a paper with something written upon it*, after which he told me, that no snake or scorpion could hurt me, and this has been the case ever since. As I have been always very backward to believe things which had so much the appearance of mere superstition, I examined many others of this class of people, in order, if possible, to find out the true cause of it, for the good of mankind in general, but I was never able to succeed. All agreed that they had swallowed something; but, I suppose, partly to hide the true art which they possess, and partly to inspire me and others with a sense of the merits and supernatural powers of their sheiks, they always wrapped up the whole in so many superstitious additions, that I could never make any sense of it. I only wish that some future enquirer may be more lucky, as it would be of great benefit, if generally known. Setting aside the superstitious part of it, there might be something in the draught capable to operate such a change in the human frame, as to make it proof against such poison. It is, certainly, not easy to conceive how this can be, therefore we often disbelieve it, because we cannot immediately compare it with things to which we are daily accustomed.

But there are similar circumstances which we can as little account for ; for instance, how is it that a person, who has once the small-pox, or measles, should, for ever after, be proof against the infection? Have all those humours, or whatever else it may be which before made him liable to it, been for ever removed out of his body? If so, how is it that notwithstanding, children born of parents, both of which are of this description, should again be come liable to it; this seems full as incomprehensible as the above, but

* For a practice nearly similar, see Park's Travels in Africa. Charins, called Sapphies, are written on slips of paper, and swallowed.

REMEMBRANCER, No. 46.

we see it daily, we get used to it; we have, perhaps in the beginning, thought about it; but finding ourselves unable to find out the cause, we drop it, and content ourselves with knowing that it is so. Is it, therefore, quite impossible, that there exists a remedy to make men proof against such poisons?

To fascinate serpents, so as to draw them to ourselves, seems at first sight, likewise to savour of superstition; yet it cannot be denied that these people possess a secret by which they are able to do it. Besides the many instances which I have heard from men of the most respectable characters, I was myself eye-witness of some. A friend of mine, Mr. Bruno Arnaud, who lived at Cairo in an old house, had found once a serpent in his bed. chamber; not being over fond of such company, and suspecting there. might be more, he sent for one of these men, to take them away. When the fellow came in, my friend told him, that he was afraid he had brought some serpents with him in his bosom, which he would afterwards make him believe that he found in his house. He seemed affronted, and began to throw off one part of his clothes after the other, till he was quite naked. Thus he went from one room to another, muttering something all the while, and actually gathered in a short time five large serpents around him; at last he said, there are no more. When we hear such a thing for the first time, we are very liable to disbelieve it, because we never heard nor saw it before; but should we not do the same had we never heard nor seen what our rat-catchers can do with rats and mice? There may exist some ingredients, of which serpents are as fond, as mice and rats are of oil of Rhodium and cats of Valerian. -Travels by Mr. John Antes, p. 15.

So complete is the tyranny the Indian priests have established over rattle-snakes and others armed with 4 F

weapons equally deadly, that they lure them from their deepest retreats, and make them fly from or follow them by apparent command. To obtain this skill and those acquirements, they study nature with the most unwearied application and assiduity; their own particular saying is, that "Nature produces nothing for nothing;" implying, that whatever is, is for some particular end or purpose. They observed animals bitten by venomous reptiles, were seen to seek a peculiar plant to recover their energy and strength; and these reptiles in their turn have been known to betray violent apprehension at the approach of a hog, and to shew such antipathy to certain herbs, trees, and plants, as to suffer death sooner than avoid it by passing over them. Objects too have been discovered, to which snakes in particular have such passion and attachment, that they will face every danger to enjoy them. Armed with all this knowledge, the priests come into the world as persons inspired. From their habits of life, the Indians are often exposed to the bite of venomous animals, and the priests in consequence, have to instruct them to know the antidote, and give it efficacy by gesture and incantation. They instruct the whole tribe in a manner of sleeping in the open air, in the utmost safety, though surrounded by snakes, not one of which dare approach them. The instruction consists in taking a

stick and leaves from a certain tree; with the point of a stick describe a ring round the sleeping ground, place the leaves on the ring, and on doing this performs certain ceremonies. This is all the knowledge they impart to the tribe, and this is highly efficacious and valuable; for rejecting the folly of the use of words and exorcism, merely given to convey the idea of a superior power, the antidotes and herbs pointed out are certain cures, and the simple action of drawing a line with a black ash stick, and strewing on the line some leaves of the same tree, is known to be entirely sufficient to hinder the snake from passing the line, and deter him from interrupting any thing within side of it. So great is their terror of this timber, that they are never known to inhabit where it grows, and if a branch of black ash be cast before a rattle-snake, apprehension and fear immediately seize him; his rattle ceases; his passion subsides; and groveling, timid, and yet unquiet, he takes a large circuit to avoid the branch, or more probably instantly retires. The familiarity between the priests and snakes, the principle of which they withhold from the multitude, is to be accounted for in a manner equally simple;-by their alternately arming themselves with substances, for which the snakes entertain the most decided attachment, or antipathy.— Ashe's Travels, Vol. ii. p. 4-10.

