The Phantom World
ofoundly than any other author of antiquity. It would seem, to hear him discourse, that he knew both
eroes appear, they inspire terror; the archontes, who preside over this world, cause at the same time an impression of grief and fear. The apparition of souls is not quite
port their presence. On the appearance of an archangel, there is an earthquake in every part of the world; it is preceded by a stronger light than that whi
hade. He continues his description of these apparitions, and enters into tiresome details on the subject; one would say, to hear him, that that there was a most intimate and habitual connection between the gods, the angels, the demons, and the souls separated from the body, and himself. But all this is only the work of his imaginati
prises, inspired us with unruly desires, and cast us into the worst misfortunes. They assigned genii, not only to every person, but also to every house, every city, and every province.[70] These genii are considered as good, beneficent,[71] and worthy of the worship of those who invoke them. They were represented sometimes under the fo
ed not to salute and adore its genius, and to offer him sacrifices.[75] In short, there was neither kingdom, no
aritions of the gods, genii, good and bad angels, heroes, an
the sorcerer Tiresias; and this diviner having prepared a grave or trench full of blood to evoke the manes, Ulysses draws his sword to prevent them from coming to drink this blood, for which they thirst; but which they were
ims, and intercourse with women; that they were attached for a time to certain spots and certain edifices which they infested. They believed that souls separated from the gross and terrestrial body, preserved after death one more subtile and elastic,
of the kingdom of Persia, or the angel of that nation, who resisted the archangel Gabriel during twenty-one days, as we read in Daniel;[79] the angel of Macedonia, who appeared to St. Paul,[80] and of whom we have spoken before; the archangel St. Michael, who is considered as the chief of the people of God and the a
vinities; they invoked them, offered them a kind of sacrifice and offeri
m sensual things; but that men who were wise, moderate, and temperate, and who applied themselves to serious and sublime subjects, could see them; as Soc
the vision of the four great monarchies, and the accomplishment of the seventy weeks, which were to put an end to the captivity. The prophet Zechariah says expressly that the angel who appeared unto him[84] revealed to him what he must say-he repeats it in five or six places; St. John, in the Apocalypse,[85] says the same thing, that G
forms; that the Hebrews, Christians, Mahometans, Greeks, and Romans have believed in them; that when they have not sensibly appeared, they have given proofs of their p
tno
c. lib. ii.
7
ium, dextramque
tor."-Horat. lib
s supplex adv
um Domini pr?
b. v. Sy
itée expliq
seus, Sa
nec. Ep
tull. Ap
7
imur, clamant; d
d. Metam., li
7
enium Rom?, mih
bus; thermis, st
enios?"-Prudent.
. fin. Vid. Horat.
5. de SS. et Qu?st. 5. in Deut. i. 5 c. 4
Dan.
Acts
. x. 13, 21; xii. 1.
aciendam putaverint.... Scilicet ut die natali munus annale genio solverent, manum à c
viii. 16
, 14, 19; ii. 3, 4;
Rev.
8, 9, &c.; xi
Heb.