as the sounds of bells and trumpets do partly diminish of and disperse tempests by them stirred up. But in thunders and haile they do no good, as the monks and sacrificers have to their loss too often found. And for this cause they used ceremonies, wherewith they seduced the vulgar and common people, persuading them that besprinkling places with holy water, as they call it, preserved them safe from thunder and haile; likewise by burning holy candles, or some palme, or other herb by them sanctified, or with the perfume of frankincense, or myrrhe of these sacrificers they were preserved secure."

Great is the indignation of our philosopher at such monkish tricks, for he had no faith in priests, whatever he might have in old women, and he argues reasonably enough that if these sacrificers wished to drive away the spirits they should use assafoetida and not sweet perfumes. But he has a more effectual remedy-" note," he says "that to place a preservative in the centre of a house, garden, or a field, avayleth not at all;" it must be placed at the four angles, east, west, north, and south, upon the very obvious principle, that it is safer to stand upon four legs than two, and these said legs or pillars are to be of mugwort, St. John's wort, perriwinkle, celandine, rue, and many such herbs and roots, especially if they be gathered under the right influence, for that is a main point. Yet better even than these are coral and azoth."*

Evestrum and Trarames.-The "Evestrum, or Evester, according to its essence is either mortal or immortal. It is a thing like a shadow on a wall. The shadow riseth and waxeth greater as the body doth, and continueth with it even unto its last matter. The Evestrum takes

its beginning at the first generation of everything animate and inanimate, sensible and insensible, and whatsoever

*The azoth, I take it, is the azure-stone, or lazurstone, more commonly called Lapis Lazuli.

casteth a shadow, all of them have their Evester. Trarames is the shadow of an invisible essence. It springeth up with the reason and imagination of intelligent and brute creatures. The Evester maketh to prophecy; Trarames giveth sharpnesse of wit. To foretell what shall befall a man, beast, tree, &c., is by the shadowy Evester ; but the reason why it should be so is from the Trarame. Some Evesters have a beginning, some have not. Such as have a beginning may be dissolved, with the surviving eternal."—And much more there is to the same purpose, but as this sort of intellectual food is somewhat hard and indigestible, it is as well not to indulge too much in it.

It may be supposed that Paracelsus could not broach these wonderful mysteries, without impertinent enquiries being made as to where he got his knowledge. To all such carpers he replies by putting in his turn divers pithy questions, which, if his data were only true, would be sufficiently ingenious. In the tone of a man who feels he has the best of the argument, he demands, "which of your authors or writers taught the bear, when his sight is dimmed by reason of the abundance and superfluity of his blood, to go to a stall of bees, which by their stinging him pierce his skin, and cause an effusion of the superfluous blood? what physician prescribed the herb, dittany, to be a medicine for the hart? or who taught the serpent the virtue of briony and dragon-wort? who taught the dog to take grass for his cordial and purge? and who prescribed the salt-sea-water to the stork?"-As Shakspeare's clown says, "I hope here be truths," and with them I leave Paracelsus to the judgment of my readers.

LES GRANDS JOURS.

THE GRANDS JOURS were a sort of special criminal assizes of two kinds, the one ROYAL, the other, SIGNIORAL; but the latter, though so similar in name, appear to have been very different in their uses from those ordered by the monarch, of which indeed they are but an imitation. They were established, in virtue of an ordinance of Roussillon, which forbids the nobles to have two classes of jurisdiction in the same place, and there was a power of appeal from them to the parliament. The right of holding these Signioral courts was also accorded in ancient days by the king to the princes of the blood royal, and sometimes in virtue of a special authority to that effect they were constituted courts of final judgment.

The Royal Grands Jours date from the early times of the French monarchy; they were ordinary, but sovereign, tribunals, established by the kings in the form of solemn and especial sessions, and over which they themselves presided to pronounce definitive judgment in all criminal, as well as civil, cases. Under the monarchs of the first and second race, they were composed of a certain number of persons chosen and deputed by the sovereign, much

as the commissioners, called Missi Dominici.* These judges were sent into the remote provinces to enquire into the conduct of the dukes, counts, and other principal nobles, to receive any complaints made against them, and to reform whatever abuses had crept into the administration of justice or the finances, to the detriment of the public weal. They used formerly to be held at stated periods, and in some respects they bore a resemblance to the assizes. The object of both was the same, but they differed essentially in the extent of their power, the Grands Jours pronouncing judgment without appeal, in addition to which, while the assizes were each attached to its particular jurisdiction, the former, as we have already seen, were an extraordinary tribunal, without any fixed establishment, and were constituted by letters patent submitted to the form of registration.

We find it recorded of Louis XII. that he revived them to repress the continued attacks of the nobles upon his authority, commanding by an especial ordinance that they should be held once a year in all the towns and villages where it previously had been the custom to establish them. In a short time however they would

* There appears to have been no difference in the judicial powers of the two, the "Missi Dominici," or Royal Commissioners, being of the same class and having the same objects as the nobles and men of influence deputed to hold the Grands Jours. Du Cange tells us that the Missi Dominici were sent "ut in comitum et judicum pravitates inquirerent," that they should enquire into the corruptions of the magistrates and judges—“in ipsos etiam episcopos et abbates inquirebant," they looked after the bishops and abbots-" curabant ut provinciæ latronibus ac prædatoribus purgarentur," they took care that the provinces should be cleared from thieves and robbers-and finally "seligebantur ex ditioribus et honoratioribus palatii, ne si pauperiores essent, muneribus corrumperentur," they were chosen from the richest and most respected of the court, lest if they were poor they should be corrupted by presents.

seem to have fallen again into disuse, the last that were ever held being at Clermont for Auvergne in the end of the year 1665 and the commencement of the year 1666, as also at Limoges for Limousin in 1668, and at Puy-enVelay for Languedoc. About this period the wars both civil and foreign, which had for thirty years before desolated France, had produced a general state of license wherein the strong universally plundered and oppressed the weak. This evil was not a little aggravated by the marauding habits of the nobles, the difficulty of getting at offenders from the universal absence of good roads, and the general want of strength in the government. The laws were thus in many places reduced to a dead letter, and the most frightful disorder reigned in every department, but more particularly in Auvergne, which being remote from the central power of government could get little aid from the provincial judges. With them bribery and the influence of rank or connexions were unbounded, and under the circumstances just mentioned they might be well called devoid of all responsibility. To such a height had this evil attained, that Louis XIV. at length resolved to interfere, and on the thirty-first of August, 1665, he established a sitting of the Grands Jours at Clermont in Auvergne. The account of their proceedings we owe to the Abbe Flechier, afterwards Bishop of Nismes, who accompanied one of the members, M. de Caumartin, in the capacity of tutor to his son, from whom the father was unwilling to be separated. According to the details afforded by him, this tremendous tribunal struck a wholesome terror into offenders, many of whom preferred being convicted of contumacy to awaiting the probable results of its judgment. Nor had they who remained and appeared any great cause to rejoice in the wisdom of their election. Punishments of all kinds were dealt out with an unsparing hand, and the executions even were