10 ACCUMULATIONS IN 



CHAP. I. 



prodigies which are no longer believed ; but if, 

 on that account, their authority on other sub- 

 jects be discarded, it will become impossible to 

 trace the progress of mankind through the seve- 

 ral stages of society, from the most rude to the 

 most civilized state. It is scarcely two centuries 

 since in every part of Europe, with all the know- 

 ledge and civilization it had imbibed, the be- 

 lief in demoniacal possessions, in the power of 

 witches and fairies, and in spectral appearances, 

 universally prevailed. It would be unj ust to the 

 memory of the historians and chroniclers of that 

 and the preceding ages, to reject their testi- 

 mony, because they believed in supernatural 

 events and appearances, which have lost all hold 

 upon the present race, except among the most 

 ignorant of the vulgar. 



If in extracting from the writings of antiquity 

 what relates more immediately to the subject of 

 our inquiry, it should occasionally appear that 

 incredible events are related, the sound judg- 

 ment of the reader will enable him to separate 

 the facts from the fictions in which they may be 

 enveloped ; and he may find amusement, if not 

 instruction, in observing the great credulity of 

 the eminent men of antiquity, and in comparing 

 their habits of investigation and discrimination 

 with those of the ablest writers of their own age 

 and country. 

 Assyria and It appears f rom ^g re l at i O ns of Diodorus, that 



