The Phantom World; or, The philosophy of spirits, apparitions, &c, &c.

Origen, in his books against Celsus, speaking of the three magi, and the star which appeared to them, says that then the power of magic extended so far, that there was no art more powerful and more divine; but at the birth of the Saviour hell was disconcerted, the demons lost their power, all their spells were destroyed, and their might passed away. The magi wishing them to perform their enchantments and their usual works, and not being able to succeed, sought the reason; and having seen that new star appear in the heavens, they conjectured that "He who was to command all spirits was born," which decided them to go and adore him.

St. Athanasius, in his treatise on the Incarnation, teaches that the Saviour has delivered all creatures from the deceits and illusions of Satan, and that he has enriched himself, as St. Paul says, with the spoils of principalities and powers. "When is it," he says afterwards, "that the oracles have ceased to reply throughout all Greece, but since the advent of the Saviour on earth? When did they begin to despise the magic art? Is it not since mankind began to enjoy the divine presence of the Word? Formerly," he continues, "the demons deluded men by divers phantoms, and attaching themselves to rivers and fountains, stones and wood, they drew by their allusions the admiration of weak mortals; but since the advent of the Divine Word, all their stratagems have passed away." A little while after, he adds, "But what shall we say of that magic they held in such admiration? Before the incarnation of the Word, it was in honor among the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, the Indians, and won the admiration of those nations by prodigies; but since the Truth has come down to earth, and the Word has shown himself amongst men, this power has been destroyed, and is itself fallen into oblivion." In another place, refuting the Gentiles, who ascribed the miracles of the Saviour to magic, "They call him a magician," says he, "but can they say that a magician would destroy all sorts of magic, instead of working to establish it?"

In his Commentary on Isaiah, St. Jerome joins this interpretation to several passages in the prophet – "Since the advent of the Saviour, all that must be understood in an allegorical sense; for all the error of the waters of Egypt, and all the pernicious arts which deluded the nations who suffered themselves to be infatuated by them, have been destroyed by the coming of Jesus Christ." A little after, he adds – "That Memphis was also strongly addicted to magic, the vestiges which subsist at this day of her ancient superstitions allow us not to doubt." Now this informs us in a few words, or in the approach of the desolation of Babylon, that all the projects of the magicians, and of those who promise to unveil the future, are a pure folly, and dissolve like smoke at the presence of Jesus Christ. Again, he says elsewhere, that "Jesus Christ being come into the world, all kinds of divination, and all the deceits of idolatry, lost their efficacy; so that the Eastern magi understanding that a Son of God was born who had destroyed all the power of their art, came to Bethlehem."

Theophilus of Alexandria, in his Paschal Letter addressed to the bishops of Egypt, and after him St. Jerome, who has given us a Latin translation of this letter, says that Jesus Christ by his coming has destroyed all the illusions of magic. They add, "Jesus Christ by his presence having destroyed idolatry, it follows that magic, which is its mother, has been destroyed likewise." They call magic the mother of idolatry, because it transfers to another the confidence and submission which are due to God alone. St. Ambrose says, "The magician perceives the inutility of his art, and you do not yet understand that the promised Redeemer is come." I could bring forward here many other passages from the fathers if I had the books at hand, or if time allowed me to select them.

XIV. But why amuse ourselves with fruitless researches? What I have said will suffice to show that this opinion has been that of not only one or two of the fathers, which would prove nothing, but of the greater number of those among them who have discoursed of this matter, which constitutes the greater number. After that it is of little import if in after and darker ages a thousand stories were spread on the subject of witchcraft and enchantments, and that those tales may have gained credit with the people in proportion to their rudeness and ignorance. You may read, if you have any curiosity on the subject, a hundred stories of that kind, related by Saxo Grammaticus and Olaus Magnus. You will find also in Lucian and in Apuleius, how, even in their time, those who wished to be carried through the air, or to be metamorphosed into beasts, began by stripping themselves, and then anointing themselves with certain oils from head to foot; there were then found impostors, who promised as of old to perform by means of magic all kinds of prodigies, and still continued the same extravagances as ever.

