2J2 ON THE TRANSMIGRATION OP SOULS. 



extract the arrow, they managed it fo well, that they 

 thrufc it into the heart of the miferable wretch *. 



In this fable manifeftly lies the belief, that human 

 fouls, and even while the man is yet alive, can pafs 

 into the bodies of brutes ; it likewife contains the ex- 

 plication of a fcperfcition not every where eradicated 

 among us. It would not be eahly believed by fuch as 

 have not learnt it from the ftories in the hiftory of 

 witches, or from the tales of their nurfe, that there 

 are men who, in a literal fenfe, can change themfelves 

 into beaffcs. The wolf, as the molt noxious and vora- 

 cious of animals, has been found eminently adapted 

 to favour the infernal attempts of thefe magicians, and 

 therefore fuch metamorphofed perfons are denoted by • 

 the general appellation of loup-garous or were- wolves. 

 Formerly thefe monfters wandered much abroad, of 

 late however they have not fo frequently been feen, 

 fince the laws againft witchcraft have been repealed, 

 and the clergy been excufed the trouble of calling out 

 devils. Yet there is here and there an obfcure corner 

 in the country, where they frill conveniently carry on 

 their accurfed tricks among the good old wives and 

 idle goffips of both fexes. Even among the antient 

 Greeks this fuperllition was not unknown ; Lucian's 

 afs, and its copy, the golden afs of Apuleius, are con 

 firmations of the fact, at the fame time that they turn 

 it to ridicule. 



A ftill more confpicuous infrance of iimilar permu- 

 tations of fouls, during the life-time of the acting 



* Lkfiteau, torn. i. p. 390. 



perfons, 



