their
parishioners, by resorting frequently to exorcisms, whenever any
foolish persons took it into their heads that a spell had been thrown
over them. He recommended, as a remedy for the evil, that all these
exorcists, whether lay or clerical, should be sent to the galleys, and
that the number of witches would then very sensibly diminish.

Many other instances of this lingering belief might be cited both in
France and Great Britain, and indeed in every other country in Europe.
So deeply rooted are some errors that ages cannot remove them. The
poisonous tree that once overshadowed the land, may be cut down by the
sturdy efforts of sages and philosophers--the sun may shine clearly
upon spots where venemous things once nestled in security and shade;
but still the entangled roots are stretched beneath the surface, and
may be found by those who dig. Another king, like James I, might make
them vegetate again; and, more mischievous still, another pope, like
Innocent VIII, might raise the decaying roots to strength and verdure.
Still, it is consoling to think, that the delirium has passed away;
that the raging madness has given place to a milder folly; and that we
may now count by units the votaries of a superstition which, in former
ages, numbered its victims by tens of thousands, and its votaries by
millions.

THE SLOW POISONERS.

Pescara.--The like was never read of.
Stephano.--In my judgment,
To all that shall but hear it, 't will appear
A most impossible fable.
Pescara.--Troth, I'll tell you,
And briefly as I can, by what degrees
They fell into this madness.

Duke of Milan.

The atrocious system of poisoning, by poisons so slow in their
operation, as to make the victim appear, to ordinary observers, as if
dying from a gradual decay of nature, has been practised in all ages.
Those who are curious in the matter may refer to Beckmann on Secret
Poisons, in his "History of Inventions," in which he has collected
several instances of it from the Greek and Roman writers. Early in the
sixteenth century the crime seems to have gradually increased, till, in
the seventeenth, it spread over Europe like a pestilence. It was often
exercised by pretended witches and sorcerers, and finally became a
branch of education amongst all who laid any claim to magical and
supernatural arts. In the twenty-first year of Henry VIII. an act was
passed, rendering it h