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º F
, (1474.
W I T C H C R A F T.
LECT U R ES
ON
W I T C H C R A F T,
COMPRISING A HISTORY
OF
T H E D E L U S I O N IN S A L E M,
IN
1 69 2.
+
• ‘.
;" |}
º
! . .
2.
- W -
By CHARLES W. UPHAM,
Junior Pastor of the IFirst Church in Salem.
B O S T ON,
C A R T I, R, H E N DE E A N D B A B C O C K.
M D C C C XXX I,
B O S T O N C L A S S I C P R E S S :
I . R. B. U T. T. S.
ENTERED according to Act of Congress in the year 1831,
By CARTElt, II ENDER AND BAB coc I,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
P. R. E. F. A. C. E.
THE following lectures were originally pre-
pared for delivery in the Salem Lyceum.
They have been repeated before similar asso-
ciations in Marblehead, in Beverly, in South
Danvers, in North Danvers, in Waltham, in
Gloucester, in Haverhill, in Lynn and in Tops-
field. A large part of what appears in this vol-
ume was necessarily omitted in the delivery.
Several considerations, in co-operation with
requests made from various quarters, both in
public and in private, have induced the au-
thor to offer them to the community at large
through the press.
The subject of which they treat is intimate-
vi
ly connected with the history, not merely of
New England, but of the imagination of man,
as it has been developed in various regions
and ages. Very inadequate and unjust views
are entertained of the scene in our annals,
which they illustrate, and of the persons who
acted or suffered in that scene. The princi-
pal inducement, however, to give them a per-
manent circulation, is a conviction that the
facts they relate, and the reflections they nat-
urally suggest, are full of the most important
instruction. No one, it is thought, can ponder
upon them without receiving useful lessons to
guide and influence him with reference to the
cultivation and government of his own moral
and intellectual faculties, and to the obliga-
tions that press upon him as a member of so-
ciety to do what he may to enlighten, rectify
and control public sentiment. In the hope
that they may contribute, in combination with
the great variety of other means now employed,
to diffuse the blessings of knowledge, to chock
vii
the prevalence of fanaticism, to accelerate the
decay of superstition, to prevent an unre-
strained exercise of imagination and passion in
the individual or in societies of men, and to
establish the effectual dominion of true relig-
ion and sound philosophy, they are now pre-
sented to the public,
L E C T U R E I.
IT is one of the distinguishing character-
istics of the human being, that he loves to
contemplate the Scenes of the past, and de-
sires to have his own history borne down to
the future—this, like all the other propensi-
ties of our nature, is accompanied by facul-
ties to secure its gratification. The gift of
speech by which the parent can convey in-
formation to the child, and the old transmit
intelligence to the young, is an indication
that it is the design of the Author of our be-
ing, that we should receive from those who
are passing away before us, the narrative of
their experience, and communicate the results
of our own to the generations that are to
succeed us. All nations have to a greater
I
2
or less degree been faithful to their trust, in
using the gift to fulfil the design of the Giv-
er. It is impossible to name a people who
do not possess cherished traditions that have
descended from their early ancestors.
Although it is generally considered that
the invention of a system of arbitrary and
external signs to communicate thought, is
one of the greatest and most arduous achieve-
ments of human ingenuity, yet so universal
is the disposition to make future generations
acquainted with our condition and history, a
disposition, the efficient cause of which can
only be found in a sense of the value of such
knowledge, that you can scarcely find a peo-
ple on the face of the globe, who have not
contrived by some means or other, from the
rude monument of shapeless rock, to the
most perfect alphabetical language, to com-
municate with posterity, thus declaring as
with the voice of nature herself, that it is
desirable and proper that all men should
know as much as possible, of the character,
and actions, and fortunes of their predeces-
sors on the stage of life.
3
It is not difficult to discern the end, for
which this disposition to preserve for the ſu-
ture and contemplate the past was imparted
to us. If all that we knew were what is .
taught by our individual experience, our
minds would have but little, comparatively,
to exercise and expand them, and our char-
acters would be the result of the limited in-
fluences embraced within the narrow sphere
of our particular relations and circumstances.
HBut now, that our eye is attracted to the ob-
servation of those who have lived before us,
our materials for reflection and sources of
instruction are multiplied. The virtues we
admire in our ancestors, not only adorn and
dignify their names, but win us to their
imitation. Their prosperity and happiness
spread abroad a diffusive light that reaches
us, and brightens our condition. The wis-
dom that guided their footsteps becomes at
the same time a lamp to our path. The ob-
servation of the errors of their course, and
of the consequent disappointments and suf-
ferings that befel them, enables us to pass in
safety through rocks and ledges, on which
4.
they were shipwrecked;— and while we
grieve to see them eating the bitter fruits of
their own vices and crimes, we can seize the
benefits of their experience without paying
the price at which they purchased it.
In the desire which every man feels to
learn the history, and be instructed by the
example of his predecessors, and in the ac-
companying disposition, with the means of
carrying it into effect, to transmit a know-
ledge of himself and his own times to his
successors, we discover the wise and admira-
ble arrangement of a providence, which re-
moves the worn out individual to a better
country, but leaves the acquisitions of his
mind, and the benefit of his experience, as
an accumulating and common fund, for the
use of his posterity—which has secured the
continued renovation of the race, without the
loss of the wisdom of each generation.
These considerations suggest a much more
adequate and accurate definition of history,
than the celebrated one proposed by Boling-
broke—‘Philosophy teaching by example.’
They inform us that history is rather the
5
instrument by which the results of the great
experiment of human life are collected and
transmitted from age to age: speaking through
the records of history, all past generations
become the instructors of the present.
Since this is the true and proper design of
history, it assumes an exalted station among
the branches of human knowledge. Every
community that aspires to become intelligent
and virtuous, should cherish it. Institu-
tions for the promotion and diffusion of use-
ful information, should have special reference
to it. And all people should be induced to
look back to the days of their forefathers, to
be warned by their errors, instructed by their
wisdom, and stimulated in the career of im-
provement, by the example of their virtues.
Under the influence of these views, it has
appeared to me, that I could not discharge
the duty to which I have here been called,
in any way more conducive to the accom-
plishment of the design of this association,
than by presenting to its members a remarka-
ble passage in the history of their ancestors.
It shall be my design to exhibit the subject
1%
6
in such a light, that the great end of history,
just described, may be attained; and that
when the whole scene to be disclosed has
been spread out before you, you may bear
away instruction and improvement from its
contemplation.
The historian would find a great amount
and variety of materials in the annals of this
town, – greater perhaps, than in any other of
its size in the country. But there is one
chapter in our history of preeminent inter-
est and importance. The witchcraft delu-
sion of 1692 has attracted universal atten-
tion for the last century, and will, in all com-
ing ages, render the name of Salem notable
throughout the world. Wherever the name
of the place we live in is mentioned, this
memorable transaction will be found associa-
ted with it, and those who know nothing else
of our history or our character, will be sure
to know, and tauntingly to inform us that
they know, that we hanged the witches.
It is surely incumbent upon us to possess
ourselves of correct and just views of a trans-
action, thus indissolubly connected with the
7
reputation of our home, with the memory of
our fathers, and of course with the most pre-
cious part of the inheritance of our children.
I am apprehensive that the community is
very Superficially acquainted with this trans-
action. All have heard of the Salem witch-
craft—hardly any are aware of the real char-
acter of that event. Its mention creates a
Smile of astonishment, and perhaps a sneer
of contempt, or it may be, a thrill of horror
for the innocent who suffered ; but there is
reason to fear that it fails to suggest those re-
flections and impart that salutary instruction,
without which the design of providence in
permitting it to take place cannot be accom-
plished. There are, indeed, few passages
in the history of any people to be compared
with it in all that constitutes the pitiable and
tragical, the mysterious and awful. The stu-
dent of human nature will contemplate in its
Scenes one of the most remarkable devel-
opments which that nature ever assumed;
while the moralist, the statesman and the
Christian philosopher, will, severally, find
that it opens widely before them, a field
fruitful in instruction.
8
Our ancestors have been visited with un
measured reproach for their conduct on the
Occasion. Sad, indeed, was the delusion
that came over them, and shocking was the
extent to which their bewildered imaginations
and excited passions hurried and drove them
on. Still, however, there are many consid-
erations that deserve to be well weighed be-
fore sentence is passed upon them. And,
while I hope to give evidence of a readiness
to have everything appear in its own just
light, and to expose to view the very darkest
features of the transaction, I am confident of
being able to bring forward such facts and
reflections as will Satisfy you, that no re-
proach ought to be attached to them in con-
sequence of this affair, which does not be-
long, at least equally, to all other nations, and
to the greatest and best men of their times
and of previous ages; and in short, that the
final predominating sentiment, their conduct
should awaken, is not so much that of anger
and indignation as of pity and compassion.
In order to do justice to the subject, it
will be necessary for me to divide it into two
9
lectures;– the first must be devoted to a his-
torical narration of the proceedings in Sa-
lem, and the second will present those addi-
tional facts and considerations, that should be
taken into view, previous to pronouncing a
judgment, or forming an opinion respect-
ing the conduct and characters of the per-
sons connected with them.
Let us endeavor to carry ourselves back
to the state of the colony of Massachusetts
one hundred and forty years ago. The per-
secutions our ancestors had undergone in
their own country, and the privations, alto-
gether inconceivable by us, they suffered
during the early years of their residence here,
acting upon their minds and characters, in
cooperation with the influences of the po- 'º',
litical and ecclesiastical occurrences that
marked the commencement of the seven-
teenth century, had imparted a gloomy, sol-
emn and romantic turn to their dispositions
and associations, which was transmitted with-
out diminution to their children, and was
strengthened and aggravated by the peculiar
circumstances of the period. It was the tri-
10
umphant age of superstition. The imagina-
tion had been expanded by credulity until it
had reached a wild and monstrous growth.
The puritans were always prone to subject
themselves to its influence; and New Eng-
land, at the time to which we have referred,
was a most fit and congenial theatre upon
which to display its power. t
Cultivation and civilization had made but
a partial encroachment upon the wilderness.
Wide, deep, solemn forests covered the hills,
hung over the unfrequented roads, and
frowned upon the scattered settlements.
These forests were still the abode of wild
beasts and of the Indians, in the terror of
whose strange customs and warlike propen-
sities, the European settlers were apt to lose
sight of all those nobler qualities, which pro-
perly regarded and addressed would unques-
tionably have proved them worthy of the
friendship of our ancestors.
In consequence of a want of confidence
and sympathy, and of provocations incident
to two races of men of dissimilar habits and
feelings, thus thrown into close proximity,


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in Original
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13
incursions of the Indians in alliance with that
power. In the year 1708, several hundred
Algonquin and St Francis Indians, under
the command of French officers, fell upon
Haverhill about break of day on the twenty-
ninth of August, consigned the town to con-
flagration and plunder, destroyed property to
the amount of one thousand pounds, massa-
cred the minister of the congregation, Mr
Rolſe, the commander of the place, Capt.
Wainwright, together with nearly forty others,
and carried off many more into captivity.
The province was encumbered with op-
pressive taxes and weighed down by a heavy
debt. The sum assessed upon Salem to de-
ſray the expenses of the country at large,
the year before the witchcraft prosecutions,
was one thousand three hundred and ſortysix
pounds one shilling. Besides this there were
the town taxes. The whole amounted no
doubt to more than six thousand dollars, ex-
clusive of the support of the ministry, a
weight of taxation considering the greater
value of money at that time, of which we
have no experience and can hardly form an
2
14
adequate conception. The burden pressed
directly upon the whole community. There
were then no great private fortunes, no
Wººd institutions, no foreign commerce,
ew, if any, articles of luxury, and no large
capitals to intercept and divert its pressure.
*It was borne to its whole extent by the actual
industry of a population of extremely mode-
rate estates, and very limited earnings, and
almost crushed it to the earth, -
The people were dissatisfied with the new
charter. They were becoming the victims
of political jealousies, discontent and animo-
sities. They had been agitated by great
revolutions. They were surrounded by
alarming indications of change, and their ears
were constantly assailed by rumors of war.
Their minds were startled and confounded
by the prevalence of prophecies and ſore-
bodings of dark and dismal events. At this
most unfortunate moment, and as it were, to
crown the whole, and fill up the measure of
their affliction and terror, it was their uni-
versal and sober belief, that the evil being
himself was in a special manner let loose,

**-***** *-* ---...--...--
15
and permitted to descend upon them with
unexampled fury. Tº
The population of what is now Salem,
was at that time and continued, for nearly
thirty years afterwards, to be so small, that
there was but one religious society in the
place. All the people were accommodated
in the meetinghouse of the first church. They
participated in their full share of the gloom
and despondency that pervaded the province,
and in addition to that, had their own pecu-
liar troubles and distresses. Within a short
time the town had lost almost all its venera-
ble fathers and leading citizens, the men
whose councils had governed and whose
wisdom had guided them from the first years.
of the settlement of the place. Only those
who are intimately acquainted with the con-
dition of a community of simple manners and
primitive feelings, such as were the early
New England settlements, can have an ade-
quate conception of the degree to which the
people were attached to their patriarchs, the
extent of their dependence upon them, and
the amount of their loss when they were re-
•- - - - - -, --- ***
I6
moved. A separate religious Society had
previously been formed in what was then
called Salem Village, now a part of Danvers.
This congregation, the same at present under
the pastoral care of Rev. Mr Braman, lately
under that of the estimable Dr Wadsworth,
had for a long period been the scene of one
of those violent and heated dissensions, too
common in our religious societies at all times.
The unhappy strife was gradually propaga-
ted, until it had spread alienation and bitter-
ness through the whole town, and finally
became of such moment, that it was carried up
to the General Court and was a topic of discus-
sion and altercation there. The parties were
the Rev. Samuel Parris on the one side, and a
large portion of his congregation on the other.
It was while this conflict was going on,
and in the midst of all this local trouble and
general distress, that the great and awful
tragedy began.
Near the close of the month of February,
1692, two female children, belonging to the
family of the Rev. Mr Parris, one, his daugh-
ter Elizabeth, represented to have been but
17
nine, and the other his niece, Abigail Wil-
liams, twelve years old, together with a
young female of the neighborhood, named .
Ann Putnam, began to act in a strange and
unaccountable manner. They would creep
into holes, and under benches and chairs,
put themselves into odd postures, make an-
tic gestures, and utter loud outcries and ridic-
ulous, incoherent and unintelligible expres-
sions. The attention of the family was ar-
rested. No account or explanation of the
conduct of the children could be given, and,
in an evil hour physicians were called in and
consulted. One of the physicians gave it as
his opinion that the children were bewitched.
It is proper, before we proceed any fur-
ther, to explain what was meant by this opin-
ion. There are several words and expres-
sions, that are sometimes used synonymous-
ly with witch, although they are not strictly
synonymous. The following for instance,—"...,
diviner, enchanger, charmer, conjurer, me-
cromancer, fortune-teller, augur, soothsay-
er, and sorcerer. None of these words con-
vey the same idea our ancestors attached to
2%
18
the word witch. Witch was sometimes
specially used to signify a female, while wiz-
ard was exclusively applied to a male.
The distinction was not often, however, at-
tempted to be made — the former title was
prevailingly applied to either sex. A witch
was regarded by our fathers, as a person who
had made an actual, deliberate and formal
compact with Satan, by which compact it
was agreed that she should become his faith-
ful subject, and do what she could in promo-
ting his cause, and in consideration of this
allegiance and service, he on his part agreed
to exercise his Supernatural powers in her
favor, and communicate to her a portion of
those powers. Thus a witch was consider-
ed in the light of a person who had transfer-
ed allegiance and worship from God to the
Devil.,
The existence of this compact was sup-
posed to confer great additional power on
the Devil as well as on his new subject, for
the doctrine seems to have prevailed, that
for him to act with effect upon men, the in-
tervention and instrumentality of human co-
19
operation was necessary, and almost unlimit-
ed power was ascribed to the combined ex-
ertions of Satan, and those of the human
species in league with him. A witch was
believed to have the power, through her
compact with the Devil, of afflicting, dis-
tressing, and rending whomever she would.
She could cause them to pine away and to
suffer almost every description of pain and
distress. She was also believed to possess
the faculty of being present in her shape or
apparition at a different place from that
which her actual body occupied. Indeed,
an almost indefinite amount of Supernatural
ability, and a great freedom and variety of
methods for its exercise, were supposed to
result from the diabolical compact. Those
upon whom she thus exercised her malig-
nant and mysterious emergies, were said to
be bewitched.
When I state the fact that these opinions
were not merely prevalent among the com-
mon people, but were advocated by the
learning and philosophy, the science and ju-
risprudence of the times, none can be sur-
20
prised at the alarm which it created, when
the belief became current, that there were
those in the community who had actually
entered into this dark confederacy against
God and Heaven, Religion and Virtue, and
that individuals were beginning to suffer from
their infernal power. It cannot be consid-
~ered strange that our fathers should have
looked with more than common horror upon
persons who had been convicted, as they
thought, upon overwhelming evidence of this
conspiracy with all that was evil, and this
treason against all that was good.
We are now prepared to return to the
narrative. One or two other young girls in
the neighborhood, soon began to exhibit simi-
lar indications of being bewitched. The
families to which the afflicted children be-
longed, immediately applied themselves to
fasting and prayer, invoking the interposition
of the Divine Being, to deliver them from
the snares and dominion of Satan. Mr Par-
ris invited the neighboring ministers to as-
semble at his house and unite with him in
devoting a day to Solemn religious services,
21
and to devout supplications to the throne of
Mercy, for rescue from the power of the
great enemy of souls. During the exercises
of this occasion, one of the children had fre-
quent and violent convulsion fits. These
events soon became generally known in the
village, and through the whole surrounding
country. The public mind was prepared to
sanction the opinion of the physician, and it
was universally believed, that the evil one
had commenced his operations with a bolder
front and on a broader scale than in any pre-
vious period.
Great numbers crowded to the spot to
gratify their credulous curiosity, by witness-
ing the effect of his influence upon the af.
flicted children—and all were anxious to dis-
cover by whose cooperation he thus exer-
cised his malignant power. The pretended
sufferers were incessantly importuned to de-
clare who afflicted them. Who were the
witches through whom the evil one acted
upon them. At length, when they had
wrought the people up to a sufficient degree
of excitement, they began to select and bring
22
forward their victims. They first accused,
or as the phrase was, ‘cried out upon,' an
Indian woman attached to Mr Parris’ family.
By operating upon the old creature’s fears
and imagination, and as there is some reason
to apprehend, by using severe treatment to-
wards her, she was made to confess that
the charge was true, and that she was in
league with the devil.
All can easily imagine the effect of this
confession. It established beyond question or
suspicion, the credibility of the accusers, and
produced such a thorough conviction of their
veracity in the public mind, that if any one
still continued to have misgivings or doubts,
it seemed to be all in vain, even if he had
courage enough to dare to do it, to give them
utterance. This state of things emboldened
the young girls, and they proceeded to ac-
cuse two more decrepid and miserable old
women, who were immediately arrested,
thrown into prison, and put in irons. In the
meantime, new accessions were made to the
number of the afflicted accusers, owing either
to the inflamed state of the imaginations of
23
^
the people, which led them to attribute their
various diseases and ailments to the agency
of witches, to a mere love of notoriety and
a passion for general sympathy, to a desire
to be secure against the charge of bewitch-
ing others, or to a malicious disposition to
wreak vengeance upon enemies.
The next person accused was carried into
the meetinghouse in the village, and con-
fronted with the accusers. As soon as the
poor old woman was brought in, they utter-
ed loud screams and fell down upon the
floor. If in her terror and despair she hap-
pened to clasp her hands, they would shriek
out that she was pinching them. When she
pressed in agony her withered lip, they ex-
claimed that she was biting them, and would
show the marks of her teeth upon their flesh.
If the dreadſul excitement of the scene, add-
ed to the feebleness of age, exhausted and
overcame her, and she happened to lean for
support against the side of the pew or the
aisle, they would cry out that their bodies
were crushed; and if she changed her po-
sition, or took a single step, they would de-
24
clare that their feet were in pain. In this
manner they artfully produced a strong con-
viction in the minds of the deluded magis-
trates and excited by-standers. On these
occasions the proceedings were always intro-
duced by prayer and addresses from the
most influential ministers of the vicinity, who
were decided in countenancing and active in
promoting them. The afflicted, as they
were called, did not rest with merely accus-
ing their victims of having bewitched them,
but testified on the stand that they had been
present with them at their diabolical meet-
ings, had witnessed them partaking in the
visible company of Satan, of his blasphe-
mous sacraments, and had seen them sign
his book with their own blood.
The examination of the accused generally
took place, as has always been understood,
in the house still standing at the western
corner of North and Essex Streets, then the
residence of Jonathan Corwin, Esq., at that
time an acting magistrate. His colleague in
the magistracy was John Hathorne, Esq.
It may well be supposed that these events
would produce a great sensation throughout
25
\
the colony. They did so. There was no
discordance in the public voice, and although
many individuals afterwards endeavored to
make it appear that they were untouched by ,
the delusion, I am inclined to think with the
late Dr Bentley of Salem, that all honorable
men and good citizens would prefer to be con-
sidered as participating in the excitement,
than as having been free from it, and opposed
to it, without ever daring to resist or check
or reduce it. There were, however, a few
who were incredulous from the beginning,
and have vindicated their claim to that dis-
tinction, by openly advocating their opinions
at the time. Among these were the reve-
rend and celebrated Samuel Willard of the
Old South church in Boston, who always
frowned upon the proceedings, although three
of the judges were members of his church;
and Major Saltonstall, who publicly express-
ed his disapprobation by retiring from his
seat on the bench. With these and perhaps
a few other exceptions, the whole commu-
mity was convinced of the truth of the ac-
cusations, and that there was a dark and dia-
3
26 - N

|bolical confederacy in the land between !
Satan and some of the inhabitants, that threat-
ened to overthrow and extirpate religion
| and morality, and to establish the king-
| dom of the evil one, in a country which had
been dedicated by the prayers, and tears and
| sufferings of its pious fathers to GoD and the
sº 2-&- -- ~
While the delusion was spreading over
the colony, its operations were going on with
tremendous efficacy in Salem, and the neigh-
boring towns; additions were continually
making to the number of the accusers by
voluntary accessions, and by those who
having been themselves accused, to save
their lives, confessed, and became witnesses
against others. The prisons in Salem, Cam-
bridge and Boston were crowded with sup-
posed witches. All the securities of society
were dissolved. Every man's life was at the
mercy of every other man. Fear sat on
every countenance ; terror and distress were
in all hearts; silence pervaded the streets;
many of the people left the country; all busi-
mess was at a stand, and the feeling, dismal
27
and horrible indeed, became general, that
the providence of God was removed from
them, and that they were given over to the
dominion of Satan. ...” .
To illustrate the condition of society at
this dreadful time, I will relate the circum-
stances connected with the arrest of the wife
of Phillip English. This gentleman was pos-
sessed of a very large estate, for that period.
He owned fourteen buildings, a wharf in the
lower part of the town, and twentyone sail of
vessels; his dwellinghouse is still standing,
and bears the marks of having been construct-
edupon the best style of that day; it is situated
at the eastern termination of Essex Street, and
is a venerable and curious specimen of our
ancient architecture. Mrs English was a
lady of accomplished education and superior
endowments. In consequence of several
pecuniary controversies in which her husband
had been engaged with the town, and per-
haps from a want of sympathy arising from
other causes between his family and the
poorer people of the place, they were not
popular. Many persons entertained jeal-

28
ousies and cherished feelings of aversion to-
wards them. This was the case with some
of the accusers, and they determined to
gratify their malignity by getting Mr English
and his wife hanged for witchcraft. They
accordingly commenced by accusing Mrs
English. The officer entered her dwelling on
the evening of the 21st of April, read his war-
rant in her bedchamber, and placed guards
around the house, intending to carry her to
prison the next day. So utterly hopeless
at that time was the condition of any one
who might happen to fall under the accusa-
tion of witchcraft, that Mrs English consid-
ered herself lost. In the morning she at-
tended the devotions of her family, gave di-
rection for the education of her children,
kissed them, clasped them in her arms, com-
mended them to God, bid them farewell,
and then committed herself to the sheriff,
declaring her readiness to die. Mr English,
hoping that by placing himself beyond the
reach of the prosecutors, he might more
easily promote the release of his wife, either
concealed himself or retired from this part of
29
the country. Several ineffectual attempts
were made to arrest him. Finding, however,
that he could not protect or rescue her from
the power of the infatuated magistrates, he
came forward, voluntarily surrendered him-
self, and expressed his determination to share
her fate. They found means, however, to
effect their escape, and fled to New York.
It ought to be mentioned to the honor of Mr
English, and never forgotten by the people
of Salem, that, notwithstanding the treatment
he and his family had received, he sent from
the place of his refuge generous donations
to our suffering poor at a season of great dis-
tress the next winter. To the honor of the
people too it should be recorded, that when
their famatical delirium had passed away, they
welcomed him and his family back with pub-
lic rejoicings, and did everything in their
power to make restitution and compensation
for the injury they had inflicted upon them.--
To meet the extraordinary crisis, a special
commission was issued to seven of the prin-
cipal citizens and jurists of the colony, con-
stituting them a court to try the accused per-
3%
30
sons at Salem. These were the Lieut. Gov-
ernor, Mr Stoughton, Major Saltonstall,
Major Richards, Major Gedney, Mr Wait
Winthrops Capt. Sewall, and Mr Sargeant.
They assembled by particular appointment
at the court-house in Salem, supposed to
have stood at the eastern corner of Essex
and Washington Streets, on the second of
June, 1692. The first victim, an old wo-
man, was executed on the tenth of June. The
court then adjourned. . The government
during their recess consulted several of the
ministers of Boston and its vicinity, respect-
ing the prosecutions, and while they urged the
importance of caution and circumspection in
the methods of examination, and the admission
of testimony, they at the same time decid-
edly and earnestly recommended that the
proceedings should be vigorously carried on.
And they were vigorously carried on. The
court sat again on the thirtieth of June, and
five more old women were hanged on the
nineteenth of July. The Court sat again
August fifth, and on the nineteenth of the
same month, four men and one woman were
31
hanged. And on the twentysecond of Sep-
tember, two men and six women were hanged.
Eight more were condemned, but this was
the last execution. One man refusing to put
himself on trial was pressed to death agree-
ably to the provisions of the English law.
The principal immediate effect of these
summary and sanguinary proceedings was to
render the accusers more bold, confident and
daring; they began to feel that the lives of
all the people were in their hands, and seemed
at last to have experienced a fiendlike satis-
faction in the thought of bringing infamy and
death upon the best and most honored citi-
zens of the colony; they repeatedly cried
out upon the Rev. Mr Willard, before men-
tioned, the author of the ‘Body of Divinity,”
one of the most revered and beloved minis-
ters of the times. They accused a member
of the immediate family of Dr Increase Ma-
ther, who had recently returned from a spe-
cial embassy to the English court respecting
the charter, and was then the President of
Harvard College—the man whom Elliott'
calls ‘the father of the New England clergy,”
32
— and whose name and character have been
held in veneration by his contemporaries and
all succeeding generations. A writer of that
period intimates that they accused the wife
of the Governor, Sir William Phipps;
they even went so far, it is said, as to impli-
cate one of the Judges of the court.
