shows that the principles of that branch of mathematics are strictly geometrical. During the whole of his life he kept up a frequent correspondence with the philosophers and scholars of Europe, particularly with Sir Isaac Newton, with Linnæus, with the younger Gronovius, Drs. Potterfield and Whytte, of Edinburgh, Dr. Fothergill, and the celebrated Earl of Macclesfield, who was equally distinguished as a lawyer and a mathematician, the whole of which valuable correspondence is still in the possession of his family.

He also maintained an uninterrupted correspondence with Dr. Franklin, while the latter was engaged in his electrical experiments; and in this series of letters the whole train of thought by which he was led to those discoveries is from time to time communicated to Dr. Colden. A great body of manuscripts in the possession of his grandson, on various points of mathematical, botanical, classical, metaphysical, and theological learning, in addition to the works published during his life, afford ample proof of the extent and variety of his knowledge, and the strength, the acuteness, and the versatility of his intellect.

With all this propensity to abstract speculation, he was remarkable for his habits of dexterity in business, and attention to the affairs of ordinary life.

A mind thus powerful and active could not have failed to produce great effect on the character of that society in which he moved; and we doubtless now enjoy many beneficial, although remote effects of his labours, without being always able to trace them to their true source.

V.

313

SPIRIT OF MAGAZINES.

Account of a Familiar Spirit, who visited and conversed with the Author in a manner equally new and forcible, showing the Carnivorous Duties of all Rational Beings, and the true end of Philosophy.

[From the Reflector.]

CERTAINLY there is no possible speculation from which the understanding may not reap some advantage. When people deny the utility of certain obscure branches of knowledge, they deny it, not from the use, but from the abuse, of those branches; for knowledge is infinitely various; some of it is for practice, some for communication, some for avoidance; and it is as well to be truly acquainted with trifles, in order that you may really know them for such. The two rocks upon which inquiry is apt to split, are superficiality and superstition-extremes equally hurtful to knowledge from the seductive confidence into which they draw unwary minds. But real knowledge on any subject is real utility: it is only for want of knowing, that we do not make the proper application of knowledge. Chesterfield, for instance, is said to have understood the graces properly;-nothing can be more unfounded; he could talk about them a great deal, and could practise a great many, but in not properly understanding their nature and uses, he did not perceive they were trifles ;and thus he split upon the superficial rock. Cardan, on the other hand, had a great turn for abstruse speculation, and was thought to be the profoundest man of his time; but his fancy and bad nerves uniting, drove him into all sorts of fantastic inquiries: he applied his knowledge to the nonentities of secret magic, forgetting that the proper secret for his discovery was that of social utility and an even mind;-and thus he split upon the superstitious rock.

But even those magnanimous sciences, so well denominated the occult, would never have been abused as they have, had not their greatest professors been the last men who understood them properly. The emptiness of their knowledge might have been disCovered from the noise they made about it, and the uselessness it exhibited. They studied these sciences just as pedants study books-with much learning and no wisdom; and whatever the Cabalists may say to the contrary, I will venture to affirm that the Great Secret was understood neither by Peregrinus, ner Gers Vol. IV. New Series.

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nelius Agrippa, nor Celsus, nor Jamblicus, nor Porphyry, nor Don Calmet, nor Raymond Lully, nor even the divine AureolusTheophrastus-Bombastus-Paracelsus, though he lived six months, upon the strength of his knowledge, without eating and drinking: -a mighty secret truly, when every body may enjoy it as long as he pleases by writing for the booksellers! When the Rosicrucians tell us that we have only to anoint our eyes with a certain collyrium in order to see all the people of the air-that we have only to pronounce certain words in order to put to flight the powers of darkness-and that we have only to take a small dose of the quintessence of sunshine in order to dispense with the butcher and baker-they tell us, no doubt, things as easy as they are delightful; but in hunting after these supernatural powers, they lost sight of that natural and useful wisdom which ought to have been the result of their studies: the world has not been a jot the better for all the Rosicrucians that have astonished it, and nothing can show their unphilosophical feelings in a stronger light than the well-known anecdote of their founder, who having rediscovered, according to his disciples, the perpetual lamps of the ancients, and wishing to enjoy the fame, but not to impart the advantages of his discovery, ordered one to be placed in his tomb in such a manner, that the moment any curious person approached it, the light should be dashed out by an automaton. The great predecessors of these gentlemen in the Cabala seem in like manner to have mistaken the end of their researches. Apollonius, we are told, was more than mortal; and Porphyry and others, by way of renouncing superstition, endeavoured to oppose his miracles to those of Jesus; but Apollonius turned his divinity to little account, if he did no better than raise a girl to life by his skill in onomancy, and ride upon a dart from Athens to Thessaly. Pythagoras, also, was more than mortal; and certainly his Golden Verses are worthy of a wise man, if not of a great poet; but what did he mean by having a golden thigh? It must have been very ugly, not to mention uncomfortable. Nay, say the Cabalists, he had it as a proof of his divine wisdom. It is from this strange precedent, perhaps, that every wealthy fool produces his gold as a proof of wisdom. But Solon settled that matter with Croesus.

