candle, is first seen leaving the habita- | tion in which the sick man, or one who is about to die, resides, and is to breathe his last. From this abode, it travels to the church or chapel, where the remains of the person whose death it predicts, are to be deposited,

In addition to those who entertain the above opinion, there are others who believe, that the light is accompanied by the spirits of all those who pay their last tribute of respect to the victim of death, by following his remains to the tomb. It is, however, admitted, that although a person happen to meet this extraordinary procession, he may pass through, or near it, without observing his proximity to these mysterious agents, or feeling himself in a crowd.

I shall mention one remarkable instance, of a person who cherished this persuasion, even on his deathbed. He was a man whom I well knew, and I received the relation from his own lips.

Rees Davis, of Cwmbargod, in the parish of Penboyr, Carmarthenshire, a professor of religion, and a man who had led a most exemplary life, was on the 30th of January, 1822, taken dangerously ill, and the following day he expired. About seven hours, however, before his dissolution, he remarked to his wife, and a reverend gentleman who was present, that he felt confident he should not recover, having seen his canwill gorff leave the house about ten days before, and go towards the church. This light, he now felt perfectly confident, predicted his departure to a world unknown, which he hoped would be to the blessed mansions of heaven.I remain, Sir, yours respectfully,

THOMAS J. THOMAS. Trowbridge, Wilts, March 10, 1824.

have been comprised in two, if divested of the repetitions and oaths with which it was disfigured.

I have often thought, that were an assembly of liars to have their relations noted in a similar manner, what a wonderful collection of brave encounters, remarkable occurrences, and hair-breadth escapes, the manuscript would present; and undoubtedly the contents of twenty sheets might easily be compressed into one, if every thing besides truth were expunged.

Of all the vices and little contaminations which debase the human mind, lying is certainly the most despicable. It lowers a man in the estimation of all his friends and acquaintances, who, though dealing largely in falsehood themselves, naturally suspect him to possess inconsistencies in other parts of his character; they very readily conclude, that he who is guilty of wilful and cool fabrication, must of course be a consummate hypocrite.

What a degraded wretch must he be, who takes his seat in the village pot-house, and deliberately entertains his auditors with an account of his travels and adventures, while there is scarcely a syllable of truth in the whole narration! He must be conscious of having either created an imaginary interest, or excited merited disgust, by his egotism and falsehood. There are some men so habitually addicted to lying, that they find it impossible to relinquish the practice. I am acquainted with an old gentleman of this description, whose habit, to his shame be it spoken, it would be as difficult to reform, as to hide the sun with a blanket!

In travelling, when he overtakes a stranger, he amuses him with an account of his being a midshipman in the navy, of having discovered a new system (as he expresses it) of navigation, or of his residing a considerable time in the Indies. I remember, when I was a boy, unacquainted with the history of my country, the many hours I have listened to his relations, of being present at the memorable battle of Edgehill, and of having conversed in person with the great Cromwell, and other celebrated men of his age!

In the neighbourhood where he resides, is the site of an ancient

Thirsk, Feb. 9, 1824. G. Y. H.

GENUINE SYCOPHANCY.

A Letter of Cardinal Granvella. (Communicated by L. MAN, of Liverpool.) THIS remarkable epistle of a remarkable man, is preserved in the Memoirs of the Brussels Academy. It is addressed to a certain man, named Belin, who had a commission in the famous process of the counts Egmont and Horn. Belin was an honest man, and he had before been employed in Burgundy. The cunning Granvella got him appointed to his new office, and thought him a good instrument in forwarding the tyranny in Flanders; but it seems that his eminence knew more of the man's talents than of his principles. The new commissioner was not so complaisant as had been expected; he perceived the intrigues of the Spaniards, who wanted to remove all the Flemings from the bloodthirsty councils which the Duke of Alva intended to establish; and he protested loudly against the irregularity of the proceedings in the cause of the accused noblemen. Finding his remonstrances unavailing, he complained to the Cardinal, who exhorted him to take patience, and wrote him the following letter, which contains the best rules for a man to adopt, who wishes to rise at court: no biographer could have sketched the accomplished courtier half so well as he does it himself, by giving a full insight into his real character.

