HONESTY. 277 



Then mixing pow'rful herb*, with magic art, 



She changed bii form, who could not change his heart ; 



Constrain'd him in a bird, and made him ily, 



With party-coloor'd plnmea, ■ chattering pie. 



Diiydex's Virgil. 



The art of magic was for many ages publicly 

 professed in the universities of Salamanca in Spain, 

 Cracovia in Poland, and several other places, and 

 so far approved by some princes, says Boesartus, 

 that they still consult them, and indeed dare 

 do nothing without their advice. " Ut nihil ausi 

 aggredi in politicis, in consiliis, sine eorum 

 arbitrio" 



We read of some sovereigns who have so far for- 

 gotten their dignity as to enter into this cheat. 

 Erricus, King of Sweden, had his enchanted cap, 

 and pretended by the additional assistance of some 

 magical jargon, to be able to command spirits, and 

 trouble the air, and turn the winds themselves, so 

 that his ignorant subjects believed, when a great 

 storm arose, that the King had got his conjuring 

 cap on ; and from this fact originated the custom of 

 our mountebanks and legerdemain-men playing 

 their tricks in a conjuring cap. 



In the year 1318, we find the Chancellor and 

 University of Paris had both wisdom and spirit 

 enough, not only to condemn these cheats, but to 

 put a stop to the practice as far as their influence 

 extended ; and we believe the University of Oxford 



