178 



APPENDIX. 



nad hid for the present under the earth in a pot 

 in one corner of the room, and in which an orange 

 tree grew,) was consumed in a wonderful man 

 ner by the earth s taking fire with which the pot 

 was filled, and burning violently with a blue 

 flame and an intolerable stench, so that they were 

 all driven out of the house to which they could 

 never be again prevailed upon to return. 



This story has been somewhat abridged from 

 the Encyclopaedia Brittannica, where it is quoted 

 from Dr. Plot s history. If I recollect right, it 

 is embodied in the book entitled &quot; Satan s Invi 

 sible World Discovered,&quot; and the extraordinary 

 occurrences it relates ascribed to Satanic influ 

 ence. At the time they happened, they were 

 viewed as the effects of supernatural powers ; 

 and even Dr. Plot seems disposed to ascribe 

 them to this cause. &quot; Though many tricks,&quot; 

 says the Doctor, &quot;have been often played in 

 affairs of this kind, many of the things above re 

 lated are not reconcileable with juggling ; such as 

 the loud noises beyond the powers of man to 

 make without such instruments as were not there; 

 the tearing and breaking the beds ; the throwing 

 about the fire ; the hoof treading out the candle ; 

 and the striving for the sword ; and the blow the 

 man received from the pummel of it.&quot; It was at 

 length ascertained, however, that this wonderful 

 contrivance was all the invention of the memora 

 ble Joseph Collins of Oxford, otherwise called 

 Funny Joe, who, having hired himself as secre 

 tary under the name of Giles Sharp, by knowing 

 the private traps belonging to the house, and by 

 the help of Pulvis Fulminant, and other chemical 

 preparations, and letting his fellow-servants into 

 the scheme, carried on the deceit without dis 

 covery to the very last. 



Ventriloquism is another source whence a belief 

 of apparitions has been induced. By this art, cer 

 tain persons can so modify their voice as to make 

 it appear to the audience to proceed from any dis 

 tance, and in any direction, and by which impos 

 tors have sometimes accomplished their nefa 

 rious designs, of which the following are instan 

 ces. 



Louis Brahant, a dexterous ventriloquist,valet- 

 de-chambre to Francis I., had fallen desperately 

 in love with a young, h andsome, and rich heir 

 ess ; but was rejected by the parents as an un 

 suitable match for their daughter, on account of 

 the lowness of his circumstances. The young 

 jady s father dying, he made a visit to the widow, 

 who was totally ignorant of his singular talent. 

 Suddenly, on his first appearance in open day, in 

 her own house, and in the presence of several per 

 sons who were with her, she heard herself accost 

 ed in a voice perfectly resembling that of her dead 

 nusband,and which seemed to proceed from above, 

 exclaiming, &quot; Give my daughter in marriage to 

 Louis Brahant. He is a man of great fortune and 

 of an excellent character. I now suffer the inex 

 pressible torments of purgatory for having re 



fused her to him. If you obey this admonition 

 I shall soon be delivered from this place of tor 

 ment. You will at the same time provide a 

 worthy husband for your daughter, and procure 

 everlasting repose to the soul of your poor hus 

 band. The widow could not for a moment 

 resist this dreadful summons, which had not the 

 most distant appearance of proceeding from 

 Louis Brahant, whose countenance exhibited no 

 visible change, and whose lips were close and 

 motionless during the delivery of it. According 

 ly, she consented immediately to receive him for 

 her son-in-law. Louis s finances, however, 

 were in a very low situation, arid the formalities 

 attending the marriage-contract rendered it ne 

 cessary for him to exhibit some show of riches, 

 and not to give the ghost the lie direct. He, ac 

 cordingly, went to work on a fresh subject, one 

 Cornu, an old and rich banker at Lyons, who had 

 accumulated immense wealth by usury and ex 

 tortion, and was known to be haunted by remorse 

 of conscience, on account of the manner in which 

 he had acquired it. Having contracted an inti 

 mate acquaintance with this man, he, one dav, 

 while they were sitting together in the usurers 

 little back parlour, artfully turned the conversa 

 tion on religious subjects, on demons, and spec 

 tres, the pains of purgatory, and the torments oi 

 hell. During an interval of silence between 

 them, a voice was heard, which, to the astonished 

 banker, seemed to be that of his deceased father, 

 complaining, as in the former case, of his dread 

 ful situation in purgatory, and calling upon him 

 to deliver him instantly from thence, by putting 

 into the hands of Louis Brahant, then with him, 

 a large sum for the redemption of Christians 

 then in slavery with the Turks ; threatening him, 

 at the same time, with eternal damnation, if he 

 did not take this method to expiate, likewise, 

 his own sins. Louis Branant, of course, af 

 fected a due degree of astonishment on the occa 

 sion ; and further promoted the deception by ac 

 knowledging his having devoted himself to the 

 prosecution of the charitable design imputed to 

 him by the ghost. An old usurer is naturally 

 suspicious. Accordingly, the wary banker made 

 a second appointment with the ghost s delegate 

 for the next day : and, to render any design of 

 imposing upon him utterly abortive, took him 

 into the open fields, where not a house or a tree, 

 or even a bush, or a pit were in sight, capable of 

 screening any supposed confederate. This ex 

 traordinary caution excited the ventriloquist to 

 exert all the powers of his art. Wherever the 

 banker conducted him, at every step, his ear3 

 were saluted on all sides with the complaints, 

 and groans, not only of his father, but of all his 

 deceased relations, imploring him for the love of 

 God, and in the name of every saint in the calen 

 der, to have mercy on his own soul and theirs, 

 by effectually seconding with his purse the inten 

 tions of his worthy companion. Cornu could no 



