The good index makes it possible to look up such themes as chiromancy, fortune-telling, theft (magical detection of), conspiracies (use of magic in) and under Kent or Lancashire and other counties will be found references to the incidence of magic in each region. It is a book to read in sections and above all to keep on one’s shelf for constant reference. I have found it difficult to read straight through, perhaps owing to the evenness of tone through which every topic has an equal value. The book is packed with information on all these and other themes. There is a fascinating discussion of ghosts and fairies and some extremely interesting pages on times and omens. The climax comes with the chapter on witchcraft in England, its relation to the social environment, and its decline. There is a long chapter on astrology, its social and intellectual role and its relation to religion. A chapter on magical healing contains a remarkable evocation of the ‘cunning man’, the wise man or woman to whom people turned for help in sickness or distress.

It is impossible in a short review to do more than suggest the wealth of material which the book contains. It is most refreshing to meet in these days with such a scholarly book, representing years of deep research. A wide range of source material has been used, to which adequate and careful references are given in the footnotes. This long and rich book is a study of magic, including its relations to science and religion, in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Keith thomas decline of magic