a despicable sect, nor ought their blasphemies to be left to refute themselves. These remarks might vindicate my former exposure of the Joannite errors, even were it certain that the shutting up of their chapels had put a complete and final termination to this delusion. That this would not be the case, was plain from the beginning; and it is doubtful whether any single instance of recantation has taken place. The fact is, that the great body of this deluded people had been, several years before, disciples of the prophet Brothers; and transferred their allegiance and credulity from that maniac, on the failure of his predictions, to Joanna, half maniac and half cunning woman. And all of them still retain the same general principles, ready to shift their object to Madame Krudner, the American Jemima Wilkinson, or any other lunatic or impostor who may arise, and desire, if not to be clothed with the sun, at least to bask in the sunshine of comfortable idleness. Nay, the greater number actually consider the death of their leader, as no more than a temporary suspension of the faculties, and firmly believe in " her speedy return to the earth in surpassing power and splendour. In 1818, on the fourth anniversary of her death, a company of an hundred and fifty of her adherents assembled on Primrose Hill, in full persuasion of her being at that time reanimated. They repaired to the burying-ground of St. John's Wood, and loudly demanded admittance; nor was it till a late hour that they were persuaded to disperse quietly to their several homes. The pertinacity of this sect in their opinions, may be further evinced by reference to the newspapers of October 1817, where a singular narrative is given of the assembling of a vast number of these deluded people; and of a sacrifice and other mysteries celebrated on that occasion. Not having taken note of the precise paper or date, I am not able to transcribe the account. But the most palpable and disgraceful proof of the existence and the unsubdued hopes of this sect is to be found in the epitaph inscribed, (proh pudor!) on the tombstone of their spiritual mother; which, I am sorry to observe, much to the discredit of those who have per mitted such a blasphemous record to be engraven on stone in a Christian burying-ground, has found admission in the cemetery of St. John's Wood Chapel. JOANNA SOUTHCOTE. Rest, living wonder all thy days To earth's and HEAVEN'S ENRAPTURED GAZE: Yet God can tell, in what blest hour SABINEUS. The answers I have given to this sect in my Second Volume, are intended as standing replies to all future pretenders of the same description who shall arise. I conceived that I had already said enough to obviate the charge of anachronism, which has been preferred against me, for having introduced facts relative to the present state of sects, under earlier reigns than that in which they occurred. In answer to this accusation, I now repeat, that the only way of exhibiting a fair view of the history and principles of any sect, in order to discuss its tenets, was to bring all the facts together at once, and to consider my accounts of their proceedings and examination of their principles, as episodes, from which I should return to the main thread of the history.. Had I taken up and laid down the several sects, reign after reign, the chief purpose of my work would have been utterly frustrated. I have now, in this volume, completed my original undertaking; and if I were to consult my own mental ease, rather than probable utility, I should leave what remains to other hands and other times. For, great as I have found the difficulty of arrangement, that of speaking the whole truth, and of venturing unbiassed opinions, without respect to private friendship or fear of offence, in regard to the last twenty years of the reign of George III. will prove to me a difficulty much more embarrassing. To canvass measures of the present day, to speak freely and boldly concerning men among whom I live, and with whom, on both sides of disputed questions, I am in habits of strict intimacy, is a matter of extreme delicacy. It is, in truth, a dilemma of imperfection under which all history labours, that if it be written during the recorded events, the writer is subject to unavoidable leanings and prejudices; and if delayed till the time of these mental warpings be past, the intelligence can only be gathered on the authority of biassed relaters. When the season of perfect candour arrives, that of strict authenticity is gone. I shall endeavour to discharge my task with as scrupulous a fidelity, as, under the circumstances alluded to, I can command. The remaining Chapter, with Indexes, Chronological Tables, and one or two useful Appendixes, will form a thin additional volume. 15, St. James's Place, Hampstead Road, 21st March 1820. J. G. |