OF CALCUTTA'S ADDRESS ON
CONFIRMATION.

WE have just received a copy of

"An Address delivered to the Persons confirmed at the Triennial Confirmation holden in the Cathedral Church at Calcutta, on the 18th Day of December, 1821. By Tho

mas

Fanshauf Bishop of Calcutta." Parts of it, of course, refer to the

his Lordship spoke; but the general advice and directions are so highly in this and a following Number. valuable that we shall reprint them

"1.The first requisite, perhaps, is that you be impressed with a just idea of the dangers of life, and especially of youth: when that period shall have been passed, not merely in innocence, but in Chris

tian improvement, little is after wards to be apprehended; though not so little, as to excuse you from vigilance and anxiety for your spiritual state. In youth you are by nature exposed to a combination of dangers, resulting from the violence of the passions, and from evil example, and from easiness of temper, and from want of er erience, from precipitate decisions, from fascinat ing

views of the world, and from a vain confidence, that as it will never be too late, abundant opportunity will be afforded you hereafter, of making up your minds on the subject of religion, and of living as it may require in the mean time, if you conform to the received usages, of propriety and decency, you will hold it to be sufficient for the present, and set your consciences at rest, It is my duty to warn you of the grossness of such delusion; unquestionably God may bring us to reflect and to inquire, at any period of our lives but the question to be considered is, whether He will do this, when we have deliberately and perseveringly treated the matter as of little importance, compared with the worldly objects on which we have set our hearts. The way, indeed, in which He usually brings such persons to reflect, if at all, is by some severe affliction; by the loss of friends, of health, or of fortune; by some change in their outward circumstances, which strips the world of its allurements, and impels them to seek a refuge with God. You will not say, that such an alternative is to be regarded without alarm: but something worse may happen: it may be that their delusion may continue to the end year after year may roll away, without bringing any signal warning; and the hand of death may be upon them, before they have examined their state. You have, therefore, no security but that of beginning well, and persevering in the right way: your safety lies wholly in your sense of the danger which threatens

you on every deviation. And far easier is it to keep in the path of religion, than to recover it, when once it is lost: other paths will be pleasant to you for a time, and you will have no desire to quit them. True wisdom, therefore, will prompt you to resist the first solicitations of sin; you cannot listen to them, and preserve your powers of resistance unimpaired.

"It is fit, however, that you should know the nature of such solicitations; for they are not confined to what the world condemns: you must appeal to a purer standard: the tempter assails the innocent and unsuspecting most formidably, when he would draw them into practices and indulgences, which though they are at variance with the spirit of the Gospel, are not, perhaps, subjects of common censure or remark. Be that as it may, there is mischief in every thing, which has a tendency to the relaxation of genuine religious principle; in every thing, which would oblige you to give up or even to be remiss in habits, inculcated and prescribed by religion; in every thing which requires you, before you can give assent to it, to tamper with the conscience, to argue with yourselves from the prac tice of others, or to efface or soften down any virtuous and Christian impression. Whatever is really good and right, recommends itself at once, to minds not corrupted by the world. This moral feeling is invaluable; and is, therefore, by all means to be retained: and thus it is, that a correctness of principle and a certain firmness of character will be found indispensable in your Christian career.

"2. But then, in the second place, it were vain to talk to you about religious principle and Christian firmness, if you are to be left to suppose, that they are absolutely within your own power. There could not be a more fatal error. In our fallen nature" nothing is strong, and nothing is holy," but

