the same manner, the Life of Colonel Jack,
Moll Flanders, Roxana, and Captain Singleton,
are all living and breathing persons;
in their biographies everything is true with
the exception of the names and dates; and
even these have been widely and implicitly
believed by the most matter-of-fact and
unimaginative persons. Defoe's most amusing
mystification, however, was his pamphlet,
entitled A True Relation of the Apparition
of one Mrs. Veal, the next day after her
death, to one Mrs. Bargrave, at Canterbury,
the 8th of September, 1705, which
apparition recommends the perusal of
Drelincourt's book of " Consolations against
the Fear of Death." The story, which is told
on the alleged authority of persons then
living, details with marvellous minuteness the
appearance of the ghost of Mrs. Veal to her
friend—not under mysterious and solemn
circumstances, with which even Mrs. Radcliffe
can scarcely, now, inspire terror—but at noon
day, in Mrs. Bargrave's house, where the
ghost gained admission by simply knocking
at the door. Neither is the spirit
conventionally attired; she is in Mrs. Veal's (riding)
habit as she lived, and has altogether the
appearance of a respectable lady making a
morning call. The air of truth which
pervades every detail of the interview, throws the
reader completely off his guard, and the first
hint—which is most carelessly and artistically
incidental—of the visitor's immateriality, is
something startling as a sensation. Very
artful also is the ghost's puff of Drelincourt
on Death, in which lies the whole object
of the pamphlet. The pamphlet was, in
fact, a bookseller's puff, concocted to sell off a
large edition of M. Drelincourt's work, which
had been long lying idle on the publisher's
shelves. And so great was the credence given
everywhere to the ghost story, that the not
very learned or lively treatise went off like
wildfire.

The first important event in the life of
Psalmanaazaar—his birth—remains a mystery,
and is likely to remain so, in company with the
long list of important mysteries which are not
worth the trouble of solution. Nobody knows
the name of the Free-school where his education
was commenced, nor of the archiepiscopal
city at whose Jesuit college it was continued.
The name of the young gentleman to whom
on leaving the college he acted as tutor has
not been handed down to fame, and the
circumstances which led him to fall into a
"mean and rambling life," as one of his
biographers describes it, have never been
recorded. He seems, from the very first, to
have directed his attention to imposture; as
much from natural taste as for the means of
livelihood. His first crusade was against
religious enthusiasts. He was of Irish extraction
—so said some credentials which he
contrived to procure—left his country, not
for his country's good; but for the good of
the Roman Catholic religion. Determining
to proceed on a pilgrimage to Rome, his
first necessity was a pilgrim's garb, which he
contrived to carry off, together with the
appropriate staff, from a chapel at noon-day. The
rest of the adventure we gather from no
unimpeachable source—himself. " Being thus
accoutred, and furnished with a pass, I began,
at all proper places, to beg my way in fluent
Latin, accosting only clergymen, and persons
of figure, by whom I could be understood:
and found them mostly so generous and
credulous that I might easily have saved money,
and put myself into a much better dress,
before I had gone through a score or two of
miles. But so powerful was my vanity and
extravagance, that as soon as I had got what
I thought a sufficient viaticum, I begged no
more, but viewed everything worth seeing,
and then retired to some inn, where I spent
my money as freely as I had obtained it."

He seems to have been about sixteen years
of age when, while wandering in Germany, he
first hit upon the project of passing for a native
of the island of Formosa. He set to work
immediately, with equal ardour and ingenuity,
to form a new alphabet and language; a grammar;
a division of the year into twenty months;
and, finally, a new religion. In the prosecution
of his scheme he experienced many difficulties.
But these he surmounted by degrees. He
accustomed himself to writing backwards,
after the practice of eastern nations, and was
observed worshipping the rising and setting
sun, and practising various minor
mummeries, with due decorum. In short, he passed
everywhere for a Japanese converted to
Christianity; and, resuming his old pilgrim habit,
recommenced his tour in the Low Countries.

At Liege he entered into the Dutch
service, and was carried by his commander to
Aix-la-Chapelle. He afterwards entered into
the service of the Elector of Cologne, and
finding, it may be presumed, that as a convert
he did not attract sufficient attention, he
assumed the character of a Japanese in a
benighted and unenlightened condition. As
he probably anticipated, he immediately
became an object of interest. At Sluys,
Brigadier Lauder, a Scottish Colonel, introduced
him to one Innes, the chaplain of his
regiment, with a view to a spiritual conference.
This was an important step in the life of the
adventurer. Innes seems to have been the
chief cause of the imposture being carried to
its height. That he had an early inkling of
the deception there can be no doubt; but he
was far too prudent to avow the fact,
preferring the credit of the conversion, as likely
to favour his advancement in the Church.

It was arranged in the first instance that
Innes should procure Psalmanaazaar's
discharge; but he delayed taking this preparatory
step until he should hear from the
Bishop of London, to whom he had written
on the subject. At length, finding that his
protégé was paying attention to some Dutch
ministers, he saw that no time was to be lost,