His job is to identify the bad spirits that are attaching themselves to the juus (soul) of a person, and by placing himself in a trance he is able to purify the afflicted soul.

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Not long after embarking upon the subject of God and melancholy, for example, Mr. Burton veers into "A Digression of the Nature of Spirits, Bad Angels, or Devils, " which leads into an elaborate taxonomy of evil creatures, including the question of whether some devils "have excrements" or "feel pain if they are hurt, " and whether there can be both good and bad devils.

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Inevitably, bad inflation and high interest rates sap the spirits of businesses and consumers.

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"Spirits can be both benevolent and bad for you, " she whispers.

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These spirits are often indifferent to humanity, neither good nor bad.

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" Emerging in late afternoon from the darkness of a movie theater is just as bad: "Local sunlight after rain had, quite unaided, the power not just to make my spirits drop--many things did that--but to convince me, beyond anything that could counter, that life would never again have anything to offer me.

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