and finally the prayer that this separation might henceforth cease. The original text is said to be in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris with the MS. of the “Pensées.” Pascal is stated to have always kept this amulet on his person, removing it carefully from the lining of an old garment and putting in a new one, when this was assumed. The strange introduction referred to a vision of fire which he had had on the night in question, and this has been explained as resulting from a severe nervous shock he had experienced six months before, when driving along the banks of the Seine. As the vehicle neared Neuilly the horses took fright and ran away, dashing toward the edge of the bank; just on the brink the reins broke and the horses plunged down into the river, leaving the carriage in which Pascal was sitting on the edge of the precipice. This shock impressed him so vividly that he would often see the precipice before him as distinctly as though it were a reality. In any case the matter is of interest as showing that one of the most gifted men of the seventeenth century was a believer in amulets.[600] The giving of corals to new-born infants was expressly forbidden in 1708 in the bishopric of Bamberg, because of the superstition connected therewith, although Christian painters of the fourteenth century often represented the child Jesus as holding corals in his hand. The persistence of the superstition as to the Evil Eye and the belief that coral safeguarded the wearer therefrom, have impressed many cultured Italians of our day, and even so able and clear-headed a statesman as prime minister Crispi is said never to have gone to a parliamentary sitting without having with him a coral amulet.[601] Some characteristic Hindu amulets figure the god Jagannath (Lord of the World), or associated divinities, and also symbols related to the worship of this form of Krishna.[602] In the month Joyestha (May-June) his world-renowned temple at Puri in Orissa is thronged with pilgrims from all parts of India, and on the great festival day his image and those of his brother Balarana and of his sister Subhadra are taken out of the sanctuary and placed in an elaborately decorated car, which is drawn through the streets of the city. The readiness of fanatical believers to sacrifice their lives by casting themselves beneath the wheels of this ponderous car, has made the expression “Car of Jagannath” almost a household word, freely used by those who know little or nothing about Hindu religion. The English Government has long since put a stop to these reckless and useless martyrdoms.