Letters on Demonology & Witchcraft (Scot)

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JAMES K.MOFFITT

PAULINE FORE MOFFITTLIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA


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LETTERS

DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT.


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EDINBURGH :PRfNTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY,

PAUL'S \VORK, CANONGATE.


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LETTERSON

DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT,ADDRESSED TO

J. G. LOCKHART, ESQ.

SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.

LONDON:JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.


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CONTENTS.

PageLETTER I.Origin of the general Opinions respecting Demonologyamong Mankind The Belief in the Immortality of

the Soul is the main inducement to credit its occa-sional reappearance The Philosophical Objectionsto the Apparition of an Abstract Spirit little un-derstood by the Vulgar and Ignorant The situa-tions of excited Passion incident to Humanity,which teach Men to wish or apprehend Supernatu-ral Apparitions They are often presented by theSleeping Sense Story of Somnambulism The In-fluence of Credulity contagious, so that Individualswill trust the Evidence of others in despite of theirown Senses Examples from the Historia Verda-dera of Bernal Dias del Castillo, and from the Worksof Patrick Walker The apparent Evidence of In-tercourse with the Supernatural World is sometimesowing to a depraved State of the bodily OrgansDifference between this Disorder and Insanity, inwhich the Organs retain their tone, though that ofthe Mind is lost Rebellion of the Senses of a Lu-natic against the current of his Reveries Narra-tives of a contrary nature, in which the Evidenceof the Eyes overbore the Conviction of the Under-standing Example of a London Man of Pleasure


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I CONTENTS.PageOf Nicolai, the German Bookseller and Philoso-pher Of a Patient of ^)r Gregory Of an Emi-nent Scottish Lawyer deceased Of this same fal-

lacious Disorder are other instances, which have butsudden and momentary Endurance Apparition ofMaupertuis Of a late illustrious modern Poet-The Cases quoted chiefly relating to false Impres-sions on the Visual Nerve, those upon the Ear nextconsidered Delusions of the Touch chiefly experi-enced in Sleep Delusions of the Taste and of theSmelling Sum of the Argument, ... 1

LETTER II.Consequences of the Fall on the communication he-tween Men and the Spiritual World Effects of

the Flood Wizards of Pharaoh Text in Exodusagainst Witches The word Witch is by some saidto mean merely Poisoner Or, if in the Holy Textit also means a Divineress, she must, at any rate,have been a character very different to be identifiedwith it The original, Chasaph, said to mean a per-son who dealt in Poisons, often a traffic of thosewho dealt with Familiar Spirits But different fromthe European Witch of the Middle Ages Thus aWitch is not accessary to the temptation of JobThe Witch of the Hebrews probably did not rankhigher than a Divining Woman Yet it was acrime deserving the doom of death, since it inferredthe disowning ofJehovah's Supremacy Other textsof Scripture, in like manner, refer to something cor-responding more with a Fortune-teller or DiviningWoman, than what is now called a Witch Example of the Witch of Endor Account of her meet-ing with Saul Supposed by some a mere ImpostorBy others a Sorceress powerful enough to raisethe Spirit of the Prophet by her own art Difficul-

ties attendingboth positions A middle course adopt-


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CONTENTS. IllPage

ed, supposing that, as in the case of Balak, the Al-mighty had, by exertion of his will, substitutedSamuel, or a good spirit in his character, for the de-ception which the Witch intended to produce Re-sumption of the Argument, showing that the Witchof Eiidor signified something very different fromthe modern ideas of Witchcraft The Witches men-tioned in the New Testament are not less differentfrom modern ideas, than those of the Books of Mo-ses, nor do they appear to have possessed the powerascribed to Magicians Articles of Faith which wemay gather from Scripture on this point Thatthere might be certain Powers permitted by the Al-mighty to inferior, arid even evil Spirits, is possible ;and, in some sense, the Gods of the Heathens mightbe accounted Demons More frequently, and in ageneral sense, they were but logs of wood, withoutsense or power of any kind, and their worshipfounded on imposture Opinion that the Oracleswere silenced at the Nativity, adopted by MiltonCases of Demoniacs The incarnate Possessionsprobably ceased at the same time as the interventionof Miracles Opinion of the Catholics Result thatWitchcraft, as the word is interpreted in the MiddleAges, neither occurs under the Mosaic or GospelDispensation It arose in the'ignorant period, whenthe Christians considered the Gods of the Maho-medan or Heathen Nations as Fiends, and theirPriests as Conjurers or Wizards Instance as tothe Saracens, and among the Northern Europeansyet unconverted The Gods of Mexico and Peruexplained on the same system Also the Powahsof North America Opinion of Mather Gibb, asupposed Warlock, persecuted by the other Disseut-ers Conclusion, ...... 4-9


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IV CONTENTS.Page

LETTER III.Creed of Zoroaster received partially into most Hea-then Nations Instances among the Celtic Tribe*of Scotland Beltane Feast Gudeman's Croft

Such abuses admitted into Christianity after theearlier Ages of the Church Law of the Romansagainst Witchcraft Romish Customs survive thefall of their Religion Instances Demonology ofthe Northern Barbarians Nicksas Bhar-geist.

Correspondence between the Northern and Ro-man Witches The power of Fascination ascribedto the Sorceresses Example from the EyrbiggiaSaga The Prophetesses of the Germans TheGods of Valhalla not highly regarded by their W7or-shippers Often defied by the Champions De-mons of the North Story of Assueit and AsmuiidAction of Ejectment against Spectres Adven-ture of a Champion with the Goddess Freya Con^version of the Pagans of Iceland to Christianity-Northern Superstitions mixed with those of theCelts Satyrs of the North Highland OuriskMeming the Satyr, . . . . . .8?

LETTER IV.The Fairy Superstition is derived from different

sources The Classical WTorship of the Silvans, orRural Deities, proved by Roman Altars discoveredThe Gothic Duergar, or Dwarfs, supposed to bederived from the Northern Laps or Fins TheNiebelungen-Lied King Laurin's Adventure-Celtic, Fairies of .a gayer character, yet their plea*sures empty and illusory Addicted to carry off Hu-man Beings, both Infants and Adults Adventuresof a Butler in Ireland The Elves supposed to payH Tax to Hell The Irish, Welsh, Highlanders,


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CONTENTS. VPage

and Manxmen, held the same belief It was ratherrendered more gloomy by the Northern TraditionsMerlin and Arthur carried off by the Fairies-Also Thomas of Erceldoune His Amour with theQueen of Eliland His re-appearance in lattertimes Another Account from Reginald ScotConjectures on the derivation of the word Fairy, 118

LETTER V.Those who dealt in fortune-telling, mystical cures by

charms, and the like, often claimed an intercoursewith Fairy Land Hudhart or Hudikin Pit-cairn's Scottish Criminal Trials Story of BessieDunlop and her Adviser Her Practice of Medi-cine and of Discovery of Theft Account of herFamiliar, Thome Reid Trial of Alison PearsonAccount of her Familiar, William Sympson Trialof the Lady Fowlis, and of Hector Munro, herStepson Extraordinary species of Charm used bythe latter Confession of John Stewart, a Juggler,of his intercourse with the Fairies Trial and Con-fession of Isobel Gowdie Use of Elf-arrow Heads

Parish of Aberfoyle Mr Kirke, the Minister ofAberfoyle's Work on Fairy Superstitions He ishimself taken to Fairy Land Dr Grahame's In-teresting Work, and his Information on Fairy Su-perstitions Story of a Female in East Lothiancarried off by the Fairies Another instance fromPennant, 142

LETTER VI.Immediate Effect of Christianity on Articles of Po-

pular Superstition Chaucer's Account of the Ro-man Catholic Priests banishingthe Fairies BishopCorbett imputes the same Effect to the Reforma-


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VI CONTENTS.Pagetion his Verses on that Subject his Iter Septen-

trionale Robin Goodfellow,and other Superstitionsmentioned by Reginald Scot Character of the Eng-lish Fairies The Tradition had become obsolete inthat Author's Time That of Witches remained invigour but impugned by various Authors after theReformation, as Wierus, Naudaeus, Scot, and othersDemonology defended by Bodinus, Remigius, &c.Their mutual Abuse of each other Imperfection

of Physical Science at this Period, and the Predo-minance of Mysticism in that Department, . . 1 73

LETTER VII.Penal laws unpopular when rigidly exercised Pro-secution of Witches placed in the hand of Special

