called (by a phrase probably borrowed from this very act of witchcraft) a rout-night, are not certain magical founds and incantations used! Is not the arch-fiend frequently called on by name? Are there not, on a table, fometimes in a little caldron, amulets to be seen of strange shapes and divers colours? Are there not storms raised, and angry appearances? Undoubtedly all thofe circumftances are known to exift. That, however, no innocent perfon may suffer from my accufation, and that the Lord of any fuch great Lady may not, like the good Duke of Gloucester of old, fuffer for the witchcraft of his wife, I muft in justice add, that the husbands of these ladies are in general no conjurers. Of the third kind of thofe unlawful dealers with the devil, there is no want of examples among us. Do we not fee men every day, who, by compact with the devil, (for we know not of any natural means by which they could accomplish it), procure to themselves much wealth, gold, filver, and precious ftones! Is not Mr who was a few years ago worth nothing, but who now keeps his chariot, entertains people of the first fashion, gives the most sumptuous entertainments, and drinks the highest priced wines; in short, vies in expence with men of the greatest fortunes, evidently a conjurer of this class? As to the tranfmutation of this gold and other precious materials into their former ftate of drofs, and other things of no value, I leave that point of fimilitude to the evidence of thofe gentlemen's creditors. As to the fpecies defcribed in the 4th section of the learned author above quoted, I see in most houfes of fashionable refort wizards of a defcription resembling those who poffefs the power of invifible transportation mentioned by this writer; men whofe defcent no body knows, of whom no one can tell whence they came, and who themfelves confefs their ignorance whither they fhall go, who talk of intimacies with people of most diftinguished rank, both at home and abroad, and give hints of having been in the most private receffes of palaces and hotels, who muft undoubtedly have been carried thither by fome fupernatural power, and who, according to the teftimony of people who are known to have been in some of thofe places at the time, must have actually been there in an invisible state. Is it not alfo commonly a token (as our author plirafes it) of "groffe ignorance and flanderous finne" in the inhabitants of the houfes where fuch wizards or fpirits do for the most part haunt? Do not many of them get into fuch houses, though the doors are barred against them, and all manner of E 2 ufual ufual accefs is denied? And is not the cure of fuch a plague exactly the fame in these days as in the time of King James, "by prayer to God ufed in the houfe," or "by the inhabitants thereof purging themfelves, by amendment of life, from fuch finnes as have procured the extraordinary plague of those evil spirits haunting the fame ?" I think I have now fully evinced the truth of the propofition with which I fet out. I fhall only add one other inftance, of which I think, Sir, you are particularly qualified to atteft the truth. An author of a periodical paper, who knows the minds of the ladies better than themfelves; who reads characters as a phyfician reads difeafes, by merely looking on the faces of his patients; who can prognofticate the change of manners, the rife of fashions, the downfal of wits, and the decay of beauties ;-if fuch a man is not a conjurer, he is abfolutely good for noI am, &c. thing. ANTIQUO-MODERNUS. Z No. 42. SATURDAY, N. 19. 1785. To the AUTHOR of the LOUNGER. I SIR; WAS much pleafed with the mention, made by your friend Colonel Cauftic, of our poet Hamilton of Bangour. I have always regarded him as holding a distinguished rank among the fine writers of his age, and as having done fignal credit to the genius of his country. Yet his works do not appear to me to be fo well known, nor to be held in fuch high efteem, as they deferve. Permit me, therefore, to recommend them to your readers. The poems of Hamilton difplay regular defign,. juft fentiments, fanciful invention, pleafing fenfibility, elegant diction, and fmooth verfification. His genius was aided by tafte, and his tafte was improved by knowledge. He was not only well acquainted with the most elegant modern writers, but with those of antiquity. Of these remarks, his poem, entitled Contemplation, or The Triumph of Love, affords fufficient illuftration. The defign of this Poem is regular. The Poet displays in it the ftruggles, relapfes, recoveries, and final difcomfiture of a mind striving with an obftinate and habituated paffion. It has, in the language of the critics, a beginning, a middle,. and an end. It exhibits an action in its rife, progrefs, and termination, The Poet represents. himself as wishing to withdraw his thoughts from inferior fubjects, and fix them on fuch as he holds better fuited to a rational, and still more to a philofophical fpirit. He must be aided in this high exercife by Contemplation; and the affiftance of this auguft perfonage must be duly folicited. Accordingly, the Poem opens with a fine address to the "Voice divine," the Power of Poetry. Go forth, invok'd, O Voice divine! Where Contemplation may be found, &c.. But Contemplation must not only be duly folicited, but properly received and attended; and therefore a company of various but fuitable affociates are invited: Bring Faith, endued with eagle eyes,. |