_ 336 
be he, «who has heaped favours on us, and 
by his goodnefs has now fed us. Then he 
recites a pretty long. prayer; all prefent 
anfwer dmen! ‘They recite Pialm xxiv. 
9,10. Fear the Bord, O ye his faints, 
&c. THEN GIVING THE GLASS WITH 
THE LITTLE WINE ,IN° if TO, BE 
DRUNK ROUND, he takes off what is 
éft, and the table is cleared.” 
By comparing thefe extracts, we fee 
pretty clearly what is the editor’s opi- 
nion ; but I fuppofe he was not influenced 
on this fubjeét, by any thing he might 
meet in Vaurien, if indeed he had read 
that performance: but which was pub- 
lithed fArft Ido not know. It is certain, 
that fomebody who writes in the fragments 
of Calmet, has fet fome very ‘difficult 
things in a a new point of view. 
By way of expofing a principle when 
Carried too far in practice, accept the 
following quotation from ‘ Obferwations 
on a Fourney to Naples, 1704.’ Does 
the cuftom ftill exift? Is it not analogous 
to what Bruce relates of Abyflinia? 
Which is furtheft removed from the ori- 
ginal inftitution, the denial of the cup to 
the communicants, or the two frequent 
potations of its contents? 
you a relation hereof what I have feen 
practifed at Mentz in-Germany, where I 
happened to be for two years together on 
Holy Thurlday. This day, after morn- 
ing ‘fervice, and wafhing of feet, the 
archbithop, the great canons, and all 
the other priefts that ferve the cathedial, 
£0 in proceffion to.a great hall, that is 
near the church, which they call the 
chapter-houfe, there to celebrate the fup- 
per. The feculars that ave of rank, alfo 
enter. reat benches are placed round 
the hall, where the company feat them- 
felves ; in the midft is a great table, co- 
vered with a table cloth, upon which are 
placed large cups, with other vefléls full 
/ot wine, and a vat quantity of great 
waters, divided into pounds and half 
pounds. The archbifhop, arrayed in 
his pontifical habits, reads aloud the 
gofpel, and blefies the bread and wine; 
having taken his part of the wafers, 
which is of two or three pounds, beaaufe 
of his dignity, he goes and diftributes to 
the reft,\ one pound to every grand canon, 
and half a pound to the reft—this they 
begin to eat. © The archbifhop in the 
mean time takes the cup, or rather it is 
held to him, while he drinks, for it is 
fo large and fo full cf wine, that two of 
the canons can hardly fupport it,” After 
he hath drank, he fends it round—they 
do not amuie themielves with taking a 
Adminifiration of the Sacrament at Adentz. 
<¢ Twill give 
€ 
‘[Nov. 
little, but drinking in good earneft, the 
greateit draughts they can: and there are 
fome of thefe German gentlemen who can 
drink a quart at a draught—fo that the 
cup, big’ as it is, muit foon be filled 
anew. ‘The wine mui be of the bef 
Rhenifh; and the officers of the cathedral 
have ~power to go and chufe it that day, 
with great ceremony, in the EleGor’s 
cellars. While the cup goes round, the 
muficians ftrike up théir notes, and fing, 
what the papifts call the Improperia. 
‘The company, at firft, were medeit and 
cautious, but after the good wine began 
to difplay its virtue, they became foolith 
and rictous; the cup circulates five 
times. My hoft owned he had drank fq 
many quarts of wine. 
<¢ Now, if we fet afide the excefles, &c. 
fure it is,’ {ays the writer, “ that this 
is the true way of adminiftering the hely 
fupper, which has been preferved in this 
church,” &c. 
Now, Mr. Editor, if any of yoar cor- 
re{pondents can trace the origin of this 
fingular annual cuftem at Mentz, they 
will much oblige me, and I dare fay many 
others, including C.P. Is this defcrip- 
tion applicable to the mif{demeanor of the 
Corinthians, reproved by St. Paul? Did 
the Jews thus abufe their inftitution of 
the feaft of the tabernacles? from whence 
Plutarch reports they celebrated the Bac- 
chanalia. How far may fuch an abufe 
among the Jews, ~and certain cuftoms. 
among the Greeks, contribute to account 
for the Corinthian’s debauchery? If this 
fs as yeur correfpondent fugegetts, “ 2 
4 Fevyh ceremony, . what 
might be its origin? Tam, Sir, your 
well withers 6 ie Pes, 
“July 3) 1798. ate 
Fer the Monthly Magazine. 
A¥ROSTATIC INSTITUTE. 
KTEVER was the fpirit of invention 
NY rere active.in France, never was 
the'ambition of perfecting former difco= 
veries and making new ones for the be- 
nefit of the country more bufily employed 
than fince the revolution, and at Paris 
whichis the central poist where all the 
beft heads in France are aflembled. The 
difcovery of a new mode of preparing 
faltpetre *, the invention of the telegraph, 


* Two ef the moft extenfive faltpetre 
manufa€tories in Paris, (to fay nothing ef 
feveral others) extra&t from the earth of bu~, 
rial grounds and from the -rubbifh of old 
buildings, and deliver every ten days, thirty 
thoufand pounds weight of pure faltpetre. 
and 
