which were given with such vigor, that his companions, who were assembled round the watch-fire, hastened towards him, to see who was buffeting him so lustily. Having disregarded this first attack, the rappings were repeated with a uoise and force that compelled him to rise; and as no hand could be seen, all present felt uneasy, and assured him that this must be a spiritual warning of some coming evil. The good sieur adds, "that not liking to have it said that he had received communications from any evil spirit, he kept the thing secret until the news that his younger brother had been killed that same night, made him feel that the affair could no longer be concealed." Animal magnetism, as is well known, was practiced by the priesthood of Egypt and Greece from the remotest antiquity; and where the patients, who sought alleviation from some bodily ailment, or who desired to receive directions from the divinity whom they invoked, were found to resist the means employed to throw them into a lethargic sleep, certain of the priests, known as oneiropoleto, or sellers of dreams, slept for them within the precincts of the temple, and communicated to them the instructions they had received in their dreams from the divinity. The magnetic sleep was induced, we are told, by frictions, the imposition of hands, or by making the patients look fixedly at some object suspended from a height, or on a mirror floating on the surface of a fountain. St. Augustine describes a priest of his own church and time who had the faculty of depriving himself entirely of sensibility, appearing as if he were dead, and feeling neither blows, pricks, nor burns, as long as he continued in this lethargic state. According to the testimony of the bishop, this Christian priest was in the habit of inducing these phenomena in his own person whenever he was urged to exhibit his extraordinary powers; acting in this respect precisely as the oneiropolete of the ancients had done before him, and as our own mesmerized subjects do at the present day. He answered the questions put to him, and fell into a state of ecstatic somnambulism, of which he remembered nothing when he recovered his ordinary sensibility to outward impressions. Several ancient writers record instances of what we should now consider as cases of clairvoyance; and there can be no doubt from the reports that have come down to us of the oracle at Delphos, that the Pythis spoke under the influence of mag. netic agency. St. Justin, in speaking of the sibyls, says: "These women often gave utterance to grand and noble truths, but when the instinct which had guided them grew dormant, they no longer retained any recollection of the words they had spoken." When we descend from the domain of spiritualism to the simple matters of everyday life, we find that the ancients were in the enjoyment of numerous luxuries and comforts which we commonly regard as the recent fruits of our own advanced civilization. Thus, for instance, macadamized roads, in all save the name, were known in the Roman dominions two hundred years before the Christian era, and were not merely limited to the vicinity of the capital, but were laid down in every province that succumbed to the valor of the republican arms. At an equally early age, the Roman senate, among various other decrees relating to the order and discipline to be observed in the city, enacted that men should give place to women in the streets, and leave them the unmolested use of the smooth line of pavement which every house-owner had to maintain in good condition in front of his own residence. Colossal sign-boards announced to the passers-by the business followed in the houses; while in the time of Plautus, notices of lost and found objects were displayed on placards written in letters a cubit long; and gladiatorial games, races, shows, and theatrical exhibitions were made public by huge boards displaying colored representations of some of the most striking scenes or sights to be exhibited. The walls, doors, and palings, were covered with these rude advertisements, which seem generally to have been drawn in some bright color on a black or red ground. Although the Romans, like other ancient nations, were ignorant of printing as applied to the multiplication of books, they were familiar with the use of printing type, which their potters used for stamping names on their vases; and we are told that the Emperor Justinian, when he wished to append his signature to a public document, had recourse to a small wooden tablet, on which the letters of his name were cut, which he traced on the paper by following with the point of his style or pen the various contours of the carving. But perhaps the strangest indication of We are apt to imagine that our own is the fact, that most of our assumed dis- par excellence the age of humbug and adcoveries and innovations are mere réhabi-vertisement, but even in these respects litations, to use a French word, of preëx- we must hide our diminished heads, and isting things, is supplied by the suggestion admit that we are only following