cant is the phrase, Rem acu tetigisti. The ancient deities, according to Homer, were vulnerable; for he tells us that Mars bellowed and Venus whimpered when wounded by a mortal weapon. But the shades of the departed were impassive, or yielded like smoke before a well-directed blow; and that quick-witted fellow, Marcellus, hit upon the true test when he proposed to strike at the ghost of Hamlet's father with his partisan. We now beg to offer a suggestion which, if acted on, will go far to solve all doubts as to the real nature of those apparitions. The poniard may possibly be regarded as a weapon too dangerous to be used in such experiments; but that objection can hardly apply to fish-hooks, which are light, handy, and withal comparatively innocuous. Let each man who is invited to attend a séance procure some half-dozen bait-hooks, of a size large enough to hold a grilse, tied on half a yard of gimp, which we recommend in preference to gut as less likely to yield to scissors. Let him be on the alert; and, whenever he feels a hand beneath the table pottering with his knees, or taking any other kind of liberty, let him strike smartly and at once, taking care to keep a tight hold of the other end of the line. If he attends to these directions, we venture to promise him as delectable sport as was ever enjoyed by an angler-always supposing that the fish are in a biting humour, which cannot, however, be relied on, unless the tackle is carefully concealed.

After what we have said, we need hardly reiterate our conviction that the so-called manifestations are the mere tricks of impostors-unquestionably ingeniously devised, but not produced by any kind of supernatural agency. But many estimable people think otherwise. They have witnessed certain exhibitions which they cannot explain upon ordinary principles, and they escape from their bewilder

ment by adopting the conclusion of the savage, who, when any wonderful object is presented for the first time to his view, pronounces it to be the work of magic. Having declared themselves of this faith, they become rampant champions of spiritualism, and denounce as Sadducees, materialists, and unbelievers, all the rest of mankind who refuse to believe in the divine mission of Home or the Davenports. That is scarcely fair. The question of spiritual agency is quite apart from the pretensions of any individual mountebank or charlatan. No part of the Christian revelation warrants us in maintaining that the powers of darkness may not still be permitted to exercise a baneful and unholy influence; and the Saviour himself vouchsafed to warn His followers of such a danger in these memorable words-" If any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, Lo, he is there; believe him not. For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things." Nor is there any mystical meaning, but a clear intimation of spiritual danger, in the language of St Paul to the Ephesians: "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." And again, in the Epistle to the Corinthians, we are warned against "false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."

Sorcery, and demoniac possession, implying the direct agency of evil spirits, are repeatedly noticed in the Acts of the Apostles; and we are told that, at Ephesus, many "which used curious arts, brought

their books together, and burned them before all men;" thereby testifying that such practices were utterly repugnant to the spirit of the Christian religion. Indeed, throughout the whole Bible, no sin is more severely and emphatically denounced than that of holding traffic or communion with familiar spirits; and whatever may be said of the credulity of our ancestors, as evinced by their notable prosecutions of witches, they had sufficient warrant for punishing the crime, if the guilt could be clearly established. We peruse with horror and repugnance the old Justiciary and Presbytery records of Scotland, filled as they are with accounts of witch - trials, usually terminating with an intimation that the unfortunate accused were convicted, strangled, or burned at the stakebecause we cannot bring ourselves to believe that they were really guilty of the practices set forth in such solemn yet grotesque detail. We do not believe, for example, that Marjory Mutch, having an illwill against William Smith in Tarserhill, came to his plough and bewitched the oxen, so that "they instantly ran all wood (mad), brak the pleuch, twa whereof ran over the hills to Deer, and other twa thereof up Ithan side, whilk could never be tane nor apprehendit again"- -or that she destroyed much cattle, laid sickness on many persons, and attended all the witch conventions of the district. We do not believe in the delinquency of Janet Wishart, accused of having laid, in revenge for the refusal of a loan, a dwining illness upon James Low, stabler, whereby he "melted away like ane burning candle," till he died. We do not believe though we have her own distinct confession to that effect Agnes Sampson, in company with upwards of a hundred witches, met the devil in the kirk of North Berwick, who appeared in the pulpit like "ane meikle black man," called over the infernal roll, and received

