“Ridiculous prejudices! Oh! blush, Ambrosio, blush at being subjected to their dominion. Where is the risk of accepting my offers? What should induce my persuading you to this step, except the wish of restoring you to happiness and quiet. If there is danger, it must fall upon me: it is I who invoke the ministry of the spirits; mine therefore will be the crime, and yours the profit. But danger there is none: the enemy of mankind is my slave, not my sovereign. Is there no difference between giving and receiving laws, between serving and commanding? Awake from your idle dreams, Ambrosio! Throw from you these terrors so ill-suited to a soul like yours; leave them for common men, and dare to be happy! Accompany me this night to St. Clare’s sepulchre, witness my incantations, and Antonia is your own.”

“To obtain her by such means I neither can, nor will. Cease then to persuade me, for I dare not employ hell’s agency.”