THERE is nothing more silly than a belief in fortunetelling, whether we consider the thing itself, or the description of persons who profess the art—an art to which no one of character or education ever pretends. But such belief is scarcely less dangerous than silly, especially amongst young persons of the humbler classes. By exciting false hopes, it leads to false steps; and unsettled habits, anxiety, disappointment, dishonesty, ruin, and untimely or ignominious death, have been directly or indirectly its consequences. Many are induced to have their fortunes told from mere idle curiosity; but a lucky guess, or a prediction accidentally verified even in part, may take such hold of the imagination that reason cannot resume her former sway—besides that it is inexcusable to give encouragement to a race of profligates, thieves, and children stealers. A revolting instance of this encouragement is to be witnessed at Epsom races on the part of many elegantly dressed females, and the mixture causes a considerable detraction from the brilliancy of the Scene.
The following anecdote strikingly shows how difficult it must sometimes be to detect imposition. It will remind the readers of Hamilton's "Memoirs of De Grammont" of some passages in that work.
A little more than sixty years since a fortune-teller in Paris was roused from his bed at the dead of night by a loud knocking at his door. On opening it he perceived standing before him a man muffled up in an ample cloak, with a large hat slouched over his face. "What do you want?" said the fortune-teller, somewhat alarmed. The stranger answered sternly, "If you are what you profess to be, you can tell me that." "I can tell nothing without my cards," replied the other. They both walked in, and the fortune-teller, having shuffled his cards, and laid them out, after a pause, observed with a tone of deference, "I perceive I am in the presence of an illustrious person." "You are right," said the stranger; "and now tell me what it is I wish to know." The fortune-teller again consulting his cards, answered—"You wish to know whether a certain lady will have a son or daughter." "Right again," said the stranger. After another pause, the fortune-teller pronounced that the lady would have a son. On which the stranger replied—"If that prove true, you shall receive fifty pieces of gold—if false, a good cudgelling." A few weeks after, about the same hour and in the same manner, the stranger re-appeared, and before he could speak, the fortune teller exclaimed, "You find I was right." "I do," said the stranger, "and I am come to keep my promise." So saying, he produced a purse of fifty louis, and departed. The stranger's mode of proceeding seems to have been designed to put the fortune-teller's skill to the severest test. The circumstance of his coming alone, and at such an hour, makes it probable he had not communicated his intention to any one; whilst his carefulness in concealing his person and face, and his extreme caution to afford no clue to the discovery of himself or his object by conversation, were admirably calculated to render imposition impossible. The history of the case is this. I heard it about seventeen years since from a gentleman in Paris, who learned it from Volney, the celebrated traveller in the East. Volney had it from the fortune-teller himself, who applied to him for some Syriac expressions. On being asked for what purpose he wanted them, he confessed his trade; and Volney finding him a remarkably shrewd person, inquired of him the story of his life. He said, that when he was young, he had a great turn for expense, very slender means, and an inveterate repugnance to any thing like drudgery. After long puzzling himself to discover some mode of life, by which he could unite certain profit with continual amusement, he determined to set up as a fortune-teller. He commenced by taking a lodging in the obscure quarter of the Marais, and practising in a small way in that neighbourhood, where the blunders of a beginner would not be of much consequence. At the same time he never failed to be in daily attendance about the court, and spared no pains to make himself familiar with the personal appearance and private history of every person of the least note there.
After two years of practice amongst the small, and of study amongst the great, he thought himself qualified to begin business on a grand scale, and having, by bribery of a servant, procured a proper customer, he tried his art in his new sphere with great success. His fame, and of course his gains, increased rapidly, and it was when he was in his zenith that the adventure above related happened. He explained it thus. Whilst shuffling his cards, he purposely let two or three fall,and in rising from picking them up, he contrived to catch a sufficient glimpse of the stranger's countenance I to discover that he was no less a person than the Duke of Orleans, afterwards Philippe Egalite, and the father of the present King of the French, who was actually the child in question. He took not the least notice of the discovery he had made, but pretended to ascertain the fact from the contemplation of his cards. Having overcome this difficulty, his practised acuteness made the rest easy to him. It was publicly known that the Duchess was near her confinement, and he had heard the Duke was anxious to have a son; he therefore confidently guessed the object of his visit, and, after the manner of his tribe, hazarded the prediction which he thought would ensure him the most liberal pay. He did not expect the proposed alternative, which obliged him to be on his guard, and he had actually only just returned from learning the news at the palace, and was scarcely in bed, when the Duke arrived, whose faith must have been confirmed by the fortune-teller's anticipation of his intelligence.
If the story be true, it is not probable that a man like the Duke of Orleans, having experienced such an instance of fortune-telling, would be satisfied without recurring to it, and it may possibly be that such excitement of ambitious hopes contributed to his, as to Macbeth's, untimely fall.
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