quence of trying to live forever. He had become an
old man, it appears, and wishing to be young again, he used some
appropriate incantations, and prepared a secret cavern. In this he
caused a confidential disciple to cut him up like a hog and pack him
away in a barrel of pickle, out of which he was to emerge in his new
magic youth after a certain time. But by that special bad luck which
seems to attend such cases, some malapropos traveller somehow made his
way into the cavern, where he found the magic pork-barrel standing
silently all alone in the middle of the place, and an ever-burning lamp
illuminating the room, and slowly distilling a magic oil upon the salted
sorcerer who was cooking below. The traveller rudely jarred the barrel,
the light went out, as the torches flared upon it; and suddenly there
appeared to the eyes of the astounded man, close at one side of the
barrel, a little naked child, which ran thrice around the barrel,
uttering deep curses upon him who had thus destroyed the charm, and
vanished. The frightened traveller made off as fast as he could, and
poor old Virgil, for what I know, is in pickle yet.

Cornelius Agrippa was one of the most celebrated magicians of the
middle ages. He lived from the year 1486 (six years before the discovery
of America) until 1534, and was a native of Cologne, Agrippa is said to
have had a magic glass in which he showed to his customers such dead or
absent persons as they might wish to see. Thus he would call up the
beautiful Helen of Troy, or Cicero in the midst of an oration; or to a
pining lover, the figure of his absent lady, as she was employed at the
moment--a dangerous exhibition! For who knows, whether the consolation
sought by the fair one, will always be such as her lover will approve?
Agrippa, they say, had an attendant devil in the form of a huge black
dog, whom on his death-bed the magician dismissed with curses. The dog
ran away, plunged into the river Saone and was seen no more. We are of
course to suppose that his Satanic Majesty got possession of the
conjuror's soul however, as per agreement. There is a story about
Agrippa, which shows conclusively how "a little learning" may be "a
dangerous thing." When Agrippa was absent on a short journey, his
student in magic slipped into the study and began to read spells out of
a great book. After a little there was a knock at the door, but the
young man paid no attention to it. In another moment there was another