could not be attributed to any other thing: though, had there been a due preparation, the moft obftinate intermittents would probably have yielded to this bark without any foreign affistance: and, by all I can judge from five years experience of it upon a number of perfons, it appears to be a powerful absorbent, aftringent, and febrifuge in intermitting cafes, of the fame nature and kind with the Peruvian bark, and to have all its properties, though perhaps not always in the fame degree. It seems likewife to have this additional quality, viz. to be a fafe medicine; for I never could perceive the leaft ill effect from it, though it had been always given without any preparation of the patient." Art. 36. Two remarkable cafes in Surgery. By Mr. Francis Geach, Surgeon in Plymouth.

The first of these cafes relates to a man who received a viðlent blow on the right hypochondrium, which proved fatal, affording a variety of remarkable appearances.

The fecond is the cafe of a man who was wounded with a fmall fword in the eye. In confequence of which, he lay for five weeks after, in a ftate of lethargy and infenfibility; from which state, nature relieved him by the eruption of a miliary fever; which proved the crifis of his diforder, and, with a very little affiftance of medicine, effectually restored him.

Art. 48. Account of a cafe, in which green Hemlock was applied. by Mr. Colebrook.

This cafe was that of a woman having a hard fchirrus in each breaft. The method in which the herb was used, was by eating it with bread and butter twice or three times a day. It appears to have pretty effectually relieved the patient; but it is to be taken with very great caution refpecting the quantity.

Art. 50. An account of a blow upon the heart, and of its effects. By Dr. Akenfide.

This very fingular cafe appears to have been a real contufion of the heart; occafioned by a blow given with the edge of a plate, ftruck against the heart, probably at the inftant of its. greateft diaftole.

The rest of the Papers, contained in this Volume, will be taken notice of in a future Article.

K-n-k.

A Supplement to the Effay on the General History, of the Manners and Spirit of Nations, from the Reign of Charlemaign to the prefent

time.

time. By M. de Voltaire, 12°. 2 Vol. 5s. Nourfe.

A

Tranflated from the French.

FTER the account already given of this work, among our Foreign Articles*, nothing remains to be faid of its defign and execution in general: it is impoffible, however, to dif mifs this very pleafing writer without wishing to entertain our Readers with farther proofs of his uncommon genius and vivacity. To this end, therefore, we shall quote the following paf fages; which may ferve, at the fame time, to give the Reader a fpecimen of the translation,

• Manners and Customs in the thirteenth and fourteenth Centuries.

+ One fingle paffage will fuffice to fhew the fcarcity of money in Scotland and in England, no less than the rudeness of thofe times which we grace with the appellation of fimplicity. It is ftill extant in the records, that when the kings of Scotland came to London, their allowance from the court of England was thirty fhillings a day, twelve loaves, twelve cakes, and thirty bottles of wine.

The bishops had, for a long time, always travelled with a prodigious number of fervants and horfes. A council of Lateran, held in 1179, under Alexander III, reproached them, that the plate of monatteries was often fold for their reception, and to defray their expences in their vifitation. The retinue of an archbishop was, by the canons, reduced to fifty horses, that of the bishops to thirty, and that of the cardinals to twenty-five; for a cardinal, who had no bishopric, and who confequently had no land, could not rival the luxury of a bishop. This magnificence of the prelates was much more odious in thofe times than at prefent, there being then no middle ftate between the high and the low, the wealthy and the poor. To industry and traffic is owing that middle ftate which conftitutes the opulence of a nation.

"The Sciences and Polite Arts in the thirteenth and fourteenth Cen

turies.

'Sophocles's art was not in being; the firft dramatical exhi bitions in Italy were fcriptural ftories, and the whole extremely coarse and aukward; hence the custom of acting the mysteries made its way into France. Though thefe forts of plays derive their origin from Conftantinople. St. Gregory Nazianzenus, being fomething of a poet, had introduced them in oppofition to

豪

Appendix to Vol. XXIX. p. 488.

The beginning of the fourteenth century.

the

the dramatic works of the ancient Greeks and Romans ; and as the choruffes of the Greek tragedies were religious hymns, and their theatres facred, Gregory and his fucceffors compofed religious tragedies. But though the Chriftian religion had fuperfeded gentilifm, the new drama did not explode that of Athens. Of these pious farces there are ftill fome remains among the fhepherds of Calabria, particularly at proper feasons, when they act the birth and death of Jefus Chrift. This custom was alfo greedily adopted by the northern nations. The fubjects have fince been handled with more dignity, as we see in those entertainments called Oratorios. In a word, the French theatre can boaft of mafter-pieces taken from the Old Tefta

ment.

The French fraternity of the paffion towards the fixteenth century, brought Jefus Chrift upon the ftage. Had the French tongue been then as majestic as it was coarfe and homely; if among fuch ignorance and stupidity, there had been one man of genius, the death of a righteous man, perfecuted by Jewish priests, and condemned by a Roman pretor, might probably have made a lofty piece; but for this an enlightened age was required, and never would this enlightened age have allowed of fuch reprefen

tations.

Du Cange, and his continuators, who are the most exact compilers, quote a manuscript of five hundred years standing, in which is the affe's hymn.

Orientis partibus

Adventavit afinus

Pulcher & fortiffimus.

