Beattie, besides the one which I myself possess, printed in the earlier part of last century. It was reprinted by my late friend Dr. Leyden in a small volume entitled ” Scottish Descriptive Poems.” ”

Albania” contains the above, and many other poetical passages of the highest merit. *

Most ancient authors, who pretend to treat of the wonders of natural magic, give receipts for calling up phantoms. The lighting lamps fed by peculiar kinds of medicated oil, and the use of suffumigations, of strong and deleterious herbs, are the means recommended.

From these authorities, perhaps, a professor of legerdemain assured Dr. Alderson of

Hull, that he could compose a preparation of antimony, sulphur, and other drugs, which, when burnt in a confined room, would have the effect of causing the patient to suppose he saw phantoms. — See “ Hibbert on Apparitions,” p. 120.

LETTER II.

Consequences of the Fall on the Communication between Man and the

Spiritual World — Effects of the Flood — Wizards of Pharaoh — Text in

Exodus against Witches — The word Witch is by some said to mean merely

Poisoner — Or if in the Holy Text it also means a Divineress, she must, at any

rate, have been a Character very different to be identified with it — The

original, Chasaph, said to mean a person who dealt in Poisons, often a Traffic of those who dealt with familiar Spirits — But different from the European

Witch of the Middle Ages — Thus a Witch is not accessary to the Temptation

of Job — The Witch of the Hebrews probably did not rank higher than a

Divining Woman — Yet it was a Crime deserving the Doom of Death, since it

inferred the disowning of Jehovah's Supremacy — Other Texts of Scripture, in

like manner, refer to something corresponding more with a Fortune-teller or

Divining Woman than what is now called a Witch — Example of the Witch of

Endor — Account of her Meeting with Saul — Supposed by some a mere

Impostor — By others, a Sorceress powerful enough to raise the Spirit of the

Prophet by her own Art — Difficulties attending both Positions — A middle

Course adopted, supposing that, as in the Case of Balak, the Almighty had, by

Exertion of His Will, substituted Samuel, or a good Spirit in his Character, for

the Deception which the Witch intended to produce — Resumption of the

Argument, showing that the Witch of Endor signified something very different

from the modern Ideas of Witchcraft — The Witches mentioned in the New

Testament are not less different from modern Ideas than those of the Books of

Moses, nor do they appear to have possessed the Power ascribed to Magicians

— Articles of Faith which we may gather from Scripture on this point — That

there might be certain Powers permitted by the Almighty to Inferior, and even

Evil Spirits, is possible; and in some sense the Gods of the Heathens might be

accounted Demons — More frequently, and in a general sense, they were but

logs of wood, without sense or power of any kind, and their worship founded

on imposture — Opinion that the Oracles were silenced at the Nativity

adopted by Milton Cases of Demoniacs — The Incarnate Possessions

probably ceased at the same time as the intervention of Miracles — Opinion

of the Catholics — Result, that witchcraft, as the Word is interpreted in

the Middle Ages, neither occurs under the Mosaic or Gospel Dispensation —

It arose in the Ignorant Period, when the Christians considered the Gods of the

Mahommedan or Heathen Nations as Fiends, and their Priests as Conjurers or

Wizards — Instance as to the Saracens, and among the Northern Europeans

yet unconverted — The Gods of Mexico and Peru explained on the same

system — Also the Powahs of North America — Opinion of Mather — Gibb,

a supposed Warlock, persecuted by the other Dissenters — Conclusion.

WHAT degree of communication might have existed between the human race and the

inhabitants of the other world had our first parents kept the commands of the Creator, can only be subject of unavailing speculation. We do not, perhaps, presume too much

when we suppose, with Milton, that one necessary consequence of eating the ” fruit of that forbidden tree” was removing to a wider distance from celestial essences the beings who, although originally but a little lower than the angels, had, by their own crime, forfeited the gift of immortality, and degraded themselves into an inferior rank of

creation.

