The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campell

The second is augury, when anything is predicted from the chattering of birds, or the voice of animals, and this may be either lawful or unlawful. If it comes from natural instinct, for brutes having only a sensitive soul, have their organs subject to the disposition of the greater bodies in which they are contained, and principally of all to the celestial bodies, his augury is not amiss. For if when crows are remarked to caw, as the vulgar phrase is, more than ordinary, it is, judging according to the instinct of their nature, if we expect rain, and we may reasonably depend upon it, we shall be right if we foretell rain to be at hand. But sometimes the devils actuate those brute animals to excite vain ideas in men, contrary to what the instinct of their nature compels them to. This is superstitious and unlawful, and forbid in holy writ.

The third is aruspicy, when from the flight of birds, or any other motion of any animals whatsoever, persons pretend to have an insight and a penetrative knowledge into occult and hidden matters.

The fourth consists in omens, when, for example, a man from any words which others may have spoken on purpose, or by accident, pretends to gather a way of looking into and knowing anything of futurity.

The fifth is chiromancy, which consists in making a pretence to the knowledge of future things by the figures and the lines of the hands; and if it be by consulting the shoulder-bones of any beast, it goes by the name of spatulamancy.

As the first kind of divination, by a tacit invocation of the devil is divided into the five species above mentioned; so also is the second kind of tacit divination, or invocation of the devil, divided into two species by St. Thomas of Aquin.

Secundâ Secundæ, questione nonagesima quinta articulo tertio, and too tedious to insert here.

Now all these ways are by these divines counted wicked, and I set them down that people may avoid them. For how many gipsies and pretenders to chiromancy have we in London and in the country? How many that are for hydromancy, that pretend in water to show men mighty mysteries? And how many in geomancy, with their beryls and their glasses, that, if they are not under the instigation of the devil, propagate the scandal at least by being cheats, and who ought to be punished to the utmost severity, as our English laws enact? Mr. Campbell, who hates, contemns, and abhores these ways, ought, methinks, to be encouraged by their being restrained; and people of curious tempers, who always receive from him moral and good instructions, which make them happy in the conduct of life, should be animated in a public manner to consult him, in order to divert the curious itch of their humours from consulting such wicked impostors, or diabolical practisers, as too frequently abound in this nation, by reason of the inquisitive vulgar, who are more numerous in our climate, than any I ever read of.

But now to argue the case of conscience with regard to his particular practice by way of the second-sight, whether, in foro conscientiæ, it is lawful for him to follow it, or others to consult him? The divines above mentioned having never had any notice of that faculty in all likelihood, or if they had, never mentioned it, makes it a point more difficult for me to discuss; but I think they have stated some cases, by the making of which my premises, I can deduce from all the learned men I have above quoted, a conclusion in favour of our Mr. Duncan Campbell, and of those who consult him; but my opinion shall be always corrected by those who are wiser than myself, and to whom I owe entire submission. I take leave to fix these premises from them first, and to form my argument from them afterwards in the following manner: —

First, It is allowed by all these divines, that a knowledge which one may have of future things within the order of nature, is and may be lawful.

Secondly, They imply, that where justice is not violated, it is lawful both to predict and to consult.

Thirdly, Many of them, but particularly Aureolus, puts this question: Is it lawful to go to one that deals in the black art, to persuade them to cure any innocent body that another necromancer or dealer in the black art may have maliciously afflicted and tormented with pains? And some of these casuists, particularly Aureolus, say, it is lawful on such an occasion to go to such a conjurer, because the end is not conjuration, but freeing a person from it.

But I take leave to dissent from these great men, and think they are in a double mistake; first, in stating the question, and then in making such an answer, provided the question had been stated right.

The question is founded upon this supposition, which is passed by as granted, viz., that one necromancer could release a person bewitched by another, which is absolutely false; for it is against the nature of the devil to be made an instrument to undo his own works of impiety. But admitting and not granting this to be possible, and the question to be rightly stated, why still these casuists are out in their answer. It is lawful, reply they, because the end of going to the conjurers, is not conjuration, but freeing a good person from it; but the end is not the point here to be considered, it is the medium, which is bad, that is to be considered. It is by conjuration, according to their hypothesis, the other conjuration is to be dissolved; and does not the common rule, that a man must not do evil that good may come of it, forbid this practice? And to speak my opinion plainly in that case, the friend that should consult a conjurer for that end, would be only so kind to put his own soul in danger of being guilty of hell torments, to relieve his afflicted friend from some bodily pains, which it would be a virtue in him to suffer with patience and resignation.

Others, almost all divines, indeed, agree, that it is and may be lawful to go to a conjurer that torments another, and give him money not to afflict the patient any longer; because that is only feeing him to desist from acting after his conjuring manner.

These premises thus settled, if we allow the second-sight to be inborn and inbred, and natural and common to some families, which is proved in the book; and if all that Mr. Campbell has predicted in that second-sighted way terminates with moral advice, and the profit of the consulter, and without the violation of justice to others, as the book shows all throughout; if he can relieve from witchcraft, as it seems oath is to be had he can, which no one that deals in black art can do, why then I need not draw the conclusion, every reader will do it naturally; they will avow all the strictest laws of casuistry and morality to be in favour of Mr. Campbell and his consulters.

VERSES

TO MR. CAMPBELL,

ON THE

HISTORY OF HIS LIFE AND ADVENTURES

I court no muse amidst the tuneful throng,
Thy genii, Campbell, shall inspire my song;
The gentle summons every thought obeys,
Wakens my soul, and tunes it all to lays.
Among the thousand wonders thou hast shown,
I, in a moment, am a poet grown;
The rising images each other meet;
Fall into verse, and dance away with feet:
Now with thy Cupid and thy lamb I rove[1 - See Mr. Campbell's Life, p. 43.],
Through ev'ry bloomy mead and fragrant grove.
A thousand things I can myself divine,
Thy little genii whispers them to mine;
Beyond the grave I see thy deathless fame,
The fair and young all singing Campbell's name;
And Love himself – for Love and thou art friends,
He joins the chorus, and his dart defends.
What noisy talker can thy magic boast?
Let those dull wretches try who scorn thee most.
O, sacred silence! let me ever dwell,
With the sweet muses, in thy lonely cell!
Or else bind up, in thy eternal chain,
Scandal and noise, and all that talk in vain.

    M. Fowke.

TO MRS. FOWKE,

OCCASIONED BY THE FOREGOING VERSES

Sweet nightingale! whose artful numbers show,
Expressive eloquence to silent woe,
Sing on, and in thy sex's power presume,
By praising Campbell, to strike nations dumb.

Whene'er you sing, silent, as he, they'll stand,
Speak by their eyes, grow eloquent by hand:
Tongues are confusion, but as learnt by you,
All but Pythagoras's doctrine's true;
Campbell and he taught silence – had he heard
How much thy lays to silence were preferr'd,
He had recanted from thy powerful song,
And justly wish'd each organ had a tongue.

But could he see, what you, in every line,
Prophetic tell of Campbell's sight divine,
Like Crœsus's sons his loosened nerves must break,
And ask the cause – or make his Campbell speak.

    G. S.

TO MR. CAMPBELL

Milton's immortal wish[2 - To see and tellOf things invisible to mortal sight,Paradise Lost.] you sure must feel,
To point those fates which you to all reveal;
If second-sight so much alarms mankind,
What transports must it give to know thy mind?
Thy book is but the shadow of thy worth,
Like distant lights, which set some picture forth.
But if the artist's skill we nearer trace,
And strictly view each feature of the face,
We find the charm that animates the whole,