountain, and render it at all times a most fatiguing climb. A little path or track formerly existed, in which the guides laid masses of lava to facilitate the mounting, but it was just in that line that the present eruption descended, and we were in consequence obliged to go up over the sand and cinders, in which we frequently stuck up to our knees, and, at every three steps, lost one on an average. After a most fatiguing toil of an hour and a half, we found ourselves, with a few others, on the edge of the grand crater: hence thecoup d’œilwas terrifically sublime; the flames rushed out of the mouth, and threw themselves in the air in a broad body to the elevation of at least a hundred feet, whilst many of the fiery stones flew up twice that height. Sometimes the flames fell back into the mouth of the crater, and then burst out again, as though impelled by a fresh impulse, like the blast of a bellows. In their descent, some of the stones and lumps of cinder returned into the mouth, but the greater part fell outside of the flames, like the jets of a fountain.
“While we were standing on the exposed side of the crater, very intent in observation, all of a sudden the volcano gave a tremendous roar. It was like the crash of a long line of artillery, and was instantly succeeded by such a discharge of stones as we had never before seen. At the same moment, the wind, which was very high, gave an irregular gust, which directed a great part of the stones towards the place where we were posted. Hence our situation was for a minute or two very perilous; but there was no shelter near, and we stood still, looking at the descending shower which fell around us. We, however, happily sustained no other injury than a short alarm, and having some ashes dashed in our faces by stones which fell near us. Two or three gentlemen who wereascending the cone after us, were not quite so fortunate, for many of the stones falling outside of the ridge, rolled down the side with great velocity, loosening and carrying with them lumps of cold lava, &c. some of which struck those persons on the legs with great violence, and nearly precipitated one of them headlong to the foot of the cone.
“After this, we thought we had seen enough, and turned to go down. The descent is as easy as the ascent is difficult; the cinders and ashes sliding away beneath the feet, nothing further is necessary than to step out, the quicker the better, to keep one’s equilibrium, and to avoid the fixed or large stones and pieces of lava. We were not more than ten minutes in reaching the point whence it had taken us an hour and a half to mount. In coming down, we were struck with the strange appearance of the torches of companies ascending and descending; they formed a pale wavering line from Resina to the hermitage; and thence to the cone, they were scattered about in thick and fantastic groups. On reaching the hermitage, we found it so crowded, that we could not enter. The large flat around was covered like a crowded fair, by people of all nations, and of all ranks, from the beautiful and accomplished countess of Fiquelmont, wife of the Austrian ambassador, to the Austrian sergeant and his wife, who had come to see the blazing mountain. Numbers of people had come from towns and villages below, with bread and wine, and fruit and aqua-vitae, all of which articles seemed in very great demand. The motley scene was illuminated by the bright silvery moon, and the red towering flames at the summit of the volcano. We took some slight refreshments, and repaired homewards in the midst of as merry groups as ever returned from scenes of festivity and joy.
“When we got lower down, we found that the lava had approached very near to the road, and had already seized upon a fine vineyard, which was blazing very brilliantly. After our retreat, we learned that the lava traversed the road. On Wednesday, the 27th, the eruption was in a great measure tranquillized; still, however, crowds of people continued going up the mountain; and an Austrian officer, who had come from Caspua to see it, was unfortunately killed on the ridge of the cone, by a large stone striking him on the head. On Thursday scarcely any thing but smoke issued from the crater, and it has continued from that time in the same peaceful state.”
Anagrams.
In “The Book of Curiosities,” even that mechanical, yet curiously fortuitous species of wit, called theAnagram, must not escape notice. It can scarcely be necessary to premise, that anagram, or metagram, is the dissolution of a word into its letters, as its elements; and then, by a new connection of them, making some perfect sense, applicable to the person or thing named. As there are some modern ones of this sort, exhibiting astonishing coincidences, we shall here subjoin a selection of the best:—
Lo i dress,Soldiers.—’Tis ye govern,Sovereignty.—Spare him not,Misanthrope.—Great Helps,Telegraphs.—No more Stars,Astronomers.—No Charm,Monarch.—March on,Monarch.—Comical Trade,Democratical.—Best in Prayer,Presbyterian.—A just Master,James Stuart.—To love Ruin,Revolution.—Oh poison Pitt,Th’ Opposition.—Honor est a Nilo,Horatio Nelson.—A Bear upon ’t,Buonaparte.
