es--Plutarch on Spectres--Socrates on the same
subject--Archbishop Bruno and the Spectre--A Haunted
House--A Child's Ghost--Spectre at Sea--Ghost of a
Murdered Man in New South Wales--A Haunted House--A
Spectre at Sea.

The belief and teaching of the Roman Catholic Church lead to a
conviction that there are many evil spirits who act on men immediately
by forming in the imagination representations and phantasies of an
evil nature. The subjects of Satan, on whom his tyranny is chiefly
exercised, are those who wilfully come under the empire of the prince
of darkness, such as magicians, sorcerers, and persons who have
renounced their baptism.

In a summary of instructions for the guidance of ecclesiastics,
entitled _De Instructione Sacerdotum_, which appeared about the middle
of the seventeenth century, we find in substance the following:--

"Magic is produced by the power of demons. In reality
there is no power existing in the magician, for the
effects are produced by the devil at the command of
the magician. In the first place, demons produce
effects by transferring bodies with great rapidity
from one place to another. For they have power over
all inferior things, natural and artificial, in this
respect; and, moreover, they are endowed with
wonderful agility, which enables them to pass in an
instant from one place to another, however remote.
Secondly, demons produce effects by the occult
application of natural causes, and by accelerating
their actions, for their knowledge is incredible. They
understand the nature and properties of everything in
the mineral, vegetable, and animal worlds, and they
know where everything is. Hence they sometimes produce
trees, fruits, and animals in an incredibly short
space of time. They often effect cures by the occult
use of medicines, or by entering the body and
expelling evil humours. Thirdly, they perform
prodigies by acting on the senses. The compacts
between the demons and magicians are based upon
engagements mutually entered into. The magician
promises to obey the demon, and the demon, on his
part, promises to work for him and at his bidding. The
compact is sometimes entered into with great
solemnity, with the demon seated on a throne,
surrounded by a host of evil spirits, as attendant