Letters on natural magic, addressed to Sir W. Scott / [Sir David Brewster].

  • David Brewster
Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letters on natural magic, addressed to Sir W. Scott / [Sir David Brewster]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    you have contributed to the Family Library, yet the popular character of some of the topics which belong to this branch of Demonology may atone for the defects of the following Letters; and I shall deem it no slight honour if they shall be con- sidered as forming an appropriate supplement to your valuable work. The subject of Natural Magic is one of great extent as well as of deep interest. In its widest range, it embraces the history of the governments and the superstitions of ancient times, — of the means by which they maintained their influence over the human mind,—of the assistance which they derived from the arts and the sciences, and from a knowledge of the powers and phenomena of nature. When the tyrants of antiquity were un- able or unwilling to found their sovereignty on the affections and interests of their people, they sought to entrench themselves in^ the strongholds of supernatural influence, and to rule with the dele- gated authority of heaven. The prince, the priest, and the sage were leagued in a dark conspiracy to deceive and enslave their species; and man who refused his submission to a being like himself, be- came the obedient slave of a spiritual despotism, and willingly bound himself in chains when they seemed to have been foi'ged by the gods. This system of imposture was greatly favoured by the ignorance of these early ages. The human ■mind is at all times fond of the marvellous, and the credulity of the individual may be often measured by his own attachment to the truth. When know- ledge was the property of only one caste, it was by no means difficult to employ it in the subjugation
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