(MAGIA, Magez), in its ancient sense, the science or discipline and doctrine of the magi, or wise men of Persia. See MAGI.

The origin of magic and the magi is ascribed to Zoroaster. Salmatus derives the very name from Zoroaster, who, he says, was named Mag, whence Magus. Others, instead of making him the author of the Persian philosophy, make him only the reformer and improver thereof; alleging, that many of the Persian rites in use among the magi were borrowed from the Zabii among the Chaldeans, who agreed in many things with the magi of the Persians; whence some make the name magus common both to the Chaldeans and Persians. Thus Plutarch mentions, that Zoroaster instituted magi among the Chaldeans, in imitation whereof the Persians had theirs too.

a more modern sense, is a science which teaches to perform wonderful and surprising effects.

The word magic originally carried with it a very innocent, nay, laudable meaning; being used purely to signify the study of wisdom, and the more sublime parts of knowledge; but in regard the ancient magi engaged themselves in astrology, divination, sorcery, &c. the term magic in time became odious, and was only used to signify an unlawful and diabolical kind of science, depending on the assistance of the devil and departed souls.

If any wonder how so vain and deceitful a science should gain so much credit and authority over men's minds, Pliny gives the reason of it. It is, says he, because it has possessed itself of three sciences of the most esteem among men: taking from each all that is great and marvellous in it. Nobody doubts but it had its first origin in medicine; and that it infatuated itself into the minds of the people, under pretence of affording extraordinary remedies. To these fine promises it added every thing in religion that is pompous and splendid, and that appears calculated to blind and captivate mankind. Lastly, It mingled judicial astrology with the rest; persuading people, curious of futurity, that it saw every thing to come in the heavens. Agrippa divides magic into three kinds; natural, celestial, and ceremonial or superstitious.

Natural MAGIC is no more than the application of natural active causes to passive subjects; by means whereof many surprising, but yet natural, effects are produced.

In this way many of our experiments in natural philosophy, especially those of electricity, optics, and magnetism, have a kind of magical appearance, and among the ignorant and credulous might easily pass for miracles. Such, without doubt, have been some of those miracles wrought by ancient magicians, whose knowledge of the various powers of nature, there is reason to believe, was much greater than modern vanity will sometimes allow*.

Baptista Porta has a treatise of natural magic, or of secrets for performing very extraordinary things by natural causes. The natural magic of the Chaldeans was nothing but the knowledge of the powers of simples and minerals. The magic which they called theurgia, consisted wholly in the knowledge of the ceremonies to be observed in the worship of the gods, in order to be acceptable. By virtue of these ceremonies they believed they could converse with spiritual beings, and cure diseases.

Celestial MAGIC borders nearly on judiciary astrology: it attributes to spirits a kind of rule or dominion over the planets, and to planets a dominion over men; and on those principles builds a ridiculous kind of system. See ASTROLOGY.

Superstitious or Goetic MAGIC consists in the invocation of devils. Its effects are usually evil and wicked, though very strange, and seemingly surpassing the powers of nature; supposed to be produced by virtue of some compact, either tacit or express, with evil spirits: but the truth is, these have not all the power that is usually imagined, nor do they produce those effects ordinarily ascribed to them.

This species of magic, there is every reason to believe, had its origin in Egypt, the native country of paganism. The first magicians mentioned in history were Egyptians; and that people so famed for early wisdom believed not only in the existence of demons, the great agents in magic (see DEMON), but also that different orders of those spirits presided over the elements of earth, air, fire, and water, as well as over the persons and affairs of men. Hence they ascribed every disease with which they were afflicted to the immediate agency of some evil daemon. When any person was seized with a fever, for instance, they did not think it necessary to search for any natural cause of the disease: it was immediately attributed to some daemon which had taken possession of the body of the patient, and which could not be ejected but by charms and incantations.

