OF MAGIC.
Many persons regard magic, magicians, witchcraft, and charms as fables
and illusions, the effects of imagination in weak minds, who,
foolishly persuaded of the excessive power possessed by the devil,
attribute to him a thousand things which are purely natural, but the
physical reasons for which are unknown to them, or which are the
effects of the art of certain charlatans, who make a trade of imposing
on the simple and ignorant. These opinions are supported by the
authority of the principal parliaments of the kingdom, who acknowledge
neither magicians nor sorcerers, and who never punish those accused of
magic, or sorcery, unless they are convicted also of some other
crimes. As, in short, the more they punish and seek out magicians and
sorcerers, the more they abound in a country; and, on the contrary,
experience proves that in places where nobody believes in them, none
are to be found, the most efficacious means of uprooting this fancy is
to despise and neglect it.
It is said that magicians and sorcerers themselves, when they fall
into the hands of judges and inquisitors, are often the first to
maintain that magic and sorcery are merely imaginary, and the effect
of popular prejudices and errors. Upon that footing, Satan would
destroy himself, and overthrow his own empire, if he were thus to
decry magic, of which he is himself the author and support. If the
magicians really, and of their own good will, independently of the
demon, make this declaration, they betray themselves most lightly, and
do not make their cause better; since the judges, notwithstanding
their disavowal, prosecute them, and always punish them without mercy,
being well persuaded that it is only the fear of execution and the
hope of remaining unpunished which makes them say so.
But would it not rather be a stratagem of the evil spirit,[115] who
endeavors to render the reality of magic doubtful, to save from
punishment those who are accused of it, and to impose on the judges,
and make them believe that magicians are only madmen and
hypochondriacs, worthy rather of compassion than chastisement? We must
then return to the deep examination of the question, and prove that
magic is not a chimera, neither has it aught to do with reason. We can
neither rest on a sure foundation, nor derive any certain argument for
or against the reality of magic, either from the opinion of pretended
_esprits forts_, who deny because they think proper to do so, and
because the proofs of the contrary do not appear to them sufficiently
clear or demonstrative; nor from the declaration of the demon, of
magicians and sorcerers, who maintain that magic and sorcery are only
the effects of a disturbed imagination; nor from minds foolishly and
vainly prejudiced on the subject, that these declarations are produced
simply by the fear of punishment; nor by the subtilty of the malignant
spirit, who wishes to mask his play, and cast dust in the eyes of the
judges and witnesses, by making them believe that what they regard
with so much horror, and what they so vigorously prosecute, is
anything but a punishable crime, or at least a crime deserving of
punishment.
We must then prove the reality of magic by the Holy Scriptures, by the
authority of the Church, and by the testimony of the most grave and
sensible writers; and, lastly, show that it is not true that the most
famous parliaments acknowledge neither sorcerers nor magicians.
The teraphim which Rachael, the wife of Jacob, brought away secretly
from the house of Laban, her father,[116] were doubtless superstitious
figures, to which Laban's family paid a worship, very like that which
the Romans rendered to their household gods, _Penates_ and _Lares_,
and whom they consulted on future events. Joshua[117] says very
distinctly that Terah, the father of Abraham, adored strange gods in
Mesopotamia. And in the prophets Hosea and Zechariah,[118] the Seventy
translate _teraphim_ by the word _oracles_. Zechariah and Ezekiel[119]
show that the Chaldeans and the Hebrews consulted these _teraphim_ to
learn future events.
Others believe that they were talismans or preservatives; everybody
agrees as to their being superstitious figures (or idols) which were
consulted in order to find out things unknown, or that were to come to
pass.
The patriarch Joseph, speaking to his own brethren according to the
idea which they had of him in Egypt, says to them:[120] "Know ye not
that in all the land there is not a man who equals me in the art of
divining and predicting things to come?" And the officer of the same
Joseph, having found in Benjamin's sack Joseph's cup which he had
purposely hidden in it, says to them:[121] "It is the cup of which my
master makes use to discover hidden things."
By the secret of their art, the magicians of Pharaoh imitated the true
miracles of Moses; but not being able like him to produce gnats
(English version _lice_), they were constrained to own that the finger
of God was in what Moses had hitherto achieved.[122]
After the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt, God expressly forbids
his people to practice any sort of magic or divination.[123] He
condemns to death magicians, and those who make use of charms.
Balaam, the diviner, being invited by Balak, the king, to come and
devote the Israelites to destruction, God put blessings into his mouth
instead of curses;[124] and this bad prophet, amongst the blessings
which he bestows on Israel, says there is among them neither augury,
nor divination, nor magic.
