DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT

To J.G. LOCKHART, ESQ.




LETTER I.


Origin of the general Opinions respecting Demonology among
Mankind--The Belief in the Immortality of the Soul is the main
inducement to credit its occasional re-appearance--The Philosophical
Objections to the Apparition of an Abstract Spirit little understood
by the Vulgar and Ignorant--The situations of excited Passion
incident to Humanity, which teach Men to wish or apprehend
Supernatural Apparitions--They are often presented by the Sleeping
Sense--Story of Somnambulism--The Influence of Credulity contagious,
so that Individuals will trust the Evidence of others in despite of
their own Senses--Examples from the "Historia Verdadera" of Bernal
Dias del Castillo, and from the Works of Patrick Walker--The
apparent Evidence of Intercourse with the Supernatural World is
sometimes owing to a depraved State of the bodily Organs--Difference
between this Disorder and Insanity, in which the Organs retain their
tone, though that of the Mind is lost--Rebellion of the Senses of a
Lunatic against the current of his Reveries--Narratives of a
contrary Nature, in which the Evidence of the Eyes overbore the
Conviction of the Understanding--Example of a London Man of
Pleasure--Of Nicolai, the German Bookseller and Philosopher--Of a
Patient of Dr. Gregory--Of an Eminent Scottish Lawyer, deceased--Of