the waves overpower him, and he is loft !

We are born to a portion of labour, from which, as Nature has exempted no man, none can fhrink without degradation. But let us reflect, that though to labour is the lot of man, Health, peace, and competence' are its reward-Idleness, as has been juttly obferved by fome author, is the rult of the mind; this eats into the strongest, deprives it of its native powers, and moulders away thofe energies which are given it for the nobleft purposes. It is like the corroding quality of certain air, which deprives even iron itself of the ftrength which is originally its characteristick, and renders it the fport of every blait.

Did we but look into the volume of human nature, a book which, though opened to all, is yet perufed by few, the crimes which arife from indolence would out-number even thofe of ambition. In ambition there is fomething approaching to greatnefs, which daz zles us. It is the error of noble minds, the weed of a generous foul. The ambitious in a fingle age are but few; the quality in a very deftructive degree is rare-it is open, and may be guarded against: but indolence is the univerfal error of every age; the most luxurious are the molt infected by it; and it seems almost hereditary to the great and opulent, and amongst these our youth are now in the highest degree tainted with it. What young man is there of this defcription, who devotes, I will not fay a few hours in a day, but in a week, to study? Who of our Nobility now ftudy the laws as formerly? Who now excel in the fine arts or who are indefatigable in encouraging and fupporting them? Yet he who would once effay this, would find it give attractions to pleasure which the indolent and vicious are in reality incapable of tasting. This would leave fomething in his mind for the years when he could lounge no longer. this would scatter the feeds of a variety of virtues; and if the foil be not wholly ungrateful, they would crown with their bloffoms the morning of his age, and reward him with their fruit in his decline.

Where now is that enthusiasm, in all its purfuits, which was once the honourable mark of youth? Indolence feems to have pervaded every part; its corrofive reaches even to the heart, and there deftroys every paffion and every affection for the good, the great, and the amiable. It is a vice the more dangerous, as it is in the beginning lets alarming. The avoiding the early habits of it lies indeed chiefly with parents: but, alas! the facred name of Parent does not always infuse the virtues neceffary for a proper discharge of the duties which it includes.

To know the utility and pleasure of induftry, we must be early habituated to it. The wearinefs, the diforder of affairs and of mind, incident to the indolent, though they prey upon them, donot to them point their origin, nor. from the lethargy which it creates, would the voice of a Stentor awake them. It is for thofe yet uninfected with the pernicious poifon to guard againft it in the hour of eafe, enjoyment, and profperity. It is for men who have happily acquired fortunes themselves, and who therefore feel the importance and the pleasure of labour, to preferve that tone of mind in their defcendants, without which the wealth they have attained cannot be enjoyed. Let them guard their offspring against an error, of which they may be always accounted competent judges, from the advantages they have reaped by an oppofite conduct. It is for them to reinember, that the fame vigour of mind and health of body is neceffary to the enjoyment as to the acquifition of riches;a truth, important as it is, too rarely attended to; the neglect of which, however, produces that crowd of wretches in opulence who drag on an uncomfortable, if not a vicious, and at best an un-virtuous existence-till perhaps the wealth which has made them unfit for adverfity is diffipated, even without pleasure. And then we fee every day how the horrid account is clofed! they ruth into eternity,

"With all their imperfections on their head;

"And how their audit ftands-who knows fave Heaven ?"

TO

SIR,

Orleans, the 7th of December (New Stile) 1635.

BEING fo far from Loudun, and be hind his back, I dare make good my promifes, and fpeak my mind freely of the Devil, and to you freelier than to another. For I believe it will coft you the trouble of a journey, which, if our withes could have faved you, you had had the profit without the trouble. Nor was it my with then only but ftill, that you would take a journey thither; and I do not doubt but you will meet a fatisfaction worth your pains. I confefs I have feen that which is fo much beyond my expectation, or what I would have believed, if another had told me, as I do not expect this letter fhould meet your credit; which reafon fhould have kept me froin writing, if I fo could have excufed the breach of a promife to you. But this is from the bufinefs of my letter, which, upon my word, fhall be a relation of nothing but what I faw and heard.

I will begin as I met the accidents. Upon Thursday morning laft paft, before the date of this letter, we went, as we were appointed by a priest, to whom we had the recommendation of the Archbishop of Tours, to the monaftery of the Nuns that were poffefled; where, when we entered, we faw two priests at mas at feveral altars in the faid convent's chapel; and in five places of the chapel were five of the nuns that were poffeffed, and with each of them a father praying.

Upon our firit entry we heard nothing but praying, to which the poffeffed were as attentive as any; and, for aught I perceived, prayed as heartily; fo that, for my part, I thought we had Joft our journey; for they told us we fhould fee the horridelt faces, and poftures far beyond a tumbler's imitation, and hear strange cries; and thofe I looked for. But I faw nothing but kneeling, and as good faces as any are

I am, &c.