But that which finally overthrew their
power and broke the spell by which they
had held the minds of the whole colony in
bondage, was their accusation of Mrs Hale,
the wife of the minister of the first church
in Beverly. Her genuine and distinguished
virtues had won for her a reputation, and se-
cured in the hearts of the people a confi-
dence, which superstition itself could not sul-
ly nor shake. Mr Hale had been active in
all the previous proceedings; but he knew
the innocence and piety of his wife, and he
stood forth between her and the storm he
had helped to raise; although he had driven
it on while others were its victims, he turn-
ed and resisted it, when it burst in upon his
own dwelling. In crying out upon Mrs
Hale, the whole community was convinced
33
that the accusers had perjured themselves,
and from that moment their power was de-
stroyed; the awful delusion ceased; the cur-
tain fell, and a close was put to one of the
most tremendous tragedies in the history of
real life. The wildest storm, perhaps, that
ever raged in the moral world, instantly be-
came a calm; the tide that had threatened to
overwhelm everything in its fury, sunk back
in a moment to its peaceful bed. There are
few, if any other, instances in history, of a
revolution of opinion and feeling, so sudden,
So rapid, and so complete. The images and
visions that had possessed the bewildered
imaginations of the people, flitted away and
left them standing in the clear sunshine of
reason, and their senses, and they could have
exclaimed, as they witnessed them passing
off, in the language of the great master of
the drama, and of human nature, but that their
rigid puritan principles, would not, it is pre-
sumed, have permitted them, even in that
moment of rescue and deliverance, to quote
Shakspeare—
* See they’re gone ––
The earth has bubbles, as the waters have,
34
And these are some of them: they vanished
Into the air, and what seemed corporal,
Melted as breath into the wind.”
During the prevalence of this fanaticism,
twenty persons lost their lives by the hand
of the executioner. As they died innocent
of the crime imputed to them, and maintain-
ed their integrity to the last, preferring to
suffer an ignominious and horrible death,
rather than increase the delusion of the times,
by feigning a confession in order to save
their lives, it will be proper to recall their
names from oblivion, and while we reverse
the sentence that was passed upon them,
pay them our tribute of respect for their
firmness and veracity, and of pity for their
dreadful sufferings and fate. I shall men-
tion the places of their usual residence, in
order to shew how the delusion pervaded
the country.
Rev. George Burroughs of Wells, Samu-
el Wardwell of Andover, Wilmot Reed of
Marblehead, Margaret Scott of Rowley, Su-
sanna Martin of Amesbury, Elizabeth How
of Ipswich, Sarah Wildes and Mary Easty
of Topsfield, Martha Carrier and Mary Par-
35
ker of Andover, John Proctor, John Wil-
lard, Sarah Good, Rebecca Nurse and Mar-
tha Cory of Salem Village, George Jacobs, Jr,
Alice Parker, Ann Pudeater, Bridget Bi-
shop, alias Oliver, of Salem. Giles Cory of
Salem was pressed to death. Most of these
persons were advanced in years, and many
of them left large families of children. The
following, were condemned to death but did
not suffer: Abigail Faulkner, Mary Lacy and
Ann Foster of Andover, Dorcas Hoar of
Beverly, Mary Bradbury of Salisbury, Re-
becca Eames of Boxford, Abigail Hobbs of
Topsfield, and Elizabeth Proctor of Salem
Village. Besides these, fiftyfive persons
escaped death by confessing themselves
guilty, one hundred and fifty were in prison,
and more than two hundred others accused.
One adventurous and noble spirited young
man found means to effect his mother's es-
cape from confinement, fled with her on
horseback from the vicinity of the jail, and
secreted her in the Blueberry Swamp, not
far from Tapley's brook in the Great Pas-
ture; he protected her concealment there
36
until after the delusion had passed away,
provided food and clothing for her, erected
a wigwam for her shelter, and surrounded
her with every comfort her situation would
admit of The poor creature must, how-
ever, have endured a great amount of suffer-
ing, for one of her larger limbs was fractur-
ed in the all but desperate enterprise of res-
cuing her from the prison. Immediately
upon the termination of the excitement, all
who were in prison were pardoned. Nothing
more was heard of the afflicted or the con-
fessors; they were never called to account
for their malicious imposture and perjury.
It was apprehended that a judicial investiga-
tion might renew the excitement and delu-
sion, and all were anxious to consign the
whole subject as speedily and effectually as
possible to oblivion.
It should be mentioned before this review
of the outlines of the proceedings is conclud-
ed, that the diabolical compact was not con-
sidered as confined to the human species,
but that other animals were suspected of
entering into it. Several dogs were accused
37
alties of the law, and are recorded among the
subjects of capital punishment.
As soon as the people had reco, ered from
their delusion, they began to reflect and re-
view the whole transaction with a spirit of
calmness and discernment. Mr Hale of
Beverly, wrote a treatise respecting it, in
which he offers some reasons that led him
to the conclusion that there was error at
the foundation of the proceedings. The
following extract will show that he took
a rational view of the subject. “It may
be queried, then, How doth it appear that
there was a going too far in this aſ
fair? Answer 1st. By the number of the
persons accused, it cannot be imagined, that
in a place of so much knowledge, so many
in so small a compass of land should so
abominably leap into the devil’s lap at once.
Answer 2d. The quality of several of the
accused was such as did bespeak better things,
and things that accompany salvation. Per-
sons whose blameless and holy lives before
*-
,4 -
38
did testify for them; persons that had taken
great pains to bring up their children in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord, such
as we had charity for as for our own souls,
and charity, the good man proceeds, ‘is a
Christian duty, commended to us in 1 Cor.
13th chap. — Col. 3: 14, and many other
places. Answer 3d. The number of the
afflicted by Satan daily increased, till about
fifty persons were thus vexed by the devil.
This gave just ground to suspect some mis-
take. Answer 4th. It was considerable,
that nineteen were executed, and all denied
the crime to the death, and some of them
were knowing persons, and had before this
been accounted blameless livers. And it is
not to be imagined, but that if all had been
guilty, some would have had so much ten-
derness as to seek mercy for their souls in
the way of confession and sorrow for such a
sin. Answer 5. When this prosecution
ceased, the Lord so chained up Satan,
that the afflicted grew presently well; the
accused are generally quiet, and for five
years since, we have no such molestation by
39
them.” Such reasonings as these soon found
their way into the minds of the whole com-
munity, and it became the melancholy con-
viction of all candid and considerate persons
that much innocent blood had been shed.
Standing where we do, with the lights that
surround us, we look back upon the whole
scene as an awful perversion of justice,
reason and truth. In reviewing the events
that have now been related, several topics
suggest themselves, which, if we wish to pos-
sess a thorough knowledge of the transac-
tion, it will be necessary to consider. I shall
endeavor to discuss them with as much com-
pression and brevity as possible.
The evidence by which the convictions were
procured is particularly deserving of motice.
There were certain signs by which it was
thought witches could be detected, and
these signs were not only established in the
faith of the people, but were to a great extent
sanctioned by the courts.
It was the received opinion that a person in
confederacy with the evil one could not weep;
those accused were for the most part of an age
4()
and condition, which rendered it impossible
for them, however innocent they might have
been, to escape the fatal effects of this test.
A poor, haggard, decrepid old woman, was
put to the bar, and if she could not weep on
the spot, if in consequence of her withered
frame, her amazement and indignation at the
false and malicious charges by which she
was circumvented, her stupified sensibility,
her sullen despair, the hopeless horror of her
situation, or if from any other cause, the
fountain of her tears was closed or dried up,
her inability to call them forth at the bid of
her malignant prosecutors was regarded as
an infallible proof of guilt.
It was believed that Satan affixed his mark
to the bodies of those in alliance with him,
and that the point where this mark was
made became callous and dead. It was the
practice to commit the prisoner to the scru-
tiny of a jury of the same sex. They would
pierce the body with pins, and if, as was to
have been expected, particularly in aged per-
sons, any spot could be found insensible to the
torture, it was looked upon as visible evidence,
41
ocular demonstration of guilt. In conduct-
ing this examination, it was the custom to
shave the head of the miserable victim.
It should be mentioned, that although they
were in some instances permitted to be used,
these barbarous and inhuman practices were
not countenanced by our forefathers to the
same extent as in England and all other
countries.
Then there was the evidence of ocular
ſascination. The accused and the accusers
were brought into the presence of the exami-
ning magistrate, and the supposed witch was
ordered to look upon the afflicted persons,
instantly ; upon coming within the glance of
her eye, they would scream out, and fall down
as in a fit. It was thought that an invisible
and impalpable fluid, darted from the eye of
the witch, and penetrated the brain of the
bewitched. By bringing the witch so near
that she could touch the afflicted persons
with her hand, the malignant fluid was at-
tracted back into the hand, and the sufferers
recovered their senses. It is singular to
notice the curious resemblance between this
A%
42
opinion, the joint product of superstition and
imposture, and the results to which modern
science has led us in the discoveries of gal-
vanism and animal electricity. The doctrine
of fascination maintained its hold upon the
public credulity for a long time, and gave oc-
casion to the phrase, still in familiar use
among us, of ‘looking upon a person with
an evil eye.” Its advocates claimed in its
defence the authority of the Cartesian phi-
losophy, but it cannot be considered in an
age of Science and reason; as having any
better support than the rural superstition of
Virgil's simple shepherd, who thus complains
of the condition of his emaciated flock:-
- ‘they look so thin, *
Their bones are barely covered with their skin;
What magic has bewitched the woolly dams ?
And what ill eyes beheld the tender lambs 2'"
If anything strange or remarkable could be
discovered in the persons, histories, or de-
portment of the prisoners, it was permitted
to be brought against them in evidence.
Cotton Mather was employed to compile
*
- ‘vix ossibus haerent,
Nescio, quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos.’
43
and publish a report of some of the trials.
He adduces the following proof of the guilt
of the Rev. Mr Burroughs. ‘God,” says he,
‘had been pleased so to leave this George
Burroughs, that he had ensnared himself by
several instances which he had formerly
given of preternatural strength, and which
were now produced against him. He was a
very puny man, yet he had often done things
beyond the strength of a giant. A gun of
about seven foot barrel, and so heavy that
strong men could not steadily hold it out
with both hands; there were several testi-
monies given in by persons of credit and
honor, that he made nothing of taking up
such a gun behind the lock with but one
hand, and holding it out like a pistol at arms’
end. Yea, there were two testimonies that
George Burroughs with only putting the
forefinger of his right hand into the muzzle
of a heavy gun, a fowling-piece of about six
or seven foot barrel, did lift up the gun and
hold it out at arms’ end, a gun which the de-
ponents thought strong men could not with
both hands lift up and hold at the buttend as
is usual.” - -
44
I will quote another passage to the same
point, from Dr Mather’s report. It relates
to the first trial, that of Bridget Bishop, alias
Oliver. ‘There was one very strange thing
more with which the court was newly enter-
tained. As this woman was under a guard,
passing by the great and spacious meeting-
house of Salem,” (the building that pre-
ceded the one recently taken down to give
place to the present meetinghouse of the
first church, and situated on the same spot)
‘she gave a look towards the house, and
immediately a Demon, invisibly entering
the meetinghouse, tore down a part of it,
So that though there was no person to be
seen there, yet the people, at the noise, run-
ming in, found a board which was strongly
fastened with several nails, transported unto
another quarter of the house.’ -
So far as we have now-reviewed the evi-
dence, none has been found that would have
been thought to justify a jury, even of that
period, in rendering a verdict of guilty. But .
there was much stronger evidence than any
we have yet considered, before the jury, that

45
condemned the reputed Salem witches. ,
There were many witnesses who swore that
the individuals accused, had afflicted them
with pain, destroyed their rest, robbed them
of their goods, caused them to pine, and dis-
tressed them in a great variety of modes;
they produced the identical pins, with which
they declared the accused persons had tor-
mented them; these pins were filed away,
as usual, with the other evidence, and are at
this day to be seen, among the records of
the trials, in the office of the clerk of our
courts. Some of these witnesses were per-
sons formerly of respectable and irreproach-
able characters. Their testimony was deliv-
ered with great apparent sincerity. In sev-
eral cases, they swore that they had suffered
under the malignant influence for a long pe-
riod, even of twenty or thirty years. Three or
four of the accusers would appear to be
thrown into agony by the mere presence of
the prisoners, and declared that while giving
their evidence in court, they were tormented
by them. In one instance, the hands of the
witness were tied strongly together by a rope
46
during the delivery of her evidence while
on the stand, and she swore that it was done
by an invisible agent employed by the pris-
oner at the bar.
But there was one species of evidence that
rendered all the rest unnecessary, and over-
whelmed the minds of the court, the jury,
the public, and, perhaps in many instances,
the unhappy prisoners themselves, with con-
viction. The confessions. - Fiftyfive per-
sons, many of them previously of the most
unquestionable character for intelligence, vir-
tue and piety, acknowledged the truth of the
charges that were made against them—con-
ſessed that they were witches and had made
a compact with the devil. The records of
these confessions have been preserved. They
relate the particulars that attended the in-
terviews the confessing persons had held
with the evil one, declared that they signed
his little red book, as they described it, were
present at his impious sacraments, and had rid-
den on sticks through the air, several of them
in company all the way from Andover to Sa-
lem, to a diabolical meeting convened there.
47
They specify the exact places where the sa-
craments of the devil were celebrated. It
seems that he was accustomed to baptize his
converts at Newbury Falls. They were
organized, as Dr Mather observes, ‘much
after the manner of a Congregational church.”
The confessions of the New England witches
describe the person and deportment of Satan
with considerable minuteness. He generally
appeared to them in the guise of a well
dressed black man, and the usual place in
which he convened his assemblies, was a
wide open field in Salem Village. The hour
of meeting was most frequently that of deep
midnight. The received opinion of the age
authorized his appearance under a great va-
riety of shapes, sometimes that of a negro,
Sometimes of an Indian, sometimes of a goat,
and sometimes of a huge black dog.
The confessing witches go on to acknow-
ledge that in the malignant exercise of the
power acquired by the compact with Satam,
they had actually afflicted the accusers in
the manner and form alleged. . It cannot,
tº a , sº
indeed, be a matter of surprise to any one
48
that such declarations and confessions had a
very powerful effect upon a jury, when the
greatest philosophers as well as the common
people believed in the reality of witchcraft.
This consideration must be borne in mind con-
tinually while we contemplate the proceed-
ings. e +
One more circumstance remains to be
mentioned in connexion with the evidence.
It was believed that when the witches found
"it inconvenient from any cause to execute
their infernal designs upon those whom they
wished to afflict, by going to them in person,
they transformed themselves into the like-
ness of some animal, such as a cat, rat,
mouse or toad. They also had imps under
their control. These imps were generally
supposed to bear the resemblance of some
small insect, such as a fly or a spider. The
latter animal was prevailingly considered as
most likely to bear this character. The ac-
cused person was closely watched in order
that the spider imp might be seen when it
approached to obtain its nourishment, as it
was thought to do, from the witchmark on
49
her body. Within the cells of a prison, spi-
ders were of course often seen. Whenever
one made its appearance, the guard attacked
it with all the zeal and vehemence, with
which it was natural and proper to assault an
agent of the wicked one. If the spider was
killed in the encounter, it was considered as
an innocent animal, and all suspicion was re-
moved from its character. But if it escap-
ed into a crack or crevice of the apartment,
as spiders often do when assaulted, all doubtf
of its guilty connexion with the prisoner was
removed, it was set down as beyond question
or cavil, her veritable imp, and the evidence
of her confederacy with the devil was re-
garded thenceforward as complete. It was
believed, moreover, that witches could send
their own spectres or apparitions, or the spec-
tres of those with whom they were confed-
erate to fulfil their commissions.
It is obvious that where courts of justice,
countenanced the popular credulity in main-
taining this doctrine, there was no security
left to the individual accused. No matter
how clear and certain the evidence adduced
5
50
by him, that at the time alleged he was ab-
sent from the specified place.' No matter
how far distant, whether twenty or twenty
thousand miles, it availed him nothing, he
was present through his agent or imp.
When accused of having been present in his
own proper bodily shape, it did not break
down nor impair in the least the force of the
accusation, to prove that at the time he was
in another place, at a great distance, for it
"was immediately contended that he was pre-
sent in the shape or spectral illusion, by
which Satan enabled him to act any and
everywhere at once. It was impossible to
disprove the accusation, however false it
might be, and the last defence of innocence
was swept away. It deserves to be men-
tioned with respect to this spectral evidence,
as it was called, that, although generally
admitted in other countries, it never receiv-
ed the unqualified or undisputed sanction of
public opinion here.
There are two inquiries that must have
engaged the meditations of all reflecting per-
sons who have followed me thus ſar. One
51.
is this: What are we to think of those per-
sons who commenced and continued the ac-
cusations, of the afflicted children and their
confederates. Shocking as is the view it
presents of the extent to which human nature
can be carried in depravity, I am constrained
to declare, as the result of as thorough a
scrutiny as I could institute, my belief that
this dreadful transaction was introduced and
driven on by wicked perjury and wilful mal-
ice. The young girls in Mr Parris’ family
and their associates, on several occasions,
indicated by their conduct and expressions
that they were acting a part. -
It may be that, in some instances, the steps
they took and the testimony they bore may
be explained by referring to the mysterious
energies of the imagination, the power of en-
thusiasm, the influence of sympathy, and the
general prevalence of credulity, ignorance,
superstition and fanaticism at the time; and it
is not probable that when they began they had
any idea of the tremendous length to which
they were finally led on.
It was perhaps their original design to
gratify a love of motoriety or of mischief, by
creating a sensation and excitement in their
neighborhood, or at the worst to wreak their
vengeance upon one or two individuals who
had offended them. They soon, however,
became intoxicated by the terrible success
of their imposture, and were swept along by
the phrensy they had occasioned. It would
be much more congenial with our feelings to
believe that these misguided and wretched
young persons early in the proceedings be-
came themselves victims of the delusion into
which they plunged every one else. But
we are forbidden to form this charitable
judgment by the manifestations of art and
contrivance, of deliberate cunning and cool
malice they exhibited to the end. Once or
twice they were caught in their own snare,
and nothing but the blindness of the bewil-
dered community saved them from disgrace-
ful exposure, and well deserved punishment.
They appeared as the prosecutors of almost
every poor creature that was tried, and seemed
ready to bear testimony against any one, A
upon whom suspicion might happen to fall.
It is dreadful to reflect upon the enormity of
53
their wickedness, if they were conscious of
imposture throughout. It seems to transcend
the capabilities of human crime. There is,
perhaps a slumbering element in the heart
of man, that sleeps forever in the bosom of
the innocent and good, and requires the per-
petration of a great sin, to wake it into action,
but which when once aroused, impels the
transgressor onward with increasing momen-
tum, as the descending ball is accelerated
in its course. It may be that crime begets an
appetite for crime, which like all other appe-
tites is not quieted but inflamed by gratifica-
tion. . . "
It is obvious, that during the prevalence
of the ſanaticism, it was in the power of
every man to bring down terrible vengeance
upon his enemies, by pretending to be be-
witched by them.
There is great reason to fear that this was
often the case. If any one ventured to resist
the proceedings, or to intimate a doubt re-
specting the guilt of the persons accused,
the accusers would consider it as an affront
5% *~ -
54
to them, and proceed instantly to cry out
against him. - & -
The wife of an honest and worthy man in
Andover, was sick of a fever of which she
finally died ; during her illness it occurred
to him, after all the usual means had failed to
cure her, that she might be bewitched. He
went directly to Salem Village to ask the
afflicted persons there who had bewitched
his wife. Two of them returned with him
to Andover. Never did a place receive
more inauspicious visitors. Soon after their
arrival they contrived to get more than fifty
of the inhabitants imprisoned, several of
whom were afterwards hanged for witch-
craft. A Mr Bradstreet, the magistrate of
the place, after having committed about forty
persons to jail on their accusation, concluded
that he had done enough, and declined
to arrest any more; the consequence was
that they accused him and his wife of .
being witches, and they had to fly for their
lives. A person by the name of Willard,
who had been employed to guard the pris-
55
oners to and from the jail, had the humanity.
to sympathise with the sufferers, and the
courage to express his unwillingness to con-
tinue any longer in the odious employment.
This was very offensive to the afflicted
children. They accordingly charged him
with bewitching them. The unhappy man
was condemned to death; he contrived to
escape from prison; they were thrown into
the greatest distress; the news came that he
was retaken ; their agonies were moderated,
and at length he was hanged, and then they
were wholly relieved. It should be added,
that many of the accusers turned out after-
wards very badly, becoming profligate and
abandoned characters.
There is something very dark about the
case of Mr Burroughs. He had formerly
preached as a candidate at Salem Village,
and had received an invitation to settle in
the ministry of the church in that place.
While there, he had been abrought into col-
lision with some of the inhabitants. There
are strong indications of personal malice,
arising from this old animosity in the pro-
56
eeedings against him at his trial. After the
delusion had passed away, several ecclesias-
tical councils were convened at Salem Wil-
lage to compose difficulties that had arisen
between Mr Parris, and many of his people.
It is evident from the documents connected
with the proceedings of these councils, that
the disaffected members of his society re-
garded his conduct in the preceding tragedy
with an aversion and horror, that can only
be accounted for on the hypothesis, that they
suspected him of having acted, not merely
under the influence of an indiscreet enthusi-
asm, but from dishonest and malignant
motives. - -
Their suspicion was very much confirmed
by the circumstance that the old Indian
woman, who, by declaring herself guilty of
the charge of witchcraft, first gave credit and
power to the accusers, always asserted that
she was whipped by Mr Parris until she con-
sented to make a confession. But however
it may have been with him —and, in the ab-
sence of conclusive testimony, we must leave
his guilt or innocence to the decisions of a
57
higher tribunal — so strong and deeply rooted
were the feelings of disapprobation and aver-
sion towards him which occupied the breasts
of his disaffected parishioners, that all at-
tempts on the part of the other churches to
produce a reconciliation, and even his own
humble and solemn acknowledgment of his
error, were unavailing, and he was compelled
to resign his situation and remove from the
place. * ,
_> The other inquiry is this. Since it is, at
present, the universal opinion that the whole
of this witchcraft transaction was a delusion,
having no foundation whatever but in the
imaginations and passions, and as it is now
certain, that all the accused both the con-
demned and the pardoned were entirely in-
nocent, how can it be explained that so
many were led to confess themselves guilty
The answer to this question is to be found
in those general principles that have led the
wisest legislators and jurists to the conclusion
that although on their face and at first thought,
they appear to be the very best kind of evi-
dence, yet maturely considered, confessions
58
made under the hope of a benefit, and some-
times even without the impulses of such a
hope, are to be received with great caution
and wariness. Here were fiftyfive persons,
many of them of worthy characters, many
of them professors of religion, who declared
themselves guilty of a capital, may, a diaboli-
cal crime, of which we know they were in-
mocent. It is probable that the motive of
self-preservation influenced most of them.
An awful death was in immediate prospect.
They saw no escape from the wiles of their
malignant accusers. The delusion had ob-
tained full possession of the people, the wit-
messes, the jury and the court. By acknow-
ledging a compact with Satan, they might
in a moment secure their lives and liberty.
Their principles could not withstand the
temptation. They made a confession and
were rewarded by a pardon. *
Each confession served to heighten the
public infatuation, and aggravate the general
calamity, by increasing the authority of the
accusers. The unhappy confessors could
not but perceive this, they saw that they had
&
59
given fresh strength to an arm that was
continually stretched out to destroy the in-
nocent. The reproaches of conscience in
some instances prevailed, and they took back.
their confessions. One man, an inhabitant of
Andover, retracted, and was put to death.
It is the most melancholy reflection suggest-
ed by this awful history, that those only suſ-
fered whose principles were so strong, that
even the fear of déath, combined with the
love of life, could not persuade them to ut-
ter a falsehood. You cannot, however, re-
ceive from any description, I could give you,
so satisfactory an explanation of the induce-
ments, that prevailed upon some of the ac-
cused to do violence to their moral sense, by
confessing a guilt that did not belong to them,
as from their own words.
The following is the recantation of a
young woman who had been prevailed upon
to confess and become a witness against the
Rev. Mr Burroughs and also against her
own grandfather, who, mainly upon the
strength of her evidence, were condemned
and executed. t
60
• The humble declaration of Margaret Ja-
cobs, unto the honored court now sitting at
Salem, sheweth, – That whereas your poor
and humble declarant, being closely confined
here in Salem gaol, for the crime of witch-
craft, which crime, thanks be to the Lord, I
am altogether ignorant of, as will appear at
the great day of judgment. May it please
the honored court, I was cried out upon by
some of the possessed persons, as afflicting
them; whereupon, I was brought to my ex-
amination, which persons at the sight of me
fell down, which did very much startle and
affright me. The Lord above knows I knew
nothing, in the least measure, how or who
afflicted them; they told me, without doubt
I did, or else they would not fall down at
me; they told me if I would not confess, I
should be put down into the dungeon and
would be hanged; but if I would confess I
should have my life; the which did so af-
fright me, with my own vile wicked heart,
to save my life, made me make the like con-
fession I did, which confession, may it please
the honored court, is altogether false and un-
6]
true. The very first night after I had made
confession, I was in such horror of conscience
that I could not sleep; for fear the devil
should carry me away for telling such hor-
rid lies. I was, may it please the honored
court, Sworn to my confession, as I under-
stand since, but then, at that time, was igno-
rant of it, not knowing what an oath did
mean. The Lord, I hope, in whom I trust,
out of the abundance of his mercy, will for-
give me my false forswearing myself. What
I said was altogether false, against my grand-
father and Mr Burroughs, which I did to
save my life and to have my liberty; but
the Lord, charging it to my conscience,
made me in so much horror, that I could not
contain myself, before I had denied my con-
ſession, which I did, though I saw nothing
but death before me, choosing rather death
with a quiet conscience, than to live in such
horror, which I could not suffer. Where,
upon my denying my confession, I was com-
mitted to close prison, where I have enjoyed
more felicity in spirit a thousand times, than
I did before in my enlargement. And now,
62
may it please your honors, your declarant
having in part given your honors a descrip-
tion of my condition; do leave it to your hon-
ors’ pious and judicious discretions to take
pity and compassion on my young and ten-
der years; to act and do with me as the
Lord above and your honors shall see good,
having no friend but the Lord to plead my
cause for me; not being guilty in the least
measure, of the crime of witchcraft, nor any
other sin that deserves death from man; and
your poor and humble declarant shall forever
pray, as she is bound in duty, for your hon-
ors’ happiness in this life, and eternal felicity
in the world to come.—So prays your hon-
* 2 *
ors’ declarant, MARGARET JAcoBs.’
The following letter was written by this
same young person to her father. Let it be
observed that her grandfather had already
been executed upon her false testimony.
Her father had saved himself by flying from
the country. # And her mother was in prison
waiting her trial for witchcraft.
63
From the dungeon in Salem prison,
- AUGUST, 20th, 1692.
HoNoHED FATHER.—After my humble
duty remembered to you, hoping in the Lord
of your good health, as blessed be God I
enjoy, though in abundance of affliction, be-
ing close confined here in a loathsome dun-
geon; the Lord look down in mercy upon
me, not knowing how soon I shall be put to
death, by means of the afflicted persons;
my grandfather having suffered already, and
all his estate seized for the king. The rea-
son of my confinement is this: I having,
through the magistrates’ threatenings, and my
own vile and wretched heart, confessed sev-
eral things contrary to my conscience and
knowledge, though to the wounding of my
own soul, (the Lord pardon me for it;) but
oh the terrors of a wounded conscience
who can bear 2 But blessed be the Lord,
he would not let me go on in my sins, but
in mercy, I hope, to my soul, would not suf-
fer me to keep it any longer; but I was forc-
ed to confess the truth of all before the mag-
istrates, who would not believe me ; but it is
64
their pleasure to put me in here, and God
knows how soon I shall be put to death.