These superstitious notions, which had spread from Egypt over all the east, the Jews imbibed during their captivity in Babylon. Hence we find them in the writings of the New Testament attributing almost every disease to which they were, incident to the immediate agency of devils (see POSSESSION). Many of the farcious impious superstitions were brought from Egypt and Chaldea by Pythagoras, and transmitted by him and his followers to the Platonists in Greece. This is apparent from the writers of the life of Pythagoras. Jamblicus, speaking of the followers of that philosopher, says expressly, that they cured certain diseases by incantations; and Porphyry adds, that they cured diseases both of the mind and of the body by songs and incantations. This was exactly the practice of the Egyptian priests, who were all supposed to keep up a constant intercourse with daemons, and to have the power of controlling them by magical charms and sacred songs. Agreeably to this practice of his masters, we are told that Pythagoras directed certain diseases of the mind, doubtless those which he attributed to the agency of daemons, to be cured partly by incantations, partly by magical hymns, and partly by music—και τας ψυχας οι νοσουσι παρακαλει τους μεν επιταξι και μαγικαις τους δι μουσικης.

That there are different orders of created spirits, whether called demons or angels, whose powers intellectual and active greatly surpass the powers of man, reason makes probable, and revelation certain. Now it was the universal belief of the ancient nations, says the learned Mohheim †, and especially of the orientals, that certain sounds and words, for the most part barbarous, were highly grateful, and that others were equally disagreeable, to these spirits. Hence, when they wished to render a demon propitious, and to employ him on any particular office, the magicians composed their sacred songs of the words which were believed to be agreeable to him; and when it was their intention to drive him from themselves or others, they sung in a strain which they fancied a daemon could not hear but with horror. From the same persuasion arose the custom of suspending from the neck of a sick person, whose disease was supposed to be inflicted by a daemon, an amulet, sometimes made of gold and sometimes of parchment, on which was written one or more of those words which daemons could not bear either to hear or to see; and in a didactic poem on the healing art still extant, we are taught by Serenus Sammonicus, that the word ABRACADABRA is an infallible remedy for a febrile tertian fever or ague; and to banish grief of heart, Marcellinus thinks nothing more effectual than the word καρπικων. In more modern times, as we are informed by Agrippa, the words used by those in compact with the devil, to invoke him, and to succeed in what they undertake, are, Dies, mies, jefquet, benedecet, dowimna, entemacu. There are a hundred other formulas of words composed at pleasure, or gathered from several different languages, or patched from the Hebrew or formed in imitation of it. And among the primitive Christians there was a superstitious custom, of which we suspect some remains may yet be found among the illiterate vulgar in different countries, of fastening to the neck of a sick person, or to the bed on which he lay, some text from the New Testament, and especially the first two or three verses of the gospel of St John, as a charm undoubtedly efficacious to banish the disease.

That magicians who could thus cure the sick, were likewise believed to have the power of inflicting diseases, and of working miracles, by means of their subservient daemons, need not be doubted. Ancient writers of good credit are full of the wonders which they performed. We shall mention a few of those which are best attested, and inquire whether they might not have been effected by other means than the interposition of daemons.

The first magicians of whom we read are those who in Egypt opposed Moses. And we are told, that, when Aaron cast down his rod, and it became a serpent, they also did the like with their enchantments; "for they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents." This was a phenomenon which, it must be confessed, had a very miraculous appearance; and yet there seems to have been nothing in it which might not have been effected by flight of hand. The Egyptians, and perhaps the inhabitants of every country where serpents abound, have the art of depriving them of their power to do mischief, so that they may be handled without danger. It was easy for the magicians, who were favoured by the court, to pretend that they changed their rods into serpents, by dexterously substituting one of these animals in place of the rod. In like manner they might pretend to change water into blood, and to produce frogs; for if Moses gave in these instances, as we know he did in others, any previous information of the nature of the miracles which were to be wrought, the magicians might easily provide themselves in a quantity of blood and number of frogs sufficient to answer their purpose of deceiving the people. Beyond this, however, their power could not go. It stopped where that of all workers in legerdemain must have stopped—at the failure of proper materials to work with. Egypt abounds with serpents; blood could be easily procured; and without difficulty they might have frogs from the river: But when Moses produced lice from the dust of the ground, the magicians, who had it not in their power to collect a sufficient quantity of these animals, were compelled to own this to be an effect of divine agency.

