710 DEMON 
Ada Hafnienfa, and fomething in Sennertns. In the ac¬ 
count of Govvrie’s Confpiracy, publifhed by authority, 
one of the vvitnefTes folemnly depofes, that, after the 
earl had received his mortal wound, he did not lofe a 
drop of blood, till an amulet was taken out of his pocket. 
In Germany, it was believed that mulkets might be 
charmed from firing : Dr. Clauderus, author of feveral 
eflkys in the Mifcellanea Curiofa, publifhed, on this ufeful 
art, under this title, De Impedienda Tormentorum Explofwne. 
The origin of amulets was very remote ; tlie Trojan Pal¬ 
ladium is laid to have been compofed of the bones of 
Abaris the Scythian, (the fil'd: aerial adventurer recorded 
in hidory,) and thus was properly an amulet, in druc- 
iure as well as defign. Pomponatius ventured to ad'ert, 
that all remedies of this fort act on the imagination alone, 
and that a dog’s bones would produce all the elFects of 
the mod venerated'relics, if they were wordiipped with 
an equal degree of confidence. In this fcepticifm, how¬ 
ever, he was countenanced only by the outrageous par- 
tifans of the imagination, fuch as Dr. Fienus of Ant¬ 
werp. 
The natural remedies, as might be expected, were 
thofe adapted to hypochondriacal or hyderic diforders, 
as one or other of thefe was midaken for a polfedion ; 
when there was reafon to fufpedt impodure in the fits, 
flagellation fucceeded admirably. But many grave phy- 
ficians employed even antifpafmodic and cathartic ntedi- 
medicines, on the fuppofition of their exerting fpecific 
powers, and almod every man had his favourite dcmo- 
nagogue. Tlie hcrbalids always notice fome plants for 
this purpofe. Dr. Thoner extols mercurius vita , as re¬ 
markably ufeful in expelling preternatural fubdances 
from the body ; but holding fome other application ne- 
nefiary to extract the fubftance in which the feminale 
prifmpium of the fafcination lodged, (that is, the be¬ 
witched bread or apple offered the patient by the for- 
cerefs,) he applied, in the cafe treated by him, a cata- 
plafm exJlercore malejiciati. Dr. Mynficht cured feveral 
perfons bewitched, with afafoctida applied in form of a 
plader; though Hofer, in his Hercules Mcdicits, doubts 
whether fuch perfons can be cured by natural means. 
Both the theory and evidence of apparitions red on 
the fame foundations with thofe of witchcraft, for it is 
not fuppofed, by mod of the philofophical writers on 
this fubjedt, that the fouls of departed men ever revifit 
this planet: they attribute all fpedtral phenomena either 
to angelic or diabolical operation. A full difeuflion of 
this, and all other quedions relating to apparitions, may 
be found in a very common book, De Spedris, written in 
J570, by Lavater, a theologid of Zurich. The univer¬ 
sal prevalence of this illufion might be naturally ex- 
pedted, becaufe folitude and filence will always produce 
apparitions. Vives wrote that fpedtres were daily be¬ 
held in America, on its fil'd difeovery ; and Olaus Mag¬ 
nus deferibes certain iflands in the Norwegian feas, in¬ 
habited by fpedtres only, which often deceived the un¬ 
wary failor. Every inanimate objedt which could inlpire 
dread by its properties, or awe by its appearance, had 
its fpirit, which was believed to be uncommonly adtive 
during particular feafons, when the obfervation of tradi¬ 
tional luperditions difpofed the mind to receive an im- 
preflion of fuch power more readily : 
When goblins haunt, from fire or fen, 
Or mine, or flood, the walks of men. Collins. 
Thofe effedts which we now aferibe to the prefence of 
noxious airs in mines, were imputed, with great confi¬ 
dence, to the homines metallid, or demons of the mine ; 
which is a good illuflration of our principle. Whether 
the diminutive fize of the fairies was inferred from the 
minute fcale of the operations attributed to them, or was 
derived from the Platonic philofophy, (for opinions, as 
they become obfolete with the learned, frequently de- 
fcend to the crowd,) their exidence was plainly adiimed 
as an hypothefis ; to account for fome appearances, the 
OLOG Y. 
natural caiifes of which were unknown. Thus Van Hel- 
mont, Bodinus, Strozza, and Luther, imputed thunder 
and meteors to the devil. Philofophy, however, has 
not yet explained the-produdtion of the green-fown fairy 
ringlets in a fatisfadtory manner. 
