LETTERS

ON

DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT.

ADDRESSED TO

J. G. LOCKHART, ESQ.

BY

SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART

NEW-YORK:

PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS,
NO. 82 CLIFF-STREET.

1836.

AS.

CONTENTS.

LETTER I.

Origin of the general Opinions respecting Demonology among Mankind

-The Belief in the Immortality of the Soul is the main Inducement

to credit its occasional Reappearance-The philosophical Objections

to the Apparition of an abstract Spirit little understood by the Vulgar

and Ignorant-The Situations of excited Passion incident to Humanity,

which teach Men to wish or apprehend supernatural Apparitions-

They are often presented by the sleeping Sense-Story of Somnam-

bulism--The Influence of Credulity contagious, so that Individuals

will trust the Evidence of others in despite of their own Senses-

Examples from the Historia Verdadera of Bernal Dias del Castillo,

and from the Works of Patrick Walker-The apparent Evidence of

Intercourse with the supernatural World is sometimes owing to a

depraved State of the bodily Organs-Difference between this Disorder

and Insanity, in which the Organs retain their Tone, though that of

the Mind is lost-Rebellion of the Senses of a Lunatic against the

Current of his Reveries-Narratives of a contrary Nature, in which

the Evidence of the Eyes overbore the Conviction of the Under-

standing-Example of a London Man of Pleasure Of Nicolai, the

German Bookseller and Philosopher-Of a Patient of Dr. Gregory-

Of an eminent Scottish Lawyer deceased-Of this same fallacious

Disorder are other Instances, which have but sudden and momentary

Endurance-Apparition of Maupertuis-Of a late illustrious modern

Poet-The Cases quoted chiefly relating to false Impressions on the

visual Nerve, those upon the Ear next considered-Delusions of the

Touch chiefly experienced in Sleep-Delusions of the Taste-and of

the Smelling-Sum of the Argument.

LETTER II.

13

Consequences of the Fall on the Communication between Men and the

Spiritual World-Effects of the Flood-Wizards of Pharaoh-Text

in Exodus against Witches-The word Witch is by some said to mean

merely Poisoner-Or if in the Holy Text it also means a Divineress, she

must, at any rate, have been a Character very different to be identified

with it-The original, Chasaph, said to mean a Person who dealt in

Poisons, often a Traffic of those who dealt with familiar Spirits-But

different from the European Witch of the Middle Ages-Thus a

Witch is not accessary to the Temptation of Job-The Witch of the

Hebrews probably did not rank higher than a Divining Woman-Ye

it was a Crime deserving the Doom of Death, since it inferred the

sowning of Jehovah's Supremacy-Other Texts of Scripture, in like