An Essay on Demonology 1

An Essay on Demonology 1

An Essay on Demonology, Ghosts and Apparitions, and Popular Superstitions

Also, an Account of the Witchcraft Delusion at Salem, in 1692

 

Author: James Thacher

 

 

CONTENTS.

 

 

Page.

Ghosts and Apparitions, 1

 

Power of Imagination, 21

 

Illusions, 26

 

Imagination and Fear, 47

 

Superstition, 63

 

Witchcraft and Sorcery, 74

 

Salem Witchcraft, 113

 

Omens and Auguries, 204

 

Medical Quackery, 225

 

 

 

 

ESSAY.

 

 

 

 

GHOSTS AND APPARITIONS.

 

 

Such is the constitution of the human mind, that it never attains to

perfection; it is constantly susceptible of erroneous impressions and

perverse propensities. The faculties of the soul are bound in thraldom

by superstition, and the intellect, under its influence, is scarcely

capable of reflecting on its divine origin, its nobleness and dignity.

The mind that is imbued with a superstitious temperament, is liable to

incessant torment, and is prepared to inflict the most atrocious evils

on mankind; even murder, suicide, and merciless persecution, have

proceeded from, and been sanctioned by a superstitious spirit. It is

this, in its most appalling aspect, which impels the heathen to a life

of mutilation and perpetual pain and torment of body, which degrades

the understanding below that of a brute. The superstitions practised

by the devotees to the Roman Catholic Church, if less horrible, are

equally preposterous and pernicious. The popular belief in

supernatural visitations in the form of apparitions and spectres, is

fostered and encouraged by the baneful influence of superstition and

prejudice. So universal has been the prevalence of the belief that

those conversant with history can resort to the era when every village

had its ghost or witch, as, in more ancient times, every family had

its household gods. Superstition, is a word of very extensive

signification, but for the purpose of this work, the word applies to

those who believe in witchcraft, magic, and apparitions, or that the

divine will is decided by omens or auguries; that the fortune of

individuals can be affected by things indifferent, by things deemed

lucky or unlucky, or that disease can be cured by words, charms, and

incantations. It means, in short, the belief of what is false and

contrary to reason. Superstition arises from, and is sustained by

ignorance and credulity in the understanding. The subject of

supernatural agency and the reality of witchcraft, has been the

occasion of unbounded speculation, and of much philosophical

disquisition, in almost all nations and ages. While some of the wisest

of men have assented to their actual existence and visible appearance,

others equally eminent have maintained the opinion that the supposed

apparitions are to be accounted for on the principle of feverish

dreams and disturbed imaginations. That our Creator has power to

employ celestial spirits as instruments and messengers, and to create

supernatural visions on the human mind, it would be impious to deny.

But we can conceive of no necessity, at the present day, for the

employment of disembodied spirits in our world; we can hold no

intercourse with them, nor realize the slightest advantage by their

agency. To believe in apparitions is to believe that God suspends the

law of nature for the most trivial purposes, and that he would

communicate the power of doing mischief, and of controling his laws to

beings, merely to gratify their own passions, which is inconsistent

with the goodness of God. We are sufficiently aware that the sacred

spirits of our fathers have ascended to regions prepared for

their reception, and there may they remain undisturbed till the mighty

secrets now concealed shall be revealed for our good. The soul or

spirit of man is immaterial, of course intangible and invisible. If it

is not recognisable by our senses, how can the dead appear to the

living? That disembodied spirits should communicate with surviving

objects on earth, that the ghosts of the murdered should appear to

disclose the murderer, or that the spirit of the wise and good should

return to proffer instructions to the vile and ignorant, must be

deemed unphilosophical.

 

It will now be attempted to demonstrate, that the generality of the

supposed apparitions, in modern times, will admit of explanation from

causes purely natural. For this purpose, it will be requisite first,

to describe the system of nerves, and their functions, which

constitute a part of our complicated frames. Nerves are to be

considered as a tissue of strings or cords, which have their origin in

the brain and spinal marrow, and are distributed in branches to all

parts of the body. They are the immediate organs of sensation and of

muscular action. Upon the integrity of the nerves, all the senses,

both external and internal, entirely depend. The nerves are the medium

of illusions; their influence pervades the whole body, and their

various impressions are transmitted to the brain. When the entire

brain is affected, delirium is the consequence; if the optic nerve

only, visions disturb the imagination; if the acoustic nerves receive

the impression, unreal sounds or voices are heard. If the optic nerves

are cut or rendered paralytic, the sense of vision is irrecoverably

destroyed. The nervous system is liable to be diseased and deranged

from various causes, from which, it is obvious, derangement of both

body and mind must ensue. The following is extracted from a lecture on

Moral Philosophy, by the learned and Reverend Samuel Stanhope Smith,

D. D., late President of the College of New Jersey.

 

