s been related in the former part of the work, but
more succinctly.

[668] Arist. Treatise on Dreams and Vigils.

[669] The Abbe de Vallemont, in his work on the Singularities of
Vegetation. Paris, 1 vol. 12mo.

[670] This was a century and a half ago; but the Philosophical
Transactions record no account of any successful result to such
experiments.

[671] Madame the Duchess-mother, daughter of the late king, Louis
XIV., and mother of the duke lately dead, of M. the Count de
Charolois, and of M. the Count de Clermont.

LETTER OF M. THE MARQUIS MAFFEI
ON MAGIC;
ADDRESSED TO
THE REVEREND
FATHER INNOCENT ANSALDI,
OF THE ORDER OF ST. DOMINIC;
TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN OF THE AUTHOR.

LETTER OF M. THE MARQUIS MAFFEI ON MAGIC.

MY REVEREND FATHER,

It is to the goodness of your reverence, in regard to myself, that I
must attribute the curiosity you appear to feel to know what I think
concerning the book which the Sieur Jerome Tartarotti has just
published on the _Nocturnal Assemblies of the Sorcerers_. I reply to
you with the greatest pleasure; and I am going to tell my opinion
fully and unreservedly, on condition that you will examine what I
write to you with your usual acuteness, and that you will tell me
frankly whatever you remark in it, whether good or bad, and that may
appear to deserve either your approbation or your censure. I had
already read this book, and passed an eulogium on it, both for the
great erudition displayed therein by the author, as because he
refutes, in a very sensible manner, some ridiculous opinions with
which people are infatuated concerning sorcerers, and some other
equally dangerous abuses. But, to tell the truth, with that exception,
I am little disposed to approve it; if M. Muratori has done so in his
letter, which has been seen by several persons, either he has not read
the work through, or he and I on that point entertain very different
sentiments. In regard to my opinion, your reverence will see, by what
I shall say, that it is the same as your own on this subject, as you
have done me the favor to show by your letter.

I. In this work there is laid down, in the first place, as a certain
and indubitable principle, the existence and reality of magic, and the
truth of the effects produced by it--superior, they say, to all
natural powers; he gives it the name of "diabolical magic," and
defines it, "The knowledge of certain superstitious practices, such a