in the which is ascribed to Plato for "the estab- steps of past generations. The Chinese lishment of agencies for marriage, by practice, as their forefathers did before means of which the qualities of each can- them, the puffing system in all its modifididate for matrimony might be made cations. The doctors in China apply the known, and men thus have a better art with great pertinacity, and the sufferchance of procuring wives suited to their ing invalid is invited to enter the dwellvarious characters." This idea seems to ing of one of the medical fraternity by have been lost for ages, but not wholly, seeing suspended above the door a white for it revived in great force about a cen- or black sign-board, engraved with golden tury ago, when some ingenious German, or brightly colored letters, and setting either from the depths of his own con- forth that within this Temple of Repose, sciousness, or from a careful study of Pla- or Garden of Delight, or some such title, to's writings, established at Hamburg an dwells "the curer of all maladies, as may office for the transaction of matrimonial be proved by an inspection of the bjan, or affairs, in which advertisements for hus- memorial slate," on which are inscribed bands and wives were always to be seen. the names of the patients, and the disThere was not the slightest mystery or eases which the wonderful man has cured. reserve assumed; and there is great These bjans, are transmitted as heir-looms frankness displayed both by the ladies and from father to son; and where no honor gentlemen who took part in these nego- of this kind exists in a family, it is said tiations, for we are informed by one ad- that they are occasionally bought, or fabvertiser that "she is fifty-nine years of ricated to suit special cases. The preage, and having buried her fourth hus- sentation of a bjan is made as public as band within the previous three weeks, possible, the giver and the recipient being is anxious to meet with a good-looking equally anxious, it would appear, to prohealthy young man of twenty-six, as suc- claim the fact. Placards posted at the cessor to her lamented partners. He corners of the neighboring streets anneed be under no trouble or care about nounce its expected arrival, which is ushmoney-matters, as she has plenty for ered in with music and dancing; the both, and will leave him her universal bjan being carried on these occasions in a legatee." Another announces that he is sedan chair, attended by the giver and possessed of independent means, having his special friends and retainers. The upwards of ten thousand rix-dollars, and same system of puffing seems to be carried would not object to marry a widow who through every profession and trade in could bring about sixty thousand marks China. We need not, however, look so as her portion, provided she had no en- far for prototypes or rivals in the art of cumbrances, and was not very old. He advertising our stock in trade, whether begs it to be understood, however, that no in the way of talents or more transferable one need apply who is not able to super- goods, for the practice had its adepts in intend all household matters, or who can France long before it became common not sew well enough to dispense with the among ourselves. The Parisian tradesservices of a work-woman in her house. man of two hundred years ago presented We do not know what success attended his customers, before they left his shop, the establishment; but it is certain that with an embossed card, or engraved several similar institutions flourished un- metallic plate, on which were inscribed der the Directory at Paris, their success his name and address, with the names of being perhaps in a great measure due to his principal titled patrons on the one the anomalous condition of society at the side, while the reverse generally displayed time, when persons of low birth rapidly a pictorial representation of some of the thrust themselves into prominent places, articles in which he trafficked. A cenand, belonging to no special circle or tury nearer our own time, the "Warsphere of society, had no means of forming rens" and "Moses" of those days emsuitable connections by the ordinary rou- ployed the highest talents of the day to tine of social intercourse. celebrate the excellencies of their goods, for the philosopher Diderot declares that | on a special kind of pomatum, than for his he was far better paid for the panegyrics most elaborate articles in the Encyclowhich he had been engaged to compose pédie. From the North British Review. THE MARTYRDOM OF GALILE 0.