No nation, indeed, can reproach another nation with its addiction to magic without in an equal degree condemning itself. All the varieties of mankind have, in this respect, erred alike at different periods of their social existence, and all accordingly come under the same condemnation of making and loving a lie. The Chaldean erred when, dissatisfied with simple observation of the heavenly bodies through the luminous atmosphere of his plains, he perverted astronomy into astrology: the Egyptian erred when he represented the omnipresence of the Deity by the ubiquity of animal worship: the Hindoo erred when, having conceived the idea of an incarnation, he clothed with flesh and fleshly attributes the members of his monstrous pantheon: the Kelt and Teuton erred when, in their silent and solitary forests, they stained the serenity of nature with the deified attributes of war; and the more settled and civilized races who built and inhabited the cities of the ancient world, erred in their conversion of the indivisible unity of the Demiourgos or World-Creator into an anthropomorphic system of several gods. But the very universality of the error points to some common ground for it in the recesses of the human heart; and since Paganism under all its forms was the corruption of religion, and Witchcraft in its turn the corruption of Paganism, an inquiry into the seeds of this evil fruit cannot fail to be also in some measure an investigation of the very 'incunabula' of human error. We have stated, or endeavoured to state, the real scope and dimensions of the subject of Magic and Witchcraft--not however with any purpose of expatiating upon it in so small a volume as the present one. In the pages which follow we offer only a few remarks upon theories or modes of belief which in remote or in nearer ages have affected the creeds and the conduct of mankind. The subject, _in extenso_, belongs to larger volumes, and to maturer learning and meditation. CONTENTS. PAGE The Legendary Lucifer 3 Sources of Superstition 9 Monkish Superstition 11 Executions for Witchcraft 17 Self-Delusions 19 Spectral Illusions 25 Coincidences in Evidence 29 Sweden. The Blocula 31 Delusions 33 Confessions 35 The Reformation 37 Persecutions in Germany 39 Persecutions in Hungary 41 Edict of Louis XIV. 43 Persecution in England 45 Scottish Superstition 49 Trials in Scotland 55 Remarkable Trials 57 Case of Lady Fowlis 59 James the First 65 Tortures 67 Convention of Witches 69 Dr. Fian 71 Euphemia Macalzean 73