A great many persons feel a certain repugnance to refusing belief in all that is said of the prodigies of magic, as if it was denying the truth of miracles, and the existence of the devil; and on this subject they fail not to allege, that amongst the orders in the church is found that of exorcists, and that the rituals are full of prayers and blessings against the malice and the snares of Satan. But we must not here confound two very different things. So far from the miracles and wonders performed by Divine power leading us to believe the truth of those which are ascribed to the demon, they teach us on the contrary that God has reserved this power to himself alone. We experience but too often that there are truly evil spirits, who do not cease to tempt us. In respect to the order of Exorcists, we know that it was established in the church in the first ages of Christianity; the most ancient fathers make mention of them; but from none of them do we learn that their order was instituted against witchcraft and other knaveries of the same kind, but only as at this day, to deliver those possessed; "to expel demons from the bodies of the possessed;" says the Manual of the Ordination. It is not, then, denied, that for reasons which it belongs not to us to examine, God sometimes allows the demon to take hold of some one and to torment him; we only deny that the spirit of darkness can ever arrive at that to please a wretched woman of the dregs of the people. We do not deny that to punish the sins of mankind, the Almighty may not sometimes make use in different ways of the ministry of evil spirits; for, as St. Jerome says,694 "God makes men feel his anger and fury by the ministry of rebel angels;" but we do deny that it ever happens by virtue of certain figures, certain words, and certain signs, made by ignoramuses or scoundrels, or some wretched females, or old mad women, or by any authority they have over the demon. The sovereign pontiff who at this day governs the church with so much glory, discourses very fully695 in his excellent works on the wonders worked by the demon and related in the Old Testament, but he nowhere speaks of any effect produced by magic or by sorcery since the coming of Jesus Christ. In the Roman ritual we have prayers and orisons for all occasions; we find there conjurations and exorcisms against demons; but nowhere, if the text is not corrupted, is there mention made either of persons or things bewitched, and if they are mentioned therein, it is only in after additions made by private individuals. We know, on the contrary, that many books treating of this subject, and containing prayers newly composed by some individuals, have been prohibited. Thus they have forbidden the book entitled Circulus Aureus, in which are set down the conjurations necessary for "invoking demons of all kinds, of the sky, of hell, the earth, fire, air, and water," to destroy all sorts of "enchantments, charms, spells, and snares," in whatever place they may be hidden, and of whatever matter they may be composed, whether male or female, magician or witch, who may have made or given them, and notwithstanding "all compacts and all conventions made between them." Ought not the fact that the church forbids any one to read or to keep these kind of books, to be sufficient to convince us of the falsehood of what they imagine, and to teach us how contrary they are to true religion and sound devotion. Three years ago they printed in this town a little book, of which the author, however, was not of Verona, in which they promised to teach the way "to deliver the possessed, and to break all kinds of spells." We read in it that "those over whom a malignant spell has been cast, lead such a wretched life that it ought rather to be called a long death, like the corpse of a man who had just died," &c. That is not all, for "almost all die of it," and if they are children, "they hardly ever live." See now the power which simple people ascribe, not only to the devil, but to the vilest of men, whom they really believe to be connected with, and to hold commerce with him. They say afterwards in this same book696 that the signs which denote a malignant spell are parings, herbs, feathers, bones, nails, and hairs; but they give notice that the feathers prove that there is witchcraft "only when they are intermingled in the form of a circle or nearly so." And, again, you must take care that some woman has not given you something to eat, some flowers to smell, or if she has touched the shoulder of the person on whom the spell is cast. We have an excellent preservative against these simplicities in the vast selection of Dom Martenus, entitled De Antiquis Ecclesiæ Ritibus, in which we see that amidst an infinity of prayers, orisons and exorcisms used at all times throughout Christendom, there is not a passage in which mention is made of spells, sorcery, or magic, or magical operations. They therein command the demon in the name of Jesus Christ to come out and go away – they therein implore the divine protection, to be delivered from his power, to which we are all born subject by the stain of original sin; they therein teach that holy water, salt, and incense sanctified by the prayers of the church may drive away the enemy; that we may not fall into his toils, and that we may have nothing to dread from the attacks of evil spirits; but in no part does it say that spells have power over them, neither do they anywhere pray God to deliver us from them, or to heal us. It is so far from being true that we ought to believe the fables spread abroad on this subject, that I perfectly well remember having read a long time ago in the old casuists, that we ought to class in the number of grievous sins the believing that magic can really work the wonders related of it. I shall remark, on this occasion, that I know not how the author of the book in question can have committed the oversight of twice citing a certain manuscript as to be found in any other cabinet than mine, when it is a well known fact that I formerly purchased it very dear, not knowing that the most important and curious part was wanting. What I have said of it may be seen in the Opuscules which I have joined to the "History of Theology."697 For the present, it suffices to remember that in the famous canon Episcopi, related first by Réginon,698 we read these remarkable words – "An infinite number of people, deceived by this false prejudice, believe all that to be true, and in believing it stray from the true faith into the superstition of the heathen, imagining that they can find elsewhere than in God any divinity, or any supernatural power."