The appearance of Samuel to Saul at Endor is the next miracle, seemingly performed by the power of magic, which we shall consider. It was a common presence of magicians, that they could raise up ghosts from below, or make dead persons appear unto them to declare future events; and the manner of their incantation is thus described by Horace:

——Pallor utraque Fecerat horrendas aseptu. Scalpere terram Unguibus, et pullam divellere mordicus agnam Coerperunt: cruris in fossam confusis, ut inde Manes elicent, animas responfa daturas.

"With yellings dire they fill'd the place, And hideous pale was either's face. Soon with their nails they scrap'd the ground, And fill'd a magic trench profound

With a black lamb's thick-streaming gore, Whose members with their teeth they tore; That they might charm the sprights to tell Some curious anecdotes from hell."

FRANICS.

Whether the witch of Endor made use of such infernal charms as these, the sacred historian has not informed us; but Saul addressed her, as if he believed that by some form of incantation she could recall from the state of departed spirits the soul of the prophet who had been for some time dead. In the subsequent apparition, however, which was produced, some have thought there was nothing more than a trick, by which a cunning woman imposed upon Saul's credulity, making him believe that some confidant of her own was the ghost of Samuel. But had that been the case, she would undoubtedly have made the pretended Samuel's answer as pleasing to the king as possible, both to save her own life, which appears from the context to have been in danger, and likewise to have procured the larger reward. She would never have told her sovereign, she durst not have told him, that he himself should be shortly slain, and his sons with him; and that the host of Israel should be delivered into the hands of the Philistines. For this reason many critics, both Jewish and Christian, have supposed that the apparition was really a daemon or evil angel, by whose assistance the woman was accustomed to work wonders, and to foretell future events. But it is surely very incredible, that one of the apostate spirits of hell should have upbraided Saul for applying to a sorcerer, or should have accosted him in such words as these: "Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? Wherefore doth thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy! For the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David. Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, therefore the Lord hath done this thing to thee this day." It is to be observed farther, that what was here denounced against Saul was really prophetic, and that the event answered to the prophecy in every particular. Now, though we do not deny that there are created spirits of penetration vastly superior to that of the most enlarged human understanding; yet we dare maintain, that no finite intelligence could by its own mere capacity have ever found out the precise time of the two armies engaging, the success of the Philistines, the consequences of the victory, and the very names of the persons that were to fall in battle. Saul and his sons were indeed men of tried bravery, and therefore likely to expose themselves to the greatest danger: but after the menaces which he received from the apparition, he would have been impelled, one should think, by common prudence, either to chicanee with the enemy, or to retire from the field without exposing himself, his sons, and the whole army, to certain and inevitable destruction; and his acting differently, with the consequences of his conduct, were events which no limited understanding could either foresee or certainly foretell. If to these circumstances we add the suddenness of Samuel's appearance, with the effect which it had upon the sorceress herself, we shall find reason to believe, that the apparition was that of no evil daemon. There is not, we believe, upon record, another instance of any per- fon's pretending to raise a ghost from below, without previously using some magical rites or some form of incantation. As nothing of that kind is mentioned in the case before us, it is probable that Samuel appeared before he was called. It is likewise evident from the narrative, that the apparition was not what the woman expected; for we are told, that "when she saw Samuel, she cried out for fear." And when the King exhorted her not to be afraid, and asked what she saw, "the woman said, I see gods (elohim) ascending out of the earth." Now, had she been accustomed to do such feats, and known that what she saw was only her subservient demon, it is not conceivable that she could have been so frightened, or have mistaken her familiar for elohim in any sense in which that word can be taken. We are therefore strongly inclined to adopt the opinion of those who hold that it was Samuel himself who appeared and prophesied, not called up by the wretched woman or her demons, but, to her utter confusion, and the disgrace of her art, sent by God to rebuke Saul's madness in a most affecting and mortifying way, and to deter all others from ever applying to magicians or demons for assistance when refused comfort from heaven. For though this hypothesis may to a superficial thinker seem to transgress the rule of Horace—Nec deus interfuit, &c.—which is as applicable to the interpretation of scripture, as to the introduction of supernatural agency in human compositions; yet he who has studied the theocratical constitution of Israel, the nature of the office which was there termed regal, and by what means the administration was in emergencies conducted, will have a different opinion; and at once perceive the dignus vin- dice nodus.

