Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
        Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,
        Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf;
        Witches' mummy; maw, and gulf,
        Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark.

And to these he adds, with his terrible energy
of expression,

        Liver of blaspheming Jew;
        Finger of birth-strangled babe,
        Ditch-delivered by a drab.

The mind of a cultivated man in these days,
unable to conceive any direct relation between
the liver of a blaspheming Jew, and control of
the course of Nature, finds it difficult to believe
that minds as powerful as his own, under less
favourable influences, could seriously credit such
incantations. Yet the history of mankind shows
that no amount of failure, no argument, no
ridicule, no priestly warning and exhortation, could
detach men from the practices of sorcery. The
temptation to penetrate the secrets of Nature
was too strong. Nothing could overcome this
temptation while the belief in witchcraft lasted.
Nothing could destroy the belief, but the slowly
growing conviction that the succession of
phenomena was not capricious but inexorable—
every single event being rigorously determined
by its antecedent, and not to be altered, so long
as the antecedent remained the same.

No one believes in Astrology now, because
the order of celestial phenomena has been
ascertained with remarkable precision. Yet how
natural was the belief in starry influences! In
the serenity of Asiatic skies, the majestic aspects
of the stars would naturally attract incessant
notice. It is a tendency, observable in children
and savages, to suppose that whatever interests
them must also be interested in them. If we
look up at the stars, do they not look down upon
us? If we follow their course with interest, will
they not likewise with interest follow ours?
Hence the belief in astral influences. The child
upon whose cradle Mars has smiled will be
credited with a martial career; the child born
under Venus will be under her protection.
These are the spontaneous beliefs. Before they
can be discredited men must, by a long process,
have learned to check this tendency to suppose
a direct relation between events which are
simply coincident, and must have learned that
the course of the stars and the course of human
conduct are in no direct relation to each other.
But this is a slow process; and until Science
has been thus far established, Astrology, and all
other superstitions, are unassailable.

M. Maury, in a recent treatise on Magic and
Astrology—which, being at once light and
learned, agreeable to read and reliable when
read, may safely be commended to the curious—
proves that no amount of religious reprobation
has been able to uproot the belief in, or check
the practices of sorcery.

The early Israelites, in common with all
primitive peoples, had their magic, consulted
sorcerers, explained dreams, and believed in
talismans. In vain Moses proscribed these
superstitions. On their return from captivity they
brought with them a number of Babylonian
sorceries, together with the belief in angels and
demons. By a natural process they came to
regard certain formulas written on parchment,
and containing the names of celestial spirits, as
veritable talismans. Like the Egyptians, they
believed that if they summoned demons by their
names, these demons were thereby compelled to
appear, or to obey orders.

Respecting the gods of other nations, the
Jews held two different opinions. One opinion
was that these gods were vain idols; the other,
that they were agents of Satan; and this was
the opinion which finally prevailed. Beelzebub,
for example, was originally the god of the
Philistines; Astaroth was the lunar goddess of the
Phœnicians; Lucifer was a god of the Assyrians;
and so on. The early Christians adopted
this notion, and attributed all the pagan miracles
to agents of Satan. In their view the ancient
polytheism was but an extensive demonology.
"Idolatry," says Eusebius, one of the great
authorities among the Fathers, "is the adoration
not of good demons, but of bad and
perverse demons." The Church became very
liberal in its admittance of demons among the
agencies of human affairs. Not only did it
attribute bad passions and criminal acts to these
demons, but it also chose to detect their agency
in every form of error and imposture; by which
was meant every form of opinion or pretension
inconsistent with the opinions and pretensions
of the Church. Once grant the existence of
these demons, and it is difficult to assign a
limit to their agency. And who then questioned
their existence? Dwelling in noisome retreats,
among the putrid exhalations of rotting graves,
they were ready at any moment to issue forth
and walk among men, to tempt the saints and
delude the sinners. Not only did they tempt
men, they sometimes managed to get "possession"
of them, entering their bodies, and making
them mad. Nay, they entered into houses and
pieces of furniture. Exorcisms consequently
formed a large proportion of the priestly duties.
So late as Pope Sixtus V., the Egyptian obelisk,
which was brought to Rome, and now adorns
the Piazza del Popolo, was publicly exorcised
before it was permitted to stand in a Christian
city. There were many formulas of exorcism,
but the sign of the cross was naturally
considered the most efficacious, and was generally
used in addition to all others. Holy water, also,
had great virtues. "This continual intervention
of exorcism," remarks M. Maury, "is
attested by the great number of conjurations
adopted in the liturgy. It was an incessant
litany of anathema against Satan. He was
described as a perfidious intriguer, a thief, a
serpent, a wild beast, a dragon of hell, a Belial,
&c.; and in order not to be forced to repeat
always this long list of insults, they were
engraved on amulets, which hence acquired the
virtue of driving Satan away." What wonderful
ideas of causation are implied in the conception!
Epidemics, meteors, and prodigies of all
kinds were attributed to demons. Plagues,