The proof of fpedtral phenomena is reded by all their 
defenders on evidence ; and, according to them, it is im- 
poflible to deny thofe phenomena without dedroying the 
foundation of all hidory. The apparition of Ficinus to 
Michael Mercato is a famous dory, and of great credit 
among fpedtral philofophers; unluckily it came only 
from Mercato’s grandfon. Bayle obferves, it was very 
unfortunate that Mercato did not make affidavit of the 
apparition before a proper magidrate. Lord Clarendon’s 
ftory is quite deflitute of fupport, being a compound of 
hearfay and conjecture. The curious affair of the dis¬ 
turbances in Cock-lane, added no drength to the doc¬ 
trine of apparitions, but furnifhed another proof, that 
neither the force of natural talents, nor the helps of ac¬ 
quired knowledge, can eradicate the general difpofition 
to the engaging horrors of fupernatural agency. Ventri- 
loquifm was talked of in this indance, but can only be 
regarded as a dill greater abfurdity. 
From the furprifing deceptions, however, produced by 
ventriloquifm, many perfons have hoped to explain the 
fads of demonology ; but the talents feem to be rare, 
and every witchmonger cannot command an operator at 
pleafure. 
Some of the bed authenticated hidories of apparitions 
carry their own detection with them, in the abfurdities 
edabliflted by their evidence. In Baxter’s World of Spi¬ 
rits, for example, there is a copious narrative of the 
didurbances at Llanellin, in Glamorgandiire, confirmed 
by concurrent tedimonies of fufficient witnefles, with this 
circumdance among the red ; that oft-times the fliadow 
of a perfon walking would be vifible on the wall, while 
no fubdance capable of intercepting the fun’s rays was 
fenfibly prefent in that place. This is a phyfical abfur¬ 
dity, and cannot be true. The principal writers on fpi- 
rits, of this country, are Aubrey, More, Glanville, Bax¬ 
ter, Beaumont, and profefTor Sinclair of Glafgcw, to 
whom we mud add Mr. Cumberland, as the lated fup- 
porter of the dodtrine among us, though he has produced 
only one hidory, and that of an old date. 
It was mentioned before, that fome fpedtral philofo¬ 
phers accounted for the phenomena of apparitions from 
demoniacal adtion; but it mud be obferved, that fome 
believed thofe demons to be material: this was the opi¬ 
nion of Pfellus ; Paracelfus fuppofed the elements to be 
inhabited by four fpecies of demons, fpirits, nymphs, 
pygmies, (our fairies,) and falamanders; thefe he reck¬ 
oned material, but of a different fubdance from man, 
that is, of the caro non-adamica • Cudworth was inclined 
to think that angels were material; and Dr. Henry More 
was fo much prelfed with the difficulties which he found 
in reconciling the propofed phenomena of fpedtres (in 
which he was a firm believer) with the immaterial fyf- 
tem, that he propofed the hypothefis of an immaterial 
extenfum, a fuppofition whjch later metaphyficians have 
found it convenient to adopt. But our own times have 
produced a learned, an elegant, and, what is dill more, 
a fafiiionable theorid, in fupport of the dodtrine of ap¬ 
paritions ; and this l'ubjedt is, perhaps, to owe more to 
the prefent than to the former Lavater of Zurich. This 
writer, generally intereding and inftrudtive, often enthu- 
fiadic, but always amiable, may poflibly give a turn to 
the fortune of an opinion, which mod perfons are rather 
anxious to dedroy than able to confute. Mr. Lavater, 
applies, in fome meafure, the dodtrine of the tranfmif- 
fion of fpirits to the theory of fpedtral phenomena. L’i- 
magination (fays he) excite'e par les dejirs de l'amour, on 
echaujfec par telle autre pajjion bien vive, opere dans dcs lieux 
ct dcs temps eloignes. This is exactly the dodtrine of Fie¬ 
nus, lord Verulam, and other Sympathetic philofophers 
^>f the lad century. But Mr. Lavater has applied this 
pojition 
