Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 19, Scripture-SUG

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Sorbus, a ftraigfit upright ft*etn and regular branching head,
Sorcery, twenty or thirty feet high or more, covered with a
',r"v fmooth grayifh brown bark •, pinnated leaves of eight or
ten pair of long, narrow, ferrated folioles, and an odd
one, fmooth on both fides j and large umbellate clufters-
of white flowers at the ftdes and ends of the branches,
fucceeded by clufters of fine red berries, ripe in autumn
and winter. There is a variety with yellow itnped
leaves. This fpecies grows wild in many parts of this
ifland, in mountainous places, woods, and hedge-rows,
often growing to the fize of timber ^ and is admitted in¬
to moft ornamental plantations, for the beauty of its.
growth, foliage, flowers, and fruit •, the latter, in parti¬
cular, being produced in numerous red large bunches all
over the tree, exhibit a fine appearance in autumn and
winter, till devoured by the birds, efpeeially the black¬
bird and thru'h, which are fo allured by this fruit as to
flock from all parts and feed on it voracioufly. In the
ifland of Jura the juice of the berries is employed as an
acid for punch. It is probable that this tree was in high
dteem with the Druids •, for it is more abundant, than
any other tree in the neighbourhood of thofe Druidical
circles of Hones, fo common in North Britain. It is ftill
believed by fome perfens, that a branch of this tree can
defend them from enchantment or witchcraft. Even
the cattle are fuppofed to be preferved by it from dan¬
ger. The dairy-maid drives them to the fummer paf-
tures with a rod of the roan-tree, and drives them home
again with the fame. In Strathfpey, we are told, a
hoop is made of the wood of this tree on the ift ol
May, and all the fheep and lambs are made to pafs
through it.
The domejlica, or cultivated fervice-tree, with .eat¬
able fruit, grows with an upright item, branching 30
or 40 feet high or more, having a brownifh bark, and
the young ihoots in fummer covered with a mealy down •,
pinnated leaves of eight or ten pair of broadifh deeply
ferrated lobes and an odd one, downy underneath 5 and
large umbellate clufters of white flowers at the fides and
ends of the branches, fucceeded by bunches of large,
flefhy, edible red fruit, of various ftiapes and fuzes.
This tree is a native of the fouthern warm parts of
Europe, where its fruit is ufed at table as a- defftrt, and
it is cultivated here in many of our gardens, both as a
fruit-tree and as an ornament to diverfify hardy planta-
SORCERY, or Magic ; the power which fome per-
Ibns were formerly fuppofed to poffefs of commanding
the devil and the infernal fpirits by fkill in charms and
invocations, and of Toothing them by fumigations. Sor¬
cery is therefore to be diflinguilhed from witchcraft}
an art which was fuppofed to be p’a^Iifed, not by com¬
manding evil fpirits, but by compatt with the devil.
As an inftance of the power of bad fmells over daemons
or evil fpirits, we may mention the flight of the evil
fpirit mentioned in Tobit into theremote parts of Egypt,
produced, it is faid, by the fmell of the burnt liver of a
fifli. Lilly informs us, that one Evans having raifed a
fpirit at the requeft of Lord Both well and Sir Kenelm
Digby, and forgetting a fumigation, the fpirit, vexed
at the difappointment, pulled him without the circle,
and carried him from his houfe in the Minories into a
field near Batterfea Cauf< way.
King James, in his Dcemonologia, has given a very
full account of the art of fbrcery. “ Two principal
2
things (fays he) cannot well in that errand be w anted : Sorter;,
holy water (whereby the devill mockes the papifts), and l—y-.
fome prefent of a living thing unto him. There are
like wife certaine daies and houres that they obferve in
this purpofe. Thefe things being all ready and pre¬
pared, circles are made, triangular, quadrangular, round,
double, or Angle, according to the forme of the appari¬
tion they crave. When the conjured fpirit appeares,
which will not be while after many eircumftances, long
prayers, and much muttering and murmurings of the
conjurors, like a papift prieft difpatching a hunting
mafle—how foone, I fay, he appeares, if they have
miffed one jote of all their rites •, or if any of their feete
once flyd over the circle, through terror of his fearfull
apparition, he paies himfelf at that time, in his owne
hand, of that due debt which they ought him, and other-
wife would have delaied longer to have paied him : I
mean, he carries them with him, body and foule.” How
the conjurors made triangular or quadrangular circles,,
his majefty has not informed us, nor does he feem to
imagine there was any difficulty in the'matter. We are
therefore led to fuppofe, that he learned his mathematics
from the fame fyftem as Dr Sacheverell, who, in one of
his fpeeches or fermons, made life of the following fimile:
“ They concur like parallel lines, meeting in one com¬
mon centre.”
Another mode of confulting fpirits -was by the beryl,
by means of a fpeeulator or feer ; who, to have a com¬
plete fight, ought to be a pure virgin, a youth who had
not known woman, or at leaf! a perfon of irreproach¬
able life and purity of manners. The method of fuch
confultation is this : The conjuror having repeated the
neceffary charms and adjurations, with the litany or in¬
vocation peculiar to the fpirits or angels he wiflies to
call (for every one has his particular form), the feer
looks into a cryftal or beryl, -wherein he will fee the
anfwer, reprefented either by types or figures y and
fometimes, though very rarely, will hear the.angels or
fpirits fpeak articulately. Their pronunciation is, as
Lilly fays, like the Iriih, much in the throat. Lilly
deferibes one of thefe beryls or cryftals. It was, he
fays, as large as an orange, fet in filver, with a. crofs at
the top, and round about engraved the names of the
angels Raphael, Gabriel, and Uriel. . A delineation of
another is engraved in the frontifpiece to Aubery’s
Mifcellanies.
Thefe foreerers or magicians do not always employ
their art to do mifehief •, but, on the contrary, frequent¬
ly exert it to cure difeafes. in Sifted by witches ; to dif-
cover thieves ; recover ftolen goods *, to foretel future
events, and the ftate of abfent friends. On this account
they are frequently called w/iite voitcJwj. See Magic,
Witchcraft, See.
Our forefathers were ftrong believers when they en-
afted, by ftatute 3.3 Hen. VIIL c. 8. all witchcraft and
forcery to be felony without benefit of clergy ; and
again, by ftatute r Jac. I. c. 12. that all perfons.invok¬
ing any evil fpirit, or confulting, covenanting with, en¬
tertaining, employing^ feeding, or rewarding any evil
fpirit ; or taking 'up dead bodies from their graves to
be ufed in any witchcraft, forcery, charm, or enchant¬
ment ; or killing or otherwife hurting any perfon by
fueh infernal arts ; fhoulft be guilty of felony without
benefit of clergy, and fuffer death. And if any perlon
fhould attempt by forcery to difeover hidden treasure,