GEORGE PSALMANAZAR.

From his own Memoirs.

MR. Pfalmanazar was, undoubtedly, a Frenchiman born: he had his education partly in a Free- fchool, taught by two Francifcan monks, and after wards in a College of Jefuits, in an archiepifcopal city, the name of which, as alfo thofe of his birth-place, and of his parents, remain yet inviolable fecrets. Upon leaving the College, he was recommended as tutor to a young gentleman; but foon fell into a mean, rambling kind of life, that produced in him plenty of difappointments and misfortunes. The first pretence he took up with was, that of being a fufferer for religion, and procured a certificate that he was of Irish extract, had left the country for the fake of the Roman Catholic religion, and was going on a pilgrimage to Rome. Not being in a condition to purchafe a pilgrim's garb, in a chapel, dedicated to a miraculous faint, he obferved that fuch a one had been fet up as a monument of gratitude to fome wandering pilgrim, and he contrived to take both taff and cloak away at noon day.

"Being thus accoutered," fays he, and furnished with a proper pafs, I began, at all proper places, to beg my way in fluent Latin; accofting only clergymen, or perfons of figure, by whom I could be understood, and found them moltly fo generous and credulous, that I might eafily have faved money, and put myself into a much better drefs, before I had gone a fcore or two of miles; but fo powerful was my vanity and extravagance, that as foon as I had got, what I thought, a fufficient viaticum, I begged no more; but viewed every thing worth feeing, and then retired to fome inn, where I spent my money as freely as I had obtained it.""

At the age of fixteen, when he was in Germany, he fell upon the wild project of paffing for a Formofan. He recollected that he had heard the Jefuits fpeak much of China and Japan, and was rafh enough to think that what he wanted of a right knowledge, he might make up by, the help of a pregnant invention, which here, it must be confeffed, found ample fcope to work in.

He fet himfelf to form a new character and language, a grammar, a di vifion of the year into twenty months, a new religion, and what not! His alphabet was written from right to left, like the Oriental tongues; and he inured himfelf to write it with great readinefs.

He now thought himself fufficiently prepared to pals for a Japa. nefe converted to chriftianity: he altered his Avignon certificate as artfully as he could, reaffumed his old pilgrim's habit, and began his tour, though with a heavy heart, to the Low Countries; under the notion of a Japanese converted by fome Jefuit miffionaries, and brought to Avignon to be inftructed by them, as well as to avoid the dreadful punishments inflicted on converts by the Emperor of Japan; he travelled feveral hundred leagues, with an appearance, however, fo difmal and fhabby, as to exceed even the very common beggars.

At Liege he lifted into the Dutch fervice, and was carried by his officer to Aix-la-Chapelle. to Aix-la Chapelle. He afterwards entered into the Elector of Cologne's fervice; but being ftill ambitious as ever to pafs for a Japanese, he now chofe to profefs himself an unconverted or heathenifh one, rather than what he had hitherto pretended to be, a convert to christianity. The laft garrifon he came to was Sluys, where Brigadier Lauder, a Scotch Colonel, introduced him to the chaplain, with whom he was admitted to have a conference,

ference, and which, at length, ended in our chaplain's fervent zeal to make a convert of him, by way of recommending, as it afterwards turned out, himself to the then Bishop of London, whofe piety could not fail of rewarding fo worthy an action. By this time Pfalmanazar growing tired of the foldier's life, liftened to the chaplain's propofal of taking him over to England, and he was, accordingly, with great hafte, baptifed. A letter of invitation from the Bishop of London arriving, they fet out for Rotterdam. Pfalmanazar was in general much careffed there; but fome there were, that put fuch fhrewd queftions to him, as carried the air of not giving all that credit which he could have wifhed: This threw him upon a whimsical ex pedient, by way of removing all obfta cles, viz. that of living upon raw flefh, roots, and herbs; and he foon habitu ated himself, he tells us, to this new and ftrange food, without receiving the leaft prejudice to his health; taking care to add a good deal of pepper and fpices by way of concocter.

At his arrival in London he was introduced to our good Bifhop, was received with great humanity, and foon found a large circle of friends among the well-difpofed, both of clergy and laity. "But, fays he, I had a much greater number of oppofers to combat with, who, though they judged rightly of me in the main, were far from being candid in their account of the difcovery they pretended to make to my difadvantage particularly Doctors Halley, Mead, and Woodward. The too vifible cagerness of these gentlemen to expofe me at any rate for a cheat, ferved only to make others think the better of me, and even to look upon me as a kind of confeffor: efpecially as thofe gentlemen were thought to be no great admirers of revelation, to which my patrons thought I had given fo ample a teftimony."

