became pregnant and brought forth, how the devil's offspring could be told from an ordinary baby. The particulars which are given to the learned in Latin, will not bear to be reproduced in the vernacular, suffice it to say, that they are such as would be given by silly women more or less conscious of having been guilty of impropriety, and who were goaded by sanctimonious but ribald divines to enter into every detail of the devil's doings and the females' sensations. * It is more than thirty years since I read the book in question, and I have long ago parted with it. As I am unable now to lay my hands upon a copy I am not sure whether the author was Facio Cardan, who flourished at the period given in the text, or the more celebrated Jerome Cardan who lived A.D. 1601-1576. Before saying more of the "incubi," we may bestow a passing glance upon the foundation of the idea of their existence. In mediaeval times, a large portion of the New Testament was taken to be literally true, and the people were instructed to believe that the devil went about like a roaring lion seeking whom he could devour. The papal priests encouraged the idea, for by frightening the ignorant, they induced them to purchase sacerdotal insurance by paying for masses to protect themselves from the snares of Satan. For hierarchs who were obliged to live without wives, it was easy in the first place to imbue the mind of a superstitious maiden with a horror of Apollyon's power, and then to take advantage of her fears by personifying the fiend. In this manner the bible suggested the sin to the priest and made the maiden passive. It would not be profitable to write a catalogue in detail of the authorities upon which I found these statements. I will rather give a short resume of an article upon "Incubi," which is to be found in a most curious book entitled _Dictionnaire Infernal ou Bibliotheque universelle sur les etres, les personnages, les livres, les faits et les choses qui tiennent aux apparitions, a la magie, au commerce de Venfer, aux divinations, aux sciences secretes,... aux erreurs et aux prejuges,... generalment a toutes les croyances mer-veilleuses, surprenantes mysterieuses et surnaturelles.--Par M. Colin de Plancy. Deuxieme edition entierement refondue _; Paris, 1826. The book is rare, but most interesting to the philosopher who concerns himself about matters of "faith," for it shows, clearly, that there is no depth of human degradation into which people who are guided by blind trust in some fellow mortal, unchecked by the exercise of reason, will not enter, and there reside permanently, until stirred up by those whom they assert on the first blush to be "infidels."