G. H.

in France; nor heard any noife worfe than finging, nor any figns of witchcraft, but itrings with croffes about their necks, which the priests held them by, as they kneeled before them, with one hand, whilft the other was employed in crofling their foreheads. This, for the fpace of half an hour, was all we faw; but on a fudden two of them grew unruly, and would by force have left their feats; but the friars made them keep them, which they did; but one left not with ridiculous motions to abuse the friar, thruiting out her tongue, and then catching him about the neck, to have kiffed him. The other's rage was anger; for the took the priest by the throat, and ftruck him, and then got from him, and ran roaringand talking to the priest that was faying mafs; where the committed fome extravagancies before the friar could take her away. No other ftrange things happened in the chapel at this time that I faw or heard, but fad cries that came from the grates of the nunnery. The prieits then de. fired us to come after dinner, for it was holiday, and there was no exorcifms

fed there in the forenoon, by reafon they were to go to the churches; whither we went, and were no fooner entered, but were drawn by a great noife and cry to a little chapel in the church, where we faw a friar and one of the poffeffed at exorcifms. When we came, we found her in her fit, laid upon the ground, raging mad. When we faw her herfelf, the was a luity young woman, brown haired, and black eyed, and tall of itature; but now fo violently poffeffed, that her strength was above five women's; for, being by, in her rage, the priest desired me to hold one of her hands, which was all I could, without rudenels, do. Whilft fhe lay thus, her eyes left their beauty; and all her youth, without the remembrance of what I faw before, could not

your thumbs; which was (it feem eth) the thought; and then being demanded, why he was fo long obeying, the faid there were heretics there, but the hoped they would not believe what they faw. The priest then gave one bout more for my fake, being loth that I should continue a heretic, and it was to thew how the Hugonots fhould be ufed. Being a great while charmed, at laft he told them, Like Calvin their head; and being afked how that was, expreffed his torture in ugly faces. This laft I confefs I was glad to fee, for it confirmed me in believing nothing this devil did or faid. The friar then laid the Devil, and the woman was within a minute well: and being aked where the Devil was the friar and the confeffed *** [ fomething is omit. ted here as indecent, and unfit for publication] I gave to little faith to what he faid, as I offered (contrary to my refoIntion) to do more than I have done yet, or intend to do; and it was to try, if the Devil poffèfles all or none; but I was refufed. The Devil being charmed, then we all fell to prayers; and the woman prayed as devoutly as any to God to chafe him quite out, for he food yet in the door. Thefe prayers being ended, the pieft prepared to give her the facrament, which the took with a great deal of devotion; but ftraight another Devil thrust that and her tongue out both together, and endeavoured to blow it off. I must confefs it was strange to feel what a blait came from her, and how it thook the wafer as it ftuck on her tongue, but could not get it off; fo much the power of the priest prevailed against the endeavour of the Devil. At latt the took it in and fwallowed it, and was immediately well. You would have wondered to fee how lively the friar was, and with what dexterity he commanded the Devil; how with a word he raised him, and laid him with another, with fuch eafe, that I concluded that the Devil is but an afs to a Jefuit. Whilft they were in admiration of thefe miracles, I left them, and went to the cry of a third, the place from whence I was called to fee thefe miracles, where I found a nun fitting in a melancholy posture. She was very young and handfome, of a more tender look and gender shape than any of the reft; her arms and hands fo fmall and white, as the fhewed a breeding not answer able to the eftate fhe was in. You

would have thought her fervant could only have led her by that hand, and not have hurt her. The loveliness of her face was cloathed in a fad fable look, which upon my coming into the chapel the hid, but prefently unveiled again and, though the ftood now bound like a flave in the friar's hand, you might fee through all her mif fortunes, in her black eyes, the unruined arches of many triumphs. Yet I faw her, being once charmed by the friar, fall into her fit; and then I faw two penfants feize on her; for they held her not like herself, but like a thing they had been acquainted with, applying their rougheft rudeft ftrength to hold her arms. Whilst they were thus employed about her arms, the prieft stood with his feet upon her breaft, and a crofs in his hand, and in the name of the church called the Devil to pay a reverence to it which, when he had done, the friar laid him again, and the changed from all her violence to herself again; herself soft and fad; and thofe in her return expreffed her beft, and the them. Had you then feen her creep under the altar, and thence hold out the trembling hands, which were fo white they looked like the emblem of Innocence, calling to heaven upon Jefus and Mary for help, weeping ftill fuch wealth of tears, as if he meant to buy, not beg, their mercy. But what her prayers gained I know not, for I faw little hewed her from above or below; nor did the friar ceafe to tread upon her, as if he had forgot the Devil had ufurped his habitation of the maid. I confels it was fo fad a fight, I had no power to fee the miracle wrought of her recovery, but went from thence to the inn, where we dined; and were immediately called by two friars to go to the exorcifm in the nunnery, which was in this manner that followeth.

