heard a knocking on the shelf where several puncheons of milk stood, first above the shelf, then below; she took the candle and searched both above and below; but being able to find nothing, threw down butter, tray and all, and ran away for life. The next evening between five and six o'clock my sister Molly, then about twenty years of age, sitting in the dining room, reading, heard as if it were the door that led into the hall open, and a person walking in, that seemed to have on a silk nightgown, rustling and trailing along. It seemed to walk round her, then to the door, then round again: but she could see nothing. She thought, "it signifies nothing to run away: for whatever it is, it can run faster than me." So she rose, put her book under her arm, and walked slowly away. After supper, she was sitting with my sister Suky, (about a year older than her,) in one of the chambers, and telling her what had happened, she quite made light of it; telling her, "I wonder you are so easily frighted; I would fain see what would fright me." Presently a knocking began under the table. She took the candle and looked, but could find nothing. Then the iron casement began to clatter, and the lid of a warming pan. Next the latch of the door moved up and down without ceasing. She started up, leaped into the bed without undressing, pulled the bed clothes over her head, and never ventured to look up till next morning. A night or two after, my sister Hetty, a year younger than my sister Molly, was waiting as usual, between nine and ten, to take away my father's candle, when she heard one coming down the garret stairs, walking slowly by her, then going down the best stairs, then up the back stairs, and up the garret stairs. And at every step, it seemed the house shook from top to bottom. Just then my father knocked. She went in, took his candle, and got to bed as fast as possible. In the morning she told this to my eldest sister, who told her, "You know, I believe none of these things. Pray let me take away the candle to night and I will find out the trick." She accordingly took my sister Hetty's place, and had no sooner taken away the candle, than she heard a noise below. She hastened down stairs, to the hall, where the noise was. But it was then in the kitchen. She ran into the kitchen, where it was drumming on the inside of the screen. When she went round it was drumming on the outside, and so always on the side opposite to her. Then she heard a knocking at the back kitchen door. She ran to it, unlocked it softly, and when the knocking was repeated, suddenly opened it: but nothing was to be seen. As soon as she had shut it, the knocking began again; she opened it again, but could see nothing when she went to shut the door, it was violently thrust against her; she let it fly open, but nothing appeared. She went again to shut it, and it was again thrust against her: but she set her knee and her shoulder to the door, forced it to, and turned the key. Then the knocking began again: but she let it go on, and went up to bed. However, from that time she was thoroughly convinced that there was no imposture in the affair.

The next morning, my sister telling my mother what had happened, she said, "If I hear any thing myself, I shall know how to judge." Soon after, she begged her to come into the nursery. She did, and heard in the corner of one room, as it were the violent rocking of a cradle; but no cradle had been there for some years. She was convinced it was preternatural, and earnestly prayed it might not disturb her in her own chamber at the hours of retirement: and it never did. She now thought it was proper to tell my father. But he was extremely angry, and said, "Suky, I am ashamed of you: these boys and girls fright one another; but you are a woman of sense, and should know better. Let me hear of it no more." At six in the evening, he had family prayers as usual, When he began the prayer for the King, a knocking began all round the

room; and a thundering knock attended the Amen. The same was heard from this time every morning and evening, while the prayer for the King was repeated. As both my father and mother are now at rest, and incapable of being pained thereby, I think it my duty to furnish the serious reader with a key to this circumstance.

The year before King William died, my father observed my mother did not say, Amen, to the prayer for the King. She said she could not; for she did not believe the Prince of Orange was King. He vowed he never would cohabit with her till she did. He then took his horse and rode away, nor did she hear any thing of him for a twelvemonth. He then came back, and lived with her as before. But I fear his vow was not forgotten before God.

Being informed that Mr. Hoole, the vicar of Haxey (an eminently pious and sensible man,) could give me some further information, I walked over to him. He said, "Robert Brown came over to me, and told me, your father desired my company. When I came, he gave me an account of all that had happened; particularly the knocking during family prayer. But that evening (to my great satisfaction) we had no knocking at all. But between nine and ten, a servant came in and said, 'Old Jeffery is coming,' (that was the name of one that died in the house,) 'for I hear the signal.' This they informed me was heard every night about a quarter before ten. It was toward the top of the house on the outside, at the north-east corner, resembling the loud creaking of a saw : or rather that of a wind-mill, when the body of it is turned about, in order to shift the sails to the wind. We then heard a knocking over our heads, and Mr. Wesley catching up a candle, said, 'Come, Sir, now you shall hear for yourself. We went up stairs; he with much hope, and I (to say the truth) with much fear. When we came into the nursery, it was knocking in the next room: when we were there, it was knocking in the nursery. And there it continued to knock, though we came in, particularly at the head of the bed (which was of wood) in which Miss Hetty and two of her younger sisters lay. Mr. Wesley observing that they were much affected though asleep, sweating, apd trembling exceedingly, was very angry, and pulling out a pistol, was going to fire at the place from whence the sound came. But I catched him by the arm, and said, 'Sir, you are convinced this is something preternatural. If so, you cannot hurt it: but you give it power to hurt you,' He then went close to the place and said sternly, Thou deaf and dumb devil, why dost thou fright these children, that cannot answer for themselves? Come to me in my study that am a man ?' Instantly it knocked his knock (the particular knock which he always used at the gate) as if it would shiver the board in pieces, and we heard nothing more that night." Till this time, my father had never heard the least disturbances in his study. But the next evening, as he attempted to go into his study (of which none had any key but himself) when he opened the door, it was thrust back with such violence, as had like to have thrown him down. However, he thrust the door open and went in. Presently there was knocking first on one side, then on the other; and after a time, in the next room, wherein my sister Nancy was. He went into that

