raft. The Talmud, if there is any truth in the
assertions of the apologists of witchcraft, commemorates many of
the most virtuous Jews accused of the crime and executed by the
procurator of Judea.[12] Exorcism was a very popular and
lucrative profession.[13] Simon Magus the magician (_par
excellence_), the impious pretender to miraculous powers, who
'bewitched the people of Samaria by his sorceries,' is celebrated
by Eusebius and succeeding Christian writers as the fruitful
parent of heresy and sorcery.

[10] Some ingenious remarks on the subject of the serpent,
&c., may be found in _Eastern Life_, part ii. 5, by H.
Martineau.

[11] Horst, quoted in Ennemoser's _History of Magic_. It has
been often remarked as a singular phenomenon, that the
'chosen people,' so prompt in earlier periods on every
occasion to idolatry and its cruel rites, after its
restoration under Persian auspices, has been ever since
uniformly opposed, even fiercely, to any sign contrary to the
unity of the Deity. But the Magian system was equally averse
to idolatry.

[12] Bishop Jewell (_Apology for the Church of England_)
states that Christ was accused by the malice of his
countrymen of being a juggler and wizard--_praestigiator et
maleficus_. In the apostolic narrative and epistles, sorcery,
witchcraft, &c., are crimes frequently described and
denounced. The Sadducean sect alone denied the existence of
demons.

[13] The common belief of the people of Palestine in the
transcendent power of exorcism is illustrated by a miracle
of this sort, gravely related by Josephus. It was exhibited
before Vespasian and his army. 'He [Eleazar, one of the
professional class] put a ring that had a root of one of
those sorts mentioned by Solomon to the nostrils of the
demoniac; after which he drew out the demon through his
nostrils: and when the man fell down immediately he adjured
him to return into him no more, making still mention of
Solomon, and reciting the incantations which he composed.
And when Eleazar would demonstrate to the spectators that he
had such power, he set a little way off a cup or basin full
of water, and commanded the demon as he went out of the man
to overturn it, and thereby to let the spectators know he
had left the man.' This performance was received with
contempt or credulity by the spectators according to their
faith: but the credulity of the believers could har