reach of men. Moreover, as they are not subject to
death as we are, they have acquired infinitely more experience than
even those who possess the most among mankind, and are the most
attentive to what happens in the world. By that means they can
sometimes predict things to come, announce several things at a
distance, and do some wonderful things; which has often led mortals to
pay them divine honors, believing them to be of a nature much more
excellent than their own.

But when we reflect seriously on what the demons predict, we may
remark that often they announce nothing but what they are to do
themselves.[200] For God permits them, sometimes, to cause maladies,
corrupt the air, and produce in it qualities of an infectious nature,
and to incline the wicked to persecute the worthy. They perform these
operations in a hidden manner, by resources unknown to mortals, and
proportionate to the subtilty of their own nature. They can announce
what they have foreseen must happen by certain natural tokens unknown
to men, like as a physician foresees by the secret of his art the
symptoms and the consequences of a malady which no one else can. Thus,
the demon, who knows our constitution and the secret tendency of our
humors, can foretell the maladies which are the consequences of them.
He can also discover our thoughts and our secret wishes by certain
external motions, and by certain expressions we let fall by chance,
whence he infers that men would do or undertake certain things
consequent upon these thoughts or inclinations.

But his predictions are far from being comparable with those revealed
to us by God, through his angels, or the prophets; these are always
certain and infallible, because they have for their principle God, who
is truth; while the predictions of the demons are often deceitful,
because the arrangements on which they are founded can be changed and
deranged, when they least expect it, by unforeseen and unexpected
circumstances, or by the authority of superior powers overthrowing the
first plans, or by a peculiar disposition of Providence, who sets
bounds to the power of the prince of darkness. Sometimes, also, demons
purposely deceive those who have the weakness to place confidence in
them. But, usually, they throw the fault upon those who have taken on
themselves to interpret their discourses and predictions.

So says St. Augustine;[201] and although we do not quite agree with
him, but hold the opinion that s