Some communication between the spiritual world, by the union of those termed in

Scripture ” sons of God” and the daughters of Adam, still continued after the Fall,

though their inter-alliance was not approved of by the Ruler of mankind. We are given to understand — darkly, indeed, but with as much certainty as we can be entitled to require

— that the mixture between the two species of created beings was sinful on the part of both, and displeasing to the Almighty. It is probable, also, that the extreme longevity of the antediluvian mortals prevented their feeling sufficiently that they had brought

themselves under the banner of Azrael, the angel of death, and removed to too great a distance the period between their crime and its punishment. The date of the avenging

Flood gave birth to a race whose life was gradually shortened, and who, being admitted to slighter and rarer intimacy with beings who possessed a higher rank in creation,

assumed, as of course, a lower position in the scale. Accordingly, after this period we hear no more of those unnatural alliances which preceded the Flood, and are given to

understand that mankind, dispersing into different parts of the world, separated from each other, and began, in various places, and under separate auspices, to pursue the work of replenishing the world, which had been imposed upon them as an end of their

creation. In the meantime, while the Deity was pleased to continue his manifestations to those who were destined to be the fathers of his elect people, we are made to understand that wicked men — it may be by the assistance of fallen angels — were enabled to assert rank with, and attempt to match, the prophets of the God of Israel. The matter must

remain uncertain whether it was by sorcery or legerdemain that the wizards of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, contended with Moses, in the face of the prince and people, changed

their rods into serpents, and imitated several of the plagues denounced against the

devoted kingdom. Those powers of the Magi, however, whether obtained by

supernatural communications, or arising from knowledge of legerdemain and its kindred accomplishments, were openly exhibited; and who can doubt that — though we may be

left in some darkness both respecting the extent of their skill and the source from which it was drawn — we are told all which it can be important for us to know? We arrive here at the period when the Almighty chose to take upon himself directly to legislate for his chosen people, without having obtained any accurate knowledge whether the crime of

witchcraft, or the intercourse between the spiritual world and embodied beings, for evil purposes, either existed after the Flood, or was visited with any open marks of Divine displeasure.

But in the law of Moses, dictated by the Divinity himself, was announced a text, which, as interpreted literally, having been inserted into the criminal code of all Christian nations, has occasioned much cruelty and bloodshed, either from its tenor being

misunderstood, or that, being exclusively calculated for the Israelites, it made part of the judicial Mosaic dispensation, and was abrogated, like the greater part of that law, by the more benign and clement dispensation of the Gospel.

The text alluded to is that verse of the twenty-second chapter of Exodus bearing, “ men shall not suffer a witch to live.” Many learned men have affirmed that in this remarkable passage the Hebrew word CHASAPH means nothing more than poisoner, although, like

the word veneficus , by which it is rendered in the Latin version of the Septuagint, other learned men contend that it hath the meaning of a witch also, and may be understood as denoting a person who pretended to hurt his or her neighbours in life, limb, or goods, either by noxious potions, by charms, or similar mystical means. In this particular the witches of Scripture had probably some resemblance to those of ancient Europe, who,

although their skill and power might be safely despised, as long as they confined

themselves to their charms and spells, were very apt to eke out their capacity of mischief by the use of actual poison, so that the epithet of sorceress and poisoner were almost synonymous. This is known to have been the case in many of those darker iniquities

which bear as their characteristic something connected with hidden and prohibited arts.

Such was the statement in the indictment of those concerned in the famous murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, when the arts of Forman and other sorcerers having been found

insufficient to touch the victim's life, practice by poison was at length successfully resorted to; and numerous similar instances might be quoted. But supposing that the

Hebrew witch proceeded only by charms, invocations, or such means as might be

innoxious, save for the assistance of demons or familiars, the connexion between the

conjurer and the demon must have been of a very different character under the law of

Moses, from that which was conceived in latter days to constitute witchcraft. There was no contract of subjection to a diabolic Power, no infernal stamp or sign of such a fatal league, no revellings of Satan and his

nags, and no infliction of disease or misfortune upon good men. At least there is not a word in Scripture authorizing us to believe that such a system existed. On the contrary, we are told (how far literally, how far metaphorically, it is not for us to determine) that, when the Enemy of mankind desired to probe the virtue of Job to the bottom, he applied for permission to the Supreme Governor of the world, who granted him liberty to try his faithful servant with a storm of disasters, for the more brilliant exhibition of the faith which he reposed in his Maker.