44. The French and English lawyers of the present age allow
the theory, and deny the practice, of witchcraft
(Denisart, Recueil de Decisions de Jurisprudence, au mot
Sorciers, tom. iv. p. 553. Blackstone's Commentaries, vol.
iv. p. 60). As private reason always prevents, or outstrips,
public wisdom, the president Montesquieu (The Spirit of
Laws, 1. xii. c. 5, 6) rejects the existence of magic.