The sudden and wonderful destruction of the army of Brennus the Gaul, has likewise been attributed to magic, or, what in this inquiry amounts to the same thing, to the interposition of evil spirits, whom the priests of Apollo invoked as gods. Those barbarians had made an inroad into Greece, and invested the temple of Apollo at Delphi, with a view to plunder it of the sacred treasure. Their numbers and courage overpowered all opposition; and they were just upon the point of making themselves masters of the place, when, Justin informs us, that, to encourage the besieged, the priests and prophets "advenisse deum clamat; eumque se vidisse defilientem in templum per culminis aperta saltigia. Dum omnes opei dei suppliciter implorant, juvenem supra humanum modum infannis pulchritudinis, comiteteque ei duas armatas virgines, ex propinquis duabus Diana Minervaque aedibus occurrifae, nec oculis tantum haec se perspexille; audiffe etiam stridorem arcus, ac strepitum armorum: proinde ne cunctarentur, diis antefignanis, hostiem cadere, et victorie deorum socios se adjungere;" funmis obfurationibus monebant. Quibus vocibus incensi, omnes certatim in praelium profliunt. Presentiam Dei et ipli fatim feniere: nam et terra motu portio montis abrupta Gallorum stravit exercitum, et consertissimi cunei non sine vulneribus hostium dissipati rubeant. Ineucata deinde tempestas est, qua grandine et frigore faucios ex vulneribus absumpt (A).

This was unquestionably an extraordinary event: and it must be ascribed either to the immediate interposition of the Supreme Being, to natural means, or to the agency of demons: there is no other alternative. But it is altogether incredible that the Supreme Being should have miraculously interposed to defend the temple of a pagan divinity. It is very difficult to suppose that an earthquake, produced in the ordinary course of nature, should have been foretold by the priests, or that it could have happened so opportunely for the preservation of their treasure from the hands of fierce barbarians. Nothing, therefore, it has been said, remains, but either to allow the earthquake to have been produced by evil spirits, or to deny the truth of the historian's relation. But the catastrophe of Brennus's army is recorded in the same manner by so many ancient writers of good credit, that we cannot call in question their veracity; and therefore, being unwilling to admit the agency of demons into this affair, it will be incumbent on us to show by what human contrivance it might have been effected; for its arrival at so critical a juncture will not easily suffer us to suppose it a mere natural event.

"The inclination of a Pagan priest (says Bishop Warburton *) to assist his god in extremity, will * yutian hardly be questioned; and the inclination of those at Delphi was not ill seconded by their public management and address. On the first rumour of Brennus's march against them, they issued orders, as from the oracle, to all the region round, forbidding the country people to secret or bear away their wine and provisions. The effects of this order succeeded to their expectations. The half-flavoured barbarians finding, on their arrival in Phocis, so great a plenty of all things, made short marches, dispersed themselves over the country, and revelled in the abundance that was provided for them. This respite gave time to the friends and allies of the god to come to his assistance. Their advantages of situation likewise supported the measures which they had taken for a vigorous defence. The town and temple of Delphi were seated on a bare and cavernous rock, defended on all sides with precipices instead

