_Charming._--As regards charming, the wife of the village innkeeper who preceded the present one (she now rests in the churchyard), used to whisper away burns. Her form of words, if she had any, is unknown. The mind has great influence upon the body, and the doctor knows it, or he would not give his nervous lady patients so many boxes of bread pills, and sleeping draughts in the shape of vials filled with savoury rum-punch. Doubtless this good woman cured her patients by acting on their imaginations. If the agency of imagination is an incorrect supposition, I see but one way of accounting for the curative powers of whispering, namely, by means of animal magnetism. I trust your medical readers do not question the curative powers of animal magnetism in certain cases; if they do, I would recommend them to read a work entitled _Human Magnetism, its Claim to Dispassionate Inquiry_, by W. Newnham, Esq., M.R.S.L. It is published by John Churchill, Princes Street, Soho.
The following account of this truly wonderful specimen of human patience and skill is from a rough copy that I took some years ago. I regret that I cannot give any reference, as I made no note of my authority, which has now escaped my { 447} recollection. But that is of little consequence, as the book is well known to bibliographists.
Perhaps the most singular bibliographic curiosity is that which belonged to the family of the Prince de Ligne, and is now in France. It is entitled _Liber Passionis Domini nostri Jesu Christi, cum Characteribus nulla materia compositis_. This book is neither written nor printed! The whole letters of the text are cut out of each folio upon the finest vellum; and being interleaved with blue paper, is read as easily as the best print. The labour and patience bestowed in its completion must have been excessive, especially when the precision and minuteness of the letters are considered. The general execution, in every respect, is indeed admirable; and the vellum is of the most delicate and costly kind. Rodolphus II. of Germany offered for it, in 1640, 11,000 ducats, which was probably equal to 60,000 at this day. The most remarkable circumstance connected with this literary treasure is, that it bears the royal arms of England; but it cannot be traced to have ever been in this country.