THE CONJUROR'S COLUMN, AND MODERN EXPONENT OF THE "BLACK ART."

THE MIDNIGHT GUEST.

BY A GENTLEMAN WHO HAS LIVED IN CI AMBERS.

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, Than are dreamed of in your philosophy."

BEING a bachelor, I have for many years past resided in chambers, finding their solitary, do-as-you- please kind of accommodation in accordance with my own isolated and reserved mode of living. The Inn which has always had my preference was the one in which I was located-Clement's Inn-one of those mysterious secluded recesses, shrinking back from the noise and bustle of its near neighbour, Fleet Street, that seemed placed by fate in the strangest juxtaposition imaginable with all that is UNDER this head THE ASTROLOGER will give such instructions startling and striking in the contrast. It may be that the strange to his readers, as may enable them, with no other trouble than legend of the negro, and his stony immortality in the sun-dial, attention to the directions therein conveyed, to become perfect that rises from the little patch of grass in front, may have had masters of the art and mystery of legerdemain, premising that something to do with this preference, or it may have arisen from in all cases it is necessary for the exhibitor's hands to be quicker the associations of Justice Shallow and his roystering comrades than the eyes of his audience, as that is the secret of all sleight-there, who "heard the chimes at midnight,"-or, perchance, the of-hand illusion. Many effective deceptions may, with practice, more moderate rent and central situation induced a partiality for be performed without any other apparatus than a few coins, and this spot; however that may be, it is certain that some one of it is to these we shall first direct the notice of the reader; and these or other reasons induced me to fix upon an old suite of first of all concerning chambers about the centre of the Inn, where the strange, wide, rambling staircases and gaunt and blackened ceilings, throw the mind at once into a state of speculative reverie. It seemed a dismal habitation at first, for the rooms had been to let for years; the walls were barely papered, and the floor stained with huge streams of ink, and embrowned by an accumulation of dust which defied even the energetic arm and scrubbing-brush of the laundress to remove, realized a melancholy picture of desolation, that held out little prospect of either comfort or sociality. Yet, nevertheless, when I had fairly got my furniture around me, and my little library was duly displayed along the hanging shelves, and the outer door was comfortably closed, and a merry, cheering, crackling blaze sent dusky, flitting shadows athwart the chamber which I made my sitting-room, it was not such a very forbidding or gloomy apartment after all. My suite of chambers consisted of three rooms, each opening into the other, and on the opposite side of the landing, which I should here observe was the last, being at the summit, there was a similar range of apartments that had not been tenanted for four years, and which, having fallen terribly out of repair, were surrendered to the possession of a horde of rats and mice, whose nightly perambulations along the wainscot gave some faint indication of a rather numerous and rapidly increasing colony. I had been about six months in this habitation, undisturbed by aught save the nocturnal orgies to which I have alluded, when a strange circumstance occurred, which will form the substance of my present narration.

Palming. This phrase involves an explanation of the first grand principle of the art, without which no feat of mere sleightof-hand can be successfully performed, and to accomplish which with ease and rapidity, requires considerable practice and experience. The exhibitor, before commencing, should turn back the sleeves of his coat to avoid the appearance of passing anything down the arm, and may then prepare himself for the first illusion in the manner following:

Place a coin, either a shilling or a halfpenny, on the tips of the middle and third fingers, so that it may rest there of its own weight. By now turning the hand with the knuckles uppermost, and quickly closing the fingers into the palm, the coin may be held securely by the contraction of the thumb, and the hand still appear to contain nothing. This is palming, and with a little practice,nearly every feat of simple legerdemain may be performed by its means. Care, of course, must be taken not to expose the coin by any reversed movement of the hand.

Securing the coin in the right hand, and simultaneously making it appear to pass into the left, the exhibitor may cause it either to disappear altogether, or by holding a glass in the right hand, bid it fly from the left into the tumbler, where the expansion of the thumb will readily cause it to fall. This feat, when skilfully performed, never fails to elicit surprise and admiration.

