lack, do pick up the joint stool, sit down, and then we will to business.'

"Pardon me, Sir Hugh," replied the schoolmaster, "I know my place, I would not presume to take so familiar a position. Allow me to talk standing."

"Master Barnabas," said Sir Hugh, "I honour your modesty. "But the children of science, Master Barnabas, and above all, of such a science as we follow, are, during the progress of their studies, in some sort placed upon an equality; for I trow the planets shew no respect of persons; the divine light of their paths being as open to be traced by the shepherds of Chaldea as by a king upon his throne. And though my station in life may demand there should be some distance between us in public, according to our degrees, like the distance between Saturn and the sun, yet in private, Master Barnabas, when we meet within the odoriferous precincts of such a chamber of science as this is, why then we will be as brothers, and go on hand in hand, even as the gemini of the zodiac, consecrating our brotherhood to researches after truth-truths the most sublime, useful, and exalted, that were ever yet honoured or distinguished by man. Pray sit down, and forget the dignity of my station, in the greater dignity of the astrologer."

Sir Hugh, who now and then in his discourses had so much left of the lawyer about him to be fond of making a good pleading out of a bad case, here ended his long harangue by a climax, in which, by the vehemence of his speech, the glow of his features, and the air of satisfaction that sat upon them, he seemed to feel he had made an eloquent summing up on the glory of astrology. And Barnabas, seating himself upon the joint stool, prepared to listen to his discourse, and to exhibit his own learning as occasion might require.

"And now, Master Barnabas," continued his condescending patron, "before we enter upon matters of abstruse science, we must attend to the necessary but less imposing claims of humanity. How does the widow? Is she cured of her quartan?"

Barnabas shook his head.

"What!" exclaimed Sir Hugh, "not cured! that can't be -it can't be."

"She had three shakes yesterday, I do assure you, Sir Hugh."

"It can't be, I am positive it can't be," cried Sir Hugh, "for did not I do the thing needful for her myself; and that according to the advice of the great Agrippa! Did not I take

the parings of her nails, put them up in an old linen rag, tie the same round the neck of a live eel, and let him slip into the water on the first Friday of the last month? Agrippa never knew the remedy to fail, and you'll not doubt his opinion I think."

"She is as bad as ever, I do assure you, Sir Hugh."

"It can't be I tell you, Master Barnabas, she must be cured, though she shake till her bones rattle in her skin."

"Sir Hugh, I will not dispute with you," said the schoolmaster, "but the old woman has had her shaking fits as bad as ever; but perhaps she may have mistaken the effects of age for those of an ague."

"It must be so," said Sir Hugh, "for as to her not being cured, after the nails, the rag, and the eel, it is impossible. Why if she were not cured, Master Barnabas, it would be giving the lie to the learned Agrippa, the greatest man in medical astrology these latter times, or any other times, have yet produced. But no more of this foolish old woman, who doesn't know the shake of an ague from that of a frosty morning. Let us talk of things more important. Master Barnabas, I am a man full of the crosses and cares of this life. I have failed; for the life of me I can't catch her."

"Then, Sir Hugh, you must have mistaken the means to be used in this matter. I know fairies are ticklish things to deal with, but they are to be had. May I ask what is your recipe?"

"I'll shew it you, Master Barnabas,” said Sir Hugh. “I am determined to make another trial, and crave the assistance of your learning and experience."

"They shall both be at your service, most honoured Sir," replied Barnabas, "as in duty bound."

Sir Hugh rummaged amongst his papers, as his learned assistant drew close to him, and looked with anxious expectation to the opening of an old, brown, dusty, and worm-eaten book of most ample contents. "Here it is," said Sir Hugh, "Dr. Dee's own recipe. But stay, my barnacles;" and he took up a pair that hung by a black ribbon round his neck, and which having no supporters for the temples, afforded the help of their artificial eyes by keeping themselves on at the tip of the nose, which they pinched in, almost to the size of the back of the blade of a knife, and by so doing materially affected the voice, changing it into a tone that 'piped and whistled in the sound.' Barnabas lent an attentive ear as Sir Hugh read as follows:

"An excellent way to catch a fairy, which will obtain any

one that is not already bound. First, get of Venice facture a square crystal glass.'

"I should say round," cried Barnabas. "No, no, square," said Sir Hugh. "It suits best with the action of spirits, as the learned Dr. Dee says in his book." "Pardon me, it must be round," reiterated the school

master.

"All philosophers admit the contrary," cried Sir Hugh. "The place of their confinement should resemble the form of the globe," said Barnabas. "Is not the world round?"

"I know nothing about the world, round or square,” said Sir Hugh, "but I kuow this recipe to be infallible. — Let me go on. Then lay the said crystal in the blood of a black hen three Wednesdays, and take three hazel twigs of a year's growth, and peel them fair, and bury them where fairies haunt, and on the next Wednesday take up your sticks, and call her you would bind, three times on every stick, and so you shall call her in a dark place the three following Wednesdays, and if she comes, catch her, and let her be well corked."

"By the soul of Tycho Brahe," exclaimed Barnabas, “I cannot hear this with patience to think of calling up a fairy in the dark! and on three Wednesdays, instead of three Fridays.-Do you really expect, Sir Hugh, that a recipe like that will ever get you up a fairy? or that she can ever be seen in the dark? And on a Wednesday call! It must be a Friday.'

