[84] _See Chap. ix. of Demoniacs._ [85] _See Aetius, Lib. medecin. Lib. vi. and Paul. Ægineta, Lib. iii. Cap. xvi._ [86] _Eclog. vi. 48._ For, as Servius observes, Juno possessed their minds with such a species of madness, that fancying themselves cows, they ran into the fields, bellowed often, and dreaded the plough. But these, according to Ovid, the physician Melampus, --_per carmen & herbas Eripuit furiis._[87] Snatch’d from the furies by his charms and herbs. [87] _Metamorph. xv. 325._ Nor was this disorder unknown to the moderns; for Schenckius records a remarkable instance of it in a husbandman of Padua, _who imagining that he was a wolf, attack’d, and even killed several persons in the fields; and when at length he was taken, he persevered in declaring himself a real wolf, and that the only difference consisted in the inversion of his skin and hair_[88]. [88] _Observat. med. rar. de Lycanthrop. Obs. 1._ But it may be objected to our opinion, that this misfortune was foretold to the king, so that he might have prevented it by correcting his morals; and therefore it is not probable that it befel him in the course of nature. But we know, that those things, which God executes either thro’ clemency or vengeance, are frequently performed by the assistance of natural causes. Thus having threatened Hezekiah with death, and being afterwards moved by his prayers, he restored him to life, and made use of figs laid on the tumor, as a medicine for his[89] disease. He ordered king Herod, upon account of his pride, to be devoured by worms[90]. And no body doubts but that the plague, which is generally attributed to the divine wrath, most commonly owes its origin to corrupted air. [89] _See above Chap. v. p. 36._ [90] _See below, Chap. xv._ CHAPTER VIII. _The Palsy._ There are three paralytics recorded in the holy gospels to have been cured by Jesus Christ[91]. The case of one of these, which is the third, having some singularities in it, I shall relate the particulars of it in the words of St. John, “There is (says the Evangelist) at Jerusalem, by the sheep market, a pool, near which lay a great multitude of impotent folk, blind, halt, and withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there, who had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time _in that case_, he saith unto him, _Wilt thou be made whole_? The impotent man answered him, _Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool; but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me_. Jesus saith unto him: _Rise, take up thy bed, and walk_. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked.”