132 
formation, that in like manner as man, by 
contracting an alliance with God, has be- 
come a partaker in the divine nature, fo 
the Syiphs, Gnomes, Undanes, and Sala» 
_manders, by an alliance contracted with 
man, may become ‘co-heirs of immortali- 
ty. Thus a Nymph ora Salamandrefs be- 
comes immortal, and capable of that bea- 
titude towhich we afpire, when flie is for- 
tunate enough to marry a fage, and a 
Gnome or a Sylph ceafes to be mortal the 
day he marries a human virgin. 
«¢ Hence the error of the firft century 
into which Juftin the Martyr, Tertullian, 
Clement the Alexandrian, the Chriftian 
philofopher Athenagoras, Cyprian, and 
other writers of thofe days have fallen. 
They were aware that thefe elemental 
femi- men purfued an intercourfe with girls, 
and were thence led to believe that the fall 
of the angels proceeded from their having 
indulged a love of women. Some Gnomes, 
defirous of becoming immortal, had wooed 
with prefents of jewels certain daughters 
of men: and thefe authors, rafhly trufting 
to their own mifinterpretations of the book 
of Enoch, imagined that by fons of God, 
(are not all creatures fuch ?) the angelic 
yace was to be underftood. But undoubt- 
edly the Sylphs, and other elementary {pi- 
rits, are the real children of Elohim. 
«¢ In order to obtain an empire over the 
Salamanders, it is neceflary to purify and 
exalt the element of fire which is within 
us : for each of the elements, purified, is a 
loadftone which attraéts the correfponding 
fpirits. The familiarity of the inferior 
orders is moft eafily had. Swallow daily 
ever fo little pure air, water, or earth, 
which has been alchemically expofed to 
the fun’s rays ina globe of glafs herme- 
tically fealed, and you will behold in the 
atmofphere the fluttering republic of 
the Syiphs, Nymphs will fwim to meet 
youat every river’s brink, and the treafure- 
wardens difplay before you their imperith- 
able hoards. 
*¢ How do you know that Nymphs and 
Sylphs die ?”"=-‘« Becaule they tell us fo, 
and we’fee them die.’*—** How fhould that 
be, fince intercourfe with you renders them 
immertal ?”"—** That would be a difficul- 
- ty, if the number of fages approached that 
of thefe nations, and if there were not 
miany among them who prefer dying to 
the rifk of fuch animmortality as they fee 
in pofleffion ef the demons. Satan in- 
fpires thofe apprehepfions : there is nothing 
-he wovid not do to prevent thefe poor 
creatures from becoming immortal by an 
alliance with us. But, my fon, as Sylphs 
-gequre an immortal foul by contracting 
Remarks on Lord Somerville’s Plan for the Poor, [ March ts 
an alliance with men predeftined to falvas 
tion, fo thofe men, who have no right to 
eternal glory, thofe veflels of wrath; to 
whom immortality would be a fatal gift, 
and for whom the Meffiah has not died, 
can acquire abfolute mortality ‘by an al- 
liance with the elemental fpirits. Thus 
you fee the adept is every way a winner : 
if predeftined for election, he leads with 
him into paradife the Sylph,whom he has 
immortalized ; if for reprobation, the deli- 
vers him from the horrors ef the fecond 
death.” | n° 
~The Secret Dialogues of Gabalis have 
been afcribed to Fontenelle, and to Count 
Hamilton; they do not want grace and 
vivacity, but they are tin&ured with the 
ob{cenity and profanenefs of the French 
{fchool. The author, whoever he was, 
draws profulely from his own imagination; 
yet he had evidently looked into the wri- 
tings of Paracelfus and his numerous fol- 
lowers, fuch as Ofwald, Crollius, Van 
Helmont, and the theofophic alchemifts 5 
and alfo into the writings of the Cabalif- - 
tic Roficrucians. Probably Bafil Valen- 
tine, Fludd, Mirandola, Henry Cornelius 
Agrippa, would all be found to have ac- 
credited more or lefs this chemical mytho- 
logy, of which already in the Alexandrian 
Platonifts fome hints may be difcovered : 
hints which Reuchlin apparently gleaned 
among the ancients, and fcattered among 
the moderns. 2 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, ie 
HAVE juft perufed with much attens 
tion Lord Somerville’s Jaft publica- 
tion in Oétober, on the Poor and Poor- 
Laws, where, at page 182, his lordfhip 
fays ‘* he hopes for difcufnon,” &c.—and 
may he have his wifh! for the fum of his 
whole plan feems to me to be to compel 
the poor, by a tax on their labour, to give 
up the protection the prefent poor-laws af- 
ford them (fuch as it is), and provide in 
a great part for themfelves, by raifing a 
fund out of their hard earnings, which is 
to be placed in the hands of - thé receivers 
general of each county for that purpofe, 
with a falary adequate to the trouble and 
re{ponfibility it may occafion him. From 
thofe earning between feven and ten fhil- 
lings per week, whether labourers in huf- 
bandry, manufacturers, fervants, or me- 
chanics, his lordfhip propofes that three- 
pence be taken per week, covered by the 
like fum from the employer, andevery 
other clafs in proportion, &c. 
The plan his lordfhip fubmitted to, I 
think, 
t 
en 
