These incidents, while they regaled the spleen, at the same time
augmented the renown of the conjurer, who was described on both
sides as a very extraordinary person in his way; and the alteration
in his door was no sooner performed, than he had occasion to avail
himself of it, against the intrusion of a great many, with whom
he would have found it very difficult to support the fame he had
acquired.
Among those who appeared at his grate, he perceived a certain
clergyman, whom he had long known a humble attendant on the great,
and with some the reputed minister of their pleasures. This Levite
had disguised himself in a greatcoat, boots, and dress quite foreign
to the habit worn by those of his function; and, being admitted,
attempted to impose himself as a country squire upon the conjurer,
who, calling him by his name, desired him to sit down. This reception
corresponding with the report he had heard, touching our magician's
art, the doctor said he would lay aside all dissimulation. After
having professed an implicit belief, that his supernatural knowledge
did not proceed from any communication with evil spirits, but was
the immediate gift of Heaven, he declared the intention of his
coming, was to inquire into the health of a good friend and brother
of his, who possessed a certain living in the country, which he
named; and, as he was old and infirm, to know what space of time
was allotted to him in this frail state of mortality, that he
might have the melancholy satisfaction of attending him in his last
moments, and assisting him in his preparations for eternity.
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