An Essay on Demonology 7

An Essay on Demonology 7

But, blessed be the Almighty Ruler, the present is an era,

preeminently distinguished for improvement in physical and moral

philosophy; and forgetting the things that are behind, we are

pressing forward in the race with rapid strides to the melioration of

the condition of the physical and moral world. Had the stupendous

works performed, and those contemplated at the present day, been

predicted to our fathers in the 17th century, they would have trembled

with alarm, lest their posterity were destined to form a league with

the infernal powers. The paralyzing idea that the present state of

knowledge is as perfect as our nature will admit, should be utterly

reprobated; for knowledge is eternally progressive, and we can have no

claim to be estimated as the benefactors of posterity, unless by our

own efforts and toils we add to the achievements of our ancestors. We

may take a retrospect of the meritorious characters of our fathers

with exultation, and when disposed to animadvert on the frailties and

follies peculiar to their times, let us reflect that it is our happy

lot to live in an age in many respects the most glorious the world

ever knew. We have a moral interest in all that concerns the human

race, and, as philanthropists, we ought to sympathize in every

calamity with which our species may be afflicted. Being apprised with

what facility mankind deceive themselves, and with what tenacity the

mind clings to its darling delusion, sober reflection is awakened to a

lively sense of the evils resulting from our imperfections. As the

germs of plants may lie dormant in the earth for ages, and be

resuscitated, so may the troubles created by unhallowed superstition,

revive and be reiterated by means of some depraved spirits in our day.

 

_Ventriloquism_ is an art which may be made subservient to knavery and

deception. An ingenious work on this subject was published in 1772, by

M. de la Chapelle, who was of opinion that the responses of many of

the oracles were delivered by persons thus qualified to serve the

purposes of priestcraft and delusion. That ventriloquism may be made

thus subservient to the purposes of knavery, will clearly appear by

the following anecdotes.

 

Louis Brabant, valet de chambre to Francis the First, was a capital

ventriloquist, and a great cheat. He had fallen in love with a young,

handsome, and rich heiress; but was rejected by the parents as an

unsuitable match for their daughter. The young lady's father dying,

Brabant made a visit to the widow, who was totally ignorant of his

singular talent. Suddenly, on his first appearance, in open day, and

in presence of several persons who were with her, she heard herself

accosted, in a voice perfectly resembling that of her dead husband,

and which seemed to proceed from above, exclaiming, 'Give my daughter

in marriage to Louis Brabant. He is a man of great fortune, and of an

excellent character. I now endure the inexpressible torments of

purgatory for having refused her to him. If you obey this admonition,

I shall soon be delivered from this place of torment. You will at the

same time provide a worthy husband for your daughter, and procure

everlasting repose to the soul of your poor husband.' The widow could

not for a moment resist this dread summons, which had not the most

distant appearance of proceeding from Louis Brabant, whose countenance

exhibited no visible change, and whose lips were closed and

motionless, during the delivery of it. Accordingly, she consented

immediately to receive him for her son-in-law. Louis's finances,

however, were in a very low situation, and the formalities attending

the marriage contract, rendered it necessary for him to exhibit some

show of riches, and not to give the ghost the lie direct. He

accordingly went to work upon a fresh subject, one Cornu, an old and

rich banker at Lyons, who had accumulated immense wealth by usury and

extortion, and was known to be haunted by remorse of conscience on

account of the manner in which he had acquired it. Having contracted

an intimate acquaintance with this man, he one day, while they were

sitting together in the usurer's little back parlor, artfully turned

the conversation on religious subjects, on demons and spectres, the

pains of purgatory and the torments of hell. During an interval of

silence between them, a voice was heard, which to the astonished

banker seemed to be that of his deceased father, complaining, as in

the former case, of his dreadful situation in purgatory, and calling

upon him to deliver him instantly from thence, by putting into the

hands of Louis Brabant, a large sum for the redemption of Christians

then in slavery with the Turks; threatening him at the same time with

eternal damnation if he did not take this method to expiate likewise

his own sins. The reader will naturally suppose that Brabant affected

a due degree of astonishment on the occasion, and further promoted the

deception, by acknowledging his having devoted himself to the

prosecution of the charitable design imputed to him by the ghost. An

old usurer is naturally suspicious. Accordingly, the wary banker made

a second appointment with the ghost delegate for the next day; and to

render any design of imposing upon him utterly abortive, took him into

the open fields, where not a house, or a tree, or even a bush was in

sight, capable of screening any supposed confederate. This

extraordinary caution excited the ventriloquist to exert all the

powers of his art. Wherever the banker conducted him, at every step,

his ears were saluted on all sides with the complaints and groans not

only of his father, but of all his deceased relations, imploring him,

for the love of God, and in the name of every saint in the calendar,

to have mercy on his soul and their's, by effectually seconding with

his purse the intentions of his worthy companion. Cornu could no

longer resist the voice of heaven, and accordingly carried his guest

home with him, and paid him down 10,000 crowns, with which the honest

ventriloquist returned to Paris and married his mistress. The

catastrophe was fatal. The secret was afterwards blown, and reached

the usurer's ears, who was so much affected by the loss of his money,

and the mortifying railleries of his neighbors, that he took to his

bed and died.

