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Gentleman's Magazine 1747 p.612
[ta]ken it into their heads to imagine there is no
hell, at least that its punishments are not eternal,
and that the devil, if there is such a being, hath nothing
to do with the world; and, consequently, that there can be
no such things as spirits. Whenever these immaterial
beings are constrained to act in a more open manner than
they chuse (for 'tis not th[e] interest of the devil
to have it known there is such a being) these wise
men are forced either to deny the facts, by accusing the
relators of falshood, folly, or credulity, or impute them to
other causes. Yet there is an old book, which I shall
not name, lest it should be ranked with Glanville, or
Amadis de Gaul; for in that old book the
Sabeans and Chaldeans could not steal cattle,
lightning kill some sheep, a high wind blow down a house,
nor a man be troubled with boils, but all is imputed to the
Devil; whereas, our modern philosophers would have found a
thousand other causes for those misfortunes, in order to
excuse that being. Shall I add, that that old book,
to give a slight idea of the number of Daemons, asserts,
that seven were cast out of one woman, and a legion from a
man, &c. But, leaving that old book to itself,
let us suppose one of our philosophers to see a regiment of
dragoons reviewed in Hyde-Park: If asked what they
were? might he not truly answer, that they were a
company of spirits, confined for a time to inhabit material
bodies of different forms and textures? And was he asked
the same question, on sight of a number of animalcules,
visible only thro' the assistance of microscopes, would not
the same answer be a truth, tho' the bodies of these
animalcules are almost as rarified as themselves? Nay, do we
not know that there are several insects that change their
shapes at times? Where then is the absurdity in supposing it
possible for some spirits to appear for a short time in
bodies still more refined, and capable of what shape they
please, and when? And were this not the case, as who can
prove it is not? is not the regularity of a regiment of
men's exercise a greater wonder than that of spirits, who
may well be supposed much wiser than mortal beings, who are
more confined by their bodies than they? In short, if there
are really a vast multitude of immaterial beings concerned
in the affairs of the world as the said old book
seems to assert, is not the denying their existence as great
an absurdity as was theirs who denied the antipodes, because
they had never seen them? And would not the allowing of such
beings be a much easier and truer way to account for such
appearances, than that of meteors, &c.
P. S. It is pleasant to observe, that,
notwithstanding the endeavours to discredit the being of
spirits, there is hardly a person in England (I
believe I may say the world) but hath either heard or seen
one himself, or been acquainted with those that have: and
was this rightly attended to, such apparitions would be
reckoned no more supernatural than it is to see an
American or East-Indian; the one being as much
a work of creation as the other. But, because spirits are
beings something above us, and we cannot account for all
their actions, therefore we think there are no such things;
but Death shall remove us from our material bodies, when we
may perhaps view more fellow spirits than ever we saw
fellow-mortals.
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