regal procession, 1 Chron. xv. 27. it should even seem to be appropriate to persons of rank, from 2 Sam. xiii. 18. "the king's daughters wore such moilim:" The woman expressly says, he was muffled up, wrapped, in this mantle: so that she did not even affect to see his face; and thereby avoided to describe his countenance, or features. She merely says, his dress is like that of a man of consequence. Now, Samuel was a person so well known, that a child would have attributed to him the proper age, that at which he died, dignity of person, and dignity of dress, such as became the post he had occupied. And here we trace deception. Was this the real spirit of Samuel? wherefore was it so characteristically clad, in reference to stations it had occupied on earth? was it his body? no: for that was buried at a distance, and his dress of office, if buried with it, was equally distant from Endor. But the woman describes him according to his public character and station. And Saul being informed, that this personage wore the moil, the dress of office, is persuaded that it was Samuel. And Saul knew from this description, that it was the true Samuel; and yet he had not seen this spectre, not had its features been described to him; nor had it risen out of the earth, beyond head and shoulders; and those were muffled closely in a mantle. It appears clearly, that Saul was at some distance from the scene of this incantation; that he knew nothing but through the medium of the woman; and the woman cried with a loud voice, as well from the effect of her distance from Saul, as to make the greater impression on him. There is nothing in this procedure beyond the reach of very moderate art; to have described Samuel otherwise than he is described, would have been folly; to have introduced him to Saul personally, might have been more convincing, but no such thing takes place. Directly as Saul is persuaded that it is Samuel, he stooped his face to the ground, and bowed himself, so that he did not attempt to see any personage, but prostrated himself on the ground; and along this ground came the voice to him, which maintained the conversation with him; "muttering out of the dust." Upon the whole, I do not see the necessity even of ventriloquism in this history: the time of night implies all the conveniencies of darkness; the distance of Saul from the actual scene of incantation, the imperfect description of the person of Samuel, the passing of the voice along the ground, all afford so many means of deception, that I think ventriloquism may be dispensed with. Nevertheless, as a naturalist, it is proper that I should take notice of this remarkable faculty, which is possessed by some persons. It has been publicly exhibited at London; and I know a gentleman, who, when at school, was one of many, who heard a performance of the kind exhibited, by express desire of the tutor, in order to guard his pupils against similar deceptions in subsequent stages of life. This operator had the power of making his voice seem to come from above, as well as from below, from any part or corner of the room; but he always took care to lead, by a dexterous insinuation, the ears of his auditors, to suppose he was, where he wished them to believe they heard him at. We select the following information from Chambers's Dictionary. "We had a person formerly in London, a smith by profession, who had the faculty in such perfection, that he could make his voice appear, now as if it came out of the cellar, and the next minute as if in an upper room; and nobody present could perceive that he spoke at all. Accordingly, he has frequently called a person first up, then down stairs; then out of doors, then this way, then that; and all this without stirring from his seat, or appearing to speak at all. "We cannot forbear making a few extracts on this subject from a work, published in 1772, entitled, Le Ventriloque, &c. or the Ventriloquist, by M. de la Chapelle, censor royal at Paris, member of the academies at Lyons and Rouen, and F.R.S. Some faint traces of the art or faculty of ventriloquism are to be found in the writings of the ancients; but many more are to be discovered there, if we adopt this author's opinion, that the responses of many of the ancient oracles were actually delivered by persons possessing this quality, so very capable of being applied to the purposes of priestcraft and delusion. The abbé de la Chapelle having heard many surprising circumstances related concerning one M. St. Gille, a grocer at St. Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, whose power as a ventriloquist had given occasion to many singular and diverting scenes, formed the resolution of seeing him. Being seated with him on the opposite side of a fire in a parlour on the ground floor, and very attentively observing him, the abbé, after half an hour's conversation with M. St. Gille, heard himself called, on a sudden, by his name and title, in a voice that seemed to come from the roof of a house at a distance; and whilst he was pointing to the house from which the voice had appeared to proceed, he was yet more surprised by hearing the words "it was not from that quarter," apparently in the same kind of voice as before, but which now seemed to issue from under the earth, at one of the corners of the room. In short, this factitious voice played, as it were, every where about him, and seemed to proceed from any quarter or distance, from which the operator chose to transmit it to him. To