The history of the life and adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell : $b a gentleman, who, tho' deaf and dumb, writes down any stranger's name at first sight, with their future contingencies of fortune
General
The history of the life and adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell : $b a gentleman, who, tho' deaf and dumb, writes down any stranger's name at first sight, with their future contingencies of fortune
Campbell, Duncan, 1680?-1730; Deaf people -- Great Britain -- Biography; Occultism -- Early works to 1900; Prophets -- Great Britain -- Biography
Again; it is true that Mr. Campbell has relieved many that have been
supposed to have been bewitched, as is related and well attested in the
book of his life; but will any one from thence argue that he himself is
a real conjurer, or wizard, because he breaks the chains by which those
unhappy wretches were bound? No, surely; for if that were the case, we
might then as well indict the physician who drives away a malignant
distemper, and roots out its latent cause by his mysterious skill in
plants and drugs; or conclude that the judge, who condemns a criminal,
is for the same reason guilty of the self-same crime for which the
offender is so by him condemned. Persons who delight in such unnatural
conclusions, must certainly be in love with the greatest absurdities,
and must entirely abandon their natural reason before they can be
brought to conclude that the Prince of Darkness would assist men in
destroying his own power.
The best answer I can afford those men is silence; for if they will not
argue upon the principles of reason, or be guided by her dictates, I
think them no more fit to be contended with in a rational and decent
manner than bedlamites, and such who are bereft of all understanding. A
rod is the best argument for the back of a fool, and contempt the best
usage that ought to be shown to every headstrong and ignorant opponent.
In a word, I know of no branch of Mr. Campbell's practice that bears the
least resemblance to those crimes mentioned in the foregoing Acts. That
he can and doth tell people's names at first sight, though perfect
strangers to him, is confessed by all who have made the curious inquiry
at his hands; but what part of the Acts, I would fain know, is that
against? Knowledge, and a clear sight into things not common, is not
only an allowable, but a commendable qualification; and whether this
knowledge in him be inherent, accidental, or the result of a long study,
the case is still the same; since we are assured he doth it by no
unlawful intelligence, or makes use of the same to any ill purpose, and
therefore is undoubtedly as lawful as to draw natural conclusions from
right premises. Hard is the fate of any man to be ignorant, but much
harder would his lot be if he were to be punished for being wise; and,
like Mr. Campbell, excelling others in this kind of knowledge.
Much more might be said in defence of Mr. Campbell and the art he
professeth, but as the arguments which are brought against him by his
enemies on the one hand, are trivial and ill-grounded, I therefore think
they deserve no farther refutation; so on the other, his innocency is
too clear to require it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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