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DIABOLICAL SUGGESTIONS.

I cannot but advise all considering men whose lives are attended with such extraordinary incidents as mine, or even though not so extraordinary, not to slight such secret intimations of Providence, let them come from what invisible intelligence they will. That, I shall not discuss: but certainly they are a proof of the converse of spirits, and a secret communication between those embodied and those unembodied, and such a proof as can never be withstood.-ROBINSON CUSOR.

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That such hints and notices are given us believe few that have made any observations of things can deny that they are certain discoveries of an invisible world, and a converse of spirits we cannot doubt; and if the tendency of them be to warn us of danger, why should we not suppose they are from some friendly agent (whether supreme, or inferior and subordinate, is not the question), and that they are given for our good?—Imp.

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It has been a favourite notion with enthusiasts and visionaries of various denominations, and in all ages, that we have an intimate intercourse with the invisible world that we are guided in wholesome or prejudicial courses, and urged to virtuous or sinful actions, by the promptings of good and evil spirits. Defoe, from whom I have taken my mottoes, evidently inclined to this belief his earnest repetition of the argument shows that he personally entertained the sentiments on the subject which he has attributed to his hero. It is true that the quotations have reference only to benevolent ministerings; but the author does not therefore repudiate an infernal agency. On the contrary, Crusoe readily ascribes to the Devil the mysterious foot-print on the sand, howbeit the impression is of a man's naked sole, instead of the old traditional hoof. In fact, to

judge from the writings and preachings of certain sectarians, the satanical interference in human affairs is much more direct and constant than the providential: the Devil in propria persond (for his likeness is as well known as if it had been calotyped by Collen-or daguerreotyped by Beard), having an audible voice and a visible finger in the most humble of their domestic concerns. Moreover this theory of an infernal intercourse is especially maintained by the weak and the wicked, to whom it affords a convenient plea in migitation, if not an absolute transfer of their guilt, just as a little boy lays his fault on a bigger and older instigator. Thus when such a sinner breaks some divine commandment, or violates some human law, if he marries one woman too few, or two women too many if he mistakes his neighbour's horse for his own ass-or swears to the wrong fact in an affidavit-or sticks his knife in a forbidden sheath,- or absently sets fire to his house instead of light to his fire-whatever error the misguided creature may commit, the blame attaches not to him, but to a certain personage, who has appropriately been represented like a sort of black Scape Goat, with horns and a tail.

In a word-the poor sinner has been the victim of a Diabolical Suggestion. »

This popular belief received some thirty years ago a striking confirmation in the dreadful murder of an elderly couple, who were killed in bed by their footman. There was no robbery commited, and the motive of the assassin was enveloped in the deepest mystery. The ordinary temptations to such crimes were all absent there was no injury to revenge, no hatred to gratify, no cupidity to indulge, no delinquency to conceal. According to his own account, and in which the criminal persisted at the gibbet, the deed originated in a sudden and unaccountable inspiration. He had been asleep, and on waking the thought came into his head-he could not tell `how - to go and kill his master and mistress. In vain he strove to banish the diabolical suggestion the horrible idea still haunted him with increasing importunity, till the struggle becoming intolerable and the impulse irresistible-the murder was consummated!

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And was there really in this case any positive Satanical prompting an actual whisper from the Prince of Darkness? It is impossible for mortal man to reply in the negative but one may at least show that no such cause was necessary to the effect-that a direct infernal instigation was not indispensable to the bloody consequence. It is quite possible that the first fearful hint was the offspring of a dream,-either a sleeping or a waking one for the opening of the outward organ does not simultaneously close that other eye, which gazes inwardly at another theatre, with its own actors, and its own dramas. From the fragments of some visionary tragedy, just abruptly terminated, it was quite possible for the imagination to compound a new plot, incoherently mixed up with the actualities of the house and its inmates. And hence the catastrophe. The mere entrance and entertainment of an unlawful speculation in an ignorant, vicious, and ill-governed mind seems to involve the final working out of the scheme. The more atrocious the proposal, the more vividly it presents itself,-the more horrible its features, the more frequently they recur; as a bad dream is oftener remembered than a good one. The man becomes in reality the slave of his own depraved imagination—its persecutions wear out what remains of his better nature, and submitting at last to its goadings, he performs the abominable task. Thus the Killing in Thought begets the Killing in Act: for which reason, perhaps, the first Murderer was branded, not in the hand, but on the forehead.

