AESCULAPIUS. 511 



their dust, come the weeds of hallucinations and quack- 

 eries, until the earth groans, and is wearied with her 

 myriad births of monsters. To the vague and diffuse 

 mumblements of clairvoyance, with its profane babbling of 

 spirits, and direct unvailing of the mysteries of the "abysses 

 where God's eternal secrets lie," must succeed the order of 

 the " darlings of Providence, fond Fate's elect," in the shape 

 of especially-inspired healing media, whose precious privi- 

 lege it is permitted to be, to wash their subjects in the 

 "Pools of Siloam," to galvanize the dead as the corpse of 

 Lazarus was raised, to heal the cold and stiffened tenements 

 of the grave as the daughter of Jairus was healed. In 

 their own cant, " their practice is similar to that which was 

 prevalent in the days of miracles." This is the last achieve- 

 ment of folly, this is the catastrophe of sin made perfect. 

 The readers of the " Spiritual Telegraph" behold each day, 

 as if in positive earnest, without a wrinkle of mockery and 

 derision, the following advertisement of a " Healing Me- 

 dium :" "Behold, the sick are healed ! Mrs. , of , 



Psychical Physican and Medium, would respectfully offer 

 her services assisted by her husband to the diseased, par- 

 ticularly those with cancerous afflictions, and such diseases 

 generally as have baffled the skill of the 'faculty.' Exami- 

 nations of persons at a distance will be promptly attended 

 to on the receipt of five dollars and a lock of hair or other 

 relic, with name and the residence of the patient. Rooms, 



. Address ." It is well not to omit the magical 



" Y " in calling on these ethereal doctors. Wonder of won- 

 ders I in these days of porcelain teeth and East India hair 

 dyes, incomparable lustres and gossamer wigs, that by a lock 



of hair or some "relic," say an artificial tooth, sent to , 



the spirits will soon hocus-pocus out what part of the bowel is 

 obstructed and the genus and species of cancer afflicting the 

 sufferer, and abolish them both j the distance off of the sick 

 man presenting no difficulty to spiritual influence, for 

 where cannot spirits go ? what cannot spirits know ? why 

 shall not spirits pick all God's locks as easily one way as an- 



