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diate act of the devil, and is termed poffeffion. The third is the product of natural caufes, the effect of ftrong imagination, spleen, violent anger, fear, grief, pain, and the like. Thefe three have been abundantly treated on by authors, and therefore shall not employ my enquiry. But the fourth method of religious enthufiafm, or launching out of the foul, as it is purely an effect of artifice and mechanic operation, has been sparingly handled, or not at all, by any writer; because, though it is an art of great antiquity, yet, having been confined to few perfons, it long wanted thofe advancements and refinements which it afterwards met with, fince it has grown fo epidemic, and fallen into fo many cultivating hands.

It is therefore upon this mechanical operation of the spirit that I mean to treat, as it is at present performed by our British workmen. I fhall deliver to the reader the refult of many judicious observations upon the matter; tracing, as near as I can, the whole course and method of this trade; producing parallel inftances, and relating certain discoveries that have luckily fallen in my way.

I have faid, that there is one branch of religious enthufiafm, which is purely an effect of nature; whereas the part I mean to handle, is wholly an effect of art, which, however, is inclined to work upon certain natures and conftitutions, more than others. Befides, there is many an operation, which, in its original, was purely an artifice; but, though a long fucceffion of ages, hath grown

to

to be natural. Hippocrates tells us, that among our ancestors the Scythians, there was a nation called Longheads,*, which at firft began by a cuftom among midwives and nurfes, of moulding, and fqueezing, and bracing up the heads of infants; by which means, nature, fhut out at one paffage, was forced to feek another, and, finding room above, shot upwards in the form of a fugarloaf; and being diverted that way, for fome generations, at laft found it out of herfelf, needing no affiftance from the nurse's hand. This was the original of the Scythian Longheads; and thus did cuftom, from being a fecond nature, proceed to be a firft. To all which there is fomething very analogous among us of this nation, who are the undoubted pofterity of that refined people. For, in the age of our fathers, there arose a generation of men in this ifland, called Roundheads, + whose race is now spread over three kingdoms; yet, in its beginning, was merely an operation of art, produced by a pair of sciffars, a squeeze of the face, and a black cap. These heads, thus formed into a perfect sphere in all affemblies, were most exposed to the view of the female fort; which

* Macrocephali.

The Fanatics in the time of Charles I. ignorantly applying the text, Ye know that it is a shame for men to have long hair, cut theirs very fhort. It is faid, that the Queen, once feeing Pym, a celebrated patriot, thus cropped, enquired who that round-headed man was; and that from this incident the diftinction became general, and the party were called Round-heads. Hawkef.

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which did influence their conceptions fo effectual-. ly, that nature at last took the hint, and did it of herself; fo that a Round-head has been, ever fince, as familiar a fight among us, as a Longhead among the Scythians.

Upon thefe examples, and others eafy to produce, I defire the curious reader to distinguish, first, between an effect grown from art into nature, and one that is natural from its beginning; fecondly, between an effect wholly natural, and one which has only a natural foundation, but where the fuperflructure is entirely artificial. For the first and the laft of thefe, I understand to come within the diftricts of my fubject. And having obtained these allowances, they will ferve to remove any objection that may be raised hereafter against what I fhall advance.

The practitioners of this famous art proceed in general upon the following fundamental, That the corruption of the fenfes is the generation of the fpirit; because the fenfes in men are fo many avenues to the fort of reason, which in this operation is wholly blocked up. All endeavours muft be therefore used, either to divert, bind up, stupify, fluster, and amuse the senses, or else to justle them out of their ftations; and, while they are either absent, or otherwife employed, or engaged in a civil war against each other, the spirit enters, and performs its part.

Now, the ufual methods of managing the fenfes upon fuch conjunctures, are what I fhall be ve

ry

ry particular in delivering, as far as it is lawful for me to do; but having had the honour to be initiated into the mysteries of every fociety, I defire to be excused from divulging any rites, wherein the profane must have no part.

But here, before I can proceed farther, a very dangerous objection muft, if poffible, be removed. For it is positively denied by certain critics, that the Spirit can by any means be introduced into an affembly of modern faints; the disparity being fo great, in many material circumstances, between the primitive way of inspiration, and that which is practifed in the prefent age. This they pretend to prove from the 2d chapter of the Acts, where, comparing both, it appears, first, that the apostles were gathered together with one accord in one place; by which is meant an universal agreement in opinion and form of worship; a harmony, fay they, fo far from being found between any two conventicles among us, that it is in vain to expect it between any two heads in the fame. Secondly, The Spirit instructed the apostles in the gift of speaking several languages; a knowledge fo remote from our dealers in this art, that they neither understand propriety of words, or phrases, in their own. Laftly, fay these objectors, The modern artists do utterly exclude all approaches of the fpirit, and bar up its ancient way of entering, by covering themselves so close, and fo industrioufly a-top. For they will needs have it as a point clearly gained, that the cloven tongues

never fat upon the apoftles heads, while there

hats were on.

Now, the force of these objections seems to confift in the different acceptation of the word spirit ; which, if it be understood for a supernatural affiftance, approaching from without, the objectors have reason, and their affertions may be allowed: but the fpirit we treat of here, proceeding entirely from within, the argument of these adverfaries wholly is eluded. And, upon the fame account, our modern artificers find it an expedient. of abfolute neceffity to cover their heads as clofe as they can, in order to prevent perspiration; than which, nothing is obferved to be a greater fpender of mechanic light, as we may perhaps farther fhew in convenient place.

To proceed therefore upon the phænomenon of fpiritual mechanifm, it is here to be noted, that in forming and working up the fpirit, the affembly has a confiderable fhare, as well as the preacher. The method of this arcanum is as follows. They violently strain their eye-balls inward, half clofing the lids; then, as they fit, they are in a perpetual motion of fee-faw, making long hums at proper periods, and continuing the found at equal height; chufing their time in thofe intermiffions, while the preacher is at ebb. Neither is this practice, in any part of it, fo fingular and improbable, as not to be traced, in diftant regions, from reading and obfervation. For, first, VOL. II. B

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