The "Twenty Shilling Trick."-This ingenious deception, which appears so marvellous to the eyes of the uninitiated, is thus performed:

Borrow twenty shillings from the company, which display on a plate, having previously prepared five shillings in your left hand, which you keep concealed. Then take the shillings from the plate in the right hand, and mixing with them the concealed five, give them to one of the company to hold. Ask the possessor to return five to you, which he will do, supposing he then retains only fifteen, although, in reality, he, of course, has twenty. Now have another shilling palmed in your right hand, so that when giving the five shillings to another person to hold, you may mix it with that sum, and place the six shillings in his hand. You may now ask him, as before, to return one. When you take it, remind him he has only four, and you must now proceed with the most marvellous part of your illusion. Taking the one shilling you have just received in the right hand, palm it, and pretend to place it in the left. Then striking the left hand with your magic rod, bid it fly into the closed hand of the person holding the five, or, as he supposes, the four shillings. On unclosing the hand, the shilling will of course appear to have been transferred thither, and great amazement will result. Now, taking the five shillings, make a more dexterous pass into the left hand, whence you bid them fly into the closed hand of the person holding the supposed fifteen, and whom you now ask to return you the full sum of twenty shillings, much to his own wonder, and that of the company. If executed with care and dexterity, no illusion can be more effective.

It was a dull, misty evening, about the close of the month of October, and having had a glorious day's ramble over some of the picturesque spots that really ruralize the suburbs of London, I had returned home, fairly tired, and prepared to enjoy the remaining delights of a quite solitary lounge over the fireside. With my table drawn up snugly to the fender, a glass of genuine Hollands and box of capital Havannahs at my side, and the last new periodical spread before me, I felt the cares of mortality gliding insensibly away into the distance, and giving place to that pleasurable sensation of perfect serenity, that predisposes us to feel satisfied with our own position, and the social condition of the world in general. Thus engaged, the hours fled unnoticed by, and the chimes of St. Clement's, announcing the transit of the midnight hour, at last rang upon mine ear, with the monition that the period at which all soberlydisposed folks should seek their couch, had at last arrived. The fire was waning in the grate, a few eccentric embers alone sending forth at intervals a fitful flame, and my lamp had dwindled down to an obscurity of light that betrayed the scarcity of oil remaining; so, making a vigorous effort to get to my dormitory, I lit the chamber-candle, and prepared to resign the apartment I was in to the matin regulations of my attentive laundress. Suddenly a slight creaking in the chair opposite attracted my attention, and looking towards the place whence the sound proceeded, I beheld the ghostly outline of a figure,

which had seated itself in the same position that I had just relinquished. I need not say the appearance was as startling as it was convincing, for adopting Brewster's test of the distinction between a real object and a mere optical deception, I found that I was gazing upon an actual form, and even that a dusky shadow was faintly projected by the firelight against the opposite walls of the apartment. This peculiarity, so utterly at variance with all our preconceived ideas of supernatural appearance, tended, strangely enough, to reconcile me a little to the intrusion, and with greater nerve than I should have given myself credit for, I remained to watch the ulterior proceedings of my strange visitant. He appeared, as far as the feeble light could enable me to trace the features, a man of about fifty years of age, of short stature, and habited in an antiquated snuff-coloured suit, apparently belonging to the last century, which seemed to have claimed the period of his existence. Crouching over the smouldering embers, he preserved, for a few minutes, the aspect of profound thought, and then rising slowly from his seat, glided towards a pannel in the wainscot, and disappeared. For three successive nights was I favoured, at the same hour, with a return of the spectre; when, believing that a mystery existed which it was in my power to unravel, I obtained permission of the steward, Mr. G make a careful examination of the apartment, and on raising the floor at the spot where my ghostly guest had nightly vanished, we found beneath the dilapidated boards a human skeleton! the blanched and crumbling bones of which testified the length of time it had been there interred. Despite the rigid inquiry which ensued, no explanation could be given as to how the remains came there, and their interment in a neighbouring vault, although furnishing ample material for the gossips of the vicinity, failed to elucidate a single particular which would explain the cause of their being thus deposited. On the solicitation of the Editor, I have thought proper to place this "round unvarnished tale" before the reader, without the slightest embellishment, as the most casual inquiry into its chief features will put its veracity beyond the possibility of doubt.