room, and (the noise continuing) adjured it to speak; but in vain. He then said, 'These spirits love darkness: put out the candle, and perhaps it will speak' she did so; and he repeated his adjuration; but still there was only knocking, and no articulate sound. Upon this he said, Nancy, two Christians are an overmatch for the devil. Go all of you down stairs; it may be, when I am alone, he will have courage to speak.'— When she was gone a thought came in, and he said, "If thou art the spirit of my son Samuel, I pray, knock three knocks and no more." Immediately all was silence; and there was no more knocking at alļ

that night. I asked my sister Nancy (then about fifteen years old) whether she was not afraid, when my father used that adjuration? She answered, she was sadly afraid it would speak, when she put out the candle; but she was not at all afraid in the day-time, when it walked after her, as she swept the chambers, as it constantly did, and seemed to sweep after her. Only she thought he might have done it for her, and saved her the trouble. By this time all my sisters were so accustomed to these noises, that they gave them little disturbance. A gentle tapping at their bed-head usually began between nine and ten at night. They then commonly said to each other, "Jeffery is coming: it is time to go to sleep." And if they heard a noise in the day, and said to my youngest sister, "Hark, Kezzy, Jeffery is knocking above," she would run up stairs, and pursue it from room to room, saying, she desired no better diversion.

A few nights after, my father and mother were just gone to bed, and the candle was not taken away, when they heard three blows, and a second, and a third three, as it were with a large oaken staff, struck upon a chest which stood by the bed-side. My father immediately arose, put on his night-gown, and hearing great noises below, took the candle and went down: my mother walked by his side. As they went down the broad stairs, they heard as if a vessel full of silver was poured upon my mother's breast, and ran jingling down to her feet. Quickly after there was a sound, as if a large iron ball was thrown among many bottles, under the stairs: but nothing was hurt. Soon after, our large mastiff dog came and ran to shelter himself between them. While the disturbances continued, he used to bark and leap, and snap on one side and the other; and that frequently before any person in the room heard any noise at all. But after two or three days, he used to tremble, and creep away before the noise began. And by this, the family knew it was at hand; nor did the observation ever fail. A little before my father and mother came into the hall, it seemed as if a very large coal was violently thrown upon the floor and dashed all in pieces: but nothing was seen. My father then cried out, "Suky, do you not hear? All the pewter is thrown about the kitchen." But when they looked, all the pewter stood in its place. There then was a loud knocking at the back door. My father opened it, but saw nothing. It was then at the fore door. He opened that; but it was still lost labour. After opening first the one, then the other several times, he turned and went up to bed. But the noises were so violent all over the house, that he could not sleep till four in the morning.

Several gentlemen and clergymen now earnestly advised my father to quit the house. But he constantly answered, "No; let the devil flee from me: I will never flee from the devil." But he wrote to my eldest brother at London to come down. He was preparing so to do, when another letter came, informing him the disturbances were over, after they had continued (the latter part of the time day and night) from the second of December to the end of January.

NOTE VIII. Page 57.

Thomas a Kempis.

MR. BUTLER (in whose biographical works the reader may find a well digested account of the life and writings of Thomas à Kempis) says that more than an hundred and fifty treatises concerning the author of The Imitation had been printed, before Du Pin wrote his dissertation upon the subject. The controversy has been renewed in the present century. There is a Dissertazione Epistolare intorno all' Autore del Libro De Imi

tatione Christi annexed to a dissertation upon the birth place of Columbus (Florence, 1808.) A treatise upon sixty French translations of The Imitation was published at Paris, April 14, 1813, by Ant. Alex. Barbier, Bibliothecaire de sa Majeste l'Empereur et Roi. Mr. Butler says, "the fear of the Cossacks suspended the controversy; probably it will now be resumed."

