V E N 
V E N 
V E N 
8 % 
thin piece of metal or pasteboard, kc. at- 
tached to the wall in its lower part just be- 
low the hole, but declining from it upwards, 
go as to give the air, that enters by the hole, 
a direction upwards against the ceiling, along 
which it sweeps and disperses itself through 
the' room, without blowing in a current 
against any person. This method is very use- 
ful to cure smoky chimneys, by thus admit- 
ting conveniently fresh air. A picture pla- 
ced before the hole prevents the sight of it 
from disfiguring the room. This, and many 
other methods of ventilating, he meant to 
have published, and was occupied upon, 
when death put an end to his useful labours. 
These since have been published, viz. in 
]7f)4, 4to. by Dr. WilVan. 
VENTRILOQUISM, an art by which 
certain persons can so modify their voice, as 
to make it appear to the audience to proceed 
from any distance, and in any direction. 
Some faint traces of this art are to be found 
in the writings of theantients; and it is the 
opinion of M. De !a Chapelle, who in the 
y ear 1772 published an ingenious work on the 
subject, that the responses of many of the 
oracles were delivered by persons thus quali- 
fied, to serve the purposes of delusion. As 
the antient ventriloquists, when exercising 
their art, seemed generally to speak from 
their own bellies, the name by which they 
were designed was abundantly significant, 
but it is with no great propriety that modern 
performers are called ventriloquists, and their 
art ventriloquism, since they appear more 
frequently to speak from the pockets of their 
neighbours, or from the roof or distant cor- 
ner” of the room, than from their own mouths 
or their own bellies. _ . 
From Rrodeau, a learned critic of the six- 
teenth century, we have the following ac- 
count of the feats of a capital ventriloquist 
and cheat, who was valet-de-chambre to 
Francis the First. The fellow, whose name 
was Louis Brabant, had fallen desperately in 
love with a young, handsome, and rich heir- 
ess ; but was rejected by the parents as an 
unsuitable match for their daughter, on ac- 
count of the lowness of his ciicumstanc.es. 
The young lady’s father dying, he made a 
visit to the widow, who was totally ignoiant 
of his singular talent. Suddenly, on his first 
appearance in open day, in her own house, 
and in the presence of several persons who 
were with her, she heard herself accosted, in 
a voice perfectly resembling that ol her dead 
husband, and which seemed to proceed from 
above, exclaiming, “ Give my daughter in 
marriage to Louis Brabant ; he is a man ot 
great fortune, and of an excellent character. 
I now endure the inexpressible torments of 
purgatory, for having refused her to him. If 
•you obey this admonition, I shall soon be 
delivered from this place of torment. V ou 
will at the same time provide a worthy hus- 
band for your daughter, and procure ever- 
lasting repose to the soul of your poor hus- 
band.” . , 
'Phe widow could not for a moment lesist 
this dread summons, which had not the most 
distant appearance of proceeding from Louis 
Brabant ; whose countenance exhibited no 
visible change, and whose lips were close and 
motionless, during the delivery of it. Ac- 
cordingly, she consented immediately to 
receive him for her son-in-law. Louis s fi- 
nances, however, were in a very low situa- 
VOL. II. 
tion ; and the formalities attending the mar- 
riage-contract rendered it necessary for him 
to exhibit some show of riches, and not to 
give the ghost the lie direct. lie accordingly 
went, to work upon a fresh subject, one Cornu, 
an old and rich banker at Lyons; who had 
accumulated immense wealth by usury and 
extortion, and was known to be haunted by 
remorse of conscience on account of the 
manner in which he had acquired it. 
Having contracted an intimate acquaint- 
ance with this man, he, one day while they 
were sitting together in the usurer’s little 
back parlour, artfully turned the .conversation 
.on religious subjects, on demons and spec- 
tres, the pains of purgatory, and the torments 
of hell. During an interval of silence be- 
tween 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 dreadful situation in pur- 
gatory, and calling upon him to deliver 
him instantly thence, by putting into the 
hands of Louis Brabant, then with him, a 
large sum for the redemption of Christians 
then in slavery with the l urks ; threatening 
him at the same time with eternal damnation 
if he did not take this method to expiate like- 
wise his own sins. The reader will naturally 
suppose that Louis Brabant affected a due 
degree of astonishment on the occasion ; and 
further promoted the deception, by acknow- 
ledging Lis having devoted himself to the pro- 
secution of the charitable design imputed 
to him by the ghost. An old usurer is natu- 
rally’ 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 ut- 
terly abortive, took him into the open fields, 
where not a house, or a tree, or even a bush, 
or a pit, was in sight, capable of screening 
any supposed confederate. This extraordi- 
nary caution excited the ventriloquist to 
exert all the powers of his art. Wherever 
the banker conducted him, at every step his 
ears were saluted on all sides with the com- 
plaints 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 calendar, to have mercy on his 
own soul and theirs, by effectually seconding 
with his purse the intentions of his worthy 
companion. Cornu could no longer resist 
the voice of heaven, and accordingly carried 
his guest home with him, and paid him down 
10,000 crowns: with which the honest ven- 
triloquist returned to Paris, and married his 
mistress. The catastrophe was fatal. The 
secret was afterwards blown, and reached the 
usurer’s ears ; who was so much affected by 
the loss of his money, and the mortifying 
railleries of his neighbours, that he took to 
his bed and died. 