A girl, representing the mother of God going into Egypt on an afs, with a child in her arms, headed a long proceffion; and at the end of the mass, instead of saying Ite miffa eft, the priest fet up a braying three times, and the people answered him in the like manner.

This favage-like fuperftition, however, had its rife in Italy; and though in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, fome Italians began to emerge from darkness, the populace still-continued deplorably ignorant. A tale had been trumped up at Verona, that the afs on which Jefus rode had walked on the fea, and came along the gulph of Venice to the banks of the

Agreeable to this obfervation of Mr. Voltaire, the Low dutch have a ftage-play ftill extant, wherein the profane flory of Pyramus and Thibe is applied to the love of Chrift to his church, in the fame manner as divines apply the Canticles of Solomon.

Adige,

Adige, where Jefus Chrift had affigned it a meadow for its pafture; and that this afs after living there quietly a long time, died in the meadows. Its skeleton was inclosed in an artificial afs, depofited in the church of our Lady of the Organs, under the guardianship of four canons. These relics were carried in proceffion three times a year with the greatest folemnity,

It was to this ass of Verona that the houfe of Loretto owed its fortune. Pope Boniface VIII, feeing that the proceffion of the ass drew a great refort of ftrangers, it came into his head that the virgin Mary's houfe would be an object of still greater curiofity; and the event fully anfwered. To this fable he gave his apoftolic fanction; they who believed an afs had croffed the fea from Jerufalem to Verona, could not boggle at believing that Mary's houfe was removed through the air from Nazareth to Loretto. The little mean house was foon inclosed within a magnificent church, which, by the pilgrimages and the gifts of princes, became as fplendid and famous as the temple of Ephefus. The Italians grew rich by the blindnefs of other nations; but every where elfe the fuperftition was embraced for its own fake, and in conformity to the ftupidity of the times. You have more than once obferved that the fanaticism, to which men are so much inclined, always renders them, not only more fottish, but more wicked: pure religion both enlightens the understanding, and foftens the manners; but fuperftition hoodwinks the mind, and infpires frenzy, extravagance, and every odious difpofition.'

If proof be wanted of this last observation, our Author bath given a fufficient one, in his account of the extraordinary adyenture, which was the caufe of the revolution brought about by Zwinglius in Switzerland.

The Francifcans and Dominicans had been at open variance ever fince the thirteenth century. The intereft of the Dominicans declined very much among the commonalty, for paying lefs honour to the Virgin than the Cordeliers, and denying, with St. Thomas, her being born without fin: whereas the Cordeliers ingratiated themselves every where, by preaching up the immaculate conception, as mentioned by St. Bonaventure. Such was the animofity between these two orders, that a Cordelier preaching at Francfort, in 1503, on the Virgin, and feeing a Dominican come in, cried out, that he thanked God for not being of a fect which difhonoured the very mother of God, and poifoned Emperors with the hoft. The Dominican, named Vigan, called out to him; that he lied, and was a heretic. Down comes the Francifcan from his pulpit, ftirs up the people, and Jaying on his adverfary with the crucifix, drives him out of the

church,

ther

church, fo that Vigan was left for dead at the door. In 1504," the Dominicans held a chapter, in which it was refolved to be revenged of the Cordeliers, and to put an end both to their intereft and doctrine, by employing the Virgin herself against them. The place chofen for tranfacting this scene was Berne: during three years feveral ftories were spread about, of the mother of God appearing, and upbraiding the Cordeliers with the doctrine of the immaculate conception, faying, it was blafphemy, taking away from her fon the glory of having washed her from original fin and hell. Against this the Cordeliers played other apparitions. At length, in 1507, the Dominicans, having gained over a young lay brother, named Yetfer, made ufe of him to convince the people in their favour. It was the current opinion in the convents of all orders, that a novice, who had not profeffed, quitting the habit, continued in purgatory till the final judgment, unlefs delivered by prayers and donations to the

convent.

The Dominican prior went one night into Yetfer's cell, muffled in a kind of gown, painted all over with devils, and having heavy chains on him; with him also were four ugly dogs; and his mouth, in which had been put a small round box full of tow, caft forth flames. This prior faid to Yetfer, that he was an old monk, thrown into purgatory for having quitted the habit, but that he should be delivered, if Yetfer would be fo kind as to have himself fcourged by the monks in his favour, before the great altar. This Yetfer did not fail to comply with, and thus delivered the faid foul from purgatory. Soon after the grateful foul appeared to him in a white radiant habit, informing him, that it had been freed from purgatory, and admitted into heaven, and recommending to him the honour of the Virgin fo impiously flandered by the Cordeliers.

Some days after, St. Barbara, to whom brother Yetfer paid a great devotion, appeared to him: it was another monk who played the part of St. Barbara; fhe told him that he was fainted, and that the Virgin commiffioned him to do her justice against the blafpheming Cordeliers.

At laft down comes the Virgin herfelf through the ceiling, attended by two angels; fhe ordered him to declare, that the was born in original fin, and that the Cordeliers were his fon's greatest enemies. She farther told him, that fhe would honour him with the five wounds, with which St. Lucy and St. Catherine had been favoured.

The following night, the monks having given the brother fome opiated wine, they pierced his hands, feet and fide. Op his awaking, he found himself all over blood. He was told,

that