because men are unwilling to wait till a solid bridge be
constructed.... The early thinkers, by reason of the very
splendour of their capacities, were not less incompetent to
follow the slow processes of scientific investigation, than a
tribe of martial savages to adopt the strategy and discipline
of modern armies. No accumulated laws, no well-tried methods
existed for their aid. The elementary laws in each department
were mostly undetected.' The guide of knowledge is
verification. 'The complexity of phenomena is that of a
labyrinth, the paths of which cross and recross each other;
one wrong turn causes the wanderer infinite perplexity.
Verification is the Ariadne-thread by which the real issues
may be found. Unhappily, the process of verification is slow,
tedious, often difficult and deceptive; and we are by nature
lazy and impatient, hating labour, eager to obtain. Hence
credulity. We accept facts without scrutiny, inductions
without proof; and we yield to our disposition to believe
that the order of phenomena must correspond with our
conceptions.' A profound truth is contained in the assertion
of Comte (_Cours de Philosophie Positive_) that 'men have
still more need of method than of doctrine, of education than
of instruction.'--_Aristotle_, by G. H. Lewes.

CHAPTER V.

Sorcery in Southern Europe--Cause of the Retention of the
Demonological Creed among the Protestant Sects--Calvinists
the most Fanatical of the Reformed Churches--Witch-Creed
sanctioned in the Authorised Version of the Sacred
Scriptures--The Witch-Act of 1604--James VI.'s
'Demonologie'--Lycanthropy and Executions in France--The
French Provincial Parliaments active in passing Laws against
the various Witch-practices--Witchcraft in the
Pyrenees--Commission of Inquiry appointed--Its
Results--Demonology in Spain.

In the annals of black magic, the silent tribunals of the
Inquisition in Southern Europe which has consigned so many
thousands of heretics to the torture room and to the flames, do
not reveal so many trials for the simple crime of witchcraft as
the tribunals of the more northern peoples: there all dissent
from Catholic and priestly dogma was believed to be inspired by
the powers of hell, deserving a common punishment, whether in the
form of denial of transubstantiation, infallibility, of skill in
magic, or of the vulgar practice of sorce