y (!) thirteen miles deep." Hence it
would be very warm. It is answer enough to ask--Who knows that it is not?

*** A paragraph in the MS. appears to have been inserted in this place
by mistake. It will be found in the Appendix at the end of this
volume.--S. E. De M.

PERPETUAL MOTION.

1851. The following letter was written by one of a class of persons whom,
after much experience of them, I {55} do _not_ pronounce insane. But in
this case the second sentence gives a suspicion of actual delusion of the
senses; the third looks like that eye for the main chance which passes for
sanity on the Stock Exchange and elsewhere:

15th Sept. 1851.

"Gentlemen,--I pray you take steps to make known that yesterday I completed
my invention which will give motion to every country on the Earth;--to move
Machinery!--the long sought in vain 'Perpetual Motion'!!--I was supported
at the time by the Queen and H.R.H. Prince Albert. If, Gentlemen, you can
advise me how to proceed to claim the reward, if any is offered by the
Government, or how to secure the PATENT for the machine, or in any way
assist me by advice in this great work, I shall most graciously acknowledge
your consideration.

These are my convictions that my SEVERAL discoveries will be realized: and
this great one can be at once acted upon: although at this moment it only
exists in my mind, from my knowledge of certain fixed principles in
nature:--the Machine I have not made, as I only completed the discovery
YESTERDAY, Sunday!

I have, etc. ---- ----"

To the Directors of the
London University, Gower Street.

ON SPIRITUALISM.

The Divine Drama of History and Civilisation. By the Rev. James Smith,
M.A.[108] London, 1854, 8vo.

I have several books on that great paradox of our day, _Spiritualism_, but
I shall exclude all but three. The bibliography of this subject is now very
large. The question is one both of evidence and speculation;--Are the facts
{56} true? Are they caused by spirits? These I shall not enter upon: I
shall merely recommend this work as that of a spiritualist who does not
enter on the subject, which he takes for granted, but applies his derived
views to the history of mankind with learning and thought. Mr. Smith was a
man of a very peculiar turn of thinking. He was, when alive, the editor, or
_an_ editor, of the _Family Herald_: I say when alive, to speak according
to knowledge; for, if his own views be