June 3. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



511 



LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 1854. 

 ST. AUGUSTINE ON CLAIRVOYANCE. 



Dr. Maitland, in his valuable Illustrations of 

 Mesmerism, has not, I think, noticed an important 

 passage in St. Augustine's treatise, De Genesi ad 

 litteram, 1. xn. c. 17. §§ 34. seq., in which, after 

 saying that demons can read mens thoughts, and 

 know what is passing at a distance, he proceeds to 

 give a detailed account of two cases of clair- 

 voyance. The whole is written with his usual 

 graphic power, and will well reward the perusal. 

 I must content myself with a brief outline of the 

 facts. 



1. A patient, suffering from a fever, was sup- 

 posed to be possessed by an unclean spirit. 

 Twelve miles off lived a presbyter, with whom, in 

 mesmerist phraseology, he was en rapport. He 

 would receive no food from any other hands ; with 

 him, except when a fit was upon him, he was calm 

 and submissive. When the presbyter left his 

 home the patient would indicate his position at 

 each stage of his journey, and mark his nearer and 

 nearer approach. " He is entering the farm — 

 the house — he is at the door ; " and his visitor 

 stood before him. Once he foretold the death of 

 a neighbour, not as though he were predicting a 

 future event, but as if recollecting a past. For 

 when she was mentioned in his hearing, he ex- 

 claimed, " She is dead, I saw her funeral ; that 

 way they carried out her corpse." In a few days 

 she fell sick and died, and was carried out along 

 that very road which he had named. 



2. A boy was labouring under a painful disorder, 

 which the physicians had vainly endeavoured to 

 relieve. In the exhaustion which followed on his 

 convulsive struggles, he would pass into a trance, 

 keeping his eyes open, but insensible to what was 

 going on around him, and passively submitting to 

 pinches from the bystanders {ad nullam se vellica- 

 tionem movens). After awhile he awoke and told 

 what he had seen. Generally an old man and a 

 youth appeared to him ; at the beginning of Lent 

 they promised him ease during the forty days, and 

 gave him directions by which he might be relieved 

 and finally cured. He followed their counsel, with 

 the promised success. 



Augustine's remarks (c. xviii. § 39.) on these 

 and similar phenomena are well worth reading. 

 He begs the learned not to mock him as speaking 

 confidently, and the unlearned not to take what 

 he says on trust, but hopes that both will regard 

 him simply as an inquirer. He compares these 

 visions to those in dreams. Some come true, and 

 some false ; some are clear, others obscure. But 

 men love to search into what is singular, neglect- 

 ing what is usual, though even more inexplicable ; 

 just as when a man hears a word whose sound is 



new to him, he is curious to know its meaning ; 

 while he never thinks of asking the meaning of 

 words familiar to his ear, however little he may 

 really understand them. If any one then wishes 

 for a satisfactory account of these strange phe- 

 nomena, let him first explain the phenomena of 

 dreams, or let him show how the images of ma- 

 terial objects reach the mind through the eyes. 



J. E. B. Mayor. 

 St. John's College, Cambridge. 



EDWARD GIBBON, FATHER AND SON. 



Gibbon mentions in his Memoirs (edit. 1796, 

 p. 18.), that in 1741 his father and Mr. Delme 

 successfully contested Southampton against Mr. 

 Henly, subsequently Lord Chancellor, but that, 

 after the dissolution in 1747, he was unable or 

 unwilling to maintain another contest, and " the 

 life of the senator expired in that dissolution." 

 Not so the hopes of the senator, as will appear 

 from the following extract from a letter, dated 

 " Beriton, January 27, 1754 :" 



" I received the favour of your letter according 



to the time you promised. As Lord M has 



promised his own votes, I find there is nothing to 

 be done : strange behaviour, sure ! But there 

 seems to be such infatuation upon this poor 

 country, that even a good Catholic shall join 

 with a Dissenter to rivet on her chains. There 

 are several of the Independents would have me 

 stand it out, but I would not on any account, for 

 I find it would make great dissensions, and even 



several of Lord M 's fagots and tenants would 



vote against him ; and another thing, it would 

 lessen him in the opinion of a great many people 

 to have him making interest for the two present 

 worthy candidates against me. I shall therefore, 

 upon his account, give over all thoughts of stand- 

 ing ; and I hope it may give me some little more 

 credit, and merit with him against another election, 

 especially if you would be so good as to improve it 

 for me." 



The following is of far greater interest — full of 

 character. How well it illustrates the paragraph 

 in the Memoirs (pp. 82-3.) : 



" My stay at Beriton was always voluntary 



I never handled a gun, I seldom mounted a horse; 

 and my philosophic walks were soon terminated by a 

 shady bench, where I was long detained by the seden- 

 tary amusement of reading or meditation." 



It appears however, by this letter, that on one oc- 

 casion he trespassed on some neighbour's game 

 preserves, and received a hint on the subject : 



Beriton, Nov. 16, 1758. 

 Sib, 

 As I am extremely well convinced of your 

 politeness, and your readiness to grant your 