In the time of the Judges, the Idol of Micah was consulted as a kind
of oracle.[125] Gideon made, in his house and his city, an Ephod,
accompanied by a superstitious image, which was for his family, and to
all the people, the occasion of scandal and ruin.[126]
The Israelites went sometimes to consult Beelzebub, god of Ekron,[127]
to know if they should recover from their sickness. The history of the
evocation of Samuel by the witch of Endor[128] is well known. I am
aware that some difficulties are raised concerning this history. I
shall deduce nothing from it here, except that this woman passed for a
witch, that Saul esteemed her such, and that this prince had
exterminated the magicians in his own states, or, at least, that he
did not permit them to exercise their art.
Manasses, king of Judah,[129] is blamed for having introduced idolatry
into his kingdom, and particularly for having allowed there diviners,
aruspices, and those who predicted things to come. King Josiah, on the
contrary, destroyed all these superstitions.[130]
The prophet Isaiah, who lived at the same time, says that they wished
to persuade the Jews then in captivity at Babylon to address
themselves, as did other nations, to diviners and magicians; but they
ought to reject these pernicious counsels, and leave those
abominations to the Gentiles, who knew not the Lord. Daniel[131]
speaks of the magicians, or workers of magic among the Chaldeans, and
of those amongst them who interpreted dreams, and predicted things to
come.
In the New Testament, the Jews accused Jesus Christ of casting out
devils in the name of Beelzebub, the prince of the devils;[132] but he
refutes them by saying, that being come to destroy the empire of
Beelzebub, it was not to be believed that Beelzebub would work
miracles to destroy his own power or kingdom.[133] St. Luke speaks of
Simon the sorcerer, who had for a long time bewitched the inhabitants
of Samaria with his sorceries; and also of a certain Bar-Jesus of
Paphos, who professed sorcery, and boasted he could predict future
events.[134] St. Paul, when at Ephesus, caused a number of books of
magic to be burned.[135] Lastly, the Psalmist,[136] and the author of
the Book of Ecclesiasticus,[137] speak of charms with which they
enchanted serpents.
In the Acts of the Apostles,[138] the young girl of the town of
Philippi, who was a Pythoness, for several successive days rendered
testimony to Paul and Silas, saying that they were "_the servants of
the Most High, and that they announced to men the way of salvation_."
Was it the devil who inspired her with these words, to destroy the
fruit of the preaching of the Apostles, by making the people believe
that they acted in concert with the spirit of evil? Or was it the
Spirit of God which put these words into the mouth of this young girl,
as he put into the mouth of Balaam prophecies concerning the Messiah?
There is reason to believe that she spoke through the inspiration of
the evil spirit, since St. Paul imposed silence on her, and expelled
the spirit of Python, by which she had been possessed, and which had
inspired the predictions she uttered, and the knowledge of hidden
things. In what way soever we may explain it, it will always follow
that magic is not a chimera, that this maiden was possessed by an evil
spirit, and that she predicted and revealed things hidden and to come,
and brought her _masters considerable gain by soothsaying_; for those
who consulted her would, doubtless, not have been so foolish as to pay
for these predictions, had they not experienced the truth of them by
their success and by the event.
From all this united testimony, it results that magic, enchantments,
sorcery, divination, the interpretation of dreams, auguries, oracles,
and the magical figures which announced things to come, are very real,
since they are so severely condemned by God, and that He wills that
those who practice them should be punished with death.
Footnotes:
[115] _Vide_ Bodin Preface.
[116] Gen. xxxi. 19.
[117] Josh. xxiv. 2-4.
[118] Hosea ii. 4, &c. Zech. v. 2.
[119] Zech. x. 2. Ezek. xxi. 21.
[120] Gen. xliv. 15.
[121] Gen. xliv. 5.
[122] Exod. vii. 10-12. Exod. viii. 19.
[123] Exod. xxii. 18.
[124] Numb. xxii., xxiii.
[125] Judg. xvii. 1, 2.
[126] Judg. viii. 27.
[127] 2 Kings i. 2, 2.
[128] 1 Sam. xxviii. 7, _et seq._
[129] 2 Kings xxi. 16.
[130] 2 Kings xxii. 24.
[131] Dan. iv. 6, 7.
[132] Matt. x. 25; xii. 24, 25.
[133] Luke xi. 15, 18, 19.
[134] Acts viii. 11; xiii. 6.
[135] Acts xix. 19.
[136] Psalm lvii.
[137] Ecclus. xii. 13.
[138] Acts xvi. 16, 17.