only taking care that there is a little hole at the mouth of each. Put in the mouth of one a few grains of bruifed gunpowder, and a little bit of phofphorus in the mouth of the other; taking care that thefe preparations are made before hand.

Then take a lighted wax candle and prefent it to the mouth of the figure with the gunpowder, which taking fire will put the candle out: then prefent your candle, having the fnuff ftill hot, to the other figure; it will light again immediately, by means of the phospho

rus.

You may propofe the fame effect to be produced by two figures drawn on a wall with a pencil or coal, by applying, with a little tarch or wafer, a few grains of bruifed gunpowder to the mouth of one, and a bit of phofphorus

to the mouth of the other.

A curious Secret to make a Card pafs

from one Hand into the other. Performed by the celebrated Mr. Lane.

TAKE two deuces, the one of fpades, the other of hearts; then put on that of fpades the marts of buite, and on that of hear, thofe of which you will do caily, by plu card of cach colow, which you cut out with dexterity, in order that the mark may be very neck; then rub Heldy on the back of the iples and hearts that you have cut, a liul fog, or very white pomatum; then put the back of hearts on the ace of spades, and the mark of fpades on the ace of hearts; taking care to cover them quite hermetically, and to make all your preparations before you begin your experi

ments.

Divide your pack of cards in two parcels, and under each parcel you mat put one of your two aces thus prepared; afterwards, take with your right hand the parcel under which is the ace of hearts, and with your left that where the ace of spades.

83

You will then fhew to the company that the ace of hearts is on the right hand, and the ace of fpades on the left; when every body is convinced of it, you are to fay, Ladies and gentlemen, I am going to command the ace of hearts, which is in my right hand, to pafs to my left, and the ace of spades to take its place. You may even propose to have both your arms tied, to prevent their joining and communicating.

All the fecret confifts only in making a movement and ftamping of your foot, when you give your command; during this movement and ftamping of your foot, you must flip with dexterity your little finger on each of the marks in order to rub off and make the marks of fpades and hearts, that were sticking on the two cards by the means explained before, fall, without any body perceiv ing it; then you will fhew to the company that the cards have obeyed your command, by paffing from the left to the right, and from the right to the left, without

ing.

your

hands communicat.

This trick, done with dexterity and fubtilty, will appear very fingular, although it is very fimple.

CURIOUS QUESTIONS ON CARDS AND

LOTTERIES.

Castione! from curla, Page 56.

QUESTION 6.

Die be required to find the proba bility of drowing all the diamonds fr

In the folution of queftions of this nature where there is but one parcel or fet of things concerned, it is evident that the number of them continually decreafe by one at each drawing, and are taken to as many terins as there are number of drawings, and then the repc&ive chances for the happening and failing of the foveral events being maltiplied together, produce the probability

I a

of all the events happening: we fhall we fhall therefore for the future place the number of chances for the happening of an event above a line, and thofe against it below, when it must be obferved to multiply all the numbers found above the line into each other, and likewise all those below into each other, and the products will fhew the probability of all the events happening: Thus in the prefent queftion the number of events or drawings are 4, and it is required to draw all the diamonds out of the heap of 10 cards at 4 drawings; now the probability of drawing a diamond the first time was found to be as 10 to 4, which I express thus ; the probability of drawing a diamond the fecond time was found to be as 9 to 3, which I exprefs thus ; if two diamonds be fo drawn, we fhall have 8 cards left, 2 of which are diamonds, and the probability of drawing a diamond the next time will be as 8 to 2, or; if this be effected, we fhall have 7 cards left, 1 of which is a diamond, therefore the probability of taking a diamond the fourth time will be as 7 to 1, expreffed thus, now collecting all thefe probabilities together, we have 78 79 then multiplying the lower numbers together, produce 5040, and multiplying the upper ones together, make 24, fo the required probability is as 5040 to 24, or exactly as 210 to 1.

QUESTION 7.

4 3 3 I.

(

Let there be 10 cards taken as before, viz. 6 clubs and 4 diamonds, but let them be divided into two heaps, each containing 3 clubs and 2 diamonds; required the probability of drawing a diamond from each heap?

Solution. The probability of taking a diamond from one heap will be as 5 to 2; now as the drawing or not draw. ing of a diamond from one heap does not affect the drawing one from the other, therefore the probability of taking a diamond from the other heap will be alfo as 5 to 2, and the probability of

both thefe events happening will be thus expreffed, now the product of 5 by 5 is 25, and that of 2 by 2 is 4, fo the probability is as 25 to 4.

QUESTION 8.

Suppofe there is a lottery in which are 100 tickets, containing 24 capital prizes, what is the probability that, in taking three tickets, I fhall have 3 of thofe prizes?

Solution. As the queftion requires three of those particular prizes, it is no matter what other prizes are in the lottery befides thefe principal ones; therefore, all the reft of the tickets may be efteemed as blanks, and the probability of having one of those prizes will be as 100 to 24, which is the fame as 25 to 6; if one of thofe prizes be fo drawn, the probability of having another of them will be as 99 to 23, and that of having a third as 98 to 22; now collecting all thefe probabilities together, we have 333, and multiplying the lower numbers together, produces 242550, and the upper ones 3036, fo the required probability is as 242550 to 3036, or about 80 to 1.

