LON 
iftig it with fweet (HfcouiTe, fhe is old, vulgar, and illite¬ 
rate. In all the innumerable volumes which (lie has fent 
into the world, there are not three connected fentences in 
Sequence; and the language alike violates common fenfe 
and common fyntax. Yet (he has her followers among the 
educated claffes, and even among the beneficed clergy. 
« If Adam,” the fays, “ had refufed Aliening to a foolifh 
ignorant woman at firlt, then man might refufe liltening 
to a foolilh ignorant woman at laft;”—and the argument 
is admitted by her adherents. When we read in romance 
of enchanted fountains, they are defcribed as flowing with 
fuch dear and fparkling waters as tempt the traveller to 
thirfl 5 here, there.may be a magic in the draught, but he 
who can talle of fo foul a ftream mutt previously have loft 
his fenfes. The filth and the abominations of demoniacal 
witchcraft are emblematical of fuch delufions ; not the 
golden goblet and bewitching allurements of Circe and 
Armida. 
This woman was born in Devonfliire about the middle 
of the laft century ; and feems to have palled forty years 
of her life in honeft induftry, fometimes as a fervant, at 
others working at the upholfterers’ bufinefs, without any 
other fymptom of a difordered intellefil than that file was 
zealoufly attached to the methodifts. She mentions in her 
books a preacher who frequented her matter’s houfe, and, 
according to her account, lived in habits of adultery with 
the wife, trying at the fame time to debauch the daughter, 
•while the lnilband vainly attempted to feduce Joanna her- 
feif. This preacher ufed to terrify all who heard him in 
prayer, and make them Ihriek out convulfively. He faid 
that he had fometimes, at a meeting, made the whole con¬ 
gregation lie ftiff upon the floor till he had got the evil 
fpirits out of them ; that there never was a man fo highly 
favoured of God as himfelf; that he would not thank 
God to make him any thing, unlefs he made him greater 
than any man upon earth, and gave him power above all 
men ; and he boalted, upon hearing the death of one who 
had cenfured him, that he had failed and prayed three days 
and three nights, beleeching God to take vengeance upon 
that man, and fend him to eternity. Where fuch im¬ 
pious bedlamites as this are allowed to walk abroad, it is 
rot to be wondered at that madnefs Ihould become epi¬ 
demic. Joanna Southcott lived in a houfe which this man 
frequented, and where, notwithftanding his infamous life, 
his pretenfions to fupernatural gifts were acknowledged, 
and he was accudomed to preach and pray. The fervants 
all flood in fear of him. She fays, he had no power over 
her, hut Ihe ufed to think the room was full of fpirits 
when he was in prayer; and he was fo haunted that he 
never could lleep in a room by himfelf, for he faid his wife 
came every night to trouble him. She was perplexed about 
him, fully believing that he wrought miracles, and won¬ 
dering by what fpirit he wrought them. After (lie became 
a prophetefs herfelf, Ihe difcovered that this gentleman was 
the falfe prophet in the Revelations, who is to be taken 
with the Bead, and call alive with him into a lake of burn¬ 
ing brimftone. 
Four perfons have written to Joanna upon the fubject 
of her pretended million, each calling himfelf Chrift ! 
One Mr. Leach, a methodift preacher, told her to go to 
the Lord in his name, and tell the Lord that he faid her 
writings were infpired by the devil. Thefe circumftances 
fliow how commonly delulion, blafphemy, and madnefs, 
are to be found in this country, and may leflen our won¬ 
der at the phrenfy of Joanna and her followers. Her own 
career began humbly, with prophecies concerning the 
weather, fuch as the popular Englilh almanacs contain; 
and threats concerning the fate of Europe, and the fuc- 
•cefles of the French, which were at that time the fpecu- 
lations of every newfpaper, and of every alehoufe politi¬ 
cian. Some of thefe guefles having-chanced to be right, 
the women of the family in which ihe then worked at the 
upholftering bufinefs, began to lend ear toher; and file ven¬ 
tured to fubmit her papers to the judgment of one Mr, Pg- 
D O N. t47 
meroy, the clergyman whofechurch (he attended in Exeter. 
