SORCERY, OK JEaGIC. 619 
murings of the conjurors, if they have missed one jote of all their 
rites, or if any of their feet slyde over the circle, through terror of 
his fearful apparition, he paies himself at that time, of that due debt 
which they owed him, and otherwise would have delaied longer 
to have paied him. I mean, he carries them with him, body and 
soule.” 
How the conjurors made triangular or quadi’angular circles, his 
majesty has not informed us, nor does he seem to imagine there was 
any difficulty in the matter. We therefore suppose that he learned 
his mathematics from the same system as Dr, Scheverell, who, In one 
of his serrnons, made use of' the following simile *. They concur like 
parallel lines, meeting in one common centre.’^ 
Another mode of consulting spirits was by ^ the beryl, by means of 
a speculator or seer: who, to have a complete ^ight, ought to be a 
pure virgin, a youth who had not known woman, or at least a person 
of irreproachable life and purity of manners. The method of con-- 
sultatiou is this : The conjuror having repeated the necessary charms 
and adjurations, with the litany or invocation peculiar to the spirits 
or angels he wishes to call, (for every one has his particular form,) 
the seer looks into a crystal or beryl, wherein he w'ill see the answer 
represented either by types or figures ; and sometimes, though very 
rarely, will hear the angels or spirits speak articulately. Their pro- 
nunciation is, as Lilly says, like the Irish, much in the throat. Lilly 
describes one of these beryls or’ crystals. It was, he says, as large' 
as an orange, set in silver, with a cross at the top, and round about 
engraved the names of the angels Raphael, Gabriel, and Uriel, A 
delineation of another is engraved in the frontispiece to Auhery’s 
Miscellanies. 
The sorcerers or magicians do not always employ their art to do 
mischief ; but, on the contrary, frequently exert it to cure diseases 
inflicted by witches; to discover thieves; recover stolen goods; to 
foretell future events, and the state of absent friends. On this account 
they are frequently called white witches. Our ancestors had great 
faith in these fables, when they enacted, by stat. 33 Hen. VIII. c. 8. 
all witchcraft and sorcery to be felony without benefit of clergy ; and- 
agaio' by statute 1 Jac. L c. 12. that all persons invoking an evil spir 
rit, or consulting, covenanting with, entertaining, employing, feeding, 
or rewarding, any evil spirit, or taking up dead bodies from their 
graves to be used in any witchcraft, sorcery, charms, or encliant- 
ment ; or killing, or otherwise hurting, any person by such infernal 
arts ; should he guilty of felony without benefit of clergy, and suffer 
death ; and if any person should attempt by sorcery to discover hid- 
den treasure, or to restore stolen goods, or to provoke unlawful love,« 
or to hurt any man or beast, thougli the same were not effected, he or 
she should suffer imprisonment and pillory for the first offence, and 
death for the second. These acts continued loog je force, to the 
terror of all ancient females in the kingdom ; and many poor wretches 
were sacrificed thereby to the prejudice of their neighbours and their 
own illusions, not a few having by some means or other cohfessecl 
the incredible facts at the gallows; but all executions for this dubious 
crime are now abolished. It is enacted by stat. 9 Geo. 11. c. 6. that 
