t celebrated author's sentiment; and Gibbon informs us
that 'French and English lawyers of the present age [the latter
half of the last century] allow the _theory_ but deny the
_practice_ of witchcraft'--influenced doubtless by the spirit of
the past legislation of their respective countries. In England
the famous enactment of the subservient parliament of James I.
against the crimes of sorcery, &c., was repealed in the middle of
the reign of George II., our laws sanctioning not 130 years since
the popular persecution, if not the legal punishment.

[4] _Spectator_, No. 117. The sentiments of Addison on a
kindred subject are very similar. Writing about the vulgar
ghost creed, he adds these remarkable words: 'At the same
time I think a person who is thus terrified with the
imagination of ghosts and spectres much more reasonable than
one who, contrary to the reports of all historians, sacred
and profane, ancient and modern, and to the traditions of
all nations, thinks the appearance of spirits fabulous and
groundless. Could not I give myself up to the general
testimony of mankind, I should to the relations of
particular persons who are now living, and whom I cannot
distrust in other matters of fact.' Samuel Johnson (whose
prejudices were equalled only by his range of knowledge)
proved his faith in a well-known case, if afterwards he
advanced so far as to consider the question as to the
reality of 'ghosts' as _undecided_. Sir W. Scott, who wrote
when the profound metaphysical inquiries of Hume had gained
ground (it is observable), is quite sceptical.

The origin of witchcraft and the vulgar diabolism is to be found
in the rude beginnings of the religious or superstitious feeling
which, known amongst the present savage nations as Fetishism,
probably prevailed almost universally in the earliest ages; while
that of the sublimer magic is discovered in the religious systems
of the ancient Chaldeans and Persians. Chaldea and Egypt were the
first, as far as is known, to cultivate the science of magic: the
former people long gave the well-known name to the professional
practisers of the art. Cicero (_de Divinatione_) celebrates, and
the Jewish prophets frequently deride, their skill in divination
and their modes of incantation. The story of Daniel evidences how
highly honoured and lucrative was the magical or divining
faculty. The Chazdim, or Chaldeans, a priestly caste inhabiting a
wide and