* were struck dumb by the presumptuous verdict, and humanity wept over the martyr of science. Even Catholics of high intellect and generous hearts shuddered at the deed, and contemplated with fear an act of inquisitorial law which threatened with subversion the moral as well as the ecclesiastical power of the Church which they loved. THE romance of "the Starry Galileo | heresy, and threatened with the torture and his Woes" has been so often written the sage who taught it, the attention of by the philosopher, and by the historian the civilized world was riveted on the darof science, that nothing but the discovery ing and hazardous decree. Philosophers of new incidents in his life, or the circulation of fresh calumnies against his name, could justify us in now calling to it the attention of the public. The imprisonment and moral torture of the greatest philosopher of his age, for publishing truths which the Almighty had revealed 'to human reason, might have excited little notice if inflicted by the civil magistrate, or even by an ecclesiastical tribunal, in the exercise of their ordinary powers; but when the successor of St. Peter-the infallible pontiff-God's vicar upon earth, who held in his hand the reason and the conscience of the Catholic world,-when he pronounced the motion of the earth and the stability of the sun to be a lie and a * Une Conversation au Vatican. Par J. B. BIOT, Roma, 1850. In spite of the pontifical decree, the earth continued to perform its annual round, and year after year contributed new proofs of the great truths for which Galileo had been condemned. The Jesuits themselves were at length compelled to illustrate them in their writings, and even instil them into their youth; and the story of Galileo, and the controversy of the earth and sun, were topics of painful recollection among the educated supporters of the Catholic faith. The successors of Urban VIII. ceased to defend, and doubtless to believe, the dogmas which he promulgated. The very cardinals, whose predeceshave renounced the infallible decree, and, sors sat in judgment on the philosopher, as a dogma less amenable to science, and more germane to the Catholic mind, the Immaculate Conception has replaced, in the Pontifical creed, the Ptolemaic system of the universe. This change of feeling has been no where more strongly exhibited than in the city of Florence, when subject to the most Catholic of sovereigns.* In a former age * The Tribune of Galileo, in the Museum of Natural History at Florence, is one of the noblest monuments that a sovereign ever raised to a subject. It was erected at great expense by the liberality of Galileo was an exile from its walls-chained to his own roof-tree, and, as a convict, chanting the penitential psalms in his solitary home. He was prohibited from seeking medical advice, and associating with his friends in the city which he honored. He durst not inhale the salutary breeze on the banks of the lovely Arno, nor bathe his aching limbs in its crystal stream. When those eyes which had descried new worlds in the bosom of space were closed in darkness, he was not allowed to grope his way among the scenes which he had hallowed and immortalized. When his powerful intellect could no longer cope with error, the hatred of the priest pursued him beyond the tomb. His mortal remains were denied Christian burial, and for a century they lay in a dishonored grave. Even his right to make a will, the last and the holiest privilege of our frail humanity, was denied to him as a prisoner of the inquisition; and when the friends whom he loved had provided a monument to his memory, the pope would not allow it to be reared. Time, however, which changes every thing, has changed even the faith which professes never to change. The fame of the martyr has achieved a lofty place in the temple of science, and the cities of his birth and his labors have striven to do him honor. In Florence, the scene of his deepest sorrow, his memory has been most affectionately cherished. In the very church of Sta. Croce, where his sentence and abjuration were ignominiously and insultingly published, and in which his bones were denied a place, a magnificent monument now rises over his exhumed remains. The youth of Padua venerate his solitary vertebra, and those of Florence his purloined finger, with a more affectionate admiration than the scented relics of their saints and their sovereigns; while, what would be to him a nobler triumph, the great truth for which he suffered the daily revolution of the earth-has been exhibited to the eye by a Catholic philosopher as an indisputable fact which even cardinals and pontiffs could hardly venture to gainsay.t the ex-Grand Duke of Tuscany. It is a richly decorated apartment, in which are preserved all the telescopes and other instruments of Galileo, together with the astrolabes of Alphonso, and the instruments which belonged to the celebrated Academy del Cimento. We refer to the beautiful experiment of M. It would have been well for the Catholic faith, and well also for the interests of truth, had the trial of Galileo ceased to be the subject of controversy, and been permitted to take its destined place in the pages of history. But error never dies; and the infallible Church has reäppeared in the person of a functionary of the inqusition, with an eminent philosopher as his interpreter, to give a new aspect to the story of Galileo, and to fix a calumny on his name. As the history of this attempt is little known in this country, and possesses the highest interest in its relation to scientific