"Деннис Уитли. The Devil Rides Out (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

Gautama Buddha and his disciples performed miracles of a similar
nature?'
'Not at all. Most people agree now that Buddha was a sort of
Indian Christ, a Holy Man, and no doubt he had some sort of power
granted to him too.'
The Duke sat back with a heavy sigh. 'At last my friend we seem
to be getting somewhere. If you admit that miracles, as you call
them although you object to the word magic, have been performed by
two men living in different countries hundreds of years apart, and
that even their disciples were able to tap a similar power through
their holiness, you cannot reasonably deny that other mystics have
also performed similar acts in many portions of the globe-and
therefore, that there is a power existing outside us which is not
peculiar to any religion, but can be utilised if one can get into
communication with it,'
Rex laughed. That's so, I can't deny it.'
'Thank God! Let's mix ourselves another drink shall we, I need
it?'
'Don't move, I'll fix it.' Rex good-naturedly scrambled to his
feet. 'All the same,' he added slowly, 'it doesn't follow that
because a number of good men have been granted supernatural powers
that there is anything in Black Magic.'
'Then you do not believe in Witchcraft?'
'Of course not, nobody does in these days.'
'Really! How long do you think it is since the last trial for
Witchcraft took place?'
'I'll say it was all of a hundred and fifty years ago.'
'No, it was in January, 1926, at Melun near Paris.'
'Oh! You're fooling!' Rex exclaimed angrily.
'I'm not,' De Richleau assured him solemnly. The records of the
court will prove my statement, so you see you are hardly accurate
when you say that nobody believes in Witchcraft in these days, and
many many thousands still believe in a personal devil.'
'Yes, simple folk maybe, but not educated people.'
'Possibly not, yet every thinking man must admit that there is
still such a thing as the power of Evil.'
'Why?'
'My dear fellow, all qualities have their opposites, like love
and hate, pleasure and pain, generosity and avarice. How could we
recognise the goodness of Jesus Christ, Lao Tze, Ashoka, Marcus
Aurelius, Francis of Assisi, Florence Nightingale and a thousand
others if it were not for the evil lives of Herod, Caesar Borgia,
Rasputin, Landru, Ivan Kreuger and the rest?'
That's true,' Rex admitted slowly.
'Then if an intensive cultivation of good can beget strange
powers is there any reason why an intensive cultivation of evil
should not beget them also?'
'I think I begin to get what you're driving at.'
'Good! Now listen, Rex.' The Duke leaned forward earnestly. 'And
I will try and expound what little I know of the Esoteric Doctrine