Dear Father, let me beg your prayers to the
Lord on my behalf, and send us a joyful and
happy meeting in heaven. My mother,
poor woman, is very crazy, and remembers
her kind love to you, and to uncle, viz. D. A.
So leaving you to the protection of the Lord,
I rest your dutiful daughter,
- MARGARET JACOBs.
Her prayer was heard. Her Christian
penitence and heroic fortitude were reward-
ed. A temporary illness prevented her be-
ing tried at the appointed time, and before
the next sitting of the court, the delusion had
passed away. •
But there can be no doubt that in several
cases, the confessing persons sincerely believ-
ed themselves guilty. To explain this, we
must look into the secret chambers of the
human soul; we must read the history of the
imagination, and consider its power over the
belieſ. We must transport ourselves to the
dungeon, and think of its dark and awful
walls, its galling confinement, its clanking
65
chains, its Scanty fare, and all its dismal and
painful circumstances. We must reflect
upon their influence over a terrified and agi-
tated, an injured and broken spirit. We
must think of the situation of the poor pris-
oner, cut off from hope, hearing from all
quarters, and at all times, morning, noon and
night, that there is no doubt of his guilt, Sur-
rounded and overwhelmed by accusations
and evidence, gradually, but insensibly ming-
ling and confounding the visions and vagaries
of his troubled dreams, with the reveries of
his waking hours, until his reason becomes
obscured, his recollections are thrown into
derangement, his mind loses the power of
distinguishing between what is perpetually
told him by others and what belongs to the
suggestions of his own memory; his imagi-
nation at last gains complete ascendency
over his other faculties, and he believes and
declares himself guilty of crimes, of which
he is as innocent as the child unborn. The
history of the transaction we have been con-
sidering, affords a clear illustration of the
truth and reasonableness of this explanation.
6%
* 66
I will present to you a declaration made by
six respectable females, belonging to Ando-
ver, who had been induced to confess dur-
ing the prevalence of the delusion. It is
accompanied by a paper signed by more
than fifty of the most respectable inhabitants
of that town, testifying to their good charac-
ter, in which it is said, that “by their sober,
godly and exemplary conversation, they have
obtained a good report in the place, where
they have been well esteemed and approv-
ed in the church of which they are members.”
‘We whose names are underwritten, in-
habitants of Andover; whereas that horrible
and tremendous judgment, beginning at Sa-
lem Village, in the year 1692, by some call-
ed witchcraft, first breaking forth at Mr Par-
ris' house, several young persons being seem-
ingly afflicted, did accuse several persons for
afflicting them, and many there believing it
so to be, we being informed, that, if a per-
son was sick, the afflicted person could tell
what or who was the cause of that sickness.
Joseph Ballard, of Andover, his wife being
sick at the same time, he, either from himself,
67
or by the advice of others, fetched two of
the persons, called the afflicted persons, from
Salem Village to Andover, which was the
beginning of that dreadful calamity that befel
us in Andover, believing the said accusations
to be true, sent for the said persons to come
together to the meetinghouse in Andover,
the afflicted persons being there. After Mr
Barnard had been at prayer, we were blind-
folded and our hands were laid upon the af.
flicted persons, they being in their fits, and
falling into their fits at our coming into their
presence, as they said; and some led us and
laid our hands upon them, and then they
said they were well, and that we were guilty
of afflicting them. Whereupon we were all
seized as prisoners, by a warrant from the
justice of the peace, and forthwith carried to
Salem. And by reason of that sudden sur-
prisal, we knowing ourselves altogether in-
nocent of that crime, we were all exceed-
ingly astonished and amazed, and consterna-
ted and affrighted, even out of our reason;
and our nearest and dearest relations, seeing
us in that dreadful condition, and knowing
68
our great danger, apprehended there was no
other way to save our lives, as the case was
then circumstanced, but by our confessing
ourselves to be such and such persons as the
afflicted represented us to be, they, out of
tenderness and pity, persuaded us to confess,
what we did confess. (And, indeed, that
confession, that it is said we made, was no
other than what was suggested to us by some
gentlemen, they telling us that we were
witches, and they knew it, and we knew it,
which made us think that it was so; and our
understandings, our reason, our faculties al-
most gone, we were not capable of judging
of our condition ; as also the hard measures
they used with us, rendered us incapable of
making our defence, but said anything, and
everything which they desired, and most of
what we said, was but in effect a consenting
to what they said. Some time after, when
we were better composed, they telling us
what we had confessed, we did profess that
we were innocent and ignorant of such things;
and we hearing that Samuel Wardwell had re-
nounced his confession, and was quickly after
69
condemned and executed, some of us were
told we were going after Wardwell.
. MARY OsgooD,
SARAH WILson,
ABIGAIL BARKER,
DELIVERANCE DANE,
MARY Tyler,
HANNAH Tyler.”
The facility with which persons can be
persuaded, by perpetually assailing them
with accusations of the truth of a charge,
even when it is made against themselves,
that in reality is not true, has been frequent-
ly noticed. Addison, in one of the numbers
of his Spectator, speaks of it in connexion
with our present subject. —“When an old
woman,’ says he “begins to doat, and grow
chargeable to a parish, she is generally turned
into a witch, and fills the whole country with
extravagant fancies, imaginary distempers,
and terrifying dreams. In the meantime,
the poor wretch, that is the innocent occa-
sion of so many evils, begins to be frighted
at, herself, and sometimes confesses secret
commerces, and familiarities that her imagi-
"()
nation forms in a delirious old age. This
frequently cuts off charity from the greatest
objects of compassion, and inspires people
with a malevolence towards those poor de-
crepid parts of our species in whom human
nature is defaced by infirmity and dotage.”
This passage is important, in addition to
the bearing it has upon the point under con-
sideration, as describing the state of opinion
and feeling in England, twenty years after
the fanaticism had passed away in Salem.
As it is one of the leading designs of these
lectures to shew to what an extent of error
and passion, even good men may be carried,
when they have abandoned their reason, and
relinquished the exercise of their judgment,
and given themselves over to the impulses
of imagination and feeling, I am bound,
painful as it is to do it, to present to your
notice Some instances of glaring misconduct
and inhumanity, that marked the proceed-
* For some excellent observations on the value of
confessions as evidence, I would refer the reader to
Art. XXI. Vol. 10, of North American Review, writ-
ten by the late Mr Gallison.
'71
ings of the magistrates, judges, ministers and
other principal citizens. h -
A great many irregularities were permitted
at the trials, and the most absurd cruelties
were practised in all stages of the proceed-
ings. The following account given by a re-
spectable citizen of Charlestown, is, no
doubt, substantially correct, and presents a
lively view of the methods of examination
and of the sufferings of the accused.
‘May 24th. — I having heard, some days,
that my wiſe was accused of witchcraft; being
much disturbed at it, by advice went to
Salem Village, to see if the afflicted knew
her; we arrived there on the twentyfourth
of May ; it happened to be a day appointed
for examination; accordingly, soon after our
arrival Mr Hathorn and Mr Curwin, &c,
went to the meetinghouse, which was the
place appointed for that work; the minister
began with prayer; and having taken care
to get a convenient place, I observed that the
afflicted were two girls of about ten years
old, and about two or three others of about
eighteen; one of the girls talked most, and
could discern more than the rest.
72
‘The prisoners were called in one by one,
- - - > y
and as they come in, were cried out at, &c.
The prisoners were placed about seven or
eight feet from the justices, and the accusers
between the justices and them; the prison-
ers were ordered to stand right before the
justices, with an officer appointed to hold
each hand, lest they should therewith afflict
them; and the prisoners’ eyes must be con-
stantly on the justices; for if they looked
on the afflicted, they would either fall into
fits, or cry out of being hurt by them. After
an examination of the prisoners, who it was
afflicted these girls, &c, they were put upon
saying the Lord’s prayer, as a trial of their
guilt. After the afflicted seemed to be out
of their fits, they would look steadfastly
on some one person, and frequently notº.
speak; and then the justices said they were
struck dumb, and after a little time would
speak again; then the justices said to the
accusers, Which of you will go and touch
the prisoner at the bar 2 Then the most coura-
geous would adventure, but before they had
made three steps, would ordinarily fall down
gk
73
as in a fit; the justices ordered that they
should be taken up and carried to the pris-
oner, that she might touch them, and assoon
as they were touched by the accused, the
justices would say, they are well, before I
could discern any alteration; by which I
observed that the justices understood the
manner of it. Thus far I was only as a spec-
tator; my wife also was there part of the
time, but no notice was taken of her by the af.
flicted, except once or twice they came to
her and asked her name. But I, having an
opportunity to discourse Mr Hale (with
whom I had formerly acquaintance), I took
his advice what I had best do, and desired of
him that I might have an opportunity to
speak with her that accused my wiſe ; which
he promised should be, I acquainting him
that I reposed my trustin him. Accordingly,
he came to me after the examination was
over, and told me I had now an opportunity
to speak with the said accuser, Abigail Wil-
liams, a girl eleven or twelve years old;
but that we could not be in private at Mr
Parris' house, as he had promised me ; we
7
74
i
went therefore into the alehouse, where an
Indian man attended us, who it seems was
one of the afflicted ; to him we gave some
cider ; he showed several scars, that seemed
as if they had been long there, and showed
them as done by witchcraft, and acquainted
us that his wife, who also was a slave, was
imprisoned for witchcraft. And now, instead
of one accuser they all came in, and began
to tumble down like swine ; and them three
women were called in to attend them. We
in the room were all at a stand, to see who
they would cry out of; but in a short time
they cried out, Cary; and immediately after
a warrant was sent from the justices to bring
my wiſe before them, who were sitting in a
chamber near by, waiting for this. Being
brought before the justices her chief accusers
were two girls. My wife declared to the
justices, that she never had any knowledge
of them before that day. She was forced to
stand with her arms stretched out. I re-
quested that I might hold one of her hands,
but it was denied me; then she desired me
to wipe the tears from her eyes, and the
75
sweat from her face which I did; then she
desired she might lean herself on me, saying
she should ſaint. Justice Hathorn replied
she had strength enough to torment these
persons, and she should have strength
enough to stand. I speaking something
against their cruel proceedings, they com-
manded me to be silent, or else I should be
turned out of the room. The Indian before
mentioned was also brought in, to be one of
her accusers; being come in, he now (when
before the justices) fell down and tumbled
about like a hog, but said nothing. The
justices asked the girls, who afflicted the
Indian ; they answered, she, (meaning my
wife,) and that she now lay upon him ; the
justices ordered her to touch him, in order to
his cure, but her head must be turned another
way, lest, instead of curing, she should make
him worse, by her looking on him, her hand
being guided to take hold of his; but the
Indian took hold of her hand, and pulled her
down on the floor, in a barbarous manner;
then his hand was taken off, and her hand
put on his, and the cure was quickly wrought,
76
I being extremely troubled at their inhuman
dealings, uttered a hasty speech, “That God
would take vengeance on them, and desired
that God would deliver us out of the hands
of unmerciful men.” Then her mittimus was
writ. I did with difficulty and charge obtain
the liberty of a room, but no beds in it; if
there had been, could have taken but little
rest that night. She was committed to Bos-
ton prison; but I obtained a habeas corpus
to remove her to Cambridge prison, which
is in our county of Middlesex. Having been
there one night, next morning the jailer put
irons on her legs, (having received such a
command) the weight of them was about
eight pounds; these irons and her other aſ-
flictions soon brought her into convulsion
fits, so that I thought she would have died
that night. I sent to entreat that the irons
might be taken off; but all entreaties were
in vain, if it would have saved her life, so
that in this condition she must continue. The
trials at Salem coming on, I went thither to
see how things were managed; and finding
that the spectre evidence was there received,
77
together with idle, if not malicious stories,
against people's lives, I did easily perceive
which way the rest would go; for the same
evidence that served for one would serve for
all the rest. I acquainted her with her dan-
ger; and that if she were carried to Salem to
be tried, I feared she would never return.
I did my utmost that she might have her
trial in our own county; I with several others
petitioning the judge for it, and were put in
hopes of it; but I soon saw so much, that I
understood thereby it was not intended;
which put me upon consulting the means
of her escape; which through the goodness
of God was effected, and she got to Rhode
Island, but soon found herself not safe when
there, by reason of the pursuit after her;
from thence she went to New York along
with some others that had escaped their
cruel hands; where we found his Excellency
Benjamin Fletcher, Esq. Governor, who
was very courteous to us. After this some
of my goods were seized in a friend's hands,
with whom I had left them, and myself im-
prisoned by the sheriff, and kept in custody
7% -
78
half a day, and then dismissed; butto, sppak
of their usage of the prisoners, and the inhu-
manity shown to them at the time of their
execution, no sober christian could bear.
They had also trials of cruel mockings;
which is the more, considering what a people
for religion, I mean the profession of it, we
have been ; those that suffered, being many
of them church members, and most of them,
unspotted in their conversation, till their ad-
versary the devil took up this method for
accusing them.
O JonATHAN CARY.”
Every idle rumor, everything that the
gossip of the credulous or the fertile memo-
ries of the malignant could produce, that had
an unfavorable bearing upon the prisoner,
however foreign it might be from the indict-
ment, was allowed to be brought in evidence
before the jury. A child between five and
six years of age was arrested and put into
prison. Children were encouraged to be-
come witnesses against their parents, and
parents against their children. The follow-
ing is a part of the testimony borne by a
young child against her mother. .
79
Sarah Carrior's confessions, August the
11th, 1692.
“It was asked Sarah Carrier by the magis-
trates or justices, John Hathorne, Esq,
and others; How long hast thou been a
witch? A. Ever since I was six years
old. Q. How old are you now 2 A. Near
eight years old; brother Richard, says I
shall be eight years old in November next.
Q. Who made you a witch? A. My
mother, she made me set my hand to a book.
Q. How did you set your hand to it? A.
I touched it with my fingers, and the book
was red, the paper of it was white. She
said she never had seen the black man; the
place where she did it was in Andrew Fos-
ter's pasture, and Elizabeth Johnson, Jr,
was there. Being asked who was there be-
sides, she answered, her aunt Toothaker,
and her cousin. Being asked when it was,
she said, when she was baptized. Q. What
did they promise to give you? A. A black
dog. Q. Did the dog ever come to you ?
A. No. Q. But you said you saw a cat
Once : what did that say to you. A. It
80
said it would tear me in pieces, if I would
not set my hand to the book. She said, her
mother baptized her, and the devil, or black
man was not there, as she saw, and her
mother said when she baptized her, Thou
art mine forever and ever. Amen. Q.
How did you afflict folks? A. I pinched
them, and she said she had no puppets, but
she went to them that she afflicted. Being
asked whether she went in her body or her
spirit. She said in her spirit. She said her
mother carried her thither to afflict. Q.
How did your mother carry you when she
was in prison? A. She came like a black
cat. Q. How did you know it was your
mother? A. The cat told me so, that she
was my mother. She said she afflicted
Phelps' child last Saturday, and Elizabeth
Johnson joined with her to do it. She had
a wooden spear, about as long as her finger,
of Elizabeth Johnson and she had it of the
devil. She would not own that she had
ever been at the witch meeting at the village.
This is the substance.
Attest. SIMON WILLARD.’
81
In concluding his report of the trial of the
unhappy woman, whose young children were
thus induced to become the instruments for
procuring her death, Dr Cotton Mather
expresses himself in the following language,
‘this rampant hag, Martha Carrier, was the
person of whom the confessions of the witches,
and of her own children among the rest,
agreed, that the devil had promised her, she
should be Queen of Hell.”
One woman was induced to bear witness
against her husband ; it was of course false,
and it was fatal to him. Well may we sym-
pathize with Hutchinson, who declares that
he shudders while he relates such monstrous
violations of the principles of law, as well as
nature. At the examination of the prison-
ers before the magistrate at the time of their
commitment, they were interrogated at great
length and minutely ; leading questions were
put to them, and they were led to ensnare
themselves as much as possible. The min-
utes of these examinations were preserved
and brought in evidence against them at
their trials. Many of them were left upon
82
^
record, and they exhibitin some cases, an ex-
traordinary degrée of Sagacity and good sense
on the part of the prisoners. The following
dialogue between Susanna Martin and the
magistrate; shews that she did not lack pre-
sence and acuteness of mind. .
JMagistrate. ‘Pray whatails these people?”
Martin. “I don’t know.’
Mag. “But what do you thinkails them *
Martin. “I do not desire to spend m
judgment upon it.’ - r
Mag. ‘Don’t you think they are be-
witched?’
Martin. “No. I do not think they are.”
Mag. ‘Tellus your thoughts about them,
them.”
Martin. ‘No, my thoughts are my own
when they are in, but when they are out,
they are another's. Their master — ”
Mag. ‘Their master! Who do you think
is their master P’
Martin. “If they be dealing in the black
art, you may know as well as I.’
Mag. ‘Well, what have you done towards
this P’
83
Martin. “Nothing at all.’
Mag. “Why, 'tis you or your appearance.”
Martin. “I can’t help it.”
Mag. ‘Is it not your master 2 How
comes your appearance to hurt these ?'
Martin. “How do I know? He that ap-
peared in the shape of Samuel, a glorified
Saint, may appear in any one’s shape.”
One circumstance occurred that inflicted
a deep and lasting stain upon the pure ermine
of justice. The waves of popular fury made
one clear breach, over the judgment seat.
The jury appointed to try Rebecca Nurse
brought in a verdict of ‘Not Guilty.’ Im-
mediately upon hearing it the malignant and
fiendlike accusers uttered a loud outcry in
open court! The judges were overcome by
the general clamor and intimidated from the
faithful discharge of their sacred duty. They
expressed their dissatisfaction with the ver-
dict. One of the judges declared his disap-
probation with great vehemence, another
said she should be indicted anew, and the
Chief Justice intimated to the jury that they
had overlooked one important piece of evi-
84
dence. It was this: during the trial, a wo-
man named Hobbs, who had confessed her-
self a 'witch, was brought into court, and as
she entered, the prisoner turned towards her
and said, ‘What do you bring her? she is
one of us.” The jury were thus prevailed
upon to go out again: they soon returned,
pronouncing the poor old woman ‘ Guilty.’
After her conviction she addressed the fol-
lowing note to the judges.
‘These presents do humbly shew to the
honored court and jury, that I being informed
that the jury brought me in guilty, upon my
saying that goodwife Hobbs and her daughter
were of our company; but I intended no
otherways, than as they were prisoners with
us, and therefore did then, and yet do judge
them not legal evidence against their fellow
prisoners. And I being something hard of
hearing, and full of grief, none informing me
how the court took up my words, and there-
fore 'had no opportunity to declare what I
intended, when I said, they were of our com-
pany. REBEccA NURSE.’
The governor had intended to grant her a
reprieve but upon hearing of his intention
85
the accusers renewed their dismal outcries
against her. Several gentlemen of Salem
expostulated with the governor, and he was
prevailed upon to give orders for her execu-
tion, which took place within a few weeks
after her conviction.
The extraordinary conduct of these gen-
tlemen, in preventing the exercise of the ex-
ecutive clemency and discretion on this oc-
casion, is to be explained, it is probable by
the following fact recorded by Dr Neal in
his History of New England. There was
an organized association or committee of pri-
vate individuals in Salem, during the con-
tinuance of the delusion, who had under-
taken and engaged to find out, and prosecute
all suspected persons. Dr Neal also informs
us that many were arrested and thrown into
prison by their interference and influence.
It is probable that the gentlemen who pre-
vented the reprieve of Mrs Nurse, acted un-
der the authority and by the direction of this
àSSOC1at10n.
The chief justice, Lieutenant Governor
Stoughton, seems to have been actuated
8 -
86
by a violent prejudice and remarkable zeal
against the prisoners. The following in-
stance is related by one of his friends and
courtiers, Dr Cotton Mather, as illustra-
tive of his adroitness in circumventing
and ensnaring an accused individual, in the
course of his examination; it cannot, how-
ever, but be regarded by all reflecting and
humane persons, as an undignified interfer-
ence and an unfeeling officiousness on the
part of a presidingjudge. — ‘It cost the court,’
says the reporter, ‘a wonderful deal of trou-
ble to hear the testimonies of the sufferers;
for when they were going to give in their
depositions, they would for a long time be
taken with fits, that made them incapable of
saying anything. The chief judge asked the
prisoner (Rev. Mr Burroughs,) “who he
thought hindered these witnesses from giving
their testimonies?” And he answered, “he
supposed it was the devil; ” that honorable
person replied, “how comes the devil then
to be so loath to have any testimony borne
against you?” which cast him into very great
confusion.’ The judge and all the people
exulted no doubt exceedingly at the success
87
of the stratagem by which the poor prisoner
had been thus entrapped and confounded.
Judge Stoughton does not appear to have
recovered from the excitement, into which
he was thrown against the supposed witches.
He never could bear to hear any persons ex-
press regret or penitence for the part they
had taken in the proceedings. When the
public delusion had so far subsided, that it
became difficult to procure the execution of
a witch, he was disturbed and incensed to
such a degree, that he abandoned his seat
on the bench. During a session of the court
at Charlestown, in January, 1692–3, ‘word
was brought in that a reprieve was sent to
Salem, and had prevented the execution of
seven of those that were there condemned ;
which so moved the chief judge that he said
to this effect. “We were in a way to have
cleared the land of them ; who it is that
obstructs the cause of justice, I know not;
the Lord be merciful to the country;” and
so went off the bench, and came no more
into that court.”
The executive officers of the law partook
of the same spirit. It has already been
88
mentioned that Giles Cory seeing that a trial
was a mere mockery, and that to put him-
self to the bar, was to offer himself to be
murdered under the forms of law, refused
to plead to the indictment. I find by the
records of the first church, that some months
before, this same Giles Cory, then eighty
years of age, made a public profession of re-
ligion, acknowledged with penitence the sins
of his life, and was admitted to the com-
munion. In consequence of his refusing to
plead, he was crushed to death. As his
aged frame yielded to the dreadful pressure,
his tongue was protruded from his mouth.
The demon who presided over the torture,
drove it back again with the point of his
cane. The heart of man once turned to
cruelty seems, like the fleshed tiger, to gather
new fury in the mere exercise of ferocity.
We have seen that a physician gave the
first impulse to the awful work, by pronounc-
ing the opinion that the pretended sufferers
were afflicted by the influence of witches.
We have also seen that the judges and offi-
cers of the law did what they could to drive
on the delusion to its height. It ought not
89
in justice to be denied or concealed, that the
clergy were also instrumental in promoting
the proceedings. Nay, it must be acknow-
ledged that they took the lead in the whole
transaction. As the supposed agents of all
the mischief belonged to the supernatural or
spiritual world, which has ever been con-
sidered their peculiar province, it was thought
that the assistance and cooperation of minis-
ters were particularly appropriate and neces-
sary. -
It has been mentioned that the govern-
ment consulted the ministers of Boston, and
the vicinity, after the execution of the first
person convicted, and previous to the trial
of the others, and that they returned a posi-
tive and earnest recommendation to proceed
in the good work. -
Mr Noyes, at that time the junior pas
tor of the first church in Salem, was one of
the most distinguished ministers of the age.
There is no reason to doubt that he was just-
ly described in his obituary, in the Boston
newspaper, which concludes a glowing ac-
count of his eminent gifts and Christian
8%
90
graces in the following terms — ‘It is no
wonder that Salem, and the adjacent parts
of the country, as also the churches, univer-
sity and people of New England, justly es-
teem him as a principal part of their glory.’
It is my painful duty to hold up the conduct
of this my predecessor to your pity and
amazement; if I should fail to do so, I should
prove false to one of the leading designs of
these lectures, which, as has before been ob-
served, is to show that there is power in a
popular delusion and a general excitement
of the passions of a community to pervert
the best of characters, turn the hearts even
of good men to violence, and fill them with
all manner of bitterness.
Rebecca Nurse, the person whom the
jury in the first instance acquitted, but were
afterwards induced by the strong disappro-
bation and rebukes of the judges to con-
demn, was a member of the first church.
On the communion day that intervened be-
tween her conviction and execution, Mr
Noyes procured a vote of excommunication
to be passed against her. In the aſternoon
of the same day, the poor old woman was
91
carried to the “great and spacious meeting-
house’ in chains, and there in the presence
of a vast assembly, Mr Noyes proclaimed
her expulsion from the church, pronounced
the sentence of eternal death upon her, for-
mally delivered her over to Satan, and con-
signed her to the flames of hell. It is re-
lated, however, that as soon as the ſanati-
cism had disappeared, the recollection of her
excellent character, and virtuous and pious
life, effaced the reproach of the spiritual as
well as the temporal sentence. .
I would mention in this connexiom, that
Martha Cory, the wiſe of Giles Cory, was a
member of the church in Salem Village.
A committee consisting of the pastor, the
two deacons, and another member, was sent
by the church, to the prison, to promulgate
to her a doom similar to that to which Re-
becca Nurse was consigned, the day after
her conviction. Mr Parris declares in the
records of the church, that they found her
‘very obdurate, justifying herself, and con-
demning all who had done anything to her
just discovery or condemnation. Where-
upon, after a little discourse (ſor,’ says he,
92
“her imperiousness would not suffer much)
and after prayer (which she was willing to de-
cline) the dreadful sentence of excommuni-
cation was pronounced against her.’
Mr Noyes was also very active to prevent
a revulsion of the public mind, or even the
least diminution of the popular violence
against the supposed witches. As they all
protested their innocence to the moment of
death, and as most of them exhibited a re-
markably Christian deportment throughout
the dreadful scenes they were called to en-
counter from their arrest to their execution,
there was reason to apprehend that the peo-
ple would gradually be led to feel a sympathy
for them, if not to entertain doubts of their
guilt. It became necessary, therefore, to
remove any impressions unfavorable to
themselves, that might be made by the con-
duct and declarations of the convicts. Mr
Noyes and others were on the ground con-
tinually for this purpose.
One of the most interesting persons among
the innocent sufferers, was Mary Easty of
Topsfield; she was a sister of Rebecca Nurse.
Her mind appears to have been uncommon-
93
ly strong and well cultivated, and her heart
the abode of the purest and most Christian
sentiments. After her conviction, she ad-
dressed the following letter to the judges and
ministers, by which it appears, that she felt
for others more than she did for herself. It
is a striking and affecting specimen of good
sense, of Christian fortitude, of pious humili-
ty, of noble benevolence, and of the real
eloquence of the heart.
“To the honorable judge and bench now
sitting in judicature in Salem, and the rever-
end ministers, humbly sheweth, – That,
whereas your humble and poor petitioner,
being condemned to die, doth humbly beg
of you to take it into your judicious and pi-
ous consideration, that your poor and hum-
ble petitioner, knowing my own innocency,
(blessed be the Lord for it,) and seeing
plainly the wiles and subtilty of my accu-
sers, by myself, cannot but judge charitably
of others, that are going the same way with
myself, if the Lord step not mightily in. I
was confined a whole month on the same ac-
count that I am now condemned, and then
cleared by the afflicted persons, as some of
94
your honors know; and in two days time,
I was cried out upon by them again; and
have been confined and am now condemned
to die. The Lord above knows my immo-
cence them, and likewise doth now, as at the
great day will be known by men and angels.
