1856.]

Water Cure in acute disease. It is said to work wonders in the case of gout, and all rheumatic complaints: the severe suffering occasioned by the former vexatious malady is immediately subdued, and the necessity of colchicum and other deleterious drugs is obviated. Fever and inflammation, too, are drawn off by constant packing, without being allowed to run their usual course. Our readers may find remarkable cures of heart and other diseases recorded at pages 24, 72, 114, and 172, of the Month at Malvern. We quote the account of one case :

I was introduced to a lady, that I might receive her own report of her cure. She had been for nine years paralysed from the waist downwards; pale and emaciated; and coming to Malvern, she had no idea of recovering the use of her limbs, but merely bodily health. In five months she became ruddy, and then her perseverance in being packed twice every day was rewarded. The returning muscular power was advanced to perfect recovery of the free use of her limbs. She grew stout and strong, and now walks ten miles daily.

We confess we should like to have this story confirmed by some competent authority. It appears to verge on the impossible: unless, indeed, the fact was that the lady was some nervous, fanciful person, who took up a hypochondriac idea that she was paralysed, and got rid of the notion by having her constitution braced up.

We have already said a good deal of the enjoyable nature of the water system; we make a final quotation from our military friend :—

I have given some account of my daily baths, and on reading over what I have written, I feel quite ashamed of the coldness of the recital of all my delights, the recollection of which makes my mouth water. The reader will observe that I am a Scotchman (proverbially a matter-of-fact race), an old fellow, my enemy would say a slow coach. I might enlarge on my ecstatic delight in my baths, my healthy glow, my lightheartedness, my feelings of elasticity, which made me fancy I could trip along the sward like a patent Vestris. I might go much farther, I might indulge in poetic rapture-most unbecoming my mature age-and after all, fall far short of the reality. The reader will do well to allow a large per-centage of omitted

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ecstatic delineation in consequence of want of ardour on the part of the writer. This is in fact due to justice.

See how old patients describe the Water Cure! This is, at all events, a different strain from that of people who have been victimized by ordinary quacks and quack medicines, and who bestow their imprecations on the credulity which has at once ruined their constitutions and emptied their pockets.

We trust we have succeeded in persuading those who have glanced over these pages, that the Water Cure is by no means the violent thing which they have in all probability been accustomed to consider it. There is no need for being nervous about going to it. There is nothing about it that is half such a shock to the system as are blue pill and mercury, purgatives and drastics, leeches and the lancet. Almost every appliance within its range is a source of positive enjoyment; the time spent under it is a cheerful holiday to body and mind. We

take it to be quackery and absurdity to maintain that all possible diseases can be cured by the cold water system; but, from our own experience, we believe that the system and its concomitants do tend powerfully to brace and re-invigorate, when mental exertion has told upon the system, and even threatened to break it down. But really it is no new discovery that fresh air and water, simple food and abundant exercise, change of scene and intermission of toil and excitement, tend to brace the nerves and give fresh vigour to the limbs. In the only respect in which we have any confidence in the Water Cure, it is truly no new system at all. We did not need Priessnitz to tell us that the fair element which, in a hundred forms, makes so great a part of Creation's beauty-trembling, crystal-clear, upon the rosebud; gleaming in the sunset river; spreading, as we see it to-day, in the bright blue summer sea; fleecy-white in the silent clouds, and gay in the evening rainbow,is the true elixir of health and life, the most exhilarating draught, the most soothing anodyne; the secret of physical enjoyment, and mental buoyancy and vigour.

PROPOSE in this paper to give some samples of the popular literature by which, amongst other means, the subjects of that excellent and pious prince (so little appreciated in England, except by Mr. Bowyer), King Ferdinand of Naples, are trained, both morally and intellectually, in habits of reverence towards the Church, and affection towards the King. These samples happily come from both sides of the Straits of Messina, and thus illustrate the teaching of a paternal government over the whole extent of its dominions. The one, printed at the capital, and in the polite Italian, may show how the Neapolitan youth of the educated classes acquire that freedom of intellect, that turn of thought at once practical and scientific, which distinguishes them so highly. The other, the growth of the Sicilian soil, a bright pattern of its native dialect, may be supposed rather to address itself to the socalled 'masses;' and avowing everywhere the highest moral aims, is moreover remarkable for the familiarity which it displays with facts of history hitherto unknown. The reader will judge from it of the elegant poetical relaxations in which, under his sunny skies and sunnier rule, the Sicilian shepherd of the present day is encouraged to indulge.