The unhappy Sir Edmundburie Godfry, having dared, as a magistrate, to take some legal depositions against the Papists, was, by three of those fellow-subjects, Green, Berry, and Hill, waylaid, and shockingly murdered, in 1678, upon which was then written,
I find murder’d by roguesSir Edmundburie Godfry.
Modern Dictionary.
To illustrate life at the present day, we insert the following whimsical Encyclopædia of Manners at the Commencement of the Nineteenth Century!
Age... An infirmity nobody owns.
At Home... The domestic amusement of three hundred visitors in a small room, to yawn at each other.
Bore... Every thing one dislikes; it also means any person who talks of religion.
Buying... Ordering goods without purpose of paying.
Chariot... A vehicle for one’s servants, the dickey being the seat for the ladies, and the coach-box for the gentleman.
Charity... A golden ticket to Catalani, or any other favourite performer.
Coachman... A gentleman or accomplished nobleman.
Common Sense... A vulgar quality.
Conscience... Something to swear by.
Day... Night; or, strictly speaking, from ten in the evening to six in the morning.
Debt... A necessary evil.
Decency... Keeping up an appearance.
Dress... Half naked.
Duty... Doing as other people do.
Economy... Obsolete.
Fashion... TheJe ne scai quoiof excellence.
Fortune... TheSummum Bonum.
Friend... Meaning not known.
Highly-accomplished... Reading music at sight, painting flowers for the borders of a screen, and a talent for guessing charades.
Home... Every one’s house but your own.
Honour... Standing fire well.
Hospitality... Obsolete.
Husband... A person to pay your debts.
Love... The meaning not known, now that the ossification of the heart has become a fashionable disease; but the word is still to be found in novels and romances.
Matrimony... A bargain.
Modest... Sheepish.
Morning... From noon to sunset.
Music... Execution.
New... Delightful.
Nonsense... Polite conversation.
Not at Home... Sitting in your own drawing-room.
Pay... Only applied to visits.
Piety... Hypocrisy.
Prodigality... Generosity.
Prudence... Parsimony.
Quiz... Any inoffensive person, out of your own circle.
Religion... Occupying a seat in some genteel chapel.
Spirit... Contempt of decorum and morality.
Style... Splendid extravagance.
Time... Only regarded in music.
Truth... Meaning uncertain.
Vice... Any fault in horses, dogs, and servants.
Wicked... Irresistibly agreeable.
World... The circle of fashionable people when in town.
Recipe for Establishing True Friendship.
In Pliny’s Natural History, we find a curious recipe for making theRoman Friendship, a cordial that was universally esteemed in those days, and very few families of any credit were without it. In the same place (he says) theywere indebted to the Greeks for this recipe, who had it in the greatest perfection. The old Roman Friendship was a composition of several ingredients, of which the principal were:
Union of hearts, (a fine flower, that grew in several parts of the empire,) sincerity, frankness, disinterestedness, pity, and tenderness, (of each an equal quantity.) These were all mixed with two rich oils, which they called perpetual kind wishes, and serenity of temper; and the whole was strongly perfumed with the desire of pleasing, which gave it a most grateful smell, and was a sure restorative in all sorts of vapours. This cordial was of so durable a nature, that no length of time could waste it: and what is very remarkable, (says our author,) it increased in weight and value the longer you kept it.—The moderns have most grossly adulterated this fine cordial; some of the ingredients indeed are not to be found, but what they impose upon you as friendship, is as follows:
Outward professions, (a common weed that grows every where,) instead of the flower of union; the desire of being pleased; a large quantity of self-interest, conveniency, and reservedness (many handfuls;) a little pity and tenderness. But some pretend to make it up with these two last, and the common oil of inconstancy (which, like our linseed oil, is cold-drawn every hour) serves to mix them together. Most of these ingredients being of a perishable nature, it will not keep, and it shews itself to be counterfeit, by lessening continually in weight and value.
Footnotes:
[1]This subject will be more fully explained hereafter.