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The wise only," says Coleridge,« possess ideas the greater part of mankind are possessed by them -i. e. as a person is said to be possessed by an evil spirit or demon. A saying so true, that we have only to look round us to discover hundreds of men and women, gentle and simple, in this state of mental thraldom; and, in consequence, daily committing acts so mischievous to themselves or to others, as to seem the plausible results of Diabolical Suggestions. In this category one may perhaps include such malefactors as Oxford and Francis, for whose traitorous attempts there has hitherto appeared no adequate motive. It is not necessary, however, to

suppose any treasonable conspiracy—a political purpose, a popular disloyalty, or a private enmity. The original sin need not be of so deep a dye. The empty vapourings of a conceited, shallow-witted potboy, the melodramatic plottings of the son of a stage-carpenter, would suffice on the principle laid down, to induce the criminal result. The frequent repetition of notorious offences-and in the case of Francis, the servility of the copy-the use of the same kind of weapon and the choice of the identical spot-are favourable to this hypothesis. An atrocious idea, wantonly entertained in the first instance, is pampered and indulged, till like a spoilt child, it tyrannizes over its parent; and vociferously overwhelming the still small voice of conscience and reason—perhaps stiller and smaller than usual in such an individual-compels him to submit to the growing imperiousness of its dictates. The mind-the sober, honest, and industrious servant of the wise and good-is the lord and master of the weak and wicked. And this is especially true of the Imagination-lovely and beneficent as the delicate Ariel under the command of a gifted Prospero but headstrong, brutish and devilish as Caliban turned out according to a later history-when the wand that held him in subjection was broken!

A delinquency from this cause-though immeasurably distant in turpitude from the offences just mentioned--was committed, no matter when, nor where, nor by whom; but he was a medical student in our metropolis. Amongst his other destructive or dangerous instruments he possessed a rifle; and along with it a diploma which entitled him to practise, on certain days, with other members of a shooting society at a club-target. At these meetings, the student was a constant attendant and competitor-never dreaming, however, of hitting any thing but bull's-eyes-till one unlucky day it suddenly came into his head-he could not tell by what orifice-to wonder if he could kill a deer. From that hour the notion haunted him like a ghost-in his bed, at his meals, at his prayers even, or during a walk-which, in fancy, was only a Deer-stalking.

It occurred to him, whilst he listened to his patients-he

knew that he could bring down a sick man, but could he kill a fat buck? He could operate fatally, as he was aware, on the human body-but could he do the same by a stag? The tormenting problem interfered with his professional studiesand at the Hospital, while the lecturer was explaining the functions of auricle and ventricle, the disciple was taking aim along an imaginary gun-barrel at an ideal Hart.

At length-the cacöethes, as he called it, became so unbearable, that obeying what Lord- and his keeper would certainly have considered a Diabolical Suggestion, the rifleman posted down to C―― Park, and unceremoniously put a ball at 120 paces into the cranium of a monarch of the forest. The creature, as usual in such cases, sprang wildly aloft, and then fell dead, and the mental craving expired along with it. From that moment, the student declared he would not have given a light farthing to kill another deer, even though he had held his rifle in his hand, and the earl's permission in his pocket.

It appears, then, that an unpruned imagination, backed by an inveterate memory, may produce evil consequences in the physical world, without any supernatural instigations. But by way of illustration let me adduce two more instances, the first being of a ludicrous character-the second more serious in its tone and tragical in its termination.

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Amongst my intimates of ten years ago, there was one named Horace a young man of a speculative turn of mind, and, as often happens with such a character, of rather eccentric habits. When I first knew him he was professedly studying for the Bar: but his reading had little to do with the dusty tomes of the law. What he did read might be gathered from his conversation, from which it appeared that his favourite authors were those who put forward the greatest number of ingenious paradoxes, or the most fantastical theories. There was, in fact, a Shandean twist in his mind that inclined him to all kinds of whimsical speculations, and that favourite pastime with such philosophers, the flying of metaphysical kites.

He lived a bachelor, in a small house in

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Street,

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