These are the abuses of the Cabala-of the Great Secret-of all that knowledge, in short, which goes under the name of occult philosophy, and guides us to the depth of wisdom. Those who have talked so much about it have gone but a little way down; their heads were too giddy for the descent. But doubtless there have been many great men, who have felt their way properly, and turned it to excellent account. The Neapolitans to this day insist that Virgil was a great magician, and I believe there are few of us who will be disposed to deny his skill in one great

branch of occult science, that of magical numbers. Of Zoroaster, and the Thrice-Great Hermes, we know as little as we do of Minos and Cadmus; but all four, according to the Rosicrucians, were masters of the hidden philosophy, and I believe we shall not much dispute the matter when we recollect what they did for their respective countries. Confucius was undoubtedly a great adept it is true, he always deprecated any suspicion of preternatural knowledge, but that he was master of the Great Secret, one single specimen of his apophthegms will prove, in which he exclaims, "Heaven has given me virtue, man cannot hurt me." It is quite as clear, that Æsop and Pilpay, whom our learned men distinguish or confound, just as it suits the display of their learning, had the true knowledge of the language of birds and beasts: they not only knew it, but they knew it to some purpose. Monsieur, the Count de Gabalis, may have had the power of invisibility, a very common virtue with such sages; and the egregious Mr. Blake, who wages such war with Titian and Corregio, both in his writings and paintings, may tell us that he is inspired by certain spirits to alter the human figure ;-but to be out of sight can as little benefit mankind as to be out of nature. If you want an instance of a true Cabalist-one who turned his knowledge of the spiritual world to proper account--look at the divine Socrates, whose familiar spirit taught him to utter sayings so witty and so wise-so true and so useful. Look at Numa Pompilius, who received such wise institutes from the nymph Ægeria. Look at our own Bickerstaff, the Tattler, who made such excellent use of his spirit Pacolet for the detection of human conduct. It signifies nothing to the main point, of what class of spirits the familiar of the Greek philosopher may have been;-it signifies nothing, whether the Egeria of Numa was the good genius of Noah's wife, according to William Postel, or the daughter of Noah's wife and Oromasis, Prince of the Salamanders, according to the Count de Gabalis:-it signifies nothing, whether the Genius Pacolet belonged solely to our illustrious Bickerstaff, or whether he is the same being who makes such a figure with his wooden horse in the renowned history of Valentine and Orson. The genealogies and other trifling questions of the world of spirits are very properly left to those pedants in the Cabala, who see no farther than its surface. While they are examining the phial, they let the essence evaporate. While they are counting the trappings of wisdom, the fair spirit indignantly leaves the toys in their hands, and departs to more substantial admirers.

I find I have been making a long preface to my story, but what I have advanced against the abuses of philosophy will make no unprofitable introduction to the grave business of this paper, especially when I do not hesitate to declare to the reader, even in

this freethinking age, that I am no small adept in the uses of the occult philosophy, as I shall thoroughly make manifest. Be it known, then, that I am sometimes favoured with the visits of a nocturnal spirit, from whom I receive the most excellent lessons of wisdom. His appearance is not highly prepossessing, and the weight of his manner of teaching, joined to the season he chooses for that purpose, has in it something not a little tremendous; but the end of his instruction is the enjoyment of virtue, and as he is conscious of the alarming nature of his aspect, he takes leave of the initiated the moment they reduce his theory to practice. It is true, there are a number of foolish persons living in and about this metropolis, who, instead of being grateful for his friendly of fices, have affected to disdain them in the hope of tiring him out, and thus getting rid of his disagreeable presence; but they could not have taken a worse method, for his benevolence is as unwearied as his lessons and appearances are formidable, and these unphilosophic scorners are only punished every night of their lives in consequence. If any curious person wishes to see him, the ceremony of summoning him to appear is very simple, though it varies according to the aspirant's immediate state of blood. With some, nothing more is required than the mastication of a few unripe plums, or a cucumber, just before midnight; others must take a certain portion of that part of a calf which is used for what are vulgarly called veal cutlets: others, again, find the necessary charm in an omelet or an olio. For my part, I am so well acquainted with the different ceremonies, that, without any preparation, I have only to lie in a particular posture, and the spirit is sure to make its appearance. The figures under which it presents itself are various, but it generally takes its position upon the breast in a shape altogether indescribable, and is accompanied with circumstances of alarm and obscurity, not a little resembling those which the philosophers underwent on their initiation into the Eleusinian and other mysteries. The first sensations you experience are those of a great oppression and inability to move; these you endeavour to resist, but after an instant resign yourself to their control, or rather flatter yourself you will do so, for the sensation becomes so painful, that in a moment you struggle into another effort, and if in this effort you happen to move yourself and cry out, the spirit is sure to be gone, for it detests a noise as heartily as a monk of La Trappe, a traveller in the Alps, or a thief. Could an intemperate person in this situation be but philosopher enough to give himself up to the spirit's influence for a few minutes, he would see his visitant to great advantage, and gather as much knowledge at once as would serve him instead of a thousand short visits, and make him a good liver for months to

come.