[75] A thoughtful writer, and one who is evidently far-seeing and awake to the danger, recently made the following pertinent remarks in the _Church Review_:--
"The presence of Superstition is always the sign of a wandering from the true path; the _excess_ of Superstition almost invariably the precursor of great intellectual and religious changes, if not absolute convulsions. Before the great crash of Paganism the necromancers and practisers of curious arts were carrying on an unusually brisk trade among the Romans. We all know how prevalent was the belief in witches, wizards, and astrology at the time immediately preceding the (so-called) Reformation. Before the French Revolution the sect founded by Cagliostro and Lorenza Feliciani, which professed a knowledge of the ancient arts of the Egyptians, found great numbers of followers. And have we not a sign of a national mental crisis in our own day in the prevalence of 'Spiritualism,' which is the form which necromancy at present takes? There may be many people who are utterly unaware how large a number of their fellow-countrymen, and especially of their countrywomen, believe in Spiritualism, and attend _séances_. Those who do so are not usually very fond of parading their belief, because they have a lurking suspicion that they may get laughed at; but this very reserve makes the bond between the votaries of Spiritualism so much the stronger. It is no exaggeration to say that the practice of dealing with familiar spirits is on the increase in Great Britain at the present moment." (A.D. 1873.)
[76] "On the Invisible World," by Joseph Hall, D.D., &c., book i. sec. 8. Father Christopher Davenport, better known as "Sancta Clara," in one of his most remarkable treatises, "Paralipomena Philosophica de Mundo Peripatetico," chap. iv. p. 68 (A.D. 1652), confirms the account in the text of the above-named Bishop of Exeter, giving all the details of this particular miraculous cure. It seems that both the Well and Chapel of S. Madron were constantly visited by the faithful during the first part of the seventeenth century, especially in the month of May and on the feast of Corpus Christi.
[77] "History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe," by W. E. H. Lecky, M.A. Fourth edition in two volumes. London, 1870.