than superstition, fanaticism, sorcery, and tales of those raised from the dead. There were broucolacas in Wallachia, Moldavia, and some among the Polanders, who are of the Romish church. This superstition being absent, they acquired it, and it went through all the east of Germany. Nothing was spoken of but vampires, from 1730 to 1735; they were laid in wait for, their hearts torn out and burnt. They resembled the ancient martyrs-the more they were burnt, the more the abounded.

Finally, Calmet became their historian, and treated vampires as he treated the Old and New Testament, by relating faithfully all that has been said before him.

The most curious things, in my opinion, were the verbal suits juridically conducted, concerning the dead who went from their tombs to suck the little boys and girls of their neighbourhood. Calmet relates, that in Hungary two officers delegated by the emperor Charles VI. assisted by the bailiff of the place and an executioner, held an inquest on a vampire, who had been dead six weeks and who sucked all the neighbourhood. They found him in his coffin, fresh and jolly, with his eyes open, and asking for food. The bailiff passed his sentence; the executioner tore out the vampire's heart, and burnt it, after which he feasted no more.

Who, after this, dares to doubt of the resuscitated dead, with which our ancient legends are filled, and of all the miracles related by Bollandus, and the sincere and revered Dom Ruinart?

You will find stories of vampires in the Jewish Letters of D'Argens, whom the jesuit authors of the journal of Trevoux have accused of believing nothing. It should be observed how they triumph in the history of the vampire of Hungary; how they thanked God and the virgin for having at last converted this poor D'Argens, the chamberlain of a king who did not believe in vampires. "Behold," said they, "this famous unbeliever, who dared to throw doubts on the appearance of the angel to the holy virgin; on the star which conducted the magi; on the cure of the possessed; on the immersion of two thousand swine into a lake; on an eclipse of

the sun at the full moon; on the resurrection of the dead who walked in Jerusalem;-his heart is softened, his mind is enlightened: he believes in vampires."

--

There no longer remained any question, but to examine whether all these dead were raised by their own virtue, by the power of God, or by that of the devil. Several great theologians of Lorraine, of Moravia, and Hungary, displayed their opinions and their science. They related all that St. Augustin, St. Ambrose, and so many other saints, had most unintelligibly said on the living and the dead. They related all the miracles of St. Stephen, which are found in the seventh book of the works of St. Augustin. This is one of the most curious of them:In the city of Aubzal in Africa, a young man was crushed to death by the ruins of a wall; the widow immediately invoked St. Stephen, to whom she was very much devoted. St. Stephen raised him. He was asked what he had seen in the other world. Sirs, said he, when my soul quitted my body, it met an infinity of souls, who asked it more questions about this world than you do on the other. I went I know not whither, when I met St. Stephen, who said to me, Give back that which thou hast received. I answered, What should I give back? you have given me nothing. He repeated three times, Give back that which thou hast received. Then I comprehended that he spoke of the credo: I repeated my credo to him, and suddenly he raised me.

Above all, they quoted the stories related by Sulpicius Severus, in the life of St. Martin. They proved that St. Martin, with some others, raised up a condemned soul.

But all these stories, however true they might be, had nothing in common with the vampires who rose to suck the blood of their neighbours, and afterwards replaced themselves in their coffins. They looked if they could not find in the Old Testament, or in the mythology, some vampire whom they could quote as an example; but they found none. It was proved, however, that the dead drank and eat, since in so many ancient nations food was placed on their tombs.

The difficulty was to know whether it was the soul

or the body of the dead which ate. It was decided that it was both. Delicate and unsubstantial things, as sweetmeats, whipped cream, and melting fruits, were for the soul, and roast beef and the like were for the body. The kings of Persia were, said they, the first who caused themselves to be served with viands after their death. Almost all the kings of the present day imitate them, but they are the monks who eat their dinner and supper, and drink their wine. Thus, properly speaking, kings are not vampires: the true vampires are the monks, who eat at the expense of both kings and people.

