Men possessed of these, value not themselves upon any regard to inferior
obligations, and yet violate that which is the most sacred and ancient
of all---religion.
They should consider such violation as a severe reproach in the most
enlightened state of human nature; and under the purest dispensation of
religion, it appears to have extinguished the sense of gratitude to
Heaven, and to slight all acknowledgment of the great and true God. Such
conduct implies either an entire want, or a wilful suppression of some
of the best and most generous affections belonging to human nature.
* * * * *
* * * *
THE VICTIM OF MAGICAL DELUSION;
_OR, INTERESTING MEMOIRS OF MIGUEL, DUKE DE CA*I*A._
Unfolding Many Curious Unknown Historical Facts.
_Translated from the German of Tschink._
(Continued from page 243.)
“I will not pretend to say that this class of men qualify themselves for
ghost-seers by the mortifications you have been mentioning; it is
however certain, that they are in a fair way of becoming fanatics and
madmen. At the same time, I think it very imprudent to sacrifice every
earthly pleasure, to neglect the duties we owe to human society, on
account of the possibility of a matter, the reality of which is founded
on no arguments whatever. It is no absolute impossibility that I should
one time be made a Mandarin of China, yet the bare possibility of it
will certainly not induce me to trouble my head with the study of the
Chinese state-politics in order to qualify myself for that dignity.
Moreover, it is not only possible, nay, it is probable that the moon is
inhabited by rational beings, I shall nevertheless certainly not be
anxious to give any offence to the man in the moon by my actions. But to
be serious, my friend, the point of your question is not, whether it be
possible spirits should have an influence on us and external objects,
but whether we really do possess a certain and decisive criterion
whereby we can ascertain the reality of that influence; and I think I
have sufficiently proved that we possess none. Nay I even maintain, that
if something should not only be possible, but also really exist, yet its
existence is no concern of mine, while I cannot ascertain its existence
by a sufficient ground, while it does not manifest its existence to my
knowledge by certain and indubitable criterions.”
“But your objection,” I resumed after a short silence, “may be pursued
still further. You maintain that I could not prove the internal
impossibility of the influence of spirits on human beings, and thus far
you are right; but I have an equal right to maintain that you also
cannot prove their real possibility; for in that case it would be
requisite to know not only what a spirit is according to our idea, but
also what it is in itself; and that only the Author of spirits can know.
We know our own soul only by its effects, and no mortal can explain the
essential nature of this first cause of all our ideas and actions. For
that very reason it ever will be concealed from us whether it is related
at all to spirits here below, and what the nature of that relation is?
Here, my friend, are the limits of human reason, beyond which we cannot
proceed without falling in with the empty space of sophistical phantoms.
While you shall remain within the lawful boundaries, you never will have
reason to complain of the insufficiency of human reason, as you have
done just now. It is criminal arrogance to overleap the sacred limits,
to which Providence has confined it; for the eternal wisdom of God is
equally entitled to our regard by what it has denied, as by what it has
granted us. Descend, therefore, my friend, descend from the empty space
to which the Irishman had seduced you, to the firm ground of experience
and common sense! Happy is he who looks upon this ground as a post
allotted to him, which we can never transgress without being punished,
and which implies every thing that can afford us satisfaction while we
keep firm to what is useful.”
About six weeks after this conversation, I happened one night to sup
with the Marquis in the company of his son and Alumbrado. Our discourse
on the new government was growing very warm, when the clock in the room
struck ten. Alumbrado suddenly grew deadly wan, and seemed to be struck
dumb; his eyes stared at one spot, and he resembled a lifeless statue.
We looked at each other with astonishment; the old Marquis was the first
who called to him, but received no answer, and started up seized with
terror. The Duke and myself followed his example; our endeavours to
restore Alumbrado to recollection were, however, fruitless; he remained
in profound stupefaction. Not knowing what had happened to him, we were
going to send for a physician, when he rose from his chair like a person
to whom nothing uncommon has happened, and told us with the greatest
unconcern, “This very moment a strange accident has happened 300 miles
from hence. At *li*, at the Sun Tavern, the picture of the new king
which was hung up in the dining room, give occasion to a discourse
concerning him. One of the guests said a great deal to his praise,
manifesting, at the same time, a strong apprehension that the King of
S--------n might not submit so quietly to the loss of the crown of
P--------l, and perhaps, reclaim it by force of arms. Another guest
declared this to be a vain idea, maintaining that the new King was as
firmly fixed on his throne as his picture opposite him on the wall: but
no sooner had he pronounced these words, when the picture suddenly fell
to the ground with a tremendous noise.”
Here Alumbrado stopped. While we were standing around him in dumb
astonishment, he eyed us with the firm look of a person who has related
an incident of which he has been an eye witness. Astonishment and horror
seized me, and I did not know what to say. The Duke recovered first from
his surprise, asking him by what means he had got that intelligence.
“I must beg you,” Alumbrado replied in a low accent, “to suppress a
question to which I can give no satisfactory answer. However,” he added
with emphasis, “you may rely on the truth of my intelligence.”
