^ 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 244. 



renders him, perhaps unjustly, liable to the sus- 

 picion of borrowing from Lalande (see Montucla, 

 2nd ed., vol. iii. p. vii.) the criticism on the style, 

 as well as the tribute to the clearness (ib., vol. iv. 

 p. 667.) of Montucla. 



The questionable nature of the preface may, 

 however, be a result of the same carelessness and 

 haste which has (see the title-page of the trans- 

 lation) conferred on Bossut the name of John, 

 instead of his proper appellation, Charles. 



The name of Bonnycastle is attached to the 

 " Editor's Preface," but unless its concluding sen- 

 tence be considered to convey the meaning, there 

 is no express assertion that he is the actual trans- 

 lator. It would appear (see Pen. Cyc, art. Bon- 

 nycastle, in which reference is made to p. 482. 

 of the Gentleman^ s Magazine for 1821) that he 

 added the list and editor's preface, and that Mr. 

 T. O. Churchill, in fact, made the translation 

 which Bonnycastle edited. The foregoing re- 

 marks do not, of course, affect the merits of the 

 translation itself. 



James Cockle, M.A., F.R.A.S., 

 Barrister-at-Law. 



4. Pump Court, Temple. 



VOLTAIEE AND HENBI CAEION. — SPIBIT-EAPPING. 



I write to you on June 10, 1854, in what I be- 

 lieve is called the second half of the nineteenth 

 century, a period of great intellectual progress, 

 and of much moral enlightenment. Inferior to the 

 sixteenth century in the number of its great men, 

 the nineteenth century has already exceeded the 

 influence of the former upon social civilisation by its 

 vast range of scientific discoveries and their varied 

 application. So at least, or something like this, I 

 have read in a work in which the author proved 

 the fact entirely — to his own satisfaction. This is 

 very natural and very proper. Next to the public 

 approbation of your work is your own ; and the 

 latter is especially useful when the former fails. 

 But as great minds have their weaknesses, so it 

 may be said great centuries have, I do not say 

 their follies, but merely their intellectual relax- 

 ations. Take, for instance, " Spirit-rapping." So 

 greatly has the intellectual spirit of the age ad- 

 vanced, that you can now, it seems, evoke the 

 spirits of the past, through the medium of a 

 wooden table ; and even if you have no other 

 object than to obtain an autograph for your 

 album, summon by this medium the hand you 

 require, and have its image and subscription in 

 good broad text (if the contributor so originally 

 wrote it) before you. 



Do your readers doubt this ? Let them read the 

 following evidence of the fact ; and as " N. & Q." 

 are, I trust, destined to form a part hereafter of 

 the literary history of the present, it will be of 



use, to enable some future historian to form an idea 

 of the knowledge, the judgment, the reason, and 

 the faith of certain educated minds at this present 

 date. Let me premise the race of " spirit-rapping 

 experiences " has been extremely rapid, and weU 

 contested between England, France, Germany, and 

 America, but that Jonathan has gone ahead, as 

 might be expected, of the others ; in fact, that in 

 America the consumption of spirits has been 

 greater than elsewhere. But Jonathan, though 

 exceeding all in quantity, has been unequal in 

 quality. It is due to the intellectual ingenuity 

 of our friends and neighbours of France to say, 

 that if they have not contributed the greatest 

 amount of useful knowledge (which was not, 

 perhaps, in their power), they have added greatly 

 to the range of our curious amusements in this 

 respect. 



I have before me a little book, " Lettres sur TE- 

 vocation des Esprits a Madame . . . (Hum ?), 

 par Mons. Henri Carion. Precede d'un fac-simile 

 de I'Ecriture de I'Esprit qui a declare etre Vol- 

 taire ! " L'esprit de Voltaire ! Now, had it been 

 that of Helvetius, or the same diluted of I'Abbe 

 Cotin, why, we might have succumbed to the in- 

 fluence of the evidence ; but l'esprit de Voltaire ! 

 However, here is the record of what Mons. Henri 

 Carion has done ; I send it you, " neat as im- 

 ported." Recollect, it is the memorial of a spiri- 

 tual fact by an educated man, which fronts without 

 affronting the understanding of the day. 



After many " spiritual experiences," the author 

 writes : " En songeant k reunir ces lettres en un 

 petit volume, il m'est venu a la pensee qu'il serait 

 agreable aux lecteurs de voir un specimen de — 

 L'Ecriture des Esprits ! et il m'a semble que Vol- 

 taire devait etre, de tons les personnages qui n'a- 

 vaient pas dedaigne de repondre "k mon appel, celui 

 qui exciterait le pltis de curiosite.^' Just so ; not 

 less than when he appeared, all paint and pom- 

 made, at eighty-four years of age, to see his bust 

 crowned at the Opera, a.d. 1778. 



" J'ai done con<ju le dessein de le mettre (lui 

 Voltaire!) Asms ma confidence (ah! and for what?), 

 et de lui demander dans ce hut — un Autographe 

 tout special dont je ferais faire le Fac-simile. 



" Voltaire ne se fit pas prier (he was always 

 so concessional, especially to men whose mental 

 faculties resemble those of Mons. Henri Carion, 

 as, for instance, Frcron and La Beaumelle), et 

 repondit avec un empressement de bon augure ^ 

 mon invitation. Des quHl meut ecrit son nom! 

 Ecoutez, Voltaire! lui dis-je, (as though the 

 spirit and he were familiar as hand and glove,) j'ai 

 b, vous demander un avis, et un acte de complai- 

 sance, qui pent etre utile k votre pauvre ame (and 

 not less to "le petit livre" and the album). Savez- 

 vous que j'ai le dessein de publier en un petit 

 volume les diverses lettres ou j'ai raconte les ex- 

 periences que j'ai faites sur revocation des Es- 



