SCIOPTICON MANUAL. 49 



At the same time I cast my eye upon Agnolino Gaddi, who was 

 terrified to such a degree that he could scarce distinguish objects, 

 and seemed to be half dead. Seeing him in this condition I said, 

 " Agnolino, upon these occasions a man should not yield to fear, 

 but should stir about and give his assistance, so come directly and 

 put on some more of these." The effects of poor Agnolino's fear 

 were overpowering. The boy hearing a crepitation, ventured once 

 more to raise his head, when, seeing me laugh, he began to take 

 courage, and said "that the devils were flying away with a ven- 

 geance." 



" ' In this condition we stayed till the bell rung for morning 

 prayers. The boy again told us that there remained but few devils, 

 and these were at a great distance. When the magician had per- 

 formed the rest of his ceremonies, he stripped off his gown and 

 took up a wallet full of books which he had brought with him. 



" ' "We all went out of the circle together, keeping as close to each 

 other as we possibly could, especially the boy, who had placed him- 

 self in the middle, holding the necromancer by the coat, 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, some- 

 times 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 them. 



a ' Whilst we were engaged in this conversation, we arrived at 

 our respective houses, and all that night dreamed of nothing but 

 devils.' 



" Although Cellini declares that he was trembling with fear, yet 

 it is quite evident that he was not entirely ignorant of the machi- 

 nery 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. Koscoe, 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.' If we suppose that the 

 necromancer either had a regular magic lantern, or that he had 



