84 On Popular Illufions. 



appear, comparatively, to be wifdom and dif- 

 cernment. 



Ic is an opinion of confiderable antiquity, that 

 the bodies of deceafed men were fometimes 

 reanimated by demons. The firfi: accounts of 

 this kind are to be found in Phlegon Trallianus*, 

 and Philoftratus Diofcyles. A ridiculous ftory 

 to the fame purpofe, v/as circulated refpedling 

 Agrippa : one of his fcholars, it was faid, got 

 into his ftudy, during his abfence, and taking 

 up a book which contained the titles of certain 

 demons, began to read : prefently a demon pop- 

 ped his head into the room and afked what was 

 required of himj perceiving the boy frightened, 

 the impudent devil ftrangled him on the fpot. 

 When Agrippa returned, he was, of courfe, a 

 good deal vexed at the accident ; however, with 

 infinite addrefs, he ordered a demon to enter the 

 body immediately, to walk once or twice round 

 the market-place, and then to let the carcafe 

 drop, that the boy might appear to have died 

 fuddenly. A few other inftances of the fame 

 kind may be picked out from the legendary 

 writers, but it was not till the fixteenth century, 

 that the bodies reanimated were fuppofed to do 

 any mifchief. Then, in Germany, Dr. Martin 

 Weinricb, a collector of incredible hiftories, 

 publiflied an account of two Redivivi\ one was 



• De Mirabilibus. 



the 



