38 On Popular Illnfions. 



its divifions, with the operations which they 

 feverally include, may be feen in Paracelfus's 

 Philofophia Sagax, where its branches appear 

 very numerous. Of all thefe, however, the 

 di'vifion of witchcraftj including poffeffions, has 

 excited moft attention, and has indeed been moft 

 interefting, as a theological, legal and medical 

 queftion. It is chiefly with refpefl to the laft 

 that I mean to confider it. 



I fhall not meddle with the controverfy of 

 Jannes and Jambres, the magicians of Pharaoh, 

 nor inquire whether the witch of Endor had a 

 clofet*, neither is it neccflary to colleft the claf- 

 fical authorities for witchcraft : all this has been 

 fully donef, and every thing, credible and in- 

 credible, relating to the civil and religious hif- 

 tory of the fubjedt may be found in Wierus, Del- 

 rio, and in a very extraordinary book, entitled 

 the Imaginations of Mr. Ouffle, which, with the 

 moft child ifh arrangement, and great poverty 

 of invention, exhibits the completeft colleftion 

 of demonological fads to be found in any one 

 work. 



That in early ftates of fociety, difeafes were 

 fuppofed to be inflided by fupernatural powers, 

 is an acknowledged fa6t, and f follows naturally 

 from the general principle, of men's anxiety to 

 furmount t'leir ignorance of the relations of caufe 



* See Scott and Webfler. f Wkr. de Lamiis. 



and 