history, as well as to the character and claims of the Catholic Church, we shall present it to our readers in its fullest details. When engaged in an astronomical mission in 1824, M. Biot, one of the most distinguished members of the Imperial Institute of France, and known throughout the civilized world by his writings and his discoveries in physical optics, had occasion to visit Rome with his son on their way to Naples. The morning after his arrival, which was in the month of March, 1825, M. Biot waited upon the Duke de Laval, the French Ambassador, by whom he was received with the distinction due to his character and talents. Modern Rome thronged into the saloons of the ambassador, and through his means ancient Rome became more accessible to M. Biot than it could otherwise have been. After having enjoyed for some days the courtesies of the embassy, our traveller naturally desired to be presented to the pope; and the Duke de Laval kindly promised to take the earliest opportunity of introducing him to Leo XII. An ambassador, however, as M. Biot observes, restrained by certain precautions, must follow certain rules in his official relations. The expected opportunity of being presented to his holiness never arrived; and the most respectful attempts on M. Biot's part to bring it about seemed to place new difficulties in the way. The young attachés of the embassy gave our philosopher the solution of this "enigma." When he arrived at Rome, he was anxious to write to Colonel Fallon, Director of the Topographical Bureau at Vienna, in order to give him an account of the operations Foucault of Paris with a pendulum suspended from a fixed point, which follows the earth in its daily motion. an inner apartment; so that they remained in the waiting-room till they were summoned into the presence-chamber. At this time there entered into the salon a priest, who had come for an audience like themselves. He was clothed in a white robe, and was a tall man, with much dignity of manner. The Abbé presented to him M. Biot by his name, which was not unknown to him; and he immediately entered into conversation with him concerning the zodiacs of Egypt, a subject which he knew to be interesting both to the Abbé and his friend, who reviewed with much learning and critical acumen the numerous conjectures by which they had been explained. He then said to M. Biot, without any other transition, "We have read here your article Galilée' in the Biographie Universelle. You there condemn the judgment pronounced against him by the Holy Office. But, in fact, the tribunal had condemned only his errors, for he had committed very serious ones." which he proposed to make at Fiume, the eastern terminus of the portion of the 45th parallel of latitude which was measured by the Austrian engineers. In order to do this, he required certain numbers which could only be obtained from the Observatory of the Collegio Romano, kept by the Jesuits, and under the direction of Father Dumouchel, who had been his friend and fellow-student in the Ecole Polytechnique. He had therefore to go frequently to the College of the Jesuits; and, his movements having been observed by the authorities, his visits were believed to conceal some mystery which it was necessary to clear up before any further communication was held with him. "In short," he says, "I had become a political character without knowing it. I conceived that it was not necessary for me, a simple savant, to remain any longer enveloped in the toils of diplomacy, and that the sincerity of my humble homage did not require so much arrangement. I resolved, therefore, to open some less embarrassing way out of the official Embarrassed by this opinion, the phiworld, of which I could sooner avail my-losopher could not decide whether he self. But in order to exercise the sagacity of the watchmen of the embassy, I purposely paid more frequent visits to Father Dumouchel." M. Biot was acquainted with M. Testa, a prelate of literary tastes, who had published a learned dissertation on the zodiacal representations discovered in Egypt a few years before. Having been himself occupied with the same subject, he had paid a visit to the prelate a few days after his arrival in Rome. As he had been well received, he repeated his visit,-related to him his misadventure, and expressed the regret he should feel were he not admitted to an interview with his holiness, along with his son, to whom, as well as to himself, such an event would be a source of pleasure during the rest of their lives. He had not known that the good Abbé Testa was, more than any other person, in a position to obtain for him this favor, to which he had attached so great a value. The Abbé held an office of trust in the pontifical court, and his excellent qualities had secured to him the esteem of Pope Leo XII. The favor of a presentation was asked and granted; and the Abbé and his friends repaired to the Vatican a little before the appointed hour. This was after the dinner of the Holy Father, who had just retired into should, in such a locality, disown his sci- |