Даниэль Дефо
The Friendly Daemon, or the Generous Apparition
The Despondency I was now under of any Assistance from humane Art, and the slender Opinion you seem'd to entertain of my Recovery, made my Intervals as Melancholy as my Fits were troublesome; oppress'd with these hard Circumstances, I supported a burthensome Life, and drag'd on the tedious Hours till the latter end of the Year – 25, about which Time, as I was slumbering one Morning in my Bed, after a restless Night, my good Genius or Guardian Angel, Cloth'd in a white Surplice like a singing Boy, appear'd before me, holding a Scrowle or Label in his right Hand, whereon the following Words were wrote in large Capitals.
READ, BELIEVE AND PRACTISE, THE LOADSTONE SHALL BE YOUR CURE, WITH AN ADDITION OF THE POWDER HERE PRESCRIB'D YOU; BUT KEEP THE LAST AS A SECRET; FOR WITH THAT AND THE MAGNET YOU SHALL RELIEVE NUMBERS IN DISTRESS, AND LIVE TO DO GREATER WONDERS THAN YOU HAVE HITHERTO PERFORM'D; THEREFORE BE OF GOOD CHEAR, FOR YOU HAVE A FRIEND UNKNOWN, WHO, IN THE TIME OF TROUBLE, WILL NEVER FAIL YOU.
This comfortable News, tho' deliver'd to me after so surprizing a manner, yet, was it very welcome to a languishing Person under a complication of Misfortunes, notwithstanding I had a great struggle with my natural Reason, before I could convince my self of what I was yet confident my very Eyes had seen, or at least had been represented to me after an extraordinary manner, for betwixt really seeing what we call a Vision or verily believing we do see it, there is but a slender difference; however, the intire Confidence I had put in Providence, and the great desire I had to be reliev'd, were to me convincing Arguments, beyond all Objection, that my Guardian Angel had actually appear'd and communicated to my Eyes the very Scrowle that I had read, the Words of which, lest my Memory should have prov'd treacherous, I enter'd in my Pocket-Book as they are before recited, the Recipe only excepted.
Having thus subjected my Reason to my Senses, or at least my Faith, for I either saw or believ'd I saw what I have here reported, I had nothing else to do, but to put in Practice the Receipt which my good Genius had imparted to me, tho' how to come at a Loadstone, seem'd to me as difficult as to find out the Philosopher's Stone, having but a slender Knowledge of the thing it self, and much less of its Virtues; however, upon enquiry, I soon found out a certain Virtuoso, near Moorfields, who is an eminent dealer in such sort of Curiosities, and by his Assistance I presently furnish'd my self with what I wanted, and sending for some fat Amber and a certain preparation of Steel, which I privately dispens'd in a very particular manner, according to the Recipe communicated by my Genius; then applying both as directed, was miraculously deliver'd, in a great measure, from those wracking Convulsions which had so long afflicted me, and in less than a Month's Time my whole Microcosm was restor'd to such a happy State of Health, Strength and Vivacity, that Heaven be prais'd, I could do any thing as usual, but, if I leave off my Loadstone for two or three Days, which I have sometimes done, meerly out of Curiosity, my Fits, as yet, will remind me of my foolish Presumption, and force me to have recourse to my wonderful Preservative, which has not only prov'd so great a friend to my self, but has reliev'd others in the like distress; and as I have found by three or four late Experiments, is as effectual in suppresing Vapours and removing or preventing Hysterick Fits in Women, as it is in Epilepsies and Convulsions in our own Sex, either Men or Children.
Now, Doctor, since I have happily conquer'd so stubborn an Enemy, by such miraculous means, as do not fail to afflict others as well as my self, I desire you will vouchsafe me your real Sentiments of this uncommon way of Cure, your Notions of the Genii, and the wonderful manner of communicating the Recipe, your Thoughts of the Loadstone and the Virtues thereof, your Opinion of Sympathy and the Cures perform'd thereby, for I know you are Philosopher sufficient, as well as Physician, to give a very good light into all these Mysteries, in which I own I am to seek; therefore hope you will condescend so far as to spend a leisure Hour upon the foregoing Particulars, and you will infinitely oblige,
Sir,Your assured Friend,and humble Servant,Duncan Campbel.