(A) "Called aloud that the god had arrived: That they had seen him leap into the temple through the aperture in the roof: That whilst they were all humbly imploring his help, a youth of more than human beauty, accompanied by two virgins in armour, had run to their assistance from the neighbouring temples of Diana and Minerva; and that they had not only beheld these things with their eyes, but had also heard the whizzing of his bow and the clangor of his arms. They therefore earnestly exhorted the besieged not to neglect the heavenly signal, but to fall out upon their enemies, and partake with the divinities of the glory of the victory." With these words the soldiers being animated, eagerly rushed to battle: and were themselves quickly sensible of the presence of the god; for part of the rock being torn away by an earthquake, rolled down upon the Gauls; whose thickest battalions being thus thrown into confusion, fled, exposed to the weapons of their enemies. Soon afterwards a tempest arose, which by cold and the fall of hailstones cut off the wounded. instead of walls. A large recess within assumed the form of a theatre; so that the shouts of soldiers, and the sounds of military instruments, re-echoing from rock to rock, and from cavern to cavern, increased the clamour to an immense degree; which, as the historian observes, could not but have great effects on ignorant and barbarous minds. The playing off these panic terrors was not indeed of itself sufficient to repulse and dissipate an host of fierce and hungry invaders, but it enabled the defenders to keep them at bay till a more solid entertainment was provided for them, in the explosion and fall of that portion of the rock at the foot of which the greater part of the army lay encamped.

"Among the caverns in the sacred rock, there was one which, from an intoxicating quality discovered in the steam which issued from it, was rendered very famous by being fitted to the recipient of the priestess of Apollo (b). Now, if we only suppose this, or any other of the vapours emitted from the numerous fissures, to be endowed with that unctuous, or otherwise inflammatory quality, which modern experience shows to be common in mines and subterraneous places, we can easily conceive how the priests of the temple might, without the agency of demons, be able to work the wonders which history speaks of as effected in this transaction. For the throwing down a lighted torch or two into a chasm whence such a vapour issued, would set the whole into a flame; which, by suddenly rarefying and dilating the air, would, like fired gunpowder, blow up all before it. That the priests, the guardians of the rock, could be long ignorant of such a quality, or that they would divulge it when discovered, cannot be supposed. Strabo relates, that one Onomarchus, with his companions, as they were attempting by night to dig their way through to rob the holy treasury, were frightened from their work by the violent shaking of the rock; and he adds, that the same phenomenon had defeated many other attempts of the like nature. Now, whether the tapers which Onomarchus and his companions were obliged to use while they were at work, inflamed the vapour, or whether the priests of Apollo heard them at it, and let fire to a countermine, it is certain a quality of this kind would always stand them in stead. Such then (prefames the learned prelate) was the expedient (c) they employed to dislodge this nest of hornets, which had settled at the foot of their sacred rock; for the storm of thunder, lightning, and hail, which followed, was the natural effect of the violent concussions given to the air by the explosion of the mine."

Two instances more of the power of ancient magic we shall just mention, not because there is any thing particular or important in the facts, but because some credit seems to have been given to the narration by the discerning Cudworth. Philostratus, in his life of Apollonius Tyanaeus, informs us that a laughing demoniac at Athens was cured by that magician, who ejected the evil spirit by threats and menaces; and the biographer adds, that the demon, at his departure, is said to have overturned a statue which stood before the porch where the cure was performed. The other instance is of the same magician freeing the city of Ephesus from the plague, by stoning to death an old ragged beggar whom Apollonius called the plague, and who appeared to be a demon by his changing himself into the form of a bagged dog.