I petition to your honors, not for my own
life, for I know I must die, and my appoint-
ed time is set; but the Lord he knows if it
be possible that no more innocent blood be
shed, which undoubtedly cannot be avoided
in the way and course you go in. I ques-
tion not but your honors do to the utmost
of your powers, in the discovery and detect-
ing of witchcraft and witches, and would not
be guilty of innocent blood for the world;
but by my own innocency I know you are
in the wrong way. The Lord in his infinite
mercy direct you in this great work, if it be
his blessed will, that innocent blood be not
shed. I would humbly beg of you that
your honors would be pleased to examine
some of those confessing witches, I being
confident there are several of them have be-
lied themselves and others, as will appear,
if not in this world, I am sure in the world
95
to come, whither I am going; and I ques-
tion not but yourselves will see an alteration
in these things. They say, myself and
others have made a league with the devil;
We cannot confess; I know and the Lord
knows (as will shortly appear) they belie
me, and so I question not but they do
others; the Lord alone, who is the searcher
of all hearts, knows, as I shall answer it at the
tribunal seat, that I know not the least thing
of witchcraft, therefore I cannot, I durst not
belie my own soul. I beg your honors not
to deny this my humble petition, from a poor,
dying, innocent person, and I question not
but the Lord will give a blessing to your
endeavours. MARY EASTy.’
The parting interview of this excellent
woman with her husband, children and
friends, is said to have been a most Solemn,
affecting and sublime scene. She was exe-
cuted with seven others. Mr Noyes turned
towards their bodies and exclaimed with a
compassion, that was altogether worthy of
an inquisitor, ‘What a sad thing it is to see
eight firebrands of hell hanging there !!’
96
John Proctor of Salem Village, went to
court to attend his wife during her examina-
tion on the charge of witchcraft; and hav-
ing rendered himself disagreeable to the
prosecuting witnesses by the interest he
naturally took in her behalf, was accused by
them on the spot, of the same crime, con-
demned and executed. Both he and his
wife sustained excellent characters in the
village, and in Ipswich where they had for-
merly resided. He wrote the following spir-
ited and interesting letter to the ministers of
Boston, requesting to be tried there, and
protesting against the proceedings of the
COUll'É.
“Salem Prison, July 23, 1692.
“Mr Mather, Mr Allen, Mr Moody, Mr Willard and
Mr Baily,
‘REVEREND GENTLEMEN, -— The inno-
cency of our case, with the enmity of our
accusers and our judges and jury, whom
nothing but our innocent blood will serve,
having condemned us already before our
trials, being so much incensed and enraged
against us by the Devil, makes us bold to
beg and implore your favorable assistance of
97
this our humble petition to his excellency,
that if it be possible our innocent blood may
be spared, which undoubtedly otherwise will
be shed, if the Lord doth not mercifully step
in ; the magistrates, ministers, juries, and all
the people in general, being so much en-
raged and incensed against us by the delu-
sion of the Devil, which we can term no
other, by reason we know in our own con-
Sciences, we are all innocent persons. Here
are five persons who have lately confessed
themselves to be witches, and do accuse
some of us of being along with them at a
Sacrament, since we were committed into
close prison, which we know to be lies.
Two of the five are (Carrier's sons) young
men, who would not confess anything till
they tied them neck and heels, till the blood
was ready to come out of their noses; and
it is credibly believed and reported this was
the occasion of making them confess what
they never did, by reason, they said, one
had been a witch a month, and another five
weeks, and that their mother made them So,
who has been confined here this nine weeks.
9 -
98
My Son, William Proctor, when he was ex-
amined, because he would not confess that
he was guilty, when he was innocent, they
tied him neck and heels till the blood gushed
out at his nose, and would have kept him
So twentyfour hours, if one, more merciful
than the rest, had not taken pity on him and
caused him to be unbound. |
‘These actions are very like the Popish
cruelties. They have already undone us in
Our estates, and that will not serve their
turns without our innocent blood. If it can-
not be granted that we can have our trials
at Boston, we humbly beg that you would
endeavor to have these magistrates changed,
and others in their room; begging also and
beseeching you that you would be pleased
to be here, if not all, some of you, at our
trials, hoping thereby you may be the means
of saving the shedding of our innocent blood.
Desiring your prayers to the Lord in our
behalf, we rest your poor afflicted servants,
John PRocTor, &c.’
When he was in prison, all his property
was attached, everything was taken from his
house, his family, consisting of eleven child-
99
ren, were left destitute, even the food that
was preparing for their dinner, was carried
away by the sheriff. After conviction he
petitioned for a little more time to prepare
to die, but it was denied him. He begged
Mr Noyes to pray with him, but he refused,
unless he would confess that he was guilty!
His numerous family was not permitted to
starve. The cruelty that snatched the
bread from their mouths was overruled by a
merciful providence. His descendants, who
are found in all parts of the country, occupy at
this moment the estate, and cultivate the
fields which he owned.*
The prosecutors were exceedingly anxious
to obtain confessions from the convicted,
and importuned, harassed and vexed them
continually to acknowledge their guilt. The
public were predisposed to suspect and con-
vict of witchcraft all persons in whose char-
acter and conduct, there were any marks of
eccentricity or traits of peculiarity. Sarah
Good had for some time previous to the de-
* The following were the names of his children,
John, Benjamin, Elizabeth, Martha, Mary, William,
Joseph, Samuel, Thorndike, Sarah and Abigail.
100
lusion, been subject to a species of mental
derangement, of which sadness and melan-
choly were the prevailing characteristics.
She was accordingly accused of witchcraft
and condemned to die. Mr Noyes urged her
very strenuously, at the time of her execution,
to confess. Among other things he told
her, “She was a witch, and that she knew
she was a witch.” She was conscious of her
innocence, and felt that she was injured, op-
pressed and trampled upon, and her indigna-
tion was roused against her persecutors. She
could not bear in silence the cruel aspersion,
and although she was just about to be
launched into etermity, the torrent of her feel-
ings could not be restrained, but burst upon
the head of him who uttered the false accu-
sation. “You are a liar,” said she. ‘ I am
no more a witch, than you are a wizard;—
and if you take away my life, God will give
you blood to drink.” Hutchinson says that
in his day there was a tradition among the
people of Salem, and it has descended to
the present time, that the manner of Mr
Noyes' death strangely verified the predic-
101
tion thus wrung from the incensed spirit of
the dying old woman.
I have before related the circumstances
connected with the confession and recanta-
tion of Margaret Jacobs, the poor girl who
was persuaded to be instrumental in procur-
ing the conviction of her grandfather; it was
also remarked that she had been a witness
against the Rev. Mr Burroughs. She ob-
tained permission to visit him the day before
his execution, acknowledged that she had
belied him, and implored his forgiveness.
He freely forgave her, and prayed with her
and for her. -
2. The case of Mr Burroughs is connected
with circumstances of uncommon interest.
He had enjoyed the benefit of a liberal edu-
cation; you will find his name among those
who received the honors of Harvard Univer-
sity in the year 1670. At the time of his
arrest, he was the minister of a congrega-
tion in Wells, a town in the state of Maine.
He had passed the prime of life, and, as there
is reason to fear, fell a victim to the preju-
dice and hatred engendered in a parochial
9%
102
controversy some years before. He was
carried in a cart with other convicts from the
jail, which is supposed to have stood on the
northern corner of County and St Peter's
Streets, the procession probably passing
down St Peter's into Essex Street, and
thence onward to the rocky elevation, called
‘Gallows hill,’ about an eighth of a mile
towards Danvers, beyond the head of Fed-
eral Street, where the executions took place.
“While Mr Burroughs was on the ladder,’
a contemporary writer observes, “he made a
speech for the clearing of his innocency,
with such solemn and serious expressions as
were to the admiration of all present; his
prayer was so well worded and uttered with
such composedness and such ſervency of
spirit, as was very affecting, and drew tears
from many, so that it seemed to some that
the spectators would hinder the execution.’
To meet and turn back this state of feeling,
the accusers cried out, that they saw the evil
being standing behind him in the shape of a
black man, and dictating every word he ut-
tered. And the famous Cotton Mather,
minister of the North Church in Boston,
103
who was declared by Dr Cohman to have
been the most learned man he ever knew,
and who combined an almost incredible
amount of vanity and credulity, with a high
degree of cunning and policy;ſ an inordinate
love of temporal power and distinction, with
every outward manifestation of piety and
Christian humility;” and a proneness to fa-
naticism and superstition with amazing ac-
quisitions of knowledge, and a great and
remarkable genius, rode round in the crowd
on horseback, haranguing the people, and
saying that it was not to be wondered at,
that Mr Burroughs appeared so well, for
that the devil often transformed himself
into an angel of light! This artful decla-
mation, together with the outcries and as-
sertions of the accusers, had the intended eſ-
ſect upon the ſamatical multitude. When
the body was cut down it was dragged by
the rope to a hollow place, excavated be-
tween the rocks, stripped of its garments,
and them covered with clothes that had be-
longed to some poor wretch previously exe-
cuted, thrown with two others into the hole,
104
trampled down by the mob, and finally left
partly uncovered.
I have now concluded the narrative of the
Salem witchcraft. It has been my object to
present only those facts that were necessary
to give you a correct and adequate view of
the transaction, and to enable you to bear
away from the contemplation of the dread-
ful scene, such impressions and reflections
as historical and philosophical truth and jus-
tice require. It has been my determination
to set down nought in malice, and to keep
back nothing from partiality.
I might proceed to analyze the whole
transaction, into the several elementary pas-
sions, motives, and intentions, by whose com-
bined, conflicting, or separate influence it
was introduced and carried on to its dreadful
results. There is much reason to fear that
to a great extent it was the effect of delibe-
rate design. The peculiar theology of that
period presented inducements to ambitious
and enthusiastic individuals among the prom-
inent members of the clergy, to bring about
a state of things in which their spiritual
power would be felt and displayed to a
105
greater extent than before. The fiequently
repeated wars with the Indians, especially
the struggle with the celebrated and heroic
Phillip, had produced a relaxed and licen-
tious state of morals and manners among the
people. This appears with sufficient clear-
ness from the doings and declarations of the
Reforming Synod convened at Boston in
1679. All patriotic, pious and benevolent
citizens were distressed at the contempla-
tion of such a state of things, and many at-
tempts were made to arrest the downward
movement of society. It was thought that
the only way in which to check it was to
restore and increase the influence of the
clergy, that through them the community at
large might be brought more under the sway
of moral and christian obligation. The
whole machinery of a religious reformation,
so far as the methods for producing such an
effect had then been discovered, were put
into operation simultaneously and on a large
Scale.
In the year 1692, special efforts were
made to renew the power of the spirit of the
106
gospel in many of the churches. The mo-
tives of those who acted in these measures
were for the most part of the purest and
holiest character. But there were not want-
ing individuals who were willing to abuse the
opportunities offered by the general excite-
ment and awakening thus produced. It was
soon discerned by those ambitious of spirit-
ual influence and domination, that their
object could be most easily achieved by
carrying the people to the greatest extreme
of credulity, fanaticism, and superstition.
Opposition to prevailing vices, and at-
tempts to reform society, were considered at
that time in the light of a conflict with Satan
himself, and he was thought to be the ablest
minister who had the greatest power over
the great enemy, who could most easily and
effectually avert his blows and counteract
his baleful influence. Dr Cotton Mather
aspired to be considered the great champion
of the church, and the most successful com-
batant against the prince of the power of the
air. He seems to have longed for an oppor-
tunity to signalize himself in this particular
107
kind of warfare; seized upon every occurrence
that would admit of such a coloring to repre-
sent it as the result of diabolical agency; cir-
cúlated in his numerous publications as many
tales of witchcraft as he could collect through-
out New and Old England, and repeatedly
endeavored to get up a delusion of this
kind in Boston. He succeeded to some ex-
tent. An instance of witchcraft was brought
about in that place by his management in
1688. There is some ground for suspicion
that he was instrumental in causing the delu-
sion in Salem; at any rate, he took a leading
part in conducting it. And while there is
evidence that he endeavored, after the delu-
sion subsided, to escape the disgrace of
having approved of the proceedings, and
pretended to have been in some measure
opposed to them, it can be too clearly shown
that he was secretly and cunningly endeav-
oring to renew them during the next year
in his own parish in Boston. I know noth-
ing more artful and jesuitical than his at-
tempts, to avoid the reproach of having been
active in carrying on the delusion in Salem,
108
and elsewhere, and, at the same time, to keep
up such a degree of credulity and supersti-
tion in the minds of the people, as to
render it easy to plunge them into it again at
the first favorable moment. In the following
passages he endeavors to escape the odium
that had been connected with the prosecu-
tions.
“The world knows how many pages I
have composed and published, and particular
gentlemen in the government know how
many letters I have written to prevent the
excessive credit of spectral accusations.
“In short, I do humbly but freely affirm
it, that there is not a man living in this world
who has been more desirous than the poor
man I, to shelter my neighbors from the
inconveniences of spectral outcries: yea, I
am very jealous I have done so much that
way, as to sin in what I have done ; such
have been the cowardice and fearfulness,
whereunto my regard unto the dissatisfaction
of other people has precipitated me. I know
a man in the world, who has thought he has
been able to convict some such witches as
109
ought to die; but his respect unto the pub-
lic peace has caused him rather to try
whether he could not renew them by re-
pentance.” 3r
In Dr Mather's life of Sir William Phipps,
a man of an exceedingly feeble intellect, and
whom he appears to have kept by flattery
in complete subserviency to his purposes, he
artfully endeavors to take the credit to
himself of having doubted the propriety of
the proceedings while they were in progress.
This work was published without his name,
in order that he might commend himself
with more freedom. The advice given by
the ministers of Boston and the vicinity to
the government, has been spoken of already
more than once. Cotton Mather frequently
took occasion to commend, and magnify the
merit of this production. In one of his
writings he speaks of ‘the gracious words’
it contained. In his life of Phipps, he thus
modestly takes the credit of its authorship
to himself; it was ‘drawn up at their (the
ministers') desire, by Mr Mather the younger,
as I have been informed.’ And in order
1()
IIG
the more effectually to give the impression
that he was rather opposed to the proceed-
ings, he quotes those portions of the paper
that recommended caution and circumspec-
tion, leaving out those other passages, in
which it was vehemently urged to carry the
proceedings on — speedily and vigorously.’ſ
But like other ambitious and grasping
politicians, he was anxious to have the Sup-
port of all parties at the same time. After
making court to those who were dissatisfied
with the prosecutions, he thus commends
himself to all who approved of them.
‘And why, after all my unwearied cares
and pains to rescue the miserable from the
lions and bears of hell, which had seized
them, and after all my studies to disappoint
the devils in their designs to confound my
neighborhood, must I be driven to the
necessity of an apology 2 Truly the hard
representations wherewith some ill men have
reviled my conduct, and the countenance-
which other men have given to these repre-
sentations, oblige me to give mankind some
account of my behaviour. No christian can
{
} + 1
(I say none but evil workers can) criminate
my visiting such of my poor flock, as have
at any time fallen under the terrible and
sensible molestations of evil angels: let
their afflictions have been what they will, I
could not have answered it unto my glorious
Lord, if I had withheld my just comforts
and counsels from them ; and if I have also,
with some exactness, observed the methods
of the invisible world, when they have thus
become observable, I have been but a ser-
vant of mankind in doing so : yea, no less a
person than the venerable Baxter has more
than once or twice in the most public manner
invited mankind to thank me for that service.”
In other passages, he thus continues to
stimulate and encourage the advocates of
the prosecutions.
‘Wherefore, instead of all apish shouts
and jeers at histories which have such un-
doubted confirmation, as that no man that
has breeding enough to regard the common
laws of human society will offer to doubt of
them; it becomes us rather to adore the
goodness of God, who does not permit such
112
things every day to befall us all, as he some-
times did permit to befall some few of our
miserable neighbors.
‘And is it a very glorious thing that I
have now to mention: The devils have with
most horrid operations, broke in upon our
neighborhood, and God has at such a rate
overruled all the fury and malice of those
devils, that all the afflicted have not only
been delivered, but I hope also savingly
brought home unto God, and the reputation
of no one good person in the world has been
damaged; but instead thereof, the Souls of
many, especially of the rising generation,
have been thereby awakºned unto some
acquaintance with religion; our young peo-
ple, who belonged unto the praying meetings,
of both sexes, apart, would ordinarily spend
whole nights, by whole weeks together, in
prayers and psalms upon these occasions, in
which devotions the devils could get nothing,
but, like fools, a scourge for their own backs;
and some scores of other young people,
who were strangers to real piety, were now
struck with the lively demonstrations of hell


113
evidently set forth before their eyes, when
they saw persons cruelly frighted, wounded
and starved by devils, and scalded with burn-
ing brimstone; and yet so preserved in this
tortured State, as that, at the end of one
month’s wretchedness, they were as able
still to undergo another; so that of these
also, it might now be said — “Behold they
pray.” In the whole the devil got just
nothing, but God got praises, Christ got
|
subjects, the Holy Spirit got temples, the
Church got additions, and the souls of men
got everlasting benefits. I am not so vain
as to say that any wisdom or virtue of mine
did contribute unto this good order of things;
but I am so just as to say, I did not hinder
this º! -
From This latter passage it is clear that
Dr. Mather contemplated the witchcraft
delusion as having been the instrument in
promoting a revival of religion, and was in-
clined to boast of the success with which it
had been attended as such.
I cannot, indeed, resist the conviction,
that, notwithstanding all his attempts to ap-
10%
114
pear dissatisfied, after they had become
unpopular, with the occurrences in the
Salem trials, he looked upon them with
Secret pleasure, and would have been glad
to have had them repeated again in Boston.
How blind is man to the future | The
state of things which Cotton Mather labored
to bring about, in order that he mightincrease
his own influence over an infatuated people,
by being regarded by them as mighty to
cast out and vanquish evil spirits, and as
able to hold Satan himself in chains by his
prayers and his piety, brought him at length
into Such disgrace, that his power was bro-
ken down, and he became the object of
public ridicule and open insult. -And the
excitement that had been produced for the
purpose of restoring and strengthening the
influence of the clerical and spiritual leaders
resulted in effects which reduced that in-
fluence to a still lower point. The inti-
mate connexion of Dr Mather and other
prominent ministers with the witchcraft
delusion, brought a reproach upon the clergy
from which they have never yet recovered.
| 15
In addition to the designing exertions of
ambitious ecclesiastics, and the benevolent
and praiseworthy efforts of those whose only
aim was to promote a real and thorough
reformation of religion, all the passions of
our nature stood ready to throw their con-
centrated energy into the excitement, (as they
ever will do whatever may be its character,)
so soon as it became sufficiently strong to
encourage their action. -
The whole force of popular superstition,
all the fanatical propensities of the ignorant
and deluded multitude united with the best
feelings of our mature to heighten the fury
of the storm. Piety was indignant at the
supposed rebellion against the sovereignty
of God, and was roused to an extreme of
agitation and apprehension, in witnessing
such a daring and fierce assault by the devil
and his adherents upon the churches and
the cause of the gospel. Virtue was shock-
ed at the tremendous guilt of those who
were believed to have entered the diabolical
confederacy; while public order and security
stood aghast, amidst the invisible, the Super-
116
natural, the infernal, and, apparently, the
irresistible attacks that were making upon
the foundations of society. In baleful
combination with principles, good in them-
selves, thus urging the passions into wild
operation, there were all the wicked and
violent affections to which humanity is
liable. Theological bitterness, personal
animosities, local controversies, private feuds,
long cherished grudges, and professional
jealousies, rushed forward, and raised their
discordant voices, to swell the horrible din;
credulity rose with its monstrous and ever
expanding form, on the ruins of truth, rea-
son and the senses; malignity and cruelty
rode triumphant through the storm, by
whose fury every mild and gentle senti-
ment had been shipwrecked ; and revenge,
smiling in the midst of the tempest, wel-
comed its desolating wrath as it dashed the
mangled objects of its hate along the shore.
It would indeed be worthy the attention
of the metaphysician and moralist, to scru-
tinize this transaction thoroughly in all its
periods and branches, to ascertain its causes
117
and to mark its developments. There
cannot be a doubt that much valuable in-
struction would thus be gathered respecting
the elements of our nature, and of society.
But this is a study which can best be pur-
sued by each individual observer for himself.
I relinquish it therefore to the calm con-
sideration and sober reflection of every one
who has followed me in the examination
and review now brought to a close.
Perhaps you are ready to exclaim that
your ancestors were at once, the greatest fa-
natics, and the greatest barbarians the world
ever knew; that they have left a darker stain
upon our ammals than is to be found else-
where on all the records of history. And
that, instead of being proud of such fore-
fathers, you would rather have been the de-
scendants of any other people. It shall be
the purpose of the remaining lecture to
show the unreasonableness of such exclama-
tions. By giving a history of similar supersti-
tious delusions and proceedings in other coun-
tries, by tracing the progress and describing
the state of legislation respecting witchcraft,
118
and by presenting a sketch of the condition
of science, theology and philosophy at the
time, I shall hope to do this.
It shall also be my purpose to lead your
minds into such a train of reflections, as will
enable you to draw the lesson it was intend-
ed by providence to convey from this sad
history; to educe from it important illustra-
tions and suggestions respecting our moral
and intellectual nature; to cause light to
shine forth from its dark folds and beam
upon our path, and to confirm us in a grate-
ful sense of the blessings we enjoy, in the
possession of enlightened reason, in the
clearer revelation of truth, and in the dis-
coveries of science.
Partly, however, from an unwillingness to
have your minds continue for a day under
the impression that must now rest upon them
respecting your ancestors, and partly to pre-
pare you for the considerations, in justifica-
tion, or rather in palliation, of their conduct,
to be presented in the remaining lecture,
I must exercise your patience for a moment
longer.
119
Human virtue never shines with more
lustre, than when it rises amidst the imper-
fections, or from the ruins of our nature, ar-
rays itself in the robes of penitence, and
goes forth with earnest and humble sincerity
to the work of reformation and restitution.
It is the sight of such virtue, we are assured
by him who dwells in the bosom of God, that
imparts the sublimest joy and raises the loud-
est strains of thanksgiving in the choirs of
heaven. Such virtue did our pious ances-
tors exhibit when the spell that had bound
and perverted them was broken.
The government, all its branches acting
in concert, issued a proclamation, enjoining
a general Fast, and the people were called
upon in the following affecting expressions
to unite in prayer to God.
‘By the honorable the Lieutenant Gov-
ermor, Council and Assembly of his Majesty’s
province of the Massachusetts Bay, in Gen-
eral Court assembled.
‘Whereas the anger of God is not yet turn-
ed away, but his hand is still stretched out
against his people in manifold judgments,
120
particularly in drawing out to such a lengtil
the troubles of Europe, by a perplexing war;
and more especially respecting ourselves in
this province, in that God is pleased still to
go on in diminishing our substance, cutting
short our harvest, blasting our most promis-
ing undertakings more ways than one, un-
settling us, and by his more immediate hand
snatching away many out of our embraces
by sudden and violent deaths, even at this
time, when the sword is devouring so many
both at home and abroad, and that after many
days of public and solemn addressing him ;
and although, considering the many sins pre-
vailing in the midst of us, we cannot but
wonder at the patience and mercy modera-
ting these rebukes; yet we cannot but also
fear, that there is something still wanting to
accompany our supplications : and doubtless
there are some particular sins, which God is
angry with our Israel for, that have not been
duly seen and resented by us, about which
God expects to be sought, if ever he again
turn our captivity.
I2]
‘Wherefore it is commanded and appoint-
ed, that Thursday, the fourteenth of Janua-
ry next, be observed as a day of prayer with
fasting, throughout this province, strictly for-
bidding all servile labor thereon; that so all
God’s people may offer up ſervent supplica-
tions unto him, for the preservation and
prosperity of his Majesty's royal person and
government, and success to attend his affairs
both at home and abroad; that all iniquity
may be put away, which hath stirred God’s
holy jealousy against this land; that he
would show us what we know not, and help
us wherein we have done amiss to do so no
more; and especially that whatever mistakes
on either hand, have been fallen into, either
by the body of this people, or any orders
of men, referring to the late tragedy, raised
among us by Satan and his instruments,
through the awful judgment of God, he
would humble us therefor, and pardon all
the errors of his servants and people, that
desire to love his name ; that he would re-
move the rod of the wicked from off the lot
of the righteous, that he would bring in the
I I
122
American heathem, and cause them to hear
and obey his voice.
‘Given at Boston, December 17th, 1696,
in the eighth year of his Majesty's reign.
‘Is AAC ADDINGTON, Secretary.’
It seems as if the community could not
recover from a sense of the injury it had in-
flicted upon the innocent. I find that a re-
solution was introduced into the General
Court, nearly fifty years afterwards, by Ma-
jor Sewall, a son of the Judge, for the ap-
pointment of a committee to make an in-
quiry into the condition and circumstances of
individuals and families, that might have suf-
fered from the ‘calamity of 1692,” as it was
called. The resolution was passed unani-
mously and the house expressed a strong
desire to compensate them either by money
or a township of land.
The inhabitants of Salem did what they
could in the way of restitution and reparation.
Dr Bentley, who has given the most lively
and interesting account of the delusion, of
any I have seen, says, “that Mr Noyes came
out and publicly confessed his error; never
123
concealed a circumstance; never excused
himself; visited, loved, blessed the survi-
vors whom he had injured; asked forgive-
ness always, and consecrated the residue of
his life to bless mankind.”
The first Church, which had anathema-
tized Rebecca Nurse and others, after their
conviction and previous to their execution, did
all that could be done by way of reparation.
It endeavored to erase the ignominy it had
cast upon them, by publicly repealing and
reversing its censures, and by recording the
following affecting acknowledgment of its
€II’OT. . .
‘March 2d, 1712. — After the Sacrament
a church meeting was appointed to be at the
Teacher's house, at two o'clock in the af-
ternoon, on the sixth of the month, being
Thursday; on which day accordingly, March
sixth, they met to consider of the several
particulars propounded to them by the
Teacher: — viz. 1st, Whether the record
of the excommunication of our sister Nurse,
(all things considered,) may not be erased
and blotted out. The result of which con-
124
sideration was — That whereas on the third
of July, 1692, it was proposed by the elders,
and consented to by a unanimous vote of the
church, that our sister Nurse should be ex-
communicated, she being convicted of witch-
craft by the court — and she was accordingly
excommunicated. Since which the General
Court having taken off the attainder, and
the testimony on which she was convicted,
being not now so satisfactory to ourselves and
others, as it was generally in that hour of
darkness and temptation, and we being so-
licited by her son, Mr Samuel Nurse, to
erase and blot out of the church records the
sentence of her excommunication—this
church having the matter proposed to them
by the Teacher, and having seriously con-
sidered it, doth consent that the record of
our sister Nurse's excommunication be ac-
cordingly erased and blotted out, that it may
no longer be a reproach to her memory, and
an occasion of grief to her children. Hum-
bly requesting that the merciful God would
pardon whatsoever sin, error or mistake was
in the application of that censure, and of that
125
whole affair, through our merciful High
Priest, who knoweth how to have compas-
sion on the ignorant, and those that are out
of the way.”
A similar step was taken in reference
to Giles Cory. The same course was pur-
sued, as appears from its records, by the
church in Salem Village, with reference to
the excommunication of Martha Cory. The
records of that church contain a most touch-
ing and pungent declaration of sorrow and re-
pentance, made thirteen years afterwards, by
Ann Putnam, already mentioned as one of
the principal accusers. We have reason to
cherish the belief that the unhappy and truly
penitent young woman was under the influ-
ence, at the time of the prosecutions, of a
sincere and complete delusion, without any
consciousness or suspicion of error, or the
least inclination to injure the innocent.