Commissioners, ad inquirendum Prosecution forWitchcraft not frequent in the elder Period of theRoman Empire nor in the Middle Ages SomeCases took place, however The Maid of OrleansThe Duchess of Gloucester Richard the Third'sCharge against the Relations of the Queen Dow-ager But Prosecutions against Sorcerers becamemore common in the end of the Fourteenth Cen-tury Usually united with the Charge of HeresyMonstrelet's Account of the Persecution against theWaldenses, under pretext of Witchcraft Flori-mond's testimonyconcerningthe Increase of Witchesin his own Time Bull of Pope Innocent VIII.Various Prosecutions in Foreign Countries underthis severe Law Prosecutions in Labourt by theInquisitor De Lancre and his Colleague Lycan-thropy Witches in Spain in Sweden and par-ticularly those apprehended at Mohra, . .195


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CONTENTS. VllPage

LETTER VIII.The effects of the Witch Superstition are to be traced

in the Laws of a Kingdom Usually punished iuEngland as a crime connected with Politics At-tempt at Murder for Witchcraft not in itself Capi-talTrials of Persons of Rank for Witchcraft, con-nectedwith State Crimes Statutes of Henry VIII.How Witchcraft was regarded by the three Lead-ing Sects of Religion in the Sixteenth Century;first, by the Catholics ; second, by the Calvinists ;third, by the Church of England, and Lutherans

Impostures unwarily countenanced by IndividualCatholic Priests, and also by some Puritanic Cler-gymenStatute of 1562, arid some Cases upon it-Case of Dugdale Case of the Witches of Warbois,and execution of the family of Samuel That ofJane Wenham, in which some Church of EnglandClergymen insisted on the Prosecution Hutchi-son's Rebuke to them James the First's Opinionof Witchcraft His celebrated Statute, 1 Jac. I.Canon passed by the Convocation against Posses-sionCase of Mr Fairfax's Children LancashireWitches in 1613 Another Discovery in 1634*Webster's account of the manner in which the Im-posture was managed Superiority of the Calvinistsis followed by a severe Prosecution of Witches-Executions in Suffolk, &c. to a dreadful extent-Hopkins, the pretended Witchfinder, the cause ofthese Cruelties His Brutal Practices His Letter-Execution of Mr Lowis Hopkins PunishedRestoration of Charles Trial of Coxe of Dunnyand Callender before Lord Hales Royal Societyand Progress ofKnowledge Somersetshire WitchesOpinions of the Populace A Woman swum for

Witchcraft at Oakly Murder at Tring Actagainst Witchcraft abolished, and the belief in theCrime becomes forgotten Witch Trials in New


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CONTENTS. IXPageLETTER X.

Other Mystic Arts independent of Witchcraft As-trology Its Influence during the 16th and 17thCenturies Base Ignorance of those who practisedit Lilly's History of his Life and Times Astro-loger's Society Dr Lamb Dr Forman Estab-lishment of the Royal Society Partridge Con-nexion of Astrologers with Elementary SpiritsDr Dun Irish Superstition of the Banshie Si-milar Superstition in the Highlands Brownie-Ghosts Belief of Ancient Philosophers on thatSubject Enquiry into the respect due to such talesin Modern Times Evidence of a Ghost against aMurderer Ghost of Sir George Villiers Story ofEarl St Vincent of a British General Officer ofan Apparition in France of the Second Lord Lyt-telton of Bill Jones of Jarvis Matcham Trialof two Highlanders for the Murder of Sergeant Da-vis, discovered by a Ghost Disturbances at Wood-stock, anno 1649 Imposture called the StockwellGhost Similar Case in Scotland Ghost appear-ing to an Exciseman Story of a Disturbed Housediscovered by the firmness of the Proprietor Ap-parition at Plymouth A Club of Philosophers-Ghost Adventure of a Farmer Trick upon a Ve-teran Soldier Ghost Stories recommended by theSkill of the Authors who compose them MrsVeal's Ghost Dunton's Apparition Evidence-Effect of appropriate Scenery to encourage a ten-dency to Superstition differs at distant Periods ofLife Night at Glammis Castle about 1791 Visitto Dunvegan in 1814, 344


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LETTERSON

DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT.To J. G. LOCKHART, ESQ.

LETTER I.Origin of the general Opinions respecting Demonologyamong Mankind The Belief in the Immortality of theSoul is the main inducement to credit its occasional re-appearance The Philosophical Objections to the Appari-tion of an Abstract Spirit little understood by the Vulgarand Ignorant The situations of excited Passion incidentto Humanity, which teach men to wish or apprehend Su-pernatural Apparitions They are often presented by theSleeping Sense Story of Somnambulism The Influenceof Credulity contagious, so that Individuals will trust theEvidence of others in despite of their own Senses Exam-plesfrom the Historia Verdadera of Bernal Dias del Cas-tillo, andfrom the Works ofPatrick Walker The appa-rent Evidence ofIntercourse with the Supernatural Worldis sometimes owing to a depraved State of the bodily Or-gans Difference between this Disorder and Insanity, inwhich the Organs retain their tone, though that of the Mindis lost Rebellion of the Senses of a Lunatic against the


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2 LETTERS ONcurrent of his Reveries Narratives of a contrary Nature,in which the Evidence of the Eyes overbore the Convictionof the Understanding Example of a London Man ofPleasure Of Nicolai, the German Bookseller and Phi-losopher Of a Patient ofDr Gregory Of an EminentScottish Lawyer deceased Of this same fallacious Dis-order are other instances, which have but sudden and mo-mentary endurance Apparition ofMaupertuis Ofa late,illustrious modern Poet The Cases quoted chiefly relating1o false Impressions on the Visual Nerve, those upon theEar next considered Delusions of the Touch chiefly ex-perienced in Sleep Delusions of the Taste and of theSmelling Sum of the Argument.

You have asked of me, my dear friend, that Ishould assist the Family Library, with the historyof a dark chapter in human nature, which the in-creasing civilisation of all well-instructed coun-tries has now almost hlotted out, though the sub-ject attracted no ordinary degree of considera-tion in the older times of their history.Among much reading of my early days, it isno doubt true that I travelled a good deal in thetwilight regions of superstitious disquisitions.Many hours have I lost, " I would their debtwere less I" in examining old, as well as morerecent narratives of this character, and even inlooking into some of the criminal trials so fre-quent in early days, upon a subject which ourfathers considered as matter of the last import-ance. And, of late years, the very curious ex-tracts published by Mr Pitcairn, from the Crimi-nal Records of Scotland, are, besides their histo-rical value, of a nature so much calculated toillustrate the credulity of our ancestors on such


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 3subjects, that, by perusing them, I have been in-duced more recently to recall what I had read andthought upon the subject at a former period.

As, however, my information is only miscel-laneous, and I make no pretensions, either tocombat the systems of those by whom I am anti-cipated in consideration of the subject, or to erectany new one of my own, my purpose is, after ageneral account of Demonology and Witchcraft,to confine myself to narratives of remarkablecases, and to the observations which naturally andeasily arise out of them ; in the confidence thatsuch a plan is, at the present time of day, morelikely to suit the pages of-a popular miscellany,than an attempt to reduce the contents of manyhundred tomes, from the largest to the smallestsize, into an abridgement, which, however com-pressed, must remain greatly too large for thereader's powers of patience.A few general remarks on the nature of De-monology, and the original cause of the almostuniversal belief in communication betwixt mortalsand beings of a power superior to themselves, andof a nature not to be comprehended by human or-gans, are a necessary introduction to the subject.The general, or, it may be termed, the univer-sal belief of the inhabitants of the earth, in theexistence of spirits separated from the encum-brance and incapacities of the body, is groundedon the consciousness of the divinity that speaks inour bosoms, and demonstrates to all men, except

the few who are hardened to the celestial voice,that there is within us a portion of the divine sub-which is not


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4 LETTERS ONand dissolution, but which, when the body is nolonger fit for its abode, shall seek its own place,as a sentinel dismissed from his post. Unaided byrevelation, it cannot be hoped that mere earthlyreason should be able to form any rational or pre-cise conjecture concerning the destination of thesoul when parted from the body ; but the convic-tion that such an indestructible essence exists, thebelief expressed by the poet in a different sense,Non omnis moriar, must infer the existence ofmany millions of spirits, who have not been anni-hilated, though they have become invisible tomortals who still see, hear, and perceive, only bymeans of the imperfect organs of humanity. Pro-bability may lead some of the most reflecting toanticipate a state of future rewards and punish-ments ; as those experienced in the education ofthe deaf and dumb, find that their pupils, evenwhile cut off from all instruction by ordinarymeans, have been able to form, out of their ownunassisted conjectures, some ideas of the exist-ence of a Deity, and of the distinction between thesoul and body a circumstance which proves hownaturally these truths arise in the human mind.The principle that they do so arise, being taughtor communicated, leads to further conclusions.These spirits, in a state of separate existence,being admitted to exist, are not, it may be sup-posed, indifferent to the affairs of mortality, per-haps not incapable of influencing them. It is true,that, in a more advanced state of society, thephilosopher may challenge the possibility of a se-parate appearance of a disembodied spirit, unlessin the case of a direct miracle, to which, being a


