nature, and gain a certain control over the lower powers inherent in it.
To this class belong the less important magicians and witches; and even
some good Christians possess such powers (which we now call psychical)
which, generally speaking, they are at a loss to understand. Such
persons can blast or wither by the eye; they have a strange authority
over animals; [I append a form of words which Sir John quotes, and
which, he says, may be used sometimes lawfully even by christened men.
It is to be addressed in necessity to a troublesome snake. "By Him who
created thee I adjure thee that thou remain in the spot where thou art,
whether it be thy will to do so or otherwise. And I curse thee with the
curse wherewith the Lord hath cursed thee."] and are able to set up a
connection between inanimate material objects and organic beings. [He
instances the wasting of an enemy by melting a representation of him
fashioned in wax.] But such magic, even when malevolent, need not be
greatly feared by Christian men living in grace: its physical or
psychical influence can be counteracted by corresponding physical acts:
such things as the sign of the cross, the use of sacramentals, the
avoidance of notoriously injurious follies such as beginning work on
Friday, the observance of such matters as wearing Principium Evangelii
secundum Joannem on the person, and the paying of ocular deference to
Saint Christopher on rising--these precautions and others like them are
usually a sufficient safeguard. [I am afraid it is impossible to clear
Sir John wholly of the charge of superstition. The "Beginning of the
Gospel according to John" was the fourteen verses read as the last
Gospel after mass. A copy of this passage was often carried, sewn into
the clothes, to protect from various ills. The image of St. Christopher
usually stood near the door of the church to ensure against violent
death all who looked on it in the morning.]

But all this is a very different matter from the high mysticism of