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Preface[xv]
CHAPTER
[I.]The Appearance of Good Angels proved by the Books of the Old Testament[37]
[II.]The Appearance of Good Angels proved by the Books of the New Testament[38]
[III.]Under what form have Good Angels appeared?[41]
[IV.]Opinions of the Jews, Christians, Mahometans, and Oriental Nations, concerning the Apparitions of Good Angels[44]
[V.]Opinion of the Greeks and Romans on the Apparitions of Good Genii[47]
[VI.]The Apparition of Bad Angels proved by the Holy Scriptures--Under what Form they have appeared[50]
[VII.]Of Magic[57]
[VIII.]Objections to the Reality of Magic[61]
[IX.]Reply to the Objections[63]
[X.]Examination of the Affair of Hocque, Magician[67]
[XI.]Magic of the Egyptians and Chaldeans[70]
[XII.]Magic among the Greeks and Romans[73]
[XIII.]Examples which prove the Reality of Magic[75]
[XIV.]Effects of Magic according to the Poets[81]
[XV.]Of the Pagan Oracles[83]
[XVI.]The Certainty of the Event predicted, is not always a proof that the Prediction comes from God[86]
[XVII.]Reasons which lead us to believe that the greater part of the Ancient Oracles were only Impositions of the Priests and Priestesses, who feigned that they were inspired by God[89]
[XVIII.]On Sorcerers and Sorceresses, or Witches[93]
[XIX.]Instances of Sorcerers and Witches being, as they said, transported to the Sabbath[98]
[XX.]Story of Louis Gaufredi and Magdalen de la Palud, owned by themselves to be a Sorcerer and Sorceress[102]
[XXI.]Reasons which prove the Possibility of Sorcerers and Witches being transported to the Sabbath[106]
[XXII.]Continuation of the same Subject[111]
[XXIII.]Obsession and Possession of the Devil[114]
[XXIV.]The Truth and Reality of Possession and Obsession by the Devil proved from Scripture[117]
[XXV.]Examples of Real Possessions caused by the Devil[119]
[XXVI.]Continuation of the same Subject[123]
[XXVII.]Objections against the Obsessions and Possessions of the Demon--Reply to the Objections[128]
[XXVIII.]Continuation of Objections against Possessions, and some Replies to those Objections[132]
[XXIX.]Of Familiar Spirits[138]
[XXX.]Some other Examples of Elves[142]
[XXXI.]Spirits that keep Watch over Treasure[149]
[XXXII.]Other instances of Hidden Treasures, which were guarded by Good or Bad Spirits[153]
[XXXIII.]Spectres which appear, and predict things unknown and to come[156]
[XXXIV.]Other Apparitions of Spectres[159]
[XXXV.]Examination of the Apparition of a pretended Spectre[163]
[XXXVI.]Of Spectres which haunt Houses[165]
[XXXVII.]Other Instances of Spectres which haunt certain Houses[170]
[XXXVIII.]Prodigious effects of Imagination in those Men or Women who believe they hold Intercourse with the Demon[172]
[XXXIX.]Return and Apparitions of Souls after the Death of the Body, proved from Scripture[176]
[XL.]Apparitions of Spirits proved from History[180]
[XLI.]More Instances of Apparitions[185]
[XLII.]On the Apparitions of Spirits who imprint their Hands on Clothes or on Wood[190]
[XLIII.]Opinions of the Jews, Greeks, and Latins, concerning the Dead who are left unburied[195]
[XLIV.]Examination of what is required or revealed to the Living by the Dead who return to Earth[201]
[XLV.]Apparitions of Men still alive, to other living Men, absent, and very distant from each other[204]
[XLVI.]Arguments concerning Apparitions[216]
[XLVII.]Objections against Apparitions, and Replies to those Objections[221]
[XLVIII.]Some other Objections and Replies[224]
[XLIX.]The Secrets of Physics and Chemistry taken for supernatural things[229]
[L.]Conclusion of the Treatise on Apparitions[232]
[LI.]Way of explaining Apparitions[235]
[LII.]The difficulty of explaining the manner in which Apparitions make their appearance, whatever system may be proposed on the subject[237]
Dissertation on the Ghosts who return to Earth bodily,
the Excommunicated, the Oupires or Vampires, Vroucolacas, etc.		[241]
Preface[243]
[I.]The Resurrection of a Dead Person is the Work of God only[247]
[II.]Revival of Persons who were not really Dead[249]
[III.]Resurrection of a Man who had been buried Three Years, resuscitated by St. Stanislaus[251]
[IV.]Can a Man really Dead appear in his own Body?[253]
[V.]Revival or Apparition of a Girl who had been Dead some Months[256]
[VI.]A Woman taken Alive from her Tomb[259]
[VII.]Revenans, or Vampires of Moravia[260]
[VIII.]Dead Persons in Hungary who suck the Blood of the Living[262]
[IX.]Narrative of a Vampire from the Jewish Letters, Letter 137[263]
[X.]Other Instances of Revenans.--Continuation of the "Gleaner"[264]
[XI.]Argument of the Author of the Jewish Letters, concerning Revenans[266]
[XII.]Continuation of the argument of the Dutch Gleaner[270]
[XIII.]Narrative from the "Mercure Gallant" of 1693 and 1694 on Revenans[272]
[XIV.]Conjectures of the "Glaneur de Hollandais"[273]
[XV.]Another Letter on Ghosts[276]
[XVI.]Pretended Vestiges of Vampirism in Antiquity[278]
[XVII.]Ghosts in Northern Countries[282]
[XVIII.]Ghosts in England[283]
[XIX.]Ghosts in Peru[284]
[XX.]Ghosts in Lapland[285]
[XXI.]Return of a Man who had been Dead some Months[285]
[XXII.]Excommunicated Persons who went out of Churches[289]
[XXIII.]Some Instances of the Excommunicated being rejected or cast out of Consecrated Ground[291]
[XXIV.]Instance of an Excommunicated Martyr being cast out of the Ground[292]
[XXV.]A Man cast out of the Church for having refused to pay Tithes[293]
[XXVI.]Instances of Persons who have given Signs of Life after their Death, and have withdrawn themselves respectfully to make room for more worthy Persons[294]
[XXVII.]People who perform Pilgrimage after Death[296]
[XXVIII.]Reasoning upon the Excommunicated who go out of Churches[297]
[XXIX.]Do the Excommunicated rot in the Earth?[300]
[XXX.]Instances to show that the Excommunicated do not rot, and that they appear to the Living[301]
[XXXI.]Instances of these Returns to Earth of the Excommunicated[302]
[XXXII.]A Vroucolacan exhumed in the presence of M. de Tournefort[304]
[XXXIII.]Has the Demon power to kill, and then to restore to Life?[308]
[XXXIV.]Examination of the Opinion that the Demon can restore Animation to a Dead Body[310]
[XXXV.]Instances of Phantoms which have appeared to the Living and given many Signs of Life[313]
[XXXVI.]Devoting People to Death, practised by the Heathens[314]
[XXXVII.]Instances of dooming to Death among Christians[317]
[XXXVIII.]Instances of Persons who have promised to give each other News of themselves from the other World[321]
[XXXIX.]Extracts from the Political Works of the Abbé de St. Pierre[325]
[XL.]Divers Systems to explain Ghosts[331]
[XLI.]Divers Instances of Persons being Buried Alive[333]
[XLII.]Instances of Drowned Persons who have come back to Life and Health[335]
[XLIII.]Instances of Women thought Dead who came to Life again[337]
[XLIV.]Can these Instances be applied to the Hungarian Revenans?[339]
[XLV.]Dead People who chew in their Graves and devour their own Flesh[340]
[XLVI.]Singular Example of a Hungarian Revenant[341]
[XLVII.]Argument on this matter[343]
[XLVIII.]Are the Vampires or Revenans really Dead?[344]
[XLIX.]Instance of a Man named Curma being sent back to this World[351]
[L.]Instances of Persons who fall into Ecstatic Trances when they will, and remain senseless[354]
[LI.]Application of such Instances to Vampires[356]
[LII.]Examination of the Opinion that the Demon fascinates the Eyes of those to whom Vampires appear[360]
[LIII.]Instances of Resuscitated Persons who relate what they saw in the other World[361]
[LIV.]The Traditions of the Pagans on the other Life, are derived from the Hebrews and Egyptians[364]
[LV.]Instances of Christians being Resuscitated and sent back to this World.--Vision of Vetinus, a Monk of Augia[366]
[LVI.]Vision of Bertholdas, related by Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims[368]
[LVII.]Vision of St. Fursius[369]
[LVIII.]Vision of a Protestant of York, and others[371]
[LIX.]Conclusion of this Dissertation[374]
[LX.]Moral Impossibility that Ghosts can come out of their Tombs[376]
[LXI.]What is related of the Bodies of the Excommunicated who walk out of Churches, is subject to very great Difficulties (in Belief and Explanation)[378]
[LXII.]Remarks on the Dissertation, concerning the Spirit which came to St. Maur des Fossés[380]
[LXIII.]Dissertation of an Anonymous Writer on what should be thought of the Appearance of Spirits, on Occasion of the Adventure at St. Maur, in 1706[387]
Letter of the Marquis Maffei on Magic[407]
Letter of the Reverend Father Dom Calmet, to M. Debure[440]