The priest having faid fome prayers at the altar, repaired to the grate of the nunnery; where, when he had rung the bell, the nuns appeared: He called forth one that was poffeffed, who entered the chapel with her companion only, a nun that was not poffeffed. They came, of either hand of the friar one, and to kneeled by him, and prayed at the altar for the pace of half an hour, without any kind of action that expreffed the was poffeffed. But thefe prayers being ended, fhe turned herelf to the friar, who caft a Itring-full

of

of croffes about her neck, and there tied it with three knots: the kneeled till, and ceafed not to pray till the trings were faltened; but then the ftood up, and quitted her beads; and, after a reverence made to the altar, fhe went to the feat, like a couch, with one end made purpofely for the exorcilin, whereof there are divers in the chapel. The head of this food to the altar. She went to it with so much humility, that you would have thought that patience could merit enough, without the prayers of the priest, to have chafed out the Devil. When he came to it, the lay down on it, and helped the priest to bind her to it with two ropes, one about her waist, another about her thighs and legs. When he was bound, and faw the priest with a box wherein the facrament was included, the fighed, and trembled with fente of the torture the was to fuffer.. Nor is this a particular humility and patience that the fhewed, for they are all fo, and in the fame inftance. When this exorcifm was performing, another of the poffeffed called a father unto her, and fet her feat herself, and then lay down upon it, and tied herself upon it as the other did. Tis ftrange to fee how modeftly and devoutly they go to the altar, when they are themselves, and how they walk in the nunneries. Their modeft looks and fad paces exprefs what they are, (maids vowed to religion). This, upon the beginning of the exorcifm, lay as if fhe had flept; but it was not long the continued fo quiet, but like the rest fell into extravagant talkings, and violent beating of herself as the lay; her face drawn into horrid and trange postures, and her belly fwelled to the bigness of one with child, and then fell flat again, and, at the fame inftant, her breafts fwelled to the bignefs that her belly was. But thefe accidents continued not in one place of her body long, but removed fometimes to her legs, fometimes to her hands; and till, as the priest perceived the part afflicted, he applied his relic there, and prayed, figning the place with the fign of the crofs, and immediately it was well. Whilft the lay in thefe continual motions, and striving with her body, I went and felt her hands and pulfes, thinking to have found her extremely diftempered; for by her face you would have judged the extremity of a fever to have been upon her; but I

VOL. XLIII, FEB, 1803.

found her cold, and her pulse beating without any fign of diftemperature; nor are they, after the fit, fenfible of any mifery they have fuffered. But to my ftory: Whilft I was feeling the pulfe, the fnatched her hand away from me, and in a rage tore all the cloaths from her head; which fight made a strange alteration of a handfome woman, which (trust me) in her dreis she was; but now without her cloaths, her thorn head, her distracted looks, and foaming mouth, made a fad alteration. Thus the lay curfing the priest and the facrament, and the power they had thus to torment her; who, in the heat of all her fury, unbound her, and, standing up with the facrament in his hand, commanded the Devil to pay an adoration to that he fo curft, grovelling on the ground; which at lait, after a great many curfes, he obeyed, in manner that followeth.

She flid from her feat backwards upon the ground, and there lay; but refufed to pay reverence to the hoft, till by prayers, and touching her with relics, and thewing her her God (as he called it) the at the last obeyed; and as the lay on her back, the bent her waist like a tumbler, and went fo, fhoving herself with her heels on her bare head, all about the chapel, after the friar and many other trauge unnatural poltures, beyond any that ever I faw, or could believe poflible for any man or woman to do. Nor was this a fudden motion, and away, but a continual thing, which the did for above an hour together; and yet not out of breath, nor hot with all the motions she used. Indeed, the things I faw her do confirmed me in the opinion, that there are fewer Devils in Loudun, if it be as they would have us believe, than there must be of thefe religious counterfeits; and there is nothing furer than the Devil at Loudun.

While this nun lay as I have defcribed, for the fpace of an hour, her tongue fwelled to a moft incredible bignefs, and never within her mouth from the first falling into her fit. I faw her in an instant contract it; and I heard her, after he had given a start and fhriek that you would have thought had torn her to pieces, the fpake one word, and that was 66 Jofeph;" at which all the priests start up, and cried, "that is the fign, look for the mark;" on which one, feeing her

P

hold