Introduction

Daniel Defoe’s A System of Magick first appeared anonymously in London on 24 November 1726, not 1727 as indicated on its title page. It was published by John Roberts, one of Defoe’s regular publishers, and was intended as a sequel to the popular The Political History of the Devil, which had appeared earlier the same year. A third volume of supernatural writings, An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions, was to follow in 1727. ¹