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ninth grand-master, Bonaparte appeared before Valetta, the Maltese capital, and, after a feeble show of opposition, took possession of the island. The inhabitants seem to have been utterly tired of the rule of the knights; and the latter ceded Malta to the French, by a treaty which bound them at once to quit the isle. They received petty annuities in lieu of this their ancient possession.

The British expelled the French; but the knights returned to Malta no more. An attempt at the re-establishment of the order was made by Paul of Russia, which ended in nothing. Thus fell the renowned brotherhood of the Knights-Hospitallers of St John. The extent of their possessions at one time, as well as those of the Templars, is shewn by the numberless places, in Britain and elsewhere, to which they have permanently given

names.

THE DIVINING-ROD.

THERE formerly prevailed, and still to some extent prevails, a superstitious notion, that the position of minerals and hidden springs of water, and even stolen property, and the guilt of criminals, might be discovered by the use of a succulent elastic twig, which has thence received the name of the Divining-Rod. In the progress of knowledge, the use of this instrument as an aid to the inquiries of justice has been abandoned; but it is still employed in America, and other parts of the world, for the discovery of metals and water. More than one English writer has spoken highly of the esteem in which it has been held by the miners of Britain. In France, as lately as 1781, a volume was published, 'detailing six hundred experiments, made with all possible attention and circumspection, to ascertain the facts attributed to the divining-rod; by which is unfolded their resemblance to the admirable and uniform laws of electricity and magnetism.' In America, there

are many decided friends of the divining-rod, and the public journals of that country not unfrequently contain letters of respectable correspondents, stoutly maintaining its pretensions to truth and utility. It is also to America that we are indebted for the first attempt we are aware of to explain the phenomena which have given rise to the superstition. We allude to an article in a number of Professor Silliman's American Journal of Science, which we shall abridge for the instruction, and, we trust, the entertainment also, of our readers.

Those wishing to have a divining-rod, usually take a forked branch of any tree whose bark is smooth, and whose fibre is very elastic. The witch-hazel is in the highest esteem, not merely for its potent name, but also for the convenient size and ready forks of its plenteous branches, and the uncommon elasticity of its fibre. The peach and the cherry are often used. The limbs of the fork should be eighteen inches, or two feet in length, and of the diameter of a pipe-stem. When used, it is grasped at the extremity of each limb by the hands, the palms being turned upwards, and the fingers inwards, to the body. The rod is held loosely in this manner, until the diviner begins to apprehend the action of the hidden influence, when he tightens his grasp, and the limbs of the rod become bent from their middle to their lower extremities outward. The diviner, holding the twig carefully in this fashion, moves onward with a slow and creeping step. In due time, the head of the fork turns downwards, and, coming to point perpendicularly to the earth, is supposed to mark the site of the fountain or ore. The action of the rod, under these circumstances, is a fact plain to the vision of every beholder. Those who hold it are oftentimes men in whose hands life, property, and reputation, might be intrusted; and no doubt they are wholly unconscious of the power which excites the action of the rod, and are themselves the greatest dupes to their art. Nor is this superstitious belief confined to the illiterate. It is by no means unusual for men of learning, in want of fountains for domestic use, to call for

the demonstrations of the divining-rod, and occasionally to acknowledge its success. While the diviner is prosecuting his search, the rod discovers its sensibility by the motion of the point from its vertical position downwards, through the arc of a semicircle, until it rests perpendicular to the earth, when the desired spot is considered as found. This motion, so far from being intended by the holder of the rod, is said to be made in opposition to the closest grasp his hands can give; so much so, that the green bark is generally ruptured, as it is fairly wrung from the rod in the contest between the force which bears the point of the rod down, and the pinching grasp of the diviner to prevent that motion. But the rod does not exhibit this mysterious action in the hands of every man. It is only with a few charmed individuals that it is supposed to move, not only involuntarily, but contrary to their best efforts. These few are of no peculiar age, constitution, or habits, to distinguish them from their fellow-men; though it may be observed, that no females have been known to possess the gift.

