Spirit Agency.

There seems little reason to doubt that Cardan was sometimes misled by his imagination or fancy , in the interpretation of the signs , or omens , or dreams that arrested his attention . This would be almost inevitable . Rut in other

cases , there is no room left for such a conjecture . Take the following , as related by his biographer : " One day ( at Pavia ) , chancing to look into his right hand , Cardan observed a mark at the root of

his ring-finger , like a bloody sword . He trembled suddenly . What more ? That evening , it was on a Saturday , a person came to him with letters from his daughter ' s husband , telling him that his

son was in prison , charged with murder . Cardan laboured night and day to save him ; he was wretched , and covered with shame ; but in an agony of excitement he pleaded for him in open

Court , hoping that culpable as he may have been , hc had escaped actual blood-guiltiness . One day , when Gianbatista ( his son ) had been imprisoned for about three weeks , during which

Jerome hail been straining all energies on his behalf , the old man was studying in the library of some friends , with whom he was then staying at Milan , the Palavicini , and while he was so

sitting , there sounded in his ear some tones as of the voice of a priest consoling wretched men who are upon the verge of death . His heait

was torn assunder , and rushing out of doors , he met his daughter ' s husband , who sorrowfully informed him that his son had made full

confession oi his guilt , and that his doom was lixtd . But the mark on his linger r Mr . Morley tells us : " The red mark , like a sword , that seemed to be ascending Cardan ' s finger , on the

fiftythird day after his son s capture , seemed to have reached tlie finger tip , and shone with blood and fire . Jerome was beside himself with anguish and alarm . In the morning , when he looked ,

the mark was gone . During the night his son had perished . He was executed by night in his prison , on the 7 th of April , 15 60 . " Now , let us hear Mr . Morley ' s rational explanation of this

occurrence—an explanation which , it may be presumed , satisfies his own mind , and which he trusts will satisfy the minds of his readers . " Lines upon hands , " he says , " differ , of course ;

but whoever looks into his own , probabl y will see that straight lines run down from the roots of the two middle lingers , and it is likel y that one of them may have a short line crossing it in

the place necessary to suggest a sword hilt . The blood implies no more than redness of the line , and it is not hard to understand how , as the ease went on , while he was working for his son , in

Milan , Jerome s excited fancy traced the growth ofthe sword upward along his finger . " A man must possess a large amount of the imaginative faculty , and be satisfied with very far-fetched

conjectures , if he receive Mr . Morley ' s explanation of the phenomenon as satisfactory . It evades the most noticeable points in the narrative , —the sudden appearance and

disappearance , and the changed aspects of the mark , with the coincidence between its appearance , and his son ' s detection and arrest , and its bloody and fiery appearance and sudden

disappearance with his son ' s execution . Many of the extraordinary events in Cardan ' s life are referred b y him to the intervention of spirit agency . " He had been long persuaded

Spirit Agency.

he said , that he was attended by a presiding spirit , called , in Greek , an argel ; such spirits had attended certain men , Socrates , Plotinus , Synesius , Dion , Flavins Josephus , and himself . "

In what way he was admonished by the spirit he could scarcely tell , but that he had been often secretly prompted he was unable to doubt . Of this , Mr . Morley relates some instances , although

he , of course , pooh-pooh's them—like a philosopher ! Here are one or two instances in which Cardan recognised this spirit agency . " When walking one day in the streets of Milan , without

any reason but this secret prompting , he crossed the road , and immediately afterwards there fell from tlie roof of a house under which he would have passed , had he not changed his course ,

cement enough to kill eight oxen . " "Another time , when riding on his mule , he met a coach , and had an instinctive thought that it would be overturned , for which reason he passed on thc

wrong side of it , and as he was passing it did overturn , in the direction contrary to that which he had chosen . " Again , " invited to a supper at Rome , Cardan remarked , as he was silting

down among the guests , ' If I thought you would not take it ill , I would say something . ' ' Yotjmean to say , ' one of the company enquired , ' that one of us will die r' 'Yes , ' the old man

answered , ' and within the year . ' On thc Iirst of December following died one of the party , a young man named Virgil . " Why should it seem strange or impossible , that the same

