The last case which I shall give on this subject, is that of John Beaumont, the author of a "Treatise on Spirits, Apparitions," &c. which was published in the year 1705. He is well described by Dr Ferrier, as "a man of a hypochondriacal disposition, with a considerable degree of reading, but with a strong bias to credulity." Labouring under this corporeal affection, he saw hundreds of imaginary men and women about him, though, as he adds, he never saw any in the night-time, unless by fire or candle-light, or in the moonshine. "I had two spirits," he says, " who constantly attended me, night and day, for above three months together, who called each other by their names; and several spirits would call at my chamber-door, and ask whether such spirits lived there, calling them by their names, and they would answer they did. As for the other spirits that attended me, I heard none of their names mentioned, only I asked one spirit, which came for some nights together, and rung a little bell in my ear, what his name was, who answered Ariel. The two spirits that constantly attended myself appeared both in women's habit, they being of a brown complexion, about three feet in stature; they had both black loose net-work gowns, tied with a black sash about the middle, and within the net-work appeared a gown of a golden colour, with somewhat of a light striking through it. Their heads were not drest in top-knots, but they had white linen caps on, with lace on them about three fingers' breadth, and over it they had a black loose net-work hood." These are the few well-authenticated instances which I shall now offer on the present subject of our inquiry, although they might have been easily multiplied even to an enormous extent. CHAPTER III. GENERAL REMARKS ON THE APPARITIONS CONNECTED WITH DEMONOLOGY. " "Tis said thou holdest converse with the things Which are forbidden to the search of man ; That with the dwellers of the dark abodes, The many evil and unheavenly spirits Which walk the valley of the shade of death, Our next object is to investigate the general origin of that quality of apparitions, the vivid mental images of which have been derived from systems of demonology. It will therefore be worth while to preface this inquiry with a very brief historical sketch of the superstitions connected with this subject of popular belief. The name of demon was given by the Greeks and Romans to certain spirits or genii, who appeared to men either to do them service or injury. The Platonists made a distinction between their gods, or Dii Majorum Gentium,-their demons, or those beings which were not dissimilar in their general character to the good and evil angels of Christian belief,—and their heroes. The Jews and early Christians restricted the appellation of demons to beings of a malignant nature, or to devils; and it is to the early opinions entertained by this people, that the outlines of later systems of demonology may be traced. "The tradition of the Jews concerning evil spirits or devils," says a learned writer on the subject, are various; some of them are founded upon Scripture; some borrowed from the notions of the pagans; some are fables of their own invention; and some are allegories." It would be a disagreeable task to recount the peculiar notions of this people on the origin of their demons; suffice it to say, that they were considered either as the distinct progeny of Adam or of Eve, which had resulted from an improper intercourse with supernatural beings, or of Cain. As this doctrine was naturally very revolting to some few of the early Christians, they maintained that demons were the souls of departed human beings, who were still allowed to interfere in the affairs of the earth, either to assist their friends or to persecute their enemies. This doctrine, however, did not ultimately prevail. It would be very difficult for any one at the present day, considering our little familiarity with the writings of ancient pneumatologists, to attempt giving, in a condensed form, the various opinions entertained in an early period of the Christian era, and during the middle ages, on the nature of the demons of popular belief. Such an undertaking was, however, attempted two centuries and a half ago by Reginald Scot, and his chapter on the subject is so comprehensive, and at the same time so concise, as to render an abridgment of it unnecessary. "I, for my own part,” says this writer, " do also thinke this ar 1 L gument about the nature and substance of divels and spirits to be difficult, as I am persuaded that no one author hath in anie certaine or perfect sort hitherto written thereof. In which respect I can neither allow the ungodly and prophane sects and doctrines of the Sadduces and Peripateticks, who denie that there are any divels or spirits at all; nor the fond and superstitious treatises of Plato, Proclus, Plotinus, Porphyrie ; nor yet the vaine and absurd opinions of Psellus, Nider, Sprenger, Cumanus, Bodin, Michael, Andreas, Janus Matthæus, Laurentius, Ananias, Iamblicus, &c.; who, with manie others, write so ridiculouslie in these matters, as if they were babes fraied with bugges; some affirming that the soules of the dead become spirits, the good to be angels, the bad to be divels; some that spirits or divels are onelie in this life; some, that they are men; some, that they are women; some, that divels are of such gender that they list themselves; some, that they had no beginning, nor shall have ending, as the Manicheis mainteine; some, that they are mortall and die, as Plutarch affirmeth of Pan; some, that they have no bodies at all, but receive bodies according to their phantasies and imaginations; some, that their bodies are given unto them; some, that they make themselves. Some saie they are wind; some, that they are the breath of living creatures; some, that one of them began another; some, that they were created of the least part of the masse whereof the earth was made; and some, that they are substances betweene God and man, and that some of them are terrestrial, some celestial, some waterie, some airie, some fierie, some starrie, |
