On Popular Illujions. 115 



began and ended with a ftrong agitation of the right hand. 

 He frequently uttered dreadful execrations during the fits. 

 The whole duration of his diforder was eighteen years. 



At length, viz. in June 1788, he declared that he was 

 pofFefled by feven devils, and could only be freed by the 

 prayers (in faith) of feven clergymen. Accordingly the 

 requifite force was fummoned, and the patient fung, fwore, 

 laughed, and barked, and treated the company with a 

 ludicrous parody on the Te Deum. Thefe aftonilhing 

 fymptoms refifted both hymns and prayers, till a. fmall , faint 

 fvoice admonifhed the minifters to adjure. The fpirits, after 

 fome murmuring, yielded to the adjuration, and the happy 

 patient returned thanks for his wonderful cure. It is 

 remarkable, that daring this folemn mockery, the fiend 

 fwore " by his infernal den," that he would not quit his 

 patient ; an oath, I believe, no where to be found but in 

 the Pilgrim's Progrefs, from which Lukins probably 

 got it. 



Very foon after the firft relation of this ftory was pub- 

 lifhed, a perfon, well acquainted with Lukins, took the 

 trouble of undeceiving the public with regard to his pre- 

 tended diforder, in a plain, fenfible narrative of his conduft. 

 He afferts that Lukins's firft feizure was nothing elfe than 

 a fit of drunkennefs; that he always foretold his fits, and 

 remained fenfible during their continuance ; that he fre- 

 quently faw Lukins in his fits, " in every one of which, 

 *• except in finging, he performed not more than moft 

 ** aftive young people can eafily do;" that he was detefted 

 in an impofture with refpefl to the clenching of his hands ; 

 that after money had been collefted for him, he got very 

 fuddenly well ; that he never had any fits while he was ia 

 St. George's Hofpita), in London ; nor when vifitors were 

 excluded from his lodgings, by defire of the author of the 

 Narrative ; and that he was particularly careful never to 

 hurt himfelf by his exertions during the paroxyfm. 



Is it for the credit of this philofophical age, that fo 



bungling an impofture Ihould deceive feven clergymen 



I 2 into 



