A short time since, an attempt was made to renew the history of St.
Paulin. That saint saw on the roof of a church a poor demoniac, who
walked under, or rather upon, this roof or ceiling, with his head below
and his feet above, nearly in the manner of a fly. St. Paulin clearly
perceived that the man was possessed, and sent several leagues off for
some relics of St. Felix of Nola, which were applied to the patient as
blisters. The demon who supported the man against the roof instantly
fled, and the demoniac fell down upon the pavement.
We may have doubts about this history, while we preserve the most
profound respect for genuine miracles; and we may be permitted to
observe that this is not the way in which we now cure demoniacs. We
bleed them, bathe them, and gently relax them by medicine; we apply
emollients to them. This is M. Pome's treatment of them; and he has
performed more cures than the priests of Isis or Diana, or of anyone
else who ever wrought by miracles. As to demoniacs who say they are
possessed merely to gain money, instead of being bathed, they are at
present flogged.
It often happened, that the specific gravity of epileptics, whose fibres
and muscles withered away, was lighter than water, and that they floated
when put into it. A miracle! was instantly exclaimed. It was pronounced
that such a person must be a demoniac or sorcerer; and holy water or the
executioner was immediately sent for. It was an unquestionable proof
that either the demon had become master of the body of the floating
person, or that the latter had voluntarily delivered himself over to the
demon. On the first supposition the person was exorcised, on the second
he was burned. Thus have we been reasoning and acting for a period of
fifteen or sixteen hundred years, and yet we have the effrontery to
laugh at the Kaffirs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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