called in question was the envy of his rival preachers, whose fame was eclipsed by his superior talents. The second cause was a libel falsely imputed to him upon Cardinal Richelieu, who, with all his eminent qualities, had the infirmity of being inexorable upon the question of any personal attack that was made upon him. Grandier, besides his eloquence, was distinguished for his courage and resolution, for the gracefulness of his figure, and the extraordinary attention he paid to the neatness of his dress and the decoration of his person, which last circumstance brought upon him the imputation of being too much devoted to the service of the fair.

'About this time, certain nuns of the Convent of Ursulines at Loudun were attacked with a disease, which manifested itself by very extraordinary symptoms, suggesting to many the idea that they were possessed with devils. A rumour was immediately spread that Grandier, urged by some offence he had conceived against these nuns, was the author, by the skill he had in the arts of sorcery, of these possessions. It unfortunately happened, that the same capuchin friar who assured Cardinal Richelieu that Grandier was the writer of the libel against him, also communicated to him the story of the possessed nuns, and the suspicion that had fallen on the priest on their account. The cardinal seized with avidity on this occasion of private vengeance, wrote to a counsellor of state at Loudun, one of his creatures, to cause a strict investigation to be made into the charge, and in such terms as plainly implied that what he aimed at was the destruction of Grandier.

The trial took place in the month of August, 1634; and, according to the authorized copy of the trial, Grandier was convicted upon the evidence of Astaroth, a devil of the order of seraphims, and chief of the possessing devils, of Easas, of Celsus, of Acaos, of Cedon, of Asmodeus of the order of thrones, of Alex, of Zabulon, of Naphthalim, of Cham, of Uriel and of Achas of the order of principalities, and sentenced to be burned alive. In other words, he was convicted upon the evidence of twelve nuns, who, being asked who they were, gave in these names, and professed to be devils, that, compelled by the order of the court, delivered a constrained testimony. The sentence was accordingly executed, and Grandier met his fate with heroic constancy. At his death, an enormous drone fly was seen buzzing about his head; and a monk, who was present at the execution, attested that, whereas the devils are accustomed to present themselves in the article of death to tempt men to deny God their Saviour, this was Beelzebub, which in Hebrew signifies the God of flies, come to carry away to hell the soul of the victim.'-Pp. 421-3.

Such of our readers as have perused Mr Godwin's book, must already have asked themselves the question, why this story is so eminently suited to the purpose of our author. We cannot pretend to solve the difficulty, unless by supposing that he considers it as reflecting disgrace upon the clergy, and bringing the Scriptures into contempt.

The extracts which we have made, will convey to our readers a tolerable idea of the nature of Mr Godwin's work,

With every dis

and of the manner in which it is executed. position to speak favourably of this production, we must ac knowledge that an authentic history of Necromancy, and a faithful biography of its votaries, still remain a desideratum in our literature. A writer of patient research, and possessed of a competent knowledge of physics and chemistry, is alone capable of doing justice to the subject. The absolute exclusion of vulgar fiction is an essential requisite in such a production: the mind can receive no gratification in its rational enquiries, if its progress is continually obstructed with legend and fable, Mr Godwin's avowed object was to expose the credulity of former times to the odium and contempt of a more enlightened age; and in order to add to the splendour of his pageant, he has, on the evidence of vulgar tradition, placed in the pillory of his book venerable and immortal names, and hung upon their breasts the badge of Necromancer and Sorcerer.

On the first perusal of Mr Godwin's volume, we were disposed to quarrel with him on account of its irreligious character. It is enough, however, to have guarded our young readers against the snare which is laid for them. Religion is founded on too secure a basis to be thus shaken; and we might as well assail the truths of modern science, by charging some of its votaries with the follies of Animal Magnetism, as attempt to discredit Christianity, because some of its professors believed in sorcery, and practised magic.

ART. IV. Journey to the North of India, overland from England, through Russia, Persia, and Afghanistan. By LIEUT. ARTHUR CONOLLY. 2 vols. 8vo. London: 1834.

THESE are lively and amusing volumes; and the author, an

officer belonging to our Indian army, has the farther merit of having, for part of his journey, followed a route never before trodden, or at least never before described, by any European traveller. When leaving England to rejoin his regiment in Bengal, instead of proceeding by sea, he resolved to follow the overland route as far as Bushire, and accordingly travelled by St Petersburg and Moscow over the Caucasus to Teflis and Tabreez. Here he altered his plan, and resolved either to attempt the adventure of Bokhara, reserved for a more fortunaté knight, or to seek his way through the Afghan country, to our possessions in Upper India. With this view he directed his

course by Tehraun, and through the beautiful but unhealthy province of Mazenderan, to Asterabad on the south-east of the Black Sea. At this place he engaged a Turkoman to conduct him and his companion, an Indian Syed, as far as Khiva by a caravan that was going to that place. Having set out in order to overtake the caravan, they were led far into the desert of the Turkomans; when the arrival of messengers from Asterabad induced their guides mysteriously to alter their course, and the travellers, who were not let into the real causes of this change of route, (which would appear to have been suspicions entertained of them as spies,) were conducted about from place to place, all eneampments of the wandering tribes, and all intercourse with casual travellers being carefully avoided. They were not even permitted to join the Khiva caravan, when at last it was descried at a distance. Their apprehensions of death or slavery, while thus led about as a property, and defrauded in various ways as a fair object of plunder, as well as the efforts which they made, in the issue, with success, to escape from the grasp of their oppressors, are related with no small interest. The jealousy of a different tribe, and the selfish views of some of its chiefs, were the engines employed to accomplish their object. The painful period of three or four weeks passed among the Turkomans, has enabled Mr Conolly to furnish a picture of the manners, and to form some estimate of the character and morals of that wandering people. Like that of the Arabs, their simplicity seems to be only ignorance, their famed hospitality only a national fashion that costs them little, and binds them to no benevolence beyond the limits of their camp. Like other barbarians, they are false and treacherous, and, even where not actively cruel, indifferent to human life or suffering.

