Two insane fanatics, of Brugglen, in the canton of Berne, did not escape with so slight a penalty as those who have already been recorded. They were brothers, named Rohler, and, in the year 1746, they proclaimed themselves to be the two witnesses mentioned in the eleventh chapter of the Revelations, and selected a girl of their acquaintance to fill the part of the woman who was to be clothed with the sun, and have the moon under her feet. The advent of Christ to judge the world, they fixed for the year 1748, after which event the kingdom of Heaven was to commence in their village. One of the brothers gave a sufficient proof of his being mad, by declaring that he would ascend in the flesh to heaven before the assembled multitude. He had, however, cunning enough to attribute his failure to the circumstance of numbers of his followers holding by his garments, that they might take the journey with him. These lunatics were followed by crowds, who abandoned all their usual occupations, thinking it useless to work, when the final day was at hand; and many of the believers in their mission indulged in licentious pleasures, perhaps under the idea that, as little time was left, they ought to make the most of it. The government of Berne at length began to apprehend danger from this frenzy, and it averted the evil by dooming the brothers to death. While the Bernese peasants were thus blindly yielding to superstitious delusions, a circumstance occurred which proved that the enlightened citizens of the British capital were as liable as the Swiss boors to the same species of folly. In 1750, on the 8th of February, and the 8th of March, two rather severe shocks of earthquake were felt in London. As exactly four weeks had elapsed between the two shocks, it was sagaciously concluded that a third would occur at a similar period. The fear which this idea excited was raised to the highest pitch by a mad life-guardsman, who went about exhorting to repentance, and predicting that, on the 5th of April, London and Westminster would be wholly destroyed. His predictions had at least one beneficial effect, that of filling the churches and emptying the gin-shops. When the supposed fatal hour arrived, the roads were thronged with thousands, who were flying into the country; so numerous were the fugitives that lodgings could hardly be obtained at Windsor, and many were obliged to sit in their coaches all night. Others, who had not the means of retiring to a distance, or whose fears were less violent, lay in boats all night, or waited in crowds in the open fields round the metropolis, till the dreadful moment was passed by, till the broad daylight showed them at once the city still uninjured, and the disgraceful absurdity of their own conduct.