clearly prove that enthusiasm, or fanaticism, may lead to the development of effects which are truly somnambulic.*

To return, however, to the trials for sorcery and witchcraft which took place in England; it is, as Glanvil has affirmed, not reasonable to suppose that so many witnesses would have perjured themselves in attesting facts, the falsity of which, had they so forsworn themselves, could so easily have been detected; besides which, it should be remembered, that the deposition of every witness was corroborated by other

* The miracles of prince Hohenlöhe fall under the same category, as also those extraordinary exhibitions of the disciples of Irving, which lately attracted considerable public attention. In one of those amusing dialogues in Fraser's magazine, entitled "Oliver Yorke at Home," in which series of articles we find much profound mental philosophy gracefully and clearly propounded, M. Heraud states, that he witnessed one of these girls, during the time she was in a state of ecstacy, extemporising a poetical rhapsody, which, says he, was good in composition, and sound in theology. It had a remarkable resemblance to the religious Odes of Klopstock; his emphatic repetitions; his naked enthusiasm ; but none of his originality, the phrases being, without exception, borrowed from the poetic parts of scripture."-Fraser's Magazine, vol. iv., Oct. 1831, p. 368.

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M. Heraud has furthermore favoured the translator with the following particulars:-" On my entering the room, the girl I have designated as a prophetess, seemed a young woman of considerable physical force, and of rather a masculine size and stature. She was in a rigid semi-recumbent attitude of ecstacy, with her mouth open, but lips motionless, and, as from her throat, a continued stream of sound issued. When the lyrical chaunt terminated, the patient remained in the same attitude, and during a prayer which Mr. Irving immediately offered, seemed to recover her self-possession. What I have lately seen of animal magnetism, pre-supposing there is no fraud or collusion, seems to me to explain the phenomena of Irving's prophetesses."-Vide also Fraser's Magazine, vol. iv. January 1832, p. 755.

collateral evidence. It is true that the law which existed against witchcraft does not prove the existence of witches; but the evidence on these trials establishes, as clearly as human testimony can establish anything, that effects which in that age appeared supernatural, were really produced. "No man," says the venerable Baxter, "was more backward to condemn a witch, without full evidence, than Judge Hale;" unhappily, however, facts were too often insuperable, which, instead of causing the unfortunate victims to be led to the scaffold or the stake, ought to have been made the subject of serious scientific investigation. "Many of these poor creatures," says Reginald Scot, very truly, "had more neede to be relieved than chastised, and more mete were a preacher to admonish them, than a jailor to keep them; and a physician more necessary to helpe them, than an executioner, or tormentor, to hang and burn them."+

*This was an observation of the learned Selden; he remarks, "The law against witches does not prove there be any, but it punishes the malice of those people who use such means to take away men's lives; if one should profess that by turning his hat thrice, and crying buz, he could take away a man's life, though in truth he could do no such thing, yet this were a just law made by the state, that whosoever should turn his hat thrice, and cry buz, with an intention to take away a man's life, shall be put to death." -Seldeniana. The statutes against witchcraft and sorcery continued in France to be in force until Louis XIV. issued an edict restraining the tribunals of justice from receiving information of witchcraft, and in England until they were repealed by George II. stat. 9, c. 5.-Vide Blackstone's Commentaries. By Ryland, vol. iv. p. 60.

The Discoverie of Witchcraft. By Reginald Scot. London, 1665. Preface.

CHAPTER X.

ROYAL TOUCH- -CURES OF GREATRAK'S-PHYSIOGNOMICAL

SUPERSTITIONS.

PYRRHUS, Vespasian, Adrian, Apollonius, and other persons of less eminence, cured, as we have already seen, diseases by the touch. In England this power was first assumed as a divine gift by Edward the Confessor; and his contemporary, Philip I. of France, soon proclaimed that he was endowed with the same faculty. Without entering into any rationale of the facts, it may be sufficient to observe, that many of their august successors assumed the same privilege, and certainly dispensed many royal blessings. The cures wrought by Charles V. are attested by his confessor and historian, Raoule of Presle, who especially bears testimony to his power in relieving chronic rheumatic affections. The historian Etienne de Conti, describes very particularly the preliminary ceremonies observed by Charles VI. before proceeding to the actual touch of the sick. Louis XIII. endeavoured to perform similar cures; hence arose the caustic remark made by the Duc D'Epernon, who being informed of the exorbitant power he had conferred on the Cardinal de Richelieu, exclaimed, "What! Louis, then, has only reserved to himself the power of curing the king's evil!" His successors, in accordance with this pre

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sumed royal privilege, continued the custom of touching scrofulous patients at the ceremony of their coronation. The unfortunate Louis XVI. when he was crowned, conformed with the ancient usage; and after touching the sick patients presented to him, pronounced the old verbal formula-" The king touches thee, may God cure thee."'—" Le Roi te touche, Dieu te guérisse."

In England, after the reign of Edward the Confessor, his successors, both kings and queens, were reputed to enjoy the same faculty; and the efficacy of the royal touch was for many centuries generally accredited. Bishop Tooker, chaplain to Queen Elizabeth, published, in 1597, a work entitled "Charisma Sive Donum Sanitatis," in which he attests the extraordinary ability of her majesty in curing, by the touch, persons afflicted with scrofula. William Clowes, Esq., one of the surgeons to her majesty, published, in 1602, another book entitled "Right, Fruitful, and Approved Treatise of Struma," in which he also compliments her majesty on effecting a cure which he judged to be "more divine than human," on a person who was suffering from scrofula. We meet about this time with the following anecdote:-"A papist, in prison, who had been sore troubled with the king's evil, having been cured by queen Elizabeth, after five years' experience from physicians in vain, being demanded—what news? I perceive, said he, that the excommunication against the queen can be of no avail, since God hath blessed her with such a gift."* Subsequent to this, John Bird, about the period of the restoration, published a treatise entitled "Ostenta Carolina," wherein he

Wonders no Miracles. 4to. London, 1666.

maintains that Charles II. was the antitype of Edward the Confessor, and was able, by the royal touch, to cure, not only scrofula, but other diseases. About the same period, Dr. Thomas Allen published a work entitled the "Excellency, or Handy Work of the Royal Hand," wherein, in allusion to Valentine Greatrak's, who at that time was performing many remarkable cures by the application only of his hand, warns all persons against "the seventh sons, or those called strokers," whose success lessened the esteem of his majesty's performances. The most eminent author, however, whose evidence may certainly be esteemed conclusive, is Wiseman, serjeant-surgeon to Charles II., who published several chirurgical treatises of very considerable merit. In his chapter on the cure of the king's evil, he observes, "I myself have been a frequent eye-witness of many hundreds of cures performed by his majesty's touch alone, without any assistance of chirurgery; and these, many of them, such as had tried out the endeavours of able chirurgeons before they came thither. It were endless to recite what I myself have seen, and what I have received, acknowledgments of my letter not only from several parts of this nation, but also from Ireland, Scotland, Jersey, and Guernsey."+

The ceremony of conferring the royal touch was, during the reign of Henry VII., performed in the fol

* A Free and Impartial Inquiry into the Antiquity and Efficacy of Touching for the Cure of the King's Evil. By William Beckett, Surgeon, F. R.S. London, 1722. p. 26, and seq.

+ Eight Chirurgical Treatises. By Richard Wiseman, Serjeant-chirurgeon to King Charles II. London, 1734. Vol. ii. p. 393.