that

a monstrous homage. We do not believe that the devil gave instructions to the witches for preparing a waxen image of King James to undergo a sympathetic roasting, or for raising storms to drown the Queen on her way from Denmarkor that Thomas Lees and his company went at midnight of Hallowe'en to the market and fish crosses of Aberdeen, with the devil playing before them, and were there transformed, some as hares, some as cats, some in other likenesses, and all danced about the two crosses and the meal-market a long space of time. These trials were all regularly conducted; but even the most complete train of evidence fails to make us believe in such monstrosities; and we regard the execution of the accused persons as so many acts of judicial murder. We believe those persons to have been innocent, not on the strength of exculpatory evidence, but because we hold it utterly impossible that such crimes could have been committed. That is the general decision. But these new manifestations, if produced, as their authors and abettors maintain, by spiritual agency, must open up the question anew. Those who profess to work miracles under the influence and direction of the spirits of Cagliostro the swindler, and Henry Morgan the pirate, are, by their own confession, on a level with the worst of the wretches who, towards the close of the sixteenth century, were condemned to death for their unholy practices; and those who countenance their proceedings and frequent their séances for revelations, are partakers in the common crime.

The delusion which affects many people, who, while professing to be Christians, are yet countenancing arts which Christianity emphatically condemns, is indeed fearful. They believe that they are permitted to receive messages from their departed friends-to hear their voices - nay, to feel their very hands, unchilled by the damp of

the grave; and they talk and write of these things as affording them unspeakable comfort and consolation. For such a doctrine as that there is no warrant in the word of God. "I shall go to him," said David when he lost his child, "but he shall not return to me!" We may trust with humble faith that the spirits of the righteous who have departed this life are in paradise, waiting for the day of judg. ment; but we shall never hear nor see them again until we also have left this tenement of flesh, and passed into the life beyond. There is a great gulf fixed between the living and the dead, and over the bridge that spans that gulf there is no possibility of returning. With the last breath drawn by a man, all his connection with the world and with his kindred must cease. "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."

If, therefore, there be anything in those manifestations, beyond fraud, juggling, and deceit if those who frequent and countenance them are not merely the dupes of clever impostors, acting with great subtlety upon that love of the marvellous which is so easily converted into a morbid affection of the fancy-what other conclusion can we form than this, that evil spirits are permitted to delude the unwary, and, by the exhibition of false miracles, to draw them away from that pure and holy faith, without which there can be no salvation? Is it not, to say the least of it, significant, that the persons who claim to have possession of this miraculous power, and to be able to work such wonders, should profess to derive that power from intercourse with the spirits of swindlers, ruffians, and malefactors? A more tainted source of inspiration

can hardly be imagined. Truly the fiend, if he has any direct hand in this business, is operating through most worthy agents!

There is but one revelation given by God to man; and they who seek for another, voluntarily surrender themselves to delusion, and court the approaches of the tempter. It matters not whether the manifestations be real or pretended. If the former, those who seek for and solicit them are dabbling in a forbidden art; if the latter, they are miserably duped. We state the alternative, because, by their own confession, many persons have a sincere belief in the miraculous pretensions of Mr Home, and some profess to have derived spiritual edification from the gymnastic exercises of the Davenports. They believe that spirits are made to come and go, that the portals of the grave are opened, and that the shades of the departed reappear, for the one evident object of drawing crowds to the séances of the conjurors, and so contributing to their revenues! world is made the subject of speculation, and ghosts condescend to exhibit for the benefit of Yankee showmen !

The invisible

If the amiable but deluded persons who have entered upon this course of sin and folly are obstinate in turning a deaf ear to the remonstrances of reason and religion-if they should still persist in consulting oracles more impure and fallacious than those of the Pagan times-if they are determined to set the dictates of Christianity at defiance, and consort with questionable characters, who vaunt of their intimacy with familiar spirits,— then their case indeed is hopeless; and their sentence is written in the words "EPHRAIM IS JOINED TO HIS IDOLS: LET HIM ALONE.”

THE foundation of a college for the perpetual celebration of divine service, and for the education of youth, had been, almost from boy. hood, a favourite project of Henry VI. A king at nine months old, he was nevertheless kept under tutors and governors with more than ordinary strictness. This had, no doubt, much influence on his future character: Henry of Windsor grew up a scholar and a devotee, very unlike the warlike Plantagenets from whom he sprang. Trained under his uncle, Cardinal Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, he had been a frequent visitor at Wykeham's College in that city; and this he made the model for his own future foundation. As soon as he found himself a king in something more than in name, he lost no time in carrying out his longcherished idea. In 1441, the nineteenth year of his age and reign, he granted his first charter of foundation to "The King's College of our Lady of Eton beside Wyndsor:" having previously purchased the advowson of the old parish church of Eton for the purpose of making it the chapel of his new society. In the same year was laid the first stone of the new buildings, which were ordered to be of "the hard stone of Kent," and of other material "the most substantial and the best abiding." Architects, in those days, were most commonly found among churchmen: the master of the works at Eton was Roger Keyes, who had been warden of All Souls College, and had successfully superintended the buildings there. But the wardenship of All Souls was not then the dignified and lucrative post which it is at present; for he resigned it, at King Henry's request, to undertake the new charge at Eton. He received, in acknow