It is very true, that St. Stanislaus, who had bought a considerable estate from a Polish gentleman, and not paid him for it, being brought before king Boleslas, by his heirs, raised up the gentleman; but this was solely to get quittance. It is not said that he gave a single glass of wine to the seller, who returned to the other world without having eaten or drunk. They afterwards treated of the grand question, whether a vampire could be absolved who died excommunicated, which comes more to the point.

I am not profound enough in theology to give my opinion on this subject, but I would willingly be for absolution, because in all doubtful affairs we should take the mildest part.

Odia restringenda, favores ampliandi.

The result of all this is, that a great part of Europe has been infested with vampires for five or six years, and that there are now no more; that we have had convulsionaries in France for twenty years, and that we have them no longer; that we have had demoniacs for seventeen hundred years, but have them no longer; that the dead have been raised ever since the days of Hippolytus, but that they are raised no longer; and lastly, that we have had jesuits in Spain, Portugal, France, and the two Sicilies, but that we have them no longer.'

The latter are in existence again, and it will not be their fault if the rest of the series do not follow.-T.

VELETRI,

A small Town of Umbria, nine leagues from Rome; and, incidentally, of the Divinity of Augustus.

THOSE Who love the study of history are glad to understand by what title a citizen of Veletri governed an empire, which extended from mount Taurus to mount Atlas, and from the Euphrates to the western ocean. It was not as perpetual dictator; this title had been too fatal to Julius Cesar, and Augustus bore it only eleven days. The fear of perishing like his predecessor, and the counsels of Agrippa, induced him to take other measures: he insensibly concentrated in his own person all the dignities of the republic. Thirteen consulates, the tribunate renewed in his favour every ten years, the name of prince of the senate, that of imperator, which at first signified only the general of an army, but to which it was known how to bestow a more extensive signification, such were the titles which appeared to legitimate his power.

The senate lost nothing by his honours, but preserved even its most extensive rights. Augustus divided with it all the provinces of the empire, but retained the principal for himself: finally, he was master of the public treasury and the soldiery, and in fact sovereign.

What is more strange, Julius Cæsar having been enrolled among the gods after his death, Augustus was ordained God while living. It is true he was not altogether a god in Rome, but he was so in the provinces, where he had temples and priests. The abbey of Ainai at Lyons was a fine temple of Augustus. Horace says to him

Jurandasque tuum per nomen ponimus aras.

That is to say, among the Romans existed courtiers so finished, as to have small altars in their houses dedicated to Augustus. He was therefore canonized during his life, and the name of god (divus) became the title or nickname of all the succeeding emperors. Caligula constituted himself a god without difficulty, and was

worshipped in the temple of Castor and Pollux: his statue was placed between those of the twins, and they sacrificed to him peacocks, pheasants, and Numidian fowls, until they ended by immolating himself. Nero bore the name of god, before he was condemned by the senate to suffer the punishment of a slave.

We are not to imagine that the name of 'god' signified, in regard to these monsters, that which we understand by it: the blasphemy could not be carried quite so far. 'Divus' precisely answers to sanctus.' The Augustan list of proscriptions, and the filthy epigram against Fulvia, are not the productions of a divinity.

There were twelve conspiracies against this god, if we include the pretended plot of Cinna; but none of them succeeded; and of all the wretches who have usurped divine honours, Augustus was doubtless the most fortunate. It was he, indeed, who actually terminated the Roman republic; for Cæsar was dictator only six months, and Augustus reigned forty years. It was during his reign that manners changed with the government. The armies, formerly composed of the Roman legions and people of Italy, were in the end made up from all the barbarians, who naturally enough placed emperors of their own country on the throne.

In the third century, they raised up thirty tyrants at one time, of whom some were natives of Transylvania, others of Gaul, Britain, and Germany. Dioclesian was the son of a Dalmatian slave; Maximian Hercules, a peasant of Sirmik; and Theodosius, a native of Spain --not then civilized.

We know how the Roman empire was finally destroyed; how the Turks have subjugated one half, and how the name of the other still subsists among the Marcomans on the shores of the Danube. The most singular of all its revolutions however, and the most astonishing of all spectacles, is the manner in which its capital is governed and inhabited at this moment.