The Phantom World: The Philosophy of Spirits and Apparitions by Augustin Calmet

Author:Augustin Calmet [Calmet, Augustin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781293943861
Google: JDI8rgEACAAJ
Published: 2009-07-14T00:00:00+00:00

Footnotes:

[438] M. de S. André, Lett. iii. sur les Maléfices.

CHAPTER L.

CONCLUSION OF THE TREATISE ON APPARITIONS.

After having made this exposition of my opinion concerning the apparitions of

angels, demons, souls of the dead, and even of one living person to another, and

having spoken of magic, of oracles, of obsessions and possessions of the demon;

of sprites and familiar spirits; of sorcerers and witches; of spectres which predict

the future; of those which haunt houses—after having stated the objections

which are made against apparitions, and having replied to them in as weighty a

manner as I possibly could, I think I may conclude that although this matter labors still under very great difficulties, as much respecting the foundation of the

thing—I mean as regards the truth and reality of apparitions in general—as for

the way in which they are made, still we cannot reasonably disallow that there may be true apparitions of all the kinds of which we have spoken, and that there

may be also a great number very disputable, and some others which are

manifestly the work of knavery, of maliciousness, of the art of charlatans, and flexibility of those who play sleight of hand tricks.

I acknowledge, moreover, that imagination, prepossession, simplicity,

superstition, excess of credulity, and weakness of mind have given rise to several

stories which are related; that ignorance of pure philosophy has caused to be taken for miraculous effects, and black magic, what is the simple effect of white

magic, and the secrets of a philosophy hidden from the ignorant and common

herd of men. Moreover, I confess that I see insurmountable difficulties in

explaining the manner or properties of apparitions, whether we admit with

several ancients that angels, demons, and disembodied souls have a sort of

subtile transparent body of the nature of air, whether we believe them purely spiritual and disengaged from all matter, visible, gross, or subtile.

I lay down as a principle that to explain the affair of apparitions, and to give on

this subject any certain rules, we should—

1st. Know perfectly the nature of spirits, angels and souls, and demons. We

should know whether souls by nature are so spiritualized that they have no

longer any relation to matter; or if they have, again, any alliance with an aërial,

subtile, invisible body, which they still govern after death; or whether they exert

any power over the body they once animated, to impel it to certain movements, as the soul which animates us gives to our bodies such impulsions as she thinks

proper; or whether the soul determines simply by its will, as occasional or

secondary cause, the first cause, which is God, to put in motion the machine which it once animated.

2d. If after death the soul still retains that power over its own body, or over others; for instance, over the air and other elements.

3d. If angels and demons have respectively the same power over sublunary

bodies—for instance, to thicken air, inflame it, produce in it clouds and storms;

to make phantoms appear in it; to spoil or preserve fruits and crops; to cause animals to perish, produce maladies, excite tempests and shipwrecks at sea; or even to fascinate the eyes and deceive the other senses.

4th. If they can do all these things naturally, and by their own virtue, as often as

they think proper; or if there must be a particular order, or at least permission from God, for them to do what we have just said.

5th. Lastly, we should know exactly what power is possessed by these

substances which we suppose to be purely spiritual, and how far the power of the

angels, demons, and souls separated from their gross bodies, extends, in regard

to the apparitions, operations and movements attributed to them. For whilst we

are ignorant of the power which the Creator has given or left to disembodied souls, or to demons, we can in no way define what is miraculous, or prescribe the just bound to which may extend, or within which may be limited, the natural

operations of spirits, angels, and demons.

If we accord the demon the faculty of fascinating our eyes when it pleases him,

or of disposing the air so as to form the appearance of a phantom, or

phenomenon; or of restoring movement to a body which is dead but not entirely

corrupted; or of disturbing the living by ill dreams, or terrific representations, we

should no longer admire many things which we admire at present, nor regard as

miracles certain cures and certain apparitions, if they are only the natural effects

of the power of souls, angels and demons.

If a man invested with his body produced such effects of himself, we should say

with reason that they are supernatural operations, because they exceed the

known ordinary and natural power of the living man; but if a man held

commerce with a spirit, an angel, or a demon, whom by virtue of some compact,

explicit or implicit, he commanded to perform certain things which would be

above his natural powers, but not beyond the powers of the spirit whom he commanded, would the effect resulting from it be miraculous or supernatural?

No, without doubt, supposing that the spirit which produced the result did

nothing that was above his natural powers and faculties.

But would it be a miracle if a man had anything to do with an angel or a demon,

and that he should make an explicit and implicit compact with them, to oblige them on certain conditions, and with certain ceremonies, to produce effects

which would appear externally, and in our minds, to be beyond the power of

man? For instance, in the operations of certain magicians who boast of having an

explicit compact with the devil, and who by this means raise tempests, or go with extraordinary haste when they walk, or cause the death of animals, and to

men incurable maladies; or who enchant arms; or in other operations, as in the

use of the divining rod, and in certain remedies against the maladies of men and

horses, which having no natural proportion to these maladies do not fail to cure

them, although those who use these remedies protest that they have never

thought of contracting any alliance with the devil.

To reply to this question, the difficulty always recurs to know if there is between

living and mortal man a proportion or natural relation, which renders him

capable of contracting an alliance with the angel or the demon, by virtue of which these spirits obey him and exert, under his empire over them, by virtue of

the preceding compact, a power which is natural to them; for if in all that there is

nothing beyond the ordinary force of nature, either on the side of man, or on that

of angels and demons, there is nothing miraculous in one or the other; neither is

there either in God’s permitting secondary causes to act according to their natural

faculties, of which he is nevertheless always the principle, and the absolute

master, to limit, stop, suspend, extend, or augment them, according to his good

pleasure.

But as we know not, and it seems even impossible that we should know by the

light of reason, the nature and natural extent of the power of angels, demons, and

disembodied souls, it seems that it would be rash to decide in this matter, as deriving consequences of causes by their effects, or effects by causes.

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