through successive ages, leaves the rank never unsupported. The possessors of this are far more respectable than other persons, since it gives them a sort of prescriptive right over their tenants, which money cannot purchase: it is by the landed interest that a man can be fairly and honorably returned to parliament: it is by the landed interest that that most useful body the militia of the kingdom is at once raised, headed, and maintained; and services of this latter nature are so well understood, that the ministerial papers have announced the intention of creating several gentlemen of Ireland baronets, on this very account. I hope I have now shown that the acquirement of an hereditary distinction is to be sought by, and will be given to, those who have any way benefited their country; and that the attainment of it even without the claim of reward, may not in every case proceed from vanity. Aug. 20th. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. TH SIR, HE attention of the legislature having recently been called to the number of licences, granted under the toleration act, you will have in remembrance, that when Lord Sidmouth made his motion on the subject, his Grace of Canterbury remarked, that "from his own experience, in two dioceses, he was induced to believe the dissenters had increased very much, particularly in the last few years: one cause he conceived to be, the want of churches to contain the people; for the fact was, our population had far outgrown our machinery. Now, Sir, will you insert the following fact? On Sunday afternoon, the 3d of this month, I went into one of the central churches of the metropolis, and in this Jarge handsome pile, no more than three women, myself, and another individual in the aisle, formed the congregation. The respectable minister was in his sermon, and, from what I heard, I thought it deserved a better and larger audience. But even one of these three women was fast asleep! man in black opened the door, and. and come to preach for your lecturer this Woburn, Bedford. Your's, &c. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. N SIR, looking over the other day, an Explanation of the Church Catechism, published in London, lately, by the book sellers to the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, and taught in many of the most respectable schools and academies about London; in page 16 of the thirty-eighth and last edition, I find, immediately following the question, "What is meant by renouncing him?" (meaning the devil) this answer: "The renouncing all familiarity and contracts with the Devil, whereof witches, and conjurers, and such as resort to them, are guilty." There seems to me, Mr. Editor, something extremely improper in this answer; as it tends to make children believe in the existence of witches, a doctrine which, except by a few low and ignorant people, is now universally exploded. It is but of small importance, that the reverend au thor, Mr. Lewes, minister of Margate, Kent, and the publishers, can quote the history of the witch of Endor, in support of this doctrine. For that passage, it is well known, having puzzled our best biblical critics, is to this day not well understood. However, this much is cer→ tain respecting it that the term, there translated witch, does not call up to the mind of one, in the least acquainted with the original, that catalogue of crimes for which poor old women in this country, till about a century ago, used to be condemned to the flames. The truth is, A minister went one day to a certain were those, who quote and drag in Scripchurch in the city, to officiate for the lecture in support of this, that, and the turer. After a walk of two miles, he entered the church a few minutes before the time, and was surprised not to see an individual in the church except the boy who was tolling the bell, with the surplice on his arm. He went into the vestry, and had just sat down, when a MONTHLY MAG. No. 196. other doctrine, to study, even with a moderate degree of care, the language of Scripture, and to pay any degree of attention to the laws, customs, manners, and mode of thinking, to which the sacred writers not unfrequently refer, they would find, that, instead of supporting S their peculiar notions, these passages often militate against them, and are calculated to support doctrines of an opposite tendency. Did people, for instance, attend to this, that in the third chapter of the book of Genesis, the original word translated sewed, means to fix, tie, or fasten together in general, be it by a pin of wood, or in any other way; they would not, as is often done, ask that ridiculous question, Where Adam found the needles que thread, with which he sewed the figs leaves together? And, did they attend to this, that there was a sinall window in the temple at Jerusalem, commonly called the Needle's Eye, and well known to the Jews by that name, they would not be so apt to find fault with the expression of our Saviour, when he tells us, that "It is easier for a camel to pass through the needle's eye, than for a rich man, by means of his riches, to enter into the kingdom of God." So that, though, for some time before as well as after the days of James VI., who wrote a treatise on witchcraft, the doctrine was believed, yet if the reverend author and publishers of the above Catechism can bring no other proof than they have done, or than is generally known, for the existence of witches, they would have evinced a more rational piety, have shown themselves better pneumaticians, and better acquainted with the Christian system, had they saved themselves the trouble of warning people against resorting to them. A book published with a view of being put into the hands of children, tending to a belief in the existence of witches, however valuable in other respects,comes, in my opinion, with a very bad grace from any connected with the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. Not doubting that this will find a place in some corner or other of your valuable Miscellany, I am, Your's, &c. 137, St. Martin's-lane. JAMES HALL. "A New Yeers Gvift for the Right Ho norable and Vertvous Lord, my Lord Sidnay, of the Hand-Writing and Limming of mee Esther Inglis, the First of Ianvar, 1606." Your's &c. Greenwich, October 9, 1809. JOHN CALDEcott. