How then are we to regard this mighty movement at which it were folly to sneer, which it is impossible to ignore? The Catholic Church does neither. But none the less she condemns it utterly and entirely. Not because she disbelieves in it, but because she believes in it so thoroughly, because she knows what is the real nature of the moving forces, however skilfully they may disguise themselves, however quick and subtle their shifts and turns, the intelligences which inform and direct the whole. It is a painful subject since (I reiterate) many good people, no doubt many thoughtful seekers after truth, have been fascinated and swept along by Spiritism. They are as yet conscious of neither physical nor moral harm, and, it may be, they have been playing with the fire for years. Nay more, Spiritism has been a sweet solace to many in most poignant hours of bitter sorrow and loss; wherefore it is hallowed in their eyes by tenderest memories. They are woefully deceived. Hard as it may seem, we must get down to the bed-rock of fact. Spiritism has been specifically condemned on no less than four occasions by the Holy Office,[120] whose decree, 30 March, 1898, utterly forbids all Spiritistic practices although intercourse with demons be strictly excluded, and communication sought with good spirits only. Modern Spiritism is merely Witchcraft revived. The Second Plenary Council of Baltimore (1866), whilst making ample allowance for prestidigitation and trickery of every kind, warns the faithful against lending any support whatsoever to Spiritism and forbids them to attend séances even out of idle curiosity, for some, at least, of the manifestations must necessarily be ascribed to Satanic intervention since in no other manner can they be understood or explained. NOTES TO CHAPTER VI [1] E. de Rougé, _Étude sur une stèle Égyptienne_, Paris, 1858: E. A. W. Budge, _Egyptian Magic_, VII. [2] _Rekh Khet_, “knower of things.” [3] Euripides, _Bacchæ_: passim; Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, III. 513, _sqq._; Apollodorus, III. v. 2.; Hyginus, _Fabulæ_, 184; Nonnus, _Dionysiaca (Bassarica)_, XIV, 46. [4] Sophocles, _Ajax_; Pindar, _Nemea_, VII, 25; Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, XIII, 1-398. [5] Pausanias, III, xvi, 6. [6] Valerius Maximus, I, 11, 5. Lacinium was a promontory on the east coast of Bruttium, a few miles south of Croton, and forming the western boundary of the Tarentine gulf. The remains of the temple of Juno Lacinia are still extant, and have given the modern name to the promontory, _Capo delle Colonne_ or _Capo di Nao_ (ναός). [7] Xenophon, _Memorabilia_, II. i. 5; Demosthenes, XCIII, 24; Dinarchus, CI, 41; Plutarch, _Lucullus_, IV. [8] Euripides, _Orestes_, l. 854, and l. 79. [9] Cf. μάντις. [10] Cf. Vergil _Æneid_, IV. 471-3: Agamemnonius scænis agitatus Orestes armatam facibus matrem et serpentibus atris cum fugit, ultricesque sedent in limine Diræ.