It is probable that reflecting persons would
agree that the jury had acted in conformity
with their obligations in convicting the per-
sons accused. They had sworn to try them
according to the law and the evidence. The
11% º
126
law was certain; it was laid down with great
positiveness by the court, and not disputed
by the prisoners or their friends The jury
were bound to take and weigh the evidence
that was admitted, and to their minds, it was
clear, decisive and overwhelming, offered by
persons of good character, and confirmed by
a great number of confessions. If it had
been within their province, as it is always
declared not to be, to discuss the general
principles, and sit in judgment on the par-
ticular penalties of law, it would not have
altered the case, for at that time not only the
common people but the wisest philosophers
supported the interpretation of the law that
acknowledged the existence of witchcraft,
and its sanction that visited it with death.
Notwithstanding all this, however, so ten-
der and sensitive were the consciences of the
jurors that they signed and circulated the
following humble and solemn declaration of
regret for the part they had borne in the
trials. As the publication of this paper was
highly honorable to those who signed it, and
cannot but be contemplated with satisfaction
127
by all their descendants, I will repeat their
118.000S. -
‘We whose names are underwritten, being
in the year 1692 called to serve as jurors
in court at Salem, on trial of many who
ºwere by some suspected guilty of doing acts
of witchcraft upon the bodies of sundry
persons;–We confess that we ourselves
were not capable to understand, nor able to
withstand, the mysterious delusions of the
powers of darkness, and prince of the air;
but were for want of knowledge in ourselves,
and better information from others, prevailed
with to take up with such evidence against
the accused, as, on further consideration
and better information, we justly fear was
insufficient for the touching the lives of any,
(Deut. xvii. 6,) whereby we fear, we have
been instrumental, with others, though igno-
rantly and unwittingly, to bring upon our-
selves and this people of the Lord, the
guilt of innocent blood; which sin, the Lord
saith in scripture, he would not pardon,
(2 Kings, xxiv. 4,) that is, we suppose, in
regard of his temporal judgments. We do,
128
therefore, hereby signify to all in general,
(and to the surviving sufferers in special)
our deep sense of, and sorrow for, our errors,
in acting on such evidence to the condemning
of any person; and do hereby declare, that
we justly fear that we were sadly deluded
and mistaken ; for which we are much dis-
quieted and distressed in our minds; and do
therefore humbly beg forgiveness, first of
God, for Christ’s sake, for this our error;
and pray that God would not impute the
guilt of it, to ourselves, nor others; and we
also pray that we may be considered candid-
ly, and aright by the living sufferers, as
being then under the power of a strong and
general delusion, utterly unacquainted with,
and not experienced in matters of that
nature. -
‘We do heartily ask forgiveness of you all,
whom we have justly offended ; and do
declare, according to our present minds, we
would none of us do such things again, on
such grounds, for the whole world; praying
you to accept of this, in way of satisfaction
for our offence, and that you would bless
129
the inheritance of the Lord, that he may be
entreated for the land—
“Foreman, Thomas Fisk, Thomas Pearly, Sen.
William Fisk, John Peabody,
John Bachelor, Thomas Perkins,
Thos. Fisk, Jun. Samuel Sayer,
John Dane, Andrew Eliot,
Joseph Evelith, H. Herrick, Sen.”
The conduct of Judge Sewall claims our
particular admiration. He observed annually
in private a day of humiliation and prayer,
during the remainder of his life, to keep fresh
in his mind a sense of repentance and sorrow
for the part he bore in the trials. On the day
of the general fast, he rose in the place
where he was accustomed to worship, the
Old South in Boston, and in the presence
of the great assembly, handed up to the
pulpit a written confession, acknowledging
the error into which he had been led, pray-
ing for the forgiveness of God and his people,
and concluding with a request to all the
congregation to unite with him in devout
supplication, that it might not bring down
the displeasure of the Most High, upon his
country, his family, or himself. He re-
130
mained standing during the public reading
of the paper.
The following passage is found in his
diary under the date of April 23d, 1720,
nearly thirty years afterwards. It was sug-
gested by the perusal of Neal’s History
of New England. ‘In Dr Neal's History
of N. E. its nakedness is laid open in the
businesses of the Quakers, Ana-baptists,
Witchcraft. The Judges names are men-
tioned p. 502, my confession p. 536, vol. 2.
The good and gracious God be pleased to
save New England and me, and my family.”
There never was a more striking and com-
plete fulfilment of the apostolic assurance,
that the prayer of a righteous man availeth
much, than in this instance. God has been
pleased in a remarkable manner to save and
bless New England. The favor of heaven
was bestowed upon Judge Sewall during
the remainder of his life. He presided for
many years on the very bench where he
committed the error so sincerely deplored
by him, and was regarded by all as a bene-
factor, an ornament and a blessing to his
131
generation; while his family have enjoyed
to a high degree the protection of Provi-
dence from that day to this, they have
adorned every profession, and every depart-
ment of society ; they have occupied the
most elevated stations, have graced in suc-
cessive generations the same lofty seat their
ancestors occupied, have been the objects of
the confidence, respect and love of their
fellow citizens, and in this vicinity, their
name is associated with all that is excellent
in the memory of the past, and the observa-
tion of the present.
Your thoughts, my friends, have been led
in the course of this lecture, through scenes
of the most distressing and revolting charac-
ter. I leave before your imaginations one
that is bright with all the beauty of christian
virtue. In the picture that exhibits Judge
Sewall standing forth in the house of his
God and in the presence of his fellow-wor-
shippers, making a public declaration of
his sorrow and regret for the mistaken judg-
ment he had co-operated with others in
pronouncing, and praying that it might be
132
forgiven — that it might not be followed by
evil consequences to himself, his family or
his country; in this picture you have a re-
presentation of a truly great and magnani-
mous spirit, a spirit to which the divine
influence of our religion had given an ex-
pansion and a lustre, that Roman or Grecian
virtue never knew ; a spirit that had achiev-
ed a greater victory than warrior ever won,
a victory over itself; a spirit so noble and so
pure that it felt no shame in acknowledging
an error, and no humiliation in atoming for an
injury. If the contemplation of this bright
example shall have imparted a glow of
emulation to your hearts, your patience in
listening, I am sure, will not go unrewarded.
LECTURE II.
THE conduct of our ancestors in the
proceedings connected with the Salem witch-
craft delusion of 1692, cannot ſhe justly
understood or equitably estimated, without
considering it in reference to the history and
state of opinions respecting supposed com- º
pacts with supernatural beings, to the ſaw
of the land relating to witchcraft, to the
condition of science philosophy and theo-
logy at the time, and to the general princi-
ples of human nature and human society. As
it was for the purpose of imparting to the mem-
bers of this association a clear, adequate and
fair view of the transaction, that my choice
was originally directed to this subject, I shall
12 *
134
forthwith proceed to the discussion of these
several topics So far as is necessary to the
fulfilment of my design.
No person who looks about him on the
scene in which he is placed, who reflects
upon the infinite wonders of creation, and
who contemplates the human mind, can be
at a loss respecting the sources and causes
of superstition. Let him transport himself
back to the condition of a primitive and
unlettered people, before whom the world
appears in all its original and sublime mys-
tery. Science has not liſted to their eyes
the curtain behind which the secret ope-
rations of nature are carried on. They
observe the tides rise and fall, but know not
the attractive law that regulates their move-
ments. They contemplate the procession
of the seasons, without any conception of
the principles and causes that determine and
produce their changes. They witness the
storm as it rises, in its wrath ; they listen
with awe to the thunder peal, and gaze with
startling terror upon the lightning as it
flashes from within the bosom of the black
sº
135
cloud, and are utterly ignorant to what
power to attribute the dreadful phenomena.
They look upward to the face of the sky,
and see the myriad starry hosts that glitter
there, and all is to them a mighty maze of
dazzling confusion. It is for their fancy to
explain, interpret and fill up the brilliant
and magnificent Scene.
The imagination was the faculty, the ex-
ercise of which was chiefly called for in such
a state as this. Before science had traced
the operations, and unfolded the secrets of
nature, man was living in a world full of
wonder and mystery. His curiosity was
attracted to every object within the reach of
his senses, and in the absence of knowledge,
it was imagination alone that could make
answer to its inquiries. It is natural to sup-
pose that he would be led to attribute all the
movements and operations of the external
world which did not appear to be occasioned
by the exercise of his own power, or the
power of any other animal, to the agency of
supernatural beings. His belief would not
be likely, we may also conclude, to fix
136
upon the notion of a single overruling being.
Although revelation and science have dis-
closed to us a beautiful and entire unity and
harmony in the creation, it is probable that
the phenomena of the external world would
impress the unenlightened and unphilosophic
observer with the belief that there was a
diversity in the powers that caused them.
He would imagine the agency of a being of
an amiable and beneficent spirit in the bright
sunshine, the fresh breeze, and the mild
moonlight; and his fancy would suggest to
his fears that a dark, severe and terrible
being was in the ascendant during a day
overshadowed by frowning clouds, or a night
black with the storm and torn by the
tempest. •
By the aid of such reflections as these,
we are easily conducted to a satisfactory
and sufficient explanation of the origin of
the mythology and fabulous superstitions of
all ancient and primitive nations. From
this the progress is plain, obvious and im-
mediate to the pretensions of magicians, .
diviners, sorcerers, conjurors, oracles, sooth-
137
sayers, augurs, and the whole catalogue of
those persons who professed to hold inter-
course with the higher and spiritual powers.
There are three classes into which they may
be divided. -
There were those, who, to acquire an
influence over the people, pretended to pos-
sess the confidence, and enjoy the friendship
and counsel of some one or more deities.
Such was Numa, the early lawgiver of the
Roman State. In order to induce the peo-
ple to adopt the regulations and institutions;
and religious rites he proposed, he made
them believe that he had access to a divinity,
and received all his plans and ideas as a
communication from on high.
Persons who, in consequence of their
superior acquirements, were enabled to excel
others in any pursuit, or who could foresee
and avail themselves of events in the natural
world, were liable, without any intention to
deceive, to be classed under some of these
denominations. For instance, a Roman
farmer, Furius Cresinus, surpassed all his
neighbors, in the skill and success with
12%
138
which he managed his agricultural affairs.
‘He was accordingly accused of using magic
arts in the operations of his farm. So far
were his neighbors carried by their feelings
of envy and jealousy, that they explained
the fact of his being able to derive more
produce from a small lot of land than they
could from large ones, by charging him with
attracting and drawing off the productions of
their fields into his own by the employment
of certain mysterious charms. For his de-
fence, as we are informed by Pliny, he
produced his strong and well constructed
ploughs, his light and convenient spades,
and his sun-burnt daughters, and pointing
to them exclaimed:--Here are my charms;
this is my magic; ‘these only are the witch-
craft I have used.’ Zoroaster, the great
philosopher and astronomer of the ancient
East, was charged with divination and magic,
merely, it is probable, because he possess-
ed uncommon acquirements.
There were persons who had acquired an
extraordinary amount of natural knowledge,
and, for the sake of being regarded with won-
139
der and awe by the people, pretended to ob-
tain their superior endowments from super-
natural beings. They affected the name
and character of sorcerers, diviners and
soothsayers. It is easy to conceive of the
early existence, and the great influence of
such impostors. Patient observation, and
often mere accident would suggest dis-
coveries of the existence and operation of
natural causes in producing phenomena be-
fore ascribed to superhuman agency. The
knowledge thus acquired would be cautiously
concealed, and cunningly used, to create
astonishment and win admiration. Its for-
tunate possessors were enabled to secure the
confidence, obedience, and even reverence of
the benighted and deceived people.
Let us suppose, for instance, that Some
person belonging to an ignorant and su-
perstitious tribe, had received information
through the channel of secret tradition, or
had ascertained by a lucky conjecture, or by
profound reflection and calculation, the very
minute, or hour, or day, within which a
solar eclipse would take place. How easy
140
would it be for that person to induce the
whole community to believe him to be in
Secret connexion with the higher powers,
and to enjoy the confidential intercourse of
the deities who rule the world. Let us
suppose that he gives out word in an oracu-
lar and mysterious manner, that in conse-
quence of the unwillingness of the people
to receive law from him as from their rightful
sovereign, or their true prophet and priest,
his friends and protectors, the higher powers,
would, at a specified time, withdraw the light
of the sun and leave them to dwell in a
world of eternal night, or dissolve the sys-
tem of the universe. His threat might not
at first be regarded; perhaps it would be
laughed to scorn. Many, however, would be
in suspense, and wait in anxious doubt the
approach of the day that was to determine
its truth. On that day the sun would rise as
bright, perhaps brighter, than usual, it would
mount through a clear sky with undiminished
and glowing radiance up toward the highest
heaven. The whole people would watch
its course with Solicitous attention, and as it
141
moved on steadily and triumphantly in its
accustomed path, the belief that the predic-
tion was about to prove false would gain
strength in their minds. The pretended
prophet would pass round among them with
a calm complacency of demeanor that indi-
cated entire confidence, and a feeling of
Satisfaction in the doom that was about to fall
upon those who had denied his authority,
derided his pretensions, and scorned his
power.
Soon, however, a change would begin to
be discerned in the atmosphere, the gazers
would exclaim, that the sun was dissolving,
that its disk was breaking and its whole face
disappearing from the heavens. The ter-
ror and awe of the people would spread and
deepen in every direction. The sun's rays
would fall pale, feeble and dim upon the
earth; a tint of mingled blue and yellow
would be spread over the fading, sickening
dying world; the darkness of a night, even
more awful than that which closed the pri-
mal day of the first parents of the human
family, would gradually settle upon the earth,
142
and the stars would begin to beam in the
sunless sky.
The whole population, confounded, terri-
fied, and driven to distraction, would rush in
penitence and despair to the presence of their
prophet; they would supplicate his forgive-
ness for their rebellious disregard of his au-
thority and warnings, and would promise to
honor, serve, revere and obey him forever,
if he would use his influence with the higher
powers, to procure their pardon, and to stay
the progress of the dissolution and ruin that
were coming upon the world. The dignified
and apparently displeased impostor, after
much affected reluctance, listens to their
request, mutters forth some unintelligible
sounds, goes through a solemn ceremony,
looks up on high, waves his hand, and pro-
mises, upon the condition that they will ac-
knowledge the divinity of his mission and
yield entire obedience to him, that the sun
shall be restored in the heavens. The grate-
ful multitude await the fulfilment of the
promise; and soon their eyes behold the
glorious luminary reappearing, the light of
142
day is again diffused abroad, and the world
goes on in its usual course. In this manner
was the confidence of the people secured
and abused. -
The ingenuity of Columbus in availing
himself of his knowledge of an approach-
ing eclipse of the moon to strike awe into
the minds of the American savages, suggests
itself as an illustration of the probability
and naturalness of the scene just supposed.
Every one, indeed, who could discover a
secret of nature, and keep it secret, was able
to impose himself upon the world as being
allied with supernatural powers. Hence
arose the whole host of diviners, astrologers,
soothsayers, and oracles. After having once
acquired possession of the credulous faith of
the people, they could impose upon them
almost without limit.
Those who pretended to hold this kind of
intercourse with divinity, became as a natu-
ral consequence, the priests of the nation,
constituted a distinct and regular profession,
and perpetuated their body by the admission
of new members, to whom they explained
144
all their arts, and communicated all their
knowledge. While they were continually
discovering and applying the secret princi-
ples and laws of nature, and the people were
kept in utter ignorance and darkness, it is no
wonder that they reached a great and un-
paralleled degree of power over the mass of
the population. In this manner we account
for the origin, and trace the history of the
Chaldean priests in Assyria, the Brahmins
of India, the Magi of Persia, the Oracles of
Greece, the Augurs of Italy, the Druids of
Britain, and the Powaws, Prophets or ‘Me-
dicins’ as they sometimes called them,
among our Indians.
The progress of the Christian religion has
overthrown the power of these impostors in
all civilized countries, and we can only here
and there discern the vestiges and remnants
of them, in wandering jugglers, ventriloquists,
and fortune tellers. -
It is probable that the witches mentioned
in the Scriptures were of this description.
Neither in sacred nor profane ancient history
do we find what was understood in the days
145
of our ancestors by witchcraft, which, as has
been mentioned in the previous lecture, meant
a formal and actual compact with the great
prince of evil beings. The sorcery of an-
tiquity consisted in pretending to possess cer-
tain mysterious charms, and to do by their
means, or by the cooperation of superhu-
man spirits, without any reference to their
character as evil or good beings, what tran-
scends the action of mere natural powers.
The witch of Endor, for instance, was a
conjurer and necromancer, rather than a
witch. By referring to the xxviii chap. I
Samuel, where the interview between her and
Saul is related, you will find that there is no
ground for the opinion that the being from
whom she pretended to receive her mysteri-
ous power was Satan, and if it was not Satan,
of course she was not a witch. Saul, as the
ruler of a people, who enjoyed the peculiar
and exclusive government and protection of
the true God, had forbidden, under the
Sanction of the highest penalties, the exercise
of the arts of divination and sorcery within
his jurisdiction. Some time after this, the
13
146
unfortunate monarch was overtaken by trou-
ble and distress. His enemies had risen up
and were gathered in fearful strength around
him. His ‘heart greatly trembled ; a dark
and gloomy presentiment came over his spir-
it, and his bosom was convulsed by an agony
of solicitude. He turned toward his God
for light and strength. He applied for re-
lief to the priests of the altar, and to the
prophets of the most High ; but his prayers
were not answered and his efforts were vain.
In his sorrow and apprehension he appealed
to a woman who was reputed to have super-
natural powers, and to hold communion with
spiritual beings; thus violating his own law
and departing from duty and fidelity to his
God. He begged her to recall Samuel to
life, that he might be comforted and instruct-
ed by him. She pretended to comply with
his request; but before she could commence
her usual mysterious operations, Samuel
arose ! And the forlorn, wretched and heart-
broken king listened to his tremendous doom,
as it was uttered by the spirit of the departed
prophet. -
147
I have alluded particularly to the witch of
Endor, because she will serve as a speci-
men and instance of the sorcery or divina-
tion of antiquity. She was probably pos-
sessed of some secret knowledge of natural
properties, was skilful in the use of her arts
and pretended charms, had perhaps the pe-
culiar powers of a ventriloquist, and by suc-
cessful imposture, had acquired an uncom-
mon degree of notoriety and the entire confi-
dence of the public. She professed to be
in alliance with supernatural beings, and by
their assistance to raise the dead.
This passage has afforded a topic for a
great deal of discussion among interpreters.
It seems to me on the face of the narrative
to suggest the following view of the trans-
action. The woman was an impostor.
When she summoned the spirit of Samuel,
instead of the results of her magic lantern or
of whatever contrivances she may have had,
by the immediate agency of the Almighty,
the spirit of Samuel really rose, to the con-
sternation and horror of the pretended ne-
cromancer. The writer appears to have in-
148
dicated that this is the proper interpretation
of the scene, by saying, ‘that when the wo-
man saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice;’
thus giving evidence of alarm and surprise
totally different from the deportment of such
pretenders on such occasions; they used
rather to exhibit joy at the success of their
arts, and a proud composure and dignified
complacency, in the control they were be-
lieved to exercise over the spirits that ap-
peared to have obeyed their call. Sir Wal-
ter Scott takes this view of the transaction.
His opinion, it is true, would be considered
more important in any other department
than that of biblical interpretation; on all
questions, however, connected with the spi-
ritual world of fancy and with its history, he
must be allowed to speak, if not with the
authority, with the tone of a master. This
wonderful author in the infinite profusion
and variety of his productions, has recently
written a volume upon Demonology and
Witchcraft; it is of course entertaining and
instructive, and I would recommend it to all
who are curious to know the capacity and
149
to witness the operations of the human im-
agination. . . . . . . . . . .
It will be regarded by intelligent and
judicious persons, as a circumstance of im-
portance in reference to the view now given
of the transaction, in which the witch of
Endor acts the leading part, that Hugh Far-
mer, beyond all question, the most learned,
discreet and profound writer on such sub-
jects, is inclined to throw the weight of his
authority in its favor. His ample and
elabórate discussion of the question is to
be seen in his work on Miracles, chap. iv.
Among the heathen nations of antiquity
the art of divination consisted to a great de-
gree in the magical use of mysterious charms.
Many plants were considered as possessed of
wonderful virtues, and there was scarcely a
limit to the supposed power of those persons
who knew how to use and apply them skil-
fully. Virgil in his eighth eclogue thus
speaks of this species of Sorcery—
“ These herbs did Moeris give to me
And poisons pluckt at Pontus,
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150
For there they grow and multiplie
And do not so amongst us;
With these she made herselfe become
A wolfe, and hid hir in the wood,
She fetcht up souls out of their toome,
Removing corne from where it stood.”
In the fourth AEmeid, the lovesick Tyrian
queen is thus made to describe the magic
which was then believed to be practised.
* Rejoice,” she said, “ instructed from above,
My lover I shall gain or lose my love,
Nigh rising Atlas, next the falling sun
Long tracts of Ethiopian climates run;
There a Massylian priestess I have found,
Honored for age, for magic arts renown'd ;
Th’ Hesperian temple was her trusted care,
'Twas she supplied the wakeful dragon’s fare.
She, poppy-seeds in honey taught to steep,
Reclaim’d his rage, and sooth’d him into sleep;
She watch'd the golden fruit. IIer charms unbind
The chains of love, or fix them on the mind;
She stops the torrent, leaves the channel dry,
Repels the stars, and backward bears the sky,
* “Has herbas, atque haec Ponto mihi lecta venena
Ipse dedit Moeris; mascuntur plurima Ponto. .
His ego saepe lupum fieri, et se condere, silvis,
Moerin, saepe animas imis excire sepulcris,
Atque Satas alio widi traducere messis,”
151.
The yawning earth rebellows to her call,
Pale ghosts ascend, and mountain ashes fall.”
Tibullus in the second Elegy of his first
book gives the following account of the pow-
ers ascribed to a magician.
* She plucks each star out of his throne
And turneth back the raging waves,
With charms she makes the earth to cone,
And raiseth souls out of their graves;
She burns men’s bones as with a fire
And pulleth down the lights of Heaven,
And makes it snow at her desire
E’en in the midst of summer season.’t
* “Inveni, germana, viam, gratare sorori,
Quae mihi reddat eum, vel ed me solvat amantem.
Oceani finem juxta, solemgue cadentem
Ultimus Aethiopum locus est, ubi maximus Atlas
Axem humero torquet, stellis ardentibus aptum,
Hinc mihi massylae gentis monstrata sacerdos
Hesperidum templi custos, epulasque draconi
Quae dabat, et sacros servabat in arbore ramos
Spargens humida mella, Soporiferumque papaver.
Haec se carminibus promittit solvere mentis
* Quas welit, ast aliis duras immittere curas;
Sistere aquam fluviis, et vertere sidera retro,
Nocturmosque ciet manis; mugire videbis
Sub pedibus terram, et descendere montibus ornos.’
f ‘Hanc ego de coelo ducentem sidera widi ;
Fluminis haec rapidi carmine sistit iter,
152
These views continued to hold undisturbed
dominion over the people during a long suc-
cession of centuries. As the twilight of the
dark ages began to settle upon christendom,
Superstition, that night blooming plant, grew
with increased rapidity and spread itself over
the surface of the world. While everything
else drooped and withered, it struck deeper
its roots, spread wider its branches and
brought forth more abundantly its fruit.
The unnumbered fables of Greek and Roman
mythology, the arts of augury, and divination,
the visions of oriental romance, the fanciful
and attenuated theories of the later philoso-
phy, the abstract and spiritual doctrines of
Platonism, and all the grosser and wilder
conceptions of the northern conquerors of
the Roman Empire, became mingled toge-
ther in the faith of the inhabitants of the
European kingdoms. From this multifarious
Haec cantu finditgue solum manesque sepulcris .
Elicit et tepido devocat ossa rogo. .
Jam ciet infernas magico stridore catervas;
Jam jubet asspersas lacte referre pedem
Quum libet, haec tristi depellet nubila coelo;
Quum libet, aestivo convocat orbe nives.”
153
combination, the infinitely various popular
superstitions of the modern nations have
sprung. *
We first begin to trace the clear outlines
of the doctrine of witchcraft, correctly un-
derstood, about the time of the christian era.
It has been seen that it pre-supposes the
belief of the devil. I shall not enter upon
the disputed question, whether the scriptures
properly interpreted, require the belief of the
existence of such a being. The voice of
theological controversy must never be heard
within this peaceful hall—but directing our
attention solely to profane sources of infor-
mation, we discover the heathem origin of the
belief of the existence of the devil in the am-
cient system of oriental philosophy. Early
observers of nature in the East, were led to the
conclusion that the world was a divided em-
pire, and that it was ruled by the alternate or
simultaneous energy of two great antagonist
principles or beings, one perfectly good, and
the other perfectly bad. It has been for a
induced to encourage and turn to their own
154
long time, as it probably is at this day, the
prevailing faith among christians that the
Bible teaches a similar doctrine, and that it
presents to our adoration and obedience a
being of infinite perfections, in the Deity;
and to our abhorrence and our fears, a being
infinitely wicked, and of great power in the
Devil. - -
The natural and ultimate effect of the
diffusion of christianity was to overthrow or
rather to revolutionize the whole system of
incantation and sorcery. In heathen coun-
tries, as in the East at present, no reproach
or sentiment of disapprobation was neces-
sarily connected with them, for the super-
natural beings with whom the professors of
those arts pretended to have intercourse,
were not, with a few exceptions, regarded
as evil beings. The persons who were
thought to be skilful in their use were on the
contrary held in great esteem, and looked
upon with reverence. Magicians and phi-
losophers were convertible and synonymous
terms. Learned and scientific men were
155
advantage the popular credulity that ascribed
their extraordinary skill to their connexion
with spiritual and divine beings. At length,
however, they found themselves placed in a
very uncomfortable predicament by the pre-
valence of the christian doctrines. It was
exceedingly difficult to dispel the delusion,
and correct the error they had previously
found it for their interest to perpetuate in the
minds of the community. They could not
convince them that their knowledge was ac-
quired from natural sources, or their opera-
tions conducted solely by the aid of natural
causes and laws. The people would not
surrender the belief that the results of
scientific experiments, and the accuracy of
predictions of physical phenomena were
secured by the assistance of Supernatural
beings.
As the doctrines of the gospel gradually
undermined the popular belief in other
spiritual beings inſerior to the Deity, and
were at the same time supposed to teach the
existence and extensively diffused energy of
an almost infinite and omnipotent agent of
156
evil, it was exceedingly natural, nay, it
necessarily followed, that the same credulity
and superstition which had led to the suppo-
sition of an alliance between philosophers
and spiritual beings, should settle down into
a full conviction that the devil was the being
with whom they were thus confederated.
The consequence was that they were charg—
ed with witchcraft, and many fell victims to
the general prejudice and abhorrence occa-
sioned by the imputation. The influence of
this state of things was soon seen; it was
one of the most effectual causes of the rapid
diffusion of knowledge in modern times.
Philosophers and men of science became as
anxious to explain and publish their discov-
eries as they had been in former ages to
conceal and cover them with mystery. The
following instances will be sufficient to illus-
trate the correctness of these views.
In the thirteenth century, Roger Bacon
was charged with witchcraft on account of
his discoveries in optics, chemistry and as-
tronomy, and although he did what he could
to circulate and explain his own acquire-
157
ments, he could not escape a papal denun-
ciation, and two long and painful imprison-
ments. In 1305, Arnold de Villa Nova, a
learned physician and philosopher was burned
at Padua, by order of inquisitors, on the
charge of witchcraft. He was eighty years
of age. Ten years afterwards, Peter Apon
also of Padua, who had made extraordinary
progress in knowledge, was accused of the
Same crime, and condemned to death; he
expired previous to the time appointed for
his execution. - -
I will now present a brief sketch of the
prosecutions for witchcraft, that took place
previous to the close of the seventeenth cenº,
tury. Some writers have computed that thirty
thousand persons were executed for this sup-
posed crime, within one hundred and fifty
years. It will of course be in my power to .
mention only a few instances.
