the work in question that all
the effects of magic "must be attributed to the operation of the
demon; that it is in virtue of the compact, express or tacit, that he
has made with him that the magician works all these pretended
prodigies; and that it is in regard to the different effects of this
art, and the different ways in which they are produced, that authors
have since divided it into several classes." But I beg, at first, that
the reader will reflect seriously, if it is credible, that as soon as
some miserable woman or unlucky knave have a fancy for it, God, whose
wisdom and goodness are infinite, will ever permit the demon to appear
to them, instruct them, obey them, and that they should make a compact
with him. Is it credible that to please a scoundrel he would grant the
demon power to raise storms, ravage all the country by hail, inflict
the greatest pain on little innocent children, and even sometimes "to
cause the death of a man by magic?" Does any one imagine that such
things can be believed without offending God, and without showing a
very injurious mistrust of his almighty power? It has several times
happened to me, especially when I was in the army, to hear that some
wretched creatures had given themselves to the devil, and had called
upon him to appear to them with the most horrible blasphemies, without
his appearing to them for all that, or their attempts being followed
by any success. And, certainly, if to obtain what is promised by the
art of magic it sufficed to renounce God and invoke the devil, how
many people would soon perform the dreadful act? How many impious men
do we see every day who for money, or to revenge themselves on some
one, or to satisfy a criminal desire, rush without remorse into the
greatest excesses! How many wretches who are suffering in prison, at
the galleys, or otherwise, would have recourse to the demon to
extricate them from their troubles! It would be very easy for me to
relate here a great number of curious stories of persons generally
believed to be bewitched, of haunted houses, or horses rubbed down by
will-o'-the-wisp, which I have myself seen at different times and
places, at last reduced to nothing. This I can affirm, that two monks,
very sensible men, who had exercised the office of inquisitors, one
for twenty-four years, and the other during twenty-eight, have
assured me that of different accusations of sorcery which had been
laid before them, and which appeared to b