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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![a person to believe he sees phantoms, it is likely that the nostrils are made to inhale such suffumi- gution, as well as the mouth.* I have now arrived, by a devious path, at the conclusion of this letter, the oljject of which is to show from what attribiites of our nature, whether mental or corporeal, arises that prechspositiou to beheve in supernatui''al occuri’ences. It is, I think, conclusive, that mankind, from a very early period, have their minds prepared for such events by the consciousness of the existence of a spiritual world, infeiTing in the general ])roposition the undeniable truth, that each man, from the monarch to the beggar, who has once acted his part on the stage, continues to exist, and may again, even in a disem- boched state, if such is the pleasure of Heaven, for aught that we know to the contraiy, be pennitted or ordained to mingle amongst those who yet remain in the body. The abstract possibihty of apparitions must be admitted by every one who beheves in a Deity, and his superintending omnipotence. But imagination is apt to intrude its explanations and inferences foimded on inadequate evidence. Some- times our violent and inordinate passions, originating * Most ancient authors, who pretend to treat of the won- ders of natural magic, give receipts for calling up phantoms. The lighting lamps fed by peculiar kinds of medicated oil, and the use of suffumigations of strong and deleterious herbs, are the means recommended. From these authorities, per- haps, a professor of legerdemain assured Dr Alderson of Hull, that he could compose a preparation of antimony, sulphur, and other drugs, which, when burnt in a confined room, would have the effect of causing the patient to suppose he saw phantoms.—See Hibbert on Apparitions, p. 120.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22029667_0074.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
