3mpanion. Cornu could no longer refift the voice of heaven, and accordingly carries his gueft home with him, and pays him down 10,000 crowns; with which the honeft Ventriloquift returns to Paris, and marries his miftrefs.--The catastrophe was fatal. The fecret was afterwards blown, and reached the ufarer's ears; who was fo much affected by the lofs of his money,and the mortifying railleries of his neighbours, that he took to his bed and died. Confidering the fuperftitious and credulous fpirit of the age when this piece of deceit is faid to have been practifed, the preceding relation appears by no means incredible. We very naturally recollect on this occafion the audiences given to a very bungling ghoft, in our own times, and in our own capital; where fome reputed found heads were faid to have been ftrangely unhinged by the clumfy manoeuvres of the dumb ghoft of Cocklane, who converfed only by fcratching and knocking. Had the faid ghoft been a finished Ventriloquift-and particularly, if in the folemn and ever memorable vifit made to the gloomy vault of Clerkenwell, Fanny had accofted her fagacious and inquifitive nocturnal vifitants with a speech from her coffin, couched in awful and ghoftly terms, the intellectual concuffion must have been complete and irrefiftable This at leaft is certain, that in the days of King James, or later still in New England, a man would have stood a fair chance of being hanged on even lefs fubftantial evidence. This laft mentioned trick of Louis Brabant, played off on the old ufurer, alone, is even exceeded by an innocent piece of waggery, not long ago practifed with fuccefs, by the Author's hero, M. St. Gille, on a whole community. Out of respect to the minifters of religion, the Author does not fpecify the fcene of this adventure; which however, he obferves, needs no particular authentication, as the whole affair is very well known at Paris. The following are the outlines of this modern hiftory, which may ferve as a proper companion, and as a kind of voucher, to the preceding. M. St. Gille returning home from a place whither his bufinefs had carried him, fought for fhelter from an approaching thunder storm, in a neigh bouring convent. Finding the whole community in mourning, he inquires the caufe, and is told that one of their body had died lately, who was the ornament and delight of the whole fociety. To pafs away the time, he walks into the church, attended by fome of the religious, who fhew him the tomb of their deceafed brother, and speaks feelingly of the fcanty honours they had bestowed on his memory. Suddenly a voice is heard, apparently proceeding front the roof of the quire, lamenting the fituation of the defunct in purgatory, and reproaching the brotherhood with their lukewarmnefs and want of zeal on his account. The friars, as foon as their aftonishment gave them power to fpeak, confult together and agree to acquaint the reft of the community with this fingular event, fo interefting to the whole fociety. M. St. Gille, who wished to carry on the joke ftill further, diffuades them from taking this ftep; telling them that they will be treated by their abfent brethren as a fet of fools and vifionaries. He recommends to them, however, the immediately calling the whole community into the church, where the ghoft of their departed brother may probably reiterate his complaints. Accordingly all the friars, novices, laybrothers, and even the domeftics of the convent are immediately fummoned and collected together. In a short time the voice from the roof renewed its lamentation and reproaches, and the whole convent fell on their faces, and owed a folemn reparation. As a firft ftep, they chaunted a De profundis in full choir: during the intervals of which which the ghoft occafionally expreffed the comfort he received from their pious exercifes and ejaculations on his behalf. When all was over, the Prior entered into a serious converfation with M. St. Gille, and, on the strength of what had juft paffed, fagaciously inveighed against the abfurd incredulity of our modern feeptics and pretended philofophers, on the article of ghofts or apparitions. M. St. Gille thought it now high time to difabufe the good fathers. This purpofe, however, he found it extremely difficult to effect, till he had prevailed upon them to return with him into the church, and there be witneffefs of the manner in which he had conducted this ludricous deception. In confequence of three memoirs prefented by the Author to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, in which he communicated to them the obfervations that he had collected on the fubject of Ventriloquifm in general, and thofe he had made on M. St. Gille in particular; that learned body deputed two of its members, M. de Fouchy, and Le Roi, to accompany him to St. Germain-en-Laye, in order to verify the facts, and to make their obfervations on the nature and caufes of this extraordinary faculty. In the courfe of this inquiry a very fingulár plan was laid and executed, to put M. St. Gille's powers of deception to the trial, by engaging him to exert them in the prefence of a large party, confifting of the Commiffaries of the Academy, and some perfons of the higheft quality, who were to dine in the open foreft near St. Germain-en-Laye on a particular day. All the members of this party were in the fecret, except a certain lady, here defigned by the title of the Countefs de B; who was pitched upon as a proper victim to M. St. Gille's delufive powers, as the knew nothing either of M. St. Gille, or of ventriloquifm; and poffibly, we fhould think, for another reafon, which the Abbe, through politenefs, fuppreffes, She had only been told, in general, that this party was formed in confequence of a report that an aerial spirit had lately established itself in the forest of St. Germain-en-Laye, and