the abbé, though conscious that the voice proceeded from the mouth of M. St. Gille, he appeared absolutely mute, while he was exercising this talent; nor could any change in his countenance be discovered. He observed, however, that M. St. Gille presented only the profile of his face to him, while he was speaking as a ventriloquist. The abbé de la Chapelle takes occasion to account for all the circumstances attending Saul's conference with the WITCH of Endor, and endeavours to shew that the speech, supposed to be addressed to Saul by the ghost of Samuel, actually proceeded from the mouth of the reputed sorceress, whom he supposes to have been a capital ventriloquist. "He afterward brings many instances to prove, that the ancient oracles principally supported their credit, and derived their influence, from the exercise of this particular art. Many other learned men have given the same account of the witch of Endor. "The art, according to this author, does not depend on a particular structure or organization of these parts, peculiar to a few individuals, and very rarely occurring, but may be acquired by almost any ardently desirous of attaining it, and determined to persevere in repeated trials. The judgments we form concerning the situation and distance of bodies, by means of the senses mutually assisting and correcting each other, seems to be entirely founded on experience; see Reid's Inquiry into the Human Mind, p. 70. edit. 2; and we pass from the sign to the thing signified by it immediately, or at least, without any intermediate steps perceptible to ourselves. Hence it follows, that if a man, though in the same room sith another, can, by any peculiar modification of the organs of speech, produce a sound, which in faintness, tone, body, and every other sensible qualty, perfectly resembles a sound delivered from the roof of an opposite house, the ear will naturally, without examination, refer it to that situation and distance; the sound which the person hears being only a sign, which from infancy he has been accustomed, by experience, to associate with the idea of a person speaking from a housetop. A deception of this kind is practised with success on the organ and other muical instruments, and there are many similar optical deceptions." So far from Chambers. The art of ventriloquism was well known in antiquity. Josephus calls this woman of Endor, expressly, Engastrimytha, ventriloquist, a speaker from the belly, who made a trade of evocating the souls of the dead, and foretelling future events by their means, Antiq. lib. vi. cap. 15. CHAPTER V. VERSES 6, 7, 8. It is remarkable, that Saul receives so real infor mation from this supposed Samuel: for, that David was to receive the kingdom, was publicly known; that the Philistines would overcome Israel [David was absent,] was extremely probable: that before long; for the word rendered tomorrow, does not necessarily signify the next day; Saul and his sons should enter the state of the dead was certain, according to the course of nature, to a man at seventy years of age. Observe the fallacies of this supposed information: the Lord shall give Israel, the whole nation of Israel, WITH THEE into the hand, as captives, as subjects, of the Philistines; whereas, Saul was succeeded in part of the government, by his son Ishbosheth, and by David in the other part; nor did he, himself, fall into the hands of the Philistines as a captive, but avoided captivity by preferring death. If we take the word rendered tomorron, strictly, it is false that the sons of Saul were the next day in the state of the dead. Ishbosheth and Armoni, sons of Saul, remained; and also Mephibosheth, his grandson, long after: and moreover, notwithstanding the especially,, of the predictor, that the host of Israel should be delivered into the hand of the Philistines, many escap ed. It is proper to notice these falsities, because they concur in proving that the mistress of Aub could not correctly see into futurity: but her inferences and guesses were fallible, as well as fraudu lent. 66 That this woman was no ordinary witch, but a person of consequence, appears from her having "a fat calf in her house," and her making good cheer, to revive her guest, after the effect her incantations had had on him. Now, such a person was, no doubt, well informed on public matters; and it is by no means impossible, that she had intelligence from the officers in Saul's army, of a disposition among the people, which led her to estimate their loyalty to their present king, at much less than their expectations from another. The event proved, that though Saul and his family did their duty as brave soldiers and officers, yet, that the host of Israel preferred safety by fight, to honourable death in the ranks. II. SAMUEL. This is a very difficult passage; and in order to derstand it, we must premise certain circumstances. st, That this place had been, time immemorial, a cred precinct, even from the days of Melchisedec, Shen, who resided here, and whose residence here as understood to have imparted peculiar sanctity and dignity to the spot. 2dly, That since the days of Melchisedec, a temple [or fanum,] had been built, no doubt, on the spot where that patriarch had offered sacrifice. These ideas we must retain in considering the answer of the Jebusite to David. And the king and his men, his customary guards, went to Jerusalem, to the Jebusite, the inhabitant of that district of the land [who was, perhaps, both priest |