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All the members of this party were in the fecret, except a cer tain lady, here defigned by the title of the Countefs de B; who was pitched upon as a proper victim to M. St. Gille's delufive powers, as fhe knew nothing either of M. St. Gille, or of ventriloquifm; and poffibly, we fhould think, for another reafon, which the Abbé, through politenefs, fuppreffes. She had only been told, in general, that this party was formed in confequence of a report that an aerial fpirit had lately established itself in the foreft of St. Germain-en-Laye, and that a grand deputation from the Academy of Sciences were to pass the day there to enquire into the reality of the fact.

M. St. Gille, it is not to be doubted, was one of this selec party. Previous to his joining the company in the foreft, he completely deceived even one of the commiffaries of the academy who was then walking from them, and whom he accidentally met. Juft as he was abreast of him, prepared and guarded as the academician was against a deception of this kind, he verily believed that he heard his associate M. de Fouchy, who was then with the company at above a 100 yards diftance, calling after him to return as expeditiously as poffible. His valet too, after repeating to his mafter the purport of M. de Fouchy's fuppofed exclamation, turned about towards the company, and with the greateft fimplicity imaginable, bawled out as loud as he could in answer to him, yes Sir."

After this promifing beginning the party fat down to dinner; and the aerial fpirit, who had been previously furnished with proper anecdotes refpecting the company, foon began to address the Countess of B. particularly, in a voice that feemed to be in the air over their heads. Sometimes he spoke to her from the tops of the trees around them, or from the furface of the ground at a pretty large diftance; and at other times feemed to speak from a confiderable depth under her feet. During the dinner the Genii appeared to be abfolutely inexhauftible in the gallantries he addreffed to her; though he fometimes faid civil things likewife to the Dutchefs of C. This kind of converfation lafted above two hours; and in fine the Countess was firmly perfuaded, as the rest of the company affected to be, that this was the voice of an aerial fpirit: nor would fhe, as the Author affirms, have been undeceived, had not the rest of the company, by their unguarded behaviour, at length excited in her fome fufpicions. The little plot against her was then owned, and the acknowledged herfelf to be mortified only in being waked from fuch a delicious delufion.

Several other inftances of M. St. Gille's talent are here related. He is not, however, the only ventriloquist now in being. The Author, in the course of his enquiries on this fubject, was informed that the Baron de Mengen, a German nobleman, pof

feld

feffed this art in a very high degree. On a proper application lately made to him, that nobleman favoured the Author with a particular answer to all the questions propofed to him, and a defcription of the manner in which these acoustic deceptions are produced. We do not comprehend the Baron's explanations; nor, if we did, fhould we chufe to communicate the principles of ventriloquifm to the public. For though it is certainly very proper that it should be univerfally known that fuch an art exifts, it will readily occur to every one, who reflects ever fo little upon the matter, that it is not for the intereft of fociety that the attainment of this art fhould be taught or rendered eafy to thofe who might make it fubfervient to the purposes of knavery and deception.

We rather wonder that this reflection fhould not occur to the well-intentioned Author of this performance. Independent of the bad purposes to which a talent of this kind might be applied, when directed fo as to operate on the fuperftition and credulity of the multitude, it is easy to figure to ones felf the various mifchiefs that might be occafioned, in families and neighbourhoods, by a wanton, malicious, or unprincipled ventriloquift; who can not only imitate the voice of any of his neighbours, but can likewise make it seem to come out of any quarter he thinks proper to emit it from. We fhall therefore terminate this article by adding only a few observations, tending to explain the nature of this deception, in general. As we cannot afford room for the more diffuse and defultory explications of the Author, we fhall endeavour briefly to illuftrate this matter in our own manner.

It appears clearly from the Baron de Mengen's account of himself, and from the obfervations made by the Author, in

The Baron has conftructed a little puppet or doll (the lower jaw of which he moves by a particular contrivance) with which he holds a fpirited kind of dialogue. In the courfe of it, the little virago is fo impertinent, that at lalt he thrufts her into his pocket; from whence the feems, to thofe prefent, to grumble and complain of her hard treatment. Some time ago, the Baron, who was then at the Court of Bareith, being in company with the Prince de Deux-Ponts, and other noblemen. amufed them with this fcene. An Irish officer, who was then prefent, was fo firmly perfuaded that the Baron's doll was a real living animal, previously taught by him to repeat the fe refponfes, that he watched his opportunity at the clofe of the dialogue, and fuddenly made an attempt to fnatch it from his pocket. The little doll, as if in danger of being fuffocated, during the ftruggle occafioned by this attempt, called out for help, and fereamed inceffantly from the pocket till the officer defifted. She then became flent; and the Baron was obliged to take her out from thence, to convince him by handling her, that he was a mere piece of wood.

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his frequent examinations of M. St. Gille, that the factitious voice produced by a ventriloquist does not (as the etymology of the word imports) proceed from the belly, but is formed in the inner parts of the mouth and throat. As to its fingular effect in deceiving even the most intelligent and accurate obfervers, the following confiderations may perhaps throw a degree of light on the fubject, fufficient to make what seems marvellous in this phenomenon in a great measure difappear: independent, however, of that truely wonderful flexibility and command of the various and complicated organs of fpeech by which it is produced. This art, nevertheless, according to the Author, does not depend on a particular structure or organization of these parts, peculiar only to a few individuals; but may be acquired by almoft any one poffeffed of a very ardent defire to attain it, joined to a very large ftock of perfeverance.