[2]Besides these, amongst the internal parts are enumerated,—the lachrymal gland, which secretes the tears; the lachrymal caruncle, a small fleshy substance at the inner angle of the eye; the puncta lachrymalia, two small openings on the nasal extremity of each eye-lash; the lachrymal duct, formed by the union of the ducts leading from the puncta lachrymalia, and conveying the tears into the nose; the lachrymal sac, a dilatation of the lachrymal canal.
[3]An instrument, called the Pulmometer, has been invented, which enables us to measure the capacity of the lungs, and which may communicate information to the physician, of some importance, in diseases of this organ.
[4]Klopstock’s Death in “L’Allemagne;” vol. i. p. 252.
[5]The places of the insertion of the muscles of the proboscis are visible on the skull; it was probably devoured, as well as the end of the tail.
[6]9 ft. 6 in. measuring along the curve. The distance from the base of the root of the tusk to the point, is 3 ft. 7 in.
[7]On the arrival of the skin at Petersburg, it was totally devoid of hair.
[8]In speaking of the wild beasts of India, Pliny says, with regard to the animal in question,—
“Asperrimam autem feram monocerotem, reliquo corpore equo similem, capite cervo, pedibus eliphante, cauda apro, mugitu gravi, uno cornu nigro media fronte, cubitorum duum eminente. Hanc feram vivam negant capi.” Plin. Hist. Mund. Lib. 3, cap. 21.
The resemblance is certainly very striking.
[9]It was a female sheep, but by the sailors was constantly called Jack.
[10]Reaumur plausibly supposes, that it has been from observing this bee thus loaded, that the tale mentioned by Aristotle and Pliny, of the hive-bee’s ballasting itself with a bit of stone, previous to flying home in a high wind, has arisen.
[11]M. Huber observes, that fecundated females, after they have lost their wings, make themselves a subterranean cell, some singly, others in common. From which it appears that some colonies have more than one female from their first establishment.
[12]See Fourcroy,Annales du Muséum, No. 5, p. 338, 342. Some, however, still regard it as a distinct acid.
[13]See Fourcroy,Annales du Muséum, No. 5. p. 343.
[14]One would think the writer of the account of ants, in Mouffet, had been witness to something similar. “If they see any one idle,” (says he,) “they not only drive him as spurious, without food, from the nest; but likewise, a circle of all ranks being assembled, cut off his head before the gates, that he may be a warning to their children, not to give themselves up for the future to idleness and effeminacy.”—Theatr. Ins.p. 241.
[15]Annal. di Chimica, xiii. 1797, Mag. ii. 80.
[16]
“And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs,And light them at the fiery glowworm’s eyes.”
[17]Hist. Nat.l. xi. c. 29. A similar law was enacted in Lemnos, by which every one was compelled to bring a certain measure of locusts annually to the magistrates.Plin.
[18]Of the symbolical locusts in the Apocalypse it is said, “And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.”—Rev.ix. 9.
[19]Shaw says, that thegryllus cristatus, which is five or six times the size of the common locust, orgryllus migratorius, is publicly sold, both in a fresh and salted state, in the markets of some parts of the Levant.Gen. Zoology, vol. vi. part. ii. p. 138.
[20]See Dr. Plot’s Hist. of Oxf. ch. vi. sect. 45.
[21]The moving columns of sand.
[22]Palmistry is the pretended art of telling the future events of men’s lives by the lines in their hands.
[23]And yet I have seen him, after his return, addressing his wife in the language of a young bridegroom. And I have been assured, by some of his most intimate friends, that he treated her, during the rest of their lives, with the greatest kindness and affection.
[24]A specimen of the papyrus is to be seen at the British Museum; it is the first known in England. It was brought by Mr. Bruce, and given to Sir Joseph Banks, who presented it to the British Museum.
[25]The white pebbles found on the banks of the Mersey, although not a pure quartz, answer the purpose perfectly well. It is singular, that the friction is invariably accompanied by a strong sulphureous smell.
[26]That this method of charming the serpentine race was practised at a very early period of antiquity, appears from the allusion of the holy Psalmist, in the 4th and 5th verses of the 58th Psalm.