Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1878-09-28

Louis NsPoleos ia his will emphasizes
the solemn declsratioa:- with regard
tn my ssa, let Kim keep - Q taiisaaa
the seal ! usei 10 wear attacked % nv
wssch." This piece Of Sechticisa would
appear to have formed yet a,other link
between the imperial exile that hes passed
from our midst and those Latin races
wha<e cause he Affected to represent,
chose superstition he certainly shared.
Indeed, the ancient Romans degraded q
priest because his miter fell, and unmsde
. dictator because arst squeaked. Cesar
crossed the Rsbicon because 90 the oppo-
site bank be saw . man vith . fise figure.
His nephew felt confident IT winning
the battle Of Actium because he met .
peasant If the name Of Nicolaus mounted
On an as. wolsey was warned Of his
doom BY crosier- head; Ssjssus by Q
fight Of crows. DIR. johnson objected to
going uader . ladder. Moataigne
avoided giving his left foot priority in
putting on his stockings. Alexander
was believed TO have united the Gordian
knot with . slice Of his sword. For
good luck's sake Augusta wore some por-
ton Of . sea calf; Charlemagne some
trinket Of unknown value. Mohammed
was all fate; Bonaparte all star and des-
tiny. Cromwell believed in September
81 and Louis Napoleon in December ed.
Sylla called himself Felix, the favored
child of fortune, and Timoleon turned
his house into temple of chance. Alex
ander, if We may credit the account
given by Quintus Curtius, was terrified
by blood flowing from inside his soldier =
bread during the siege of Tyre, in 3S2 B.
e. His seer, Aristsnder, foresaw in this
crimson efflux Of the vital stream out of
the commissariat happy issue for the
MacedOnians; and the warriors, thus
nerved, took Tyre.
No doubt there was deal of impOs-
ture in alchemy; no doubt, too, the wish
for gold WAS father to the thought of
alchemy; but this itself will not account
for Henry Nv. prohibiting alchemy; for
God-fearing Henry vi. eagerly encour-
aging it; for Pope John XXI. of France,
making a Franciscan monk his grand
almoner, as the reward of a hundred
years reign promised to his credulity by
that pretender to the discovery of the
grand elixir; or for Jean dc Lisle expi.
ating by an early death in the Bastile his
bold attempts to persuade Louis XVI.
and his ministers that he possessed the
gold-making stone. Among the wide
circle of influential believers that alche-
my thus entrsnced were Roger Bacon,
Albertus Magnus, and st. Thomas Aqui.
mas, and even the transcendent intellects
Of Leibnitz, Spinoza, and Verulam.
However, in the pursuit Of this phantom,
Roger Bacon casually stumbled on the
com position of gunpowder, Geber on the
properties of acids, Won Helmont on the
nature of gas geist or spirit, and DR..
Glauber, Of Amsterdam, on the use of
the salt which bears his name.
Luther and Verulam believed in
witches. In his folio dictionary, johnson
defines witch "a woman given to un.
lawful arts" Knighton tells us of pei
sons taxed with keeping devils in the
shape of cats. And wise and learned
Roman Catholics believe even greater
wonders still. For example, Spain,
among many images of the Vigin, pos
sesses one at Saragossa which used to re.
store lost legs, whilst Austria boasts an
image of the Virgin which secures good
harvests.-C Chambers Journal.