

MODERN NECROMANCY. 73 



and me by the cloak. As we were going to our 

 houses in the quarter of Banchi, the boy told us 

 that two of the demons whom we had seen at the 

 amphitheatre went on before us leaping and 

 skipping, sometimes running upon the roofs of 

 the houses, and sometimes upon the ground. 

 The priest declared, that though he had often 

 entered magic circles, nothing so extraordinary 

 had ever happened to him. As we went along, 

 he would fain persuade me to assist with him at 

 consecrating a brook, from which, he said, we 

 should derive immense riches ; we should then 

 ask the demons to discover to us the various 

 treasures with which the earth abounds, which 

 would raise us to opulence and power ; but that 

 these love-affairs were mere follies, from whence 

 no good could be expected. I answered, ' that I 

 would readily have accepted his proposal, if I 

 understood Latin.' He redoubled his persuasions, 

 assuring me, that the knowledge of the Latin 

 language was by no means material. He added, 

 that he could have Latin scholars enough, if he 

 had thought it worth while to look out for them, 

 but that he could never have met with a partner 

 of resolution and intrepidity equal to mine, and 

 that I should by all means follow his advice. 

 Whilst we were engaged in this conversation? we 

 arrived at our respective houses, and all that 

 night dreamt of nothing but devils." 



It is impossible to peruse the preceding de- 

 scription without being satisfied that the legions 

 of devils were not produced by any influence 

 upon the imaginations of the spectators, but were 

 actual optical phantasms, or the images of pictures 

 or objects produced by one or more concave 