through the Grace of God: we owe our knowledge, and still more our love, of what is good, to the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit: and our power of persisting in the practice of holiness is derived from the same source: no truth is more clearly laid down in the Scriptures; and it is illustrated in our own experience. It will be, therefore, to little purpose, that you shall resolve to lead Christian lives, unless you will maintain a continual intercourse and communion with God: I do not exceed the truth, when I affirm, that prayer is as necessary to the well-being of the soul, as food is to that of the body: we have no spiritual strength without it: we are left to our natural weakness: for what confidence can we place in the Divine protection, unless we seek it? or how can we expect to resist evil, if we take not the means to confirm ourselves in the love of that which is good? But these effects flow from prayer: we are sure that God will bear us, if we earnestly ask, that He will enable us to fulfil his commandments, and teach us to love his law: and as little can we doubt, if we believe in a Gracious Providence, that He will direct us aright, when we submit ourselves entirely to his disposal. The very habit, indeed, of prayer is salutary to the soul: it keeps alive within us whatever is pure and holy; it creates in us an abhorrence of sin! it gives us an interest in the service of God; it dispenses a sanctifying influence, and places us above the world; not above the duties, or the charities, or the wants of life; that were, indeed, a delusion; but above its vicissitudes, its fashions, its corruptions and temptations in the constant practice of prayer our nature is gradually changed: we are benefited by frequent and intimate intercourse with men, who are eminently good: how, then, can we fail to be improved, and even transformed, by the habit of holding communion with God? Let,

therefore, the good resolutions, whatever they may be, which you have this day formed, be connected and blended in your minds with the need of divine succour: our best resolves are, that we will do what we know to be right, with the help of God: but a part of every such purpose will be, that we will seek for that help, and cease not to pray for it from day to day, while we remain in this state of trial.

"3. In the next place, however, let me remind you, that though our secret and individual wants should be the subject of private prayer, (and they cannot be fully represented in any other) the religion of Christ could not be maintained in the world without the public service of the Church and to imagine that either supersedes the use of the other, is to mistake the proper objects of both. The uses of private prayer may be gathered, in some measure, from what has been already said : but the service of the Church is a public and continually renewed profession of our faith in Christ, and that not merely for our own sakes, but for the

good of our brethren. If I might venture to make such a distinction, I would say, that self-examination, and contrition, and gratitude for especial mercies, are the principal features of secret devotion; which, however, refer chiefly to ourselves: whereas of public prayer the prominent character will be, that it proclaims "glory to God in the highest, and good-will towards men. We meet in this place to offer to the Almighty the tribute of our common homage, to give evidence to others of our faith in the Redeemer, and to shew, that however some may think or act, we are " on the Lord's side;" that in a conflict between religion and irreligion, such as exists in the world, we throw our weight, whatever it may be, into the scale of the former; that we acknowledge, our deliverance from sin and misery to be only through Christ; that we de

light in beholding others making the same profession; that we can cordially join with our brethren in cal. ling down on our common frailties the mercy of God, and his common blessing on our endeavours to serve him; and we attest, what in an age of religious empiricism and causeless separation is not unimportant, that we are in the unity of the Church. It is not, however, my meaning, that social worship has no relation to private and individual wants; and as little should it be supposed, that in our most secret devotions our brethren are altogether overlooked: I speak only of these leading distinctions of the two, with the view of shewing you, that both are necessary to the Christian. Let it, therefore, be your care to lose no opportunity of joining in the service of the Church: let your attendance be not casual, but regular no measure of secret piety will excuse you: what you need not for yourselves, you will in charity ask for your brethren, and assist them in their prayers: above all, you will feel it incumbent upon you, especially in this heathen land, to

bear testimony unto Christ. It is, indeed, deeply to be lamented, that many of you may be thrown into situations, where religion is not publicly maintained: if, however, you shall feel the privation, (and such it must be to every Christian mind) you will be the more anxious to avail yourselves of the public worship, whenever it'may be had. It might, indeed, be expected, that they, who have resided at stations, where no religious provision exists, would, on the first opportunity, direct their footsteps to the house of prayer: we do not, however, always find this to be the case: and we account for it by the melancholy truth, that men may live without religion, till they cease to think of it, or perhaps regard it with disgust. From this fact I will derive one word of advice, which, however, I would press upon you with all earnestness; that if God has blessed you with religious impressions, cherish and mature them by all the means, which He has graciously afforded you; or they will become weaker, till they are effaced for ever."

Sketches of the Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain.

No. X.

THE Church History of the Ninth Century is confined to two points, the destruction wrought by the Danes, and the restoration effected by King Alfred. On neither of these subjects, is our information precise. For the greater part of the circumstances with which they are supposed to have been attended, there is no better authority than that of ignorant and credulous monks, who wrote several centuries after the events took place, and were unwilling or unable to distinguish false

hood from truth. But of the main facts of the case, there can be no doubt. And even the particulars are not destitute of a degree of probable evidence. The ruin of the great monasteries was a subject upon which tradition would not fail to busy herself; and if she exaggerated the cruelties of the despoiler, and the original splendour, and opulence of the destroyed, allowance for such inaccuracies may easily be made.

The first Danish armament landed in Northumberland, and the monastery and shrine of St. Cuthbert, were immediately levelled with the ground. The reliques of the Saint were preserved by the piety of