The belief in magic or sorcery, in fact, continues to be the most energetic belief of the ignorant and degraded all over the world, no matter what their nominal religion is. To the mass of the adherents of Buddhism in central Asia, the lama or priest is merely wizard who knows how to protect them from the malignity of evil spirits; and, accord ing to Livingstone '..nd other travelers, trials and executions for witchcraft are at this day common. throughout Africa, as they were in Europe in the 17th c., and under forms ludicrously similar. See ORDEAL, MAGIC.
Of the numerous books written about witchcraft, we note the following: Sadducis mus Triumphatus, Sadducism Vanquished,• or, Considerations about Witchcraft, a work vindicating the belief in witchcraft, by Dr. Joseph Glanvil, chaplain-in-ordinary to Charles who was one of the first fellows of the royal society, add wrote a meritori ous treatise showing the value of skepticism in science. R. Baxter (q.v.), in his Cer tainty of the World of Spirits, upholds the same side. Balthazar Bekker, a Reformed - Dutch clergyman, was the first, at the end of the 17th c. to attack the very foundation of the superstition—namely,the belief in the devil himself, or, at all events, in the possi bility of his interference In the affairs of this world. A successor of Glanvil—D. F.. Hutchinson, chaplain to George I., in his Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft (1718), writes from the skeptical point of view. SAr W. Scott, Letters on Demonology and Witch
craft, entertaining, but superficial. Brand's Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, edited by sir H. Ellis (1855), gives a collection of witch-beliefs put together without much con nect .on or method. H. Williams's Superstitions of Witchcraft (1865) takes a wide histori tal view of the subject, and evinces extensive reading. C. Mackay gives a good digest of it in brief space in a section of his work on Extraordinary Popular Delusions (1841). Thomas Wright's Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, 2 vols. (1852), contains a large collec tion of the most interesting stories of individual eases. Soldan, Geschichte der Ilexenprec resse (Scutt. 1843); Ennemoser, Geschichte der Magic, 2d ed. (Leip. 1844; translated by W. Howitt, Loud. 1854). L. F. Alfred Maury, La Magic et l' Astrologic dan.s AntiquiM et an Mogen Age (Loud. 1860), attempts to give a philosophy or theory of all superstitious beliefs. J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, with his wonted sagacity and prodigality of learning, traces the several elements of the witch-creed to their roots in the beliefs of pagan times. Haas, Die Hexenprocesse (1865); Roskoff, Geschichte des Teufels (1869); Buckle, _History of Civilization (1857-61); Lecky, History of Rationalism (1865); Tylor's Primitive Culture (1871); Conway, Demonology and Devil Lore (1878).