PREFACE.

The great number of authors who have written upon the apparitions of angels, demons, and disembodied souls is not unknown to me; and I do not presume sufficiently on my own capacity to believe that I shall succeed better in it than they have done, and that I shall enhance their knowledge and their discoveries. I am perfectly sensible that I expose myself to criticism, and perhaps to the mockery of many readers, who regard this matter as done with, and decried in the minds of philosophers, learned men, and many theologians. I must not reckon either on the approbation of the people, whose want of discernment prevents their being competent judges of this same. My aim is not to foment superstition, nor to feed the vain curiosity of visionaries, and those who believe without examination everything that is related to them as soon as they find therein anything marvelous and supernatural. I write only for reasonable and unprejudiced minds, which examine things seriously and coolly; I speak only for those who assent even to known truth but after mature reflection, who know how to doubt of what is uncertain, to suspend their judgment on what is doubtful, and to deny what is manifestly false.

As for pretended freethinkers, who reject everything to distinguish themselves, and to place themselves above the common herd, I leave them in their elevated sphere; they will think of this work as they may consider proper, and as it is not calculated for them, apparently they will not take the trouble to read it.

I undertook it for my own information, and to form to myself a just idea of all that is said on the apparitions of angels, of the demon, and of disembodied souls. I wished to see how far that matter was certain or uncertain, true or false, known or unknown, clear or obscure.

In this great number of facts which I have collected I have endeavored to make a choice, and not to heap together too great a multitude of them, for fear that in the too numerous examples the doubtful might not harm the certain, and in wishing to prove too much I might prove absolutely nothing. There will, even amongst those I have cited, be found some which will not easily be credited by many readers, and I allow them to regard them as not related.

I beg those readers, nevertheless, to discern justly amongst these facts and instances; after which they can with me form their opinion—affirm, deny, or remain in doubt.