[266] Fernel, de abditis Rerum Causis, lib. ii. c. 26.

[267] August. contra Academic. lib. ii. art. 17, 18.

[268] Acts xvi. 16.

CHAPTER XXIX.

OF FAMILIAR SPIRITS.

If all that is related of spirits which are perceived in houses, in
the cavities of mountains, and in mines, is certain, we cannot disavow
that they also must be placed in the rank of apparitions of the evil
spirit; for, although they usually do neither wrong nor violence to
any one, unless they are irritated or receive abusive words;
nevertheless we do not read that they lead to the love or fear of God,
to prayer, piety, or acts of devotion; it is known, on the contrary,
that they show a distaste to those things, so that we shall place them
in earnest among the spirits of darkness.

I do not find that the ancient Hebrews knew anything of what we call
_esprits follets_, or familiar spirits, which infest houses, or attach
themselves to certain persons, to serve them, watch over and warn
them, and guard them from danger; such as the demon of Socrates, who
warned him to avoid certain misfortunes. Some other examples are also
related of persons who said they had similar genii attached to their
persons.

The Jews and Christians confess that every one of us has his good
angel, who guides him from his early youth.[269] Several of the
ancients have thought that we have also our evil angel, who leads us
into error. The Psalmist[270] says distinctly that God has commanded
his angels to guide us in all our ways. But this is not what we
understand here under the name of _esprits follets_.

The prophets in some places speak of _fauns_, or _hairy men_, or
_satyrs_, who have some resemblance to our elves.

Isaiah,[271] speaking of the state to which Babylon shall be reduced
after her destruction, says that the ostriches shall make it their
dwelling, and that the hairy men, _pilosi_, the satyrs, and goats,
shall dance there. And elsewhere the same prophet says,[272]
_Occurrent daemonia onocentauris et pilosus clamabit alter ad alterum_,
by which clever interpreters understand spectres which appear in the
shape of goats. Jeremiah calls them _fauns_--the dragons with the
fauns, which feed upon figs. But this is not the place for us to go
more fully into the signification of the terms of the original; it
suffices for us to show that in the Scripture, at least in the
Vulgate, are found the names of _lamiae_, _fauns_, and _satyrs_, which
have some resem