We will deal however, in the first instance, with the Italian literature of the metropolis. The little work we refer to is a handy duodecimo, bearing the date of 1855. Of its useful character no doubt can be entertained, from the official licence

to print appended to it, and of which we give a translation.

'No. 28.

"GENERAL COUNCIL OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

'Naples, 4th July, 1855. 'Having seen the request of the printer, Giuseppe Cuorno, whereby he has asked to reprint' [here follows the title]

Revisor, Signor Don Pietro Calandrelli, 'Having seen the opinion of the Rev.

'Permission is given to reprint the work above named; nevertheless, it is not to be published without a second permission, which is not to be given until the same Rev. Revisor shall have certified that he has ascertained by collation, that the edition is conformable to the approved original.

(Signed) 'The Councillor of State, President Provv. Capomazza; the General Secretary, Giuseppe Pietrocola."

Happy country, in which the diffusion of literary poison is so carefully guarded against, in which 'Reverend Revisors are at hand not only to read all books before they are printed or reprinted, but also carefully to collate the copy submitted for approval, with the actual edition! The authority with which this little work comes forth, can only be measured by supposing a similar publication in England to be certified by Lord Granville and the Secretary to the Privy Council, after strict revision by the editor of the Record newspaper. And when it is observed that the number of the licence is only twentyeight, so that (presumably) by the fourth of July of the year only twenty-seven other works had been allowed to issue from the Neapolitan

1855.

1856.]

The True Art of Becoming Rich, a Grin at the Seven Hundred,* or the Newest Way of Winning with moral probability at the Lottery, with Observations by the most Ancient Cabalists. This edition contains twelve tables, corresponding to the twelve months of the year, the heavenly signs of the zodiac for every hour of the day, a general list of all names of persons, trades, and other things, placed in alphabetical order; a table of good and bad days for bloodletting; the explanation of dreams, and of the pentagonal figure, lunar cabalas, and perpetual enigmas; nineteen tables of Rutilio Benincasa; and finally, the drawings from 1682 to 1854.

Much is to be learned often from a preface. The present one is certainly not unworthy of the work.

THE ASTROLOGER TO HIS READERS. Having put away my old and henceforth insipid preface, I have wished in this new reprint of the present work to enrich it with something which should be more delightful, and more profitable to the lovers of the lottery (ai dilettanti del lotto). Now there are many such, who, wishing to regulate their play by the motions of the stars, have no full knowledge thereof, nor as to what planet is predominant, and in what degree it stands at the day and hour which is to follow the drawing at which they have played or are about to play. I therefore, to console all such persons, so that they may more easily try their fortune, and in order to secure for them what they wish, have, with the aid of one of the first Italian astrologers, procured to be made out the twelve tables after given, corresponding precisely to the twelve months of the year in which the lottery is accustomed to be drawn. The reader will therefore easily see, month by month, in which sign is the sun, and in which the moon, as also he will see in the first column the days of the month on which the drawing may fall, in the second the degrees, in the third the

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minutes, and in the fourth the seconds. On the other side he will see the other three columns for the degrees of the moon, with the signs through which she passes in her lunar revolution. The player may therefore use the number of the days of the month, and that of the degrees, minutes, and seconds of the sun, and again the number of the degrees and minutes of the moon, forming with these as many numbers as one may choose to play on. This way of playing has produced instances of success by no means trifling, especially to those players who have played the numbers straight and reversed, which is to say 4884-2332, &c. There are also at the end other gabalette† which, being well understood, well taken and better regulated, being collated with the above degrees, may be of much help. For the rest I recal to his (the reader's?) memory that Omne bonum desursum est, descendens a Patre Luminum.' 'And may he live happy.'

Have we not much to learn from this paternal government? Does it not bring forth from the treasury of its good books things old and new?' Besides the wisdom of ages stored up and reprinted in our precious little work, we have here new matter altogether, an ephemeris, carefully prepared by one of the first astrologers of Italy,' for the use of the 'lovers of the lottery.' What are works of abstruse science on the Theory of Probabilities, when compared with so practical a purpose? What a debt of gratitude to the General Council of Public Instruction; to Reverend Revisor, Don Pietro Calandrelli; to Counsellor of State, President Capomazza; and Secretary-General, Giuseppe Pietrocola, must every truehearted Neapolitan not feel, for their benevolent wisdom in sanctioning such a publication, and carefully providing that it is not to issue without a second certificate from the Reverend Revisor that the edition is entirely conformable to the approved original!