to

THE FATALITY OF DAYS AND NUMBERS.-That different individuals are subject to certain mysterious influences of numerical recurrence is curiously exemplified in the life of Henri Quatre, who was through life curiously affected by the number 14. Henry IV. was born on the 14th of December, 14 centuries, 14 decades, and 14 years after the Christian era. the 14th of May. His name consisted of 14 letters, (Henri de He died on Bourbon). He lived four times 14 years and 14 weeks. He was King of France and Navarre thrice 14 years. He was seriously wounded 14 days after the 14th of December, in the year 1594. Between that day and that of his death there were exactly 14 years, 14 months, and 14 days. He gained the battle of Ivry on the 14th of March. The Dauphin was born 14 days after the 14th of September. He was baptised on the 14th of August, lived 14 years, and was killed on the 14th of May, 14 centuries and 14 olympiads of the Christian era. 14 days after the king's death. In modern annals the following Ravaillac was executed instances of recurring fatality present themselves. All the great events of the life of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, his death, &c., happened on a Tuesday. Upon a Tuesday he was banished; upon a Tuesday he returned from exile; upon a Tuesday the peers of the realm declared against him; upon a Tuesday he was murdered in his cathedral; and upon a Tuesday, fifty years after his death, his body was removed and enshrined with great pomp. Henry VII. of England was wont to declare that Saturday was to him a lucky day. Upon a Saturday he triumphed over Richard III. on Bosworth field; and upon a Saturday he entered the city of London, and was received with acclamation. Thursday was a fatal day to Henry VIII. and his posterity. Henry died Thursday, January 28; his son, Edward VI., Thursday, July 6; his daughter, Queen Mary, Thursday, November 17; and Queen Elizabeth, Thursday, March 24. The third day of September proved eventful to Oliver Cromwell. On that day, 1650, he achieved his great victory at Dunbar, Scotland; on the same day, 1651, he gained the decisive battle of Worcester; and on the 3rd of September, 1658, he died.

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O you do not believe in ghosts? All nonsense, eh? We see; you have been reading such common-place, self-conceited works, that you have become imbued with a notion that every thing must be "of the earth, earthy," and that whatever is not to be comprehended and accounted for materially, cannot exist at all-is a delusion -a mere humbug. You would not believe in the existence of ghosts, even if you were be, or how they should be, and you will not put faith in anyto see one; not you! You don't see why such existences should thing you cannot understand. much to be pitied. But you are deceiving yourself, for you are hourly compelled to believe, and you have been all your life, Indeed!-then you are very and ever will be, compelled to believe, not only in what you cannot understand, and in what the mind of man never will be able to understand, but even in things which appear to be utter absurdities. If you were to be told, for the first time, that there several changes of form and being, all materially different from was a certain insect, which in, a state of vitality, went through each other, you, in your ignorance, would not believe it. If you were to be told that dead, inert matter, could produce or be converted into living existences, you would not believe that; but, by the common laws of nature, all these extraordinary changes are performed in millions, aye myriads, every instantsuch is the nature of matter. But we are speaking of ghosts, say you, and they are no matter. Well, if you say that, it is you serious enough presently-let us ask what you know of the no matter" what you say; but, joking apart-we will make spirit that is within us? Literally nothing; and why should you be surprised at the development of a nature per se, and freed from "mortal coil," simply because you have never seen that nature developed except by the organs of materiality? If you at all believe in the existence of the soul, or the spirit, you must it not shadow forth the form wherein, for so many years, it had acknowledge that it exists independently of matter-why, then, on losing its human tenement, it must still exist, and why may not, neither know you why it should. Very well; then it may, abided? You will say, you certainly cannot tell why it should and therefore there is good reason for believing the testimony of those who tell us-and have told us ever since the world persons we speak of, have so seen them, without being at the began-that such spiritual beings do exist, and that they, the way render the vision a mere delusion, or at all to be accounted time under the influence of such circumstances as could in any for by any known earthly cause. be-it's very strange-and what purpose can these spiritual existences answer?" Really you ask most extraordinary Well," say you, "it may questions; you will perhaps want to know next why the world was created, and why we do not find our existence here one of entire pleasure, instead of having it mingled with pain. You power hath said, "thus far shalt thou know"-and there the veil are wanting to know more than your nature will allow. A high is fixed. Wouldst rashly and impiously seek to raise it?-or wouldst say "I'll not believe in that thou showest, because thou dost not show me all?" Why, thou miserable, infinitesimal mite in this o'erwhelming world, if thou wert shown all, 'twould should find ourself talking in this high tone, so different from crush thy very nature on the instant. Um!-strange that we the chatty style we had intended; but even this trivial circumstance shows the lofty nature of our subject, and ought to impress at least a strong surmise, that the doctrine of "spiritual tion, and is rejected and ridiculed only by those whose excessive self-conceit is greater even than their stolidity and ignorance. appearances "-vulgo, apparitions-is worthy of rigid investiga

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your

pipe, and let us gossip a little longer, for now tis the witching
hour of night, when eh!-what's the matter with you?
"Now come; stir up the fire, put on another log, re-fill
tobacco too strong?-a little brandy and water then?-nothing
like 'pouring spirits down'-oh, don't be alarmed-won't hurt
you-they're the right sort-cheering, eh?-ha! ha!-let's have

a song-you and I

"Is it?"