Finding the route to Khiva and Bokhara impracticable in his circumstances, he next set out to pursue his journey by Herat, through Afghanistan. He was detained for a long time at Meshed, the city of pilgrims, and syeds, and moollas, by difficulties chiefly arising from the want of pecuniary means; but the situation into which he was thrown from being compelled to live familiarly with the natives, brought him into closer contact with them, and gave him the opportunity of seeing much of the Persian character, on which more light is thrown by the minute incidents of his narrative, than could be given by any professed attempt to describe it in general terms. The bustle and uproar of the holy city, the mixture of trade and piety, the union of worldly passions with occasional bursts of religious feeling and even of enthusiasm, are well exhibited; and every thing proves, were such proof needed, how much a bad government, and the unnatural'

state of society resulting from it, can degrade the finest natural talents. But it is needless to dwell on this part of his route, which has been nearly exhausted by Mr Fraser, to the accuracy of whose representations, both of the Turkomans and of Khor asan, our author bears repeated and generous testimony.

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Before leaving Meshed he had an audience of the Viceroy, a son of the King of Persia. The residence of the prince,' says he, was in the citadel, a place of no strength, the interior of ' which was in a state of ruin, exhibiting fallen walls and rubbishy 'courts' (vol. i., p. 285); a fit emblem of the condition of the province which he ruled, than which it should seem that hardly any country under any thing called government can be more wretched. The power of the prince (and the remark is true of the Afghan as well as of the Persian portion) is shown only in rapacity and oppression. Even the natural return of security from at least foreign violence is not rendered. From without, the country is on every side open to the inroads of the tribes of the desert, Turkomans, Koords, Hazaras, and even Usbegs, who not only ravage the fields, but carry off the inhabitants and travellers into slavery, almost with impunity. Nor is this all. The province itself is broken down into a variety of little local chiefships, nearly independent, and always in a state of hostility with each other; the heads of which employ their domestic leisure in acts of the most grinding extortion. The consequence is what might be expected-deserted cultivation, ruined villages, peasants hiding their grain, and traders their money. The traveller meets a line of forts instead of villages. The little trade that can exist struggles under every disadvantage; credit can hardly have any visible existence. Every man attempts to look miserable, and to conceal the property or comfort he may possess. Each regards his neighbour as a spy. We made the acquaintance of a Caubul 'merchant,' says our author, who, when the time of his departure 'from Meshed drew near, actually wept in our presence, lamenting his poverty, and went about openly begging small loans to help him on his journey, though he had several hundred ducats sewed up in his clothes, as we learned, when, on an after occasion, he offered to lend us more than three hundred. The state of society in this part of the world renders such shifts almost necessary, and men who act uprightly and tell the truth, if there be any such, really deserve great credit. Commerce under 'such discouraging circumstances must necessarily be very uncertain; traders both fear the unavoidable dangers of the roads, and want confidence in each other. Few traders requiring ' a sudden advance of money could obtain it, otherwise than at a ' ruinously extravagant rate of interest.' (Vol. i., pp. 346, 347.)

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It is the inevitable tendency of so unnatural a state of things to give barbarism the ascendency over the little civilisation that is left. Yet in the midst of all this, the wonderful accommodation of man even to the worst circumstances is visible. Where things appear desperate, he begins, from long endurance, to think them, like the sunshine and rain, the course of nature; his ingenuity is exerted to make the best of his lot, to evade and overreach his oppressors, and a new but degraded state of society rises from the ruins of the old. Undeterred by the evils, the extent of which he knows, and terrified by those which he has never experienced, the native clings to his place of birth, repays tyranny by artifice, and takes up a sort of double character, one for the world and his ruler, and another for the secret recesses of his own family. It is in this way that even in such countries the seeds of kindly and generous feelings are often preserved, and sometimes even brought to maturity.

From Meshed, Mr Conolly, in order to avoid the danger of the roads, took advantage of the march of a detachment of Afghan troops, to advance to Herat, the capital of the Afghans in Khorasan. This city, once the seat of government of Sultan Hussein Mirza, the greatest prince of his age, the patron of arts and of letters,—the city of mosques, colleges, and palaces,-is now, like all the rest, in a state of decay and ruin. It is situated in a delightful climate and a rich country. The political condition of Afghanistan is represented as equally wretched with that of Khorasan. While Kamran, the nominal king, holds Herat and a considerable extent of country around it, the kinsmen of Futeh Khan, an able minister put to death by the king's father, are in possession of nearly all the rest of the kingdom, one of them occupying Kandahar, another Caubul, a third Peshawerwhile the countries beyond the Indus, Cashmire and the Penjab, now own the authority of Runjeet Sing and the Seiks. Fresh revolutions probably await the kingdom of the Afghans.

At Herat our traveller was again detained by a deficiency of funds, a consequence of the wretched state of internal communication, and of want of mutual confidence in these countries, and suffered many of the evils of poverty. In vain did he try various means to enable him to renew his journey. He found only repulse and discouragement; when in the depth of his distress it was his good fortune to meet with syed Muheen Shah, one of those men confined to no country, who reconcile us to our species. He was one of the syeds or holy men of Pisheen, who are supposed to have the power of healing diseases, of charming the elements, and of blessing or cursing with sure effect. This man, at once a saint and a merchant, had come to Herat to recover a