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 7nature and the time of the apparition, the coinci-dence, though one which must be frequent, sinceour dreams usually refer to the accomplishmentof that which haunts our minds when awake, andoften presage the most probable events, seems per-fect, and the chain of circumstances touching theevidence may not unreasonably be considered ascomplete. Such a concatenation, we repeat, mustfrequently take place, when it is considered ofwhat stuff dreams are made how naturally theyturn upon thosewho occupy our mind while awake,and, when a soldier is exposed to death in battle,when a sailor is incurring the dangers of the sea,when a beloved wife or relative is attacked by dis-ease, how readily our sleeping imagination rushesto the very point of alarm, which when wakingit had shuddered to anticipate. The number ofinstances in which such lively dreams have beenquoted, and both asserted and received as spiritualcommunications, is very great at all periods; inignorant times, where the natural cause of dream-ing is misapprehended, and confused with an ideaof mysticism, it is much greater. Yet perhaps,considering the many thousands of dreams, whichmust, night after night, pass through the imagi-nation of individuals, the number of coincidencesbetween the vision and real event, are fewer andless remarkable than a fair calculation of chanceswould warrant us to expect. But in countrieswhere such presaging dreams are subjects of at-tention, the number of those which seemed to becoupled with the corresponding issue, is largeenough to spread a very general belief of a positivecommunication betwixt the living and the dead.


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 9distress and apprehensions. The Captain, with-out any argument at the time, privately resolvedto watch the motions of the ghost-seer in thenight ; whether alone, or with a witness, I haveforgotten. As the ship bell struck twelve, thesleeper started up, with a ghastly and disturbedcountenance, and lighting a candle, proceeded tothe galley or cook-room of the vessel. He satedown with his eyes open, staring before him as onsome terrible object which he beheld with horror,yet from which he could not withhold his eyes.After a short space he arose, took up a tin can ordecanter, filled it with water, muttering to him-self all the while mixed salt in the water, andsprinkled it about the galley. Finally, he sigheddeeply, like one relieved from a heavy burden,and, returning to his hammock, slept soundly. Inthe next morning, the haunted man told the usualprecise story of his apparition, with the additionalcircumstances, that the ghost had led him to thegalley, but that he had fortunately, he knew nothow, obtained possession of some holy water, andsucceeded in getting rid of his unwelcome visitor.The visionary was then informed of the real trans-actions of the night, with so many particulars asto satisfy him he had been the dupe of his imagi-nation ; he acquiesced in his commander's reason-ing, and the dream, as often happens in these cases,returned no more after its imposture had been de-tected. In this case, we find the excited imagina-tion acting upon the half-waking senses, whichwere intelligent enough for the purpose of makinghim sensible where he was, but not sufficiently soto judge truly of the objects before him.


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10 LETTERS ONBut it is not only private life alone, or that te-nor of thought which has heen depressed into me-

lancholy by gloomy anticipations respecting thefuture, which disposes the mind to mid-day fan-tasies, or to nightly apparitions a state of ea^eranxiety, or excited exertion, is equally favourableto the indulgence of such supernatural commu-nications. The anticipation of a dubious battle,with all the doubt and uncertainty of its event,and the conviction that it must involve his ownfate, and that of his country, was powerful enoughto conjure up to the anxious eye of Brutus thespectre of his murdered friend Caesar, respectingwhose death he perhaps thought himself less jus-tified than at the Ides of March, since, insteadof having achieved the freedom of Rome, theevent had only been the renewal of civil wars, andthe issue might appear most likely to conclude inthe total subjection of liberty. It is not miracu-lous, that the masculine spirit of Marcus Brutus,surrounded by darkness and solitude, distractedprobably by recollection of the kindness and fa-vour of the great individual whom he had put todeath to avenge the wrongs of his country, thoughby the slaughter ofhis own friend, should at lengthplace before his eyes in person the appearancewhich termed itself his evil Genius, and promisedagain to meet him at Philippi. Brutus' own in-tentions, and his knowledge of the military art,had probably long since assured him that the de-cision of the civil war must take place at or nearthat place ; and, allowing that his own imagina-tion supplied that part of his dialogue with thespectre, there is nothing else which might not be


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 11fashioned in a vivid dream or a waking reverie,,approaching, in absorbing and engrossing charac-ter, the usual matter of which dreams consist..That Brutus, well acquainted with the opinionsof the Platonists, should be disposed to receivewithout doubt the idea that he had seen a realapparition, and was not likely to scrutinize veryminutely the supposed vision, may be naturallyconceived ; and it is also natural to think, that al-though no one saw the figure but himself, his con-temporaries were little disposed to examine thetestimony of a man so eminent, by the strict rulesof cross-examination and conflicting evidence,which they might have thought applicable to an-other person, and a less dignified occasion.Even in the field of death, and amid the mortaltug of combat itself, strong belief has wrought thesame wonder, which we have hitherto mentionedas occurring in solitude and amid darkness ; andthose who were themselves on the verge of theworld of spirits, or employed in dispatching othersto these gloomy regions, conceived they beheldthe apparitions of those beings whom their na-tional mythology associated with such scenes. Insuch moments of undecided battle, amid the vio-lence, hurry, and confusion of ideas incident tothe situation, the ancients supposed that they sawtheir deities, Castor and Pollux, fighting in thevan for their encouragement ; the heathen Scan-dinavian beheld the Choosers ofthe slain ; and theCatholics were no less easily led to recognise thewarlike Saint George or Saint James in the veryfront of the strife, showing them the way to con-quest. Such apparitions being generally visible


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12 LETTERS ONto a multitude, have in all times been supportedby the greatest strength of testimony. Whenthe common feeling of danger, and the animatingburst of enthusiasm, act on the feelings of manymen at once, their minds hold a natural corres-pondence with each other, as it is said is the casewith stringed instruments tuned to the same pitch,of which, when one is played, the chords of theothers are supposed to vibrate in unison with thetones produced. If an artful or enthusiastic in-dividual exclaims, in the heat of action, that heperceives an apparition of the romantic kindwhich has been intimated, his companions catchat the idea with emulation, and most are willingto sacrifice the conviction of their own senses,rather than allow that they did not witness thesame favourable emblem, from which all drawconfidence and hope. One warrior catches the ideafrom another ; all are alike eager to acknowledgethe present miracle, and the battle is won beforethe mistake is discovered. In such cases, thenumber of persons present, which would other-wise lead to detection of the fallacy, becomes themeans of strengthening it.Of this disposition, to see as much of the super-natural as is seen by others around, or, in otherwords, to trust to the eyes of others rather thanto our own, we may take the liberty to quote tworemarkable instances.The first is from the Historia Verdadera of DonBernal Dias del Castillo, one of the companionsof the celebrated Cortez, in his Mexican conquest.After having given an account of a great victoryover extreme odds, he mentions the report in-


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 13serted in the contemporary Chronicle of Gomara,that Saint lago had appeared on a white horse invan of the combat, and led on his beloved Spaniardsto victory. It is very curious to observe the Cas-tilian cavalier's internal conviction, that the ru-mour arose out of a mistake, the cause of whichhe explains from his own observation ; whilst, atthe same time, he does not venture to disown themiracle. The honest Conquestador owns, that hehimself did not see this animating vision ; nay,that he beheld an individual cavalier, named Fran-cisco de Morla, mounted on a chestnut horse, andfighting strenuously in the very place where SaintJames is said to have appeared. But instead ofproceeding to draw the necessary inference, thedevout Conquestador exclaims, " Sinner that Iam, what am I that I should have beheld the bless-ed apostle !"The other instance of the infectious characterof superstition occurs in a Scottish book, and therecan be little doubt that it refers, in its first origin,to some uncommon appearance of the aurora bo-realis, or the northern lights, which do not appearto have been seen in Scotland so frequently as tobe accounted a common and familiar atmosphericalphenomenon, until the beginning of the eighteenthcentury. The passage is striking and curious, forthe narrator, Peter Walker, though an enthusiast,was a man of credit, and does not even affect to haveseen the wonders, the reality of which he unscru-pulously adopts on the testimony of others, towhose eyes he trusted rather than to his own. Theconversion of the sceptical gentleman of whom hespeaks, is highly illustrative of popular credulity,


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 15there was a discernible change in his countenance.With as much fear and trembling as any womanI saw there, he called out, < All you that do notsee, say nothing ; for I persuade you it is matterof fact, and discernible to all that is not stone-blind.' And those who did see told what works(i. e. locks) the guns had, and their length andwideness, and what handles the swords had, whe-ther small or three-barr'd, or Highland guards,and the closing knots of the bonnets, black orblue ; and those who did see them there, wheneverthey went abroad, saw a bonnet and a sword dropin the way."*This singular phenomenon, in which a multitudebelieved, although only two-thirds of them sawwhat must, if real, have been equally obvious toall, may be compared with the exploit of a humour-ist, who planted himself in an attitude of astonish-ment, with his eyes riveted on the well-knownbronze lion that graces the front of Northumber-land-house in the Strand, and having attracted theattention of those who looked at him by mutter-ing, " By Heaven, it wags ! it wags again !"contrived in a few minutes to blockade the wholestreet with an immense crowd, some conceivingthat they had absolutely seen the lion of Percywag his tail, others expecting to witness the samephenomenon.On such occasions as we have hitherto mention-

* Walker's Lives, Edinburgh, 1827, vol I. p. xxxvi. It isevident that honest Peter believed in the apparition of thismartial gear, on the principle of Partridge's terror for theghost of Hamlet not that he was afraid himself, but becauseGarrick showed such evident marks of terror.


