SOU THCOT T, JOAtNA, a curious specimen of the religious visionary, was b. in Devon shire, England, of humble parentage, about 1750. In her youth she was a domestic ervant, chiefly ln Exeter; joined the Methodists, and becoming acquainted with a man named Sanderson, who laid claim to the spirit of prophecy, made similar pretensions herself. She received encouragement from some weak-minded clergymen of the church of England. -In 1792, she declared herself to be the woman driven into the wilderness, the subject of the prophecy in Rev. xii. She gave forth predictions in prose and verse, and although very illiterate, wrote numerous letters and pamphlets, which, as well as her prophecies in verse, or rather in doggrel, were published, and found many pur chasers, and many received her pretensions as genuine. One of her productions was the Book of Wonders. She also issued sealed papers to her followers, which she termed her seals, and'which, she assured [item, would protect them from the judgments of God both in this and the other world, assuring their salvation, Thousands of both sexes received them with implicit confidence, among whom were men of good education and respect able position in society. At length she iniagined herself to have symptoms of preg nancy, and announced that she was to give birth, at midnight on Oct. 9, 1814, to a aecond Shiloh, or prince of peace, miraculously conceived: she being then more than GO years of age. The infatuation of her followers was such that they received this announcement with devout reverence, prepared an expensive cradle, and spent consider able sums, that all might be suitable for so great an occasion. The expected birth did not take place, but on Dee. 27, 1814, the woman died. On a post-mortem examination, it was found that the appearance of pregnancy which had deceived others, and perhaps herself, was due to dropsy. She was privately buried in London. Her followers, how ever, were not to be undeceived, and continued to believe that she would rise again from her "trance," and appear as the mother of the promised Shiloh. In 1851, according to
the census returns, there were still four congregations of Southcottians in England. Unfortunately, later census returns afford us no information on such subjects. Some passages in her absurd prophecies are of rather a practical character, as the following: "I am the Lord thy God and Master: Tell I— to pay thee five pounds for expenses of thy coming up to London; and be must give thee twenty pounds to relieve the per plexity of thylandanaid and thee, that your thoughts may be free.to serve me the Lord, in the care of my Shiloh." This was published in 1820. The Lord is also made to inform his people somewhere, anxious to go to meet the Shiloh at Manchester, that traveling by the new cut is not expensive.
The history of Joanna Soutlicott herself has not much in it that is marvelous; but the influence which she exercised over others may well be deemed so, and the infatuation of her followers is hard to be understood, particularly when it is considered that some of them were man of some intelligence and of cultivated mind. Probably the secret of her influence-lay in the fact that the poor creature was in earnest about her own delusions. So few people in the world are really so, that they are always liable to be enslaved by others who have convictions of any kind, however grotesque. On her deathbed, Joanna raid: " If I have been misled, it has been by some spirit, good or evil." She knew that she was not "hersel" (as the Scotch say), when she prophesied: but she was of too mean au order of intelligence to understand that she was mad, and therefore preferred to attribute her delusions to the deity. or, as she said at the last moment with pathetic half-penitent vacillation, to " some spirit, good or evil." Poor Joanna never suspected that the spirit which played such vagaries was her own.