To my Deaf and Dumb Friend, Mr. Duncan Campbel, in Answer to his Letter to an anonymous worthy Friend, Physician and Philosopher
SIR,
I Receiv'd your Letter and read the same, with no less Surprise than Satisfaction; for, as I am greatly pleas'd at your miraculous Recovery, so, I am equally astonish'd at the wonderful Means by which it was obtain'd; I confess, I have been too great a Student in Physick and natural Philosophy, to entertain any extraordinary Opinion of Miracles, no ways accountable to human Reason, except those that concern Religion, which are brought down to our Knowledge well attested and recommended to our Faith by unexceptionable Authorities; not, but, that I am ready to admit, that the Power of Healing is in the Hand of Providence, and that some Patients, when their Distempers, thro' the frailty of humane Judgment, derive their Essence from so obscure an Original that even puzzles the Physician, I am free to acknowledge, especially when the Blessing of God accompanies the Administration, that the most trifling application in the Eyes of Art, may recover such Persons from the most dangerous Infirmities: This, I look upon to be your extraordinary Case, and therefore think not the means to which you ascribe your Cure or the manner of the Recipe's being communicated to you, a proper subject for a Physical Enquiry, unless you had sent me the Prescription of your Genius, which I understand by your Letter, you are oblig'd to conceal, and then perhaps I should have been able to have judg'd, in some measure, which of the Applications are most Essential, the Powder or the Loadstone, also how far your Guardian Angel is a Regular Proficient in the modern Practise of Physick.
However, as you desire my Opinion of the Genii, the Loadstone, the Powder of Sympathy, and the like, I shall not be only willing to give you my own Thoughts, but the Sentiments of others, before I take my leave, who have made the foregoing Particulars their principal Studies, and are therefore better acquainted with the nature of Spirits, than I pretend to be.
As for Genii or familiar Spirits, good and bad, believ'd and reported, by the most Wise and Learned of the Ancients, to attend Mankind, and the various Operations they have had upon humane Minds as well as Bodies, I cannot but confess, seem very wonderful to my defective Understanding; yet, when we observe what innumerable Instances have been handed to us by the most reputable Authors, both Antique and Modern, attested from Time to Time by unquestionable Authorities, who, that, before he div'd into these Mysteries, look'd upon the same to be Whimsy, can forbear staggering in his Opinion?
The most celebrated Instance of a Genius among the Ancients, is that of Socrates, one of the wisest of the Philosophers in the Age he liv'd in, and that he had such a familiar Spirit to attend him, which the Greeks call'd Dæmon, and the Latins Genius, is sufficiently testify'd by three of his Contemporaries, viz. Plato, Xenophon and Antisthenes, also further confirm'd by Laertius, Plutarch, Maximus Tyrius, Dion, Chrysostomus, Cicero, Apuleius, and Facinas; besides others more Modern, as, Tertullian, Origen, Clemens Alexandrinus, &c. but that which is of greater Authority than all the Vouchers aforemention'd, is what Socrates says of himself, in Plato's Theage, viz. By some Divine Lot, I have a certain Dæmon, which has follow'd me from my Childhood, as an Oracle; and this Voice, says he, for so he terms it, whenever it speaks to me, disswades me from engaging in what I am about to put in Action, but never prompts me to attempt any thing. This, I presume, might be the chief Reason, why Socrates persu'd not his own Inclinations, which were naturally Vicious, as himself confess'd to the Physiognomist, but was always accompany'd with a divine Spirit that restrain'd him from it; for, in speaking to Alcibiades, a vicious Noble Man of Athens, but reclaim'd by Socrates; says he, My Tutor (meaning the Spirit that attended him) is wiser and better than you. And to further shew, that what he call'd his Dæmon, was something more than a secret Impulse of the Mind, or Dictates of a good Conscience, Theocritus affirms in Plutarch, that a Vision attended Socrates from his Childhood, going before him and guiding him in all the Actions of his Life, being a constant light to him in such Affairs as lay not within the reach of humane standing, and that the Spirit often spoke to him, divinely governing and inspiring his Intentions. A thousand Instances of the like nature, I could collect from the Ancients, to prove, that what you have reported to me, in your Letter, may be no Delusion, but real Fact, with all it's surprising Circumstances, could the Task be compris'd within the compass of a Letter, but, a Treatise of this nature, being much fitter for a Volume, I shall only proceed to a few familiar Instances of a more modern Date, that your wonderful Cure may gain Credit with the Publick, because I know your Sincerity.
