OPERATION OF THE SPIRIT.

being found between any two conventicles among us, that it is in vain to expect it between any two heads in the same. Secondly, The spirit instructed the apostles in the gift of speaking several languages; a knowledge so remote from our dealers in this art, that they neither understand propriety of words or phrases in their own. Lastly, say these objectors, the modern artists do utterly exclude all approaches of the spirit, and bar up its ancient way of entering, by covering themselves so close and so industriously a-top: for they will needs have it as a point clearly gained, that the cloven tongues never sat upon the apostles' heads while their hats were on.

Now, the force of these objections seems to consist in the different acceptation of the word spirit; which, if it be understood for a supernatural assistance approaching from without, the objectors have reason, and their assertions may be allowed; but the spirit we treat of here proceeding entirely from within, the argument of these adversaries is wholly eluded. And upon the same account, our modern artificers find it an expedient of absolute necessity to cover their heads as close as they can in order to prevent perspiration, than which nothing is observed to be a greater spender of mechanic light, as we may perhaps further show in a convenient place.

To proceed therefore upon the phenomenon of spiritual mechanism, it is here to be noted that in forming and working up the spirit the assembly has a considerable share as well as the preacher. The method of this arcanum is as follows: they violently strain their eyeballs inward, half closing the lids; then, as they sit, they are in a perpetual motion of see-saw, making long hums at proper periods, and continuing the sound at equal height, choosing their time in those intermissions while the preacher is at ebb. Neither is this practice in any part of it so singular and improbable as not to be traced in distant regions from reading and observation. For, first, the Jauguis [Bernier, Mem. de Mogol.], or enlightened saints of India, see all their visions by help of an acquired straining and pressure of the eyes. Secondly, the art of see-saw on a beam, and swinging by session upon a cord, in order to raise artificial ecstasies, has been derived to us from our Scythian [Guagnini Hist. Sarmat.] ancestors, where it is practised at this day among the women. Lastly, the whole proceeding, as I have performed by the natives of Irehere related it, land with a considerable improvement; and it is granted that this noble nation has, of all others, admitted fewer corruptions and degenerated least from the purity of the old Tartars. Now, it is usual for a knot of Irish men and women to abstract themselves from matter, bind up all their senses, grow visionary and spiritual, by influence of a short pipe of tobacco handed round the company, each preserving the smoke in his mouth till it comes again to his turn to take in fresh; at the same time there is a concert of a continued gentle hum, repeated and renewed by instinct as occasion requires; and they move their bodies up and down to a degree that sometimes their heads and points lie parallel to the horizon. Meanwhile you may observe their eyes turned up, in the posture of one who endeavours to keep himself awake; by which, and many other symptoms among them, it manifestly appears that the reasoning faculties are all suspended and superseded, that imagination has usurped the seat, scattering a thousand deliriums over the brain. Returning from this digression, I shall describe the methods by which the spirit approaches. The eyes being disposed according to art, at first you can see nothing; but after a short pause a small glimmering light begins to appear and dance before you:

you perceive the vapours to ascend very fast, till
then, by frequently moving your body up and down,
you are perfectly dosed and flustered like one who
drinks too much in a morning. Meanwhile the
find
which pierces you quite through; this is imme-
preacher is also at work; he begins a loud hum
diately returned by the audience, and you
yourself prompted to imitate them by a mere spon-
taneous impulse, without knowing what you do.
The interstitia are duly filled up by the preacher to
prevent too long a pause, under which the spirit
would soon faint and grow languid.

This is all I am allowed to discover about the
progress of the spirit with relation to that part
of the preacher to which I now proceed I shall be
which is borne by the assembly; but in the methods
more large and particular.

SECTION THE SECOND.

