--A PICKLED SORCERER.--CORNELIUS AGRIPPA.--HIS
STUDENTS AND HIS BLACK DOG.--DOCTOR FAUSTUS.--HUMBUGGING
HORSE-JOCKEYS.--ZIITO AND HIS LARGE SWALLOW.--SALAMANCA.--DEVIL TAKE THE
HINDMOST.

Magic, sorcery, witchcraft, enchantment, necromancy, conjuring,
incantation, soothsaying, divining, the black art, are all one and the
same humbug. They show how prone men are to believe in _some_
supernatural power, in _some_ beings wiser and stronger than
themselves, but at the same time how they stop short, and find
satisfaction in some debasing humbug, instead of looking above and
beyond it all to God, the only being that it is really worth while for
man to look up to or beseech.

Magic and witchcraft are believed in by the vast majority of mankind,
and by immense numbers even in Christian countries. They have always
been believed in, so far as I know. In following up the thread of
history, we always find conjuring or witch work of some kind, just as
long as the narrative has space enough to include it. Already, in the
early dawn of time, the business was a recognized and long established
one. And its history is as unbroken from that day down to this, as the
history of the race.

In the narrow space at my command at present, I shall only gather as
many of the more interesting stories about these humbugs, as I can make
room for. Reasoning about the subject, or full details of it, are at
present out of the question. A whole library of books exists about it.

It is a curious fact that throughout the middle ages, the Roman poet
Virgil was commonly believed to have been a great magician. Traditions
were recorded by monastic chroniclers about him, that he made a brass
fly and mounted it over one of the gates of Naples, having instilled
into this metallic insect such potent magical qualities that as long as
it kept guard over the gate, no musquitos, or flies, or cockroach, or
other troublesome insects could exist in the city. What would have
become of the celebrated Bug Powder man in those days? The story is
told about Virgil as well as about Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, and
other magicians, that he made a brazen head which could prophesy. He
also made some statues of the gods of the various nations subject to
Rome, so enchanted that if one of those nations was preparing to rebel,
the statue of its god rung a bell and pointed a finger toward the
nation. The same set of stories tells how poor Virgil came to an
untimely end in conse