I say, we may conceive, though I affirm nothing about them; and there is not any thing in such conceptions but what hath been own'd by men of worth and name, and may seem fair and accountable enough to those who judge not altogether by the measures of the populace and customary opinion. And there's a saying of the great Apostle that seems to countenance this Platonick notion; what is the meaning else of that Expression, [Whether in the Body or out of the Body, I cannot tell] except the Soul may be separated from the Body without Death? Which if it be granted possible, 'tis sufficient for my purpose. And
(2) The Transformations of Witches into the shapes of other Animals, upon the same supposal is very conceivable, since then 'tis easie enough to imagine, that the Power of Imagination may form those passive and pliable vehicles into those shapes with more ease than the fancy of the Mother can the stubborn Matter of the Fœtus in the Womb, as we see it frequently doth in the instances that occur of Signatures and monstrous Singularities and perhaps sometimes the confederate Spirit put tricks upon the Senses of the Spectators, and those shapes are only illusions.
But then (3) when they feel the hurts in their gross Bodies, that they receive in their airy vehicles, they must be supposed to have been really present, at least in these latter; and 'tis no more difficult to apprehend how the hurts of those shouid be translated upon their other Bodies, than how Diseases should be inflicted by the Imagination, or how the fancy of the Mother should wound the Fœtus, as several credible relations do attest.
And (4) for their raising Storms and Tempests, They do it not, be sure, by their own, but by the Power of the Prince of the Air, their Friend and Allie; and the Ceremonies that are enjoyn'd them are doubtless nothing else but entertaimnents for their Imaginations and are likely design'd to persuade them, that they do these strange things themselves.
And (lastly) for their being fuck'd by their Familiar, I say (1) we know so little of the nature of Dæmons and Spirits, that 'tis no wonder we cannot certainly divine the reason of so strange an action. And yet (2) we may conjecture at some things that may render it less improbable. For some have thought that the Genii (whom both the Platonical and Christian Antiquity thought embodied) are recreated by the reeks and vapours of humane Blood, and the Spirits that proceed from them: Which supposal (if we grant them Bodies) is not unlikely, every thing being refresh'd and nourished by its like. And that they