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16 LETTERS ONed, we have supposed that the ghost-seer has beenin fall possession of his ordinary powers of per-ception, unless in the case of dreamers, in whomthey may have been obscured by temporary slum-ber, and the possibility of correcting vagaries 'ofthe imagination rendered more difficult by wantof the ordinary appeal to the evidence of the bo-dily senses. In other respects, their blood beattemperately, they possessed the ordinary capacityof ascertaining the truth, or discerning the false-hood, of external appearances, by an appeal to theorgan of sight. Unfortunately, however, as is nowuniversally known and admitted, there certainlyexists more than one disorder known to profes-sional men, of which one important symptom is adisposition to see apparitions.This frightful disorder is not properly insanity,although it is somewhat allied to that most horri-ble of maladies, and may, in many constitutions,be the means of bringing it on, and although suchhallucinations are proper to both. The differenceI conceive to be, that, in cases of insanity, themind of the patient is principally affected, whilethe senses, or organic system, offer in vain to thelunatic their decided testimony against the fantasyof a deranged imagination. Perhaps the natureof this collision between a disturbed imaginationand organs of sense possessed of their usual accu-racy cannot be better described than in the em-barrassment expressed by an insane patient con-fined in the Infirmary of Edinburgh. The poorman's malady had taken a gay turn. The house,in his idea, was his own, and he contrived to ac-count for all that seemed inconsistent with his


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18 LETTERS ONthe disorder to which I previously alluded is en-tirely of a bodily character, and consists principal-ly in a disease of the visual organs, which pre-sent to the patient a set of spectres or appearances,which have no actual existence. It is a diseaseof the same nature, which renders many men in-capable of distinguishing colours ; only the pa-tients go a step further, and pervert the externalform of objects. In their case, therefore, contraryto that of the maniac, it is not the mind, or ratherthe imagination, which imposes upon, and over-powers, the evidence of the senses, but the senseof seeing (or hearing) which betrays its duty, andconveys false ideas to a sane intellect.More than one learned physician, who havegiven their attestations to the existence of thismost distressing complaint, have agreed that itactually occurs, and is occasioned by differentcauses. The most frequent source of the maladyis in the dissipated and intemperate habits of thosewho, by a continued series of intoxication, be-come subject to what is popularly called theBlue Devils, instances of which mental disordermay be known to most who have lived for anyperiod of their lives in society where hard drink-ing was a common vice. The joyous visions sug-gested by intoxication when the habit is first ac-quired, in time disappear, and are supplied byfrightful impressions and scenes,which destroy thetranquillity of the unhappy debauchee. Appari-tions of the most unpleasant appearance are hiscompanions in solitude, and intrude even uponhis hours of society ; and when by an alterationof habits, the mind is cleared of these frightful


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 19ideas, it requires but the slightest renewal of theassociation to bring back the full tide of miseryupon the repentant libertine.Of this the following instance was told to theauthor by a gentleman connected with the suffer-er. A young man of fortune, who had led whatis called so gay a life as considerably to injureboth his health and fortune, was at length obligedto consult the physician upon the means of re-storing at least the former. One of his principalcomplaints was the frequent presence of a set ofapparitions, resembling a band of figures dressedin green, who performed in his drawingroom asingular dance, to which he was compelled to bearwitness, though he knew, to his great annoyance,that the whole corps de ballet existed only in hisown imagination. His physician immediately in-formed him that he had lived upon town too longand too fast not to require an exchange to a morehealthy and natural course of life. He thereforeprescribed a gentle course of medicine, but ear-nestly recommended to his patient to retire to hisown house in the country, observe a temperate dietand early hours, practising regular exercise, on thesame principle avoiding fatigue, and assured himthat by doing so he might bid adieu to black spiritsand white, blue, green, and grey, with all theirtrumpery. The patient observed the advice, andprospered. His physician, after the interval ofa month, received a grateful letter from him,acknowledging the success of his regimen. Thegreen goblins had disappeared, and with themthe unpleasant train of emotions to which theirvisits had given rise, and the patient had order-


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 21those who practise the dangerous custom to thesame inconvenience. Very frequent use of thenitrous oxide which affects the senses so strongly,and produces a short but singular state of ecstasy,would probably be found to occasion this speciesof disorder. But there are many other causeswhich medical men find attended with the samesymptom, of embodying before the eyes

of a pa-tient imaginary illusions which are visible to noone else. This persecution of spectral deceptionsis also found to exist when no excesses of the pa-tient can be alleged as the cause, owing, doubt-less, to a deranged state of the blood, or nervoussystem.The learned and acute Dr Ferriar of Manches-ter was the first who brought before the Englishpublic the leading case, as it may be called, inthis department, namely, that of Mons. Nicolai,the celebrated bookseller of Berlin. This gen-tleman was not a man merely of books, but ofletters, and had the moral courage to lay beforethe Philosophical Society of Berlin an accountof his own sufferings, from having been, by dis-ease, subjected to a series of spectral illusions.The leading circumstances of this case may bestated very shortly, as it has been repeatedly be-fore the public, and is insisted on by Dr Ferriar,Dr Hibbert, and others who have assumed De-nionology as a subject. Nicolai traces his illnessremotely to a series of disagreeable incidents whichhad happened to him in the beginning of the year1791. The depression of spirits which was oc-casioned by these unpleasant occurrences, wasaided by the consequences of neglecting a course


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22 LETTERS ONof periodical bleeding which he had been accus-tomed to observe. This state of health broughton the disposition to $eephantasmata,w]io visited,or it may be more properly said frequented, theapartments of the learned bookseller, presentingcrowds of persons who moved and acted beforehim, nay, even spoke to and addressed him. Thesephantoms afforded nothing unpleasant to the ima-gination of the visionary either in sight or expres-sion, and the patient was possessed of too muchfirmness to be otherwise affected by their pre-sence than with a species of curiosity, as he re-mained convinced, from the beginning to the endof the disorder, that these singular effects weremerely symptoms of the state of his health, anddid not in any other respect regard them as a sub*ject of apprehension. After a certain time, andsome use of medicine, the phantoms became lessdistinct in their outline, less vivid in their colour-ing, faded, as it were, on the eye of the patient,and at length totally disappeared.The case of Nicolai has unquestionably beenthat of many whose love of science has not beenable to overcome their natural reluctance to com-municate to the public the particulars attendingthe visitation of a disease so peculiar. That suchillnesses have been experienced, and have endedfatally, there can be no doubt ; though it is by nomeans to be inferred, that the symptom of im-portance to our present discussion has, on all oc-casions, been produced from the same identicalcause.Dr Hibbert, who has most ingeniously, as wellas philosophically, handled this subject, has treat-


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 25known to be of the most varied and brilliant cha-racter, to keep the attention of his host engaged,and prevent him from thinking on the approachof the fated hour, to which he was accustomed tolook forward with so much terror. He succeed-ed in his purpose better than he had hoped. Thehour of six came almost unnoticed, and it washoped, might pass away without any evil conse-quence ; but it was scarce a moment struck whenthe owner of the house exclaimed, in an alarmedvoice " The hag comes again !" and droppedback in his chair in a swoon, in the way he hadhimself described. The physician caused him tobe let blood, and satisfied himself that the perio-dical shocks ofwhich his patient complained, arosefrom a tendency to apoplexy.The phantom with the crutch was only a spe-cies of machinery, such as that with which fancyis found to supply the disorder called Ephialtes,or nightmare, or indeed any other external im-pression upon our organs in sleep, which the pa-tient's morbid imagination may introduce intothe dream preceding the swoon. In the night-mare an oppression and suffocation is felt, andour fancy instantly conjures up a spectre to lieon our bosom. In like manner it may be re-marked, that any sudden noise which the slum-berer hears, without being actually awakened byit any casual touch of his person occurring in thesame manner becomes instantly adopted in hisdream, and accommodated to the tenor of the cur-rent train of thought, whatever that may happento be ; and nothing is more remarkable than therapidity with which imagination supplies a com-


