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The late Dr. Adam Nietzky, who, towards the conclusion of the last century, was professor at the University of Halle, had the vanity to wish to be thought not only an able physician and naturalist, but also an infallible fortune-teller. He, therefore, seized every opportunity of displaying his faculty, and foretelling future events; and also studiously propagated among his acquaintance the reputation of that power. Every prediction that was fulfilled, the admiration of his friends, and his own mysterious behaviour, caused it to be whispered that Nietzky certainly possessed the key to futurity.

By these means, but more especially by his high character as a physician, and by his universal reputation for piety and integrity, he not only acquired the confidence of many venerable matrons, but became the oracle of his pupils to as great a degree as it is possible for any academical teacher to be. Hence, at the