MODERN NECROMANCY. 75 



were imagined by themselves. It is quite evident 

 that the boy, as well as Agnolino Gaddi, were so 

 overpowered with terror that they fancied many 

 things which they did not see ; but when the 

 boy declares that four armed giants, of an enor- 

 mous stature, were threatening to break into the 

 circle, he gives an accurate description of the 

 effect that would be produced by pushing the 

 figures nearer the mirror, and then magnifying 

 their images, and causing them to advance towards 

 the circle. Although Cellini declares that he was 

 trembling with fear, yet it is quite evident that 

 he was not entirely ignorant of the machinery 

 which was at work; for in order to encourage 

 the boy, who was almost dead with fear, he 

 assured them that the devils were under their 

 power, and that " what he saw was smoke and 

 shadow." 



Mr. Roscoe, from whose Life of Cellini the 

 preceding description is taken, draws a similar 

 conclusion from the consolatory words addressed 

 to the boy, and states that they " confirm him in 

 the belief, that the whole of these appearances, 

 like a phantasmagoria, were merely the effects of 

 a magic lantern produced on volumes of smoke 

 from various kinds of burning wood." In draw- 

 ing this conclusion, Mr. Roscoe has not adverted 

 to the fact, that this exhibition took place about 

 the middle of the 16th century, while the magic 

 lantern was not invented by Kircher till towards 

 the middle of the 17th century; Cellini having 

 died in 1570, and Kircher having been born in 

 1601. There is no doubt that the effects described 

 could be produced by this instrument, but we are 

 not entitled to have recourse to any other means 



