y subjected to them. This we find by experience
in those women, who are called witches, who, being under the
influence of such an error of the mind, frequently imagine that they
not only converse with devils, but also have enter'd into compacts
with them; and persist in these notions with such obstinacy, that,
when they are brought to a trial, they confess themselves guilty of
wickednesses, which they never perpetrated, though they know that they
must suffer death for their confession. Moreover, every body knows how
wonderfully the mind is disturbed in melancholies. One of them thinks
his head is made of glass, and is afraid of stirring abroad, for fear
of having it broken: another believes himself to be actually dead, and
refuses food, because the dead ought not to eat. There are a thousand
stories of this kind. I remember, a man of letters, with whom I was
well acquainted, who positively asserted that he was big with child,
and was vastly anxious for a happy delivery. I saw two others, who,
when alone, fancied they heard the words of people whispering them in
the ear. Nor is their case different, in my opinion, who persuade
themselves that they see ghosts and hobgoblins. For deliriums are a
kind of dreams of people awake; and the mind in both cases affects the
body differently, according to the nature of its objects.

From what we have said, it manifestly appears, how many different ways
the lessons of imagination, when they are confirm'd by long habit, are
capable of affecting a man, and entirely ruining his whole frame. But
every body knows, that the human mind is disturbed by nothing more
than by fear; the cause of which is self-love ingrafted in all men.
Whereas then, as Cicero very justly observes, _there is no nation so
savage, no man so rude, as not to have some notion of the gods_;[108]
it is no wonder, that men conscious of wicked deeds, should be struck
with the fear of God, whose empire over all created things they
acknowledged. For, as they attributed every good thing, every benefit
of this life, to the gods; so they were of opinion, that evils and
calamities were sent down by them in punishment of crimes. Now,
idolatry, as I said above,[109] had its origin among the Chaldeans;
and at first it consisted in the worship of the sun and moon, but
afterwards it was extended to the adoration of daemons.[110] But these
were believed to be divine ministers; and that they were originally
the souls of heroes and gre