6

25

23 22

QUESTION 9.

Suppofe there is a heap of 12 cards, containing & clubs and 4 diamonds, required the probability that in drawing 2 of them, one of the two shall be a diamond?

The folution of this queftion differs from thofe of the foregoing ones, becaufe here we only require one of the feveral things drawn to answer the conditions of the queftion, and the readieft way to difcover this, will be to find the probability of the contrary happening, that is, to find the probability of drawing two clubs fucceffively, and subtracting that from the whole number of chances for the happening and failing of the event, the remainder will be the number of chances for drawing one diamond at least. Thus the probability

of

8 7

of drawing 2 clubs fucceffively will be 2, the product of 12 by 11 being 132, and that of 8 by 7, 56; fo we have 56 chances for drawing 2 clubs fucceffively, and 132 against it; there fore, fubtracting 56 from 132, there remains 76, the number of chances for drawing one diamond, and the required probability as 132 to 76, or as

33 to 19.

QUESTION 10..

Let there be a lottery of 500 tickets, in which there are 4 particular prizes, what is the probability that in taking 3 tickets I fhall have one of these prizes ?

85

Solution. Firft find the probability of the three tickets being all blanks thus: confider all the tickets, except the 4 particular oncs, to be blanks, whofe number will be 496, then the probability of thefe three tickets being all blanks, will be 496 495 494 4994; the product of the upper numbers is 121286880; and that of the lower ones 124251000, their difference 2,964,1 20, is the number of chances for drawing one prize, and the probability will be as 124,251,000 to 2,964,120, or nearly as 42 to 1.

[To be continued.]

The fingular life and fate of Count Caglioftro, we apprehend may render fome account of the philofophical fyftem of this illuminated Society an interesting article in our Magazine.

IT is well known that this man was the friend and affociate of a German Count, who was a member of the Society of Rofycrucians, of whofe tenets the following account is felected from the beft authorities.

The Rofycrucians, or brothers of the Rofycrofs, is a name a Turned by a fect or cabal of hermetic philofophers, who arofe, as it has been faid, or at leaft became first taken notice of in Germany, in the beginning of the fourteenth century.

They bound themselves together by a folemn fecret, which they fwore inviolably to preferve; and obliged themfelves, at their admiffion into the order, to a ftrict obfervance of certain established

rules.

They pretended to know all sciences, and affected to be mafters of abundance of important fecrets; and, among others, that of the Philofopher's Stone; all which they affirmed to have received by tradition from the ancient Egyptians, Chaldeans, the Magi, and Gymnofophifts.

Their chief was a German gentleman, called Chriftian Rofencruz, educated in a monaftery, where he learnt the languages. About the clofe of the fourteenth century, he went to the Holy Land, where, falling fick at Damafcus, he confulted the Arabs, and other Eaftern philofophers, by whom he was fuppofed to be initiated into this wonderful art. At his return into Germany, he formed a fociety, to whom he communicated the fecrets he had brought with him out of the Eaft, and finally died in 1484. The whole of this account is generally rejected as fabulous.

But the denomination evidently appears to be derived from the fcience of Chemistry. It is not compounded, fays Marsheim, as many imagine, of the two words, rofa and crux, which fignify Rose and Crofs, but of the latter of thefe words, and the Latin word, Ros, which fignifies Dew. Of all natural bodies, dew was deemed the most powerful diffolvent of gold; and the crois, in the chemical language, is equivalent to light; because the figure of a crofs exhibits, at the fame time, the three letters of which the word lux, or light, is compounded. Now, lux is called, by their fect, the feed, or menftruum of the red dragon, or, in other words, that grofs and corporal light,

which,

which, when properly digefted, and modified, produces gold. Hence it follows, if this etymology be admitted, that a Rofycrucian Philofopher is one, who, by the intervention and affiftance of the dew, feeks for light, or, in other words, the fubitance called the Philofopher's Stone.

The true meaning and energy of this denomination did not efcape the penetration and fagacity of Gaffendi, as appears by his Examen Philofophiæ Fluddianæ, fect. 15. tom. iii. p. 261; and it was more fully explained by Renaudot, in his Conferences Publiques, tom. iv. p. 87.

They have been diftinguished by feveral names, accommodated to the feveral branches of their doctrine.

Because they pretend to portrait the period of human life, by means of certain noftrums, and even to reftore youth, they were called, Immortales.

As they pretended to know all things, they have been called, Illuminati. The fociety forming this branch of the fect, is now held at Avignon; and the two brothers, who a few weeks ago defired the French King to put himself at the head of his army, at the command, as they faid, of certain fpirits, and have been very properly taken into cuftody for their temerity, were a brace of its members.

The Rofycrucians, because they have made no appearance for feveral years, but have kept together, incognito, have been called, The Invifible Brothers.

Their fociety is frequently figned by the letters, F. R. C. which fome interpret, fratres, roris cocti; it being pretended, that the matter of the Philofopher's Stone is dew, concocted, exalted, &c.

