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JOHN CONRAD & CO. PHILADELPHIA; M. AND J. CONRAD & CO. BALTIMORE; RAPIN, CONRAD, & Co. WASHINGTON CITY; SOMERVELL & CONRAD, PETERSBURG; AND BONSAL, CONRAD, & CO. NORFOLK.

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ONE who is not strongly fortified in incredulity will sometimes be half persuaded to believe in the pretensions of those who discover future or distant events, by other means than the ordinary ones of sight and hearing. A story shall be related, so directly, consistently, and circumstantially, that one who has not formed an invincible opinion, a priori, that it cannot be true, can scarcely refuse his assent.

As our knowledge, indeed, comes to be enlarged, and a few of the mysteries of this kind are unravelled, we are more disposed to admit the possibility of explaining all similar mysteries by the same means. Here is a story, which was once altogether marvellous; a discovery is made by some soothsayer, which appears to us impossible but by supernatural means; yet the means, when afterwards explained, turn out to be natural and simple. Hence when other exploits of a conjurer are related, no less marvellous and inexplicable than the former one, we naturally say, The old story was as wonderful as this, and the riddle VOL. III. NO. XVII.

as inexplicable, yet it was afterwards solved, in a plain and satisfactory manner: why may not this be explicable in the same manner?

The sceptical part of the world are not aware of the prevalence of the belief in supernatural powers, among the middle and lower class of mankind. The popularity of some fortune tellers is, indeed, wonderful, and many have been enabled to acquire considerable affluence by this mysterious trade. Very grave, shrewd, and experienced people, many who have natural good sense, and minds enlarged by observation, are fully convinced of the existence of this preternatural sagacity. They are willing to receive any natural explanation of appearances; but when neither reflection nor experience can solve the mystery in this manner, they deem themselves bound, by all the laws of just reasoning, to acquiesce in the pretensions of the wizard. As they have not reasoned themselves, a priori, into the belief that all such pretensions are chimerical, they are, of course, compelled to admit that so

1

lution, when what we call a natural one is unattainable.

I shall not pretend to decide between the universal infidels and the qualified believers, or say to which party I should be inclined to adhere, were I obliged to take a part. Like Addison's creed, as delivered in one of his Spectators, respecting witchcraft, perhaps it would be safest to admit the possibility, in general, of such foresight or second sight, in a few individuals of the human race, but, at the same time, to refuse implicit credit to any particular case that may happen to reach us through the medium of any other evidence than that of our own proper senses. The little credit which is merited by almost all relations of this kind, is, I think, pretty forcibly illustrated in the two following cases:

A very grave and intelligent friend of mine lost a considerable sum of money. All his enquiries and reflections were unable to point out to him the way it had taken. After some hesitation, he resolved to apply to a gentleman of the same town, who had acquired, by some accident, the reputation of seeing further than other men. After stating all the circumstances of his loss to his friend, he was desired to go, at the dawn of the next day, to one of the churches of the place, which was named, and look under the broad stone, placed at the door of the church. There, he was told, he would find deposited the sum missing. He was charged to keep secret the result of this interview, till he had performed his expedition. He punctually obeyed the directions of the seer, and recovered his money. As the character and situation of the person applied to made it impossible for him to have been either the thief or the accomplice, the mystery, in this case, seems to have been as impenetrable as in almost any which can be imagined; and yet it was afterwards reduced to a very simple and obvious transaction, by the acknowledgment of the gentleman himself, on

my venturing to apply to him for some satisfaction on the subject. He told me, that by carefully weighing all the circumstances of the case, as related by my friend, his suspicions were fixed upon a certain person, to whom, immediately after the interview, he wrote an anonymous letter, requiring him to deposit the money he had stolen, in the place above-described, at a certain hour, previous to the time fixed for the other's visit. His conjecture happened to be right, and the money was deposited accordingly: so that this effort of preternatural wisdom resolves itself into a mere superiority. of penetration.

In the reign of Charles the second, a conjurer appeared in London, whose fame was quickly extended to the highest classes of society. His door was besieged, all day long, by coaches, so that many, after waiting a long time, were obliged to return home unsatisfied. Numberless were the instances reported of this man's miraculous insight into the private history and family intrigues of those classes of society, which could not be known, by any natural means, to one of the birth and education to be expected in a teller of fortunes. Anthony Hamilton's amusing history of the count de Grammont explains this mystery, and tells us that this conjurer was no other than the earl of Rochester, that shrewd, ingenious, but profligate nobleman, who assumed this disguise for the sake of more effectually sporting with the credulity of the age. Rochester, to an extensive and intimate acquaintance with the character and history of the individuals of the higher class, added great natural sagacity, and keen perception into the habits and foibles of mankind. We may easily conceive how much his communica tions must have astounded his visitants, and how many of them would transcend the utmost exertions of sagacity to explain in a natural manner.

L.

MARCIA THE VESTAL.

For the Literary Magazine.

MARCIA THE VESTAL.

A YOUNG lady being called upon for a Latin motto to a weddingring, gave....

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3. Admiralty

36

27,000

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5. Commissioners of navy 120 6. Dock yards

43,000

236

36,120

Felices nuptæ! moriar ni nubere dulce 4. Treasury of navy

est.

7. Sick and hurt office 26

which may be rendered into humble 8. Victualling office English thus....

3,600 68 34,280

This sum equally divided between

Let me die if I don't think it a fine this number would give to each

thing to be married.

A beautiful and most happy application. The history of this line, which every joyous bride and bridegroom may, with much propriety, adopt, is somewhat curious.

about 3461. In fact, however, the highest compensation is about 50001., and the lowest 301. a year.

Query. What are the number of persons employed, and the amount of money annually expended, in the A public offices of the United States? Roman vestal, though allowed many honours and privileges, was subjected to the most rigid obligations of chastity. A dreadful punishment awaited the breach of this duty.

Marcia was irreproachable in her deportment, and, for this and every other sanctity and excellence, was thought worthy of the chief place among the sisterhood; but, unfortunately, she made acquaintance with a youth recently married, whose conversation pleased her better than any thing else.

One day, meditating on her friend's engaging character, she carelessly, and, as it were, impromptu, wrote upon her tablets the above line. This fell into the hands of an envious sister, and formed the basis of an accusation which brought the ill-fated lady to the horrid punishment of being buried in a dungeon, and starved to death.

For the Literary Magazine.

BRITISH PUBLIC OFFICES.

THE number of individuals employed, and the whole amount of the emoluments accruing in some

For the Literary Magazine.

RIDDLES.

A RIDDLE is the description of a thing by some property which, though strictly its own, is apt to escape a brief or superficial observation. When it is discovered, we feel a pleasure in the proof it affords us of our own sagacity, and are struck with agreeable surprise, in perceiving the existence of a quality or relation before unsuspected. In this point of view; a riddle is certainly undeserving of all that contempt which it is the fashion to bestow upon it. There are many persons of excellent understanding and extensive knowledge, who could not forgive themselves for bestowing a single thought on the solution of a riddle.

There are two kinds of riddles ; one of which relates to what we may call the historical or physical properties of things, and the other which depends for its detection or solution on calculation only. The latter sort of riddles appear never to have awakened the contempt of mathematicians. On the contrary,

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