He had not deceived us. On the sixth day after this extraordinary
incident, letters from *li* arrived confirming the same event, and nine
days after, it was reported in the foreign newspapers. It really
happened on the same evening, and the same night when Alumbrado had
informed us of it.
Being unexpectedly honoured by the new King with a commission that
obliged me to leave the kingdom of P----l, soon after this extraordinary
incident had happened, I was not at leisure to investigate the source of
Alumbrado’s prophecy; nor could I learn the Duke’s opinion of it; my
deluded friend beginning to grow very close and reserved in my presence.
It grieved me to be obliged to leave him in Alumbrado’s power, under
such critical circumstances, I could however, not delay my departure.
The Duke tore himself from my embraces with weeping eyes, and promised
to write frequently to me.
A week after my arrival at the place of my destination, I received a
letter from my friend, which I am going to transcribe faithfully.
“I have had to-day a most important conversation with Alumbrado. The
principal subject of it was the old concealed King of P--------l, for
whose restoration I had interested myself. ‘Can you seriously
believe---’ Alumbrado said, ‘that the person with whom you have
conversed at the Hermitage, has really been the old King of P--------l?
It seems you did not even suspect that the introduction of the old man
was a juggling farce, which was acted with a view similar to those of
the other delusions of the Irishman? Although we should suppose that the
King had not been killed in the field of battle, and that he himself had
been the identical person who was confined at the castle of St. Lukar,
which however, has not been proved, yet the whole affair would still
bear a very suspicious aspect. Not to mention the great improbability of
his escape from a well-guarded Castle, where he was kept in close
confinement, and of his having attained an age of 108 years
notwithstanding the hardships he suffered in the field of battle, and in
his prison. I only beg you to consider who it was that introduced him to
you as King of P--------l? Was not the Irishman that person? At the same
time, give me leave to recal to your recollection, that Count Clairval
has confessed that the pretended King acted in concert with that
impostor, and then tell me sincerely, what ground you have to believe
such an improbability on the testimony of two cheats? Perhaps you will
appeal to his great resemblance to the late King? But have not three
persons before him pleaded similar marks as proofs of the identity of
their person, and nevertheless been unmasked as impostors? My good Duke,
on mature consideration it seems that the Irishman relied very much on
your youth and the absence of your tutor, when he imposed upon you by
that juggling trick.’
“Ah! what ideas do you recall to my memory! I exclaimed, that letter
from the Queen and the answer of the Irishman.”
“Very right! Alumbrado interrupted me, these letters sufficiently prove
that you was considered as a young man who promised to be a fit
instrument for executing their design. And it is no longer a secret what
that design was, and in whose head it has been hatched out. The proud
Duchess of B----za had a longing for the crown of P--------l, and it was
she who persuaded the Duke to form a plan of seizing it. Your
assistance, my dear Duke, was wanted for attaining that aim, but the
conspirators foresaw at the same time, that you would refuse it, your
antipathy against your illustrious relation being no secret to them. For
that reason they pretended that the Duke of B----a had no other view but
to replace the old King on the throne of his ancestors. It was necessary
you should be made to believe that he was still alive and in safety; for
that purpose the hermit was brought on the stage, and acted his part
with no common skill.”
“Damned complot!” I exclaimed, with rising indignation. “Compose
yourself my Lord,” Alumbrado resumed, “your anger will now avail you
very little. Take care not to manifest your indignation too loudly, lest
the new King might forget that you are his relation, and have assisted
him to ascend the throne. You can do nothing else at present, but to
submit humbly to his authority; and I advise you at the same time not to
neglect paying due regard to the Queen, for she rules the King and the
empire. Do not expect that the present King will yield the sceptre he
has usurped to any man living. If you don’t believe me, you may inquire
of him after the old King, and he will tell you, that he has resigned
the government to him, because he feels himself unequal to the arduous
task of ruling a large kingdom, on account of his advanced age, or
perhaps that he is dead.”
“My dear Marquis, what do you think of this? I fear Alumbrado is not
mistaken, and I am in a state of mind that would render it imprudent for
me to appear at court; but as soon as the tempest that ruffles my mind
shall be subdued, I will pay a visit to the new King in order to come to
the bottom of the truth.
“P.S. You will be so kind to continue to direct your letters to Li*bon,
for neither I nor my father shall leave the town this summer.”
Before I could return an answer to this letter, I received a second, the
contents of which were as follow:
“Will you believe, my friend, that I desired three times to have an
audience, before my royal cousin condescended to admit me to his
presence? This utter want of regard and gratitude, re-kindled my
indignation, in such a manner, that I entered the royal apartment in a
way that was not very consonant with the court etiquette. The King,
however, received me very courteously, pretending to be extremely sorry
that the accumulated affairs of state had not allowed him to receive my
visit sooner, declaring at the same time that he was very glad to see
me. ‘I am come, I replied, in order to tell you that I am surprised that
the old King has not yet made his appearance, and released you from the
heavy burden of state business.’
“Don’t you know that he is dead?”
‘The emotions that I felt at these words are beyond all description; and
my astonishment, the paleness that overspread my face, and my silence
must have betrayed them to the King.’
