whom he had not previously exchanged a syllable. "Mr. F," said he, "how long do you think I have been upon this earth?" "Indeed, I have no

idea, sir," was the reply. "Well, I will tell you,” rejoined the prophet; "more than eighteen hundred years!" Mr. F, knowing nothing as to the peculiarity of his character at the time, it may be imagined, was somewhat surprised at so extraordinary an annunciation, and scanning him from top to toe, involuntarily exclaimed, "The d—l you have; do you tell me so!" "I do," observed the other. "Then all I have to say is, that you are a remarkably good-looking fellow for one of your age!" Matthews put on one of his sardonic grins, and with an indignant scowl, replied, "You are a devil, sir," and walked immediately away.

It will have been seen, as well from the narrative of Mr. and Mrs. Folger, as from other circumstances which have been noted, that Matthews did not pay that respectful deference to the female character which is exacted in all respectable society, and cheerfully awarded in all Christian countries. He seemed to look upon the sex as an inferior order of beings, like the Mohammedans, and spoke of them with sneers and contempt, like the Indians. learned and accomplished theologian of New-York has furnished the following incident, which affords a pointed and appropriate illustration of this feature of his character, and is withal rather amusing. It occurred in the bookstore of Mr. F- —, in Broadway, a few months before the prophet left the city. "He entered the store, and abruptly launched out

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into a kind of soliloquizing rhapsody on the present state of religion and the prospects of the church. Without appearing to notice him, I indulged my curiosity a few moments in listening to his wild and outré tirade against the whole existing order of things religious. Though in the main a medley of bald disjointed chat,' yet I was certainly somewhat struck with a kind of shrewd piquancy in his remarks, and a vein occasionally approaching to a rude eloquence, which I can conceive might have no inconsiderable effect upon an audience of no more cultivation or refinement than himself. I retain nothing of his rhodomontade but the amusing simile he employed in speaking of the agency of women in sustaining the benevolent operations of the present day. This, he said, was but acting over the part of the Philistines in sending back the ark of the covenant to the land of Israel in a cart drawn by cows instead of oxen. So it is now,' said he; the ark of the Lord is held up and carried by nothing but cows.'"

When likely to be pressed into a corner, Matthews was frequently dexterous in escaping by evasion, as in the following instance, which has been related to the writer by a gentleman who dined with the prophet several times, at the house of one of his disciples. The gentleman at the first interview, having no previous knowledge of him, supposed him, from his costume and appearance, to be a Jewish Rabbi, and, of course, well acquainted with the Hebrew Scriptures; he took the liberty respectfully to ask him the literal signification of a certain Hebrew expression. Upon this, Matthias hesitated a

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short time, and then very shrewdly replied, "that he was asked so many questions, and they took up so much of his time to satisfy, that he had come to the resolution to give no answers to any of them.” His proselyte, who was present, appeared to be well satisfied with this reply, presuming, no doubt, that the prophet knew all things, and could, if he chose, give the true explanation required.

In proof of the gift, or power which he asserted, of working miracles, Matthews related the following incident to the same gentleman while at table. Whether the prophet himself did not intend the anecdote to be rather a specimen of pleasantry, it is difficult to say. He stated, that while imprisoned, in the early part of his career, at Albany, there was also in confinement a crazy woman, who gave great annoyance to the inmates, not unfrequently committing assaults upon them. He met her one day as he was descending the stairs of the upper apartments, apparently in a furious rage; and having the Bible in his hand, he brought it in contact with her face with considerable force, exclaiming, at the same time, in a high tone of voice, In the name of God depart from her! which had the desired effect. She immediately became calm, and in a short time was dismissed from the prison as cured. He soon afterward met her in the street, apparently well.

The subjoined account of an interview with the impostor, and his assumption of miraculous gifts, has been furnished by a literary friend.

It also

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illustrates the facility, already referred to, with which he was wont to escape an approaching dilemma :— "I met Matthews accidentally, one afternoon, at the warehouse of the Messrs. which he had

lately taken it into his head to visit several times. On my entrance he was sitting upon a box, arrayed in his green frock-coat and red sash, holding forth to one of the partners and two or three other gentlemen standing around him, on the subject of his pretended divinity. The immediate topic was his alleged power of working miracles, which he was maintaining against the skeptical remarks and queries of his auditory, who were evidently amusing themselves with his absurdities. He was ready in answering, and displayed considerable shrewdness in meeting the difficulties presented to him--which, however, were not of a very startling character, as the comments of the gentlemen were rather of an ironical turn, than involving any thing like serious disputation. Matthews himself was a very pattern of gravity-courteous, but never relaxing into a smile, and continually smoothing down his luxuriant beard and moustaches, an exercise in which he seemed to take great delight.

"I listened for a time without joining in the conversation, but finally made a remark which Matthews answered very readily, and for some minutes the discourse was kept up exclusively between him and myself. The subject was still his alleged miraculous power. I urged him to afford us a proof of it by working some miracle on the spot; but he, of course, evaded the demand, very much in

the usual style of impostors, sometimes by declaring that it would be an indignity to exert a supernatural and heavenly power for the mere indulgence of an idle curiosity, and then again insisting upon the necessity of our having faith in him, before a miracle could be made perceptible to our senses. After

some discourse of this kind, I grew tired of his nonsense, and went away to another part of the wareroom, where I entered into conversation with some other gentlemen.

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"In the course of fifteen or twenty minutes, I returned to where Matthews was yet sitting, and found him still harping on my daughter,' that is to say, the miracles. Mr. ——, one of the firm, was telling him, when I came up, that he was suffering much from the aching of a decayed tooth, and urging him, with mock gravity, to make that tooth instantly sound by his divine power; Matthews somewhat testily replied that he could not work this miracle unless Mr. had faith that he could do so, and seemed rather anxious to change the subject. effect this, as I supposed, he began to tell a long story about the child of Mr. Folger, which had been taken very dangerously ill that a physician was called in by the parents: that he (M.) came to the house and found the physician there: that he rebuked Mr. and Mrs. Folger for seeking human aid, and required them to dismiss the doctor: that they refused and he insisted that he told them unless they did the child would die: that they yielded at last, sent the doctor away, and he commanded the child to arise and be well, which was instantly done.

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