'The nerves are easily excited into movement by an infinite variety of

external impulses, or internal agitations. By whatever impulse any

motion, vibration, or affection, in the nervous system is produced, a

correspondent sensation, or train of sensations, or ideas in the mind,

will naturally follow. When the body is in regular health, and the

operations of the mind are in a natural and healthful train, the

action of the nervous system, being affected only by the regular and

successive impressions made upon it by the objects of nature, as they

successively occur, will present to the mind just and true images of

the scenes that surround it. But by various species of infirmity and

disorder in the body, the nerves, sometimes in their entire system,

and sometimes only in those divisions of them which are attached to

particular organs of sense, may be subjected to very irregular motions

or vibrations. Hence unreal images may be raised in the mind. The

state of the nervous affections may be vitiated by intemperate

indulgence, or by infirmity resulting from sedentary and melancholy

habits. Superstitions, fancies, or enthusiastic emotions, do often

greatly disturb the regular action of the nervous system. Such elastic

and vibratory strings may be subject to an infinite variety of

irregular movements, sometimes in consequence of a disordered state of

health, and sometimes arising from peculiarity of constitutional

structure, which may present false and often fantastic images to the

mind. No cause, perhaps, produces a more anomalous oscitancy, or

vibration of the nervous system, or of some particular portions of it,

than habits of intemperate indulgence. And I have not unfrequently

become acquainted with men who had been addicted to such excesses, who

were troubled with apprehensions of supernatural apparitions. A

peculiar imbecility of constitution, however, created by study,

retirement, or other causes, may be productive of similar effects, and

sometimes these nervous anomalies are formed in men who are otherwise

of active and athletic constitutions. But where they possess

enlightened minds and vigorous understandings, such visionary

tendencies may be counteracted by their intellectual energies. Yet

have we sometimes known the strongest understandings overcome by the

vivacity of nervous impression, which frequently is scarcely inferior

to the most lively ideas of sense. This may, especially, be the case

in two opposite conditions; either when the body has fallen into a

gloomy temperament, and the mind is weakened by fears, in which case

it is oppressed by distressing apprehensions; or, on the other hand,

when the nerves, the primary organs, of sensation, are strained into

an unnatural tension, and the whole system is exalted by an

enthusiastic fervor to the pitch of delirious intoxication. When a man

is exalted to such a degree of nervous excitement and mental feeling,

his visions are commonly pleasing, often rapturous, and sometimes

fantastic; but generally rise above the control or correction of the

judgment. Lord Lyttleton, in the vision which he believed he saw of

his deceased mother's form, shortly before his own death, may be an

example of the former; and the Baron Von Swedenborg, in his supposed

visions, sometimes of angels and sometimes of reptiles, may be an

instance of the latter. Persons, whose fancies have been much

disturbed in early life, by the tales of nurses, and other follies of

an injudicious education, creating a timid and superstitious mind, are

more especially liable to have their fears alarmed and their

imagination excited by every object in the dark. Whence sounds will be

augmented to the ear, and images rendered more glaring to the eyes.'

 

In a note, the learned author presents the following examples,

tending to illustrate the principles just advanced.

 

'I knew, some years ago, a worthy lady who, anxiously watching by the

cradle of a sick infant, and momently expecting its death, felt, as

she believed, just before it expired, a violent stroke across the back

of both her arms. From a tincture of superstitious apprehension

infused in her early education, and unacquainted with any natural

cause of such a phenomenon, she construed it into a preternatural

signal of the death of her child. It was, probably, a sudden and

convulsive contraction of the muscles in that part of the system,

occasioned by the solicitude of her mind and the fatigue of watching,

which, aided by imagination in a very interesting moment, produced a

shock that had to her the feeling of a severe concussion. That a

convulsive contraction should take place in those particular muscles

need not appear strange to those who know how irregular and uncertain

is the whole train of nervous action, especially under the operation

of some disorders of the body; and frequently, under the influence of

strong affections and emotions of the mind.' 'A young lady, who was

peculiarly susceptible of the impressions of fear in the dark, or at

the sight of any of the accompaniments of death, attended the funeral

of one of her intimate companions, who had died of the small pox. On

the following night she lodged in company with a female friend of

great firmness of mind. Waking in the night, some time after the moon

had risen, and faintly enlightened her chamber, the first object that

struck her view was a white robe hanging on the tall back of a chair,

and a cap placed on the top. Her disturbed imagination instantly took

the alarm, and in her agitation and terror rousing her companion, she

exclaimed violently that her deceased friend was standing before her.