In 1484, Pope Innocent the Eighth, issued
a bull encouraging and requiring the arrest
and punishment of persons suspected of
witchcraft. From this moment, the prose-
cutions became frequent and the victims mu-
14
158
merous in every country. The very next
year, fortyone aged females were consigned
to the flames in one nation, and not long aſ-
ter one hundred were burned by one inquisi-
tion, in the devoted valleys of Piedmont;
fortyeight were burned in Ravensburg in five
years, and in the year 1515, five hundred were
burned at Geneva in three months! One
writer declares that “almost an infinite num-
ber’ were burned for witchcraft in France,” —
one thousand in a single diocese ! These san-
guinary and horrible transactions were pro-
moted and sanctioned by theological hatred
and rancor. It was soon perceived that
there was no kind of difficulty in clearing the
church of heretics, by hanging or burning
them all as witches! Luther was just begin-
ning his attack upon the papal power, and
he was instantly accused of being in con-
federacy with the devil.
In 1534, Elizabeth Barton, “the maid of
Kent,’ was executed for witchcraft in Eng-
land, together with seven men who had been
confederate with her. In 1541, the Earl of
Hungerford was beheaded for inquiring of a
159
witch how long Henry VIII. would live. In
1549, it was made the duty of Bishops, by
Archbishop Cranmer's articles of visitation,
to inquire of their clergy, whether ‘they
know of any that use charms, sorcery, en-
chantments, witchcraft, soothsaying or any
like craft invented by the devil.” In 1563,
the king of Sweden carried four witches with
him, as a part of his armament, to aid him in
his wars with the Danes. In 1576, seven-
teen or eighteen were condemned in Essex,
in England. A single judge or inquisitor,
Remigius, condemned and burned nine hun-
dred within fifteen years, from 1580 to 1595,
in the single district of Lorrain, as many
more fled out of the country; whole villages
were depopulated, and fifteen persons de-
stroyed themselves rather than submit to the
torture, which under the administration of
this successor of Draco and rival of Jeffries,
was the first step taken in the trial of an ac-
cused person. The application of the rack
and other instruments of torment, in the ex-
amination of prisoners, was recommended
by him in a work on witchcraft. He ob-
160
serves that ‘scarcely any one was known to
be brought to repentance and confession but
by these means !’
The most eminent persons of the sixteenth
century were believers in the popular supersti-
tion respecting the existence of compacts
between Satan and human beings, and the
notions associated with it. The excellent
Melancthon was an interpreter of dreams' and
caster of nativities. Luther was a strenuous
supporter of the doctrine of witchcraft, and
seems to have seriously believed that he had
had frequent interviews with the arch enemy
himself, and had disputed with him on points
of theology, face to face. In his ‘Table
Talk,” he gives the following account of his
intimacy with the devil: speaking of his
confinement in the castle of Wartburg, he
says, “among other things they brought me
hazel-nuts, which I put into a box, and
Sometimes I used to crack and eat of them.
In the night times, my gentleman, the devil,
came and got the nuts out of the box, and
cracked them against one of the bed-posts,
making a very great noise and rumbling
16.1
about my bed, but I regarded him nothing at
all; when afterwards I began to slumber, then
he kept such a racket and rumbling upon
the chamber stairs, as if many empty bar-
rels and hogsheads had been tumbled down.”
Kepler, whose name is immortalized by
being associated with the laws he discovered
that regulate the orbits of the heavenly bodies,
was a zealous advocate of astrology, and his
great predecessor and master, the Prince of
Astronomers, as he is called, Tycho Brahe,
kept an idiot in his presence, fed him from
his own table, with his own hand, and listened
to his incoherent, unmeaning and fatuous
expressions as to a revelation from the spi-
ritual world. - -
The following is the language addressed
to Queen Elizabeth, by Bishop Jewell.
He was one of the most learned persons of
his age, and is to this day regarded as the
mighty champion of the church of England,
and of the cause of the reformation in Great
Britain. He was the terrible foe of Roman
Catholic superstition. “It may please your
Grace,’ says he, “to understand that witches
- 14%
162
and sorcerers within these four last years,
are marvellously increased within your
Grace's realm; your Grace's subjects pine
away even unto the death; their color fadeth,
their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed,
their senses are bereft. I pray God,” con-
tinues the courtly preacher—“they never
practise further than upon the subject.”
The petition of the polite prelate appears
to have been answered. The virgin queen
resisted inexorably the arts of all charmers,
and is thought never to have been bewitched
in her life.
It is probable that Spenser in his ‘Faerie
Queene' has described with accuracy the
witch of the sixteenth century in the following
beautiful lines—
“There in a gloomy hollow glen she found
A little cottage built of sticks and weedes,
In homely wise, and wald with sods around
In which a witch did dwell, in loathly weedes,
And wilful want, all careless of her needes;
So choosing solitarie to abide
Far from all neighbors, that her devilish deedes,
And hellish arts from people she might hide,
And hurt far off unknowne whomever she envide.”
163 - &
So prone were the people to indulge in
the contemplation of the agency of the
devil and his myrmidons, that they strained
and violated and perverted the language of
scripture to make it speak of them. Thus
they insisted that the word Philistines meant
confederates and subjects of the devil, and
accordingly interpreted the expression—‘I
will deliver you into the hands of the Philis-
tines, thus — ‘I will deliver you into the
hands of demons.” -
I cannot describe the extent to which the
superstition we are reviewing was carried
about the close of the sixteenth century in
stronger language than the following, from a
candid and learned French Roman Catholic
historian— ‘So great folly,’ says he – ‘did
then oppress the miserable world, that chris-
tians believed greater absurdities than could
ever be imposed upon the heathens.’
We have now arrived at the commence-
ment of the seventeenth century, within
which the prosecutions of witchcraft took
place in Salem. To show the opinions of the
164
clergy of the English church at this time, I will
quote the following curious canon made by
the convocation in 1603. -
‘That no minister or ministers, without
license and direction of the Bishop, under
his hand and seal obtained, attempt upon any
pretence whatsoever either of Possession or
Obsession, by fasting and prayer, to cast out
any devil or devils, under pain of the im-
putation of Imposture or Cozenage, and
deposition from the ministry.’ — In the same
year a license was actually granted, as re-
quired above, by the Bishop of Chester,
and several ministers were duly authorized
by him to cast out devils'
During this whole century there were trials
and executions for witchcraft in all civilized
countries. More than two hundred were
hanged in England, thousands were burned in
Scotland, and still larger numbers in various
parts of Europe. -
Edward Fairfax, the poet, was one of
the most accomplished men in England.
He is celebrated as the translator of Tasso's
T
165
* Jerusalem Delivered,’ in allusion to which
work Collins thus speaks of him :
‘How have I sate while piped the pensive wind
To hear thy harp, by British Fairfax strung,
Prevailing poet, whose undoubting mind
Believed the magic wonders that he sung.”
This same Fairfax prosecuted six of his
neighbors for bewitching his children. —The
trials took place about the time the first
pilgrims came to America. . .
In 1634, Urbain Grandier, a very learned
and eminent French minister rendered himself
odious, by his moderation towards heretics, to .
the bigoted nuns of Loudun. Secretly instiga-
ted, as has been supposed by Cardinal Riche-
lieu, against whom he had written a satire,
they pretended to be bewitched by him, and
procured his prosecution ; he was tortured
upon the rack until he swooned, and then was
burned at the stake. In 1640, Dr Lamb of
London, was murdered in the streets of that
city by the mob on suspicion of witchcraft.
Several were hanged in England only a few
years before the proceedings commenced in
Salem. Some were tried by water ordeal,
166
and drowned in the process in Suffolk, Essex,
Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire, in
England, at the very time, the executions
were going on here. And a considerable
number of capital punishments took place in
various parts of Great Britain some years
after the prosecutions had ceased in America.
The trials and executions in England and
Scotland were attended by circumstances, as
painful, as barbarous, and in all respects as
disgraceful as those occurring in Salem, that
were related in the former lecture. Every
species of torture seems to have been resort-
ed to ; the principles of reason, justice and
humanity were set at defiance, and the whole
body of the people were kept in a state of
the most fierce excitement against the suf-
ferers. Indeed, there is nothing more
distressing in the contemplation of these
sanguinary proceedings than the spirit of
deliberate and unmitigated cruelty with
which they were conducted. No symptoms
of pity, compassion or sympathy appear to
have been manifested by the judges or the
community. The following account of the
167
expenses attending the execution of two
persons convicted of witchcraft in Scotland,
shews in what a cool business-like style the
affair was managed. - i
For ten loads of Coals to burn them, £3 68
For a Tar Barrel, . • we 0 14 0.
For Towes, * • • . . . 0 6 0
For harden to be jumps for them, . . 3 10 0
For making of them, . & . 0 8 0
For one to go to Finmouth for the Laird
to sit upon their assize as Judge, 0 6 0
For the executioner for his pains, . . 8 14 0
For his expenses here, tº . . 0 16 4
The brutalizing effects of capital punish-
ments are clearly seen in these, as in all other
instances. They gradually impart a feeling
of indifference to the value of human life
to all who become accustomed to the spec-
tacle, or to the idéa of cutting it off by the
hand of violence. In various ways they ex-
ercise influences upon the tone and temper
of society, which cannot but be regarded
with regret by the citizen, the legislator,
the moralist, the philanthropist and the
christian. *
168
Sinclair in his work called “Satan's invisi-
ble world discovered, gives the following
affecting declaration made by one of the
confessing witches as she was on her way to
the stake, ‘Now all you that see me this
day, know that I am now to die as a witch
by my own confession, and I frce all men,
especially the ministers and magistrates, of
the guilt of my blood; I take it wholly
upon myself, my blood be upon my own
head; and, as I must make answer to the
God of Heaven presently, I declare I am
as free of witchcraft as any child, but being
delated by a malicious woman, and put in
prison under the name of a witch, disowned
by my husband and friends, and seeing no
ground of hope of my coming out of prison,
or ever coming in credit again, through the
temptation of the devil, I made up that
conſession on purpose to destroy my own
life, being weary of it, and choosing rather
to dic than live.”
Sir George Mackenzie says that he went
to examine Some women who had confessed,
and that one of them, who was a silly crea-
169
ture, told him, ‘under secresie’ ‘that she had
'not confessed because she was guilty, but
being a poor creature who wrought for her
meat, and being defamed for a witch, she
knew she would starve, for no person there-
after would either give her meat or lodging,
and that all men would beat her, and hound
dogs at her, and that therefore she desired
to be out of the world.”—Whereupon she
wept most bitterly, and upon her knees called
God to witness to what she said *
A wretch named Matthew Hopkins ren-
dered himself infamously conspicuous in the
prosecutions for witchcraft that took place in"
the counties of Essex, Sussex, Norfolk and
Huntingdom in England in the year 1645
and 1646. The title he assumed indicates
the part he acted, it was “Witch-finder
General.’ He travelled from place to place,
his expenses were paid, and he required, in
addition, regular fees for the discovery of a
witch. His methods of detection were
similar in some respects to those described
in the ſormer lecture, but much more barba-
rous. Besides pricking the body to find
15
170
the witch mark, he compelled the wretched,
and decrepid victims of his cruel practices,
to sit in a painful posture upon an elevated
stool, with their limbs crossed, and if they
persevered in refusing to confess he would
prolong their torture in some cases to more
than twentyfour hours ; he would prevent
their going to sleep, and drag them about bare-
foot over the rough ground, thus overcoming
them with extreme weariness and pain ; but
his favorite method was to tie the thumb
of the right hand close to the great toe of
the left foot and draw them through a river
"or pond; if they floated, as they would be
likely to do while their heavier limbs were
thus sustained and upborne by the rope, it
was considered as conclusive proof of their
guilt. This monster was encouraged and
sanctioned by the government, and he pro-
cured the death in one year and in one
county, of more than three times as many as
suffered in Salem during the whole delusion,
He and his exploits are referred to in the
following lines from that store-house of
good sense and keen wit, Butler's Hudibras.
171
‘Hath not this present Parliament
A leiger to the Devil sent,
Fully empowered to treat about
Finding revolted witches out 2
And has he not within a year
Hanged three score of them in one shire *
The infatuated people looked upon this
Hopkins with admiration and astonishment,
and could only account for his success by
the supposition, which we are told was gen-
erally entertained, that he had stolen the
memorandum book in which Satan had re-
corded the names of all the persons in Eng-
land who were in league with him
The most melancholy circumstance con-
nected with the history of this creature is,
that Richard Baxter and Edmund Calamy,.
names dear and venerable in the estimation
of all virtuous and pious men, were deceived
and deluded by him — they countenanced
his conduct, followed him in his movements,
and aided him in his proceedings. ©
At length, however, some gentlemen,
shocked at the cruelty, and suspicious of the
integrity of Hopkins, seized him, tied his
thumbs and toes together, threw him into a
172
*
pond, and dragged him about to their hearts'
content. They were fully satisfied with the
result of the experiment. It was found that
he did not sink. He stood condemned on
his own principles; and thus the country was
rescued from the power of the malicious
impostor.
Among the persons whose death Hopkins
procured, was a venerable gray headed
clergyman, named Lewis. He was of the
the church of England, had been the minis-
ter of a congregation for more than half a
century, and was over eighty years of age.
His infirm frame was subjected to the several
tests, and even to the trial by water ordeal,
he was compelled to walk almost incessantly
for several days and nights, until, in the
exhaustion of his nature, he was made to
assent to a confession that was adduced
against him in court; which however he
disowned and denied there and at all times
from the moment he was released from the
torments by which it was extorted from him,
to the moment of his death. As he was
about to die the death of a felon, he knew
173
that the rites of sepulture according to the
forms of his denomination would be denied
to his remains. The aged sufferer, it is
related, read his own funeral service while
on the scaffold. Solemn, sublime, and
affecting as is this most admirable portion of
the excellent ritual of the church, surely it
was never performed under circumstances
so well suited to impress with awe and
tenderness, as when uttered by the calum-
niated oppressed and dying old man. Bax-
ter, had been tried for sedition on the ground
that one of his publications contained a
refléction upon Episcopacy, and was im-
prisoned for two years. It is a striking and
melancholy illustration of the moral infirmity
of human nature, that the author of the
‘Saints' Everlasting Rest'—and the ‘Call to
the Unconverted,’ permitted such a vengeful.…
feeling against the establishment to enter his
breast, that he took pleasure and almost
exulted in relating the fate of this innocent
and aged clergyman, whom he denominates
in derision a ‘Reading Parson.’
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174
No name in English history is regarded
with more respect and admiration by wise
and virtuous men, than that of Sir Matthew
Hale. His character was almost venerated
by our ancestors, and it has been thought
that it was the influence of his authority,
more than anything else, that prevailed upon
them to pursue the course they adopted in
the prosecutions at Salem. This great and
good man presided, as Lord Chief Baron, at
the trial of two females, Amy Dunny and
Rose Cullender, at Bury St Edmunds, in
Suffolk, in the year 1664. They were gon-
victed and executed. &
Baxter relates the following circumstance,
as having occurred at this trial. ‘A godly
minister, yet living, sitting by to see one of
the girls, (who appeared as a witness against
the prisoners,) in her fits, suddenly felt a
force pull one of the hooks from his breeches;
and while he looked with wonder at what
was become of it, the tormented girl vomited
it up out of her mouth.”
To give an idea of the nature of the tes-
timony upon which the principal stress was
175
laid by the government, I will extract the
following passages from the report of the
trial. ‘Robert Sherringham testified that
the axletree of his cart happening, in pass-
ing to break some part of Rose Cullender's
house, in her anger at it, she vehemently
threatened him, his horses should suffer for
it; and within a short time all his four horses
died; after which he sustained many other
losses in the sudden dying of his cat-
tle. He was also taken with a lameness in
his limbs; and so far vexed with lice of an
extraordinary number and bigness, that no
art could hinder the swarming of them, till
he burnt up two suits of apparel.’ ‘Mar-
garet Arnold testified that Amy Dunny af.
flicted her children; they (the children) she
said, would see mice running round the
house, and when they caught them and
threw them into the fire, they would screech
out like rats.” “A thing like a bee flew at
the face of the younger child, the child fell
into a fit and at last vomited up a twopenny
nail, with a broad head, affirming that the
bee brought this mail and forced it into her
176
mouth.” “She one day caught an invisible
mouse and throwing it into the fire, it flash-
ed like to gunpowder. None besides the
child saw the mouse, but every one saw the
flash !’
In this instance we perceive the influence
of prejudice in perverting evidence. The
circumstance that the mouse was invisible to
all eyes but those of the child, ought to have
satisfied the court and jury, that she was
either under the power of a delusion, or prac-
tising an imposture. But as they were
predisposed to find something supernatural
in the transaction, their minds seized upon
the pretended invisibility of the mouse as
conclusive proof of diabolical agency.
Many persons who were present express-
ed the opinion that the issue of the trial
would have been favorable to the prisoners,
had it not been for the following circum-
stance. Sir Thomas Browne, a physician,
philosopher and scholar of unrivalled celeb-
rity at that time, happened to be upon the
spot, and it was the universal wish that he
should be called upon the stand, and his
177
opinion be obtained on the general subject
of witchcraft. An enthusiastic contempo-
rary admirer of Sir Thomas Browne, thus
describes him. “The horizon of his under-
standing was much larger than the hemi-
sphere of the world; all that was visible in
the heavens he comprehended so well, that
few that are under them knew so much, and
of the earth he had such a minute and ex-
act geographical knowledge, as if he had
been by Divine Providence ordained sur-
veyor general of the whole terrestrial globe
and its products, minerals, plants and ani-
mals.’ His memory is stated to have been
inſerior only to that of Seneca or Scaliger,
and he was reputed master of seven lan-
guages. Dr Johnson who has written his
biography, sums up his character in the fol-
lowing terms. “But it is not on the praises
of others, but on his own writings, that he
is to depend for the esteem of posterity; of
which he will not easily be deprived, while
learning shall have any reverence among
men; for there is no science in which he
does not discover some skill, and Scarce any
178
kind of knowledge, profane or Sacred, ab-
struse or elegant, which he does not appear
to have cultivated with success.’
Sir Thomas Browne was considered by
those of his own generation to have made
great advances beyond the wisdom of his
age. He claimed the character of a reform-
er, and gave to his principal publication the
title of an ‘Enquiry into Vulgar Errors.”
So bold and free were his speculations that
he was looked upon invidiously by many as
a daring innovator, and did not escape the
denunciatory imputation of heresy. Nothing
could be more unjust, however, than this
latter charge. He was a most ardent and
zealous believer in the doctrines of the es-
tablished church. He declares “that he as-
Sumes the honorable style of a Christian,’
not because “it is the religion of his coun-
try, but because, ‘having in his riper years
and confirmed judgment, seen and exam-
ined all, he finds himself obliged, by the
principles of grace, and the law of his own
reason, to embrace no other name but this.’
He exults and “blesses himself, that he liv-
179
ed not in the days of miracles, when faith
had been thrust upon him; but enjoys that
greater blessing pronounced to all that be-
lieved and saw not ; nay, he goes so far as
to say, that they only had the advantage of
a bold and noble faith, who lived before the
coming of the Saviour, and upon obscure
prophecies and mystical types, could raise a
belief.. The fact that such a man was ac-
cused of infidelity is an affecting proof of the
injustice that is sometimes done by the judg-
ment of contemporaries.
2 This prodigy of learning and philosophy
went into court, took the stand, and declar-
ed his opinion in favor of the reality of witch-
craft, entered into a particular discussion of
the subject before the jury, threw the whole
weight of his great name into the wavering
scales of justice, and the poor women were
convicted. The authority of Sir Thomas
Browne, added to the other evidence per-
plexed Sir Matthew Hale. A reporter of
the trial says, “that it made this great and
good man doubtful, but he was in such fears
and proceeded with such caution, that he
180
would not so much as sum up the evidence,
but left it to the jury with prayers, ‘that the
great God of Heaven would direct their
hearts in that weighty matter.”
The result of this important trial estab-
lished decisively, the interpretation of Eng-
lish law, and the printed report of it was
used as an authoritative text book in , the
court at Salem. s
The celebrated Robert Boyle flourished
in the latter half of the seventeenth century,
He is allowed by all to have done much to-
wards the introduction of an improved phi-
losophy and the promotion of experimental”
science. But he could not entirely shake
off the superstition of his age.
A small city in Burgundy, called Mascon,
was famous in the ammals of witchcraft. In
a work called ‘The Theatre of God's Judg-
ments,’ published by Thomas Beard, in 1612,
in London, there is the following passage.
‘It was a very lamentable spectacle that
chanced to the governor of Mascon, a ma-
gician, whom the devil Snatched up in dim-
mer-while, and hoisted aloft, carrying him
181
three times about the town of Mascon in the
presence of many beholders to whom he
cried on this manner, help, help, my friends;
So that the whole town stood amazed there-
at; yea, and the remembrance of this strange
accident sticketh at this day fast in the minds
of all the inhabitants of this country.” A
malicious and bigoted monk who discharged
the office of chief legend-maker to the Ben-
edictine Abbey in the vicinity of Mascon,
fabricated this ridiculous story for the pur-
pose of bringing the governor into disrepute.
An account of another diabolical visitation,
suggested, it is probable, by the one just de-
scribed, was issued from the press during the
lifetime of Boyle, under the title of ‘The
Devil of Mascon;’ he gave his sanction to
the work, promoted its version into English,
and as late as 1678 publicly declared his
belief of the supernatural transaction it re-
lated.
Witches were considered and treated as
capital offenders by the laws of Pennsylva-
nia and New York. Trials took place in
both colonies not long before the Salem
I6
182
tragedy commenced. William Penn presid-
ed on the bench at the trial of two Swedish
women for witchcraft, the Grand Jury acting
according to instructions given in a charge
delivered by him, found bills against them,
and they were saved only by some techni-
cal defect in the indictment. If they had
been condemned and executed, it is probable,
as the annalist of Philadelphia suggests, that
a scene similar to that exhibited here would
have been recorded in the history of the so-
ber colony of Swedes, and Germans, and
Dutch, and Quakers, who dwelt in the city
of brotherly love and the adjoining country.
There had been trials and executions for
witchcraft in New England previous to those
in Salem; fifty years before, a woman was
hanged for this supposed crime in Charles-
town, and several at different times in Con-
necticut and other parts of the country. In
1688 an Irish woman named Glover was ex-
ecuted in Boston for bewitching four child-
ren, belonging to the family of a Mr Good-
win. She was a Roman Catholic, was very
ignorant, and seems, moreover, to have been
183
crazy. The oldest of the children was only
about thirteen years of age. They acted
in the same manner as the children in Mr
Parris' family described in the previous lec-
ture. The most experienced physicians pro-
nounced them bewitched. Their conduct,
as it is related by Cotton Mather, was indeed
very extraordinary. At one time they
would bark like dogs, and then again they
would purr like cats. ‘Yea,’ says he, “they
would fly like geese and be carried with an
incredible swiftness, having but just their
toes now and then upon the ground, some-
times not once in twenty feet, and their arms
waved like the wings of a bird.’
One of the children seems to have had a
genius scarcely inferior to that of Master
Burke himself; there was no part nor pas-
Sion she could not enact. She would com-
plain that the old Irish woman had tied an
invisible moose round her neck and was chok-
ing her, and her complexion and features
would instantly assume the various hues and
distortions, that would be natural to a person
in such a predicament. She would declare
184
that an invisible chain was fastened to one
of her limbs, and would limp about precisely
as though it were really the case. She would
say that she was in an oven; the perspiration
would drop from her face and she would
exhibit every appearance of being roasted;
then she would cry out that cold water was
thrown upon her, and her whole frame would
shiver and tremble. She pretended that the
evil spirit came to her in the shape of an in-
visible horse, and she would canter, gallop,
trot and amble round the rooms and entries,
in such admirable imitation, that an ob-
server could hardly believe that a horse was
not beneath her, and bearing her about.
She would go up stairs with exactly such a
toss and bound as a person on horseback
would exhibit. +
After some time, Cotton Mather took her
into his own family to see whether he could
not exorcise her. His account of her con-
duct while there is highly amusing for its
credulous simplicity. The cunning and in-
genious child seems to have taken great de-
light in perplexing and playing off her tricks
185
upon the learned man. Once he wished to
say Something in her presence, to a third
person, which he did not intend she should
understand. He accordingly spoke in Latin.
But she had penetration enough to conjec-
ture what he had said; he was amazed. He
then tried Greek; she was equally success-
ful. He next spoke in Hebrew ; she instant-
ly detected the meaning. At last he resorted
to the Indian language and that she pretended
not to know. He drew the conclusion that the
evil being with whom she was in compact was
acquainted familiarly with the Latin, Greek
and Hebrew, but not with the Indian tongue.
It is curious to notice how adroitly she
fell into the line of his prejudices. He
handed her a book written by a Quaker,
to which sect it is well known he was
violently opposed; she would read it off
with great ease, rapidity and pleasure. A
book written against the Quakers she could
not read at all. She could read Popish
books, but could not decipher a syllable of
the Assembly’s Catechism. Dr Mather was
violently opposed to the order and liturgy
16%
|86
of the church of England. The artful little
girl worked with great success upon this pre-
judice. She pretended to be very fond of
the book of Common Prayer, and called it
her Bible; it would relieve her of her suffer-
ings in a moment to put it into her hands;
while she could not read a word of the
scriptures in the Bible, she could read them
very easily in this prayer-book; but she could
not read the Lord’s prayer even in this her
favorite volume. All these things went far
to strengthen the conviction of Dr Mather,
that she was in league with the devil, for
this was the only explanation that could be
given to satisfy his mind of her partiality to
the productions of Quakers, Catholics and
Episcopalians, and her aversion to the Bible
and the Catechism.
She exhibited the most exquisite ingenui-
ty in beguiling Dr Mather, by the force of a
charm, the power of which he could not re-
sist for a moment — flattery. He thus de-
scribes with a complacency, but thinly con-
cealed under the veil of affected modesty,
the part she played in order to give the im-
187
pression—which it was the great object of his
ambition to make upon the public mind—that
the devil stood in special fear of his presence.
“There then stood open the study of
one belonging to the family, into which
entering, she stood immediately on her feet
and cried out, “They are gone ! They are
gone | They say that they cannot, — God
won’t let ’em come here !” adding a reason
for it, which the owner of the study thought
more kind than true !! She would be faint
at first, (after entering the holy and charmed
apartment,) and say, “She felt something go
out of her,” the noises whereof we some-
times heard, like those of a mouse.’
Even in her most riotous proceedings, she
kept her eye fixed upon the Doctor's weak
point. When he called the family to prayers,
she would whistle, and sing, and yell, to drown
his voice, would strike at him with her fist,
and try to kick him. But her hand or foot
would always recoil when within an inch or
two of his body; thus giving the idea that
there was a sort of invisible coat of mail, of
heavenly temper, and proof against the as-
Saults of the devil, around his sacred person
188
After a while Dr Mather concluded to
prepare, an account of these extraordinary
circumstances, wherewithal to entertain his
congregation in a sermon. She seemed to
be quite displeased at the thought of his
making public the doings of her master, the
evil one; attempted to prevent his writing
the intended sermon, and disturbed and in-
terrupted him in all manner of ways. For
instance, she once knocked at his study door,
and said that “there was somebody down
stairs, that would be glad to see him ;’—he
dropped his pen and went down ; upon en-
tering the room he found nobody there but
the family. The next time he met her, he
undertook to chide her for having told him
a falsehood. She denied that she had told
a falsehood. ‘Did’nt you say,” said he,
‘that there was somebody down stairs that
would be glad to see me?’ ‘Well, she re-
plied with inimitable pertness, ‘is not Mrs
Mather always glad to see you ?
