p. 374, 8vo ed.) It seems safe to conclude from the Septuagint renderings, and their identity with the terms used by classical writets, that the pretended exercise of this art in ancient times was accompanied with the use of drugs, or fumigations made of them. No doubt the skilful use of certain chemicals, if restricted to the knowledge of a few persons, might, in ages unenlightened by science, along with other resources of natural magic, be made the means of extensive imposture. ThE natural gases, exhalations, etc., would contribute their share, as appears from the ancient account of the origin of the oracle at Delphi. The real mis chiefs ever effected by the professors of magic on mankind, etc., may be safely ascribed to the actual administration of poison. Josephus states a case of poisoning under the form of a philtre or love potion, and says that the Arabian women were reported to be skilful in making such potions (Antig. xvii. I). Such means doubtless consti tute the real perniciousness of the African species of witchcraft called Obi, the similarity of which word to the Hebrew 11N, inflation, is remarkable. Among the Sandwich Islanders, some, who had professed witchcraft, confessed, after their conver sion to Christianity, that they had poisoned their victims. The death of Sir Thomas Overbury is cited as an instance in this country, by Sir Walter Scott (ut supra). There was, indeed, a wide scope for the production of very fantastic effects, short of I death, by such means. The story of the witch of Endor,' as she is commonly but improperly called, is, under the article SAUL, referred to witchcraft. She indeed belongs to another class of pretenders to supernatural powers [DivINATIoN]. She was a necromancer, or one of those persons who pre tended to call up the spirits of the dead to converse with the living (see Is. viii. 19 ; xxix. 4 ; lxv. 3) A full account is given of such persons by Lucan (vi. 591, etc.) and by Tibullus (i. 2 ; V, 45), where the pretensions of the sorceress are thus described : Hmc cantu finditque solum, Manesque sepulchris Elicit, et tepido devocat ossa rogo.
Of 'Much the same character is the Sibyl in the 1 6th book of Virgil's 2Eneid. It is related as the last and crowning act of Saul's rebellion against God, that he consulted a woman who had a fami liar spirit' (I Sam. xxviii. 7), literally ' a mistress of the 06,'—an act forbidden by the divine law (Lev. xx. 6), which sentenced the pretenders to mch a power to death (ver. 27), and which Jaw .Saul himself had recently enforced (1. Satn. xxviii. 3, 9), because, it is supposed, they had freely pre dicted his approaching ruin ; although, after the well-known prophecies of Samuel to that effect, the disasters Saul had already encountered, and the growing influence of David, there needed no ghost to come from the grave to tell them this.' Various explanations of this story have been offered. It has been attempted to resolve the whole into imposture and collusthn. Saul, who was naturally a weak and excitable man, had become, through a long series of vexations and anxieties, absolutely delirious,' as Patrick ob serves. He was afraid and his heart greatly trembled,' says the sacred writer. In this state of mind, and upon the very eve of his last battle, he commissions his own servants to seek him a woman that had a familiar spirit, and attended by two of them, be comes to her by night,' the most favour able time for imposition. He converses with her alone, his two attendants, whether his secret enemies or real friends, being absent, somewhere, yet, however, close at hand. Might not one of these, or some one else, have agreed with the woman to personate Samuel in another room ?— for it appears that Saul, though he spoke with, did not see the ghost (ver. 13, 14) ; who, it should be observed, told him nothing but what his own at tendants could have told him, with the exception of those words, to-morrow shall thou and thy sons be with me' (ver. 19) ; to which, however, it is replied, that Saul's death did not occur upon the morrow, and that the word so translated is suffi ciently ambiguous, for though -Inn means ' to morrow' in some passages, it means the future in definitely in others (Exod. xiii. 14, and see the margin ; Josh. iv. 6, 21 ; comp. Matt. vi. 34). It is further urged, that her crying with a, loud voice,' and her tellin,g Saul, at the same time, that she knew him, were the well-timed arts of the sorceress, intended to magnify her pretended skill. It is, however, objected against this, or any other hypothesis of collusion, that the sacred writer not only represents the Pythoness as affirming, but also himself affirms, that she saw Samuel, and that Samuel spoke to Saul, nor does Ile drop the least hint that it was not the real Samuel of whom lie was speaking. The same objections apply equally to the theory of ventriloquism, which has been grounded upon the word used by the Sept., bryacr rpi,uvern. Others have given a literal interfireta tion of the story, and have maintained that Satnuel actually appeared to Saul. Justin Martyr maintains this theory, and in his dialogue with Trypho the Jew, ur,ges this incident in proof of the immortality of the soul (p. 333). The same view is taken in tile additions to the Sept. in Chron. x. 13, nal clre xpivaro ctiaotiIiX it p0191)T7)S ; and Ecclus. xlvi. 9, 20, it is said, and after his death Samuel prophesied, and showed the king his end,' etc. Such also is the view Josephus takes (Antiq. vi. 14. 3. 4), where he bestows a laboured eulogium upon the woman. It is, however, objected that the actual appearance of Samuel is inconsistent with all we are taught by revelation concerning the state of the dead ; involves the possibility of a spirit or soul assuming a corporeal shape, conversing audibly, etc. ; and further, that it is incredible that God would submit the departed souls of his servants to be summoned back to earth, by rites either utterly futile, or else deriv ing their efficacy from the co-operation of Satan.