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, MONG numerous superstitious Aab-urdities which at no very remote period prevailed even among the learned, but which reason and good sense have now happily banished, none was more ridiculous than that of the scrofula, or king's-evil, being cured by the royal touch. Whether our monarchs them- . selves believed they possessed this miraculous power of healing, or whether they spread this deception to dupe the people into a belief of their divine right, they universally laid claim to it from Edward the Confessor down to the last of the race of Stuart. It does not appear that any of the house of Brunswick have asserted this royal function; at least it has never been publicly announced, as was formerly the practice; but were hig present majesty to resume it, such faith is yet put in the assertion of a king, that all the courtiers, and the great body of the ignorant multitude, would not hesi tate to believe its infallibility. The last sovereign who appears to have exercised this miraculous gift was Queen Anne. In the Royal Gazette of March 12, 1712, appears the following public notice: "It being her majesty's royal intention to touch publicly for the evil the 17th of this instant March, and so to continue for some time, it is her majesty's command, that tickets be delivered the day before at Whitehall, and that all persons bring a certificate, signed by the minister and church-wardens of their respective parishes, that they never received the royal touch." Wiseman, serjeant-surgeon to Charles II. gives, in a most reputable work on surgery, a treatise on the king's evil, in which he speaks of the royal touch in the following terms: "I have myself been a frequent eye-witness of many hundreds of cures performed by his majesty's touch alone, without the assistance of chirurgery, and those many of them such as had tired out the endeavours of able chirurgeons before they came thither. It were endless to relate what I myself have seen, and what I have received ac knowledgments of by letter, not only from the several parts of this nation, bus aise also from Ireland, Scotland, Jersey, and Germany." It was the office of Mr. Wiseman, as serjeant-surgeon, to select such afflicted objects as were proper to be presented for the royal touch. In the history of the disease, when describing its various states and appearances,,he says: "Those which we present to his majesty are chiefly such as have this sort of tumour about the musculus mastoideus or neck, with whatever circumstances they are accompanied; nor are we difficult in admitting the thick-chapped up. per lips, and eyes afflicted with a lippitudo. In other cases we give our judge ments more warily." Serjeant-surgeon Wiseman says, elsewhere: "In case of the king's touch, the resolution doth often happen where our endeavours have signified nothing; yea, the very gummata; insomuch that I am cautious in predict, ing concerning them, although they appear never so bad, until fourteen days be over." Sceptics deny their belief to miracles, from their not being duly attested; but is it possible to desire a more satisfactory testimony of these miraculous cures, than that of a man of science and respec. tability, under whose immediate inspection they were performed, and who has "himself been a frequent eye-witness of many hundreds of cures performed by his majesty's touch alone?" The Honorable Daines Barrington, in his Observations on the more Ancient Statutes, inserts what he heard from an old man, a witness in a cause, with regard to this miraculous power of healing. The following are Judge Barrington's words: "He had, by his evidence, fixed the time of a fact, by Queen Anne's having been at Oxford, and touched him whilst a child for the evil. When he had finished his evidence, I had an opportunity of asking him, Whether he was really cured? Upon which he observed, with a significant smile, that he believed himself never to have had a complaint that deserved to be considered as the evil; but that his parents were poor, and had no objection to the bit of gold! "It seems to me, that this piece of gold which was given to those who were touched, accounts for the great resort on this occasion, and the supposed afterwards miraculous cures." at the ceremony; and says, the words used were "Le Roy te touche, Dieu te guerisse." Every Frenchman received fifteen sous, and every foreigner thirty. To some of the supposed patients the king said, Etes-vous malade aussi? This power of healing by the kings of France, occasioned great resort to Francis I. while prisoner at Madrid, by the Spaniards, who had not such faith in the efficacy of their own king's touch. It appears, by a proclamation of James I. March 25, 