Dr. Bräuner was a student at Erfürt, A.D. 1672, and was therefore probably born about A.D. 1654, or about a century and a quarter after Luther had declared war to extermination against the papacy by the burning of the Pope's bull. At this epoch the belief of extensive Satanic agency was still rife in the church; neither is this to be wondered at when we consider the slowness with which the human mind discards any propositions or theories which have the sanction of considerable antiquity. Unhappily in the present day, we have gone to the other extreme. Not content with rejecting the absurdities of personal and, visible communications with the Father of Lies, the mass of mankind have repudiated the idea of the Tempter's access, in any way, to the human mind and heart; nay, his very existence is all but questioned; and, if admitted into our consideration at all, he is looked upon much in the same light as the effigy of Guy Fawkes, whose place he appears to have now taken.

The next step that has been taken is to question the doctrine of a special or over-ruling Providence the succeeding one, which yet remains to be taken, is the denial of the existence of God · himself; which we may yet live to see exemplified in the torrent of infidelity and rationalism

now commencing to flood the world; and finally, as the human mind must have something extrinsic to rest upon, it will again come to "my Lord God, the Pope," as the only hope of salvation. In the first instance, he, the Pope, took advantage of the universal ignorance and darkness to steal into the world; in the last, he will come riding into it on the shoulders of rampant infidelity, which will make way for him in the manner indicated. These times, we fully believe, are nearer than is generally anticipated, witness Oxford, witness Roman Catholic Chapels springing up in all parts of enlightened, Protestant, England-and witness the various conversions, so called, to that faith, trumpeted forth in every newspaper of the day.

Incredible, therefore, as it may appear, we may yet see a repetition of the absurdities recorded in the following pages; and, therefore, the exhibition of the delusions into which the human mind, left to itself, is prone to fall, will not be without its use. If an eminent French writer, (Pinel on insanity,) is to be believed, it is still a tradition in the Church of Rome that Saint Denys, the tutelar saint of France, after having been beheaded July 28th, A.D. 704, walked several miles, carrying his head in his hands, and

kissing the lips thereof, as he went.* Now, if such an absurdity holds good in the present day, we have no warrant for believing that the superior enlightenment of the 19th century will effectually prevent our falling back into the less egregious errors of the 16th and 17th centuries.

We have but one more remark to make, before bringing this introductory chapter to a conclusion, and that is, we have been compelled to give the sense of Dr. Bräuner's work, rather than a translation of it, because there are various anecdotes and expressions in it which our great grandmothers would have read, aye, and used, without blushing, which could not possibly appear in print at the present day. Nor need we be surprised at this when we remember that MS.memoirs of a much later period, even down to the beginning of the reign of the Third George, abound in similar offences against good taste and morals, and have had to be remodelled by their respective editors. With these observations, we proceed to give the essence of Dr. Brauner's work.

* Ribieira, a Romanist authority, mentions the miracle of the Saint's carrying his head in his hands, but omits the absurdity of the KISSING.

CHAPTER I.

"Fieta voluptatis causâ sint proxima veris."

HOR. ARS. POET. v. 338,

"Fictions to please should wear the face of truth."

PREFATORY MATTER.

ADDISON.

Dr. Bräuner's Preface is an exceedingly long one; in the first part of which he gives from the Old and New Testament divers instances both of the visable appearance, and the invisible agency, of Satan. He quotes the temptation of Eve; the persecutions of Job; the possession of Saul; the sons of Sceva; &c.; and, out of the Apocrypha, the Devil in Tobit. There is no

objection to any of these instances but the last. He appeals to these as veritable instances, in which certain power was accorded to Satan, but still with limitations, beyond which he was not permitted to pass. He then proceeds to shew that, in consequence of these limitations, Satan has changed his mode of attack; and now makes his appearance as an angel of light, according to the old saying

"Latet anguis in herbâ."

"Unter diessen Blumen-zier,

Liegt ein böss und giftig thier."

"Under these gay flowers

Lies a wicked and poisonous reptile."

To Satanic agency he attributes the introduction of superstition, by which so many persons in his time were led astray from the simplicity of truth; adducing as instances, that the carters would never yoke their horses in the morning unless they had first sprinkled their backs with salt in order to guard them against any injury which might befal them from witchcraft: that pregnant women were not permitted to enter a smithy, because, if they did so, their time of pregnancy was prolonged, and their labor rendered more difficult: that, if a person walked over a child, its growth was checked, unless he broke the spell by walking backwards over it: