of perjuries are supposed, by a very able calculator, to be annually committed in this kingdom.* (H)

In the definition of a tax, which has the full force of a moral obligation, it has been laid down, as its ultimate and most important conftituent, that it is a levy made for the PUBLIC GOOD. And it is the fpecial duty of the fupreme power to keep this facred end in view, in the exaction of every fubfidy. The confidence and veneration of the people would thus be fecured; and a respectful fubmiffion would be paid even to the errors of government, as unavoidable confequences of human frailty; and as only temporary grievances, which better information would redrefs. In the application alfo of the national funds, the like rigid attention to wisdom and rectitude fhould be uniformly maintained. How often has it been urged to me, fays M. Necker, can you refufe to ask the king for a thousand crowns, to relieve fuch a person whofe misfortunes are known to you. Will the royal exchequer be the poorer for it? Forget, I have replied, this royal exchequer, which you confider only as an accumulated mass of money, without having examined its fource: A thousand crowns are the amount of the land-tax of two villages; and I leave you to judge whether the perfon for whom you folicit has a juft claim to the labor and contributions of their inhabitants.

* Price on the American revolution, p. 82.

It is a violation (obferves the fame honeft financier, in another part of his work, with which I fhall now conclude)-It is a violation of the most facred of all depofits, to employ the facrifices of a whole nation in inconfiderate prodigalities, ufelefs expences, and undertakings foreign to the good

of the state.

N. B. The enlargement of this essay, bas occafioned fupernumerary pages, which the printer has diftinguished by crotchets. An Appendix, containing notes and illuftrations, is inferted at the end of the volume.

Of POPULAR ILLUSIONS, and particularly of MEDICAL DEMONOLOGY. BY JOHN FERRIAR, M. D.

The earth has bubbles, as the water has,

And these are of them.

SHAKESPEARE.

READ MAY 12, 1786.

TH

HERE are two claffes of readers, who will probably expect little entertainment from the subject of this essay; those who are not acquainted with it as a branch of literature, will think it an idle

tafk

behold and protect them, after death, though heightened in their powers, and changed in their mode of existence. In certain ftates of man, refpect and adoration are fimultaneous; the Egyptians worshipped different animals and vegetables; the Athenians confidered the posts before their houses as gods*; the Romans deified their military ftandards †, and erected a temple for their reception at every permanent station(A). Shakespeare touches this difpofition finely, when Caliban worships the perfon who first gives him a draught of wine;

I'll fhew thee ev'ry fertile inch o'the isle,

And I will kifs thy foot: I pri'thee be my god.

It is remarkable, that the propensity to ascribe the powers of animated to inanimate beings, is the foundation of poetry; and what betrays men, in one ftage of fociety, to the loweft abfurdity, becomes, in another, the fource of their moft elegant pleasure.

An attention to dreams and omens is one of the first acts of fuperftition, and evidently derived from the affociations already mentioned. Not only the civil magiftrates and military commanders, but philofophers, in the brightest periods of Greece and Rome, were enflaved by this obfervance. Pythagoras and Plato, fays Cicerot, to increase the certainty of dreams, direct certain forms and diet pre

* Plutarch in Alcibiad.

tom. IV.

+ Montfaucon L' Ant. Expl.

De Divinat, lib. II.

paratory

paratory to fleep. Socrates predicted, while in prifon, that he should die within three days, because he dreamt that a perfon repeated to him that verse of Homer, "on the third day thou fhalt arrive at the fertile Phthia." Ariftotle wrote exprefsly on this fpecies of Divination (B). Zéno, Cleanthes, Chryfippus, Babylonius Diogenes, Antipater and Pofidonius, are enumerated by Cicero, as writers on this fubject. That the aufpices were employed with a political defign there can be no doubt, and their utility was fully experienced in the affemblies of the people: they were likewife very serviceable in promoting difcipline in the armies. The attention of the ancients to omens, in their military expeditions, was minute and conftant, nor could any neglect of them be eafily forgiven. The lofs of the Roman fleet, under Claudius Pulcher, was generally attributed to his having drowned the holy chickens (c), and the death of Marcellus was imputed to his neglect of the omens which forbid his advancing against the enemy *. Instances of this kind occur in every page of ancient history, let us take one for all. When the Athenian fleet was just quitting the harbour, to attack the Corcyrians, the pilot happened to hear one of the rowers fneeze, by which he was fo much intimidated, that he ordered the fignal to be given for returning to their station, as if they had weighed anchor inauspiciously; and

*Cic. and Plutarch.

they

they would have returned to their anchorage, if the admiral, Timotheus, had not fuddenly exclaimed,

do

you wonder that of fo many thousands, one man fhould be troubled with a defluxion* ?

It is a ftriking circumftance in the character of Pompey, that while he was difputing the empire of the world with his great rival, he collected aufpices from all quarters †, confiding in their truth. It appears that the augurs knew how to make their predictions agreeable, for Cicero fays that every thing happened contrary to them; omnia fere contra ac dieta eveniffe (D).

We may indulge our curiofity in remarking, how nearly the most polifhed nations of antiquity, in thefe fuperftitions, approach the Indian tribes of North America. All the marches of the Indians are regulated by the dreams of the old warriors, who, under this pretence, often convey information gained by fpies to the young men but it must be observed that they only pay attention to dreamers of established character. They have their regular diviners, or conjurers alfo, who are at the fame time phyficians. When a difeafe proves mortal, the doctor is frequently in danger from the resentment of the patient's friends: from this rifk, the progrefs of refinement has happily exempted the phyficians of Europe. In every Indian village, the war-woman alfo is a kind of oracle; by dreams and prefages,

* Frontin. Strat. lib. II.

+ Cic de Divin. lib. II.

The