that a grand deputation from the Academy of Sciences were to pafs the day there to enquire into the reality of the fact. M. St. Gille, it is not to be doubted, was one of this felect party. Previcus to his joining the company in the foreft, he completely deceived even one of the commiffaries of the academy who was then walking from them, and whom he accidentally met. Juft as he was abreaft of him, prepared and guarded as the academician was against a deception of this kind, he verily believed that he heard his affociate M. de Fouchy, who was then with the company at above a 100 yards diftance, calling after him to return as expeditiously as poffible. His valet too after repeating to his mafter the purport of M. de Fouchy's fuppofed exclamation, turned about towards the company, and with the greateft fimplicity imaginable, bawled out as loud as he could in anfwer to him, yes Sir.' After this promifing beginning the party fat down to dinner; and the aerial fpirit, who had been previously furnished with proper anecdotes refpecting the company, foon began to addrefs the Countefs of B. particularly, in a voice that feemed to be in the air over their heads. Sometimes he fpoke to her from the tops of the trees around them, or from the furface of the ground at a pretty large diftance; and at other times feemed to fpeak from a confiderable depth under her feet. During the dinner the Genii appeared to be abfolutely inexhaustible in the gallantries he addreffed to her; though he fometimes faid civil things likewife to the Dutchefs of C. This kind of converfation lafted above two hours; and in fine the Countefs was firmly perfuaded, as the reft of the company affected to be, that this was the voice of an aerial fpirit: nor would fhe, Eee 2 25 as the Author affirms, have been undeceived, had not the rest of the company, by their ungarded behaviour, at length excited in her fome fufpicions. The little plot against her was then owned, and the acknowledged herfelf to be mortified only in being waked from fuch a delicious delufion Several other inftances of M. St. Gille's talent are here related. He is not, however, the only ventriloquift now in being. The Author, in the courfe of his enquiries on this fubject, was informed that the Baron de Mengen, a German nobleman, poffeffed this art in a very high degree. On a proper application lately made to him, that nobleman favoured the Author with a particular aafwer to all the queftions propofed to him, and a defe iption of the manner in which thefe acoustic deceptions are produced *. We do not comprehend the Baron's explanations; nor, if we did, fhould we chufe to communicate the principles of entriloquifm to the public. For though it is cerly very proper hould be univerfally known that fuch an art exA will readily occur to every one, reflects ever fo little upon the mattet, that it is not for the intereft of fociety that the attainment of this art fhould be taught or rendered eafy to thofe who might make it fubfervient to the purposes of knavery and deception. (To be concluded in our next.) SIR, T has often been pronounced as the theft of a true genius, that he not only is witty himself, but promotes it in others. Yet experience feems to explode this opinion from lord Ch-d, down to Ned Shuter. How many ahecdotes and bonmots are daily relat ed of Wilkes, Garrick, and Foote, that never occurred to them; and in general thefe imaginary ftrokes are as flat as they are fictitious. It is imagined, however, that the name of George Selwin or lady B. L. will give fanction to any effufion of fancy, however crude or infpid. This is like ftamping base metal with the impreffion of sterling coin; but the counterfeit is foon detored even by perfons of judgment. very fhallow 1# This makes me call to mind a converfation I over-heard fome time fince in a bookfeller's-thop (whilft I was rupning over a new pamphlet) between the had more the appearance of a vender mafter and an ill-looking fellow, who of cheese than of wit and humour. The dialogue ran nearly thus: Book. *The Baron has conftructed a little puppet or doll (the lower jaw of which he moves by a particular contrivance) with which he holds a spirited kind of dialogue. In the courfe of it, the little virago is fo impertinent, that at last he thrufts her into his pocket; from whence the feems, to thofe prefent, to grumble and complain of her hard treatment. Some time ago, the Baron, who was then at the Court of Bareith, being in company with the Prince de Deux-Ponts, and other noblemen amufed them with this scene. prefent, was fo firmly perfuaded that the Baron's doll was a real living animal, An Irifh officer, who was then previously taught by him to repeat these refponfes, that he watched his opportunity at the clofe of the dialogue, and fuddenly made an attempt to snatch it from his pocket. The little doll, as if in danger of being fuffocated, during the firuggle occafioned by this attempt, called out for help, and fcreamed incessantly from the pocket till the officer defified. She then became filent; and the Baron was obliged to take her out from thence, to convince him by handling her, that she was a mers, piece of wood. Book. I would have our collection of jefts to ftart in the Holidays, that's the best time for works of this fort. Author. You are quite right, Sir; it is in great forwardnefs. Book. Be fure they are all fpick and fpan new. Let Garrick's be very pointed, and Foote's fharp and fatirical. Author. To be fure, Sir, they must be in character. Book. What great Genius have we now remarkable for faying good things, befides lord Ch d? Author. What think you of Wilkes or George Sel-n?' Book. Very well thought of the witty Alderman muft certainly be brought into play-and if you were to throw a dash of politics into his jefts, it would be in character-fomething between city and