at night,
many of them usually remained in the _chateau_, poorly accommodated with
beds. One night as M. de B----, was groping in the dark, for a place
where he might lie down to sleep, he accidently put his finger into the
mouth of M. de Florian, who bit it.

Voltaire kept company only with the aristocracy of Geneva; neither his
liberality nor his wit secured him the good-will of the patriots placed
out of the sphere of his influence; they only saw him a sham
philosopher, without principles and solidity; a courtier, the slave of
rank and fashion; the corrupter of their country, of which he made a
jest. _Quand je secoue ma perruque,_ he used to say, _je poudre toute la
republique!_

Whatever might be Voltaire's antipathy to the visits of strangers at his
_chateau_, he seems to have met with an equal specimen of that temper
from an Englishman. When in London, he waited upon Congreve, the poet,
and passed him some compliments as to the reputation and merit of his
works. Congreve thanked him; but at the same, time told Voltaire _he did
not choose to be considered as an author, but only as a private
gentleman, and in that light expected to be visited._ Voltaire answered,
_that if he had never been any thing but a private gentleman, in all
probability he had never been troubled with that visit._ He also
observes, in his own account of this affair, he was not a little
disgusted with so unseasonable a piece of vanity.

The memory of Voltaire and Rousseau is still cherished by the French
people with great fondness; their busts or figures in bronze or plaster
are frequently met with, and remind one of _Penates_, or household gods.

PHILO.

* * * * *

POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.

WITCHCRAFT.

(_For the Mirror_.)

--Why should the envious world
Throw all their scandalous malice upon me?
'Cause I am poor, deform'd, and ignorant;
And like a bow, buckled and bent together,
By some more strong in mischiefs than myself:
Must I for that be made a common sink
For all the filth and rubbish of men's tongues,
To fall and run into? some call me witch;
And, being ignorant of myself, they go
About to teach me how to be one; urging
That my bad tongue (by their bad usage made so)
Forespeaks their cattle, doth bewitch their corn,
Themselves, their servants, and their babes at nurse;
This they enforce upon me; and in part
Make me to credit it. _Witch of Edmonton._

The belief in witchcraft may b