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DEMOXOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 29understand the nature of my complaint, and man-ner in which it acts upon me, nor, if you did, Ifear, could your zeal and skillavail to rid me of it."" It is possible," said the physician, " that myskill may not equal my wish of serving- you ; yetmedical science has many resources, of which thoseunacquainted with its powers never can form an.estimate. But until you plainly tell me yoursymptoms of complaint, it is impossible for eitherof us to say what may or may not be in my power,or within that of medicine." " I may answeryou," replied the patient, " that my case is nota singular one, since we read of it in the famousnovel of Le Sage. You remember, doubtless,the disease of which the Duke d'Olivarez is therestated to have died?" " Of the idea," answeredthe medical gentleman, " that he was haunted byan apparition, to the actual existence of which hegave no credit, but died, nevertheless, because hewas overcome and heart-broken by its imaginarypresence." " I, my dearest Doctor," said thesick man, " am in that very case ; and so painfuland abhorrent is the presence of the persecutingvision, that my reason is totally inadequate to com-bat the effects of my morbid imagination, and Iam sensible I am dying, a wasted victim to an ima-ginary disease." The medical gentleman-listenedwith anxiety to his patient's statement, and forthe present judiciously avoiding any contradictionof the sick man's preconceived fancy, contentedhimself with more minute enquiry into the natureof the apparition with which he conceived himselfhaunted, and into the history of the mode bywhich so singular a disease had made itself mas-


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SO LETTERS ONter of his imagination, secured, as it seemed, bystrong powers of the understanding, against anattack so irregular. The sick person replied bystating, that its advances were gradual, and at firstnot of a terrible or even disagreeable character.To illustrate this, he gave the following accountof the progress of his disease." My visions," he said, " commenced two orthree years since, when I found myself fromtime to time embarrassed by the presence of alarge cat, which came and disappeared I couldnot exactly tell how, till the truth was finallyforced upon me, and I was compelled to regardit as no domestic household cat, but as a bubbleof the elements, which had no existence, saveIn my deranged visual organs, or depraved ima-gination. Still I had not that positive objec-tion to the animal entertained by a late gallantHighland Chieftain, who has been seen to changeto all the colours of his own plaid, if a cat byaccident happened to be in the room writh him,even though he did not see it. On the contrary,I am rather a friend to cats, and endured with somuch equanimity the presence of my imaginaryattendant, that it had become almost indifferentto me ; when within the course of a few monthsit gave place to, or was succeeded by, a spectreof a more important sort, or which at least had amore imposing appearance. This was no otherthan the apparition of a gentleman-usher, dressedas if to wait upon a Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,a Lord High Commissioner of the Kirk, or anyother who bears on his brow the rank and stampof delegated sovereignty.


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32 LETTERS OXorder ; and I feel too surely that I shall die thevictim to so melancholy a disease, although I haveno belief whatever in the reality of the phantomwhich it places before me."The physician was distressed to perceive, fromthese details, how strongly this visionary appari-tion was fixed in the imagination of his patient.He ingeniously urged the sick man, who was thenin bed, with questions concerningthe circumstancesof the phantom's appearance, trusting he mightlead him, as a sensible man, into such contradic-tions and inconsistencies as might bring his com-mon sense, which seemed to be unimpaired, sostrongly into the field, as might combat success-fully the fantastic disorder which produced suchfatal effects. " This skeleton, then," said the Doc-tor, " seerns to you to be always present to youreyes ?" " It is my fate, unhappily," answered theinvalid, "always to see it." " Then I understand,"continued the physician, " it is now present toyour imagination ?" " To my imagination it cer-tainly is so," replied the sick man. " And inwhat part of the chamber do you now conceivethe apparition to appear ?" the physician enqui-red. " Immediately at the foot of my bed ; whenthe curtains are left a little open," answered theinvalid, " the skeleton, to my thinking, is placedbetween them, and fills the vacant space." " Yousay you are sensible of the delusion," said hisfriend ; " have you firmness to convince yourselfof the truth of this? Can you take courage enoughto rise and place yourself in the spot so seeming tobe occupied, and convince yourself of the illusion ?"The poor man sighed, and shook his head nega-


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 33tively. " Well," said the Doctor, " we will trythe experiment otherwise." Accordingly, he rosefrom his chair by the bedside, and placing him-self between the two half-drawn curtains at thefoot of the bed, indicated as the place occupied bythe apparition, asked if the spectre was still visi-ble ? " Not entirely so," replied the patient, " be-cause your person is betwixt him and me ; but Iobserve his skull peering above your shoulder."It is alleged the man of science started on the in-stant, despite philosophy, on receiving an answerascertaining, with such minuteness, that the idealspectre was close to his own person. He resort-ed to other means of investigation and cure, butwith equally indifferent success. The patient sunkinto deeper and deeper dejection, and died in thesame distress of mind in which he had spent thelatter months of his life ; and his case remains amelancholy instance of the power of imaginationto kill the body, even when its fantastic terrorscannot overcome the intellect, of the unfortunatepersons who suffer under them. The patient, inthe present case, sunk under his malady ; and thecircumstances of his singular disorder remainingconcealed, he did not, by his deatli and last illness,lose any of the well-merited reputation for pru-dence and sagacity which had attended him duringthe whole course of his life.

Having added these two remarkable instancesto the general train of similar facts quoted byFerriar, Hibbert, and other writers who havemore recently considered the subject, there can,we think, be little doubt of the proposition, thato


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DEMOXOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 35phantom has been personally witnessed by a manof sense and estimation, who, perhaps, satisfied inthe general as to the actual existence of appari-tions, has riot taken time or trouble to correct hisfirst impressions. This species of deception is sofrequent, that one of the greatest poets of the pre-sent time answered a lady who asked him if hebelieved in

ghosts," No, madam ; I have seen

too many myself." I may mention one or twoinstances of the kind, to which no doubt can beattached.The first shall be the apparition of Maupertuis,to a brother professor in the Royal Society ofBerlin.

Tins extraordinary circumstance appeared inthe Transactions of the Society, but is thus sta-ted by M. Thiebault, in his " Recollections ofFrederick the Great and the Court of Berlin." Itis necessary to premise that M. Gleditsch,to whomthe circumstance happened, was a botanist of emi-nence, holding the professorship of natural philo-sophy at Berlin, and respected as a man of an ha-bitually serious, simple, and tranquil character.A short time after the death of Maupertuis,*M. Gleditsch being obliged to traverse the hallin which the Academy held its sittings, havingsome arrangements to make in the cabinet of na-tural history, which was under his charge, andbeing willing to complete them on the Thursday

* Long the president of the Berlin Academy, and muchfavoured by Frederick II., till he was overwhelmed by theridicule of Voltaire. He retired, in a species of disgrace, tohis native country of Switzerland, and died there shortly af-terwards.


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36 LETTERS ONbefore the meeting, he perceived, on entering thehall, the apparition of M. de Maupertuis, uprightand stationary, in the first angle on his left hand,having his eyes fixed on him. This was aboutthree o'clock afternoon. The professor of naturalphilosophy was too well acquainted with physicalscience to suppose that his late president, who haddied at Bale, in the family of Messrs Bernoullie,could have found his way back to Berlin in person.He regarded the apparition in no other light thanas a phantom produced by some derangementof his own proper organs. M. Gleditsch wentto his own business, without stopping longerthan to ascertain exactly the appearance of thatobject. But he related the vision to his bre-thren, and assured them that it was as definedand perfect as the actual person of Maupertuiscould have presented. When it is recollectedthat Maupertuis died at a distance from Berlin,once the scene of his triumphs overwhelmedby the petulant ridicule of Voltaire, and out offavour with Frederick, with whom to be ridicu-lous was to be worthless we can hardly wonderat the imagination even of aman of physical sciencecalling up his Eidolon in the hall of his formergreatness.The sober-minded professor did not, however,push his investigation to the point to which it wascarried by a gallant soldier, from whose mouth aparticular friend of the author received the fol-lowing circumstances of a similar story.

