CURE BY Y E TOUCH. 429 



We pass on now to the Restoration; accepting for our 

 guidance in the matter of cure by the royal touch contem- 

 porary records especially the Ostenta Carolina of John Bird, 

 already adverted to. Some scoffing traducer of the divinity of 

 kings has committed himself, I observe, in writing thus : 



( Let us take a glance at the political relations of this epoch, 

 inasmuch as the contemplation will help us to a fair under- 

 standing of the position and prospects of cure by the touch 

 and stroking of kingly hands at the time. The church-and- 

 state party having caught their king, it was an object of first 

 importance with them to set him off to the best advantage. 

 The erroneous and strange doctrine that kings were even as 

 common men not heaven-appointed and heaven-inspired 

 had to be opposed. The public had to be brought to a due 

 state of reverence for sovereignty restored ; and, inasmuch as 

 the memory of Cromwell could not be swept away, policy of 

 church and state dictated that it should be made to seem 

 hateful if not contemptible. To this end superstition was 

 invoked; and divers were the manifestations of it. High 

 church-and-state ^pamphleteers testified to the appearance 

 of supernatural beings coming before mortals with political 

 intent. These supernatural visitors, though diverse in their 

 aspects, were referable to one of two categories : bad spirits, 

 coming in grotesque shapes, such as of black dogs, bears, 

 hyenas, &c., all smelling abominably of brimstone ; and good 

 spirits, decently robed in white garments, George Cruikshank 

 notwithstanding.* As for the bad lot,* they according to 

 pamphleteers of the time so soon as conjured, were wont to 

 change into their proper shapes, videlicet, Cromwell, Ireton, 

 Bradshaw, id genus omne then disappear howling. 



for having spoken contemptuously of the king's touch (Wadd's Maxims 

 and Memoirs'). 



* George Cruikshank's argument against ghosts is, that they always 

 appear decently clad : can there be ghosts of coats, cloaks, petticoats, and 

 breeches, he would like to know 1 He has evidently neither read Lucretius 

 nor studied palingenesy. 