That such tales as these should have been thought worthy of the slightest notice by the incomparable author of the Intellectual System, is indeed a wonderful phenomenon in the history of human nature. The whole story of Apollonius Tyanaeus, as is now well known, is nothing better than a collection of the most extravagant fables*: but were the narrative such as that credit could be given to the facts here related, decax's there appears no necessity in either case for calling in Conessions, the agency of evil spirits by the power of magic.—Brucker's History of Philosophy, The Athenians of that age were a superstitious people. Apollonius was a shrewd impostor, long practised and modified in the art of deceiving the multitude. For such a man it was easy to persuade a friend and confidant, to act the part of the laughing demoniac; and without much difficulty the statue might be so undermined as inevitably to tumble, upon a violent concussion being given to the ground at the time of the departure of the pretended demon. If so, this feat of magic dwindles down into a very trifling trick performed by means both simple and natural. The other case of the poor man at Ephesus, who was stoned to death, is exactly similar to that of those innocent women in our own country, whom the vulgar in the last century were instigated to burn for the supposed crime of witchcraft. We have no reason to suppose that an Ephesian mob was less inflammable or credulous than a British mob, or that Apollonius played his part with less skill than a Christian demonologist; and as the spirits of our witches, who were sacrificed to folly and fanaticism, were often supposed to migrate from their dead bodies into the bodies of hares or cats accidentally passing by, so might this impostor at Ephesus persuade his cruel and credulous instruments, that the spirit of their victim had taken possession of the body of the bagged dog.

Still it may be said, that in magic and divination events have been produced out of the ordinary course of nature; and as we cannot suppose the Supreme Being

(b) "In hoc rupis anfractu, media ferme montis altitudine, planities exigua est, atque in ea profundum terrae foramen, quod in oraculo patet, ex quo frigidus spiritus, vi quadam velut vento in sublimi expulsa, mentes vatum in recordiam vertit, impletaque deo responsa confluentibus dare cogit." Iust. lib. xxiv. c. 10.

(c) The learned author, by arguments too tedious to be here enumerated, confirms the reasoning which we have borrowed from him; and likewise shows from history, that the priests, before they came to extremities with the sacred rock, had entered into treaty with those barbarians, and paid them a large tribute to decamp and quit the country. This adds greatly to the probability of his account of the explosion; for nothing but the absolute impossibility of getting quit of their besiegers by any other means, could have induced the priests to hazard an experiment so big with danger to themselves as well as to their enemies. Being to have countenanced such abominable practices by the interposition of his power, we must necessarily attribute those effects to the agency of demons, or evil spirits. Thus, when Aeneas consulted the Sibyl, the agency of the inspiring god changed her whole appearance;

"Potere fata Tempus," ait: "Deus, ecc, Deus." Cui talia fanti Ante fores, subito non vultus, non color unius, Non compectae mansere comae: sed pectus anhelum, Et rabie fera corda tument; majorque videri, Nec mortale sonans: afflata est numine quando Jam propiore Dei.

"Aloud she cries, 'This is the time, inquire your destinies. He comes, behold, a god!' Thus while she said, And shivering at the sacred entry stood, Her colour chang'd, her face was not the same; And hollow groans from her deep spirit came; Her hair flood up; convulsive rage posset'd Her trembling limbs, and heav'd her lab'ring breast; Greater than human kind she seem'd to look, And with an accent more than mortal spoke. Her staring eyes with sparkling fury roll, When all the god came rushing on her soul."

DRYDEN.

