[31] Meric Casaubon was born in 1599 and died in 1671. His learned, lively, and vastly entertaining work, A Treatise concerning Enthusiasme, as it is an Effect of Nature: but is mistaken by many for either Divine Inspiration, or Diabolicall Possession, appeared in 1655, and in a “Second edition: revised, and enlarged” in 1656. It shows an open mind and a temper rather skeptical than credulous. Passages of interest in our present discussion may be found on pp. 37-41, 44, 49, 94-95, 100, 118, 174 (Quakers), 286, of the second edition. Of particular significance is the Doctor’s account of his visit to a man who was thought to be possessed but whom he believed to be suffering from some bodily distemper (pp. 97 ff.). Casaubon’s treatise (in two parts) Of Credulity and Incredulity, in Things Natural, Civil, and Divine, came out in 1668, and was reissued, with a new title-page (as above), in 1672. A third part, Of Credulity and Incredulity in Things Divine and Spiritual, appeared in 1670. Webster’s assault upon Casaubon in his Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft was made in apparent ignorance of the fact that the venerable scholar had been dead for some years (see p. 24, below). [32] Compare Reginald Scot’s chapter “Of Theurgie, with a Confutation thereof” (Discoverie of Witchcraft, book xv, chap. 42, 1584, p. 466, ed. 1665, p. 280). See also Henry Hallywell, Melampronoea: or A Discourse of the Polity and Kingdom of Darkness. Together with a Solution of the Chiefest Objections brought against the Being of Witches, 1681, pp. 50-51. [33] Cap. iv, §15, ed. Mosheim, 1773, I, 395-396. [34] Sadducismus Triumphatus, ed. 1726, p. 336; see James Crossley’s Introduction to Potts, Discovery of Witches in the County of Lancaster, reprinted from the Edition of 1613 (Chetham Society, 1845), p. vi, note 2. This experiment was twice tried as late as 1712, in the case of Jane Wenham, by the Rev. Mr. Strutt, once in the presence of Sir Henry Chauncy, and again in the presence of the Rev. Mr. Gardiner. Its ill success is recorded by a third Anglican clergyman,--Mr. Francis Bragge (A Full and Impartial Account of the Discovery of Sorcery and Witchcraft, Practis’d by Jane Wenham, London, 1712, pp. 11, 15). [35] Letter to Glanvill, Sept. 18, 1677, Works, ed. Birch, V, 244. Compare Dr. Samuel Collins’s letter to Boyle, Sept. 1, 1663 (Boyle’s Works, V, 633-634). [36] In a letter to Glanvill (Works, V, 245). [37] See Demonologie ou Traitte des Demons et Sorciers ... Par Fr. Perreaud. Ensemble l’Antidemon de Mascon, ou Histoire Veritable de ce qu’un Demon a fait & dit, il y a quelques années, en la maison dudit Sʳ. Perreaud à Mascon. Geneva, 1653. [38] Theological Works, ed. 1830, IV, 480-482.