what had hitherto befallen him, but in the important prospect of
the future a singular difficulty occurred. There were two years
during the course of which he could by no means obtain any exact
knowledge whether the subject of the scheme would be dead or
alive. Anxious concerning so remarkable a circumstance, he gave
the scheme to a brother astrologer, who was also baffled in the
same manner. At one period he found the native, or subject, was
certainly alive; at another that he was unquestionably dead; but a
space of two years extended between these two terms, during which
he could find no certainty as to his death or existence.

The astrologer marked the remarkable circumstance in his diary,
and continued his exhibitions in various parts of the empire until
the period was about to expire during which his existence had been
warranted as actually ascertained. At last, while he was
exhibiting to a numerous audience his usual tricks of legerdemain,
the hands whose activity had so often baffled the closest observer
suddenly lost their power, the cards dropped from them, and he
sunk down a disabled paralytic. In this state the artist
languished for two years, when he was at length removed by death.
It is said that the diary of this modern astrologer will soon be
given to the public.

The fact, if truly reported, is one of those singular coincidences
which occasionally appear, differing so widely from ordinary
calculation, yet without which irregularities human life would not
present to mortals, looking into futurity, the abyss of
impenetrable darkness which it is the pleasure of the Creator it
should offer to them. Were everything to happen in the ordinary
train of events, the future would be subject to the rules of