who had routed irrecoverably empiricism in almost every shape--Paracelsians--Astrologers--Alchemists--Rosicrucians--and who weighed and scrutinized and analyzed every conclusion, from excommunication and the power of the keys to the revolutions of comets and their supposed effects on empires, and all with perfect fearlessness and intuitive insight into the weak points of an argument. Yet, alas! for human infirmity. Bodin threw all the weight of his reasoning and learning and vivacity into the scale of the witch supporters, and made the "hell-broth boil and bubble" anew, and increased the witch _furor_ to downright fanaticism, by the publication of his _Demo-manie_,[13] a work in which "Learning, blinded first and then beguiled, Looks dark as ignorance, as frenzy wild;" but which it is impossible to read without being carried along by the force of mind and power of combination which the author manifests, and without feeling how much ingenious sophistry can perform to mitigate and soften the most startling absurdity. His contemporary, Erastus, after all his victories on the field of imposition, was foiled by the subject of witchcraft at last. This was his pet delusion--almost the only one he cared not to discard--like the dying miser's last reserve:-- ---- "My manor, sir? he cried; Not that, I cannot part with that,--and died." [Footnote 2: Lord Bacon thinks (see his _Sylva Sylvarum_) that soporiferous medicines "are likeliest" for this purpose, such as henbane, hemlock, mandrake, moonshade, tobacco, opium, saffron, poplar leaves, &c.] [Footnote 3: See his _History of the World_.] [Footnote 4: See his _Table Talk_, section "_Witches_."] [Footnote 5: Sir Thomas Browne's evidence at the trial of Amy Duny and Rose Cullender at Bury St. Edmunds in 1664, is too well known to need an extract from the frequently reprinted report of the case. To adopt the words of an able writer, (_Retros. Review_, vol. v. p. 118,) "this trial is the only place in which we ever meet with the name of Sir Thomas Browne without pleasurable associations."]