"Rectiores virgas vimineas colligentes, easque cum incantamentis quibusdam secretis præstituto tempore discernentes, aperte quid portendatur norunt."
H. W.
The mention of table-turning by Ammianus Marcellinus reminds me of a curious passage in the Apologeticus of Tertullian, cap. xxiii., to which I invite the attention of those interested in the subject:
"Porro si et magi phantasmata edunt et jam defunctorum infamant animas; si pueros in eloquium oraculi elidunt; si multa miracula circulatoriis præstigiis ludunt; si et somnia immittunt habentes semel invitatorum angelorum et dæmonum assistentem sibi potestatem, per quos et capræ et mensæ divinare consueverunt; quanto magis," &c.
Here table divination by means of angels and demons seems distinctly alluded to. How like the modern system! The context of this passage, as well as the extract itself, will suggest singular coincidence between modern and ancient pretensions of this class.
B. H. C.
GENERAL WHITELOCKE.
(Vol. viii., pp. 521. 621.)
Much interesting information concerning General Whitelocke, about whose conduct some difference of opinion appears to exist, will be found in the Rev. Erskine Neale's Risen from the Ranks (London, Longmans, 1853); but neither the date nor the place of his death is there given. The reverend writer's account of the general's conduct is not at all favourable. After alluding to him as "a chief unequal to his position," he says: