Athothis : a satire on modern medicine / by Thomas C. Minor.

we controlled the demons. Our magi were men of mighty intellect and will power, who commanded the presence of subjects from Amento through the Grand Master Osiris. Your medium of to-day is almost always an ignorant and sensual male, who has bartered his soul with Typhon, in order to secure limited power and the gratification of his appetites. Other mediums are highly organized and nervous women, whose movements are con- trolled and directed by fiends from the outer darkness. Female mediums are, however, unconscious deceivers, inasmuch as, owing to their greater amount of credulity, they are more easily imposed on and trifled with by the disciples of Set; and, believing truly that they hold con- verse with the souls of the blessed departed, mislead not only themselves, but many weak-minded and overcurious people, upsetting human reason by creating doubt." " Lead on!" exclaimed Paulus Androcydes, impa- tiently ; " for I fain would witness these manifestations from a true spiritual stand-point. If this is true, I shall learn something; if it be disordered fancy, I shall laugh on awakening. One thought encourages me, even in my present state of mind : that is, you do not seem to approve of the methods of these mediumistic impostors, and are therefore a safe guide ; and though Galen laughs spirits to scorn, I will follow thee, oh! mighty Egyptian necromancer." " The learned Pythagoris, Socrates, and Plato—all names universally respected—taught many truths regard- ing these mysteries," remarked Athothis, softly, " while those truly gifted ecclesiastical writers, Austin and Ter- tullian, were firm believers that such demonstrations caused mischief, and that the ghosts that appear to man- kind are usually wicked apparitions. Austin, in fact,