So Tertullian argues (De Anima, cap. Ivii.), and many other of the ancients. Others have sup posed that the woman induced Satan or some evil spirit to personate Samuel. But this thorny, beside other difficulties, attributes nothing less than miraculous power to the devil ; for it supposes the apparition of a spiritual and incorporeal being, and that Satan can assume the appearance of any one he pleases. Again, the historian (ver. 14). calls this appearance to Saul, N.Int.../ mn, Samuel himself' (the latter word is entirely omitted by our translators) ; which Ile could not with truth have done if it was no other than the devil; who, besides, is here representedas the severe reprover of Saul's impiety and. wickedness. The admission that Satan or an evil spirit could thus personate an individual at pleasure, would endanger the strongest evidences of Christianity. Others have maintained another interpretation, whith ap pears to us at once tenable and countenanced by similar narratives in Scripture—namely, that the whole account is the narrative of a miracle, a divine representation or impression, partly upon the senses of Saul and partly upon those of the woman, and intended for the rebuke and punishment of Saul. It is urged, from the air of the narrative in ver. 1, 12, that Samuel appeared before the woman had any time for jugglery, fumigations, etc. ; for al though the word when' (yen 12) is speciously printed. in Roman characters, it has nothing to answer to it in the original, which reads simply thus, beginning at ver. : `Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee ? And he said, Bring me up Samuel. And the woman saw Samuel, and cried with a loud voice.' No sooner then had Saul said, Bring me up Samuel,' than Samuel himself was presented to her mincl—an event so contrary to her expectation, that she cried out with terror. At the same time, and by the same mira culous means, she was made aware of the royal dignity of her visitant. The vision then continues in the mind of Saul, who thereby receives his last reproof from heaven, and bears the sentence of his approaching doom. Thus God interposed with a miracle previously to the use of any magical formulze, as he did when the king of Moab had recourse to sorceries to overrule the mind of Balaam, so that lie was compelled to bless those whom Balak wanted him to curse (Num. xxiii.) ; and as God also interposed when Ahaziah sent to consult Baal-zebub, his god, alxnit his recovery, when by his prophet Elijah he stopped the messengers, reproved their master, and denounced his death (2 Kings i. 2, 16). It may also be observed that Saul was on this occasion simply sentenced to the death he had justly incurred by having, recourse to those means which he knew to be unlawful. Of the same nature of divine representation or vision, we think, was the reproof administered to Elijah, at Mount Iloreb, when great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord,' and was succeeded by 'an earthquake,' etc. (z Kings xix. 1, etc.) Of the same nature, also, was the Temptation of our Lord (see the article, and other instances of divine vision not expressly specified as such, in Bishop Law's Theory of Re ligion, pp. S5, 86, London 82o). Farmer is of opinion that the suppression of the word 'himself' (ver. 14), and the introduction of the word ' when' (ver. 12), are to be ascribed to the prejudices of our translators. If they do not betray a bias on their minds, these instances support the general remark of Bishop Lowth upon the English tmns lation, that in respect of the sense, and accuracy of interpretation, the improvements of which it is capable are great and numberless' (Preliminary Dissertation to Isaiah, ad fincm). Some other mistranslations occur in reference to this subject. In I Sam. xv. 23, rebellion is as the sin of witch craft,' should be of 'divination.' In Deut. xviii. to, the word ;Iv= does not mean witch,' but, being. masculine, a sorcerer.' In Acts viii. the translation is exceedingly apt to mislead the mere English reader : Simon used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria'—.7_,Iatep 7rpoiirijp xcv Tf7 7r6Xce aa-yekov Ka/ iVo-raw 7-6 MVOS 7'7)S laFapefas—i.e. Simon had been pursuing magic, and perplexing (or astonishing) the people,' etc. See also ver. II, and comp. the use of the word eVcrrnat, Matt. xii. 23. In Gal. iii. Foolish Galatians,' 7-ts baar Ipiterkame,' who bath fascinatea' you ?' (For the use of the words fiao-Kavla and xappxuccia in magic, among the Greeks, see Potter's Archoolog-ia Groca, vol. i. .chap. xviii. p. 356, etc., Lond. 1775.) It is considered by some that the word witchcraft' is used meta phorically for the allurements of pleasure (Nah.
4 ; Rev. xviii. 23), and that the sorcerers ' mentioned in ch. xxi. 8 may mean sophisticators of the truth. The kindred word cbapILdacrcu isused by metonymy, as signifying to charm," to persuade by flattery,' etc. (Plato, Sympos. sec. 17), to give a temper to metals' (Odyss. ix. 393). The last named theory concerning the narrative of Samuel's appearance to Saul is maintained with much learning and ingenuity by Hugh Farmer (Disser tation 07Z Mirada, p. 472, etc, Lomi. 1771). It is adopted by Dr. Waterland (Sermons, vol. ii. p. 267), and Dr. Delaney in his L1/4 of David ; but is combated by Dr. Chandler with objections, which are, however, answered or obviated by Farmer. On the general subject, see Michaelis's Laws erf Moses, by Dr. A. Smith, London 1814, vol. iv. pp. 83-93; Bather's Ilistmy of Mythology, 11. iv. ; Winer's Eiblisches Real-Mirterbuch, art. Zauberei.'—J. F. D.