d with some
the reputed minister of their pleasures. This Levite had disguised
himself in a greatcoat, boots, and dress quite foreign to the habit
worn by those of his function; and, being admitted, attempted to impose
himself as a country squire upon the conjurer, who, calling him by his
name, desired him to sit down. This reception corresponding with the
report he had heard, touching our magician's art, the doctor said he
would lay aside all dissimulation. After having professed an implicit
belief, that his supernatural knowledge did not proceed from any
communication with evil spirits, but was the immediate gift of Heaven,
he declared the intention of his coming, was to inquire into the health
of a good friend and brother of his, who possessed a certain living in
the country, which he named; and, as he was old and infirm, to know what
space of time was allotted to him in this frail state of mortality, that
he might have the melancholy satisfaction of attending him in his last
moments, and assisting him in his preparations for eternity.

The conjurer, who at once perceived the purport of this question,
after a solemn pause, during which he seemed absorbed in contemplation,
delivered this response to his consulter: "Though I foresee some
occurrences, I do not pretend to be omniscient. I know not to what age
that clergyman's life will extend; but so far I can penetrate into
the womb of time, as to discern, that the incumbent will survive his
intended successor." This dreadful sentence in a moment banished the
blood from the face of the appalled consulter, who, hearing his own doom
pronounced, began to tremble in every joint; he lifted up his eyes in
the agony of fear, and saying, "The will of God be done," withdrew in
silent despondence, his teeth chattering with terror and dismay.

This client was succeeded by an old man about the age of seventy-five,
who, being resolved to purchase a lease, desired to be determined in the
term of years by the necromancer's advice, observing, that, as he had
no children of his own body, and had no regard for his heirs-at-law,
the purchase would be made with a view to his own convenience only; and
therefore, considering his age, he himself hesitated in the period of
the lease, between thirty and three-score years.

The conjurer, upon due deliberation, advised him to double the last
specified term, because he distinguished in his features something
portending extreme old age and second