Captain C was a native of Britain, butbred in the Irish Brigade. He was a man of themost dauntless courage, which he displayed in


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38 LETTERS ONthe confessor recovered, and, in Dr Johnson'sphrase,

"nothing came of it," the incident wasonly remarkable as showing that men of the

strongest nerves are not exempted from suchdelusions.Another illusion of the same nature we have

the best reason for vouching as a fact, though,for certain reasons, we do not give the names ofthe parties. Not long after the death of a lateillustrious poet, who had filled, while living, agreat station in the eye of the public, a literaryfriend, to whom the deceasedhad been well known,was engaged, during the darkening twilight of anautumn evening, in perusing one of the publica-tions which professed to detail the habits and opi-nions of the distinguished individual who was nowno more. As the reader had enjoyed the inti-macy of the deceased to a considerable degree, hewas deeply interested in the publication, whichcontained some particulars relating to himselfand other friends. A visitor was sitting in theapartment, who was also engaged in reading.Their sitting-room opened into an entrance-hall,rather fantastically fitted up with articles of ar-mour, skins of wild animals, and the like. It waswhen laying down his book, and passing into thishall, through which the moon was beginning toshine, that the individual of whom I speak saw,right before him, and in a standing posture, theexact representation of his departed friend, whoserecollection had been so strongly brought to hisimagination. He stopped for a single moment, soas to notice the wonderful accuracy with whichfancy had impressed upon the bodily eye the pe-


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 39culiarities of dress and posture of the illustriouspoet. Sensible, however, of the delusion, he feltno sentiment save that of wonder at the extraor-dinary accuracy of the resemblance, and steppedonwards towards the figure, which resolved itself,as he approached, into the various materials ofwhich it was composed. These were merely ascreen, occupied by great-coats, shawls, plaids, andsuch other articles as usually are found in a coun-try entrance-hall. The spectator returned to thespot from which he had seen the illusion, and en-deavoured, with all his power, to recall the imagewhich had been so singularly vivid. But this wasbeyond his capacity ;

and the person who had wit-nessed the apparition, or, more properly, whoseexcited state had been the means of raising it, hadonly to return into the apartment, and tell hisyoung friend under what a striking hallucinationhe had for a moment laboured.

There is every reason to believe that instancesof this kind are frequent among persons of a cer-tain temperament, and when such occur in an earlyperiod of society, they are almost certain to beconsidered as real supernatural appearances. Theydiffer from those of Nicolai, and others formerlynoticed, as being of short duration, and constitu-ting no habitual or constitutional derangement ofthe system. The apparition of Maupertuis to Mon-sieur Gleditsch, that of the Catholic clergyman toCaptain C , that of a late poet to his friend,are of the latter character. They bear to the for-mer the analogy, as we may say, which a sudden,and temporary fever-fit has to a serious feverishillness. But, even for this very reason, it is more


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 41ear, we owe the existence of what Milton sub*limely calls

The airy tongues that syllable men's names,On shores, in desert sands, and wildernesses.These also appear such natural causes of alarm,that we do not sympathize more readily with Ro-binson Crusoe's apprehensions when he witnessesthe print of the savage's foot in the sand, than inthose which arise from his being waked fromsleep by some one calling his name in the soli-tary island, where there existed no man but theshipwrecked mariner himself. Amidst the trainof superstitions deduced from the imperfectionsof the ear, we may quote that visionary summonswhich the natives of the Hebrides acknowledgedas one sure sign of approaching fate. The voiceof some absent, or, probably, some deceased, re-lative was, in such cases, heard as repeating theparty's name. Sometimes the aerial summonerintimated his own death, and at others, it was nouncommon circumstance that the person who fan-cied himself so called, died in consequence ; forthe same reason that the negro pines to deathwho is laid under the ban of an Obi woman, orthe Cambro-Briton, whose name is put into thefamous cursing well, with the usual ceremonies,devoting .him to the infernal gocls, wastes awayand dies, as one doomed to do so. It may be re-marked also, that Dr Johnson retained a deepimpression that, while he was opening the doorof his college chambers, he heard the voice ofhis mother, then at many miles' distance, call himby his name ; and it appears he was rather dis-


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42 LETTERS ONappointed that no event of consequence follow-ed a summons sounding so decidedly superna-tural. It is unnecessary to dwell on this sort ofauricular deception, of which most men's recol-lection will supply instances. The following maybe stated as one serving to show by what slen-der accidents the human ear may be imposed up-on. The author was

walking,about two yearssince, in a wild and solitary scene with a young

friend, who laboured under the infirmity of a se-vere deafness, when he heard what he conceivedto be the cry of a distant pack of hounds, sound-ing intermittedly. As the season was summer,this, on a moment's reflection, satisfied the hearerthat it could not be the clamour of an actual chase,and yet his ears repeatedly brought back thesupposed cry. He called upon his own dogs, ofwhich two or three were with the walking party.They came in quietly, and obviously had no ac-cession to the sounds which had caught the au-thor's attention, so that he could not help say-ing to his companion, " I am doubly sorry foryour infirmity at this moment, for I could other-wise have let you hear the cry of the WildHuntsman." As the young gentleman used ahearing tube, he turned when spoken to, and, indoing so, the cause of the phenomenon becameapparent. The supposed distant sound was in facta nigh one, being the singing of the wind in theinstrument which the young gentleman was obli-ged to use, but which, from various circumstances,liad never occurred to his elder friend as likelyto produce the sounds he had heard.

It is scarce necessary to add, that the highly


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44 LETTERS ONIt must also be remembered, tbat to the auri-

cular deceptions practised by the means of ventri-loquism or otherwise, may be traced many of themost successful impostures which credulity hasreceived as supernatural communications.The sense of touch seems less liable to perver-sion than either that of sight or smell, nor arethere many cases in which it can become acces-sary to such false intelligence, as the eye and ear,collecting their objects from a greater distance,and by less accurate enquiry, are but too readyto convey. Yet there is one circumstance in whichthe sense of touch as well as others is very aptto betray its possessor into inaccuracy, in respectto the circumstances which it impresses on itsowner. The case occurs during sleep, when thedreamer touches with his hand some other part ofliis own person. He is clearly, in this case, both theactor and patient, both the proprietor of the mem-ber touching, and of that which is touched ; while, toincrease the complication, the hand is both toucherof the limb on which it rests, and receives an im-pression of touch from it; and the same is the casewith the limb, which at one and the same timereceives an impression from the hand, and con-veys to the mind a report respecting the size, sub-stance, and the like, of the member touching. Now,as, during sleep, the patient is unconscious thatboth limbs are his own identical property, his mindis apt to be much disturbed by the complicationof sensations arising from two parts of his personbeing at once actedupon, and from their reciprocalaction ; and false impressions are thus received,which, accurately enquired into, would aiFord a


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 45clew to many puzzling phenomena in the theoryofdreams. This

peculiarityof the organ of touch,

as also that it is confined to no particular organ,but is diffused over the whole person of the man,is noticed by Lucretius :

Ut si forte manu, quam vis jam corporis, ipseTute tibi partem ferias, seque experiare.A remarkable instance of such an illusion wastold me by a late nobleman. He had fallen asleep,with some uneasy feelings arising from indiges-

tion. They operated in their usual course ofvisionary terrors. At length they were all sum-med up in the apprehension, that the phantom ofa dead man held the sleeper by the wrist, and en-deavoured to drag him out of bed. He awaked inhorror, and still felt the cold dead grasp of acorpse's hand on his right wrist. It was a minutebefore he discovered that his own left hand wasin a state of numbness, and with it he had acci-dentally encircled his right arm.The taste and the smell, like the touch, conveymore direct intelligence than the eye and the ear,and are less likely than those senses to aid in mis-leading the imagination. We have seen the pa-late, in the case of the porridge-fed lunatic, enterits protest against the acquiescence of eyes, edrs,and touch, in the gay visions which gilded the pa-tient's confinement. The palate, however, is sub-ject to imposition as well as the other senses. Thebest arid most acute bon vivant loses his power ofdiscriminating betwixt different kinds of wine, ifhe is prevented from assisting his palate by the aidof his eyes, that is, if the glasses of each are ad-


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46 LETTERS ONministered indiscriminatelywhile he is blindfolded.Nay, we are authorized to believe, that individualshave died in consequence of having supposed them-selves to have taken poison, when, in reality, thedraught they had swallowed as such, was of an in-noxious or restorative quality. The delusions ofthe stomach can seldom bear upon our presentsubject, and are not otherwise connected with su-pernatural appearances, than as a good dinnerand its accompaniments are essential in fittingout a daring Tarn of Shanter, who is fittest to en-counter them, when the poet's observation is notunlikely to apply

et Inspiring foauld John Barleycorn,What dangers thou canst make us scorn !WF tippenny we fear nae evil,Wi' usquebae we'll face the devil.The swats sae reamVI in Tammie's noddle,Fair play, he caredna deils a bodle !"Neither has the sense of smell, in its ordinary

state, much connexion with our present subject.Mr Aubrey tells us, indeed, of an apparition, whichdisappeared with a curious perfume as well as amost melodious twang; and popular beliefascribesto the presence of infernal spirits, a strong relishof the sulphureous element of which they are in-habitants. Such accompaniments, therefore, areusually united with other materials for imposture.If, as a general opinion assures us, which is notpositively discountenanced by Dr Hibbert, by theinhalation of certain gases or poisonous herbs,necromancers can dispose a person to believe hesees phantoms, it is likely that the nostrils are


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48 LETTERS ONremorse for our crimes, our eagerness of patriot-ism, or our deep sense of devotion these or otherviolent excitements of a moral character, in thevisions of night, or the rapt ecstasy of the day,persuade us that we witness, with our eyes andears, an actual instance of that supernatural com-munication, the possibility of which cannot bedenied. At other times, the corporeal organsimpose upon the mind, while the eye, and the ear,diseased, deranged, or misled, convey false im-pressions to the patient. Very often both themental delusion and the physical deception existat the same time, and men's belief of the pheno-mena presented to them, however erroneously,by the senses, is the firmer and more readilygranted, that the physical impression correspond-ed with the mental excitement.

