markable instance in Daniel, where we are told that when that holy prophet was for the second time cast into the den of lions, and had had no food for a considerable time, the prophet Habakkuk in Judea, some hundreds of miles distant, going out one morning to the field with a mess of pottage to the reapers, was caught up by an angel of God, and in an instant carried to Daniel; and when Daniel had eaten the pottage, he was brought back in the same manner, Dan. xiv.

This chapter of Daniel, it is true, is not found in the Hebrew, and on that account is thrown into the Apocrypha by Protestants; but it has, from the earliest ages, been received by the Catholic Church as divine Scripture, and its authority as an ancient history is not called in question.

Tertullian, speaking of the velocity with which spirits transport themselves from one place to another, says: "Every spirit is winged; both angels and demons are so; on that account they are everywhere in a moment: the whole world is one place to them; they know where anything is doing as easily as they can declare it."*

X. Great knowledge is another prerogative of spiritual beings, which enables them to do many things above the abilities of natural agents. Experimental philosophy has of late been making daily improvements, and discovering more and more of the wonderful powers of nature, particularly in magnetism and electricity; and it cannot be doubted but that there are many more secrets in nature of which mankind are still totally ignorant. Spiritual beings have doubtless a much greater knowledge of these

* Omnis spiritus ales; hoc et angeli et dæmones. Igitur momento ubique sunt. Totus orbis locus illis unus est, quid ubi geratur, tam facile sciunt quam enuntiant.-Tert., Apol., circa medium.

things than men, and consequently are capable of producing many extraordinary effects in the material creation, which, from our ignorance of these powers of nature, would appear to us astonishing. But, as all they can perform is only by exerting these natural powers, which require time to produce their effects, such extraordinary things cannot be instantaneous, even with all the strength of spiritual beings. Hence miraculous operations, which are merely the effect of strength or agility, or which are done by the application of natural means, are known by these circumstances to be within the range of the natural abilities of spirits, and therefore cannot of themselves alone afford proof of divine interposition.

From this more intimate knowledge possessed by spiritual beings of the powers and properties of material agents, which are concealed from us, they will, no doubt, foresee many natural effects which will result from these powers when exerted, and from their necessary or occasional combinations; and this they may know a considerable time before these effects are actually produced. If now they should communicate this their foreknowledge of these necessary events to any man, and he should foretell them to the world, this prediction and its subsequent verification would appear miraculous to those who know nothing of the natural causes producing the effect foretold; just as the prediction of an eclipse, and its verification when the eclipse happens, will be miraculous to those who are ignorant of astronomy.

As spiritual beings have also a much more thorough knowledge of the human frame than we have, they may in like manner, with great probability, conjecture what particular persons, with whose temper and disposition they are well acquainted, will do on such and such occasions; and hence they may, with considerable certainty, foretell

even future contingent events, and their prediction may afterwards be verified. Even human sagacity, from a thorough knowledge of the subject, frequently arrives at a considerable degree of foreknowledge of this kind. By these two kinds of foreknowledge, soothsayers, false prophets, and those who had familiar spirits, mentioned in the Scriptures, might sometimes foretell things which actually come to pass; and the same is the explanation of the predictions of the heathen oracles, which were afterwards verified by the event. St Augustin, speaking on the divination of evil spirits, says: "First, we must know that for the most part they foretell only such things as they themselves are going to do; for they often receive power to cause diseases, and by vitiating the air to render it morbific; sometimes also they foretell not those things which they do themselves, but which, from natural signs, they foresee are to happen; which signs cannot fall under the knowledge of man."*

XI. Another way by which spiritual beings may appear to do things miraculous in our eyes, is by what is called fascination or bewitching, which may be conceived possible in two different ways, either by making such impressions upon the organs of our senses, as if the real material object that naturally could make them were present and acting on them, or by taking upon themselves the outward appearances of the things which they wish to represent. That spiritual beings, both good and bad,

* Primum sciendum est, quoniam de divinatione dæmonum questio est, illos ea plerumque prenuntiare quæ ipsi facturi sunt: accipiunt enim sæpe potestatem et morbos immittere, e tipsum aerem vitiando morbidum reddere; aliquando autem non quæ ipsi facient, sed quæ, naturalibus signis, futura prænoscunt; quæ signa in hominum sensus venire non possunt. - Aug. de Divin. Dæmon. C. V.

have a very great power in acting upon our internal senses, by altering and moving the humours of the body, so as to raise many ideas in our imagination, and affections in our appetite, will not be called in question by any who profess the Christian religion.

With regard to wicked spirits, those texts of Scripture which we have seen above concerning internal temptations, manifestly show this; and, indeed, how else can we account for those violent temptations to blasphemy, despair, scruples, involuntary doubts against faith, and the like, which often bear in upon the mind with the utmost violence, to the unspeakable torment of the sufferer, and in spite of his earnest efforts to expel them? How can this be accounted for, but from the action of those wicked spirits violently disturbing the imagination?

As to good angels, the Christian religion assures us that they inspire us with pious thoughts, calm our fears, assuage our passions, and that they also represent things to our imagination in sleep, so as to manifest to the servants of God what the divine will requires of them. Thus the angel of God appeared to Joseph in a dream, and told him to fly into Egypt from the fury of Herod; and Almighty God Himself, speaking to His people on this subject, says: "Behold I send an angel before thee: beware of him and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions. . . . If thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to thine enemies," Exod. xxiii.

Now, if spiritual beings have such power to act upon our internal senses, there can be no doubt that they may do the same upon our external organs also. In the Holy Scriptures we have many examples of angels appearing to men and conversing with them. The common way

of explaining these apparitions, is by saying that these spiritual beings assumed an aerial body, or some other matter, by which the same natural impressions were made upon the senses of the beholders as by the natural body of a man. But this opinion is subject to several diffi

culties.

There is not the least necessity for supposing this. If these spiritual beings can make such strong impressions as they sometimes do upon our internal senses, for which they certainly stand in no need of help of aerial bodies, why should they stand in need of such help to make what impressions they please upon our external senses? If an angel could deprive the fire of its power to hurt the three holy children that were thrown into the furnace without taking any material body to assist him, could he not with equal ease communicate any motion he pleased to the air, and excite the sound of words in the ears of those present, or reflect the rays of light to their eyes, so as to excite in their minds the idea of any colour or figure he might think proper? If the angels can at all act upon bodies, why not upon the air and light as well as on any other body, without taking a material body to assist them? Nay, if an angel could make to himself a body of air, or any other matter, in order thereby to move the air or light so as to affect the senses of those present, why could he not as well directly move the air or light itself, without the intervention of any material instrument?

Several of the apparitions related in Scripture plainly show that the impressions were made immediately by the spiritual agent upon the senses of those present. Had a material body been taken by the angels who appeared to men, this must have reflected the light, and moved the air equally on all sides as other bodies do, and consequently all present must have been equally sensible of

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