You will read it very gravely remarked in the books
of those illustrious and right eloquent penmen,
the modern travellers, that the fundamental differ-
ence in point of religion between the wild Indians
and us, lies in this-that we worship God, and they
who will by no means admit of this distinction, ra-
worship the devil. But there are certain critics
ther believing that all nations whatsoever adore the
true God, because they seem to intend their devo-
tions to some invisible power of greatest goodness
in the brightest attributes ascribed to the Divinity.
and ability to help them; which perhaps will take
two principles-the principle of good, and that of
Others again inform us that those idolators adore
most universal notion that mankind, by the mere
evil; which indeed I am apt to look upon as the
light of nature, ever entertained of things invisible.
How this idea has been managed by the Indians
and us, and with what advantage to the understand-
To me the difference appears little more than this,
ings of either, may well deserve to be examined.
that they are put oftener upon their knees by their
fears, and we by our desires; that the former set
them a praying, and us a cursing. What I applaud
them for is, their discretion in limiting their devo-
tions and their deities to their several districts, nor
ever suffering the liturgy of the white God to cross
or to interfere with that of the black. Not so with
us, who, pretending by the lines and measures of
our reason to extend the dominion of one invisible
power, and contract that of the other, have disco-
vered a gross ignorance in the natures of good and
both. After men have lifted up the throne of their
evil, and most horribly confounded the frontiers of
divinity to the cœlum empyræum, adorned with all
seem most to value and possess after they have
such qualities and accomplishments as themselves
sunk their principle of evil to the lowest centre,
bound him with chains, loaded him with curses,
furnished him with viler dispositions than any rake-
hell of the town, accoutred him with tail, and horns,
see these reasoners at the same time engaged in
and huge claws, and saucer eyes-I laugh aloud to
wise dispute, about certain walks and purlieus, whe-
ther they are in the verge of God or the devil;
come into men's minds from above or below; whe-
seriously debating whether such and such influences
ther certain passions and affections are guided by the
evil spirit or the good:

Dum fas atque nefas exiguo fine libidinum
Discernunt avidi.

Thus do men establish a fellowship of Christ with
Belial, and such is the analogy they make between
is the disquisition before us: it has continued these
cloven tongues and cloven feet. Of the like nature

hundred years an even debate whether the deport- | ment and the cant of our English enthusiastic preachers were possession or inspiration; and a world of argument has been drained on either side, perhaps to little purpose. For I think it is in life as in tragedy, where it is held a conviction of great defect, both in order and invention, to interpose the assistance of preternatural power without an absolute and last necessity. However, it is a sketch of human vanity for every individual to imagine the whole universe is interested in his meanest concern. If he has got cleanly over a kennel, some angel unseen descended on purpose to help him by the hand; if he has knocked his head against a post, it was the devil for his sins let loose from hell on purpose to buffet him. Who that sees a little paltry mortal, droning, and dreaming, and drivelling to a multitude, can think it agreeable to common good sense that either heaven or hell should be put to the trouble of influence or inspection upon what he is about? therefore I am resolved immediately to weed this error out of mankind, by making it clear that this mystery of vending spiritual gifts is nothing but a trade, acquired by as much instruction, and mastered by equal practice and application, as others are. This will best appear by describing and deducting the whole process of the operation, as variously as it hath fallen under my knowledge or experience.

word, and syllable, and letter, to their due cadence, the whole operation is incomplete, misses entirely of its effect on the hearers, and puts the workman himself to continual pains for new supplies, without success. For it is to be understood that, in the language of the spirit, cant and droning supply the place of sense and reason in the language of men: because, in spiritual harangues, the disposition of the words according to the art of grammar has not the least use, but the skill and influence wholly lie in the choice and cadence of the syllables; even as a discreet composer, who, in setting a song, changes the words and order so often, that he is forced to make it nonsense before he can make it music. For this reason it has been held by some that the art of canting is ever in greatest perfection when managed by ignorance; which is thought to be enigmatically meant by Plutarch, when he tells us that the best musical instruments were made from the bones of an ass. And the profounder critics upon that passage are of opinion, the word, in its genuine signification, means no other than a jaw-bone; though some rather think it to have been the os sacrum; but in so nice a case I shall not take upon me to decide; the curious are at liberty to pick from it whatever they please.

The first ingredient toward the art of canting is, a competent share of inward light; that is to say, a large memory, plentifully fraught with theological polysyllables and mysterious texts from holy writ, applied and digested by those methods and mechanical operations already related: the bearers of this light resembling lanterns compact of leaves from old Geneva bibles; which invention, sir Humphrey Edwin, during his mayoralty, of happy memory, highly approved and advanced; affirming the Scripture to be now fulfilled, where it says, Thy word is a lantern to my feet, and a light to my paths.

Now, the art of canting consists in skilfully adapting the voice to whatever words the spirit delivers, that each may strike the ears of the audience with its most significant cadence. The force or energy of this eloquence is not to be found, as among ancient orators, in the disposition of words to a sentence, or the turning of long periods; but, agreeably to the modern refinements in music, is taken up wholly in dwelling and dilating upon syllables and letters. Thus, it is frequent for a single vowel to draw sighs from a multitude, and for a whole assembly of saints to sob to the music of one solitary liquid. But these are trifles, when even sounds inarticulate are observed to produce as forcible effects. A master workman shall blow his nose so powerfully as to pierce the hearts of his people, who were disposed to receive the excrements of his brain with the same reverence as the issue of it. Hawking, spitting, and belching, the defects of other men's rhetoric, are the flowers, and figures, and ornaments of his. For the spirit being the same in all, is of no import through what vehicle it is conveyed.

