doubtedly made, and as full and circumstantial as the inquisitor chose to prescribe, and being published with the authority of office had their influence with mankind and were believed; nay, it is but fair to suppose that the fathers and doctors of the church themselves believed them, and were sincere in their endeavours to extirpate sorcery, thinking that they did God service.

When we read of people being thrown alive into the flames for playing a few juggling tricks, which now would not pass upon the vulgar at a country fair, and the devil himself brought in to father the performance, it is shocking to humanity and a violence to reason; but we shall cruelly err against both by ascribing all these acts to persecution, when ignorance and credulity are entitled to so great a share of them: the churchmen of those ages were not exempt from the errors and darkness of the time they lived in, and very many of them not only believed the sorceries of the heretics, but swallowed the miracles of the saints: the genius of the Catholic religion in this illuminated and liberal period is of a different complexion from what the nature of my subject has obliged me to display of the enlarged and truly Christian principles, which now prevail amongst the professors of that system of faith, the world abounds with examples, and I am persuaded, that if the tribunal of the Inquisition was put aside (a tribunal so directly adverse to the religion of Christ), the hateful tenet of intolerancy would soon be done away, and a spirit of meekness and mercy, more consentaneous to the principles of the present Catholics, would universally prevail.

PRIDE is never more offensive, than when it condescends to be civil; whereas vanity, whenever it forgets itself, naturally assumes good humour. Nothing was ever more agreeable than Vanessa t'other night, when I found her in a small circle over her fire-side, where a certain gentleman had taken the whole task of talking on himself, and left Vanessa nothing else to do, but to shew him just as much attention as served to make him believe she was listening, and left her at liberty to rest her own imagination in the mean time.

I found this gentleman at the close of a pathetic narrative he had been giving of some adventure, which he had met with in his travels, and which he wound up with saying-'I am afraid, ladies, this story has made you melancholy.' If he had said weary, he had been nearer to the truth: methought Vanessa once in her life forgot her usual politeness, when she answered him--Oh! no; not at all'—but she was thinking of something else, and the story I should guess had been very circumstantial: so that I heartily forgave her. The talking gentleman, however, was not disposed to take her word, but stuck to his opinion, and had so much consideration for the company, as to promise them another story, which should be altogether as diverting as the former one had been mournful. There was an effort in the countenance of Vanessa, which convinced me of her

good-humour; she strove to welcome this promise with a smile; but it was a smile that cost her some pains to produce, and if the talker had possessed but one grain of intuition, he must have discovered that all such promises cut up performance; and that no story will endure a preface. I felt at that moment all the awkward embarrassment of his situation, as if it had been my own; and it was a sensible relief to me, when Vanessa gave a little hitch to her chair, as if drawing nearer to the story-teller, and at the same time stooping forward, put herself into a listening attitude. She never appeared so amiable in my eyes, and I began to take heart-' What pains and trouble,' thought I, 'does this poor man take to make himself agreeable, when every struggle carries him farther from his point! And how little does he know what an easy thing it is to those, who have the secret of succeeding without any effort at all!'-I use almost the very words of a contemporary author, and I am obliged to him for them.

As for the story, which now followed, there is no occasion to repeat it; if it had made its entrance without a herald; if it had grown out of the conversation naturally, and not been grafted in against nature; and if it had been less prolix, or told with more point, the story had not been amiss; it was a good one in its own country, but it was lamed in its journey, and Vanessa did not seem exactly to know when it was finished, until the relater made a second apostrophe, hoping he had now repaired all former damages, and reinstated the ladies in their usual good spirits. Vanessa now found it necessary to say something, and well knowing, without doubt, that people like to be treated as if they had sensibility, although they have none, she passed a few compliments upon the story very neatly turned; when an elderly gentleman (who, as I after

ward found out, was father to the talking gentleman) observed to him, that as he had made us grave, and made us merry, nothing now remained but to make us wise-And who so fit for that purpose,' added he, 'as the lady of the house herself?' Vanessa very aptly replied, that she knew but one way to impose that belief on the company, and that was by keeping silence. And what is so edifying,' resumed he, as to keep silence? What is so good a lesson of wisdom, as to see one, who can talk so well, forbear to do it, until other tongues have run their course?'-I stole a glance at the talkative gentleman, and, to my utter surprise, he was so far from being sensible of the rebuff, that he was actually preparing for another onset.-'What remark upon you silence,' cried he, puts me in mind of an admirable story.''That may well be,' answered the old gentleman; but give me leave first to tell you a story, that may put you in mind of silence.'

6

'Jupiter and Apollo came down from Olympus upon a visit to King Midas: Mercury had been dispatched to apprize him of the guests he was to entertain, and to signify to him, that it was the pleasure of the gods to be received with no extraordinary honours, but to be considered only as travellers who came to pay a visit to his court, and take a view of his capital. On the day appointed, Jupiter, in the person of an elderly Athenian gentleman, and Apollo as his son, presented themselves in the great saloon of the palace: Midas, surrounded by his courtiers, and glittering in his richest robes, received the gods habited in this simple attire, and unattended. The injunctions of Mercury were neglected, for the feast was the most sumptuous that art and luxury could devise; and the gods were disgusted with the vanity of their host, and the profusion of his entertainment. When Midas had thus contrived to display the

wealth and splendour of his court to his celestial guests, his next study was, to impress them with an opinion of his talents and accomplishments: he discoursed to Jupiter, without ceasing, upon his maxims and rules of government; he treated him with innumerable anecdotes and events, calculated to set off his own wisdom, consequence, and good policy, and of every tale he made himself the hero. The courtiers kept silence through fear, the deities through contempt; no voice was heard but the voice of Midas. He had not the sense to discern the impropriety of his being an incessant talker, when he ought only to have been a respectful hearer; and so consummate was his vanity, that having possessed Jupiter with impressions, as he foolishly imagined, of his wisdom and science, he flattered himself nothing was wanting but to recommend himself to Apollo by a specimen of his accomplishments in music and poetry. A band of minstrels were summoned, who performed a kind of prelude on their harps, by way of flourish before the master-artist began, when Midas starting from his seat as if with sudden inspiration, seized his lyre and struck up a strain, which he accompanied with his voice, whilst his self-conceit inspired him to believe he could rival Apollo himself in harmony, and even provoke him to envy.

'As soon as Midas laid down his lyre, the gods rose up to depart; when instead of those applauses which he looked for, and expected as a tribute due to his art even from the immortals themselves, Jupiter, turning towards him with a frown, which brought into his countenance the inherent majesty of the thunderer, thus accosted him—" Had you entertained us, O Midas, in the manner I prescribed, and met the condescension of the gods with the modesty that becomes a mortal, we had left a blessing with our host, instead of a reproof: but when