"Rome, 28th of December, 1567. "I have been very sorry to learn by your last letter, that you cannot

"How often have I not heard the Prince of Orange praised by his late Majesty, because he was always ready to execute every order, great or small, and could be set to every thing! This is what princes like; and it is the shortest and safest way to obtain their special favour.

"I have recommended you to your present post, in the hope that you would fill it in such a manner as to obtain further promotion; but if you are too sensitive, if you cannot humour whims, or if you make yourself obnoxious through obstinacy, I have præstiti tibi. only to say, Quod in me fuit, hoc

"What is the use of speaking about laws? Do you think that the Duke will care more about them than about the Spaniards? You are not wanted to throw impediments into the road; and your talents will not save you from disgrace, if you are not accommodating: envy is always on the watch, and people of talents have more to fear than others. I advise you to do every thing that is required from you, and in the very manner in which it is required, so that you may fall in with the ideas of the Duke.

"When one wishes to get on in the world, one must not be so scrupulously conscientious: if you had been in my place at Brussels, you would have died with fear. I had to hear every day, that daggers were in readiness for me; and I question whether I am quite safe, even in this place: but such things must not be minded, when there is a prospect of advancement.

"You hint at what may be said in Germany about the proceedings; but what is that to the purpose? Read what has been written against me in Germany and Flanders, when the Landgrave of Hesse was arrested: I have swallowed all that like milk. Do you the same; without taking it into your head to control the actions of your betters: You are a novice; and if you shew any disposition for cavilling, you will soon be laid on the shelf, with nobody to take your part.

"You give me notice of my enemies; but if you fancy that it is rendering me a service, you are mistaken. It has long been a maxim with me, not to consider any one as my enemy. I had much rather you would not interfere with my affairs at all: for you cannot know what I am aiming at. I am satisfied when I see my master pleased, and I am neither more nor less than what he wishes me to be."

ON THE EXISTENCE OF THE DEVIL. MR. EDITOR.

SIR,-If the following address, which was delivered at a monthly meeting, convened for the purpose of discussing doctrinal and other points, be worthy a place in your impartial Magazine, it is at your service. The query that forms its basis, is," Do the Scriptures afford any rational evidence of the existence of that being called the Devil?"

After hearing the president say, "I totally deny the existence of that being called the Devil;" and also at a previous meeting, that" either hell torments are not eternal, or God is unjust;" being unwilling to see absurdity assume so bold a port, and truth fall a victim to the remorseless darts of error, I divested my mind of those feelings which are too often the bugbear of the credulous; and addressed the chairman as follows:

Mr. President, There is, perhaps, no single expression in the great republic of language, that the unbelieving sons of literature despise more, than this plain, this simple word, Devil! They recoil at the idea! they tell us that it is a mere phantom of the imagination! a destructive error! and, from the high pinnacle of human reason, they look down with disdain, and pretend to laugh at it as the prince of impostures!

Vain philosophy, and pretended reason, are their great and only potentates, by which they assail truth, and too often establish their system of error. By their subtle reasoning, the mind is carried into the cold regions of barren speculation, and lost in the great vortex of infidelity. From their stupendous elevation, they condescend to tell the world, that they alone breathe the pure atmosphere of reality, that they can develop those mysteries, and unvail those truths, No. 64.-VOL. VI.

which have been hidden from ages past, and which have ever presented to the minds of philosophers, insolvable enigmas!

Now, sir, what are the results of their discoveries? I shall mention two; because I humbly think that the latter owes its existence to the former.* The first then is, that either hell-torments are not eternal, or God is unjust! This, sir, is ignorance with a witness! a conclusion as absurd as it is unphilosophical; it opens the floodgate of error, and truth is lost in the ocean of absurdity.

I believe there are some present who came to this presumptuous conclusion at the last meeting. If there are, sir, I would ask, what do they know of the justice of that Being who fills immensity with his presence? before whom angels stand confounded? a Being, who doeth what he will in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth? Can they, by searching, find out God, or trace the unfathomed counsels of the Deity? If so, he must cease to be infinite, or they to be finite; for finite can never fathom infinite, nor the less encircle the greater.

