138 
their peculiar notions, these passages 
often militate against them, and are cal. 
eulated to support doctrines of an oppo- 
site tendency. Did people, for iAstance, 
attend to this, that in the third chapter 
of the book of Genesis, the original word 
translated sewed, means to fix, tle, or 
fasten together in general, be it by a pin 
of wood, or in anyother way; they would 
not; as is often done, ask that ridiculous 
question, Where Adam found the needles 
-and thread, with which he sewed the fig- 
Jeaves together? And, did they attend 
to this, that there was a small window 
in the temple at Jerusalem, commonly 
called the Needle’s Eye, and well known 
to the Jews by that name, they would 
not be so apt to find fault with the ex- 
pression of our Saviour, when he tells us, 
that ‘It is easier for a camel to pass 
through the needle’s eye, than for a rich 
man, by means of his riches, to enter into 
the kingdom of God.” So that, though, 
for some time before as well as after the 
days of James VI,, who wrote a treatise’ 
on witchcraft, the doctrine was believed, 
yetif the reverend author and publishers 
of the above Catechism can bring no 
other proof than they have done, orthan is 
penerally known, for the existence of 
witches, they would have evinced a more 
rational piety, have shown themselves 
better pneumaticians, and betier ac- 
guainted with the Christian system, had 
they saved themselves the trouble of. 
warning people against resorting to them, 
# book published with a view of being 
put into the hands of children, tending 
toa helief in the existence of witches, 
however valuabie in other respects,comes, 
mm my opinion, ‘with a very, bad grace 
from any connected with the Society for 
_the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. 
Not doubting that this will find a place 
in some corner or other of your valu- 
able Miscellany, Iam, ; 
, Your’s, &c. 
187, St. Martin’s-lane. | James Hatt. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
STR, . 
BSERVING in your intelligent Mis- 
cellany, for Septenrber, an account 
ef the rare and beautiful manuseripts 
of Esther Inglis in the Bodleian library, 
dibrary ef Christ Church, Oxford, ‘and the 
British Museum, I think it may not be on- 
interesting to your readers to be informed 
that another is in my possession, compris- 
meg eighteen specimens-in different hands 
of the Proverbs of Solomon, in English, 
deevrated with head-pieces, aud entitled 
Esther Inglis. —Touching for the Evil. 
{March 1, 
“ A New Yeers Gvift for the Right Ho- 
norable and Vertvous Lord, my Lord Sid- 
nay, of the Hand-Writing aad Limming 
of mee Esther Inglis, the First of Ianvar, 
1606.” Your's &. 
Greenwich, Joun CaLDECOTT. 
October 9, 1809. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
MONG the numerous superstitious 
£% absurdities which at no very remote 
period prevailed even among the learned, 
but which reason and good sense have 
now happily banished, none was more 
ridiculous than that-of the scrofula, er 
king’s-evil, being cured by the royal 
touch. Whether our monarchs them-: 
selves belicved they possessed this mira- 
culous power of healing, or whether they 
spread this deception to dupe the peo- 
ple into a belief of their divine right 
they universally laid claim to it fron 
Edward the Confessor down to the last 
of the race of Stuart. It does not appear 
that any of the house of Brunswick have 
asserted this royal function; at least if 
has never been publicly announced, Rs 
was formerly the practice; but were his — 
present majesty to resume it, such faith 
_1§ yet put in the assertion of a king, that 
all the courtiers, and the great body of 
the ignorant multitude, would not hesi- 
tate to believe its infallibility. The last 
sovereizn who appears to have exercised 
this miraculous gift was Queen Anne. In 
the Royal Gazette of Mareh 12, 1712, 
appears the following public notice: _ 
“<It being her majesty’s royal intention to. 
touch publicly for the evil the 17th of this 
instant March, and so to continue for some 
time, it is her. majesty’s comamand, that 
tickets be delivered the day before at White- 
hall, and that all persons bring a certificate, 
‘signed by the minister aed church-wardens of 
their respective parishes, that they never 
_received the royal touch.” 
Wiseman, serjeant-surgeon to Charles 
IT. gives, in a most reputable work on 
surgery, a treatise on the king’s.evil, in 
which he speaks of the royal touch in the ~ 
following terms: “I have myself been 
a frequent eye-witness of many hundreds 
of cures performed by , Ifis majesty’s> 
touch alone, without the assistance of 
chirargery, apd those many of them such. 
as had tired out the endeavours of able 
chirurgeons before they came thither. — 
It were endless to relate what I myself 
have seen, and what I lave received acs 
knowledgments of by letter, not only 
from the several parts of this nation, mt 
alse 
