278 FLORA HISTORICA. 



disavowed all faith in these pretended divinations 

 about the same time : yet we still keep the idea 

 alive in the minds of our children by following 

 some of the old forms of prayer against these ima- 

 ginary evils. 



That there should exist in this enlightened age 

 persons who profess to believe in the power of 

 magic, is a convincing proof how much the mar- 

 vellous is preferred by the ignorant to the true 

 principles of philosophy. The persons who now 

 pretend to act upon the principle of divination, or 

 by the art of magic, consist of knaves, who cheat 

 the credulous for the sake of gain, and endeavour 

 to impose upon others what they are too crafty to 

 believe themselves. Private astrologers, who do 

 not make a trade of their art, are, if not fools, per- 

 sons whose weak minds are so susceptible as to 

 mistake the phantoms of their disturbed imagina- 

 tions for realities ; and of this we have lately 

 known an instance in a person who is not only 

 considered sane on other subjects, but who actually 

 holds a respectable rank in his profession. Having 

 procured the herbs and drugs which are recom- 

 mended for magical purposes, his mind became 

 bent upon raising a spirit, and for this purpose he 

 shut himself up in a room in the dead of the night. 

 Here he began to burn fumigating herbs, and to 

 make the mysterious figures directed by his instruc- 



