De betoverde weereld ... in vier boeken

is there then; and they arrange their exercises according to that last, upon which those work who have the greatest reputation, or who please their sensibilities most. For this reason, he exposes himself most who wishes to be an independent man and choose no side: but most of all, if he is one who wants to investigate for himself, and at the end of it does not come out upon the common road. Hence those tears original: "Hinc illæ lacrymæ," a Latin phrase from Terence meaning "this is the cause of the trouble"; that is where the mischief comes from.

The common opinion that people have of the Duivel Devil, his great knowledge, and power and workings, and of people who are held to be in fellowship with him: appeared to me gradually very doubtful by that light which I have by nature in common with other men, and which was strengthened and more purified through the Scripture; whether I, having looked at it in the light, should let it stand any longer or not. And not only was my doubt whether it was true, but also whether it was becoming of any Godvruchtigheid piety. And my conscience began to force me: I had to answer those who asked me; I had to know how to conduct myself toward such people who were so and so disposed: it was my office, and it came home to me daily. To speak of it as people speak, and to do as people do; that appeared to me more and more burdensome: and to set myself against it, or even to differ from others in word or deed; that was partly not in my compliant nature, and besides that, I had no foundation. Therefore the nearest thing to me was that I sought with earnestness from where this general opinion has its origin; thereafter, what the truth of it may be. And because I thus investigate everything from the source, à priore from the cause; and not from the effects, à posteriore from the results, as people speak in the schools: so I do not come to the opening of the Staat des Geschils State of the Controversy until toward the end of the first Book. Therein, from so many kinds of opinions as people once had in the world regarding this; I finally lay open those which have still taken place among the Protestanten Protestants today in the 22nd chapter. I compare the same with the other opinions in the 23rd, and in the 24th I show how we have come to ours, and what keeps us there now. I thus investigate the true origin of the present-day opinion among us in the first Book; from which I then subsequently discover the uncertainty and absurdity to the very foundation in the three others, and set them before one's eyes. For in the second I show

that concerning the Geesten Spirits; and in the third further in that which concerns the menschen people, those whom one thinks have fellowship with the Devils. In the fourth, I investigate the Onderbindinge physical proofs/bindings upon which people most rely in both.

Opening of the I. Book.

In the first book I proceed thus. First having introduced the Reader to the entire world, for which the first chapter serves; I then search through the whole world to find where this opinion took its origin: and to know that well, I skip neither times nor places. I notice that the matter I wish to investigate is twofold: namely, of the Devil, what he knows or can do by himself; and of the People, what they come to know or perform through his doing. But since these are things that surpass Natuur Nature, or at least are held for such; and which thus belong to Godheid Divinity: so I must also know what opinion people have of the Godhead; and the Spirits in general, whether they be good or evil; also the Souls of people, (being also Spirits) separated from the body by death. All this I search for, first in old, and thereafter in new books, from all kinds of peoples, religion and opinion: which I will nonetheless distinguish, as the world is now, into Heidenen Heathens, Joden Jews, Mahometanen Mahometans/Muslims, and Kristenen Christians.

Beginning with the Heathens, I go first to the ancients, being mostly the Grieken Greeks and Romeinen Romans, known to us from the Greek and Latin books; in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chapters: for very few old histories of other peoples and lands have come down to us. Therein I find what they then believed of God, and of the Spirits that are neither God nor human Souls; as well as of the state of Souls after death: and what means they also used, through the intervention of the Spirits, to be able to know and to be able to work things that surpass Nature.

Thereafter passing over to these times, I search through the entire world in Heathendom: first of Europe in the 6th; thereafter of Asia in the 7th and 8th; further in Africa in the 9th; and finally in America in the 10th chapter of the same book.