Page:The Lay of the Last Minstrel - Scott (1805).djvu/306



Popular belief, though contrary to the doctrines of the church, made a favourable distinction betwixt magicians, and necromancers or wizards; the former were supposed to command the evil spirits, and the latter to serve, or at least to be in league and compact with, those enemies of mankind. The arts of subjecting the dæmons were manifold; sometimes the fiends were actually swindled by the magicians, as in the case of the bargain betwixt one of their number and the poet Virgil. The classic reader will doubtless be curious to peruse this anecdote.

"Virgilius was at scole at Tolenton, where he stodyed dyligently, for he was of great understandynge. Upon a tyme,