He lived within himself, nourished by his own substance, like some torpid creature which hibernates in caves.

Another animal which hibernates through the winter is the marmot, and I often think of them sound asleep under the snow as I pass along the slopes of some high valley.

Yet we should deceive ourselves if we imagined that the belief in witchcraft is even now dead in the mass of the people; on the contrary there is ample evidence to show that it only hibernates under the chilling influence of rationalism, and that it would start into active life if that influence were ever seriously relaxed.