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.