Perhaps, sir, the most whimsical present will admit, that nothing less than that which is infinite can comprehend infinity; that none but God himself can fathom his own perfections. If so, I would ask again, what does any one present know of the justice of God, which is an essential attribute of his nature? What do they know of his government? Can they trace infinite relations? or view completely the amazing chain of causes and effects? Can they comprehend all the possible forms which justice can assume, and the diversified instances in which it can display itself? Can they see the close connexion that subsists between time and the immense ocean of eternity? between moral actions and their ultimate results? In a word, can they "penetrate all contingencies, all certainties, all probabilities, all realities, all causes and effects," traverse the illimitable regions of unbounded space, and then survey the intimate connexion that subsists in the great chain of intelli

* Voltaire, in his Essay on the "Manners and Spirit of Nations," says, "That as the Jews had no hell, they could have no Devils." Vol. v. p. 423.

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sally received, unless it were of divine inspiration? The Bible makes known to us, that which philosophy could never develop; and, sir, I feel no hesitation in saying, that unless we admit infernal agency to be a seripture doctrine, we can make no manner of sense of many of its parts; but it must be a complication of absurdities, a jumble of contradictions.

For instance, when our Lord was about to perform a miracle on the demoniac, (Mark v. 12.) it is said: The DEVILS besought him, saying, "Send us into the swine, that we may enter them." Now, sir, how absurd would it be to suppose that it was the sins of the man, which besought Jesus to send them into the swine! As to the man's conscience, it could not be that, unless any one present will undertake to prove that a man has many consciences; and if this can be done, our meeting this evening will form a new era in the metaphysical world.

I shall, sir, by your leave, propose to the meeting another instance, and I have done. It is in Mark iii. 22. "And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the Devils casteth he out Devils." Now, sir, I believe all men uniformly admit Jesus to have been a virtuous person; but whether they do or not, is of little consequence, because opinions can never alter facts, and the scriptures assure us that "he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth."

Now, how absurd would it be to say, He hath conscience, and by the prince of consciences casteth he out consciences? or in other words, He hath sin, and by the prince of sins casteth he out sins: which would be making sin, or conscience, the "cause and the effect, the agent and the patient, the moving principle and the thing moved:" but, sir, I refrain from drawing the absurd, the unphilosophic conclusion; and humbly think, that the doctrine of Devils is as clearly depicted, as any other truth in the

* The fabricators of the hypothesis of NO DEVIL, say, that they cannot tell how the Devil can do what is ascribed to him, without being omnipotent and omnipresent. Indeed! but, if we admit that a definite is often used for an indefinite number, the mystery is at once developed.

| whole Bible; and, as all that has been advanced against it is mere hypothesis, unsupported by argument, and unauthorized by scripture, I hope, like the bursting bubble on the passing stream, it will soon evaporate into empty air.

For my own part, the objections which have been, and, were there time, could be raised against the misshapen hypothesis of NO DEVIL, are more convincing to me than all the mighty series of reasoning that has been advanced in support of it, however specious to some present it may appear!

You have just laboured to prove, and attempted to explain, the existence of an evil power, without a being. But, sir, how an evil power can exist, without some being in whom that power must inhere, or some being to exert that power, I am at a loss to discover: power without being, is nothing; and whenever we attempt to form in our mind an idea of an abstract power, we attempt to form an idea of a nonentity.

If then, sir, you deny the existence of an evil being, you must, as a philosopher, deny that of power; because, to suppose the existence of an evil power, without an evil being, is to suppose the existence of an effect without a cause, which is not only contrary to the received rules of philosophizing, but to common sense,-this being, as it should be, its broad, and only base.

You also tell us, that, "according to the best interpreters of the oriental languages, the word Devil means a calumniator, an accuser, or an adversary." These, no doubt, sir, are prominent features in the Devil's character; they originated with him; they are models of infernal genius; offsprings of the lower world! The Devil is enphatically the enemy of man; the accuser of the brethren; and the adversary of souls; going about seeking whom he may devour."

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Admitting that these terms will apply to men, yet this can be no argument against the existence of lapsed intelligences. No; if we place either of these terms in the room of Devil, in the passages which I have just quoted, we shall be pressed with equal difficulty. He hath calumniator, and by the prince of calumniators casteth he out calumniators, would be