"You are quite wrong, Master Barnabas," said Sir Hugh, "and if you maintain such an opinion, you are no spiritmonger at all, and no astrologer to boot!"

"No astrologer, Sir Hugh!” cried Barnabas; and he started from his seat as he spoke: "No astrologer! you surely cannot mean to insult me!"

"I have no wish to insult you, Master Barnabas; but I repeat it, if you maintain such an opinion, you have no knowledge of the action of spirits, and you are no astrologer."

No astrologer, Sir Hugh!" again exclaimed the impassioned schoolmaster: "Sir Hugh, I have been master of the Latin boys these ten years and upwards, and no one ever yet questioned the purity of my latinity; but nevertheless, had you found fault with my prosody, my hexameter or pentameter verses, or had my feet displeased you, why-why, Sir Hugh, I could have borne it; I could have managed to keep my ground without them.-But thus to be knocked down at once. No astrologer forsooth! Why, did not I hang Timothy Doleman, who was executed at Exeter last year, even from

the very hour of his birth? Did not I tell his mother before he was breeched, that all her pains would come to nothing? for that I had found a rope hanging over the boy's head even from the very horns of the moon? Was not the lad brought up with such a conviction of the truth of my prediction, that he sucked in the ideas of the gallows with his mother's milk? And was not he ever after as careless a young dog, as to what became of him, as ever ran headlong to his ruin? And was he not hanged? Did he not verify the truth of my prediction? Did he not say in his last dying speech and confession, that I, ay that I, Sir Hugh, had helped him to the gibbet faster than either judge or jury to boot! Yet forsooth my skill must be called in question, and I am no astrologer!"

"I say it again," cried Fitz, "that, to wave the question respecting fairies in particular, many charms and schemes must be worked in the dark; for what says that most learned, sweet, and curious astrologer, Cornelius Agrippa, on this subject?"

very

"The learned Gustavus Jacobovitch is decidedly of a contrary opinion," replied Barnabas, "and no scheme ever yet saw the light, that was worked in the dark. Has not the moon been always held necessary and infallible in all works of magic, even from the times of Zoroaster, who was so famous as to be held the inventor of this divine science; and if he was, he was the greatest benefactor to mankind that the world ever yet saw.-Did not Albaris, and Charmonedes, and Hermippus, all follow after him? Did they not all reverence the moon, and hold it as the sun of the science?"

"Still I maintain," cried Sir Hugh, "that some schemes must be put up in the dark; else how think you we should ever come at the fortunes of half the great men in the world?"

"Pardon me, Sir Hugh," said Barnabas, "I trace the fortunes of the greatest man of latter times, one who stands so high in the favour of our gracious Queen, the Earl of Leicester himself, in the very cusp of Saturn."

Look to that most curious chapter (page ninety-nine) on the powerful effects of darkness, in Agrippa," said Sir Hugh; "doth not he say, that a civet cat maketh all dogs dumb with the touch of her shadow? that enchanters cover their own works with the shade of their bodies? that if cuttle-fish be put into a lamp in a dingy apartment, it maketh blackamoors appear before men's eyes? and that if a candle composed of saturnine things be put into a dead man's mouth, it will ever

after, as oft as it shines in darkness, bring great sorrow and fear upon all the house?"

"Hermes and Chyrannides, and of later times Alburtus, hold the contrary. With them every charm must be worked

in the light," said Barnabas.

Trismegistus, Porphyricus, Jamblicus, and Gog the Grecian, are on my side the question,” cried Sir Hugh.

"Their books are lost," exclaimed Barnabas.

"That I deny," said Fitz; "seeing that Democritus collected the substance of them all, adding to the same his own cunning comments thereon; and if you deny his authority, as well might you deny the truth of those wise sayings of Socrates, because they were set forth by Plato."

"Sir Hugh," said Barnabas, "allow me to put one question, only for the sake of argument, since truth should be the result of all discussion. Only answer me this: of what use, think you, are the twenty-eight mansions of the moon? What was the moon made for?"

"To give light to astrology," exclaimed Fitz.

"Well, I'm glad you grant me that," said Barnabas; "that's liberal-that's one point conceded to my argument. And therefore do I say, that nothing can be done in a charm or scheme without that most noble and curious planet the moon; wanting which, all the astrologers that ever yet lived must have been left to grope their way in the dark. And did not Alpharus set the moon in the eighth sphere, and give her her mansions and powers thereof; her horns, her ecliptics, her gibbouses, and her signs? And what were all these for, but for the uses of astrology? And what shall a son of that science hope to accomplish without her?-And what is more than all, I have raised a spirit myself, Sir Hugh, under the influence of the twelfth house."

"The devil you have!" cried Sir Hugh in great amaze

ment.

Ay, I have, Sir Hugh," continued Barnabas; "and such a spirit as would have rejoiced the very cockles of old Cornelius's heart to see him—that is, always provided his eyes had been properly anointed, so that he might have the power to see him.'

"And who did you raise?" inquired Fitz.

Guess, Sir Hugh," said Barnabas, "only guess."

"Perhaps Pippin.'

"Pippin!" exclaimed Barnabas, with an air of contempt. "Pippins and cheese; no such paltry spirit as that, I do assure