Some Cranks and their Crotchets 439 



me of something once said by Rev. Robert Taylor, 

 a crazy clergyman who in 1827 suffered impris- 

 onment for blasphemy, and came to be known as 

 the Devil's Chaplain. Taylor declared that for 

 the book of Revelation there was no Greek origi- 

 nal at all, but Erasmus wrote it in Switzerland, in 

 the year 1516. The audience, or part of it, proba- 

 bly took Taylor's word as sufficient ; and in like 

 manner not a syllable of proof is alleged for Mr. 

 Johnson's prodigious assertions. From cover to 

 cover, there is no trace of a consciousness that proof 

 is needed ; it is simply, Thus saith Edwin John- 

 son. The man who can write such a book is surely 

 incapable of making a valid will. 



Another acute phase of insanity is exemplified 

 in Nason's " History of the Prehistoric Ages, writ- 

 ten by the Ancient Historic Band of Spirits " (Chi- 

 cago, 1880). This is a mediumistic affair. The 

 ancient band consists of four-and-twenty spirits, 

 the eldest of whom occupied a material body 

 46,000 years ago, and the youngest 3000 years/ 

 ago. They dictated to Mr. Nason the narrative, 

 which begins with the origin of the solar system 

 and comes down to Romulus and Remus, betraying 

 on every page the preternatural dullness and igno- 

 rance so characteristic of all the spirits with whom 

 mediums have dealings. 



