Esquires.

1761.

* * * * *

In the "Boston Post-Boy" for Dec. 12, 1763, is an account of the
dedication of the Synagogue in Newport, R.I.

_NEWPORT, December 5._

_On Friday last, in the Afternoon, was the Dedication of the
new Synagogue, in this Town. It began by a handsome
Procession, in which were carried the Books of the Law, to
be deposited in the Ark. Several Portions of Scripture, and
of their Service, with a Prayer for the Royal Family, were
read, and finely sung by the Priest and People. There were
present many Gentlemen and Ladies. The Order and Decorum,
the Harmony and Solemnity of the Musick, together with a
handsome Assembly of People, in an Edifice the most perfect
of the Temple Kind perhaps in America, and splendidly
illuminated, could not but raise in the Mind a faint Idea of
the Majesty and Grandeur of the antient Jewish Worship
mentioned in Scripture._

* * * * *

We find by the "Salem Mercury" of March 30, 1789, that New Hackensack
was fifty or sixty years before Rochester in "rappings" and
"table-tippings." Who shall say that these manifestations, whatever they
are, are not as old as man himself? The best and wisest of us do not
know everything. There may be some science, yet in its infancy, which
will some day be explained, so that all these things will then be
perfectly understood. The account here given has no appearance of
deception. Had the girl lived a hundred years earlier, she would in all
probability have been hanged for a witch; but had she lived in these
days, she might have reaped a harvest from lectures and seances.

PHILADELPHIA, March 10.

_Extract of a letter from a gentleman at Fishkill, dated
March 3, 1789._

"Were I to relate the many extraordinary accounts of the
unfortunate girl at New-Hackensack, your belief might,
perhaps, be staggered. I shall therefore only inform you of
what I was an eyewitness to. Last Sunday afternoon myself
and wife went to Dr. Thorn's, and after sitting sometime, we
heard a knocking under the feet of a young woman that lives
in the family; I asked the Doctor what occasioned the
noise--he could not tell, but replied, that he, together
with several others had examin