CURIOSITIES OF SUPERSTITION. 473 



not the result but the cause of ignorance. The dogma of unnatural- 

 ism raged like a pandemic disease, and the changes it suffered in its 

 progress from Asia to Spain are altogether trifling compared with 

 those it produced. Its influence leveled all national distinctions ; it 

 emasculated the valiant Visigoth and completed the degradation of 

 the degenerate Byzantine ; it increased the superstitions of Abyssinia 

 and perverted the learning of Western Europe. 



The works of Bodin, Sprenger, and Robert Burton furnish astound- 

 ing proofs of what an amount of learning is compatible with the most 

 extravagant superstitions. They were all three earnest lovers of Truth 

 for her own sake had accumulated stores of erudition that would 

 break the intellectual backbone of a modern scholar ; they were logi- 

 cians of inexorable exactitude, but the very profoundness of their con- 

 clusions only reveals the bottomless absurdity of their premises. 



Dr. Sprenger does not condescend to examine the reality of dia- 

 bolical apparitions and infernal liaisons it would be mere waste of 

 time, he says, to discuss such well-proved facts but applies the power 

 of his logic to such questions as the following : If the offspring of a 

 male devil and a human female can, by a proper course of penance, 

 efface the stigma of his birth, can he be intrusted with the responsi- 

 bilities of a municipal or subaltern clerical office ? And, in case he 

 should succeed in concealing his parentage and obtain ecclesiastical 

 preferment, should not a conscientious diffidence at least inspire him 

 to plead a noli episcoparif And if, by any chance, his progenitor 

 should appear to him, is he bound to treat the old gentleman with 

 anything like filial respect ? would he be obliged to exorcise his own 

 father ? or how could he compromise the difficulty ? And what if he 

 should find that he has inherited the paternal talent for magic arts, 

 and can not rid himself of the fatal bequest does the welfare of his 

 soul require that he should denounce himself to the proper authori- 

 ties ? Persistent good luck, success in vaticination, etc., might be re- 

 garded as mere presumptive evidence, but if a Christian finds that he 

 can fly, it would be a very suspicious circumstance ; would he be justi- 

 fied in exercising his gift for worthy purposes take a flit to Loretto, 

 for instance, or should he fly straight to the king's attorney, and thus 

 prove both his guilt and his contrition ? Or if. by prayer and fasting, 

 he should hope to disqualify himself for such exploits, would it be 

 right to give himself the benefit of the doubt ? An orthodox Catholic 

 had better strictly abstain from volitation, but if such scruples were to 

 seize him in mid-air, would it be advisable for him to let himself drop ? 

 The gift of prescience would also embarrass a man in that predicament 

 would it be right to conceal his foreknowledge if, by a timely hint, 

 he could avert a public calamity ? Reticence would, on the whole, be 

 the safest plan. But should a man abstain from marriage, lest his 

 wife might be less discreet ? Persons troubled with a burdensome 

 secret are apt to talk in their sleep. 