XV. From all I have hitherto said, it appears how far from truth is all that is commonly said of this pretended magic; how contrary to all the maxims of the church, and in opposition to the most venerated authority, and what harm might be done to sound doctrine and true piety by entertaining and favoring such extravagant opinions. We read, in the author I am combating, "What shall we say of the fairies, a prodigy so notorious and so common?" It is marvelous that it should be a prodigy and at the same time common. He adds, "There is not a town, not to say a village, which cannot furnish several instances concerning them." For my part, I have seen a great many places; I am seventy-four years of age, and I have perhaps been only too curious on this head; and I own that I have never happened to meet with any prodigy of that kind. I may even add that several inquisitors, very sensible men, after having exercised that duty a long time, have assured me that they also never knew such a thing. It is not often that fairies of all kinds of shapes and different faces have passed through my hands, but I have always discovered and shown that this was nothing but fancy and reverie. On one side, it is affirmed that there is a malicious species among them, who were amorous of beautiful girls; and on the other, they will have it, on the contrary, that all witches are old and ugly. How desirable it would be, if the people could be once undeceived in respect to all these follies, which accord so little with sound doctrine and true piety! Are they not still, in our days, infatuated with what is said of charms which render invulnerable rings in which fairies are enclosed, billets which cure the quartan ague, words which lead you to guess the number to which the lot will fall; of the pas key, which is made to turn to find out a thief; of the cabala, which by means of certain verses and certain answers, which are falsely supposed to contain a certain number of words, unveils the most secret things? Are there not still to be found people who are so simple, or who have so little religion, as to buy these trifles very dear? For the world at this day is not wanting in those prophets spoken of by Micah,699 whom money inspired and rendered learned. Have we not again calendars in which are marked the lucky and unlucky days, as has been done during a time, under the name of Egyptians? Do they not prevent people from inhabiting certain houses, under pretence of their being haunted? that is to say, that in the night spectres are seen in them, and a great noise of chains is heard, some saying that it is devils who cause all this, and others the spirits of the dead who make all this clang; which is surprising enough that it should be spirits or devils, and that they should only have the power to make themselves perceived in the night. And how many times have we seen the most fatal quarrels occur, principally amongst the peasants, because one amongst them has accused others of sorcery? But what shall we say of spirits incube and succube, of which, notwithstanding the impossibility of the thing, the existence and reality is maintained? M. Muratori, in that part where he treats of imagination, places the tales on this subject in the same line with what is said of the witches' sabbath; and he says700 "that these extravagant opinions are at this day so discredited, that it is only the rudest and most ignorant who suffer themselves to be amused by them." One of my friends made me laugh the other day, when, speaking of the pretended incubuses, he said that those who believed in them were not wise to marry. Again, what shall we say of those tacit compacts so often mentioned by the author, and which he supposes to be real? Can we not see that such an opinion is making a god of the devil? For that any one, for example, living three or four hundred leagues off, may have made a compact with the devil, that every time a pendulum shall be suspended above a glass it shall mark the hour as regularly as the most exact clock. According to this idea, that same marvel will happen equally, and at the same moment, not only in this town where we are, but all over the earth, and will be repeated as often as they may wish to make the experiment. Now this is quite another thing from carrying a witch to the sabbath through the air, which the author asserts is beyond the power of the demon; it is attributing to this malicious spirit a kind of almightiness and immensity. But what would happen if some one, having made a compact with a demon for fine weather, another on his part shall have made a compact with the demon for bad weather? Good Father Le Brun wishes us to ascribe to tacit compacts all those effects which we cannot explain by natural causes. If it be so, what a number of tacit compacts there must be in the world! He believes in the stories about the divining rod, and the virtue ascribed to it of finding out robbers and murderers; although all France has since acknowledged that the first author of this fable was a knave, who having been summoned to Paris, could never show there any of those effects he had boasted of. Let any one have the least idea of the invisible atoms scattered abroad throughout the world, of their continually issuing from natural bodies, and the hidden and wonderful effects which they produce, one can never be astonished that at a moderate distance water and metals should operate on certain kinds of wood. The same author sincerely believes what was said, that the contagion and mortality spread amongst the cattle proceeded from a spell; like the man who affirmed that his father and mother remained impotent for seven years, and this ceased only when an old woman had broken the spell. On this subject, he cites a ritual of which Father Martenus does not speak at all, whence it follows that he did not recognize it for authentic. To give an idea of the credulity of this writer, it will suffice to read the story he relates of one Damis. But we find, above all, an incomparable abridgment of those extravagant wonders in a little book dedicated to the Cardinal Horace Maffei, entitled, "Compendium Melificarum," or the "Abridgment of Witches," printed at Milan in 1608.

