Lives of the Necromancers | Page 2

recollection of the examples of the credulity of the human
mind may in one view supply nourishment to our pride, it still more
obviously tends to teach us sobriety and humiliation. Man in his

genuine and direct sphere is the disciple of reason; it is by this faculty
that he draws inferences, exerts his prudence, and displays the
ingenuity of machinery, and the subtlety of system both in natural and
moral philosophy. Yet what so irrational as man? Not contented with
making use of the powers we possess, for the purpose of conducing to
our accommodation and well being, we with a daring spirit inquire into
the invisible causes of what we see, and people all nature with Gods "of
every shape and size" and angels, with principalities and powers, with
beneficent beings who "take charge concerning us lest at any time we
dash our foot against a stone," and with devils who are perpetually on
the watch to perplex us and do us injury. And, having familiarised our
minds with the conceptions of these beings, we immediately aspire to
hold communion with them. We represent to ourselves God, as
"walking in the garden with us in the cool of the day," and teach
ourselves "not to forget to entertain strangers, lest by so doing we
should repel angels unawares."
No sooner are we, even in a slight degree, acquainted with the laws of
nature, than we frame to ourselves the idea, by the aid of some invisible
ally, of suspending their operation, of calling out meteors in the sky, of
commanding storms and tempests, of arresting the motion of the
heavenly bodies, of producing miraculous cures upon the bodies of our
fellow-men, or afflicting them with disease and death, of calling up the
deceased from the silence of the grave, and compelling them to disclose
"the secrets of the world unknown."
But, what is most deplorable, we are not contented to endeavour to
secure the aid of God and good angels, but we also aspire to enter into
alliance with devils, and beings destined for their rebellion to suffer
eternally the pains of hell. As they are supposed to be of a character
perverted and depraved, we of course apply to them principally for
purposes of wantonness, or of malice and revenge. And, in the
instances which have occurred only a few centuries back, the most
common idea has been of a compact entered into by an unprincipled
and impious human being with the sworn enemy of God and man, in
the result of which the devil engages to serve the capricious will and
perform the behests of his blasphemous votary for a certain number of
years, while the deluded wretch in return engages to renounce his God
and Saviour, and surrender himself body and soul to the pains of hell

from the end of that term to all eternity. No sooner do we imagine
human beings invested with these wonderful powers, and conceive
them as called into action for the most malignant purposes, than we
become the passive and terrified slaves of the creatures of our own
imaginations, and fear to be assailed at every moment by beings to
whose power we can set no limit, and whose modes of hostility no
human sagacity can anticipate and provide against. But, what is still
more extraordinary, the human creatures that pretend to these powers
have often been found as completely the dupes of this supernatural
machinery, as the most timid wretch that stands in terror at its expected
operation; and no phenomenon has been more common than the
confession of these allies of hell, that they have verily and indeed held
commerce and formed plots and conspiracies with Satan.
The consequence of this state of things has been, that criminal
jurisprudence and the last severities of the law have been called forth to
an amazing extent to exterminate witches and witchcraft. More
especially in the sixteenth century hundreds and thousands were burned
alive within the compass of a small territory; and judges, the directors
of the scene, a Nicholas Remi, a De Lancre, and many others, have
published copious volumes, entering into a minute detail of the system
and fashion of the witchcraft of the professors, whom they sent in
multitudes to expiate their depravity at the gallows and the stake.
One useful lesson which we may derive from the detail of these
particulars, is the folly in most cases of imputing pure and unmingled
hypocrisy to man. The human mind is of so ductile a character that, like
what is affirmed of charity by the apostle, it "believeth all things, and
endureth all things." We are not at liberty to trifle with the sacredness
of truth. While we persuade others, we begin to deceive ourselves.
Human life is a drama