guardianspirit from whom Terome believed he received * 3 w _ . i "' S these warnings and monitions , should ISSfe caused the appearance on his finger of a biood-jj sword , as a symbolic warning that his son would

perish by the blood ) ' sword of tlie executioner , while its ascending from the ringer-root to the tip , and its increasing redness , kept pace with the approaching nearness of his fate , and

culminated at its catastrophe r The reader must determine for himself whether all these occurrences , and many others , of a like nature , in Cardan ' s life , are more rationally attributable to

mere accident or imagination , than to the agency of such a power as Cardan recognised . Although Mr . Morley deplores his superstition , he affords striking evidence of his caution in not claiming

as mystery or superhuman all things that might seem liable to be so regarded . For example , he said to an old pupil of his , " bring me a paper , I have something to write for you . " The paper

was brought , and the physician wrote under the young man ' s eyes , ' You will die soon , if you do not take care . ' He was taken ill eight days afterwards , and died in the evening . " What

said Cardan to this r Did he attribute it to any supernatural revelation or suggestion of his

attendant spirit ? No . He writes , " I saw that in no mysterious way ; it was plain to me as a physician . " Cardan srives the followinsr reason for that to

which he was much addicted : —Home solitude . " He says , " for I air , never so much in the company I like as when I am alone . For I love God and my good angel . These , while I am alone , I

contemplate . The Infinite God , the Eternal Wisdom , the Fountain and Author of Science , the True Pleasure , which we need not fear losing , the Foundation of Truth , the Source of Disinterested Love , the Creator of all Things ; .

Spirit Agency.

and the angel who , by His command , is my guardian , a kind and compassionate counsellor and assistant , and comforter in adversity . " Jerome Cardan died nt Rome , on the 20 th of September , 1 , 57 6 , when he was 75 years old .

Notes On The " United Orders Of The Temple And Hospital."

NOTES ON THE " UNITED ORDERS OF THE TEMPLE AND HOSPITAL . "

A Lecture delivered before the Fratres of the Prudence Encampment of Masonic Knights Templar , al Ipswich , on the 31 st July , 1872 . BY EMRA HOLMES , 31 ,

Eminent Commander of thc Encampment , Grand Provost of England , Provincial Grand Banner Bearer of the Koyal Order of Scotland , iVc . ( Continued from page 505 . J

A renewed series of interrogations followed , in the course of which the candidate bound himself by the most solemn obligations to be obedient to the Head of the House and the

Chief Head of Jerusalem , to observe the customs ofthe Order , to live in perfect chastity , to help , with all the strength and powers God had bestowed on him , to conquer the Holy Land , and

never to be present when a Christian was unjustly and unlawfully despoiled of his heritage . He was then received , assured of " bread and water , and the poor clothing of the Order , and

labour and toil enow , " and the coveted habit placed on him by the Master—the famous white mantle with the red cross . The Master and Chaplain then kissed him ; and the former , whilst

the newly-made Templar sat before him , delivered a discourse , in which he admonished the listener not to strike or wound any Christian ; not to swear , not to receive any attendance from

a woman without permission , nor to kiss any woman at any time , even his mother or sister , not to assist in any baptismal ceremony , never to abuse or call names , but be ever courteous and

polite . He was also directed to sleep in a linen shirt , drawers , and hose , and with a small girdle round his waist , to attend divine service punctually , to sit down to table and rise from it

with prayer , and to preserve silence in the interim . Lastly , when he heard of the Master ' s death he was to repeat immediately , wherever he might be , two hundred paternosters for the

repose of his soul . The ceremony over , the new member received clothes , arms , and equipments , and no longer appeared abroad but in his costume of a Knight Templar . * The new Knight was

allowed also three horses and an esquire , who was sometimes a serving brother , sometimes a hired layman , and sometimes a youth of noble birth , proud to serve so distinguished a personage .

Attached to the Knights were two other classes , the Chaplains and serving brethren , and somewhat more remotely the affiliated , and the Donates and Oblates . Through the class of

serving brethren many found admittance into the Order , says Charles Knight , who not enjoying the honour of knighthood and knightl y descent

must have been otherwise by the rules proscribed . Some distinguished men joined the Society , even in this comparatively humiliating position . Thc