So many causes acting thus upon each other invarious degrees, or sometimes separately, it musthappen early

in the infancy of every society, thatthere should occur many apparently well authen-ticated instances of supernatural intercourse, satis-factory enough to authenticate peculiar examplesof the general proposition which is impressed uponus by belief of the immortality of the soul. Theseexamples of undeniable apparitions, (for they areapprehended to be incontrovertible,) fall like theseed of the husbandman, into fertile and preparedsoil, and are usually followed by a plentiful cropofsuperstitiousfigments, which derive their sourcesfrom circumstances and enactments in sacred andprofane history, hastily adopted, and pervertedfrom their genuine reading. This shall be thesubject of my next letter.


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 49

LETTER II.Consequences of the Fall on the communication between Menand the Spiritual World Effects ofthe Flood Wizardsof Pharaoh Text in Exodus against Witches Theword Witch is by some said to mean merely Poisoner Orif in the holy text it also means a Divineress, she must, atany rate, have been a character very different to be identi-fied with it The original, Chasaph, said to mean a per-son who dealt in Poisons, often a traffic of those who dealtwith familiar Spirits But different from the EuropeanWitch of the Middle Ages Thus a Witch is not accessaryto the temptation of Job The Witch of'the Hebrewspro-bably did not rank higher than a Divining Woman Yetit was a crime deserving the doom ofdeath, since it inferredthe disowning of Jehovah's Supremacy Other texts ofScripture, in like manner, refer to something correspondingmore with a Fortune-teller or Divining Woman, than whatis now called a Witch Example ofthe Witch ofEndorAccount of her Meeting with Saul Supposed by some amere Impostor By others, a Sorceress powerful enoughto raise the Spirit ofthe Prophet by her own art Difficul-ties attending both positions A middle course adopted,supposing that, as in the case of Balah, the Almighty had,by exertion of his will, substituted Samuel, or a goodspirit in his character, for the deception which the Witchintended to produce Resumption of the Argument, show-ing that the Witch of Endor signified something very dif-ferentfrom the modern ideas of Witchcraft The Witchesmentioned in the JVew Testament, are not lets differentfrom modern ideas, than those of the Boohs of Moses, nordo they appear to have possessed the power ascribed toMagicians Articles of Faith which we may gatherfromScripture on thispoint That there might be certain Powers


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 51continued after the fall, though their inter-alliancewas not approve-d of by the Ruler of mankind. Weare given to understand, darkly indeed, but withas much certainty as we can be entitled to require,that the mixture between the two species of createdfceings was sinful on the part of both, and displea-sing to the Almighty. It is probable, also, thatthe extreme longevity of the antediluvian mortalsprevented their feeling sufficiently that they hadbrought themselves under the banner of Azrael,the angel of death, and removed to too great adistance the period between their crime and itspunishment. The date of the avenging Flood gaveBirth to a race, whose life was gradually shorten-ed, and who, being admitted to slighter and rarerintimacy with beings who possessed a higher rankin creation, assumed, as of course, a lower posi-tion in the scale. Accordingly, after this period,we hear no more of those unnatural allianceswhich preceded the flood, and are given to un-derstand that mankind, dispersing into differentparts of the world, separated from each other, andbegan, in various places, and under separate au-spices, to pursue the work of replenishing theworld, which had been imposed upon them as anend of their creation. In the meantime, while theDeity was pleased to continue his manifestationsto those who were destined to be the fathers ofliis elect people, we are made to understand thatwicked men, it may be by the assistance of fallenangels, were enabled to assert rank with, and at-tempt to match, the prophets of the God of Israel.The mattermust remain uncertain, whether it wasfcy sorcery or legerdemain that the wizards of


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54 LETTERS ONto constitute witchcraft. There was no contract ofsubjection to a diabolic power, no infernal stampor sign of such a fatal league, no revellings of Satanand his hags, and no infliction of disease or mis-fortune upon good men. At least there is not aword in Scripture, authorizing us to believe thatsuch a system existed. On the contrary, we aretold, (how far literally, how far metaphorically, itis not for us to determine,) that, when the Enemyof mankind desired to probe the virtue of Job tothe bottom, he applied for permission to the Su-preme Governor of the world, who granted himliberty to try his faithful servant with a stormof disasters, for the more brilliant exhibition ofthe faith which he reposed in his Maker. In allthis, had the scene occurred after the manner ofthe like events in latter days, witchcraft, sorce-ries, and charms, would have been introduced, andthe Devil, instead of his own permitted agency,would have employed his servant the witch, asthe necessary instrument of the Man ofUzz's afflic-tions. In like manner, Satan desired tohave Peter,that he might sift him like wheat. But neither isthere here the agency of any sorcerer or witch.Luke, xxii. 31.

Supposing the powers of the witch to be limit-ed, in the time of Moses, to enquiries at some pre-tended deity or real evil spirit concerning futureevents, in what respect, may it be said, did sucha crime deserve the severe punishment of death ?To answer this question, we must reflect, that theobject of the Mosaic dispensation being to pre-serve the knowledge of the True Deity within,the breasts of a selected and separated people, the


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 55God of Jacob necessarily showed himself a jealousGod to all who, straying from the path of directworship of Jehovah, had recourse to other dei-ties, whether idols or evil spirits, the gods of theneighbouring heathen. The swerving from theirallegiance to the true Divinity, to the extent ofpraying to senseless stocks and stones, whichcould return them no answer, was, by the Jewishlaw, an act of rebellion to their own Lord God,and as such most fit to be punished capitally. Thusthe prophets of Baal were deservedly put todeath, not on account of any success which theymight obtain by their intercessions and invoca-tions, (which, though enhanced with all their ve-hemence, to the extent of cutting and woundingthemselves, proved so utterly unavailing, as toincur the ridicule of the prophet,) but becausethey were guilty of apostasy from the real Deity,while they worshipped, and encouraged others toworship, the false divinity Baal. The Hebrewwitch, therefore, or she who communicated, orattempted to communicate, with an evil spirit,'was justly punished with death, though her com-munication with the spiritual world might eithernot exist at all, or be of a nature much less in-timate than has been ascribed to the witches oflater days ; nor does the existence of this law,against the witches of the Old Testament, sanc-tion, in any respect, the severity of similar enact-ments subsequent to the Christian revelation,against a different class of persons, accused of avery different species of crime.

In another passage, the practices of those per-sons termed witches in the Holy Scriptures, are


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 57the interview between Saul and the Witch of En-dor, the only detailed and particular account ofsuch a transaction which is to be found in theBible ; a fact, by the way, which proves thatthe crime of witchcraft (capitally punished as itwas when discovered) was not frequent among"the chosen people, who enjoyed such peculiar ma-nifestations of the Almighty's presence. TheScriptures seem only to have conveyed to us thegeneral fact (being what is chiefly edifying) ofthe interview between the Witch and the King ofIsrael. They inform us, that Saul, disheartenedand discouraged by the general defection of hissubjects, and the consciousness of his own un-worthy and ungrateful disobedience, despairing ofobtaining an answer from the offended Deity, whohad previously communicated with him throughhis prophets, at length resolved, in his despera-tion, to go to a divining woman, by which coursehe involved himself in the crime of the personwhom he thus consulted, against whom the law-denounced death, a sentence which had been of-ten executed by Saul himself on similar offenders.Scripture proceeds to give us the general informa-tion, that the king directed the Witch to call upthe Spirit of Samuel, and that the female exclaim-ed, that gods had arisen out of the earth that Saul,more particularly requiring adescription of the ap-parition, (whom, consequently, he did not himselfsee,) she described it as the figure of an old manwith ainantle. In this figure the king acknowledgesthe resemblance of Samuel, and, sinking on his face,hears from the apparition, speaking in the charac-