 

Another French ventriloquist, named M. St Gile, was not less adroit in

his secret art. Entering a convent, and finding the whole community in

mourning, he inquired the cause, and was told that one of their body

had lately died, who was the delight and ornament of the whole

society, and they spoke feelingly of the scanty honors they had

bestowed on his memory. Suddenly a voice was heard, apparently

proceeding from that part of the church where the singing of the choir

is performed, lamenting the situation of the defunct in purgatory, and

reproaching the brotherhood with their lukewarmness, and want of zeal

on his account. The friars, as soon as their astonishment gave them

power to speak, consulted together, and agreed to acquaint the rest of

the community with this singular event, so interesting to the whole

society. M. St Gile, who wished to carry on the joke still farther,

dissuaded them from taking this step, telling them that they would be

treated by their absent brethren, as a set of fools and visionaries.

He recommended to them, however, the immediately calling of the whole

community into the church, where the ghost of their departed brother

might probably reiterate his complaints. Accordingly, all the friars,

novices, lay brothers, and even the domestics of the convent, were

immediately summoned and collected together. In a short time the voice

from the roof renewed its lamentation and reproaches, and the whole

convent fell on their faces, and vowed a solemn reparation. As a first

step, they chanted a _De profundis_ in a full choir; during the

intervals of which the ghost occasionally expressed the comfort he

received from their pious exercises, and ejaculations on his behalf.

When all was over, the friar entered into a serious conversation with

M. St Gile; and, on the strength of what had just passed, sagaciously

inveighed against the absurd incredulity of our modern sceptics and

pretended philosophers, on the article of ghosts or apparitions. M. St

Gile thought it now high time to disabuse the good fathers. This

purpose, however, he found it extremely difficult to effect, till he

had prevailed upon them to return with him into the church, and there

be witnesses of the manner in which he had conducted this ludicrous

deception.

 

 

 

 

WITCHCRAFT AND SORCERY.

 

 

A belief in the entity of witchcraft and sorcery may boast of a high

degree of antiquity. In both the Old and New Testament, we observe

numerous tragical events, bearing the semblance of diabolical agency.

A prominent instance is found in the witch of Endor, who is said to

have been deeply versed in the art of deception, and notorious in her

day for skill in practical astrology. It is the opinion of some

divines, that to beguile Saul, she raised a demon, counterfeiting

Samuel; but it seems difficult to decide in what precise manner she

effected her purpose of imposing upon her credulous employer. The

sorcery and witchcraft, prohibited under the Jewish dispensation, is

supposed by high authority to be a very different species of crime

from that which was so abhorrent in the days of our ancestors; the

former might have come under the description of idolatry, or of the

heathen mythology. 'The ancients believed that there were good and

evil demons, which had influence over the minds of men, and that these

beings carried on an intercourse between men and gods, conveying the

addresses of men to the gods, and divine benefits to men. Hence,

demons became the objects of worship. It was supposed, also, that

human spirits, after their departure from the body, became demons, and

that the souls of virtuous men, if highly purified, were exalted from

demons into gods.'

 

The various instances of demoniacs, lunatics, and possessed, recorded

in the sacred scriptures of the New Testament, have received different

interpretations according to the particular views among learned

expositors. By some of the enlightened German theologians, those

subjects are considered as mere prototypes of the maniacs and

epileptics of our own times; but most of the English divines have

imbibed different opinions. 'Demoniacs,' says Kenrick, 'were persons

disordered in their understandings, and supposed to be possessed by an

evil demon.' That real miracles were wrought by our Saviour and his

apostles, and that both good and evil spirits were subservient to his

will, no Christian believer can ever deny. But by all impartial

inquirers after truth, it will perhaps be conceded, that demoniacal

possession is a subject the least susceptible of a satisfactory

solution, of any in scripture. It has received the most critical

investigation of commentators and divines, for centuries, and still

remains involved in mystery. The subject in its nature, is too

intricate and mysterious to justify even a discussion on this

occasion, nor is it requisite for my purpose. It must, therefore, be

referred to philosophical commentators and learned biblical critics.

 

In a work entitled, Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft, by F.

Hutchinson, D. D., published in London in 1720, the author says, 'The

divine writings, as well as the soundest philosophy and soberest

reason, give confirmation that there are both good and bad spirits.

There are superior beings intermediate betwixt the divine nature and

ours. But both philosophers and Christians that have ventured to

define their natures or works, have been very various in their notions

respecting them, and the holy scriptures, though they give us many

instances of the employment of both the evil and the good spirits,

teach us none such as we commonly meet with in the modern relations of

witchcraft, and the conjoint powers of Satan. The holy scriptures tell

us of no such tales as these which confound the laws of nature, and

absolutely destroy the testimony of our senses.' *** 'The human mind

is sometimes so clouded and oppressed, that persons think themselves

dead. At another time they are elevated far above their natural pitch,

full of raptures, and high conceits, and think themselves kings and

queens; now if witch stories are in their heads, or witchcraft in

their imaginations, why may they not think themselves bewitched, or

fancy themselves witches or wizards, as well as kings and queens?'

 

A witch, in her personal character, was commonly an uncouth old woman,

or hag. Her countenance was repulsive, her air and gait disgusting,

and her general aspect and movements at variance with a proper

demeanor. She is supposed to have formed a compact with the devil,

giving herself up to him body and soul. This compact, it is believed,

cannot be transacted mentally, but the devil must appear in bodily

shape to the witch. In this interview, he delivers to her an imp, or

familiar spirit, by which she is enabled to transport herself in the

air, on a broomstick or a spit, to distant places in the night to

attend witch meetings, at which the devil always presides. She was

supposed to be attended by an old gray cat, as her confederate, or

imp; the cat and her mistress, it was believed, were often overheard

plotting their fairy tricks together. She was supposed to possess the

power of transforming herself into a cat, a squirrel, or other animal,

which she would send abroad to execute her commands.