On Popular Ilhifions. 109 



held very curious dialogues with him. Dr. Hutchinfon 

 furnifhes the following fpecimen of their judicious raillery. 

 *' What, Satan ! is this the dancing, that Richard gave 

 ♦' himfelf to thee for ? Canft thou dance no better ? 

 ** Ranfack the old records of paft times, and places in thy 

 •' memory: canft; thou not there find out fome better way 

 ** of trampling ? Pump thine invention dry : cannot that 

 ** univerfal feed plot of fubtle wiles and ftratagems 

 ** fpring up one new method of cutting capers ? Is this 

 ** the top of feill and pride, to ftiuffle feet and brandifli 

 ** knees thus, and to trip like a doe, and ikip like a 

 " fquirrel? And wherein differ thy ieapings from the 

 *' hoppings of a frog, or bouncings of a goat, or frifkings 

 *' of a dog, or gefliculations of a monkey? And cannot 

 *' a paify ihake fuch a loofe leg as that? Doft thou not 

 •' twirl like a calf that has the turn, and twitch up thy 

 " houghs juft like a fpring-hault tit : " 



Hutchinfon, p. 162. 



(L) p. 55. PolTeflions frequently fpread in monarteries, 

 like hylterical complaints, and there appears in reality 

 no diftinftion between them, in fuch cafes. See Wierus 

 de Malejicio affe£lis , (p. 299, & feq.) where one very griev- 

 ous fymptom is taken notice of; 5/ quando ha in arrepiam 

 matulam mejere tentarent, ea 'violenter erepta, lotto confpur- 

 cabant leSum. It was in 1634, under the adminiftra- 

 tion of Cardinal Richlieu, that the hyfterics of the nuns 

 of Loudun occafioned the execution of Urban Grandier. 

 The Duke of Lauderdale has left his teftimony to the bung- 

 ling performance of this deception, in Baxter's EfTay on 

 Spirits. Of feveral phyficians who examined the poflefled. 

 Dr. Duncan of Saumur was the only one who had the 

 difcernment or the courage to declare that there was no- 

 thibg preternatural in their difeafe. He proved his aiTer- 

 tion by fome publications, the heads of which may be feen 

 in the Cau/es Celebres, but as it was very well known that 

 the devil had fpoke Latin, his reafons were difregarded, 

 ' and 



