we see and hear
what we do not, or that we neither see nor hear what is passing before
our eyes, or which strikes our ears; as when the soldiers sent to
arrest Elisha spoke to him and saw him before they recognized him, or
when the inhabitants of Sodom could not discover Lot's door, although
it was before their eyes, or when the disciples of Emmaus knew not
that it was Jesus Christ who accompanied them and expounded the
Scriptures; they opened their eyes and knew him _only by the breaking
of bread_.

That fascination of the senses which makes us believe that we see what
we do not see, or that suspension of the exercise and natural
functions of our senses which prevents us from seeing and recognizing
what is passing before our eyes, is all of it hardly less miraculous
than to condense the air, or rarefy it, or give solidity and
consistence to what is purely spiritual and disengaged from matter.

From all this, it follows that no apparition can take place without a
sort of miracle, and without a concurrence, both extraordinary and
supernatural, of the power of God who commands, or causes, or permits
an angel, or a demon, or a disembodied soul to appear, act, speak,
walk, and perform other functions which belong only to an organized
body.

I shall be told that it is useless to recur to the miraculous and the
supernatural, if we have acknowledged in spiritual substances a
natural power of showing themselves, whether by condensing the air, or
by producing a massive and palpable body, or in raising up some dead
body, to which these spirits give life and motion for a certain time.

I own it all; but I dare maintain that that is not possible either to
angel or demon, nor to any spiritual substance whatsoever. The soul
can produce in herself thoughts, will, and wishes; she can give her
impulsion to the movements of her body, and repress its sallies and
agitations; but how does she do that? Philosophy can hardly explain
it, but by saying that by virtue of the union between herself and the
body, God, by an effect of his wisdom, has given her power to act upon
the humors, its organs, and impress them with certain movements; but
there is reason to believe that the soul performs all that only as an
occasional cause, and that it is God as the first, necessary,
immediate, and essential cause, which produces all the movements of
the body that are made in a natural way.

Neither angel nor demon has more privilege in this respect o