Secret Sciences Of The Ancients.

forth , will stir and play if any mine be under it ; and , though many have attempted to make it good , yet , until better information , we are of opinion , with Agricola , that in itself it is a fruitless exploration , strongly scenting of pagan

divination . It was used also to discover any hidden spring of Avater , and , though one may seem as incredible as the other , there have not been wanting persons who have lately given evidence in favour of this property , and of that

respectability as , at least , to suspend a judgment upon so extraordinary a phenomenon / ' In the twenty-second volume of the Quarterly Review will be found the folloAving Avell-authenticated history : —

" It is just fifty years since Lady N . 's attention was first called to this subject . She Avas then sixteen years old , and was on a visit with her family at a chateau in Provence , the owner of which Avanted to find a spring to supply his home ,

and for that purpose had sent for a peasant , who could do so with a twig . The English party ridiculed the idea , but still agreed to accompany

the man , who , after walking some way , pronounced that he had arrived at the object of his search , and they accordingly dug , and found him correct . He was quite an uneducated man , and could give no account of the faculty in him , or of the means

which he employed , but many others , he said , could do the same . The English party now tried for themselves , but all in vain , till it came to the turn of Lady N ., when , to her amazement and alarm , she found that the same faculty was in her

as in the peasant , and , on her return to England , she often exerted it , though in studious concealment . She was afraid lest she should be ridiculed , or get the name of a witch ; in either case , she

thouo-ht she should never get a husband . " Of late years her scruples began to wear aAvay . When , in . 1803 , Dr . Hutton published " Ozanam's Mathematical Recreations , " Avhere the effect of the divining rod is treated as absurd , she

wrote a long letter , signed " Z . Y . Z . " stating the facts which she knew . At Dr . Hutton ' s particular request , she went to see him at Woolwich , and she then showed him the experiment , and discovered a spring in a field which he had lately

bought near the New College , then building , which field he afterwards sold to tlio College for a large sum in consequence of the spring . Lady N . afterwards showed the experiment to others in the park at W . She took a thin forked haze

Secret Sciences Of The Ancients.

twig , about 16 m . long , and held it by ihe end , the joint pointing downwards ; when she came to a place where water Avas under the ground , the twi g immediately bent , and the motion was more or less rapid as she approached or withdrew from

the spring . When just over it , the twig turned so quick as to snap , breaking near the fingers , which , by pressing it , were indented , heated ,, and blistered . A degree of agitation was also visible in her face . When she first made the

experiment , she says , this agitation was great , but has gradually decreased . She repeated the trial several times in different parts of the , park , and her indications were always correct . It is extraordinary that no effect is produced at a well or

ditch , or where earth does not interpose between the twig and the Avater . The exercise of the faculty is independent of volition . " [ To he continued . )

Social Morality.

SOCIAL MORALITY .

The pre-eminence of truth has in all ages been acknowledged , and probity regarded as the basis of prosperity , temporal and spiritual . Truth , in itself , must include perfect rectitude , honesty , morality , and virtue , and , without these , there cannot exist in any circle that mutual confidence without whicli social

intercourse must be presided over by suspicion and distrust . The importance of mutual faith is too evident to need much insisting upon , both in social and commercial spheres , and far more so among the Craft , in whose foundation moral rectitude must be

regarded as the head of the corner-stone . In all large capitals depravity appears to be epidemic in certain quarters , but its reign is short , for however cunningly the deceitful sons of Mammon may steer their various courses , there will ultimately

come a time when their iniquity shall become patent to the world , and then their career is ended . Rigid probity possesses also the great qualification of invariably defeating a crooked policy ; whereas , on the other hand , if fraud is opposed by fraud , the

contest is doubtful . Chance , knowledge of human nature , or superior intellectual powers may determine the victory , but , where truth is opposed to deceit , it must in the end prevail . Allegorically speaking , its straightness leaves no bend or corner for the intrusion of specious arguments , which hence fall harmless before it .

lo draw the line of demarcation where right ends and wrong begins is not easy . The legal definition is not that which accords with conscience , as , for the proof of wrong , certain evidence is requisite , which