[ad. L. ēvocātiōn-em, n. of action f. ēvocāre: see EVOKE.] The action of evoking; a calling forth or out.
† 1. The calling (of a person) from a specified place or association; (of the spirit) from present surroundings. Obs.
1574. Hellowes, Gueuara’s Fam. Ep. (1577), 202. In this euocation of Abraham is taught howe needefull it is to … Gods people, to be deuided and drawn from vices.
1612–5. Bp. Hall, Contempl. O. T., XX. ii. The hastie evocation of so noted a person, to such a secrecie.
a. 1631. Donne, Serm., cxxi. (1839), V. 150. His night-watchings are ecstaties and evocations of his soul into the presence and communion of saints.
a. 1640. Jackson, Creed, XII. vii. The Greek Ἐκκλησία [signifies] a society elected or called out. This evocation or selection is of divers sorts.
transf. 1656. trans. Hobbes’ Elem. Philos. (1839), 448. Our spirits and blood, and whatsoever is fluid within us, is called out from the internal to the external parts of our bodies…. He that can give a possible cause of this evocation and swelling [etc.].
b. Rom. Antiq. The calling upon the gods of a besieged city to forsake it and come over to the besiegers.
1656. Cowley, Davideis, IV. notes 149. Their solemn Evocation of Gods from the Cities which they besieged.
1753. in Chambers, Cycl. Supp.
1853. De Quincey, Wks. (1862), XIV. 73. The Pagan practice of evocation applied to the tutelary deities of such a state.
† 2. = AVOCATION 2, 3.
1769. Hist. Europe, in Ann. Reg., 2/2. If the empress of Russia finds no evocation from disturbances at home … the Turkish empire may … fall by the hands of a woman.
1810. Scott, Lett. to W. Hayley, 12 July. A number of most unpoetical evocations have made me appear very ungrateful.
3. a. The evoking or calling up a spirit. Const. of. b. The formula to be used in evoking a spirit.
a. 1633. Ames, Agst. Cerem., II. 147. [They] paved the way for invocation of Saints in heaven, and evocation of men out of Hell.
1681. H. More, in Glanvill’s Sadducismus, Postscr. 43. She turning her face from Saul, mutters to her self some Magical form of evocation of Spirits.
1843. Blackw. Mag., LIV. 675/2. The rapidity of her evocation was most surprising, as M. de Cagliostro had no idea of the person I should desire him to call up.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (ed. 4), I. 103. Divination and evocations are practised with increasing credulity.
b. 1631. A. B., trans. Raleigh’s Ghost, I. xiii. 208. The like Negromantical euocation to be made by Scipio, is read in Siluius.
1823. D’Israeli, Cur. Lit., Dreams Dawn Philos. The abbot … sent three or four leaves stuffed with the names of devils, and with their evocations.
4. The calling out or removal of a cause or action from an inferior to a superior court; = med.L. evocatio, Fr. évocation.
[1611. Cotgr., Evocation, an euocation … also, a calling before one by authoritie; a transferring, or remouing of causes vnto a higher Court by command of the Judges thereof.]
1644. Bp. Maxwell, Prerog. Kings, i. 8. Nor can he be debarred … by precognition … or evocation to determine or Judge in any thing that concerneth that his Kingdome.
1682. News fr. France, 10. The one [Edict] was that no Protestant may have the Relief of an Evocation (or appeal) from any Court of Justice.
1694. Falle, Jersey, vii. 206. We have a Jurisdiction established among our selves, and our Properties secured against vexatious Suits and Evocations into England.
1759. Hume, Hist. Eng. (1818), IV. 90. The evocation which came a few days after from Rome.
1791. St. Papers, in Ann. Reg., 171*. The citizens cannot be withdrawn from the judges … by any other attributions or evocations than those which are determined by the laws.
1832. in Webster.
1862. S. Lucas, Secularia, 363. Other matters … were from time to time withdrawn from the ordinary tribunals, and by a process of evocation transferred to the Council.
5. a. The action of evoking or calling forth into existence or activity; an instance of the same. Const. of. Also concr.
1775. Harris, Philos. Arrangem. (1841), 259. There is no one … who imagines … every recent production … to be an absolutely fresh creation … an evocation of something out of nothing.
1822. De Quincey, Confess. (1862), 84. Magical power of evocation which Christianity has put forth.
1845. R. W. Hamilton, Pop. Educ., iv. (ed. 2), 84. You have caused him who was created a thinking being, to think. You have done reverence to the Father of spirits in the evocation of that spirit.
1861. McCaul, Aids to Faith, v. 215. The evocation of light is the prominent object of the first day’s work.
1870. E. Mulford, The Nation, xviii. 343. There is in the people no evocation of a moral spirit, and no education of an individual character in them. Ibid. (1881), Republic of God, viii. 173. The faith which is the gift and the evocation of this revelation is involved with the conscience and the consciousness of men.
1887. Gladstone, in Times, 6 Sept., 12/3. There is a growing necessity for the cultivation of local resources,… the evocation of which will be a most healthy proceeding.
b. With reference to the Platonic theory of recollection (ἀνάμνησις): A calling up of knowledge acquired in a previous state of existence.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., To Rdr. A iij a. We could be content with Plato, that knowledge were but Remembrance; that Intellectual acquisition were but Reminiscentiall evocation.
1865. Grote, Plato, I. xix. 530. This magical evocation of knowledge from an untaught youth.
† 6. Gram. (See quots.) Obs.
1612. Brinsley, Pos. Parts (1669), 27. Every Vocative case is of the second Person … by a figure called Evocation … Because Tu or Vos are understood in every Voc. case.
1657. J. Smith, Myst. Rhet., 190, marg. Evocation … is an immediate Reduction of the third person either to the first or second.
1678–96. Phillips, Evocation, in Grammar it is a figure of Construction, being a reducing of the third Person, either to the first or second; as Ego tuæ deliciæ istuc veniam.