ledgment of his services (no doubt besides other more substantial payment), a patent of nobility and a grant of arms-per chevron gules and sable, three keys, or. Arms were also assigned to the college; a field of sable, the permanency of which colour might be an augury of its duration; the white lilies blazoned upon it (typical also of the Virgin) should represent the "bright flowers redolent of all the sciences" which were to spring there; while, in order "to impart somewhat of royal dignity". -80 the grant ran-the fleur-de-lys"flos Francorum"-and the leopard passant of England were to be borne in chief.

Workmen, horses, and carriages were impressed under royal warrant, and within two years the new buildings were in a sufficiently forward state to receive their first occupants. In 1443, William of Waynflete, who had already been master at Winchester for eleven years, migrated, no doubt at the King's request, to Eton as the first provost. The provost originally named, indeed, was Henry Sever (afterwards warden of Merton College); but beyond a grant of two hogsheads of "red Gascon wine" from the King, he seems never to have entered upon the duties or the privileges of the office. With Waynflete came five fellows and (apparently) four clerks, and thirty-five scholars, from Winchester. They were installed in their new home by Thomas Beckington, who had just been consecrated bishop of Bath and Wells: he celebrated his first mass in the unfinished new church of St Mary, and afterwards presided at an entertainment within the college buildings, temporarily fitted up for the purpose. The Pope's especial interest was secured for

the new foundation. In 1447 he granted indulgences to all who should visit "the College of our Lady of Eton" at the coming feast of the Assumption; and certain persons who had been convicted of high treason were pardoned by King Henry on that ground.

The original charter had contemplated a provost, ten fellows, four clerks, a schoolmaster, with thirtyfive scholars only, and six choristers. A subsequent charter enlarged the foundation to seventy scholars (the number still preserved) and sixteen choristers. The statutable number of fellows was not long maintained, probably owing to a deficiency of funds; they very soon decreased to four, and have never since exceeded seven in number.

The qualifications of the scholars are set down in the statutes nearly word for word the same as at Winchester. They were to be admitted for the purpose of studying grammar. They were to be poor and in need of help, not less than eight or more than ten years old, not of servile birth (nativi) or illegitimate. They were to be chosen, 1st, from families who resided on the college estates; 2d, from Buckinghamshire or Cambridgeshire; 3d, from elsewhere within the realm. The choristers were to be preferred in the election of scholars, if found competent. All were to receive the first tonsure at the proper age; and none were to remain in the college after the age of eighteen, unless their names had been placed on the roll of succession to the "King's College," founded by Henry at Cambridge in the same year. To that foundation, the elder sister of Eton as New College in Oxford is of Winchester, they were to move off by seniority, if found qualified, as vacancies occurred.

usher (ostiarius), the chaplains and clerks, were to be lodged two together. All these occupied the upper storey. The scholars were located in rooms on the ground floor; and it was specially enjoined that no occupant of the chambers above should throw out wine or beer-or anything worse-on the heads of the scholars below. In each of the boys' chambers three selected scholars, of ripe years, discretion, and learning, were to keep rule over their companions and report cases of misconduct. All above fourteen years old were to sleep in single beds. Neither masters nor scholars were to indulge in any such fashionable vanities as red, green, or white boots;" or to keep within the college precincts dogs or nets or ferrets, or-what would have seemed less likely-any bears or apes, or other "rare beast, of no profit." The master (informator) was to be well skilled in grammar, a Master of Arts, if such might be conveniently had, and unmarried. He was to have an annual salary of twenty-four marks (£16) with £4, 6s. 8d. for his commons; and to sit at the fellows' table, taking precedence of them (excepting the vice-provost) if he was of superior degree. The usher was to have ten marks (£6, 13s. 4d.), with £3, Os. 3d. for commons, and to mess with the chaplains and clerks. Both were to have gowns furnished them, which they were on no account to sell or pledge.

The ties which connected Eton with its mother college of Winchester were sought to be strengthened, the year after its foundation