This work claims that Satan "attacks lunatics at the
full moon, when their brains are full of humours"; that in other
cases of illness he "stirs the black bile"; and that in cases of
blindness and deafness he "clogs the eyes and ears." By the close
of the century this "restatement" was evidently found untenable,
and one of a very different sort was attempted in England.
In the third edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_,
published in 1797, under the article _Daemoniacs_, the orthodox
view was presented in the following words: "The reality of
demoniacal possession stands upon the same evidence with the
gospel system in general."
This statement, though necessary to satisfy the older
theological sentiment, was clearly found too dangerous to be sent
out into the modern sceptical world without some qualification.
Another view was therefore suggested, namely, that the personages
of the New Testament "adopted the vulgar language in speaking of
those unfortunate persons who were generally imagined to be
possessed with demons.
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