She even went much farther than this in
persecuting the good man while he was writing
his sermon; she threw large books at his head.
But he struggled manfully against these buffet-
189
ings of Satan, as he considered her conduct
to be, finished the sermon, related all these
circumstances in it, preached and published
it. Richard Baxter, wrote the preface to an
edition printed in London, in which he de-
clares that he who will not be convinced by
all the evidence Dr Mather presents, that
the child was bewitched, ‘must be a very
obdurate Sadducee.” It is so obvious that
in this whole affair, Cotton Mather was
grossly deceived and audaciously imposed
upon by the most consummate and preco-
cious cunning, that it needs no comment. I
have given this particular account of it, be-
cause there is reason to believe that it origi-
nated the delusion in Salem. It occurred
only four years before ; Dr Mather's ac-
count of the transaction filled the whole
country, and it is probable that the children
in Mr Parris’ family undertook to reenact it.
There is nothing in the annals of the
histrionic art more illustrative of the infinite
versatility of the human faculties both physi-
cal and mental, and of the amazing extent
to which cunning, ingenuity, contrivance,
190
quickness of invention and presence bf mind
can be cultivated even in very young per-
Sons, than such cases as this just related.
It seems, at first, incredible, that a mere
child could carry on such a complex piece
of fraud and imposture, as that enacted by
the little girl whose achievements have been
immortalized by the famous author of the
Magnalia. Many other instances, however,
are found recorded in the history of the
delusion we are discussing. . .
In the year 1679, the house of Mr Morse
of Newbury was for more than two months
infested in a most strange and vexatious
manner ; stones were thrown through the
windows and down the chimney; the furni-
ture cast out of doors; the implements of
cookery flew about most mysteriously from
one end of the room to the other; ashes
were scattered over the food prepared for
dinner; the milk-pails were filled with dirt
in an unaccountable manner : the family
consisted of a man, his wife and a little
grandson ; they slept in the same chamber.
After retiring to bed a stone weighing more
191
than three pounds was let fall on the stomach
of the man, a box and a board were
thrown upon them, and they were beaten
with a bag of hops. While the man was at
prayer with his family, he was struck on the
back of his head with the broom, ashes were
thrown into his face, his light was blown
out, and he beaten in the dark with a pair
of leather breeches, his hair and beard pulled
and his body scratched. The clothes that
covered them were violently pulled off the
bed; stones were thrown at them, and the
man's night-cap twitched from his head
while sitting by the fire ; a candlestick was
flung at him, and he was pricked by a bod-
kim until the blood came; pails of water
or whatever might happen to be near at
hand, were emptied upon them, until they
were ‘brought,’ as Increase Mather observes,
‘ into an uncomfortable pickle.” Cotton
Mather and his father both relate these cir-
cumstances in great detail as evidence of the
terrible power of Satan. There can scarce-
ly be a doubt, that all the trouble which fell
upon the old people and perplexed and
192
wore them down from week to week, and
from month to month, was occasioned by
the mischievous contrivance and malicious
agency of their grandchild. He pretended
to suffer more than they did from the
vexations of the devil ; he would swoon
away, and appear to be distracted, would
throw himself into the chimney corner, and
cry out that he was pinched, bitten, &c.
His tongue used to hang out of his mouth ;
he would bark and act like a dog, and cluck
like a hen. By his ready wit and great
cunning, aided by the blind and terrified
credulity of his grandparents, he succeeded
in effectually deceiving and imposing upon
them for a long period. Indeed, neither
they nor those who relate the circumstances,
seem ever to have suspected him, but it is
obvious to me from the accounts given of
the affair that he was the author and cause
of all the mischief.
Hutchinson gives an account of a similar
deception. It is condensed from a more
particular narrative contained in the Massa-
chusetts Historical Collections, vol. 10,
193
sec. 2. In the year 1720 at Littleton in the
county of Middlesex, a family was supposed
to be bewitched. ‘One I. B. had three
daughters, of eleven, nine and five years of
age. The eldest was a forward girl, and hav-
ing read and heard many strange stories,
would surprise the company where she hap-
pened to be with her manner of relating them.
Hleased with the applause, she went from
stories she had hoard, to some of her own
framing, and so on to dreams and visions,
and attained the art of Swooning, and of
being to all appearance for some time breath-
less. Upon her revival she would tell of
strange things she had met with in this and
other worlds. When she met with the
words, God, Christ, the Holy Ghost, in
the Bible, she would drop down with
scarce any signs of life in her. Strange
noises were often heard in and upon the
house, stones came down the chimney and
did great mischief. She complained of the
spectre of Mrs D y, a woman living in
the town ; and once the mother of the girl
struck at the place where the said D y;
17
194
was, and the girl said “you have struck her
on the body,’ and upon inquiry, it was
found that D——y, complained of a hurt on
her body about that time. Another time,
the mother struck at a place, where the girl
said there was a yellow bird, and she told
her mother she had hit the side of its head,
and again it appeared that D—y’s head
was hurt about the same time. It was com-
mon to find her in ponds of water, crying
out she would be drowned, sometimes upon
the top of the house, and sometimes upon
the tops of trees, where she pretended she
had flown, and some fancied they had seen
her in the air. There were often the marks
of blows and pinches upon her, which were
supposed to come from an invisible hand.
The second daughter, after her sister had
succeeded so well, imitated her in complaints
of D y, and outdid her in feats of run-
ning upon the barn, climbing trees, &c, and
what was most surprising, the youngest at-
tempted the same feats and in some instances
went beyond her sisters. The neighbors,
agreed that they were under an evil hand
195
and it was pronounced a piece of witchcraft,
as certain as that there ever had been any
at Salem; and no great pains were taken to
detect the imposture. Physicians had been
at first employed, but to no purpose, and
afterwards ministers were called to pray
over them, but without success. At length,
D y, not long after the supposed blows,
took to her bed, and after some time died,
and the two eldest girls ceased complaining;
the youngest held out longer ; but all per-
sisted in it, that there had been no fraud.
The eldest not having been baptized, and
being come to adult age, desired and obtain-
ed baptism, and the minister then examined
her upon her conduct in the affair, and she
persisted in her declarations of innocency.
In 1728, having removed to Medford, she
offered to join the church there, and gave a
satisfactory account of herself to the minister
of the town; but he knew nothing of the
share she had in this transaction. The
Lord’s day before she was to be admitted, he
happened to preach from this text, “He that
speaketh lies shall not escape.” The woman
196
supposed the sermon to be intended for her,
and went to the minister, who told her
nobody had made any objection against her,
but being determined to conſess her guilt,
she disclosed the fraud of herself and sisters,
and desired to make a public acknowledg-
ment in the face of the church ; and ac-
cordingly did so. The two sisters, seeing
her pitied, had become actors also with her,
without being moved to it by her, but when
she saw them follow her, they all joined in
secret and acted in concert; they had no
particular spite against D y; but it was
necessary to accuse somebody, and the eldest
having pitched upon her, the rest followed.
The woman’s complaints, about the same
time the girl pretended she was struck, pro-
ceeded from other causes, which were not
then properly inquired into. Once, at
least, they were in great danger of being
detected in their tricks; but the grounds of
suspicion were overlooked, through the in-
dulgence and credulity of their parents.’
yº. . As far back as the year 1560, a similar
instance of juvenile imposture occurred at
1.97
Amsterdam. Twenty or thirty boys pre-
tended to be suddenly seized with a kind of
rage and fury, were cast upon the ground,
and tormented with great agony. These fits
were intermittent, and when they had passed
off, their subjects did not seem to be con-
scious of what had taken place; while they
lasted, the boys threw up apparently from
their stomachs a large number of needles,
pins, thimbles, pieces of cloth, fragments of
pots and kettles, bits of glass, locks of hair,
and a variety of other articles, There was
no doubt at the time that they were suffer-
ing under the influence of the devil, and
multitudes crowded round them, and gazed
upon them, with wonder, awe and horror.
There were many cases in England of a
similar kind; while among the North Ameri-
can Indians, such feats were practised regu-
larly and professionally by the Powaws,
and were looked upon by the ignorant tribes
as the operations of a present Deity.
Dr Harsenet, afterwards Archbishop of
York, who was among the first to contribute
by his wit and satire to the overthrow of
1.7%
198
the superstitions of demonology, thus de-
scribes the motives and the methods of such
impostors.
‘Out of these,” saith he, ‘is shaped us the
true idea of a witch; an old weather-beaten
crone, having her chin and her knees meet-
ing for age, walking like a bow, leaning on a
staff; hollow-eyed-untoothed, furrowed on
her face, having her limbs trembling with the
palsy, going mumbling in the streets: one
that hath forgotton her Pater-noster, and
yet hath a shrewd tongue to call a Drab a
Drab. If she hath learned of an old wife in
a chimney-end, Pax, Max, Fax, for a spell
or can say Sir John Grantham's curse for
the miller's eels, “all ye that have stolen the
miller’s eels, Laudate dominum de coelis:
and all they that have consented thereto,
Benedicamus domino:” why then beware,
look about you my neighbors. If any of
you have a sheep sick of the giddies, or a
hog of the mumps, or a horse of the stag-
gers, or a knavish boy of the school, or an
idle girl of the wheel, or a young drab of
the sullens and hath hot fat enough for her
199
porrage, or butter enough for her bread, and
she hath a little help of the epilepsy or
cramp, to teach her to roll her eyes, wry
her mouth, gnash her teeth, startle with her
body, hold her arms and hands stiff, &c,
and then when an old Mother Nobs hath by
change called her an idle young housewife or
bid the devil scratch her; then no doubt
but Mother Nobs is the witch, and the young
girl is owl blasted, &c. They that have
their brains baited and their fancies distem-
pered with the imaginations and apprehen-
sions of witches, conjurers and fairies, and
all that Lymphatic chimera, I find to be
marshalled in one of these five ranks; child-
ren, fools, women, cowards, sick or black
melancholic discomposed wits.”
The imputation of witchcraft could be
fixed upon any one with the greatest facility.
In the early part of the fifteenth century, the
Earl of Bedford having taken the celebrated
Joan of Arc prisoner, put her to death on
this charge. She had been almost adored
by the people, who were rescued by her
romantic valor, and was universally known
200
among them by the venerable title of ‘Holy
Maid of God’—but no difficulty whatever
was experienced by her enemies in procuring
evidence enough to lead her to the stake as
an instrument and servant of the devil.
Sylvester the second, was made Pope
about the year 1000; his original name was
Gilbert, and his native country France.
Early in life he obtained by bribery and
corruption, a rapid promotion in the church,
and became Archbishop of Ravenna. He
acquired the papal crown in the following
manner. He made a bargain with Satan, by
which the exclusive possession of his soul
after death was transferred to him, on the
condition that he should put forth his great
influence among the cardinals, in such a
manner as to secure the Archbishop’s elec-
tion to the throne of St Peter. The
arrangement was carried into successful
operation. —Sylvester tonsulted the devil
through the medium of a brazen head, during
his whole reign, and enjoyed his faithful
friendship and unwavering patromage. But
when his/Lordship came to die, he endeav-

44.1%
201
ored to defraud Satan of his rightful claims
to his soul by repenting of and acknowledg-
ing his sins. This curious representation is
the product, it is probable, of envy and
malignity. I have alluded to it in order to
show how easy it was to fix the imputation
of diabolical confederacy and co-operation
upon any one. The story, whatever may
have been its origin, is at any rate a pleasant
satire upon the character of the arts by
which ambitious and aspiring ecclesiastics
attain to pre-eminence in their several
churches and denominations. 4.
Witchcraft was treated with the serious
consideration that was appropriate to an in-
teresting and important science, and occupied
a wide and dignified department in the litera-
ture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centu-
ries. It will be proper to present a view
of the manner in which it was discussed.
Gaule, one of the most exact writers on the
subject, arranges witches into the following
classes. 1, The diviner, gypsey or for-
tune-telling witch; 2d, the astrologian, star-
gazing, planetary, prognosticating witch; 3d,
202
the chanting, canting or calculating witch
who works by signs or numbers; 4th, ‘the
venefick or poisonous witch ; 5th, the ex-
orcist or conjuring witch ; 6th, the gastron-
omic witch ; 7th, the magical, speculative,
sciential or arted witch ; 8th, the necro-
mancer.’
Hally well gives the following account of
the means by which a person may place
himself beyond the reach of the power of
witchcraft. ‘It is possible for the soul to
arise to such a height, and become so divine,
that no witchcraft or evil demons can have
any power upon the body. When the
bodily life is too far invigorated and awaken-
ed, and draws the intellect, the flower and
summity of the Soul, into a conspiration
with it, them are we subject and obnoxious
to magical assaults. For magic or sorcery,
being founded only in this lower or mundane
spirit, he that makes it his business to be
freed and released from all its blandishments
and flattering devocations, and endeavors
wholly to withdraw himself from the love of
corporeity, and too near a sympathy with
203
the frail flesh, he, by it, enkindles such a
divine principle as liſts him above the fate of
this inferior world, and adorns his mind with
such an awful majesty that beats back all
enchantments, and makes the infernal fiends
tremble at his presence, hating those vigor-
ous beams of light which are so contrary and
repugnant to their dark natures.’
The pure and elegant mind of the same
beautiful writer ſound encouragement and
security in the midst of the diabolical spirits
with whom he believed the world to be in-
fested, in the following views and specu-
lations.
‘For there is a chain of government that
runs down from God, the Supreme Mon-
arch, whose bright and piercing eyes look
through all that he has made, to the lowest
degree of the creation; and there are presi-
dential angels of empires and kingdoms, and
such as under them have the tutelage of pri-
vate families; and lastly, every man’s par-
ticular guardian genius. Nor is the inani-
mate or material world left to blind chance
or fortune, but there are likewise mighty and
204
potent spirits, to whom is committed the
guidance and care of the fluctuating and un-
certain motions of it, and by their ministry,
fire and vapor, storms and tempests, Snow
and hail, heat and cold, are all kept within
such bounds and limits, as are most servicea-
ble to the ends of Providence. They take
care of the variety of seasons, and superin-
tend the tillage and fruits of the earth; upon
which account, Origen calls them invisible
husbandmen. So that all affairs and things,
being under the inspection and government
of these incorporeal beings, the power of
the dark kingdom, and its agents is under a
strict confinement and restraint, and they
cannot bring a general mischief upon the
world without a special permission of a su-
perior Providence.”
* “How oft do they their silver bowers leave,
To come to succor us, that succor want 2
How oft do they with golden pinions cleave
The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant,
Against foul fiends to aid us militant 2 g
They for us fight, they watch and duly ward,
And their bright squadrons round about us plant,
And all for love and nothing for reward:
O why should heavenly God to man have such regard ”
SPENSER.
205
King James explains the circumstance,
that witches could not weep, in rather a cu-
rious manner; ‘For as in a secret murther,
if the dead carkasse bee at any time there-
after handled by the murtherer, it will gush
out of bloud, as if the bloud were crying to
the heaven for revenge of the murtherer,
God having appointed that secret supernatu-
rall signe, for triall of that secret unnaturall
crime, so it appeares that God hath appoint-
ed (for a supernaturall signe of the mon-
strous impietie of witches,) that the water
shall refuse to receive them in her bosome,
that have shaken off them the sacred water
of baptisme, and wilfully refused the benefite
thereof; no, not so much as their eyes are
able to shed teares, (threaten and torture
them as ye please,) while first they repent,
(God not permitting them to dissemble their
obstinacie in so horrible a crime,) albeit, the
woman kind especially be able otherwise to
shed teares at every light occasion when they
will—yea, although it were dissemblingly
like the crocodiles.’
Reginald Scott, in introducing a Romish
18
206
form of adjuration, makes the following excel-
lent remarks on the trial by tears. “But, alas,
that teares should be thought sufficient to ex-
cuse or condemn in so great a cause, and so
weightie a triall. I am sure that the worst sort
of the children of Israel wept bitterlie; yea, if
there were any witches at all in Israel, they
wept. For it is written, that all the children of
Israel wept. Finallie, if there be any witches
in hell, I am sure they weepe; for there is
weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
But God knoweth, many an honest matron
cannot sometimes in the heaviness of her
heart shed teares; the which oftentimes are
more readie and common with craſty queans
and strumpets, than with sober women. For
we read of two kinds of teares in a woman’s
eie, the one of true greeſe, and the other of
deceipt. And it is written, that “Dediscere
flere foeminam est mendacium :” which argu-
eth that they lie, which saie that wicked wo-
men cannot weepe. Butlet these tormentors
take heed, that the teares in this case, which
rumme down the widowe’s cheeks, with their
crie, spoken of by Jesus Sirach, be not heard
207
above. But, lo, what learned, godlie and
lawful meanes these Popish Inquisitors have
invented for the triall of true or false teares.
“‘I conjure thee, by the amorous tears,
which Jesus Christ our Saviour shed upon
the crosse for the salvation of the world ;
and by the most earnest and burning teares
of his mother, the most glorious Virgine Ma-
rie, sprinkled upon his wounds late in the
evening; and by all the teares which everie
Saint and elect vessell of God hath poured
out heere in the world, and from whose eies
he hath wiped awaie all teares, that if thou
be without fault thou maist poure downe
teares aboundantlie; and if thou be guiltie,
that thou weep in no wise; In the name of
the Father, of the Sonne, and of the Holie
Ghost— Amen.” And note, saith he, that
the more you conjure, the lesse she weepeth.’
A distinction was made between black and
white witches. The former were those who
had leagued with Satan for the purpose of
doing injury to others, while the latter class
was composed of such persons as had re-
sorted to the arts and charms of divination
208
and sorcery, in order to protect themselves
and others from diabolical influence. They
were both considered as highly, if not equally
criminal. Fuller in his ‘ Profane State,’
thus speaks of them, ‘Better is it to lap one's
pottage like a dog, than to eat it mannerly
with a spoon of the devil's giving. Black
witches hurt and do mischief. But in deeds
of darkness there is no difference of colors.
The white and the black are both guilty
alike in compounding with the devil.” White
witches pretended to extract their power from
the mysterious virtues of certain plants.
The following form of charmed words was
used in plucking them. —
“Hail to thee, holy herb,
Growing in the ground,
On the Mount of Calvarie
First wert thou fourid,
Thou art good for many a grief
And healest many a wound ;
In the name of sweet Jesu
I lift thee from the ground.”
While there can be no doubt that the Su-
perstitious opinions we have been reviewing
were diffused generally, and cherished fondly,
by the great body of the people of all ranks
and conditions, it would be unjust to truth
not to mention that there *. were some per-
sons in the times of our fathers, who look-
ed upon them as empty fables and vain
imaginations. Error has never yet made a
complete and universal conquest. In the
darkest ages and most benighted regions, it
has been found to be impossible utterly to
extinguish the light of reason. There al-
ways have been some in whose souls the
torch of truth has been kept burning with
vestal watchfulness; we can discernits glim-
mer here and there through the deepest
night that has yet settled upon the earth. In
the midst of the most extravagant supersti-
tion, there have been individuals who have
disowned the popular belief; and have con-
sidered it a mark of wisdom and true phi-
losophy, to discard the idle fancies and ab-
surd schemes of faith, that possessed the
minds of the great mass of their contempo-
raries. This was the case with Horace, as
appears from the following passage.*
* Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas,
r * . y
Nocturnos lemures portentaque ; Thessala rides.
18%
210
‘These dreams and terrors magical
These miracles and witches, *
Night walking sprites or Thessal bugs,
Esteeme them not two rushes.”
The intellect of Seneca also rose above
the reach of the popular credulity with re-
spect to the agency of supernatural beings
and the efficacy of mysterious charms.
If we could but obtain access to the secret
thoughts of the wisest philosophers, and of the
men of genius of antiquity, we should pro-
bably find that most of them were superior
to the superstitions of their times. Even in
the thick darkness of the dark ages there
were minds too powerful to be kept in chains
by error and delusion. -
Henry Cornelius Agrippa, who was born
in the latter part of the fifteenth century
was perhaps the greatest philosopher and
scholar of his period. In his early life he
was very much devoted to the science of
magic, and was a strenuous supporter of
demonology and witchcraft. In the course
of his studies and meditations, he was led to
a change of views on these subjects, and did
211
all that he could to warn others from putting
confidence in such vain, frivolous and absurd
superstitions as then possessed the world.
The consequence was that he was denounced
and prosecuted as a conjurer, and was charg—
ed with having written against magic and
witchcraft, in order, the more securely to
shelter himself from the suspicion of practis-
ing them. — As an instance of the calumnies
that were heaped upon him, I would men-
tion that Paulus Jovius asserted that ‘Cor-
nelius Agrippa went always accompanied
with an evil spirit in the similitude of a
black dog,' and that when the time of his
death drew near, ‘he took off the enchanted
collar from the dog's neck, and sent him
away with these terms, “Get thee hence,
thou cursed beast, which hastutterly destroy-
ed me,” neither was the dog ever seen
after.” Butler in his Hudibras has not me-
glected to celebrate this remarkable connexion
between Satan and the man of learning—
* Agrippa kept a Stygian pug
I” th” garb and habit of a dog,
That was his tutor, and the cur
Read to th’ occult philosopher.’
tº
212
John Wierus wrote an elaborate, learned
and judicious book in which he treated at
large of magic, sorcery and witchcraft, and
did all that scholarship, talent and philosophy
could do to undermine and subvert the
whole system of the prevailing popular
superstition. But he fared no better than
his predecessor, patron and master Agrippa
had done. He also was accused of having
attempted to persuade the world that there
was no reality in supernatural charms and
diabolical confederacies, in order that he
might devote himself to them without suspi-
cion or molestation, and was borne down by
the bigotry and fanaticism of his times.
King James merely gave utterance to the
general sentiment, and pronounced the ver-
dict of public opinion in the following extract
from the preface to his ‘Demonologie’—
‘Wierus, a German physician, sets out a
public apologie for all these crafts-folkes,
whereby, procuring for them impunitie,
he plainly bewrays himself to have been of
that profession.’ e -
In 1669 a work was published in Lon-
213
don with the following title: ‘The Ques-
tion of Witchcraft Debated, or a Discourse
against their opinions that affirm Witches.’
It is a work of great merit, and would do
honor to a scholar and logician of the present
day. The author was John Wagstaffe of
Oxford University; he is described as a
crooked, shrivelled little man, of a most
despicable appearance. This circumstance,
together with his writings against the popu-
lar belief in witchcraft, led his academical
associates to accuse him, some of them in
sport, but others with grave suspicion, of
being a wizard. —Wood, the historian of
Oxford, says, that “he died in a manner
distracted, occasioned by a deep conceit of
his own parts, and by a continual bibbing of
strong and high tasted liquors.” But poor
Wagstaffe was assailed by something more
than private raillery and slander. His
heretical sentiments exposed him to the
battery of the host of writers who will al-
ways be found ready to advocate a prevailing
opinion. . His principal opponent was Meric
Casaubon, son of the famous Isaac Casaubon,
214
and who had before distinguished himself by
an attack upon the credulity and supersti-
tions of his age, in ‘A Treatise upon Enthu-
siasm.” But Wagstaffe was not left entirely
alone to defend the cause of reason and
truth. He had one most zealous advocate
and ardent admirer in the author of a work
on ‘The Doctrine of Devils,’ published in
1676. This writer sums up a panegyric
upon Wagstaffe's performance, by pronounc-
ing it ‘a judicious book, that contains more
good reason, true religion, and right chris-
tianity, than all those lumps and cartloads of
luggage, that hath been ſardled up, by all
the faggeters of demonologistical winter-
tales, and witchcraftical legendaries, since
they first began to foul clean paper.’
Dr Balthasar Bekker of Amsterdam, who
was equally eminent in astronomy, philoso-
phy and theology, published a learned and
powerful work, called ‘The Enchanted
World, in 1691, in which he openly assailed
the doctrines of Witchcraft and of the Devil,
and anticipated many of the views and argu-
ments presented in Farmer's excellent pub-
215
lications. As a reward for his exertions to
enlighten his fellow creatures, he was turned
out of the ministry and assaulted by nearly
all the writers of his age.
The conclusion to which we are brought
by a review of the seventeenth century, up
to the period when the prosecutions took
place here, is, that the witchcraft delusion
pervaded the whole civilized world and every
profession and department of society. It re-
ceived the sanction of all the learned and
distinguished English judges who flourished
within the century from Sir Edward Coke to
Sir Matthew Hale. It was countenanced by
the greatest philosophers and physicians;
was embraced by men of the highest genius
and accomplishments, even by Lord Bacon
himself. It was established by the convo-
cation of Bishops, and preached by the
clergy. Dr Henry More of Christ's Col-
lege, Cambridge, in addition to his admirable
poetical and philosophical works, wrote
volumes to defend it. It was considered as
worthy of the study of the most cultivated
and liberal minds to discover and distinguish
216
“a true witch by proper trials and symptoms.’
The excellent Dr Calamy has already been
mentioned in this connexion ; and Richard
Baxter wrote his work entitled ‘the Cer-
tainty of the World of Spirits,’ for the
special purpose of confirming and diffusing
the belief. He kept up a correspondence
with Cotton Mather, and with his father,
Increase Mather, through the medium of
which he stimulated and encouraged them in
their proceedings against supposed witches
in Boston and elsewhere. The divines of
that day seem to have persuaded them-
selves into the belief, that the doctrines of
demonology were essential to the gospel,
and that the rejection of them was equiva-
lent to infidelity. A writer in one of our
modern journals, in speaking of the prosecu-
tions for witchcraft, happily and justly ob-
serves, ‘it was truly hazardous to oppose
those judicial murders. If any one ventured
to do so, the Catholics burned him as a
heretic, and the Protestants had a vehement
longing to hang him for an Atheist.’ The
writings of Dr More, of Baxter and of Glan
217
vil had been circulating for a long time in
every direction in New England, before the
trials began in Salem. -
We are probably now prepared to accede
to the remarks of Dr Bentley, when he says
that ‘the agency of invisible beings, if not
a part of every religion, is not contrary to
any one. It may be found in all ages and
in the most remote countries. It is then no
just subject for our admiration, that a belief
So alarming to our fears, so natural to our
prejudices, and so easily abused by super-
stition, should obtain among our fathers, when
it had not been rejected in the ages of
philosophy, letters and even revelation.’
But justice to our ancestors requires us to
continue the history of the witchcraft delu-
sion, down beyond their age to our own
times.
Prosecutions continued in the older coun-
tries after they had been abandoned here,
although it soon began to be difficult, every-
where, to procure the conviction of a person
accused of witchcraft. In 1716, a Mrs
Hicks and her daughter, the latter aged nine
I9
218
years, were hanged in Huntingdom in Eng-
land, for witchcraft. In the year 1720, an at-
tempt, already described, was made to renew
the Salem excitement in Littleton, Mas-
sachusetts, but it failed ; the people had
learned wisdom at a price too dear to allow
them so soon to forget it. In a letter to
Cotton Mather, written February 19th, 1720,
the excellent Dr Watts, after having express-
ed his doubts respecting the sufficiency of
the spectral evidence for condemnation, says,
in reference to the Salem witchcraft, ‘ I am
much persuaded that there was much imme-
diate agency of the devil in these affairs, and
perhaps there were some real witches too.”
Not far from this time, we find what was
probably the opinion of the most liberal
minded and cultivated people in England,
expressed in the following language of Ad-
dison: ‘To speak my thoughts freely, I be-
lieve in general that there is and has been
Such a thing as witchcraft, but at the same
time, can give no credit to any particular
instance of it.’
