a, and really concerns dealing with evil spirits,
is undoubtedly spurious. It is very difficult to make out what Agrippa
really believed on the subject. I have introduced his books as the most
marked specimens of treatises on magic, a paradox of our day, though not
far from orthodoxy in his; and here I should have ended my notice, if I had
not casually found something more interesting to the reader of our day.

{49}

WHICH LEADS TO WALTER SCOTT.

Walter Scott, it is well known, was curious on all matters connected with
magic, and has used them very widely. But it is hardly known how much pains
he has taken to be correct, and to give the real thing. The most decided
detail of a magical process which is found in his writings is that of
Dousterswivel in _The Antiquary_; and it is obvious, by his accuracy of
process, that he does not intend the adept for a mere impostor, but for one
who had a lurking belief in the efficacy of his own processes, coupled with
intent to make a fraudulent use of them. The materials for the process are
taken from Agrippa. I first quote Mr. Dousterswivel:

"... I take a silver plate when she [the moon] is in her fifteenth mansion,
which mansion is in de head of _Libra_, and I engrave upon one side de
worts _Schedbarschemoth Scharta_ch_an_ [_ch_ should be _t_]--dat is, de
Intelligence of de Intelligence of de moon--and I make his picture like a
flying serpent with a turkey-cock's head--vary well--Then upon this side I
make de table of de moon, which is a square of nine, multiplied into
itself, with eighty-one numbers [nine] on every side and diameter nine...."

In the _De Occulta Philosophia_, p. 290, we find that the fifteenth mansion
of the moon _incipit capite Librae_, and is good _pro extrahendis
thesauris_, the object being to discover hidden treasure. In p. 246, we
learn that a _silver_ plate must be used with the moon. In p. 248, we have
the words which denote the Intelligence, etc. But, owing to the falling of
a number into a wrong line, or the misplacement of a line, one or
other--which takes place in all the editions I have examined--Scott has,
sad to say, got hold of the wrong words; he has written down the _demon of
the demons_ of the moon. Instead of the gibberish above, it should have
been _Malcha betarsisim hed beruah schenhakim_. In p. 253, we have the
magic square of the moon, with eighty-one numbers, and the symbol for the
Intelligence, which Scott likens to a flying {50}