Some, who are no friends to FreeMafonry, make the prefent flourishing Society of Free-Mafons a branch of Rofycrucians; or, rather, the Rofycrucians themselves, under a new name, or relation, viz. as retainers to building.

And it is certain, there are fome FreeMatons who have all the characters of Rofy crucians; but how the era and ori

1

ginal of Mafonry, as traced by Mr. Anderfon, and that of Rofycrucianifm, as fixed from Naudæus, who has written exprefsly on the fubject, confift, we leave others to judge.

Notwithstanding the pretended antiquity of Rofycrucians, it is probable, that the Alchemifts, Paracelifts, or FirePhilofophers, who fpread themfelves through all Europe, at the clofe of the fixteenth century, affumed, about this period, the ambiguous title of Rofycrucian Brethren, which commanded, at firft, fome cegree of refpect, as it seemed to be borrowed from the arms of Luther, which were, a Crofs placed upon a Rose.

At the head of thefe characters was Robert Fludd, an English physician, Jacob Behmen, and Michael Mayer. The common principles, which ferve as a kind of centre of union to the Rofycrucian Society, are the following. They all maintain, that the diffolution of bodies, by the power of fire, is the only way by which men can arrive at true wisdom, and come to difcern the first principles of things. They all acknowledge a certain analogy and harmony between the powers of Nature and the doctrines of Religion, and believe that the Deity governs the Kingdom of Grace by the fame laws with which he rules the Kingdom of Nature; and hence they are led to ufe chemical denominations to exprefs the truths of religion. They all hold, that there is a fort of divine energy, or foul, diffufed through the frame of the universe, which fome call the Archeus; others, the Univerfal Spirit, and which others mention under different appellations. They all talk in the most fuperfluous manner of what they call the fignatures of things; of the power of the ftars over all corporeal beings, and their particular influence upon the human race, of the efficacy of magic, and the various ranks and orders of demons. In fine, they all agree, in throwing out the moft crude, incomprehenfible notions, and ideas, in the moft obfcure, quaint, and unufual expreflions.

DEDALUS, OR

An hiftorical Effay on the various Attempts, Improvements, and Kinds of Automatons, or felf-moving Machines; with a Digreffion on the P ffibility and great Usefulness of improving the Art of Flying

AMONGST the variety of artificial motions, thofe are the most curious in which, by the fecret application of fome continued ftrength, there is a regular and lafting motion. Thefe felfmovers are only to be understood fuch that receive their motion from fomething that belongs to their frame itself, as clocks and watches, by weights, fprings, and the like.

Such engines as receive a regular and lafting motion from fomething belonging to their frame, whether weights or fprings, are ufually diftinguifhed into fixed and ftationary, moveable and

tranfient.

The fixed are fuch as move only according to their whole frame, in which, though each wheel hath a diftinct rotation, yet the whole frame remains unmoved: of this fort principally are clocks and watches in ordinary ufe; the mechanical contrivance, being fo well known, may be paffed over here; but fuch as with to investigate this fort of mechanism, we will refer to De: ham's Artificial Clockmaker, revived by Graham. The other kind we now inquire after, are thofe that are moveable, which may be diftinguished and defcribed as fuch engines as move not only according to their feveral parts, but alfo according to their whole frames. Thefe are again denominated into two forts, viz. gradiant and volant.

The gradiant, or ambulatory, are fuch as require fome bafis or bottom to uphold them in their motions: fuch were thofe curious inventions commonly attributed to DEDALUS. His felf-moving ftatues, which, unless detained by a force fuperior to their own internal motive power, would of courfe

move away to the given extent of their internal impulse.

Various have been the means attempted to produce fuch mechanical motions. Ariftotle, in his Book on the Soul, affirms that this was performed by wheels, fprings, and weights. Of this kind likewife were Vulcan's Tripods celebrated by Homer, that were made to move up and down the house and fight one another. He might as well have contrived them into journeymen blackfiniths, each of which, with a hammer in his hand, fhould have worked at the forge.

But amongst thefe fighting images, that in Cardan deferves a mention, which, holding in its hand a golden apple beautified with diamonds and other jewels, if any man offered to take it, the ftatue immediately fhot him to death; the touching of this artificial fruit moving fome fecret fprings, which difcharged feveral fhort arrows from concealed bows lodged within the body of the image. By fuch treachery, according to Boethius, was a Lydian king put to death.

Amongst thefe inventions may be ranked the iron fpider mentioned by a Latin author as very remarkable, which being but of an ordinary bigness, befides the outward militude, yet had the fame kind of motions with a living fpider, and crept about as if it had been alive. It must be very curious to contrive, with the neceffary exactness and precifion, the parts requifite for fuch a motion in fo fmall a frame. There have been alfo other motions contrived from magnetical qualities, which appeared very wonderful to those who did not understand the fecret reafon of their apparent motion.

Thus, according to Kircher, in his Arte Magnetica; get a glafs fphere, fill it with fuch liquors as may be clear of the fame colour, but immixable,

fuch