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 59wont to descend, even while lie was clothed withfrail mortality, sliould be subject to be disquietedin his grave, at the voice of a vile witch, and thecommand of an apostate prince? Did the trueDeity refuse Saul the response of his prophets,and could a witch compel the actual spirit of Sa-muel to make answer notwithstanding ?Embarrassed by such difficulties, anothercourseof explanation has been resorted to, which, freedfrom some of the objections which attend the twoextreme suppositions, is yet liable to others. It hasbeen supposed that something tookplace upon thisremarkable occasion, similar to that which disturb*ed the preconcerted purpose of the prophet Ba-laam, and compelled him to exchange his preme-ditated curses for blessings. According to this hy-pothesis, the divining woman of Endor was prepa-ring to practise upon Saul those tricks of legerde-main orjugglerybywhich sheimposed uponmean-er clients who resorted to her oracle. Or we mayconceive that, in those days, when the laws of na-ture were frequently suspended by manifestationsofthe Divine Power, some degree ofjugglingmightbe permitted between mortals and the spirits oflesser note ; in which case, we must suppose thatthe woman really expected or hoped to call upsome supernatural appearance. But in either case,this second solution ofthe story supposes that thewill of the Almighty substituted, on that memo-rable occasion, for the phantasmagoria intendedby the witch, the spirit of Samuel, in his earthlyresemblance or, ifthereadermay think this morelikely, some good being, the messenger of the di-vine pleasure, in the likeness of the departed pro-


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 63Magician, entitle them to rank above the class ofimpostors, who assumed a character to which theyhad no real title, and put their own mystical andridiculous pretensions to supernatural power incompetition with those who had been conferred onpurpose to diffuse the gospel, and facilitate itsreception by the exhibition of genuine miracles.It is clear that, from his presumptuous and pro-fane proposal to acquire, by purchase, a portionof those powers which were directly derived frominspiration, Simon Magus displayed a degree ofprofane and brutal ignorance, inconsistent with hispossessing even the intelligence of a skilful im- ,postor ; and it is plain that a leagued vassal ofhell, should we pronounce him such, would havebetter known his own rank and condition, com-pared to that of the Apostle, than to have madesuch a fruitless and unavailing proposal, by whichhe could only expose his own impudence and ig-norance.With this observation we may conclude ourbrief remarks upon witchcraft, as the word occursin the Scripture; and it now only remains to men-tion the nature of the demonology, which, as ga-thered from the sacred volumes, every Christianbeliever is bound to receive as a thing declaredand proved to be true.And in the first place, no man can read theBible, or call himself a Christian, without belie-ving that, during the course of time comprehend-ed by the divine writers, the Deity, to confirm thefaith of the Jews, and to overcome and confoundthe pride of the heathens, wrought in the landmany great miracles, using either good spirits, the


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64 LETTERS ONinstruments of his pleasure, or fallen angels, thepermitted agents of such evil as it was his willshould be inflicted upon, or suffered by, the chil-dren of men. This proposition comprehends, ofcourse, the acknowledgment of the truth of mi-racles during this early period, by which the ordi-nary laws of nature were occasionally suspended,and recognises the existence in the spiritual worldof the two grand divisions of angels and devils,severally exercising their powers according to thecommission or permission of the Ruler of the uni-verse.

Secondly, wise men have thought and argued,tliat the idols of the heathen were actually fiends,or rather, that these enemies ofmankind had powerto assume the shape and appearance of those fee-ble deities, and to give a certain degree of coun-tenance to the faith of the worshippers, by work-ing seeming miracles, and returning, by theirpriests or their oracles, responses which " palter'din a double sense" with the deluded persons whoconsulted them. Most of the fathers of the Chris-tian church have intimated such an opinion. Thisdoctrine has the advantage of affording, to a cer-tain extent, a confirmation of many miracles rela-ted in pagan or classical history, which are thusascribed to the agency of evil spirits. It corre-sponds also with the texts of Scripture, whichdeclare that the gods of the heathen are all devilsand evil spirits ; and the idols of Egypt are class-ed, as in Isaiah, chap. xix. ver. 2, with charmers,those who have familiar spirits, and with wizards.But whatever license it may be supposed waspermitted to the evil spirits of that period, and


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 67Joel, Ezekiel, and other holy seers, of which StPeter, in the second chapter of the Acts of theApostles, hails the fulfilment in the mission of ourSaviour. And on the other hand, it is no less evi-dent that the Almighty, to punish the disobe-dience of the Jews, abandoned them to their ownfallacious desires, and suffered them to be deceivedby the lying oracles, to which, in flagrant violationof his commands, they had recourse. Of thisthe punishment arising from the Deity abandon-ing Ahab to his own devices, and suffering him tobe deceived by a lying spirit, forms a striking in^stance.

Fourthly, and on the other hand, abstainingwith reverence from accounting ourselves judgesof the actions of Omnipotence, we may safely con-clude, that it was not his pleasure to employ in theexecution of his judgments, the consequences ofany such species of league or compact betwixtdevils and deluded mortals, as that denouncedin the laws of our own ancestors under the nameof witchcraft. What has been translated by thatword, seems little more than the art of a medicatorof poisons, combined with that of a Pythoness orfalse prophetess ; a crime, however, of a capitalnature, by the Levitical law, since, in the firstcapacity, it implied great enmity to mankind, andin the second, direct treason to the divine Legis-lator. The book of Tobit contains, indeed, a pas-sage resembling more an incident in an Arabiantale, or Gothic romance, than a part of inspiredwriting. In this, the fumes produced by broil-ing the liver of a certain fish, are described ashaving power to drive an evil who


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68 LETTERS ONgnards the nuptial chamber of an Assyrian prin-cess, and who has strangled seven bridegroomsin succession, as they approached the nuptial conch.But the romantic and fabulous strain of this le-gend has induced the fathers of all Protestantchurches to deny it a place amongst the writingssanctioned by divine origin, and we may, there-fore, be excused from entering into discussion onsuch imperfect evidence.

Lastly, In considering the incalculable changewhich took place upon the Advent of our Saviourand the announcement of his law, we may observe,that according to many wise and learned men, hismere appearance upon earth, without awaiting thefulfilment of his mission, operated as an act ofbanishment of such heathen deities as had hither-to been suffered to deliver oracles, and ape in somedegree the attributes of the Deity. Milton has,in the Paradise Lost, it may be upon convictionof its truth, embraced the theory which identifiesthe followers of Satan with the gods of the hea-then ; and, in a tone of poetry almost unequalled,even in his own splendid writings, he thus de-scribes, in one of his earlier pieces, the departureof these pretended deities on the eve of the bless-ed Nativity.

"The oracles are dumb,No voice or hideous humHuns through the arched roof in words deceiving ;

Apollo from his shrineCan no more divine,With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving ;No nightly trance or breathed spellInspires the pale-eyed priests from the prophetic cell.


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DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 69" The lonely mountains o'er,And the resounding shore,A voice of weeping heard and loud lament ;From haunted spring and dale,Edged with poplar pale,The parting Genius is with sighing sent;With flower-inwoven tresses torn,The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn." In consecrated earth,And on the holy hearth,The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint ;In urns and altars round,A drear and dying sound

Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint ;And the chill marble seems to sweat,While each peculiar Power foregoes his wonted seat.

" Peor and BaalimForsake their temples dim,With that twice-batter'd god of Palestine ;And mooned Ashtaroth,Heaven's queen and mother both,

Now sits not girt with tapers' holy shine ;The Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn ;In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz mourn." And sullen Moloch, fled,Hath left in shadows dread

His burning idol all of darkest hue ;In vain with cymbals' ring,They call the grisly king,In dismal dance about the furnace blue ;The brutish gods of Nile as fast,

Isis and Orus, and the Dog Anubis, haste."The quotation is a long one, but it is scarcely-

possible to shorten what is so beautiful arid inte-resting a description of the heathen deities, whe-


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70 LETTERS ONther in the classic personifications of Greece, thehorrible shapes worshipped by mere barbarians,or the hieroglyphical enormities of the EgyptianMythology. The idea of identifying the pagandeities, especially the most distinguished of them,with the manifestation of demoniac power, andconcluding that the descent of our Saviour struckthem with silence, so nobly expressed in the poetryof Milton, is not certainly to be lightly rejected.It has been asserted, in simple prose, by autho-rities of no mean weight ; nor does there appearany thing inconsistent in the faith of those who,believing that, in the elder time, fiends and de-mons were permitted an enlarged degree of powerin uttering predictions, may also give credit tothe proposition, that at the Divine Advent thatpower was restrained, the oracles silenced, andthose demons who had aped the Divinity of theplace, were driven from their

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Letters on Demonology & Witchcraft (Scot)

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