XVI. In a word, it is of no little importance to destroy the popular errors which attack the unalterable attributes of the Supreme Being, as if he had laid it down as a law to himself that he would condescend to all the impious and fantastic wishes of malignant spirits, and of the madman who had recourse to them, by seconding them, and permitting the wonderful effects that they desire to produce. Do reason and good sense allow us to imagine that the Sovereign Master of all things, who for reasons which we are not permitted to examine, refuses so often to grant our most ardent prayers for what we need, whether it be public or private, can be so prompt to lend an ear to the requests of the vilest and most wicked, by allowing that which they desire to happen? So long as they believe in the reality of magic, that it is able to work wonders, and that by means of it man can force the demon to obey, it will be in vain to preach against the superstition, impiety, and folly of wizards. There will always be found too many people who will try to succeed in it, and will even fancy they have succeeded in it in fact. To uproot this pest we must begin by making men clearly understand that it is useless in them to be guilty of this horrible crime; that in this way they never obtain anything they wish for, and that all that is said on this subject is fabulous and chimerical. It will not be difficult to persuade any sensible person of this truth, by only leading him to pay attention, and mark if it be possible that all these pretended miracles can be true, whilst it is proved that magic has never possessed the power to enrich those who professed it, which would be much more easy. How could this wonderful art send maladies to those who were in good health, render a married couple impotent, or make any one invisible or invulnerable, whilst it has never been able to bring a hundred crowns, which another would keep locked up in his strong box? And why do we not make any use of so wonderful an art in armies? Why is it so little sought after by princes and their ministers? The most efficacious means for dissipating all these vain fancies would be never to speak of them, and to bury them in silence and oblivion. In any place where for time immemorial no one has ever been suspected of witchcraft, let them only hear that a monk is arrived to take cognizance of this crime and punish it, and directly you will see troops of green-sick girls, and hypochondriacal men; crowds of children will be brought to him ill with unknown maladies; and it will not fail to be affirmed that these things are caused by spells cast over them, and even when and how the thing happened. It is certainly a wrong way of proceeding, whether in sermons, or in the works published against witches, to amuse themselves with giving the history of all these mad-headed people boast of, of the circumstances in which they have taken a part, and the way in which they happened. It is in vain then to declaim against them, for you may be assured that people are not wanting who suffer themselves to be dazzled by these pretended miracles, who become smitten with these effects, so extraordinary and so wonderful, and try by every means to succeed in them by the very method which has just been taught them, and forget nothing which can place them in the number of this imaginary society. It is then with reason that the author says in his book, that punishment even sometimes serves to render crime more common, and "that there are never more witches than in those places where they are most persecuted." I am delighted to be able to finish with this eulogium, in order that it may be the more clearly seen that if I have herein attacked magic, it is only with upright intentions.

