could not restrain him from going back to the dread
slavery once again?"
A thoughtful look was on John's face. He was lying on his couch in the
large room where his learned uncle stored all his precious books and
parchments, safely locked away in carved presses; and rising slowly to
his feet -- for he was still feeble and languid in his movements -- he
unlocked one of these, and took from it a large volume in some dead
language, and laid it upon the table before him.
"I know not whether or no I am right, but I have heard before of a
strange power that some men may possess over the minds and wills of
others -- a power so great that they become their helpless tools, and
can be made to act, to see, to feel just as they are bidden, and are as
helpless to resist that power as the snared bird to avoid the
outstretched hand of the fowler. That this power is a power of evil, and
comes from the devil himself, I may not disbelieve; for it has never
been God's way of dealing with men to bind captive their wills and make
them blind and helpless agents of the will of others. Could you read the
words of this book, you would find many things therein as strange as any
you have heard today. For myself, I have little doubt that old Peter
Sanghurst, who has spent years of his life amongst the heathen Moors,
and is, as all men avow, steeped to the lips in their strange and
unchristian lore, has himself the art of thus gaining the mastery over
the minds and wills of others, and that it was no demoniacal possession,
but just the wicked will of the old man exercised upon that of his
helpless victim, which drew the boy back to him when his father had him
safe at home (as he thought) once more. In this book it is written that
young boys, especially if they be beautiful of form and receptive of
mind, make the best tools for this black art. They can be thrown into
strange trances, in which many things are revealed to them. They can be
sent in the spirit to places they have never seen, and can be made to
describe what is passing thousands of miles away. I cannot tell how
these things may be, unless indeed it is the devil working in them; yet
here it is written down as if it were some art which certain men with
certain gifts may acquire, as they may acquire other knowledge and
learning. In truth, I think such things smack of the Evil One himself;
yet I doubt if there be that visible bond with Satan that is commonly
reported amongst the unlettere
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