Diviners pretend to no change in their feelings during the action of the rod, and attribute the whole to the attracting influence of something unseen. The art is highly valued in the southern and western states of America, where water is neither abundant, in general, nor pure. Here the water-hunter obtains celebrity. He is sent for to a great distance, and performs wonders, with praiseworthy modesty, and for a moderate compensation. If he endeavour to extend his art to the discovery of metals, however, he is generally looked upon with some suspicion, notwithstanding a common belief that his ability equals his pretensions. This he turns to account, by declaring, when his rod fails to discover water, that the counteracting presence of some mineral must have caused his want of success.

The true secret of this remarkable delusion is explained in the following manner, by the American writer:-" In the year 1821, he visited the residence of a respectable farmer in Ohio, where he happened to notice a new well,

at rather an inconvenient distance from the house. On inquiring into the reason, his friend informed him that it had been selected by the divining-rod, and was but seven or eight feet deep; a circumstance somewhat rare, and a triumphant witness to the powers of the rod. It had been discovered by a respectable man, a regular professor of the art. The curiosity of the visitor was excited, and on learning that the rod marked perfectly well in the hands of one of the farmer's sons, he obtained leave to try some experiments with him. The boy was about twelve years of age, and was by no means disinclined to the task, being not a little proud of his supposed gifts. Divining-rods were prepared from every shrub and tree in the forest, and the grass-plot in which the new well was situated, was selected as the scene of trial, because there the discoverer of the spring had already traced out three distinct veins of water. After the visitor had endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to make the rod exhibit its singular movement in his own hands, he directed the boy to try whether it would take any notice of a swift brook which ran on one side of the enclosure. The boy, after repeated trials in various ways, declared himself sensible of some motion in the rod, but thought the attraction of the brook far inferior to that of a hidden vein of water. The three veins of water formerly indicated, were next traced by the boy over the space of an acre, and their whole course marked behind him on the light turf with a stick. During the process, the young diviner was repeatedly asked, if he was sure he was going on correctly, and constantly answered in the affirmative. This done,' says the writer, 'I blindfolded him so that he could not see, took him lightly by the elbow, and led him away from the furrow marking the vein of water on which the new well had been sunk. After a few steps, I turned with him, requesting him to hold up the rod for discovery. I guided him back, but he chose the time of every step. The rod began to turn, and when, having finished its circuit, it turned perpendicular to the earth, he stopped. "Do you mean that the rod points exactly to the vein of water?"

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"Yes," he replied. And indeed it did: with his eyes he could not have pointed it out more correctly.

"This was demonstration. Conviction could neither be resisted nor avoided. The sight of the new well had prepossessed me in favour of the divining-rod. The experiment with the lad had been conducted fairly, and its result was irresistibly conclusive. It must convince every one; and to obtain a collection of facts which would put the question at rest for ever, I continued the experiment.' But, alas! for the reputation of the divining-rod. The blindfolded boy was led from one place to another, and failed incessantly to discover the traces of his latelydiscovered springs. The rod pointed often enough, and every time it did so, the place was marked; but though the experiment was persisted in till the whole grass-plot became figured with black spots, the courses of the original three veins were never once lighted upon. This speedily settled the matter in the mind of the boy's companion. The illusion of the fountains, and of all attraction under ground, vanished at once. The motion of the rod remained still a mystery, but it must be accounted for in some other way. In all my experiments with diviners since,' continues the writer, 'I have found them very shy of a blinder. No diviner has proved so traitorous to his own self-respect as to test the skill of the rod by depriving it of the light of his own eyes. One whose age and respectability obliged me to pay him deference, was pleased with the suggestion of trying the rod over running water above ground. Across a neighbouring stream, a huge tree had been prostrated, its capacious trunk serving as a firm pathway over the swift waters. On this the good man crossed the brook, holding the divining-rod properly in his hands. As he came over the water, the point of the rod began to turn, but did not reach the end of its motion until he had fairly crossed the stream, and stepped on the opposite bank. In repeating the experiment, his own motions and those of the rod were better timed together. His conclusion, carefully drawn, was, that the rod was affected by running-water

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