Between Humans and Angels: Scientific Uses for Fairies in Early Modern Scotland

Abstract

This chapter discusses some intellectuals in early modern Scotland who attempted to place the study of nature spirits on a scientific basis. The nature spirits most often recognized in early modern Scotland were fairies, elves and brownies. Elite thinkers usually dismissed them as vulgar superstition, or reinterpreted them as demons. However, these authors, apparently following Paracelsus, suggested that reports of such spirits constituted evidence for a distinct class of spirits that were intermediate between humans and angels. The most significant work discussed is Robert Kirk’s treatise The Secret Commonwealth (1692).