Note 1 — Chapter XXIV · Witchcraft.
Reading edition
St. Cyprian saw the devil in a flower.1 That little vision may report more than many more famous ones the consistency with which the first christians had developed the doctrine that nature is the incarnation of the Evil Spirit. It reports to us the sense of many sounds and sights which were heard and seen by ears and eyes trained for such and no other, all showing that the genii of nature and beauty were vanishing from the earth. Over the Ægean sea were heard lamentations and the voice, ‘Great Pan is dead!’ Augustus consults the oracle of Apollo and receives reply—