This trick of Louis Brabant is even ex- 
ceeded by an innocent piece of waggery 
played oft not forty years ago by another 
French ventriloquist on a whole community. 
We have the story from M. De la Chapelle, 
who informs us, that M. St. Gill, the ventrilo- 
quist, and his intimate friend, returning home 
from a place whither his business had carried 
him, sought for shelter from an approaching 
thunder-storm in a neighbouring convent. 
Finding the whole community in mourning, 
he enquired the cause, and was told that 
one of their body had died lately, wjio was 
5P 
the ornament and delight of the whole so- 
ciety. To pass away the time, he walked 
into the church, attended by some of the re- 
ligious, who showed him the tomb of their 
deceased brother, and spoke feelingly of the 
scanty honours they had bestowed on his 
memory. Suddenly a voice was heard, ap- 
parently proceeding from the roof of the 
quire, lamenting the situation of the defunct 
in purgatory, and reproaching the brother- 
hood with their lukewarmess and want ot 
zeal on his own account. I he friars, as soon 
as their astonishment gave them power to 
speak, consulted together, and agreed to ac- 
quaint the rest of the community with this 
singular event, so interesting to the whole 
society. M. St. Gill, who wished to carry 
on the joke still farther, dissuaded them from 
taking this step ; telling them that they 
would be treated by their absent brethren as 
a set of fools and visionaries. He recom- 
mended to them, however, the immediately 
calling of the whole community into the 
church, where the ghost of their departed 
brother might probably reiterate his com- 
plaints. Accordingly all the friars, novices, 
lay-brothers, and even the domestics of the 
convent, were immediately summoned and 
collected together. In a short time the voice 
from the roof renewed its lamentation and 
reproaches, and the whole convent fell on 
their faces, and vowed a solemn reparation. 
As a first step, they chanted a De profundis 
in a full choir: during the intervals of which 
the ghost occasionally expressed the comfort 
he received from their pious exercises and 
ejaculations on his behalf. When all was 
over, the prior entered into a serious conver- 
sation with M. St. Gill ; and on the strength 
of what had just passed, sagaciously inveigh- 
ed against the absurd incredulity of mo- 
dern sceptics and pretended philosophers, 
on the article of ghosts or apparitions. M. 
St. Gill thought it now high time to disabuse 
the good fathers. This purpose, however, 
he found it extremely difficult to effect, till he 
had prevailed upon them to return with him 
into the church, and there be witnesses of 
the manner in which he had conducted this 
ludicrous deception. 
A ventriloquist, who performed feats 
somewhat similar to these, made his appear- 
ance in Edinburgh, and many of the other 
towns of Great Britain, a few years ago. He 
imitated successfully the voice of a squeaking 
child, and made it appear to proceed from 
whatever place he chose ; from the pockets of 
the company ; from a wooden doll, with which 
he held many spirited conversations ; from be- 
neath a hat or a wine-glass, and out of any 
person’s foot or hand. When the voice seem- 
ed to come from beneath a glass or hat, it 
was dull and on a low key, as sounds con- 
fined always are ; and what evinced his dex- 
terity was, that when the glass was raised 
from the table during the time of his speak- 
ing, the words or syllables uttered afterwards 
were on a higher key, in consequence, one 
would have thought, of the air being read- 
mitted to the speaker. This part of the ex- 
periment failed, however, when the manage- 
ment of the glass was at a distance committed 
to any of the company ; but as the room was 
not well illuminated, we are inclined to at- 
tribute this failure to the ventriloquist not 
being able to perceive at what precise instant 
of time the glass was removed from t*he table. 