· A curious anecdote concerning this book occurs in Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, (vol. i. p. 236.) "There had been a press for printing at Cambridge (in New England) for near twenty years. The court appointed two persons in October, 1662, licensers of the press, and prohibited the publishing any books or papers which should not be supervised by them; and in 1668 the supervisors having allowed of the printing Thomas à Kempis' De Imitatione Christi, the court interposed, it being wrote by a popish minister, and containing some things less safe to be infused among the people; and therefore they commended to the licensers a more full revisal, and ordered the press to stop in the mean time. In a constitution less popular, this would have been thought too great an abridgment of the subject's liberty."

NOTE IX. Page 69.

Methodists not a new Name.

"It is not generally known," says Mr. Crowther, "that the name of Methodist had been given long before the days of Mr. Wesley to a religious party in England, which was distinguished by some of those marks which are supposed to characterize the present Methodists. A person called John Spencer, who was librarian of Sion College, 1657, during the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, in a book which he published, consisting of extracts from various authors, speaks of the eloquence and elegance of the Sacred Scriptures, and asks, 'where are now our Anabaptists, and plain pack-staff Methodists, who esteem all flowers of rhetoric in sermons no better than stinking weeds ?"

"By the Anabaptists, we know that he means a denomination of Christians which is still in existence; and though we have not at this time any particular account of the Methodists of that day, it seems very probable that one description of religionists, during that fertile period, was denominated Methodists. These it would seem distinguished themselves by plainness of speech, despising the ornaments of literature and the charms of eloquence in their public discourses. This might have been known to the Fellow of Merton College, who gave the Oxonian Pietists the name of Methodists, though it seems probable Mr. Wesley never caught the idea. Gale also, in his fourth Part of the Court of the Gentiles, mentions a religious sect, whom he calls The New Methodists.'"

History of the Wesleyan Methodists, p. 24.

NOTE X. Page 73.

Expenses of the University.

UPON this subject I transcribe a curious note from Dr. Wordworth's most interesting collection of Ecclesiastical Biography.

"We may learn what the fare of the Universities was from a description of the state of Cambridge, given at St. Paul's Cross in the year 1550, by Thomas Lever, soon after made Master of St. John's College.

"There be divers there at Cambridge which rise daily betwixt four and five of the clock in the morning, and from five until six of the clock use common prayer, with an exhortation of God's word in a common chapel; and from six unto ten of the clock use ever either private study or common lectures. At ten of the clock they go to dinner; whereas they be content with a penny piece of beef amongst four, having a few pottage made of the broth of the same beef with salt and oatmeal, and nothing else. After this slender dinner, they be either teaching or learning until five of the clock in the evening, when as they have a supper not much better than their dinner. Immediately after which they go either to reasoning in problems or unto some other study, until it be nine or ten of the clock; and then being without fire, are fain to walk or run up and down half an hour, to get a heat on their feet, when they go to bed.

"These be men not weary of their pains, but very sorry to leave their study; and sure they be not able some of them to continue for lack of necessary exhibition and relief."

Sir Henry Wotton, writing from Vienna in 1590, says, "I am now at two florins a week, chamber, stove, and table: lights he finds me; wood I buy myself; in which respect I hold Your Honour right happy that you came in the summer, for we can hardly come by them here without two dollars the clofter, though we border upon Bohemia. Wine I have as much as it pleaseth me for my friend and self, and not at a stint, as the students of Altorph. All circumstances considered, I make my account that I spend more at this reckoning by five pounds four shillings yearly, than a good careful scholar in the Universities of England."

NOTE XI. Page 74.

Scheme of Self-Examination.

THIS paper is too curious in itself, and in its style too characteristic of Wesley, to be omitted here. It is entitled,

Love of God and Simplicity; means of which are Prayer and

Meditation.

Have I been simple and recollected in every thing I said or did? Have I, 1. Been simple in every thing, i. e. looked upon God as my good, my pattern, my one desire, my disposer, parent of good; acted wholly for him; bounded my views with the present action or hour? 2. Recollected? i. e. Has this simple view been distinct and uninterrupted? Have I done any thing without a previous perception of its being the will of God? or without a perception of its being an exercise or a means of the virtue of the day? Have I said any thing without it?

2. Have I prayed with fervour? at going in and out of church? in the church? morning and evening in private? Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with my friends? at rising? before lying down? on Saturday noon? all the time I was engaged in exterior work? in private? before I went into the place of public or private prayer, for help therein? Have I, wherever I was, gone to church morning and evening, unless for necessary mercy? and spent from one hour to three in private? Have I in private prayer frequently stopt short, and observed what fervour? Have I repeated it over and over, till I adverted to every word,? Have I at the beginning of every prayer or paragraph owned. I cannot pray? Have I paused before I concluded in his name, and adverted to my Saviour now interceding for me at the right hand of God and offering up these prayers?