Little cabalas'-untranslateable.

6

have played the astronomic numbers 'straight and reversed,'-the qualities of good understanding, good selection, and still better management required of those who wish to use the gabalette,'-and above all, that pious reminder of the words of St. James, which I must regret to see quoted in Latin only: Every good gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights.' True, most true, O astrologer! Aye, and the bad gifts too are from below, sent up by the father of darkness and of lies, to whom they shall surely return in the Lord's great day, with all such as cherish and distribute them; and of small avail will it be in that day to have gabbled a little Scripture Latin over them.

Well, twelve pages are devoted to the aforesaid most useful tables. Then follows a list, one hundred pages long, of all names of persons, trades, animals, and other things, placed in alphabetical order,' including a special selection of some names of the best known kingdoms, with their respective numbers;' one of the circles and communes of the kingdom of Naples, with their respective numbers;' and again,' of some most usual names of men, with their respective numbers;' and lastly, of the best known animals.' To render this in some degree intelligible to the least learned, about ninety words are illustrated by woodcuts, of which the following is a sample:

1856.]

late visit to Naples. How the correspondence between the words and the numbers is established, I do not profess to know; but the purpose of the list is to make use of the numbers representing the words appropriate to any circumstance whatever, in order to try the luck' of it. Thus, suppose I saw a corporal tweaking the nose of his serjeant, this would afford a combination of three numbers,-viz., caporale, 16, naso, 83, and sergente, 13; and thus by playing 16-83-13, I should have, as the title-page says, a moral probability of winning-the greater if I played them straight and reversed. Even the souls in purgatory, we are told, are sometimes pressed into this service!

From the abundance of novel matter which the art of becoming rich' affords, I am compelled to leave much unnoticed. My readers will, however, no doubt be much grieved to hear that amongst the names of the best known kingdoms' -which in the list are followed by those of their peoples-occur neither Great Britain, England, Scotland, nor Ireland; whilst we discover those of Corfu and Corfiote,' of Morea' (curiously connected with Moors'-Mori), and even of Europe, European.' The list of the best known animals' is equally remarkable. Not only does it include 'fish-roe' and 'feather,' but also, strange as it may seem, 'rum!'

Next comes a list for playing at the lottery.' This I imagine, from the woodcuts to which it corresponds (more or less, for some of the cuts seem to belong to another list), to be a collection of sample ventures.

We have now reached page 156 of the book. Some deeply interesting pages now begin, headed by original letter-press:

INTERPRETATION OR EXPLANATION OF DREAMS.-The ancient Egyptians and Chaldeans, and other nations, held and observed with so much veneration the experience of dreams, that whenever anything had been dreamed by them, as soon as they awoke from their dream they went to seek the diviners, to be told its meaning. Various authors have treated of this matter, but with so much

*

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obscurity and confusion, that they have been scarcely intelligible. We have now reduced into alphabetical order the rules and expoundings of the quality of dreams. Those which one has at the beginning of sleep, whilst the mind rests from the thoughts and occupations of the day, because of the vapours of the food which ascend to the brain, are accounted but so many various and diverse fancies of the mind, and are called insogni, unworthy of all notice. True dreams (sogni) are those which take place after the digestion of the food, when the natural heat having consumed that matter which hampered the memory, the mind remains, and the quiet spirit taking strength, becomes relieved from the burthen of that mischief.* But, in truth, one should not trust in dreams, because 'De futuris contingentibus nulla est determinata veritas.' Nevertheless it has seemed good to bring to light the alphabet of the matters indicated, in order that every one may for himself select what he has dreamed, to try his fortune.

One is almost afraid that the Reverend Revisor is occasionally seized with misgivings, and takes refuge in the insertion of a Latin quotation. Why throw doubt upon useful information by reminders of the alleged uncertainty of the future? Is not the very object of this true art of becoming rich,' specially licensed to be reprinted, with its new astrological enrichments, by the 'General Council of Public Instruction,' that of chaining down the future to the will of the scientific speculator instructed by its pages?

Let us give, however, some samples of the valuable information thus conveyed:

To ascend the pulpit, means to be honoured.

A small beard, means a great law-suit (the litigant having probably pulled it out by handfuls).

To wash one's beard, means anxiety.
To eat embers, means damage.
A lighted candle means imprison-

ment.

To talk with a philosopher, means deception.

To see a man killed, means safety. To see oneself with a harlot, means safety.

To sing hymns or thanksgivings, means illness (!)

To eat butter, means to be hated of your relations.