NECROMANCY AND FORTUNE TELLING.
Although the belief in witchcraft has nearly passed away, the civilized
world is yet full of necromancers and fortune tellers. The mystic
science of "palmistry" is still practised by many a haggard and
muttering vagrant.
The most celebrated fortune teller, perhaps, that ever lived, resided
in Lynn, Mass. The character of "Moll Pitcher" is familiarly known in
all parts of the commercial world. She died in 1813. Her place of abode
was beneath the projecting and elevated summit of High Rock, in Lynn,
and commanded a view of the wild and indented coast of Marblehead, of
the extended and resounding beaches of Lynn and Chelsea, of Nahant
Rocks, of the vessels and islands, of Boston's beautiful bay, and of
its remote southern shore. She derived her mysterious gifts by
inheritance, her grandfather having practised them before, in
Marblehead. Sailors, merchants, and adventurers of every kind visited
her residence, and placed great confidence in her predictions. People
came from great distances to learn the fate of missing friends or
recover the possession of lost goods. The young, of both sexes,
impatient at the tardy pace of time, and burning with curiosity to
discern their future lot, especially as it regarded matters of wedlock,
availed themselves of every opportunity to visit her lowly dwelling,
and hear from her prophetic lips the revelations of these most tender
incidents and important events of their coming lives. She read the
future, and traced what, to mere mortal eyes, were the mysteries of the
present or the past, in the arrangement and aspect of the grounds or
settlings of a cup of tea or coffee. Her name has every where become
the generic title of fortune tellers, and occupies a conspicuous place
in the legends and ballads of popular superstition.
A man was suddenly missed by his friends from a certain town in this
commonwealth. The church immediately sent a member to consult the
far-famed fortune-telling Molly Pitcher. After making the necessary
inquiries, she intimated that the absent person had been murdered by a
family of negroes, and his body sunk in the deep waters behind their
dwelling. Upon this evidence, the accused were forthwith imprisoned,
and the pond raked in vain, from shore to shore. A few days previous to
the trial, the missing man returned to his friends, safe and sound;
thus proving that the fortune teller, instead of having received from
Satan certain information of distant and unknown events, actually
played off a piece of the grossest deception upon her credulous
visitors.
We are told by travellers that there is scarcely a village in Syria in
which there is not some one who has the credit of being able to cast
out evil spirits. About eight miles from the ancient Sidon, Lady Hester
Stanhope, the granddaughter of the immortal Chatham, and niece of the
equally immortal Pitt, recently lived in a style of Eastern splendor
and magnificence. She spent her time in gazing at the extended canopy
of heaven, as it shed its sparkling light upon the ancient hills and
sacred groves of Palestine--her soul absorbed in the fathomless
mysteries of her loved astrology, and holding fancied communion with
supernatural powers and spirits of the departed.
There recently died in Hopkinton, Mass., an individual by the name of
Sheffield, who had long followed the art of fortune telling by
astrology. He professed to unfold almost every secret, or mystery, even
to foretelling the precise day and hour any person would die. In case
of lost or stolen goods, it was only necessary to enclose a small fee
in a letter, containing also a statement of your name, age, and place
of residence, and forward the same by mail to his address. In two or
three weeks, the information you sought, as to the person who stole the
property, &c., would be forwarded to you, leaving you to judge of the
case for yourself. He did quite a business in his line, and made
something of a fortune out of a long-exploded science.
There are many who trust to the declarations of such persons, and are
often made unhappy thereby. In fact, it is doubtful if a more unhappy
class can be found than those who are in the habit of consulting
fortune tellers of any character. It is _discontent_, chiefly,
that leads them to pry into futurity. And after having had their
_fortunes told_, as it is termed, they are no better satisfied
than before; for the best of fortune tellers are famous for their
errors and mistakes, although it would be strange if they did not
blunder upon some facts in the whole routine of their business. But we
pity those who rely upon their prognostications. If told they will die
at such or such a time, or if they are to meet with some dreadful
accident, misfortune, or disappointment, their imaginations will lead
them to anticipate and dread the event, which will be the surest way to
produce its fulfilment. If a husband or wife is told that he or she
will marry again, it will lead them to be dissatisfied with the partner
with whom they are at present associated. And look at this subject as
we will, we shall find it productive of a vast amount of evil, and
therefore deserving of our entire disapprobation.