10
ACCUMULATIONS IN
CHAP. I.
Assyria andPersia.
prodigies which are no longer believed ; but if,on that account, their authority on other sub-jects be discarded, it will become impossible totrace the progress of mankind through the seve-ral stages of society, from the most rude to themost civilized state. It is scarcely two centuriessince in every part of Europe , with all the know-ledge and civilization it had imbibed, the be-lief in demoniacal possessions, in the power ofwitches and fairies, and in spectral appearances,universally prevailed. It would be unjust to thememory of the historians and chroniclers of thatand the preceding ages, to reject their testi-mony, because they believed in supernaturalevents and appearances, which have lost all holdupon the present race, except among the mostignorant of the vulgar.
If in extracting from the writings of antiquitywhat relates more immediately to the subject ofour inquiry, it should occasionally appear thatincredible events are related, the sound judg-ment of the reader will enable him to separatethe facts from the fictions in which they may beenveloped; and he may find amusement, if notinstruction, in observing the great credulity ofthe eminent men of antiquity, and in comparingtheir habits of investigation and discriminationwith those of the ablest writers of their own ageand country.