From the Oracles and Astrologers of old to the Norwood
Gipsy of the present day, the race of people living by the credulity of their fellows has been uninterrupted. Moores .41,nanac even now finds an extensive sale; and what is more, is still consulted as an oracle of the weather, if not of political events : and here we have the twenty-fourth edition of The Book of Fate. Were this put forth as a game, we might applaud its ingenuity ; but it is seri- ously described as formerly in the possession of NAPOLEON, and " rendered into English from a German translation of an ancient Egyptian manuscript," found tucked under the arm of a mummy. The fabricator of this piece of humbug appropriately assumes a. German name. In the Preface, we are told how it was found among NAPOLEON'S baggage, at Leipsic, and how his grief for the loss of his favourite oracle was excessive. The translator naïvely says, "What became of the original papyrus, is not known ; " but if it should be in existence, its proprietor is te-