their very nature spirits cannot act upon material beings,
and that the Scriptures represent the devil and his
satellites as shut up in the prison of hell. To explain away
the texts which militate against his system, evidently cost
him much labour and perplexity. His interpretations, for the
most part, are similar to those still relied on by the
believers in his doctrine' (Note by Murdock in Mosheim's
_Institutes of Ecclesiastical History_). The usually candid
Mosheim notices, apparently with contempt, '"The World
Bewitched," a prolix and copious work, in which he perverts
and explains away, with no little ingenuity indeed, but with
no less audacity, whatever the sacred volume relates of
persons possessed by evil spirits, and of the power of
demons, and maintains that the miserable being whom the
sacred writers call Satan and the devil, together with his
ministers, is bound with everlasting chains in hell, so that
he cannot thence go forth to terrify mortals and to plot
against the righteous.' Balthazar Becker, one of the most
meritorious of the opponents of diabolism, was deposed from
his ministerial office by an ecclesiastical synod, and
denounced as an atheist. His position, and the boldness of
his arguments, excited extraordinary attention and
animosity, and 'vast numbers' of Lutheran divines arose to
confute his atheistical heresy. The impunity which he
enjoyed from the vengeance of the devil (he had boldly
challenged the deity of hell to avenge his overturned
altars) was explained by the orthodox divines to be owing to
the superior cunning of Satan, who was certain that he would
be in the end the greatest gainer by unbelief. Christ.
Thomasius, professor of jurisprudence, was the author of
several works against the popular prejudice between the
years 1701 and 1720. He is considered by Ennemoser to have
been able to effect more from his professional position than
the humanely-minded Becker. But, after all, the overthrow of
the diabolic altars was caused much more by the discoveries
of science than by all the writings of literary
philosophers. Even in Southern Europe and in Spain (as far
as was possible in that intolerant land) reason began to
exhibit some faint signs of existence; and Benito Feyjoo,
whose Addisonian labours in the eighteenth century in the
land of the Inquisition deserve the gratitude of his
countrymen (in his _T