He liftetied to her with timid curiofity, rather wanting con . 
rage than credulity to become herdifciple ; received from 
her certain fealed prophecies which were at fome future 
time to be opened, when, as it would be feen that they had 
been accomplilhed, they would prove the truth of her in- 
fpiration ; and fandtioned, or feemed to fanction, her de- 
fign of publifhing her call to the world. Butin this pub¬ 
lication his own name appeared, and that in fuch a man¬ 
ner as plainly to imply, that, if he had not encouraged her 
to print, lie hau not endeavoured to prevent her from fo 
doing. His eyes were immediately opened to his oh n im¬ 
prudence, whatever they may have been to the nature of 
her call; and he obtained her confent to infert an adver- 
tifement in the newfpaper with her fignature, dating that 
he had laid it was the work of the devil. But here the 
parties are at ifiue : as the advertifement was worded, it 
lignifles that tlie clergyman always faid her calling was 
from the devil ; on the other hand, Joanna and her wit- 
nefies proteft that what (lie had ligned was merely an ac¬ 
knowledgment that he had faid, after her book was 
printed, the devil had inftigated her to print his name in 
it. This would not be worthy of mention, if it were not 
for the very extraordinary lituation into which this gen¬ 
tleman has brought himfelf. Wilhing to be clear of the 
connexion in which he had fo unluckily engaged, he burnt 
the fealed papers which had been intruded to his careo 
From that time all the Joannians, who are now no incon- 
liderable number, regard him as the arch-apoftate. He 
is the Jehoiakim who burnt Jeremiah’s roll of prophecies; 
he is their Judas Ifcariot, a fecond Lucifer, fon of the 
Morning. They call upon him to produce thefe prophe¬ 
cies, which ll:e boldly aflerts, and they implicitly believe, 
have all been fulfilled, and therefore would convince the 
world of the truth of her million. In vain does Mr. Po¬ 
meroy anfwer that he has burnt thefe unhappy papers :—• 
in an unhappy hour for himfelf did he burn them ! day 
after day long letters are difpatched to him, fometimes 
from Joanna herfelf, fometimes from her brother, fome- 
times from one of her four-and-twenty elders, filled with 
exhortation, inveftive, texts of feripture, and denuncia¬ 
tions of the law in this world, and the devil in the next; 
and thefe letters the prophetefs prints, for this very fufli- 
cient reafon—that all her believers purchafe them. Mr. 
Pomeroy fometimes treats them with contempt; at other 
times he appeals to their compaflion, and befeeches them, 
if they have any bowels of Chriltian charity, to have 
compaflion on him and let him reft, and no longer add to 
the inconceivable and irreparable injuries which they have 
already occafioned him. If he is filent, no matter; on 
they go, printing copies of all which they write ; and, 
when he is worried into replying, his anfwers alia ferve 
to fwell Joanna’s books. In this manner is this poor 
man, becaufe he has recovered his fenfes, perfecuted by a 
crazy prophetefs, and her four-and-twenty crazy elders> 
who feem determined not to defilt, till, one way or other, 
they have made him as ripe for Bedlam as they are them* 
felves. 
The books which (he fends into the world are written 
partly in profe, partly in rhyme, all the verle and the 
greater part of the profe being delivered in the character- 
of the Almighty ! It is not polllble to convey an ade= 
quate idea of this unparalleled and unimaginable nonfenfe 
by any other means than literal tranfcri.pt. Her hand¬ 
writing was illegibly bad ; fo that at laft (he found it con¬ 
venient to receive orders to throw away the pen, and de¬ 
liver her oracles orally ; and the words flow from her fader 
than her feribes can write them down. This may be well 
believed, for they are words and nothing elfe: a mere 
rhapfody of texts, vulgar dreams and vulgar interpreta¬ 
tions, vulgar types and vulgar applications:—the vileft' 
firing of words in the vileft doggerel verfe, which has no 
other connection than what the vileft rhymes have fug- 
gelled, five vextts,. and hex foliowexs receive, as the dilates 
