the natural order of things. But that, by means of
certain beverages, certain herbs, and certain kinds of food, a person
may disturb the imagination, and persuade another that he is a wolf, a
horse, or an ass, appears more difficult of explanation, although we
are aware that plants, herbs, and medicaments possess great power over
the bodies of men, and are capable of deranging the brain,
constitution, and imagination. We have but too many examples of such
things.

Another circumstance which, if true, deserves much reflection, is that
of Apollonius of Tyana, who, being at Ephesus during a great plague
which desolated the city, promised the Ephesians to cause the pest to
cease the very day on which he was speaking to them, and which was
that of his second arrival in their town. He assembled them at the
theatre, and ordered them to stone to death a poor old man, covered
with rags, who asked alms. "Strike," cried he, "that enemy of the
gods! heap stones upon him." They could not make up their minds to do
so, for he excited their pity, and asked mercy in the most touching
manner. But Apollonius pressed it so much, that at last they slew him,
and amassed over him an immense heap of stones. A little while after
he told them to take away these stones, and they would see what sort
of an animal they had killed. They found only a great dog, and were
convinced that this old man was only a phantom who had fascinated
their eyes, and caused the pestilence in their town.

We here see five remarkable things:--1st. The demon who causes the
plague in Ephesus; 2d. This same demon, who, instead of a dog, causes
the appearance of a man; 3d. The fascination of the senses of the
Ephesians, who believe that they behold a man instead of a dog; 4th.
The proof of the magic of Apollonius, who discovers the cause of this
pestilence; 5th. And who makes it cease at the given time.

AEneas Sylvius Picolomini, who was afterwards Pope by the name of Pius
II., writes, in his History of Bohemia, that a woman predicted to a
soldier of King Wratislaus, that the army of that prince would be cut
in pieces by the Duke of Bohemia, and that, if this soldier wished to
avoid death, he must kill the first person he should meet on the road,
cut off their ears, and put them in his pocket; that with the sword he
had used to pierce them he must trace on the ground a cross between
his horse's legs; that he must kiss it, and then take flight. All this
the young soldie