Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introductory: The demons and the scholars -- The plurality of brave new worlds: the numen and the lumen -- High doctrines of the holy: the supposed fideism of Sir Thomas Browne, Dryden, and Pascal -- The witch of Endor and the Gadarene swine: the debate over witchcraft and miracles in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries -- Propping with a twig: rationalism and daemonianism in Pope and Swift -- Terror and awe in mid-century poetry: Watts, Akenside, Thomson, Young -- Skeptical and reverent empiricism: Hume and Johnson -- Spiritual horror in the novel: Richardson, Radcliffe, Beckford, Lewis -- Religious love and fear in late-century poetry: Smart, Wesley, Cowper, Blake -- Epilogue: The next stage.