The Project Gutenberg eBook, Thaumaturgia, by An Oxonian

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Title: Thaumaturgia

Author: An Oxonian

Release Date: November 15, 2003 [eBook #10088]

Language: English

Chatacter set encoding: US-ASCII

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THAUMATURGIA***

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THAUMATURGIA,

OR

ELUCIDATIONS OF THE MARVELLOUS.

BY

AN OXONIAN.

1835

"Bombastes kept the devil's bird,
Shut in the pommel of his sword,
And taught him all the cunning pranks,
Of past and future mountebanks."
_Hudibras_.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Demonology--The Devil, a most unaccountable personage--Who is he?--His
predilection for old women--Traditions concerning evil spirits &c.

CHAPTER II.

Magic and Magical rites.

Jewish magi.

CHAPTER III.

On the several kinds of magic.

Augury, or divinations drawn from the flight and feeding of birds.

Aruspices, or divinations drawn from brute or human sacrifices.

Divisions of divination by the ancients--prodigies, etc.

CHAPTER IV.

History of Oracles--The principal oracles of antiquity.

The oracle of Jupiter Hammon. The oracle of Delphos, or Pythian Apollo.

Ceremonies practised on consulting oracles.

Oracles often equivocal and obscure.

Urim and Thummim.

Reputation of oracles, how lost.

Cessation of oracles.

Had demons any share in the oracles?

Of oracles, the artifices of priests of false divinities.

CHAPTER V.

The British Druids, or magi--Origin of fairies--Ancient
superstitions--Their skill in medicine, etc.

The British magi.

CHAPTER VI.

Aesculapian mysteries, etc.

CHAPTER VII.

Inferior deities attending mankind from their birth to their decease.

CHAPTER VIII.

Judicial astrology--Its chemical application to the prolongation of life
and health--Alchymical delusions.

CHAPTER IX