St. James's wit. Author. I understand you perfectly, I fhall fix the meridian at Temple-bar. Book. Well, you'll drive it on as faft as poffible. To be fure you can write, at leaft, a hundred good things in a day-fo let me fee, that's feven hundred a-week; why then to a demonftration, we shall have the beft Jeftbook that ever was produced exactly in a fortnight. A whifper now took place; but from the found of fome metal, I believe the judicious bookfeller advanced for a hundred bons mots, one days labour under par. I do not know whether this Attic collection has yet appeared; but I conceive that thefe hot beds of wit muft neceffarily produce fruit infipid and flavourlefs. The fine effufions of fancy are not to be forced: they may be ftimulated by a defire to please, or an emulation to fhine; but they never can be lifted under any banner as mercenaries. Though I propofe occafionally addreffing a letter to you, I never fhall fit down with a determined refolution of eiking out a column or two to gratify my vanity at feeing myself in print. If a thought occurs to me that I judge Vacuum fine mente popellum. HE errors and vices of our lives TH do not arife fo much from the defects of our intellects, or our natural proneness to turpitude, as from betake an impartial retrofpect of our coning wanting in fuficient fortitude to duct. Where one fcene of diffipation fucceeds another, and our lives feem to be but one concatenation of libertinifm think or view ourselves in the mirror and debauchery, we have not time to of reafon. Our constitution fhocked, relief from pain and melancholy; and our fpirits jaded, we fly to a temporary the remedy ferves only to encrease the difeafe. The partiality of moft men to their ry occafion fo very glaring, that foonown opinions and conduct, is upon evewrong, they will fupport one error er than acknowldge themfelves in the with twenty, and then rather than fubmit, give way to paflion and abufe. their own way in their families, that Some men are fo accustomed to have when they come abroad in the world, they think they have ftill the fame prepeevish or uneafy when they discover rogative of infallibility, and are either their mistake. The beft method of treating a paffiopate man in converfa-, tion, is to fend him to Coventry to reafon with the wind. Nothing mortifies fo much a choleric man as to want an opponent after he has wrought himfelf up to fuch a pitch of argument as he fancies incontrovertible. Thefe, and fimilar follies, were we to take a view of them every morning about breakfaft, would foon appear in fo ridiculous a light, as to make us blush at having been guilty of them. As to exceffes in liquor, or other irregularities, they carry with them fo for cibly and if he can only oppofe one of the lift with an unit, let him refolve, if poffible, to make that day's catalogue a numerical blank. Know thyself, has long been pronounced one of the most useful adages in life; but the world in general, fo far from being defirous of an acquaintance with themselves, feem to lay the bafis of their actions and pursuits upon the erafement of any knowledge whatever with themfelves. Diffipation is their motto; the killing of time their fole study; and if they are fo unfortunante as to have only one hour in the four and twenty that is not filled up with frivolity, the neceffity they are under of thinking, kills them with the fpleen; if there is not a favourite lap-dog or monkey in the way, a parrot or a fquirrel, her ladyship is obliged to have recourfe to the cordial clofet, and with the vapours fhe banishes reflexion and health. I do not expect to find my catalogue of indifcretions in any polite lady's pocket-book or journal; for, to be ingenuous, I am afraid the whole diary of the year would fcarce contain the account of one day. The incorrigible I leave to themselves: thofe that have not the capacity of thinking, will never fubmit to the irkfome task of reflexion, A Bit of a Philofopher. Turn-again-Lane, February 6. SIR, M UCH has been related of the fagacity of the brutes of antiquity, and especially of that Lion that ufed to be seen in the streets of Rome, accompanying the pardoned run-away flave. I have been witness to equal gratitude, in a Lion of modern date.One day that I had the honour of din ing with the duchefs of Hamilton, at the fo-named palace of Hamilton, in Scotland, her Grace afked the com pany, after dinner, if they had any cu riofity to fee her Lion? She would at tend us, and order the keeper to feed him.--We gladly accepted the offer, and all went down to the court, to fee the Lion get his dinner. While we ftood at the cage, admiring the fiercenefs of his looks, and his terrible roar, each time we provoked him, with fticks, to fly at us, and abandon his prey, the porter cane and told the duchefs, that a ferjeant, with fome recruits, at the gate, begged leave to be admitted to fee the Lion. Her Grace, with great condefcenfion and good-nature, asked permiffion of the company to let the travellers come in, as they would then have the fatisfaction of feeing the animal fed.They were accordingly admitted, at the moment the Lion was growling over his prey. The ferjeant advanc ing to the called out, cage, Nero, "Nero, poor Nero, don't you know "me?" The animal inftantly turned his head and looked at him; then rofe ઃઃ The up, left his prey, and came, wagging his tail, to the fide of the cage. ferjeant then put his hand upon him, and patted him; telling us, at the fame time, that it was three years fince they had feen each other; but that he had had the care of the Lion on his paffage from Gibraltar, and he was happy to fee the poor beaft fhew fo much gratitude for his attention. The Lion, indeed, feemed to be perfectly pleafed; he went to and fro, rubbing himfelf against the place where his old benefactor ftood, and licked his band |