First Treatise. Louis Napoleon, according to a severe divine judgment Emperor of France, and James Buchanan, according to the merciful divine benignity President of the United States. On the 27th January, 1859, while I was ready to start from Philadelphia, a messenger said, that on that day an article appeared in the German Democrat of that city for my use, and handed to me the number containing that... more...

CHAPTER I. The subject of psychical research is one upon which I have thought more and about which I have been slower to form my opinion, than upon any other subject whatever. Every now and then as one jogs along through life some small incident happens which very forcibly brings home the fact that time passes and that first youth and then middle age are slipping away. Such a one occurred the other... more...

DREAMS Everybody dreams, but there are few who place any importance to the phenomena of sleep. Before we can begin to comprehend or even analyze dreams, whether our dreams are symbolic or otherwise, we must first divert from our mind our materialistic conceptions of what the individual called man really is. The external or physical man, is no more the man than the coat he wears. The physical man is... more...

Querie 1. That he must needs be the greatest Witch, Sorcerer, and Wizzard himselfe, else hee could not doe it. Answ. If Satan's kingdome be divided against it selfe, how shall it stand? If he never went so farre as is before mentioned, yet for certaine he met with the Devill, and cheated him of his Booke, wherein were written all the Witches names in England, and if he looks on any Witch, he can... more...

INTRODUCTION. Sir Walter Scott's "Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft" were his contribution to a series of books, published by John Murray, which appeared between the years 1829 and 1847, and formed a collection of eighty volumes known as "Murray's Family Library." The series was planned to secure a wide diffusion of good literature in cheap five-shilling volumes, and... more...

INTRODUCTION. The Witchcraft superstitions of the Channel Islands, sad as they were in their characteristics and results—as is abundantly evidenced by our judicial records—were but a part and parcel of that vast wave of unreasoning credulity which swept across the civilised world during the Middle Ages, and more or less affected every class of society, and all sorts and conditions of men. From the... more...

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM LILLY, STUDENT IN ASTROLOGY. Wrote by himself in the 66th Year of his Age, at Hersham, in the Parish of Walton-upon-Thames, in the County of Surry. Propria Manu. I was born in the county of Leicester, in an obscure town, in the north-west borders thereof, called Diseworth, seven miles south of the town of Derby, one mile from Castle-Donnington, a town of great rudeness, wherein it... more...

CHAPTER I. Rise and Progress of Superstition—The Serpent—Cain's Departure from the true Worship—Worship of the Sun, Moon, and Stars—Strange Story of Abraham—The Gods of Antiquity—Ether, Air, Land, and Water filled with living Souls—Guardian Angel—Cause of the Flood—Magic—How the Jews deceived the Devil—A Witch not permitted to live—Diviners, Enchanters, Consulters with... more...

PREFACE In the following pages I have dealt chiefly with the mental or psychological phenomena of psychical research, and have not touched upon the "physical" manifestations to any extent. The book is mostly theoretical and constructive in tone; and, because of its speculative character, it may, perhaps, prove of value to future psychical investigators. It represents the author's... more...

MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS. The , based upon various local maps and the Coast-Survey chart, is the result of much personal exploration and perambulation of the ground. It may claim to be a very exact representation of many of the original grants and farms. The locality of the houses, mills, and bridges, in 1692, is given in some cases precisely, and in all with near approximation. The task has been a... more...