this till I call for it again;’ and so went away.  Mr. Sharp, after his wonted bookish manner, was eagerly affected to look into that book, and read it, which he did:  but, as he read in it, he was seized on by a strange kind of horror, both of body and mind, the hair of his head standing up; and, finding these effects several times, he acquainted his master with it, who, observing the same effects, they concluded it was a conjuring book, and resolved to burn it, which they did.  He that brought it in the shape of a man never coming to call for it, they concluded it was the Devil.  He, taking this as a solemn warning from God to take heed what books he read, was much taken off from his former bookishness; confining himself to reading the Bible, and other known good books of divinity, which were profitable to his soul.”

Kircher relates the following anecdote, with a full belief of its truth:  He had a friend who was zealously and perseveringly devoted to the study of alchemy.  At one time, while he was intent upon his operations, a gentleman entered his laboratory, and kindly offered to assist him.  In a few moments, a large mass of the purest gold was brought forth from the crucible.  The gentleman then took his hat, and went out:  before leaving the apartment, however, he wrote a recipe for making the precious article.  The grateful and admiring mortal continued his operations, according to the directions of his visitor; but the charm was lost:  he could not succeed, and was at last completely ruined by his costly and fruitless experiments.  Both he and his friend Kircher were fully persuaded that the mysterious stranger-visitor was the Devil.

Baxter has recorded a curious interview between Satan and Mr. White, of Dorchester, assessor to the Westminster Assembly:—­

“The Devil, in a light night, stood by his bedside.  The assessor looked a while, whether he would say or do any thing, and then said, ‘If thou hast nothing to do, I have;’ and so turned himself to sleep.”  Dr. Hibbert is of opinion, that the Rev. Mr. White treated his satanic majesty, on this occasion, with “a cool contempt, to which he had not often been accustomed.”

Indeed, there is nothing more curious or instructive, in the history of that period, than the light which it sheds upon the influence of the belief of the personal existence and operations of the Devil, when that belief is carried out fully into its practical effects.  The Christian doctrine had relapsed into a system almost identical with Manicheism.  Wierus thus describes Satan, as he was regarded in the prevalent theology:  “He possesses great courage, incredible cunning, superhuman wisdom, the most acute penetration, consummate prudence, an incomparable skill in veiling the most pernicious artifices under a specious disguise, and a malicious and infinite hatred towards the human race, implacable and incurable.”  Milton merely responded to the popular sentiment in making