Letters on demonology and witchcraft. Addressed to J. G. Lockhart, Esq / by Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
- Walter Scott
- Date:
- 1831
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Letters on demonology and witchcraft. Addressed to J. G. Lockhart, Esq / by Sir Walter Scott, Bart. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![purpose, no bound or restraint can possibly be assigned. But under this necessary limitation and exception, philosophers mig-ht plausibly arg-ue, that, when the soul is divorced from the body, it loses all those qualities which made it, when clothed with a mortal shape, obvious to the organs of its fellow men. The abstract idea of a spirit certainly implies that it has neither substance, form, shape, voice, or any thing which can render its presence visible, or sensible to human faculties. But these sceptic- doubts of philosophers on the possibihty of the appearance of such separated spirits, do not arise till a certain deg-ree of information has dawned upon a country, and even then only reach a very small proportion of reflecting- and lietter informed mem- bers of society. To the multitude, the indubitable fact, that so many miflions of spirits exist around and even among-st us, seems suflicient to support the belief that they are, in certain instances at least, by some means or other, able to communicate with the world of humanity. The more numerous part of mankind cannot form in their mind the idea of the spirit of the deceased existing, without possessing or having the power to assume the appearance which their acquaintance bore during his life, and do not push their researches beyond this point. Enthusiastic feelings of an impressive and solemn nature occur both in private and pulilic life, which seem to add ocular testimony to an intercourse betwixt earth and the world beyond it. For exam])le, the son who has been lately deprived of his father, feels a sudden crisis approach, in which he is anxious to have recourse to his sagacious](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22029667_0033.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