It is evident, we think, that the judgments we form concerning the fituation and diftance of bodies, by means of the fenfes mutually affifting and correcting each other, are entirely founded on experience. The reiterated impreffions made by objects on the organs of sense conftitute, in time, a large fund of habitual knowledge which is always at hand: fo that, for inftance, the place, or distance, or nature of a vifible or audible object, are immediately, and all together, without any formal train of reafoning, fuggefted to the mind on the first impreffion made on the organ. "That such a noise (says the acute and learned Dr. Reid) is in the street; fuch another, in the room above me; that this is a knock at my door; that, a perfon walking up ftairs, is probably learnt by experience.-It is probable, he adds, that previous to all experience, we fhould as little know whether found came from the right or left, from above or below, from a great or a small distance, as we should know whether it was the found of a drum, or a bell, or a cart.". In short, we pafs, in these cafes, from the fign to the thing fignified by it immediately, or at leaft without any intermediate fteps that are perceptible to ourselves.

On thefe principles it evidently follows, that if a man though in the fame room with another, can by any peculiar modification of the organs of fpeech, produce a found, which, in faintnefs, tone, body, and in fhort, every other fenfible quality, perfectly resembles a found delivered from the roof of an opposite houfe; the ear will naturally, without examination, refer it to that fituation and distance: the found which the perfon bears being only a fign, which he has from his infancy been conftantly accustomed, by experience, to affociate with the idea of a perfon fpeaking from a houfe top. It is evident too, that

• Inquiry into the Human Mind. First edit. page 100.

when

when there is no particular ground of fufpicion, any small difparity between the two founds will not be perceptible.

A deception of this kind is practised with success on the organ and other mufical inftruments; and we may very aptly refer on this occafion to many optical deceptions; and more especially to the curious experiment particularly described in our laft Appendix; [Volume xlvi. page 673.] where the images of objects received on a piece of white paper, not seven inches diftant from the eye, excite the idea of the real objects themselves, appearing at the distance of several hundred feet. Here the perfpective, claro-obfcuro, colouring, &c. being all fuch as the mind has, by continual experience, been accustomed to confider as the figns of visible objects, placed at confiderable and different diftances; the fpectator, fo far as he trufts to the informations of the eye alone, is as completely deceived, as he is, who trufts to his ears alone in the company of M. St. Gille.— But there is a further analogy between the two experiments.

The abovementioned optical deception is corrected or diminifhed by the fpectator's knowing that he is looking into a box; by repetitions of the experiment; and by a new habit thereby induced of confidering the rays of light as really proceeding, or reflected from the plane of the paper. For the fame reafons, in the acoustic deception, that experience or habit which mifleads a perfon who has feldom heard the ventriloquift, and is a ftranger to his powers, at length fets another perfon right who is acquainted with them, and has been a frequent witness of their effects. This was the cafe of the Author, with whom the illufion at length ceafed, in confequence of repeated vifits to M. St. Gille: fo that, while others, ignorant of his talent, and poffeffed only of their old or habitual experience with regard to articulate founds, confidered his voice as coming from the top of a tree, or from a deep cellar under ground; the Abbé, well acquainted with the powers of the ventriloquift, and having acquired a new kind of experience, at once referred it directly to the mouth of the speaker.

According to our promife at the beginning of this article, we shall add a few particulars relating to the Author's Scaphandre. A few years ago he invented this aquatic acoutrement, or piece of machinery, by means of which a perfon totally ignorant of the art of fwimming may plunge boldly into the deepest and most agitated waters; and there, without any effort or skill, keep himself in an erect pofition: the water rifing all the time no higher than the pit of his ftomach. Here, according to his account, he may at his ease eat, drink, write, and charge, prefent, and fire a mufket; turning himself round at any time almost by a mere act of the will. We pafs over many of the ufes of this apparatus; which is not cumberfome, either in the

water

water or on fhore, and may be put on or off in lefs than a minute. The Abbé has now brought it to the highest degree of perfection, by having lately, after many fruitless attempts, discovered an expedient, or, in his own words, attained what he calls a fixed point, by means of which a perfon may walk across the deepeft rivers, as if he was footing it on a folid plane. The Abbé appeals for the truth of thefe affertions to many thoufand witneffes; and in further corroboration of them, has added a letter written by M. Artuo, Captain of Artillery at Huninguen; who there defcribes the fuccefsful trial lately made of one of the Author's Scaphandres in the Rhine, by a mere novice in the art of fwimming; who, with this accoutrement, walked upright and at his ease backwards and forwards in that river, as if by enchantment? We fhall only add that the Author intends immediately to compofe and publifh a complete description of every part of the apparatus, to which he means to add an account of the various ufes to which it is applicable.

ART. VII.

Effai fur le Caractere, les Maurs et L'Esprit des Femmes dans les differens Siecles.-An Effay on the Character, Manners and Genius of Wemen in different Ages. By M. Thomas, of the French Academy. Svo. Paris. 1772.

THIS Eflay, the Author tells us, is only a part of a larger

work, not yet published, wherein he confiders the use and abufe that has been made of praife in the different ages of the world. The fubject of the Eflay is extremely curious and interefting, and treated in a manner equally inftructive and entertaining. The pictures which M. Thomas draws of the character and manners of the fair fex, in the different periods and countries to which he confines himself, appear to us to be very juft and ftriking; and though the fubject is not treated with that extent which its importance deferves, yet the Author's observations fhew an enlarged and liberal turn of mind, are generally judicious and folid, and where they fecm lefs fo, they are always ingenious, and fometimes new. His work, he fays, is neither a panegyric nor a fatire, but a collection of facts and obfervations, in order to fhew what women have been, what they are, and what they are capable of being.

He fets out with obferving that, in every age and country, wo men have been adored and opprefted; that man, who has never wanted opportunities of abufing his power, though he has always paid homage to their beauty, has ever availed himself of their weakness, and been at once both their tyrant and their flave. After fome general reflections to the fame purpose, he proceeds to confider the manners of the Grecian women: this part of his fubject he too rapidly, and too fuperficially, paffes

over;

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