Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

THE

NEW ENCYCLOPÆDIA;

OR,

UNIVERSAL DICTIONARY

OF

ARTS AND SCIENCES.

IN WHICH

The different Sciences and Arts are digested into the Form of distinct Treatises or Systems;

Including the

LATEST DISCOVERIES AND IMPROVEMENTS;

VITE THE NATURAL, CIVIL, MILITARY, AND COMMERCIAL HISTORY, AND BIOGRAPHY OF EMINENT MEN,
OF ALL NATIONS;

A DESCRIPTION OF

ALL THE COUNTRIES, CITIES, SEAS, RIVERS &c. OF THE KNOWN WORLD.

Including also

THE WHOLE OF DR. JOHNSON's

DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

COMPILED FROM EVERY SOURCE OF DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN LITERATURE; AND ILLUSTRATED WITH
UPWARDS OF THREE HUNDred and forTY PLATES,

AND A COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ATLAS

IN TWENTY THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. VII.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR VERNOR, HOOD, AND SHARPE, 31, POULTRY:

AND THOMAS OSTELL, AVE MARIA LANE,

R. Morison, Printer, Perth.

1807.

1 5AY 1968

ENCYCLOPEDIA PERTHENSIS.

DÆM

1 DEMONIAC, n. f. [from dæmon.] à being whofe volition and other mental fa che overpowered and reftrained, and his body pleted and actuated, by fome created fpibeing of fuperior power. Such feems to be the determinate fenfe of the word; but it is difwhether any of mankind ever were in this anate condition.

DEM

opinion of dæmoniacal poffeffion to have been we known and generally received among them.

(3.) DÆMONIACS, ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE EXISTENCE OF. Thofe who are unwilling tỏ allow that angels or devils have ever intermedde1. with the concerns of human life, urge a nuber of fpecious arguments. The Greeks and Romans of old, fay they, did believe in the reality of de-. DEMONIACS, ANCIENT OPINIONS RE- moniacal poffeffion. They fuppofed that spirituSPECTING. It is generally agreed, that neither al beings did at times enter into the fons or daughod or evil fpirits are known to exert fuch au ters of men, and diftinguish them felves in that fity at prefent over the human race: but in tuation by capricious freaks, deeds of wodon ecent beathen world, and ainong the Jews, mifchief, or prophetic enunciations Put in the Irly in the days of our Saviour, evil fpirits, inftances in which they fuppofed this to happen, are thought by many to have been more it is evident that no fuch thing took place. Their ome. The Greeks and Romans imagin- accounts of the state and conduct of thofe perfons that their deities, to reveal future events, fre- whom they believed to be poffeffed in this fupery entered into the prophet or prophetefs natural manner, fhow plainly that what they awas confulted, overpowered their faculties, fcribed to the influence of dæmons were merely tered refponfes with their organs of speech. the effects of natural difeafes. What ever they rewas believed to enter into the Pythonefs, and late concerning the larvati, the cerriti, and the date the prophetic answers received by thofe lymphatici, fhows that thefe were merely people canfalted her. Other oracles befides that of difordered in mind, in the fame unfortunate fituSophi were fuppofed to unfold futurity by the ation with thofe madmen and idiots and inelanmachinery And in various other cafes, ei- cholly perfons whom we have among ourselves. magnant dæmons or benevolent deities were Feftus defcribes the Lervati as being furiofi et mento enter into and to actuate human be- temoti. Plato, in his Timaus, fays, dus yug VVOUS The Lymphatici, the Cerriti, the Larvati, sparas pains foux, antous. Lucian defcribes Romans, were all of this defcription; and dæmoniacs as lunatic, and as flaring with their Greeks, by the ufe of the word vivo, eyes, foaming at the mouth, and being speechlefs. that they referred to this caufe the origin of It appears ftill more evidently, that all the perfons is. Among the ancient heathens, there- fpoken of as poffeffed with devils in the New Tefappears to have been a generally received tament, were either mad or epileptic, and pe, that fuperior beings entered occationally cifely in the fame condition with the madmen and en, overpowered the faculties of their epileptics of modern times. The Jews, among oand actuated their bodily organs. They ther reproaches which they threw out against our imagine that this happened in inftances in Saviour, faid, He hath a devil, and is mad; avhy the effects were owing to the operation of hear ye him? The expreffions be bath a devil, Tent bad furely fome plausible foundation. The firest caufe; but an opinion fo generally pre- and is mad, were certainly ufed on this occation as fynonymous. With all their virulence, they too, both from the facred writings and Jo- would not furely afcribe to him at once two things Spag appear to have believed in dæmoniacal that were inconfiftent and contradictory. Thofe Fed. The cafe of Saul may be recollected who thought more favourably of the character of te among many in which fuperior created be- Jefus, afferted concerning his difcourfes, in reply were believed by the Jews to exert in this to his adversaries, These are not the words of him r their influence over human life. The ge- that bath a demon; meaning, no doubt, that he aeraenor of their history and language, and their fpoke in a more rational manner than a madman dostres concerning good and evil spirits, prove the could be expected to speak. The Jews appear to 4

!

VOL. VII. PART I.

have

« ZurückWeiter »