2"Secrets of Black Arts " Is one of the many interesting volumes produced in its era to combine multiple occult subjects into one decent-sized work. Covering the Salem Witch Trials, the divining rod, a bit of folklore, and some demonology, along with omens and fortunes, it is more a rational and academic compilation than a hands-on one. As with other era works it lends itself against both the fundamentalism of its era as well as wanton and atheistic rationalism, providing a skeptical but ultimately quasi-spiritual ground while attacking superstition altogether in its latter pages on the subject of the burning times.