A comparatively recent instance of superstition in America is that of an old Indian woman being suspected of witchcraft, and stoned to death in Pine Nut Valley, Nevada; and in another part of the world, far separated from America, a similar act of superstition was committed, in which a human creature fell a victim to the gross delusions of her neighbours. We refer to a case of witch-burning in Russia. In October 1879 seventeen peasants were tried for burning to death a supposed witch, who resided near Nijni-Novgorod. Of the accused persons, fourteen were acquitted, and three sentenced to church penances—sentences which, if rigorously carried out, will not be easily borne.
A Leipsic writer gives an account of a number of superstitious artists, some of which are very curious. Tietjens, for instance, believed that the person would speedily die who shook hands with her over the threshold at parting; Rachel thought she gained her greatest successes immediately after she had met a funeral; Bellini would not permit a new work to be brought out if on the day announced he was first greeted by a man, and "La Somnambula" was several times thus postponed; Meyerbeer regularly washed his hands before beginning an overture; and a noted tragedienne never plays unless she has a white mouse in her bosom.
But these eccentricities can hardly compare with the strange belief and doings of Hogarth, the celebrated painter and engraver, particularly towards the close of his long life. A few months before he was seized with the malady which cut him off, he commenced his "End of all Things." A few of his intimate friends looked upon his picture as prophetic; and so he seemed to regard it himself. The artist worked with diligence, seemingly with an apprehension that he would not live to complete the piece. Finish it, however, he did in a masterly style, grouping everything that could denote the end of all things. Prominent were a broken bottle, an old broom, a bow unstrung, the butt-end of an old musket, a crown tumbled in pieces, towers in ruins, the moon in her wane, the map of the globe burning, Phœbus and his horses dead in the clouds, a vessel wrecked, Time with his hourglass and scythe broken, a tobacco-pipe in his mouth, the last puff of smoke going out; a play-book, with Exeunt Omnes on one of the open pages; an empty purse, and a statute of bankruptcy taken out against nature.
"So far so good," said Hogarth. "Nothing remains but this,"—taking his pencil and dashing off the similitude of a painter's palette broken. "Finis!" exclaimed the artist; "the deed is done—all is over." Hogarth never handled pencil again, and within a month of the completion of this picture he was no more.
Transcriber's Amendments:
Table of Contents - Chapter XVII - Mirando amended to Miranda - "Miranda beseeching Prospero to allay the Wild Waters"
Table of Contents - Chapter XVIII - De'il amended to Deil - ""Address to the Deil""
Page 66 - Hamadrydes amended to Hamadryades - "... and Hamadryades, who are born and die with the oaks;"
Page 75 - Anguigen[oe] amended to Anguigenæ - "... calls them Anguigenæ, serpent or snake-descended."
Page 84 - Phorcus amended to Phorcys - "Scylla, a daughter of Phorcys ..."
Page 173 - De'il amended to Deil - ""Address to the Deil""
Page 177 - Boccacio amended to Boccaccio - "In the story of Isabella, by Boccaccio ..."
Page 203 - Lock amended to Loch - "They dwell in the tempests of dark Loch-na-Garr."
Page 218 - Haiawatha amended to Hiawatha - ""Song of Hiawatha.""
Page 240 - Cladius amended to Claudius - "He was dragged before Claudius Maximus ..."
Page 271 - Hengest amended to Hengist - "... who had been massacred by Hengist ..."
Page 273 - Rabinical amended to Rabbinical - "Rabbinical Tradition"
Page 358 - Nastradamus amended to Nostradamus - "... then a child, to old Nostradamus ..."
Page 554 - Murdoch amended to Morduck - "In July Sarah Morduck was brought ..."
Page 639 - Leipzic amended to Leipsic - "A Leipsic writer gives an account ..."