Author of "The Whole Duty of Man" (Vol. vi., p. 537.).—It is asserted in the English Baronetage (vol. i. p. 398., 1741), on the authority of Sir Herbert Perrot Pakington, Bart., in support of the claim of Lady Pakington to the authorship, "the manuscript, under her own hand, now remains with the family." Can this MS. now be found?
B. H. C.
Table-turning (Vol. ix., pp. 88. 135., &c.).—In turning over Sozomen's Ecclesiastical History, I observed at b. VI. ch. 34. an account of the transaction already printed in your pages from Ammianus Marcellinus. It is in brief as follows:—Certain philosophers who were opposed to Christianity were anxious to learn who should succeed Valens in the empire. After trying all other kinds of divination, they constructed a tripod (or table with three legs: see Servius on Virgil, Æn. III. 360.) of laurel wood, and by means of certain incantations and formulæ, succeeded (by combining the letters which were indicated, one by one, by a contrivance of some kind connected with the table) in obtaining Th. E. O. D. Now, being anxious and hopeful for one Theodorus to succeed to the throne, they concluded that he was meant. Valens, hearing of it, put him and them to death, and many others whose names began with these letters.
On referring to Socrates, I find that he also names the circumstances just alluded to. Although he does not give all the particulars, he adds one important statement, which serves to identify the thing more closely with modern table-moving and spirit-rapping. "The devil," he says, "induced certain curious persons to practise divination, by calling up the spirits of the dead (νεκυομαντείαν ποιήσασθαι), in order to find out who should reign after Valens." They succeeded in obtaining the letters Th. E. O. D.
I observe a reference to Nicephorus, b. XI. 45., but have not his works at hand to consult.
The use of laurel, in the construction of the table, seems to connect the occurrences with the worship of Apollo. Those who would investigate the subject fully must consult such passages in the classics as this from Lucan [Lucretius?], lib. i. 739-40.:
"Sanctius et multo certa ratione magis, quam
Pythia, quæ tripode ex Phœbi lauroque profatur."
I have a reference to Le Nourry, p. 1345., who, I see, has some remarks upon the passage already given from Tertullian; he, however, throws little light upon the subject.