1617, that the kings of England would not permit any resort to them for these miraculous cures in the summer time. By another proclamation, of the 18th of June, 1626, it is ordered that no one shall apply for this purpose, who does not bring a proper certificate that he has never been touched before; and the same, it has already been seen, were the terms on which Queen Anne granted her royal touch. This regulation undoubtedly must have arisen from some supposed patients who had attempted to receive the bit of gold more than once. In a prayer-book printed in the year 1708, is a form of the church-service for the occasion of the royal touch. After the Lord's Prayer, it is stated, "Then shall the infirm persons, one by one, be presented to the queen; and while the queen is laying her hands upon them, and is putting the gold about their necks, the chaplain that officiates, turning himself to her majesty, shall say these words following:- God give a blessing to this work! and grant that these sick persons on whom the queen lays her hands may recover, through Jesus Christ our Lord!" -After some other prayers, the chaplain, standing with his face towards them that come to be healed, shall say: "The Almighty God, who is a most strong tower to all them that put their trust in him, to whom all things in heaven, in earth, and under the earth, do bow and obey, be evermore your defence; and make you know and feel that there is none other name under heaven given to man, and through whom you may receive health and salvation, but only the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen."" Your's, &c. September 12, 1809. J. BANNANTINE, To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, Ο Gemelli, the famous traveller, gives "No species of writing," says Dr. an account of 1600 persons offering themselves to be cured of the evil by Louis XIV. on Easter Sunday, in the year 1686. Gemelli himself was present " seems more worthy of cultivation than biography, since none can be more delightful or useful." This sentiment, together with the iden that that it would not be displeasing to you to hear some account of a deceased friend, has induced me to trouble you with a few memoirs of Taste. Taste was the offspring of Judgment and Imagination. As he was rather a plain child, his parents endeavoured to remedy the defects of nature by art; but the methods they pursued were so different, that they were continually involved in quarrels respecting him. The consc quence of this was, that he was scarcely attended to at all, and used to run about the streets up to his knees in mud. In this condition he was found by Homer, who scraped off some of the dirt that hung about him, and carried him with him, in the capacity of a guide. Homer introduced him to the muses, and when they went to take up their abode at Athens he accompanied them. Here, under their tuition, he improved rapidly; and at an age when other children are thumbing their horn-books, and playing at chuck-farthing, he was engraving on drinking-mugs, and making sonnets. As he grew up, from the company in which be resided, he was of course introduced to all the celebrated poets and artists of the age, who cherished and instructed him; and as he was a popular character, he was enabled to requite their services by rewarding their labors. Besides, however, his friends, he had (like all who possess intrinsic worth) several enemies. He was nearly killed by Diogenes, for attempting to paint that eynic's tub, and carve his wooden bowl. He once attempted to settle in Sparta; but Lycurgus threw some black broth in his face, and kicked him out of the city, because he could not leap over a ditch. At length, during the decay of Athens, finding it impossible to reside in a state continually harassed, partially subdued, and universally terrified by powerful enemies, he removed to Rome. Here he became a great favourite at court, under the reign of Augustus. After that emperor's death, his own friends also gradually dying, he began himself to droop, and his destruction was nearly completed by an jumense course of Latin divinity. Thus situated, deprived of his friends, weak and wounded in his condition, and despised, he became hypochondriacal, and for some time languished unheard of. At length he again appeared, though scarcely discernible from the rude weeds of Gothic barbarity that covered him. Wenk, deformed, and secluded from put. lic life in the gloom of a monastery, it was scarcely known that he existed, until, in the age of chivalry, he was again called forth in the service of the fair sex. From this time he began to gain strength and respectability. The reason of this was that, although he had been forgotten, his works remained; which, on his first reappearance, were eagerly consulted; and it was universally agreed that the author must be worthy of the highest degree of honor and respect. He was in conse, quence declared supreme judge of works of art and science, patron and protector of all artists and professors of literature, and president of all scientific establish ments. Ilis power now became unlimited; and, still feeling an affection for Italy, the scene of his former grandeur, he made it the seat of his present greatpess. After some centuries however of just and undisputed sway, certain eccentricities were observed in his behaviour, which much alarmed his friends; and at length he gave full proof of insanity, by falling in love with and marrying Folly, a being whom he had always before despised and hated. By her he had a sen called Absurdity, by whom he was dethroned: after which he languished a short time and then died; leaving but few friends to lament his loss. It is not my intention now to enter into a history of the reign of Absurdity; but should this be deemed worthy of publication, you may perhaps hear some account of him, from Your's &c. NON-NES. