418 CUKE BY Y* TOUCH. 



By this time the benevolent reader, confused by recitals 

 which I shall not wonder if he call a farrago of nonsense, 

 may feel inclined to exclaim with Faust, when confused with 

 the mad chattering of the Blocksberg witches, 



1 Mir widersteht das tolle Zauberwesen.' 



The wildness of narrative, the 'Tollheit,' is, however, in 

 no degree attributable to the scribe who condenses, out 

 of solemnly attested records many, this bare recital of a 

 pretension urged by and on behalf of British sovereigns; 

 attested by divines, physicians, surgeons, by the score; de- 

 fended by the terrors of impending high treason ; only relin- 

 quished by George III., seemingly for family and domestic 

 reasons, to which farther allusion may have to be made by 

 and by; and, for aught I can learn to the contrary, still a 

 constructive article of belief with orthodox members of the 

 established church, inasmuch as belief in the divine gift of 

 healing vouchsafed to kings, as it was formerly called, once 

 so strenuously upheld by high dignitaries of the established 

 church, has at no time been unequivocally revoked. 



The pretension, or function call it which pleases you 

 best of royal cure by the touch, illustrates by its records, 

 as seen in English history, and by apologue, of course, a 

 certain old proverb about what will happen to well, not a 

 king, if rope enough be given. I do not think any author 

 has ever written so fully as the case merits on the troubles 

 which may afflict individuals through being permitted to have 

 their own way the embarrassments, the humiliations. It 

 is a topic that many of us might reflect upon with great 

 gain to personal happiness. Youth of both sexes are invited 

 to think on this matter, especially young ladies. It was 

 through unlucky heedlessness of the results that may come 

 of having one's own way that the English king of olden time, 

 whatever his name (and on this point history is confused), 

 proclaimed to his loving subjects that, by virtue of a certain 



