On Popular Illufions. 75 



were advanced, to account for the aftion of 

 ^fafoetida in expelling dennons ; either that the 

 (devil thought himfelf infulted by fo vile an 

 application, and quitted the patient with difdain 

 of his ill manners*, or that, as devils may be 

 faid to have eyes and ears, it is very likely that 

 they may have nofes alfo-j-. The thing was 

 never fairly dpcided. 



Such have been the perplexities of demonolo- 

 gifis ; perplexities which the fineft talents were 

 employed to clear up, without effed. As learn- 

 ing was freed from thefe clouds, they fubfided 

 among the vulgar, only to make way for fucceed- 

 ing illufions, lefs fatal indeed, JDut not lefs ridi- 

 culous. 



Both the theory and evidence of apparitions 

 feft on the fame foundations with thofe of witch- 

 craft, for it is not fuppofed, by mofl: of the 

 philofophical writers on this fubje6t, that the 

 fouls of departed men ever revifit this planet : 

 they attribute all fpeCtral phenomena either to 

 angelic or diabolical operation. A full difcufllon 

 of this, and all other queftions relating to 

 apparitions, may be found in a very common 

 book, De Speftris, written \r\ 1570, by Lavater, 

 a theologift of Zurich;]:, 



The univerfal prevalence of this illufion might 

 ^e naturally expefled, becaufe folitude and filence 



* Thoner, p. 225. f Id. lb, 



t See particularly from p. 120 to 154, Leyden edition.. 

 Le Loyer, De L'Anchre, and many others have alfo writ- 

 ten on apparitions. -ij 



WU I) 