FIRESIDE FORTUNE-TELLING.

No. I. THE ANCIENT WHEEL OF PYTHAGORAS.

THE mystical properties of numbers,which engaged the attention

"Why, of course it is; but come now, let's be a little jolly of all the most eminent practical philosophers of the past ages, you really never saw a ghost you say?"

"Ha! ha! he! hoo!"

Ir is the sunset of an autumn eve,

The lingering clouds float buoyant through the air,

And to the eye of sportive fancy, weave

The transient semblance of creations fair;

The shadowy impress of those beauties rare, Which on their fleecy bosoms they receive Whilst floating o'er the earth, and loath to leave, Being wafted skyward they renew them there,

In myriad forms of many a rainbow hue,

Till dyed with colours brighter than its own,

Each earthly image starts to life anew,

And fairer seems to earth-to heaven being nearer grown.

So life's own sunset gilds the past, adored

By thoughts of youth in memory's cloud restored.

form a portion of the art of divination, which, in the ancient Wheel of Pythagoras, assumes the most simple, though not the least efficacious, arrangement of the kind. It will be found a pleasing companion to the social hearth, capable of resolving all questions of doubt on every possible subject. The assigned numbers of the planets and the days of the week are calculated by a mystical cycle of acknowledged numerical that from north to south, the zenith and nadir. A little attenpowers. The line from east to west represents the horizon,tion to the rules necessary for its comprehension will soon enable the reader to solve any mystery desired.

NIGHT.

ONE azure dome besprent with myriad stars,
That glisten o'er us like the light of love-
The gentle Venus and the fiery Mars,

Beam mingled rays from heaven's eyes above,
And deluged in the moonbeam's vale and grove,
Gleam silvery falchions waved in leafy wars.
A beauteous sight for mortal eyes to see,

And show what wondrous worlds may lie beyond,
For hearts of gentle dreaming deftly fond
Where they may soul-entranced to heaven flee;
On such an eve the mind may shapes create,
Of elfin power, and yet be forgiven,

For such perchance may be the happy fate
Of mortals, when the soul from matter riven
Shoots upwwards to yon star-enamelled dome,

And thence looks back in moonbeams on its former earthly home.

B.

EXAMPLE.-A lady wishes to ask a question, "Does Caroline love William? She thinks of a number-say 9; the first letter of her name must then be sought in the alphabetical circle, which perhaps gives the corresponding number of 12; the question is asked on Thursday, the numerical power of that day is 31, which set down underneath. The number of the planet ruling that day, which is Jupiter, gives 78, and this is added to the rest, which will give a total of 130. Divide this by 30, and the remainder look for in the table thus:

9

12

31

78

30) 130 (4

120

10 remainder.

It should here be remembered that all the numbers in the upper division of the table, or above the horizon, are fortunate, and promise success; whilst those below the line, and beneath the ASTROLOGY.-It is curious to remark how instinctively the horizon, are inauspicious and malign. On looking for the rereason has always pointed out to men the ultimate end of the mainder 10 among the small figures in the centre of the wheel we various sciences, and how, immediately afterwards, they have set find it in the upper division, and hence conclude the answer to be to work, like children, to realize that end by inadequate means."YES." It must be observed that the figures in the left section Now they applied to their appetites, now to their passions, now to their fancy, now to the understanding, and lastly, to the intuitive reason again. There is no doubt but that astrology of some sort or other would be the last achievement of astronomy: there must be chemical relations between the planets; the difference of their magnitudes compared with that of their distances is not explicable otherwise.-Coleridge.

are in the ascendant, and consequently more fortunate than those to the right; whence we infer, that though Caroline does love William, it is not so ardent an attachment as would have been indicated had the number appeared in the left section. The nearer, too, all numbers are to the zenith, the greater is the success denoted. The following is the numerical power of each day, and its ruling planet: