CHAPTER XXVII.

FERD. "May I be bold

To think these spirits?"

PROSP.-"Spirits, which by mine art

I have from their confines called to enact

My present fancies."

TEMP., Act iv.

OF FAMILIAR SPIPITS.

We often hear people talk of "throwing their thoughts upon paper." We should like to learn the easy process, which must be infinitely superior to the every-day process of writing

them word by word. We would give a trifle to be able thus to daguerrotype our lucubrations, and would willingly incur a head-ache or two in composition, for freedom from pain and stiffness, in our good right hand. But the wish is vain; so travel on in thine accustomed course, thou pen, who, at least, art steel to thy back bone.

Most of our readers are aware of what a Familiar Spirit is, in general terms, but the idea is principally associated with the Witch of Endor, or an old woman with a red cloak and high-heeled shoes, with a black cat perched alongside of her upon her chair, and enabling her to predict future events. The word, however, had a wider signification amongst the old Germans, and familiar spirits were divided into as many classes as the human heart has desires. There were distinct ones for the gratification of pride, emulation, avarice, the desire of forbidden knowledge, anger, hatred, and the whole catalogue of

human vices. We are afraid that we have half expressed a desire for a daguerrotype one in our first paragraph.

These spirits were to be purchased occasionally, but the most usual way of procuring them was for the party desirous of having one, to sign a contract with the Devil, in their own blood, giving themselves to him, body and soul. We have an instance of a wife of a countryman in the bishopric of Eichstadt, travelling all the way to Leipsic to purchase one; to which we chiefly allude, as she actually did so in obedience to her husband's commands, and we therefore hold her up as a laudable example to the sex. The woman, going about the city in order to fulfil her fool's errand, was seized by a tipstaff, and carried before a magistrate, who, according to a practice not extinct in these enlightened times, punished her first by throwing her into gaol, and then enquired into the case at his subsequent leisure. The woman pleaded poverty,

and her husband's orders, whereon the magistrate was about to commit her to the treadmill, under the Vagrant Act, when somebody or other suggested that it was sheer ignorance, and advised that she should be instructed in the Romish religion. As soon as she had acquired about as much knowledge as is usually imparted to the native Roman Catholic converts of this country, viz., the being able to recite a Paternoster, and an Ave Maria or two, without more than half a dozen mistakes, and without ever having heard of the word of God, she was discharged as a Christian of most edifying piety.

We will here give an anecdote from Dr. Bräuner's personal experience. He tells us "When, in the year 1668, I arrived, in the course of my travels, at Stettin in Pomerania, and wished to rest for a day or two from the fatigues of my voyage and journey, the landlord of the house had no suitable apartment empty, but promised that he would look out for one

for me on the morrow; meanwhile he allotted me one with merely boarded partitions. I had justconcluded my first nap, when I heard a person in the next room praying most fervently, and speaking to some other person, which induced me to believe that this man was laboring under a disease of uncommon severity, especially when I heard him constantly repeating Look there!-there he is standing at the door!' This melancholy occurrence effectually banished sleep from my eyes, and I lay devoutly wishing for the morning light. I afterwards enquired of my host what sickness the patient was afflicted with; and he informed me that the man was in good bodily health, but under great trouble and disquiet of conscience for the last fourteen days, and gave the priests, and the bystanders, no small trouble: the cause was as follows:

"The man, a tailor by trade, about twentyfour years previously, had enlisted as a soldier of musqueteers in the Swedish army, in which