In answer to this, it is to be observed, that the temple of Apollo at Cumæ was an immense excavation in a solid rock. The rock was probably of the same kind with that on which the temple of Delphi was built, full of fissures, out of which exhaled perpetually a poisonous kind of vapour. Over one of these fissures was the tripod placed, from which the priests gave the oracle. Now we learn from St Chrysostom, that the priestess was a woman: "Quæ in tripodes sedens expana malignum spiritum per interna immisitum, et per genitalis partes subcunctem excitans, fuore repleretur, ipfaque resolutis crinibus baccaretur, ex ore spumam emittens, et fic furoris verba loquebatur." By comparing this account with that quoted above from Justin, which is confirmed both by Pausanias and by Strabo, it is evident, that what Chrysostom calls malignum spiritum was a particular kind of vapour blown forcibly through the fissure of the rock. But if there be a vapour of such a quality as, if received per partes gentiales, would make a woman furious, there is surely no necessity for calling into the scene at Cumæ the agency of a demon or evil spirit. Besides, it is to be remembered, that in all mythical and magical rites, such as this was, both the priests, and the persons consulting them, prepared themselves by particular kinds of food, and sometimes, as there is reason to believe, by human sacrifices*, for the approach of the god or demon whose aid they invoked. On the present occasion, we know from the poet himself, that a cake was used which was composed of poppy-feed and honey; and Plutarch speaks of a shrub called leucophyllus, used in the celebration of the mysteries of Hecate, which drives men into a kind of frenzy, and makes them confess all their wickedness which they had done or intended. This being the case, the illusions of fancy occasioned by poppy will sufficiently account for the change of the sibyl's appearance, even though the inhaled vapour should not have possessed that efficacy which Chrysostom and Justin attribute to it. Even some sorts of our ordinary food occasion strange dreams, for which onions in particular are remarkable. Excessive drunkenness, as is well known, produces a disorder named by the bacchanalians of this country the blue devils, which consists of an immense number of spectres, accompanied with extreme horror to the person who sees them. From these facts, which cannot be denied, there must arise a suspicion, that by using very unnatural food, such as human blood, the vilest of insects, serpents, and medicated cakes, by flitting themselves up in solitudes and caves, and by devising every method to excite horrid and dreadful ideas or images in the fancy, the ancient magicians might by natural means produce every phenomenon which they attributed to their gods or demons. Add to this, that in ancient times magic was studied as a science. Now, as we cannot suppose that every one who studied it intended absolutely nothing, or that all who believed in it were wholly deceived; what can we infer, but that the science consisted in the knowledge of those drugs which produced the phantoms in the imagination, and of the method of preparing and properly employing them for that purpose? The celebrated Friar Bacon indeed, as far back as the 13th century, wrote a book de Nullitate Magiae: but though we should allow that this book proved to demonstration, that in his time no such thing as magic existed, it never could prove that the case had always been so. At that time almost all the sciences were lost; and why not magic as well as others? It is likewise an undoubted fact, that magic at all times prevailed among the Africans and Africans more than among the Europeans. The reason doubtless was, that the former had the requisites for the art in much greater perfection than we. Human sacrifices were frequent among them; they had the most poisonous serpents, and the greatest variety of vegetable poisons, together with that powerful narcotic opium; all which were of essential use in mystical and magic rites. They had, besides, a burning sun, frightful deserts and solitudes; which, together with extreme fasting, were all called in to their assistance, and were sufficient to produce, by natural means, the most wonderful phenomena which have ever been attributed to magical incantations. Even in our own days, we have the testimony of two travellers, whom we cannot suspect to be either liars or enthusiasts, that both the Indians and Africans perform feats for which neither they nor the most enlightened Europeans can account. The one is Mr Grofe, who visited the East Indies about the year 1762; and the other is Mr Bruce, who informs us, that the inhabitants of the western coast of Africa pretend to hold a communication with the devil, and verify their assertions in such a manner that neither he nor other travellers know what to make of it: but it does not from this follow, that Mr Bruce believed that communication to be real. We have all seen one of the most illiterate men that ever assumed the title of Doctor, perform feats very surprising, and such as even a philosopher would have been puzzled to account for, if he had not been previously let into the secret; and yet no man supposes that Katterfelto holds any communica- tion with the devil, although he has sometimes pretended it among people whose minds he supposed unenlightened.

