In Asia, however, the Gods were divided into two parties, under
Oromasdes, the principle of good, and Arimanius, the principle of
evil. These powers were in perpetual contention with each other,
sometimes the one, and sometimes the other gaining the superiority.
Arimanius and his legions were therefore scarcely considered as
entitled to the homage of mankind. Those who were actuated by
benevolence, and who desired to draw down blessings upon their
fellow-creatures, addressed themselves to the principle of good; while
such unhappy beings, with whom spite and ill-will had the
predominance, may be supposed often to have invoked in preference the
principle of evil. Hence seems to have originated the idea of sorcery,
or an appeal by incantations and wicked arts to the demons who
delighted in mischief.
These beings rejoiced in the opportunity of inflicting calamity and
misery on mankind. But by what we read of them we might be induced to
suppose that they were in some way restrained from gratifying their
malignant intentions, and waited in eager hope, till some mortal
reprobate should call out their dormant activity, and demand their
aid.
Various enchantments were therefore employed by those unhappy mortals
whose special desire was to bring down calamity and plagues upon the
individuals or tribes of men against whom their animosity was
directed. Unlawful and detested words and mysteries were called into
action to conjure up demons who should yield their powerful and
tremendous assistance. Songs of a wild and maniacal character were
chaunted. Noisome scents and the burning of all unhallowed and odious
things were resorted to. In later times books and formulas of a
terrific character were commonly employed, upon the reading or recital
of which the prodigies resorted to began to display themselves. The
heavens were darkened; the thunder rolled; and fierce and blinding
lightnings flashed from one corner of the heavens to the other. The
earth quaked and rocked from side to side. All monstrous and deformed
things shewed themselves, "Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire,"
enough to cause the stoutest heart to quail. Lastly, devils, whose
name was legion, and to whose forms and distorted and menacing
countenances superstition had annexed the most frightful ideas,
crowded in countless multitudes upon the spectator, whose breath was
flame, whose dances were full of terror, and whose strength infinitely
exceeded every thing human. Such were the appalling conceptions which
ages of bigotry and ignorance annexed to the notion of sorcery, and
with these they scared the unhappy beings over whom this notion had
usurped an ascendancy into lunacy, and prepared them for the
perpetrating flagitious and unheard-of deeds.
The result of these horrible incantations was not less tremendous,
than the preparations might have led us to expect. The demons
possessed all the powers of the air, and produced tempests and
shipwrecks at their pleasure. "Castles toppled on their warder's
heads, and palaces and pyramids sloped their summits to their
foundations;" forests and mountains were torn from their roots, and
cast into the sea. They inflamed the passions of men, and caused them
to commit the most unheard-of excesses. They laid their ban on those
who enjoyed the most prosperous health, condemned them to peak and
pine, wasted them into a melancholy atrophy, and finally consigned
them to a premature grave. They breathed a new and unblest life into
beings in whom existence had long been extinct, and by their hateful
and resistless power caused the sepulchres to give up their dead.