Page:A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More.djvu/172

130 : which opinion has no worse favourers then Plutarch, Maximus Tyrius, and other Platonists: Or lastly, whether there may not be of both sorts. For separate Souls being, in a condition not unlike the Angels themselves, it is easie to conceive that they may very well undergoe the like offices.

2. Secondly, we are invited to enquire, Whether every man have his Guardian Genius or no. That Witches have many, such as they are, their own Confessions testifie. The Pythagoreans were of opinion that every man has two Genii, a good one and a bad one. Which Mahomet has taken into his Religion, adding also, that they sit on mens shoulders with table-books in their hands, and that the one writes down all the good, the other all the evil a man does. But such expressions as those I look upon as symbolical rather then natural. And I think it more reasonable that a man changing the frame of his mind, changes his Genius withall: or rather, unless a man be very sincere and single-hearted, that he is left to common Providence; as well as if he be not desperately wicked or deplorably miserable, scarce any particular evil Spirit interposes or offers himself a perpetual Assistant in his affairs and fortunes. But extreme Poverty, irksome old Age, want of Friends, the Contempt, Injury and Hard-heartedness of evil Neighbours, working upon a Soul low sunk into the Body, and wholly devoid of the Divine life, does sometimes kindle so sharp, so eager, and so piercing a desire of Satisfaction and Revenge, that the shrieks of men while they are a murthering, the howling of a Wolf in the fields in the night, or the squeaking and roaring of tortured Beasts, do not so certainly call to them those of their own kind, as this powerful Magick of a pensive and complaining Soul in the bitterness of its affliction attracts the aid of these over-officious Spirits. So that it is most probable that they that are the forwardest to hang Witches are the first that made them, and have no more goodness nor true piety then these they so willingly prosecute, but are as wicked as they, though with better luck or more discretion, offending no further then the Law will permit them; and therefore they securely starve the poor helpless man, though with a great deal of clamour of Justice they will revenge the death of their Hog, or Cow.

3. Thirdly, it were worth our disquisition. Why Spirits so seldome now-a-daies appear, especially those that are good: whether it be not the wickedness of the present Age, as I have already hinted; or the general prejudice men have against all Spirits that appear, that they must be straightways Devils; or the frailty of humane nature, that is not usually able to bear the appearance of a Spirit, no more then other Animals are; for into what agonies Horses and Dogs are cast upon their approach, is in every ones mouth, and is a good circumstance to distinguish a reall Apparition from our own Imaginations: or lastly, whether it be the condition of Spirits themselves, who, it may be, without some violence done to their own nature cannot become visible; it being haply as troublesome a thing to them to keep themselves in one steady visible consistencie in the aire, as it is for men that dive, to hold their breath in the water. Rh