Here it may not be amiss to add a few words upon the laudable practice of wearing quilted caps; which is not a matter of mere custom, humour, or fashion, as some would pretend, but an institution of great sagacity and use: these, when moistened with sweat, stop all perspiration; and, by reverberating the heat, prevent the spirit from evaporating any way but at the mouth; even as a skilful housewife that cove s her still with a wet clout for the same reason, and finds the same effect. For it is the opinion of choice virtuosi that the brain is only a crowd of little animals, but with teeth and claws extremely sharp, and therefore cling together in the contexture we behold, like the picture of Hobbes's Leviathan, or like bees in perpendicular swarm upon a tree, or like a carrion corrupted into vermin, still preserving the shape and figure of the mother animal that all invention is formed by the morsure of two or more of these animals upon certain capillary nerves which proceed from thence, whereof three branches spread into the tongue, and two into the right hand. They hold also that these animals are of a constitution extremely cold; that their food is the air we attract, their excrement phlegm; and that what we vulgarly call rheums, and colds, and distillations, is nothing else but an epidemical looseness, to which that little commonwealth is very subject from the climate it lies under. Further, that nothing less than a violent heat can disentangle these creatures from their hamated station of life, or give them vigour and humour to imprint the marks But, among all improvements of the spirit, wherein of their little teeth. That if the morsure be hexathe voice has borne a part, there is none to be comgonal it produces poetry; the circular gives elo-pared with that of conveying the sound through the quence: if the bite hath been conical, the person whose nerve is so affected shall be disposed to write upon politics; and so of the rest.

I shall now discourse briefly by what kind of practices the voice is best governed toward the composition and improvement of the spirit; for, without a competent skill in tuning and toning each

It is a point of too much difficulty to draw the principles of this famous art within the compass of certain adequate rules. However, perhaps I may one day oblige the world with my critical essay upon the art of canting; philosophically, physically, and musically considered.

nose, which, under the denomination of snuffling,b

a A presbyterian, who, ascending to the dignity of lord mayor of London, went in his official character to a meeting house The snuffling of men who have lost their noses by lewd courses is said to have given rise to that tone which our dissenters did too much affect.

OPERATION OF THE SPIRIT.

has passed with so great applause in the world. The | in the temper and complexion of individuals, which
originals of this institution are very dark: but,
having been initiated into the mystery of it, and
leave being given me to publish it to the world, I
shall deliver as direct a relation as I can.

This art, like many other famous inventions, owed its birth, or at least improvement and perfection, to an effect of chance; but was established upon solid reasons, and has flourished in this island ever since with great lustre. All agree that it first appeared upon the decay and discouragement of bagpipes, which, having long suffered under the mortal hatred of the brethren, tottered for a time, and at last fell with monarchy. The story is thus related.

As yet snuffling was not, when the following adventure happened to a Banbury saint. Upon a certain day, while he was far engaged among the tabernacles of the wicked, he felt the outward man put into odd commotions, and strangely pricked forward by the inward; an effect very usual among the modern inspired. For some think that the spirit is apt to feed on the flesh, like hungry wines Others rather believe there is a upon raw beef. perpetual game at leap-frog between both; and sometimes the flesh is uppermost, and sometimes the spirit; adding that the former, while it is in the state of a rider, wears huge Rippon spurs; and, when it comes to the turn of being bearer, is wonderfully headstrong and hard-mouthed. However it came about, the saint felt his vessel full extended in every part; (a very natural effect of strong inspiration); and the place and time falling out so unluckily that he could not have the convenience of evacuating upwards, by repetition, prayer, or lecture, he was forced to open an inferior vent. In short, he wrestled with the flesh so long, that he at length subdued it, coming off with honourable wounds all before. The surgeon had now cured the parts primarily affected; but the disease, driven from its post, flew up into his head; and, as a skilful general, valiantly attacked in his trenches, and beaten from the field, by flying marches withdraws to the capital city, breaking down the bridges to prevent pursuit; so the disease, repelled from its first station, fled before the rod of Hermes to the upper region, there fortifying itself; but, finding the foe making attacks at the nose, broke down the bridge and retired to the head-quarters. Now, the naturalists observe that there is in human noses an idiosyncracy, by virtue of which, the more the passage is obstructed, the more our speech delights to go through, as the music of a flageolet is made by the stops. By this method the twang of the nose becomes perfectly to resemble the snuffle of a bagpipe, and is found to be equally attractive of British ears; whereof the saint had sudden experience, by practising his new faculty with wonderful success, in the operation of the spirit; for, in a short time, no doctrine passed for sound and orthodox unless it were delivered through the nose. Straight every pastor copied after this original; and those who could not otherwise arrive to a perfection, spirited by a noble zeal, made use of the same experiment to acquire it; so that, I think, it may be truly affirmed the saints owe their empire to the snuffling of one animal, as Darius did his to the neighing of another; and both stratagems were performed by the same art; for we read how the Persian beast acquired his faculty by covering a mare the day before. [Herodotus.]

