216 AGNOSTICISM VII 



on my mind that the belief in the reality of 

 possession and of witchcraft, justly based, alike 

 by Catholics and Protestants, upon this and innu- 

 merable other passages in both the Old and New 

 Testaments, gave rise, through the special in- 

 fluence of Christian ecclesiastics, to the most 

 horrible persecutions and judicial murders of 

 thousands upon thousands of innocent men, 

 women, and children. And when I reflect that 

 the record of a plain and simple declaration upon 

 such an occasion as this, that the belief in witch- 

 craft and possession is wicked nonsense, would 

 have rendered the long agony of mediaeval 

 humanity impossible, I am prompted to reject, as 

 dishonouring, the supposition that such declar- 

 ation was withheld out of condescension to 

 popular error. 



" Come forth, thou unclean spirit, out of the 

 man " (Mark v. 8), 1 are the words attributed to 

 Jesus. If I declare, as I have no hesitation in 

 doing, that I utterly disbelieve in the existence of 

 " unclean spirits," and, consequently, in the possi- 

 bility of their " coming forth " out of a man, I 

 suppose that Dr. Wace will tell me I am 

 disregarding the testimony " of our Lord." 

 For, if these words were really used, the most 

 resourceful of reconcilers can hardly venture 

 to affirm that they are compatible with a dis- 

 belief "in these things." As the learned and 

 1 Here, as always, the revised version is cited. 



