ounterfeit their own bodies, and make to
themselves an image of themselves; by what ways and means, since
miracles ceased, this transformation can be effected; by whose leave and
permission, or by what power and authority, or with what wise design,
and for what great ends and purposes, all this is done, we cannot easily
imagine; and the divine and philosopher together will find it very
difficult to resolve such questions.

"Before the Christian aera, some messages from the other world might be
of use, if not necessary, in some cases, and on some extraordinary
occasions; but since that time we want no new, nor can we have any
surer, informations.

"Conscience, indeed, is a frightful apparition itself; and I make no
question but it oftentimes haunts an oppressing criminal into
restitution, and is a ghost to him sleeping or waking: nor is it the
least testimony of an invisible world, that there is such a drummer as
that in the soul, that can beat an alarm when he pleases, and so loud,
as no other noise can drown it, no music quiet it, no power silence it,
no mirth allay it, and no bribe corrupt it."

Inexhaustible are the opinions on this subject: therefore we shall
conclude this Essay, and proceed to the more illustrative part of our
work, without any further quotations; for various are the methods
proposed by the learned for the laying of ghosts and apparitions.
Artificial ones are easily quieted, if we only take them for real and
substantial beings, and proceed accordingly. Thus, when a Friar,
personating an apparition, haunted the apartment of the late Emperor
Joseph, King Augustus, then at the Imperial court, flung him out of the
window, and laid him upon the pavement so effectually, that he never
rose or appeared again in this world.

THE

DOMINICAN FRIAR.

_An Extraordinary Event that happened lately at Aix-la-Chapelle._

As the following story, which is averred to be authentic, and to have
happened very lately, may serve to shew, that the stories of this kind,
with which the public are, from time to time, every now and then
alarmed, are nothing more than artful impostures, it is presumed, it
will be useful as well as entertaining to our readers to give it a
place.

A person who kept a lodging-house near the springs at Aix-la-Chapelle,
having lost his wife, committed the management of his family to his
daughter, a sprightly, well-made, handsome girl, about twenty.

There were, at that time, in th