Quitman - A Treatise on Magic

Ken McGuire

Frederick Quitman was one of the most important leaders in American Lutheranism in the generation after the American Revolution - at least in New York.  He wrote a new Catechism.  He was in charge of a new hymnal.

He ordained as a missionary to the West Indies, but the Revolution caused him to relocate to New York.  He had been educated at Halle, but Halle was no longer the stronghold of Pietism.

In just about every description of him, he is described as a "Rationalist" or a "Christian Deist" - something quite different from what came before or after.  Because of his influence at his time, I have looked for a while for a text of his.

And I found this little booklet from 1810.  He shows himself as a sceptic to any claims of magic, and his appeals to reason and experience is right from the enlightenment.  He is aware of thought like Kant in Germany, as well as some thought of Revolutionary France.  He is obviously an very educated man.

This work does include a fair amount of annotations.  But he has them at the end of the work, without any markers in the text itself leading to the notes.  I have reproduced them as published, instead of converting them into a more modern (and useful) form.  I have, however, created links from the note to the page of the text...

Source is https://archive.org/details/treatiseonmagic00quit .  This time I reproduced the title page as a graphic if you wish to use it as a cover.

SDG

Ken McGuire

Bruce Dunning

Thanks Ken.