k a hammer and broke the troublesome android to pieces.
[Sidenote: These ideas infect all classes.] This reverend father, known
among his contemporaries as the "seraphic doctor," was not without
experience in the mysterious craft. Annoyed by the frequent passing of
horses near his dwelling, he constructed a magical horse of brass, and
buried it in the road. From that moment no animal could be made to pass
his door. Among brazen heads of great celebrity is that of Friar Bacon
and Friar Bungy. This oracle announced, "Time is; time was; time is
passed;" perhaps it was some kind of clock. The alchemist Peter d'Apono
had seven spirits in glass bottles. He had entrapped them by baiting
with distilled dew, and imprisoned them safely by dexterously putting in
the corks. He is the same who possessed a secret which it is greatly to
be regretted that he did not divulge for the benefit of chemists who
have come after him, that, whatever money he paid, within the space of
one hour's time came back of itself again into his pocket. That was
better than even the philosopher's stone.

[Sidenote: Modifications of supernaturalism.] These supernatural notions
were at different times modified by two intrusive elements, the first
being the Perso-Arabic just alluded to, the second derived from the
north of Europe. This element was witchcraft; for, though long before,
among Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, decrepit women were known as
witches--as the Thessalian crone who raised a corpse from the dead for
Sextus by lashing it with a snake--it was not until a later period that
this element was fairly developed. [Sidenote: The persecutions for
witchcraft.] A bull of Pope Innocent VIII., published A.D. 1484, says,
"It has come to our ears that numbers of both sexes do not avoid to have
intercourse with the infernal fiends, and that by their sorceries they
afflict both man and beast. They blight the marriage-bed; destroy the
births of women and the increase of cattle; they blast the corn on the
ground, the grapes in the vineyard, the fruits of the trees, and the
grass and herbs of the field." At this time, therefore, the head of the
Church had not relinquished a belief in these delusions. The
consequences of the punishment he ordained were very dreadful. In the
valleys of the Alps many hundred aged women were committed to the flames
under an accusation of denying Christ, dishonouring the crucifix, and
solemnizing a devil's sabbath in company with the fi