Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft: Addressed to J. G. Lockhart, Esq |
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Aberfoyle accused ancient Anne Robinson answer apparition appeared believe Bessie called cause character charge charms Christian Church circumstances clergy confession court credulity crime death deities demon Demonology desire Devil divine doubt Duergar Eildon hills Elfland elves England evidence evil existence eyes fairies faith familiar spirits fancy ghost guilty hand heathen Highland human imagination imposture instance Isobel Jane Wenham judges King lady Lancre late Lord manner Margaret Barclay Matthew Hopkins means minister mortals murder nature neighbours occasion opinion party patient persons phantom poor possession practised pretended prosecution punishment Queen Reginald Scot remarkable respect Robin Goodfellow Satan says Scotland Scottish seems sense singular sion sorcery species spectre spirits story suffered supernatural superstition supposed tale terror Thomas the Rhymer Thome Reid tion told took torture trial truth usual witchcraft witches Witchfinder witness woman word worship
Popular passages
Page 62 - The lonely mountains o'er And the resounding shore A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament; From haunted spring and dale Edged with poplar pale The parting Genius is with sighing sent; With flower-inwoven tresses torn The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.
Page 62 - The oracles are dumb, No voice or hideous hum Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. Apollo from his shrine Can no more divine With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. No nightly trance, or breathed spell, Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.
Page 62 - In consecrated earth And on the holy hearth The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint ; In urns, and altars round A drear and dying sound Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint ; And the chill marble seems to sweat, While each peculiar Power...
Page 52 - There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
Page 149 - Witness those rings and roundelays Of theirs, which yet remain, Were footed in Queen Mary's days On many a grassy plain; But since of late, Elizabeth And, later, James came in, They never danced on any heath As when the time hath been.
Page 148 - FAREWELL rewards and fairies, Good housewives now may say, For now foul sluts in dairies Do fare as well as they. And though they sweep their hearths no less Than maids were wont to do, Yet who of late, for cleanliness, Finds sixpence in her shoe ? Lament, lament, old abbeys, The fairies lost command ; They did but change priests...
Page 149 - Churne of Staffordshire Give laud and praises due, Who every meal can mend your cheer With tales both old and true : To William all give audience, And pray ye for his noddle, For all the fairies' evidence Were lost, if it were addle.
Page 117 - Lucken-hare, as the place where, at twelve o'clock at night, he should receive the price. He came, his money was paid in ancient coin, and he was invited by his customer to view his residence. The trader in horses followed his guide in the deepest astonishment through several long ranges of stalls, in each of which a horse stood motionless, while an armed warrior lay equally still at the charger's feet. ' All these men," said the wizard in a whisper, ' will awaken at the battle of Sheriffmuir.
Page 42 - The mountain's height, and all the ridges round, Yet not one trace of living wight discerns, Nor knows, o'erawed, and trembling as he stands, To what, or whom, he owes his idle fear, To ghost, to witch, to fairy, or to fiend; But wonders, and no end of wondering finds.
Page 149 - Their dances were procession. But now, alas ! they all are dead, Or gone beyond the seas, Or farther for religion fled, Or else they take their ease.