“At what are you astonished thus? not at the death of an old man of a
hundred and eight years?”
“No,” I replied after a pause, “but I am surprised that he died at so
seasonable a period.”
“Will you explain yourself more distinctly?”
“I think it is a very strange accident that the royal hermit should have
entered the kingdom of heaven, and left your Majesty the terrestial
crown, just when he was to show himself to the people as their lawful
King.”
(To be continued.)
* * * * *
* * * *
_The Power of Music; or, the History of Belario and Lucetta._
Belario was a youth who had been bred up under his father’s eye,
according to the most rigid morals. Old Syphax had, in the early part of
his life, been a great dupe to the fair sex; he had fancied himself a
_beau garcon_, and imagined he had a right to captivate every female he
thought proper to address. In this opinion he was greatly mistaken, and
meeting with a variety of coquettes and jilts, he found himself often
deceived by his own artifice, and after having squandered considerable
sums upon them, discovered he was only laughed at for his vanity and
folly. He, however, pursued the career of a general lover for upwards of
a dozen years; in the course of which time he had much injured his
fortune, in dangling after beauties who despised him, and substituting
in their place professed harlots. At length he closed the circle of his
amours in marrying, out of mere spight, his own cook-maid, by whom he
had Belario.--His consort, though she had approved herself an excellent
cook, turned out a dreadful wife. She no sooner attained the summit of
her ambition, which she had long aimed at, and which she obtained by the
most servile flattery, and the greatest humility imaginable, than she
threw off the independant, and soon convinced Syphax, she knew the
difference between a servile state and that of a mistress. In a word,
she was the modern Zantippe, and probably Socrates never led half so
wretched a life, as did poor Syphax, after the connubial knot was tied.
He now took an aversion to the whole sex, swore eternal enmity to them,
and made a solemn vow, after separating from his wife, soon after the
expiration of the honey moon, never to associate or speak to a woman in
the course of his future life. Upon the birth of his son he immediately
sent for him, and would never let him know who was his mother.
As Belario advanced towards maturity, he had him educated under his own
roof, having resolved that he should not be trained at a public school,
lest, by associating with the world, he might imbibe their notions in
favour of the female sex. He never suffered him to read any books that
had the least allusion to the tender passion, and constantly represented
women, whenever they were mentioned, as monsters in human forms, and
more to be dreaded than wolves and tigers. In this opinion whenever
Belario beheld a female at a distance, he fled from her with the
greatest swiftness, fearful that even the air might be contaminated with
her breath. Yet he thought that there was something enchanting in woman,
which he could not account for; but if he hinted such a thought to his
father, Syphax depicted them as Syrens, who allured unwary travellers to
approach them for their destruction.
Tutored with these extraordinary notions, Belario had attained his
eighteenth year, when Syphax paid the great debt of nature, and left his
son in possession of an easy fortune. He began now to relax from the
severity of those studies, to which he had been confined. He read
novels, Ovid’s Art of love, and many other books, that soon made him
suspect his father’s doctrine had been fallacious. Belario had not,
however, the fortitude to dare approach a female so nearly, as to enjoy
the contemplation of her charms, or the enchanting raptures of her
conversation; when one day walking in a pensive mood, in a grove
adjacent to his abode, his ears were assailed with such harmoneous
accents as involuntarily attracted not only his attention, but, by a
secret impulse, led him to the spot where the seeming celestial notes
proved to issue.
He had scarce reached the hawthorn of melody, before he perceived the
lovely Lucetta singing, accompanied by her guittar. Now, in despight of
all his father’s tenets so carefully inculcated, he found the impulse of
nature, and the power of music, operate far beyond all the sophistry of
Syphax’s reasoning against the lovely sex.
He intuitively approached the beauteous maid, and instantly became a
captive to her charms---a votary to love and harmony.
Lucetta at first received him with some reserve; but after a fervent
declaration of his passion, which soon became sympathetic, she listened
to his addresses; when he revealed to her how much he had been imposed
upon by Syphax, who represented the most amiable part of the creation as
monsters, more dangerous than serpents and crocodiles, and that in this
opinion he had shunned them to this very hour; but that he now flattered
himself he should make ample amends in paying his devotions to such an
angelic being as the divine Lucetta.
This young lady was the only daughter of a gentleman of property in an
adjacent village, whom Belario, with the approbation of Lucetta, waited
upon to obtain his consent for their nuptials. Her father received the
young man with politeness and hospitality, and told him he should have
no objection to the match, if he could obtain his daughter’s consent.
Happy in such a reply, he flew to his adored Lucetta, and acquainted her
with the glad tidings, which she received with as much transport as he
communicated them.
To be brief, in a few days their nuptials were solemnized, and they have
now enjoyed the most permanent felicity the connubial state can confer,
for upwards of two years, in which time the lovely Lucetta has given to
the world two pledges of their mutual fondness, in a delightful boy, and
a still more beautiful girl. Here we shall leave them, to enjoy that
unsullied happiness which ever attends the purest virtue, and the
sincerest love.
* * * * *