Before he had been three months in London, he was cried up for a prodigy. He was presently fet to tranflate the

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church catechifm into the Formofan language; it was received by the Bishop of London with candour, the autho rewarded with generofity, and his catechifm laid up among the molt curious manufcripts. It was examined. by the learned, they found it regular and grammatical, and gave it as their opinion, that it was a real language, and no counterfeit. After fuch fuccefs, our author was foon prevailed upon to write the well-known Hiftory of Formofa, which foon after appeared.

The first edition had not been long published before a fecond was called for. In the interim he was fent by the good Bifhop of Oxford to pursue fuch ftudies as he was most inclined to, whilft his oppofers and advocates in London were difputing about the merits and demerits of his book. The learned at Oxford were not lefs divided in their opinions of our author. A convenient apartment was, however, affigned him in one of the colleges; he had all the advantages of learning the univerfity could afford him, and a learned tutor to affift him. Upon his return to London, he continued for about ten years to indulge a courfe of idleness and extravagance. Some abfurdities, however, obferved in his Hiftory of Formofa, in the end effectually difcredited the whole relation, and faved him the trouble, and his friends the mortification, of an open confeffion of his guilt. He feemed, through along courfe of life, to abhor the impofture, yet contented himself with owning it to his molt intimate friends.

Mr. Pfalmanazár's learning and ingenuity, during the remainder of his life, did not fail to procure him a comfortable fubfiftence from his pen: he was concerned in compiling and writing works of credit, and lived exemplarily for many years. His death happened in 1763. In his laft will and tellament, dated Jan. 1. 1762, he declares that he had long fince dif claimed, even publickly, all but the fhame and guilt of his vile impofition; and orders his body to be buried, 3 C 2

wherever

490 wherever he happens to die, in the day time, and in the lowest and cheapest

His name was Richard Morris; he paffed moft of his life in a very innocent manner, and lately died at Ofweftry in Shropshire, in the 85th year of his age. In his profeffion of a Seer, he was thought by country people to excel most other aftrologers.

He was a man of no education; but endowed with strong natural abilities, with which he read mankind to fome purpofe. His perfon was tall and mufcular, with much expreflion in his marked countenance. He had a dark spot on the fide of his face, from whence his nick-name took its rife. He was in good credit, and well fpoken of by

the generality as a good fort of man. He was charitable to the poor. Latterly he was in affluent circumftances, and kept his carriage, when his fee was in all cafes a bit of gold, without which he never gave his opinion of ftolen property; and it was fingular, that whenever he gave a favourable anfwer, it was generally found true; probably from the fear which operated on the mind of the thief, who, in a country place, knowing the verdict of the wife man, and confcious of his guilt, is impelled by fear to reitore If this be true, may it property. not be asked, whether a county conju.

the

ror is not of more fervice than a coun

ty gaol and a gallows? For instance, a gentleman near Shrewsbury in one night loft all his bed and table linen; Morris was then in the town of S. He was fee'd, and heard with a grave, and fixed attention the short history. "Sir, there is a perfon you fufpect; but fay nothing. Go home, and take no concern about your lofs; you will have it all again fafe. I cannot tell will lofe you how, or when; but you nothing." In about fourteen days the whole, in a bundle, was found at daylight under his garden-wall.

A TRUE AND SURPRISING ACCOUNT OF A NATURAL SLEEP-WALKER.

(Continued from page 460.)

HIS dreams are, for the most part, of an unpleasant or melancholy nature: he fancies he is teafed or perfecuted, often weeps bitterly, and complains of pains, which he imagines really exift. The leaft excefs at fupper gives a deeper tinge of melancholy to his drams.

As it feemed of importance to afCertain the effects of the electric and

magnetic fluids during the affection, and in the fleepimmediately preceding it,we had recourfe to thefe agents: but, that the boy might receive no hurtful impreffions, employed them very fparingly at first,

An application of a small magnetized bar under the nofe, uniformly in. creafed the mufcular motions of his body and limbs, and occafioned a fha king of the head, as if fomething fretted him. The fame effects followed, when we approached the bar to his eyes or other parts of the body. When it was applied to the pit of the ftomach, he felt a painful fenfation,

which