Still it may be objected, that we have a vast number of histories of witches, who in the last century confessed, that they were present with the devil at certain meetings; that they were carried through the air, and saw many strange feats performed, too numerous and too ridiculous to be here mentioned. The best answer to this objection seems to be that given by Dr Ferriar in his essay on Popular Illusions.* "The solemn meeting of witches (says he) is supposed to be put beyond all doubt by the numerous confessions of criminals, who have described their ceremonies, named the times and places of their meetings, with the persons present, and who have agreed in their relations, though separately delivered. But I would observe, first, that the circumstances told of those festivals are in themselves ridiculous and incredible; for they are represented as gloomy and horrible, and yet with a mixture of childish and extravagant fancies, more likely to disgust and alienate than conciliate the minds of their guests. They have every appearance of uneasy dreams. Sometimes the devil and his subjects say mass; sometimes he preaches to them; more commonly he was seen in the form of a black goat, surrounded by imps in a thousand frightful shapes; but none of these forms are new, they all resemble known quadrupeds or reptiles. Secondly, I observe, that there is direct proof furnished even by demonologists, that all those supposed journeys and entertainments were nothing more than dreams. Persons accused of witchcraft have been repeatedly watched about the time they had fixed for their meeting: they have been seen to anoint themselves with soporific compositions; after which they fell into profound sleep; and on awaking several hours afterwards, they have related their journey through the air, with their amusement at the festival, and have named the persons whom they saw there." This is exactly conformable to the practice of the ancient magicians and diviners, and seems to be the true way of accounting, as well for many of the phenomena of magic, as for that extravagant and shameful superstition which prevailed so much during part of the last century, and by which such numbers of innocent men and women were cruelly put to death (c). We may indeed be assured, that the devil has it not in his power to reverse in a single instance the laws of nature without a divine permission; and we can conceive but one occasion (see Possession) on which such permission could be given consistently with the wisdom and the goodness of God. All the tales, therefore, of diabolical agency in magic and witchcraft must undoubtedly be false; for a power, which the devil is not himself at liberty to exert, he cannot communicate to a human creature. Were the case otherwise; were those powers, "which (according to Johnson) only the control of Omnipotence restrains from laying creation waste, subservient to the invocations of wicked mortals; were those spirits,—of which the least could wield

The elements, and arm him with the force

Of all their regions,"—permitted to work miracles, and either to inflict on to remove diseases at the desire of their capricious votaries, how comfortable and wretched would be the life of man! But the matter has been long ago determined by the failure of Pharaoh's magicians; who, though by legerdemain they imitated some of the miracles of Moles, could not form the vilest insect, or stand before the disease which he inflicted upon them as well as upon others.

The revival of learning, and the success with which the laws of nature have been investigated, have long ago banished this species of magic from all the enlightened nations of Europe. Among ourselves, none but persons grossly illiterate pay the least regard to magical charms; nor are they anywhere abroad more prevalent than among the inhabitants of Lapland and Iceland. These people, indeed, place an absolute confidence in the effects of certain idle words and actions: and ignorant sailors from other parts of the world are deceived by their assertions and their ceremonies. The famous magical drum of the Laplanders is still in constant use in that nation; and Scheffer, in his History of Lapland, has given an account of its structure.

This instrument is made of beech, pine, or fir, split in the middle, and hollowed on the flat side where the drum is to be made. The hollow is of an oval figure; and is covered with a skin clean dressed, and painted with figures of various kinds, such as stars, funs and moons, animals and plants, and even countries, lakes, and rivers; and of later days, since the preaching of Christianity among them, the acts and sufferings of our Saviour and his apostles are often added among the rest. All these figures are separated by lines into three regions or clutters.

There is, besides these parts of the drum, an index and a hammer. The index is a bundle of brafs or iron rings, the biggest of which has a hole in its middle, and the smaller ones are hung to it. The hammer or drumstick is made of the horn of a rein-deer; and with this they beat the drum so as to make these rings move, they being laid on the top for that purpose. In the motion of these rings about the pictures figured on the drum, they fancy to themselves some prediction in regard to the things they inquire about.

What they principally inquire into by this instrument, are three things. 1. What sacrifices will prove most acceptable to their gods. 2. What success they shall have in their several occupations, as hunting, fishing, curing of diseases, and the like; and, 3. What is doing in places remote from them. On these several occasions they use several peculiar ceremonies, and place themselves in various odd postures as they beat the drum; which influences the rings to the one or the other side, and to come nearer to the one or the other set of figures. And when they have done this, they have a method of calculating a discovery, which they keep as a great secret, but which seems merely

(c) For some farther account of popular illusions, see Animal Magnetism. merely the business of the imagination in the diviner or magician.