Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1845-04-19
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
THE MARCH OF MIND ABROAD.


paper, does not look like a very strong manifesto
lion of Lord BRoUoHAM's favorite notion, that the
schoolmaster is Abroad We read il, not without
some scornu thoughts, half of pity too, that asked
us if the people among whom such things happen
must not be in ignorance almost like that of what
are called the Dark Ages" Presently, however,
we remembered things that made us humber: we
recalled the impostures of Matthias, successful amidst
all the enlightenment of our greatest city and its
multitude of schools and printing presses: we re-
collected Parson Miller and his proselytes in COM
parison with whom Peter the Hermit and his fol-
lowers were absolutely rational: we considered of
10 Smith and his crew, knave and dupes as mise
rable as all the annals of ignorance can show: we
called to mind that regular Annuary Of Astrology
is published in London, in the name of Raphael;
that monthly journal of the same superstition is
printed in Philadelphia under the title of the Ho-
roscope = that lady Of much reputation as for
tune-eller has, during the last winter, advertised in
our own columns and figured in the great cities
north of us; and that we have often heard of one
that had for years exercised the same vocation with
great credit in the refined seat of metaphysics,
Charleston, Is. c. Besides, does not every body
know that ghost not long since took up its resi-
dence in great Gotham ITSELF we believe in the most
frequented part of Broadway, and received crowds
of visters for about long period as did Boz or
Il
any other like marvel of the day? All this we men,
ton, in order to soothe any emotion of pity and
soften any scorn, with which people might be af-
fected in reading the following:
a man named Gaiot last week brought before the
Correctional Tribunal Of Boug, charged with practising the
somewhat obsolete calling of sorcere II appeared
from the evidence that credulous couple named Bernard re-
siding Reponges aned they heard noises in their house
and, their child falling i'll at the time they took it into
their heads that the place haunted They were confirm
ed In this belief by the very extraordinary circumstance of the
key of the having disappeared without their being
able TO say how The wife, happening narate to neigh
Dor the dilemma in which she and her husband conceived
themselves TO be placed, recommended apply the
prisoner who bore the reputation of being able discover
cret things such thef losses, &c. Galot de-
cared that the applicants house and family were bewitched
He demanded 45 preliminary fee aDI then proceeded
to great number OF cabasca ceremonies drive the
devil which possessed the body Of the woman Bernard He
did not would SEEM succeed very WELL for he informed her
that her would require her coming reside with him
for some time She should be very comfortably off, he said
and even should keep shop if she pleased Her ewes
were opened by this language She Immediately informed
the gendamee and the prisoner arrested Several other
witnesses deposed against him. One had given him I0Of
which he had demanded for charm keep cattle always free
from disease Another, rich farmer, named Sinone de-
posed that the prisoner had undertaken cure him of an i'll
which had affected him for months After five or
SIX visits during which the prisoner had worked charms in
witnesses house, and obtained 000f his trouble witness
dismissed him. not finding his health better and considering the
expense too great At the prisoners lodgings were found
number Of charms of various kinds one was TO ar
rive at Heaven; another to always win play third To
travel twenty-five miles hour without fatigue and another
specifying the advantages be derived from making pact
with the devil The Court condemned Gaot TO five wears
Imprisonment five years surveillance and 900 s fine and
ordered the books seized at his residence be DESTROYED
Now, were we philosophers, like the Theban
who lately, in the interregnum of the Globe fur
nishes Virgilian emendatons and new rescripts for
n lam nina IL. l.
IN some specuations and reflections, probably like
the following
l. That, possibly, in all knowledge, Natures
great law of compensation still holds; and that as
men grow very wise about some things they grow
more simple about others.
2. The true knowledge las the most Perfect
Teacher intimates) is that which maketh men bet
ter-it being rather thing of the right heart than
OF the subtle brain: so that General WASHINGTON
and his illustrous compeers were perhaps not en-
tlrely obscure of understanding in comparison with
the great political discoveries of the present day.
Chief Magistrate whose great principle is San
nexation;" Head of a Department who holds the
"spoils" doctrine TO be the anmating cause of
all vlrtuous politics; or another, that expounds
Dorrsm.
3. That perhaps, after all, religious creduity is
not nearly as bad as political, and the worship of
stocks and stones in Theology not much worse than
that Of idols IN Government quite empty, and as
merely the work OF the very human hands of party
4. That the elder ADAMS was upset in part upon
the charge of his wanting standing army and
that we have never since been without one
5. That General JACKSON exhorted Mr.. MONROE
not to consult party in selecting men for public en-
poyments.
9. That the same infallible and consistent autho-
rity pronounced that the States of this Union never
had any sovereignty and that the Democracy Of
State Rights said amen to all his opinions.
z. That JOHN QUINCY ADAMS lost his election in
1923 by quoting apologize about Ebony and To-
paz, and ty talking Of National Observatory as
"a lighthouse Of the skies Horrible enormities
Hewas, moreover upon OCCASION guilty of wear
ing pumps and silk stockings And-he blasphemed
against the right of instruction, by talking of mems
not allowing themselves, upon cases of solemn pub
lie duty, to be palsed by the will Of their consti-
tuents." OF such sentiment what horror was
exhibited Of late in the Texas question by Messrs
Japan, ALLEN, and many others! Mr. VAN b.
rem wore pumps and even silk stockings with de-
mocratic IMMUNITY; and, as for lighthouses of the
skies" what is that which we now have looking
down upon the Potomac, in most alarming and I'M
constitutional proximity TO the Presidential mansions
We invite to some reflections on ancient and mo-
dern superstitions the learned gentleman who is.
parentheticaly il were, at this time editing The
Globe.
Scarce individual has scrbbed rhymes in hi boyhooJ
o. amuses ms leisure occasionally by pennng Tale an