Letters on demonology and witchcraft. Addressed to J. G. Lockhart, Esq / by Sir Walter Scott, Bart.

  • Walter Scott
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

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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    in Htjirow ihr oiir tri^'iidn, reuiors<^ tor our <;riimi«, our of j/atriotitjui, or our <!(*(?]; MJUMi of dovotioii—or oltuir vioJ<oit of a ijjorul < liarartoi', iii the vihiion« tjf iiifrlit, or the rapt echtahy of tlie <iay, perHuaxle u« tliat we witiieisK, with oil)' eyi'ii and ears, an actual inhtanc^i ot tluit huj)ernaturalcoinmunu:ation,the pohisihility of which, cannot he dfoiied. At other tiinen, the corponral orgaiiH iinj>o!S(; upon tin; mind, while the eye and the <;ar, di)s<'ai>ed, deraiiged, or niihh'd, convey tahse imjjj'ehftioiiH to tin; patie/Jt. Very often both the mental dehnsioji a/id tin; phyisical deception exist at the same tinn;, and men’s ln;lief of the ]>henomena presented to them, however erroneously, hy the senses, is tin; firmer and more rea/lily grathefl, that the jihysical impression corresponded with the mental excitement. S<j majiy causes actinj^ thus ujjon each other in various decrees, or sometimes separately, it must hapjjen early in the infancy of every society, that there should occur ma/iy apparently well autln;nticated instances of superiiatural intercourse, satisfactory enouf'h to authenticate peculiar examples of the {general proposition which is impressed ujjon us hy belief (jf the immortality of the soul, d'hese examples of undeniable apjraritions, ('fijrthey are apjjreheinied to he incontrovertible,) fall, like the seed of the husbandman, into fertih; and prepared soil, and are usually f<dlow(;d by a ]>lentiful crop of superstitious figinents, which derive their sources from circum- stances and enactments in sar;red and profane history, hastily iidopted, and perverted h'om their genuine reading. This sliall be the subject of my next letter.
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