-_ MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 
Account of Foanna Southcott, from 
Letters from England, by Don M, 
A, Espriella. Translated from the 
Spanish. Vol. III.* 
In the early part of the thirteenth 
century there appeared an English 
virgin in Italy, beautiful and elo- 
quent, who atlirmed that the Holy 
Ghost was incarnate in her for the 
redemption of women, and she bap- 
tized women in the name of the Fa- 
ther, and of the Son, and of herself. 
Her body was carried to Milan and 
burnt there. An arch-heretic of 
the same sex and country is now 
establishing a sect in England, found- 
ed upon a not dissimilar and equally 
portenious blasphemy. The name 
of this woman is Joanna Southcott ; 
she neither boasts of the charms of 
her forerunner, nor needs them. In- 
stead of having an eye which can 
fascinate, and a tongue which can 
persuade to error by glossing it with 
sweet discourse, she is old, vulgar, 
and illiterate. In all the innumera- 
ble volumes which she has sent into 
the world, there are not three con- 
nected sentences in sequence, and 
the language alike violates common 
sense and common syntax. ‘Yet she 
/has her followersamong thceducated 
classes, and even among the benc- 
ficed clergy. ‘‘ If Adam,” she says, 
‘¢ had refused Jistening to a foolish 
ignorant woman at first, then man 
might refuse listening to a foolish 
ignorant woman at last :’—and the 
argument is admitted by her adhe. 
rents. When we read in romance 
of enchanted fountains, they are de- 
scribed as flowing with such clear 
and sparkling waters as tempt the 
traveller to thirst; here, there may 
be a magic in the draught, but he 
* These letters are supposed. to be 
* some reputation, 
374 
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who can taste of so foul a stream 
must previously have lost his senses. 
The filth and the abominations of de« 
moniacal witchcraft are emblemati- 
cal of such delusions; not the golden 
goblet and bewitching allurements of 
Circe and Armida. 
The patient and resolute obe- 
dience with which I have collected 
for you some account of this woman 
and her system, from a pile of pam- 
phlets half a yard high, will, I hope, 
be imputed to me as a merit. . Had 
the heretic of old been half as volu- 
minous, and half as dull, St. Epipha- 
nius would never have persevered 
through his task. 
She was born in Devonshire about 
the middle of the last century, and 
seems to have passed forty years of 
her life in honest industry, some- 
times as a servant, at others work- 
ing at the upholsterers’ business, 
without any other symptom of a 
disordered intellect than that she 
was zealously attached to the me- 
thodists. These people were equally 
well qualified to teach her the arts 
of imposture, or to drive her mad 5 
or to produce in her a happy mix- 
ture of craziness and knavery, in- 
gredients which in such cases are 
usually found in combination. She 
mentions in her books a preacher 
wlio frequented her master’s house, 
and, according to her account, lived 
in habits of adultery with the wife, 
trying at the same time to debauch 
the daughter, while the husband 
yainly attempted to seduce Joanna 
herself. This preacher used to ter- 
rify all who heard him in’ prayer, 
and make them shriek out convul- 
sively. [fe said that he had some- 
times, ata meeting, made the whole 
congregation lie stiff upon the floor 
written, in fact, by an English author of- 
til 
’ 