I should now have done, if I were not convinced that whatever I have yet advanced upon this subject is liable to great exception. For, allowing all I have said to be true, may still be justly objected that there is in the commonwealth of artificial enthusiasm some real foundation for art to work upon,

other mortals seem to want. Observe but the gesture,
the motion, and the countenance of some choice
professors, though in their most familiar actions, you
will find them of a different race from the rest of
Remark your commonest pre-
human creatures.

tender to a light within, how dark, and dirty, and
gloomy he is without; as lanterns, which, the more
light they bear in their bodies, cast out so much the
more soot, and smoke, and fuliginous matter to ad-
Listen but to their ordinary talk,
here to the sides.
and look on the mouth that delivers it, you will
imagine you are hearing some ancient oracle, and
your understanding will be equally informed. Upon
these, and the like reasons, certain objectors pretend
to put it beyond all doubt that there must be a sort
of preternatural spirit possessing the heads of the
modern saints; and some will have it to be the heat
of zeal working upon the dregs of ignorance, as
other spirits are produced from lees by the force of
fire. Some again think, that when our earthly
tabernacles are disordered and desolate, shaken and
out of repair, the spirit delights to dwell within
them; as houses are said to be haunted when they
are forsaken and gone to decay.

To set this matter in as fair a light as possible, I shall here very briefly deduce the history of fanaticism from the most early ages to the present. And if we are able to fix upon any one material or fundamental point, wherein the chief professors have universally agreed, I think we may reasonably lay hold on that, and assign it for the great seed or principle of the spirit.

The most early traces we meet with of fanatics in ancient story are among the Egyptians, who instituted those rites known in Greece by the names of Orgia, Panegyres, and Dionysia; whether introduced there by Orpheus or Melampus we shall not dispute at present, nor in all likelihood at any time for the future [Diod. Sic., 1. i. Plut. de Iside et Osiride]. These feasts were celebrated to the honour of Osiris, whom the Grecians called Dionysius, and is the same with Bacchus: which has betrayed some superficial readers to imagine that the whole business was nothing more than a set of roaring, scouring companions, overcharged with wine; but this is a scandalous mistake, foisted on the world by a sort of modern authors, who have too literal an understanding; and, because antiqnity is to be traced backwards, do therefore, like Jews, begin their books at the wrong end, as if learning were a sort of conjuring. These are the men who pretend to understand a book by scouring through the index; as if a traveller should go about to describe a palace, when he had seen nothing but the privy; or like certain fortunetellers in Northern America, who have a way of reading a man's destiny by peeping into his breech. For, at the time of instituting these mysteries, there was not one vine in all Egypt [Herodotus, 1. ii.], the natives drinking nothing but ale; which liquor seems to have been far more ancient than wine, and has the honour of owing its invention and progress, not only to the Egyptian Osiris [Diod. Sic., 1. i. and iii.],but to the Grecian Bacchus; who, in their famous expedition, carried the receipt of it along with them, and gave it to the nations they visited or subdued. Besides, Bacchus himself was very seldom or never drunk; for it is recorded of him that he was the first inventor of the mitre [Id., 1. iv.], which he wore continually on his head (as the whole company of bacchanals did), to prevent vapours and the headache after hard drinking. And for this reason, say some, the scarlet whore, when she makes the kings of the earth drunk with her cup of abomination, is always sober herself, though she never balks the

A DISCOURSE ON THE MECHANICAL OPERATION, ETC.

JOURNAL TO STELLA.