XVII. The eagerness with which I have written this letter has made me forget several things which might very well have a place in it. The greatest difficulty which can be opposed to my argument is that we sometimes find, even amongst people who possess a certain degree of knowledge and good sense, some persons who will say to you, "But I have seen this, or that; such and such things have happened to myself." Upon which it is proper, first of all, to pay attention to the wonderful tricks of certain jugglers, who, by practice and address, succeed in deceiving even the most clear-sighted and sensible persons. It must next be considered that the most natural effects may sometimes appear beyond the power of nature, when cleverly presented in the most favorable point of view. I formerly saw a charlatan who, having driven a nail or a large pin into the head of a chicken, with that nailed it to a table, so that it appeared dead, and was believed to be so by all present; after that, the charlatan having taken out the nail and played some apish tricks, the chicken came to life again and walked about the room. The secret of all this is that these birds have in the forepart of the head two bones, joined in such a way that if anything is driven through with address, though it causes them pain, yet they do not die of it. You may run large pins into a man's leg without wounding or hurting him, or but very slightly, just like a prick which is felt when the pin first enters; which has sometimes served as a pastime for jokers. In my garden, which, thanks to the care of M. Seguier, is become quite a botanic garden, I have a plant called the onagra,701 which rises to the height of a man, and bears very beautiful flowers; but they remain closed all day, and only open towards sunset, and that not by degrees, as with all other night plants, but in budding all at once, and showing themselves in a moment in all their beauty. A little before their chalice bursts open, it swells and becomes a little inflated. Now, if any one, profiting by the last-named peculiarity, which is but little known, wished to persuade any simple persons that by the help of some magical words he could, when he would, cause a beautiful flower to bloom, is it not certain that he would find plenty of people disposed to believe him? The common people in our days leave nothing undone to find out the secret of making themselves invulnerable; by which they show that they ascribe to magic more power than was granted to it by the ancients, who believed it very capable of doing harm, but not of doing good. So, when the greater number of the Jews attributed the miracles wrought by the Saviour to the devil, some of the more sensible and reasonable among them asked, "Can the devil restore sight to the blind?"702 At this day, there are more ways than ever of making simple and ignorant persons believe in magic. For instance, would it be very difficult for a man to pass himself off as a magician, if he said to those who were present, "I can, at my will, either send the bullet in this pistol through this board, or make it simply touch it and fall down at our feet without piercing it?" Nevertheless, nothing is easier; it only requires when the pistol is loaded, that instead of pressing the wadding immediately upon the bullet as is customary, to put it, on the contrary, at the mouth of the barrel. That being done, when they fire, if the end of the pistol is raised, the ball, which is not displaced, will produce the usual effect; but if, on the contrary, the pistol is lowered, so that the ball runs into the barrel and joins the wadding, it will fall on the ground from the board without having penetrated it. It seems to me that something like this may be found in the "Natural Experiments" of Redi, which I have not at hand just now. But on this subject, you can consult Jean Baptista, Porta, and others. We must not, however, place amongst the effects of this kind of magic, what a friend jokingly observed to me in a very polite letter which he wrote to me two months ago: – A noisy exhalation having ignited in a house, and not having been perceived by him who was in the spot adjoining, nor in any other place, he writes me word that those who, according to the vulgar prejudice, persisted in believing that these kinds of fire came from the sky and the clouds, were necessarily forced to attribute this effect to real magic. I shall again add, on the subject of electrical phenomena, that those who think to explain them by means of two electrical fluids, the one hidden in bodies, and the other circulating around them, would perhaps say something less strange and surprising, if they ascribed them to magic. I have endeavored, in the last letter which is joined to that I wrote upon the subject of exhalations, to give some explanation of these wonders; and I have done so, at least, without being obliged to invent from my own head, and without any foundation, to universal electrical matters which circulate within bodies and without them. Certainly, the ancient philosophers, who reasoned so much on the magnet, would have spared themselves a great deal of trouble, if they had believed it possible to attribute its admirable properties to a magnetic spirit which proceeded from it. But the pleasure I should find in arguing with them, might perhaps engage me in other matters; for which reason I now end my letter.