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, IT SIR, T is somewhat surprising, that your correspondent R. B. p. 471 of your last volume, in consulting Horace for authoritics respecting flebilis, should have overlooked the followed sentence: Flebilis sponsæ juvenemve raptum Plorat. Lib. 4. 04. 2. Lin. 21, 22, Here flebilis is evidently used in precisely the same signification as that in which Lord Hailes has employed it. More instances of a similar use of the word may probably occur in classic authors. To search for them, however, is unnecessary; as this one example is of itself quite sufficient to vindicate his lordship from the hasty charge preferred against him by your correspondent.. Hanslope, Your's, &c. Dec. 8. 1809. W. SINGLETON, MEMOIRS MEMOIRS AND REMAINS OF EMINENT PERSONS. MEMOIRS of JOHN WALLIS, D.D. sometime SAVILIAN PROFESSOR of GEOMETRY, in the UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, KEEPER of the ARCHIVES, MEMBER of the ROYAL SOCIETY, and CHAPLAIN in ORDINARY to KING CHARLES II. Originally compiled from SCARCE DOCUMENTS. R. WALLIS was the son of the ans of the age in which he lived. "He was (says Mr. Scarborough,) one of the greatest masters of geometry that hath appeared in any of these later ages; the honour of our country, and the admiration of others." Mr. Oughtred says, "he was a person adorned with all inge nious and excellent arts and sciences, pious and industrious, of a deep and D Rev. John Wallis, M. A. minister of diffusive learning, an accurate judgment Ashford, in Kent, and was born in November, 1616: his father dying when he was young, he was indebted for his education to the care and kindness of his mother, who sent him to school, first to Tenterden, in his native county, and afterwards to Felsted, in Essex, where he became pretty well acquainted with the Latin and Greek languages, and also obtained some knowledge of Hebrew. Being at home during the Christmas vacation, he learnt from a younger brother the first rules of common arithmetic, which was his initiation into mathematics, and all the teaching he had; but he afterwards prosecuted it as a pleasing diversion at spare hours, for mathematics were not at that time looked upon as academical learning. In the year 1632, he was sent to the university of Cambridge, and there admitted in Emanuel college, under the tuition of Mr. Anthony Burgess, a pious, learned, and able scholar, a good disputant, an eminent preacher, and afterwards minister of Sutton Colefield, in Warwickshire. Dr. Wallis proceeded Bachelor of Arts in 1637, and Master of Arts in 1040: he entered into orders, and was ordained by bishop Curle; and lived about a year as chaplain in the house of Sir Richard. Darby, at Buttercrum, in Yorkshire; and two years with the Lady Vere, (widow of the Lord Horatio Vere.) He was afterwards fellow of Queen's college, Cambridge, but quitted his fellowship on his marriage in 1644. About this time he was also appointed one of the secretaries to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster ; and during his attendance on the assembly, he was a minister in London, first in Fenchurch-street, and afterwards in Ironmonger-lane, where he continued till his removal to Oxford. There the doctor prosecuted his studies; till he at length attained to such proficiency, as to be reputed one of the first mathematici in all mathematical studies, and happy and successful to admiration in decyphering the most difficult and intricate writings; which was indeed his peculiar honour, and affords the greatest instance ever known of the force and penetration of the human understanding." I shall here give the reader the doctor's own account of the first outset of this business. "About the beginning of our civil wars, a chaplain of Sir William Waller showed me, as a curiosity, an intercepted letter written in cypher, (and it was indeed the first thing I had ever seen of the kind); and asked me, between jest and earnest, if I could make any think of it? and was surprised, when I told him, perhaps I might. It was about ten o'clock when we rose' from supper; and I withdrew to my chamber to consider of it. By the number of different characters in it, I judged it could be no more than a new alphabet; and before I went to bed I found it out; which was my first attempt upon decyphering: and I was soon pressed to attempt one of a different character, consisting of numerical figures, extending to four or five hundred numbers, with other characters intermixed, which was a letter from Secretary Windebank, (then in France,) to his son in England; and was a cypher hard enough, not`unbecoming a secretary of state. And when, upon importunity, I had taken a great deal of pains with it without success, I threw it by; but after some thine I resumed it again, and had the good hap to master it. "Being encouraged by this success beyond expectation, I have ventured upon many others, and seldom failed of any that I have attempted for many years; though of late the French methods of cyphers are grown so extremely intricate, that I have been obliged to quit many of them, without having patience to go through with them." The following extracts |