219
There was an execution for witchcraft in
Scotland in 1722.
Sir William Blackstone, the great oracle of
British law, and who flourished in the latter
half of the last century, declared his belief in
witchcraft in the following strong terms:–
“To deny the possibility, nay, the actual ex-
istence of witchcraft and Sorcery, is, at once,
flatly to contradict the revealed word of God,
in various passages, both of the Old and New
Testament, and the thing itself is a truth to
which every nation in the world hath in its
turn, borne testimony, either by examples
seemingly well attested, or by prohibitory
laws, which at least suppose the possibility
of commerce with evil spirits.”
A systematic effort seems to have been
made during the 18th century to strengthen
and renew the power of Superstition. Alarm-
ed by the progress of infidelity, many emi-
nent and excellent men availed themselves of
the facilities, which their position at the head
of the prevailing literature afforded them, to
push the faith of the people as far as possible
towards the opposite extreme of credulity.
220
It was a most unwise, and in its effects, de-
plorable policy. It was a betrayal of the
cause of true religion. It was an acknowl-
edgment that it could not be vindicated be-
fore the tribunal of severe reason. Besides
all the misery produced by filling the imag-
imation with unreal objects of terror, the res-
toration to influence during the last century
of the fables and delusions of an ignorant
age has done incalculable injury, by prevent-
ing the progress of christian truth, and sound
philosophy; thus promoting the cause of the
very infidelity it was intended to check. The
idea of putting down one error by setting up
another, cannot have suggested itself to any
mind that had ever been led to appreciate
the value or the force of truth. But this
was the policy of Christian writers from the
time of Addison to that of Johnson. The
latter expressly confesses that it was necessa-
ry to maintain the credit of the belief of the
existence and agency of ghosts, and other su-
pernatural beings, in order to help on the ar-
gument for a future state as founded upon
the Bible.
221
Dr Hibbert, in his excellent book on the
‘Philosophy of Apparitions,’ illustrates some
remarks similar to those just made by the
following quotation from Mr Wesley, -
‘It is true that the English in general, and
indeed most of the men in Europe, have given
up all accounts of witches and apparitions,
as mere old wives’ fables. I am sorry for it;
and I willingly take this opportunity of en-
tering my solemn protest against this violent
compliment, which so many that believe the
Bible pay to those, who dº not believe it. I
owe them no such service. I take knowl-
edge, these are at the bottom of the outcry
which has been raised, and with such inso-
lence spread throughout the nation in direct
opposition not only to the Bible, but to the
Suffrage of the wisest and best men in
all ages and nations. They well know
(whether Christians know it or mot) that
the giving up witchcraft is, in effect, giv-
ing up the Bible. And they know on the
other hand, that, if but one account of the
intercourse of men with separate spirits
be admitted, their whole castle in the air
19%
222
(deism, atheism, materialism) falls to the
ground. I know no reason, therefore, why
we should suffer even this weapon to be
wrested out of our hands. Indeed, there
are numerous arguments besides, which
abundantly confute their vain imaginations.
But we need not be hooted out of one; neither
reason nor religion requires this.”
The belief in witchcraft continued to hold
a conspicuous place among the popular Su-
perstitions of New England during the whole
of the last centurº Many now living can
remember the time when it prevailed very
generally. Each town and village had its
peculiar traditionary tales, which were grave-
ly related by the old, and deeply impressed
upon the young. -
Innumerable instances might be adduced.
I have time to mention the following only :
A reputed witch, familiarly known by the
name of “Old Meg,' resided in Gloucester.
After having been for many years the object
of Superstitious curiosity and dread to the in-
habitants of the Cape, she came to her end in
the following strange and mysterious manner,
223
At the time of the celebrated victorious siege
of Louisburg by the colonial troops, in 1745,
two soldiers of the Massachusetts line be-
longing to Gloucester happened to have their
attention arrested by the movements of a
crow that kept hovering near them ; they
threw stones and discharged their muskets at
it, but could neither touch nor terrify it; the
bird still continued flying round them, and
cawing in their ears. At length it occurred
to one of them that it might be ‘Old Meg.’
He communicated his suspicions to his com-
rade; and as nothing but silver was believed
to have any power to injure a witch, they
tore from their uniform some ornaments
made of that metal, and discharged them at
the crow. The experiment succeeded. At
the first shot they broke its leg, and then kill-
ed it. When they returned to Gloucester,
they found that ‘Old Meg had her leg broken,
while walking by the fort in that place, at
the precise time in which they brought down
the crow. After lingering for a while she
died, and upon examining her fractured limb,
they discovered the identical silver buttons
224
which they had discharged from their mus-
kets under the walls of Louisburg. The
story of “Old Meg' is still familiarly told in
Gloucester, although the credulity which
once received it as solemn truth, has nearly,
if not entirely, passed away.
It is not probable that a larger number of
traditions of the kind are to be found, within
similar limits, in any part of the world than
in the county of Essex. This is especially
the case in the sea-faring towns that line our
extended coast.
The legend of the ‘Screeching Woman’
of Marblehead, is worthy of being generally
known. The story runs thus: — A piratical
cruiser having captured a Spanish vessel
during the seventeenth century, brought her
into Marblehead harbor, which was then the
site of a ſew humble dwellings. The male
inhabitants were all absent on their fishing
voyages. The pirates brought their prisoners
ashore, carried them at the dead of the night
into a retired glen and there murdered them.
Among the captives was an English female
passenger. The women who belonged to
225
the place heard her dying outcries, as they
rose through the midnight air, and reverbera-
ted far and wide along the silent shores. She
was heard to exclaim, “O mercy, mercy,
Lord Jesus Christ, save me! Lord Jesus
Christ, save me!' Her body was buried by
the pirates on the spot. The same piercing
voice is believed to be heard at intervals,
more or less often, almost every year, in the
stillness of a calm star-light or clear moon-
light might. There is something, it is said,
So wild, mysterious and evidently superhu-
man in the sound, as to strike a chill of dread
into the hearts of all who listen to it. The
writer of an interesting article on this sub-
ject, in the Marblehead Register of April 3,
1830, declares that ‘ there are not wanting
at the present day, persons of unimpeacha-
ble veracity and known respectability, who
still continue firmly to believe the tradition,
and to assert that they themselves have been
auditors of the sounds described, which they
declare were of such an unearthly nature as to
preclude the idea of imposition or deception.’
When ‘the silver moon unclouded holds
226
her way,” or when the stars are glistening in
the clear cold sky, and the dark forms of the
moored vessels are at rest upon the sleeping
bosom of the harbor; when no natural Sound
comes forth from the animate or inanimate
creation, but the dull and melancholy rote of
the winding shore, how often at midnight is
the watcher startled from the reveries of an
excited imagination by the piteous, dismal,
and terrific screams of the unlaid ghost of
the murdered lady!
A negro died a short time since, in that
part of Danvers, called originally Salem Vil-
lage, at a very advanced age. He was sup-
posed to have reached his hundredth year.
He never could be prevailed upon to admit
that there was any delusion or mistake in
the proceedings of 1692. To him the whole
affair was easy of explanation. He believed
that the witchcraft was occasioned by the
circumstance of the devil's having purloined
the church book, and that it subsided so soon
as the book was recovered from his grasp.
Perhaps the particular hypothesis of the
venerable African was peculiar to himself;
227
but those persons must have a slight ac-
quaintance with the history of opinions in
this and every other country, who are not
aware that the Superstition on which it was
founded has been extensively entertained
by men of every color, almost, if not quite,
up to the present day. If the doctrines of
demonology have been completely over-
thrown and exterminated in our villages and
cities, it is a very recent achievement, may,
I fear that in many places the auspicious
event remains to take place.
In the year 1808, the inhabitants of Great
Paxton, a village in Huntingdonshire in Eng-
land, within sixty miles of London, rose in a
body, attacked the house of an old woman,
named Ann Izard, suspected of bewitching
three young females, Alice Brown, Fanny.
Amey, and Mary Fox, dragged her out of
bed into the fields, pierced her arms and
body with pins, and tore her flesh with their
nails, until she was covered with blood.
They committed the same barbarous outrage
upon her again, a short time afterwards, and
would have subjected her to the water or-
228
deal if she had not found means to fly from
that part of the country.
It is probable that some who hear me,
recollect, that not far from the time when
this transaction took place in England, that
is, about twenty years ago, great numbers of
people in this town went to see a person who
pretended and was believed by many, to be
bewitched. The clergy were called in to ex-
tricate her from the grasp of the evil one. Her
place of abode was in Northey Street, not far
from the western termination of Bridge Street.
The writer of the article ‘Witchcraft, in
Rees' Cyclopædia, one of the latest com-
pends of modern science, gravely maintains
the doctrine of ocular fascination, as ex-
plained in the last lecture.
Although the belief in witchcraft has near-
ly passed away, the civilized world is even
yet full of necromancers and fortune-tellers.
The mystic science of ‘palmistry, is still
practised by many a haggard and muttering
vagrant; and perhaps there are some now
listening to me who, in the days of their
youthful fancy, held out their hands, that
229
their future fortunes might be read in the
lines of their palms, and their wild and giddy
curiosity and anxious affections be gratified
by information respecting wedding day, or
absent lover.
The most celebrated fortune-teller, per-
haps, that ever lived, resided in an adjoining
town. The character of ‘Moll Pitcher’ is
familiarly known in all parts of the commer-
cial world. She died in 1813. Her place
of abode was beneath the projecting and ele-
vated summit of High Rock in Lynn, and
commanded a view of the wild and indented
coast of Marblehead, of the extended and re-
sounding beaches of Lynn and Chelsea, of
Nahant Rocks, of the vessels and islands of
Boston’s beautiful bay, and of its remote
southern shore. She derived her myste-
rious gifts by inheritance, her grandfather
having practised them before in Marblehead.
Sailors, Merchants, and adventurers of évery
kind, visited her residence, and placed con-
fidence in her predictions. People came
from great distances to learn the fate of miss-
ing friends, or recover the possession of lost
20
230
goods. While the young of both sexes, im-
patient of the tardy pace of time, and burn-
ing with curiosity to discern the secrets of
futurity, availed themselves of every oppor-
tunity to visit her lowly dwelling, and hear
from her prophetic lips the revelation of the
most tender incidents and important events
of their coming lives. She read the future,
and traced, what to mere mortal eyes, were
the mysteries of the present or the past, in
the arrangement and aspect of the grounds
or settlings of a cup of tea or coffee. Her
name has everywhere become the generic
title of fortune-tellers, and occupies a con-
spicuous place in the legends and ballads of
popular superstition. Her renown has gone
abroad to the farthest regions, and her mem-
ory will be perpetuated in the annals of cre-
dulity and imposture. An air of romance is
breathed around the scenes where she prac-
tised her mystic art, the interest and charm
of which will increase as the lapse of time
removes her history back towards the dim-
ness of the distant past.*
* For a more particular account of Moll Pitcher and
her methods of imposture, I would refer the reader to
231
We are told by travellers that there is at
the present time scarcely a village in Syria,
in which there is not some one who has the
credit of being able to cast out devils. As-
trology and Demonology are not only topics
of general conversation, but are honored as
Sciences in the Oriental nations; and at this
moment, while we are looking back with
wonder and incredulity upon the belief in
witchcraft of our ancestors here, and in the
mother country, a British lady of remarkable
intellectual powers and acquirements, and
whose veins are full of England’s best and
noblest blood, is actually practising it on the
eastern shores of the Mediterranean.
Lady Hester Stanhope, the grand-daughter
of the immortal Chatham, and the niece of the
equally immortal Pitt, and who seems to have
inherited, in combination with great eccen-
tricity of character, the talents and eloquence
of her ancestors, lives in a style of Eastern
Mr. Alonzo Lewis’ History of Lynn. An excellent
work of its kind, combining the accuracy of the annal-
ist, and the minuteness of the antiquarian, with the
beautiful conceptions of a poetical and cultivated
mind. -
232
splendor and magnificence, in the bosom of a
lovely and sequestered valley about eight
miles from the ancient Sidon.
She is probably at this very hour, gazing
at the expanded canopy of heaven, as it sheds
its sparkling light upon the ancient hills and
sacred groves of Palestine — her soul ab-
sorbed in the fathomless mysteries of her
loved astrology, and holding ſancied commu-
mion with supernatural powers, and spirits of
the departed. - -
A full and just view of the position and ob-
ligations of our ancestors, requires a previous
knowledge of the state and principles of the
law, as it then existed and was understood.
Although the ancients did not regard the pre-
tended intercourse between magicians or en-
chanters, and spiritual beings as criminal,
yet we find that they enacted laws against
the abuse of the power that resulted from the
connexion. The old Roman code of the
Twelve Tables contained the following pro-
hibition: ‘ that they should not bewitch the
fruits of the earth; nor use any charms to
draw their neighbors’ corn into their own
233
fields.” There were several special edicts oil
the subject during the existence of the Ro-
man state. In the early Christian councils,
sorcery was frequently made the object of
denunciation. At Laodicea, for instance, in
the year 364, it was voted to excommuni-
cate any clergymen who were magicians,
enchanters, astrologers or mathematicians !
The Bull of Pope Innocent VIII. near the
close of the fifteenth century, has already
been mentioned.
Dr Turner, in his history of the Anglo Sax-
ons, says, that they had laws against Sorcerers
and witches, but that they did not punish
them with death. There was an English
statute against witchcraft, in the reign of
Henry VIII. and another in that of Elizabeth.
Up to this time, however, the legislation
of parliament on the subject, was merciful
and judicious — for it did not attach to the
guilt of witchcraft the punishment of death,
unless it had been used to destroy life; that
is, unless it had become murder.
On the demise of Elizabeth, James of
Scotland ascended the throne. His pedan-
20%
234
tic and eccentric character is well known.
He had an early and decided inclination to-
wards abstruse and mysterious speculations.
Before he had reached his twentieth year,
he undertook to accomplish what only the
most sanguine and profound theologians have
ever dared to attempt. He expounded the
book of Revelation. When he was about
twentyfive years of age, he published a work
on the Doctrine of Devils and Witchcraft.
Not long aſter he succeeded to the British
crown. It may easily be imagined that the
subject of demonology, soon became a
fashionable and prevailing topic of conver-
sation in the royal Saloons and throughout
the nation. It served as a medium through
which obsequious courtiers could convey
their flattery to the ears of their accomplish-
cd and learned sovereign. His majesty’s
book was reprinted and extensively circula-
ted. It was of course praised and recom-
mended in all quarters.
The parliament, actuated by a base de-
sire to compliment the vain and superstitious
king, enacted a new and much more severe
235
statute against witchcraft, in the very first
year of his reign. It was under this law that
so many persons here and in England, were
deprived of their lives. The blood of hun-
dreds of their innocent fellow-creatures was
thus unrighteously shed . It was a fearful
price which these servile lawgivers paid for
the favor of their prince.
But this was not the only evil that was
brought about by courtly deference to the
prejudices of King James. It was under his
direction that our present translation of the
scriptures was made. To please his royal
majesty, and to strengthen the arguments in
his work on demonology, the word “witch'
was used to represent expressions in the
original Hebrew, that conveyed an entirely
different idea, and it was freely inserted in
the headings of the chapters.” A person
having a ‘familiar spirit,’ was a favorite de-
scription of a witch in the king's book. The
translators, forgetful of their high and solemn
* For a thorough discussion of the several IIebrew
words that relate to Divination and Magic, see
‘Wierus de Praestigiis,’ 1, 2. c. 1.
236
function, endeavored to establish this defini-
tion by inserting it into their version. Ac-
cordingly, they introduced it in several
places; in the eleventh verse of the eighteenth
chapter of Deuteronomy, for instance; a con-
sulter with familiar spirits.” There is no word
in the Hebrew which corresponds with “fa-
miliar.’ And this is the important, the
essential word in the definition. It conveys
the idea of alliance, stated connexion, con-
federacy, or compact, which is characteristic
and distinctive of a witch. The expression
in the original, signifies “a consulter with
spirits’ — especially as was the case with the
“Witch of Endor,’ a consulter with departed
spirits. It was a shocking perversion of the
word of God, for the purpose of flattering a
frail and mortal sovereign King James
lived to see and acknowledge the error of
his early opinions, and he would gladly have
counteracted their bad effects; but it is easier
to make laws and translations than it is to
alter and amend them.
While the law of the land required the
capital punishment of witches, no blame
237
ought to be attached to judges and jurors for
discharging their respective duties in carrying
it into execution. It will not do for us to
assert that they ought to have refused, let
the consequences to themselves have been
what they would, to Sanction and give effect
to such inhuman and unreasonable enact-
ments. We cannot consistently take this
ground, for there is nothing more certain
than, that with their notions, our ancestors
had at least as good reasons to advance in
favor of punishing witchcraft with death, as
we have for punishing any crime whatsoever
in the same awful and summary manner.
We appeal, in defence of our capital pun-
ishments, to the text of Moses, ‘Whoso
sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his
blood be shed.” — The apologist of our
fathers, for carrying into effect the law mak-
ing witchcraft a capital offence, tells us in
reply, in the first place, that this passage
is not of the nature of a precept, but mere-
ly of an admonition ; that it does not enjoin
any particular method of proceeding, but
simply describes the natural consequences of
238
cruel and contentious conduct; and that it
amounts only to this: that quarrelsome, vio-
lent and bloodthirsty persons will be apt to
meet the same fate they bring upon others;
that the duelist will be likely to fall in pri-
vate combat; the ambitious conqueror to
perish, and the warlike nation to be de-
stroyed, on the field of battle. If this is not
considered by us a sufficient and satisfactory
answer, he advances to our own ground,
points to the same text where we place our
defence, and puts his finger on the following
plain and authoritative precept: “Thou shalt
not suffer a witch to live.’ Indeed we must
acknowledge that the capital punishment of
witches is as strongly supported and fortified
by the Scriptures of the Old Testament, at
least as they appear in our present version,
as the capital punishment of any crime what-
GV6T.
If we adopt another line of argument, and
say that it is necessary to punish Some par-
ticular crimes with death, in order to main-
tain the security of society, or hold up an
impressive warning to others, here also we
239 \
find that our opponent has full as much to
offer in defence of our fathers, as can be
offered in our own defence. He describes,
to us the tremendous and infernal power,
which was universally believed by them to
be possessed by a witch, a power which, as
as it was not derived from a natural source,
could not easily be held in check by natural
restraints; neither chains nor dungeons could
bind it down, or confine it. You might load
the witch with irons, you might bury her in
the lowest cell of a feudal prison, and still it
was believed that she could send forth her
imps, or her spectre, to ravage the fields, and
blight the meadows, and throw the elements
into confusion, and torture the bodies, and
craze the minds of any who might be the
objects of her malice. -
Shakspeare in the description which he
puts into the mouth of Macbeth, of the Su-
pernatural energy of witchcraft, does not sur-
pass, if he does justice to, the prevailing be-
lief on the subject:
“I conjure you, by that which you profess,
(Howe'er you came to know it) answer me,
240
Though you untie the winds and let them fight
Against the churches; though the yesty waves
Confound and swallow navigation up ;
Though bladed corn be lodged, and trees blown down ;
Though castles topple on their warders' heads;
Though palaces and pyramids do slope
Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure
Of nature’s germins tumble all together,
Even till destruction sicken, answer me
To what I ask you ?
There was indeed an almost infinite power
to do mischief associated with a disposition
to do it. No human strength could strip
the witch of these mighty emergies while she
lived, nothing but death could destroy them.
There was, as our ancestors considered, in-
contestable evidence, that she had put them
forth to the injury, loss, and perhaps death
of others.
Cam it be wondered at, that under such
circumstances, the law, connecting capital
punishment with the guilt of witchcraft, was
resorted to, as the only means to protect so-
ciety and warn others from entering into the
dark, wicked and malignant compact fº
* It is not probable that oven King James’ Parlia-
ment would have becn willing to go to the length of
24i.
'There are other considerations that de-
serve to be weighed before a final judgment
should be made up respecting the conduct of
our fathers in the witchcraft delusion. Among
these is the condition of natural science in
their day. But little knowledge of the laws
of nature was possessed, and that little was
confined to a few. The world was still, to
the mass of the people, almost as full of mys-
tery in its physical departments as it was to
its first inhabitants. Politics, Poetry, Rhet-
oric, Ethics, and History, had been cultiva-
ted to a great extent in previous ages, but
the philosophy of the natural and material
world was almost unknown. Astronomy,
Chemistry, Optics, Pneumatics, and even
Geography, were involved in the general
darkness and error. Some of our most im-
Selden in his Table Talk, who takes this ground in
defence of the capital punishment of witches. ‘The
law against witches does not prove there be any, but
it punishes the malice of those people that use such
means to take away men’s lives. If one should pro-
fess that by turning his hat thrice and crying buz,
he could take away a man’s life, (though in truth, ho
could do no such thing,) yet this were a just law
made by the state, that whoever should turn his hat
thrice, and cry buz, with an intention to take away a
man's life, shall be put to death.’
2I
242
portant sciences, such as Electricity, date
their origin from a later period.
This remarkable tardiness in the progress
of physical science for some time after the
era of the revival of learning, is to be ac-
counted for by referring to the erroneous
methods of reasoning and observation then
prevalent in the world. A false logic was
adopted in the schools of learning and phi-
losophy. The great instrument for the dis-
covery and investigation of truth was the syl-
logism, the most absurd contrivance of the
human mind; an argumentative process
whose conclusion is contained in the pre-
mises; a method of proof, in the first step
of which, the matter to be proved is taken
for granted. In a word, the whole system
of philosophy was made up of hypotheses,
and the only foundation of science was laid
in conjecture. The imagination, called ne-
cessarily into extraordinary action, in the ab-
sence of scientific certainty, was still further
exercised in vain attempts to discover,
unassisted by observation and experiment,
the elements and first principles of nature.
243
It was remarked in the previous lecture, that
it had reached a monstrous growth about the
time to which we are referring. Indeed it
may be said, that all the intellectual produc-
tions of modern times from the seventeenth
century, back to the dark ages, were works of
imagination. The bulkiest and most volu-
minous writings that proceeded from the clois-
ters or the universities, even the metaphysical
disquisitions of the Nominalists and Realists,
and the boundless subtleties of the contend-
ing schools of the ‘Divine Doctors, Thomas
Aquinas and Duns Scotus, fall under this
description. Dull, dreary, unintelligible and
interminable as they are, they are still in re-
ality works of fancy. They are the offspring,
almost exclusively, of the imaginative faculty.
It ought not to create surprise to find that
this faculty predominated in the minds and
characters of our ancestors, and developed
itself to an extent beyond our conception ;
when we reflect that it was almost the only
one called into exercise, and that it was the
leading element of every branch of literature
and philosophy,
244
It is true that in the earlier part of the sev-
enteenth century, Lord Bacon made his sub-
lime discoveries in the department of phy-
sical Science. By disclosing the true method
of investigation and reasoning on such sub-
jects, he may be said to have found, or
rather to have invented the key that unlocked
the hitherto unopened halls of nature; he in-
troduced man to the secret chambers of the
universe, and placed the thread in his hand
by which he has been conducted to the mag-
nificent results of modern science, and will
undoubtedly be led on to results still more
magnificent in times to come. But it was not
for human nature to pass in a moment from
darkness to light. The transition was slow
and gradual; a long twilight intervened be-
fore the sun shed its clear and full radiance
upon the world.
The great discoverer himself refused to
admit, or was unable to discern some of the
truths his system had revealed. Bacon was
numbered among the opponents of the Co-
pernican or true system of Astronomy, to the
day of his death; so also was Sir Thomas
245
Browne, the great philosopher already de-
scribed, and who flourished during the lat-
ter half of the same century. Indeed, it may
be said, that at the time of the witchcraft de-
lusion, the ancient empire of darkness that
had oppressed and crushed the world of sci-
ence had hardly been shaken. The great
and triumphant progress of modern discovery
had scarcely begun.
I shall now proceed to illustrate these
views of the state of science in the world at
that time by presenting a few instances. mix
slightest examination of the accounts which
remain of occurrences that were deemed
supernatural by our ancestors, will satisfy any
one that they were brought about by causes
entirely natural, although unknown to them.
For instance, the following circumstances
are attested by the Rev. James Pierpont,
pastor of the church in New Haven, and
there is no reason to doubt that the facts oc-
curred as described by him. **
In the year 1647, a new ship of about 150
tons, containing a valuable cargo, and seve-
ral distinguished persons as passengers, put to
21%
246
sea from New Haven in the month of Janu-
ary, bound to England. The vessels that
came over the ensuing spring brought no
tidings of her arrival in the mother country.
The pious colonists were earnest and instant
in their prayers, that intelligence might be
received of the missing vessel. In the
course of the following June, ‘a great thun-
der-storm arose out of the northwest ; after
which (the hemisphere being serene,) about
an hour before sunset, a ship of like dimen-
sions with the aforesaid, with her canvass and
colors abroad (although the wind was north-
crly) appeared in the air, coming up from
the harbor's mouth, which lies southward
from the town, seemingly with her sails filled
under a fresh gale, holding her course north,
and continuing under observation, sailing
against the wind for the space of half an
hour.” The phantom-ship was borne along,
until, to the excited imaginations of the spec-
tators, she seemed to have approached so
near that they could throw a stone into her.
Her main-topmast them disappeared, then
her mizen-topmast, then her masts were en-
247
tirely carried away, and finally her hull fell
off and vanished from sight, leaving a dull
and Smoke colored cloud which soon dis-
solved, and the whole atmosphere became
clear. All affirmed that the airy vision was
a precise copy and image of the missing ves-
Sel, and that it was sent to announce and de-
scribe her ſate. They considered it the spec-
tre of the lost ship, and the Rev. Mr Da-
venport declared in public, “that God had
condescended, for the quieting their afflicted
spirits, this extraordinary account of his sove-
reign disposal of those for whom so many
ſervent prayers were made continually.”
The results of modern science enable us to
explain the mysterious appearance. It is
probable that some Dutch vessel, proceeding
slowly, quietly and unconsciously on her voy-
age from Amsterdam to the New Nether-
lands, happened at the time to be passing
through the Sound. At the moment the ap-
parition was seen in the sky, she was so near
that her reflected image was painted or de-
lineated to the eyes of the observers, on the
clouds, by laws of optics, now generally well
248
known, before her actual outlines could be
discerned by them on the horizon. As the
sun sunk behind the western hills, and his
rays were gradually withdrawn, the visionary
ship slowly disappeared, and the approach of
might, while it dispelled the vapors from the
atmosphere, effectually concealed the vessel
as she continued her course along the Sound.
The optical illusions that present them-
selves on the sea-shore, by which distant ob-
jects are raised to view, the opposite capes
and islands made to loom up, lifted above the
line of the apparent circumference of the
earth, and thrown into every variety of shape
which the imagination can conceive, are
among the most beautiful phenomena of ma-
ture, and they impress the mind with the
idea of enchantment and mystery, more per-
haps, than any others; but they have received
a complete solution from modern discovery.
It should be observed that the optical prin-
ciples that explain these phenomena have
recently afforded a foundation for the science
or rather art of Nauscopy; and there are per-
Sons in some places in the Isle of France, as
249
I have been told, whose calling and profession
it is to ascertain and predict the approach of
vessels, by their reflection in the atmosphere
and on the clouds, long before they are visible
to the eye or through the glass.
The following opinion prevailed at the
time of our narrative. The discoveries in
Electricity, itself a recent science, have ren-
dered it impossible for us to contemplate it
without ridicule. But it was the sober opin-
ion of the age; ‘A great man has noted it,”
says a learned writer, “that thunders break
oftener on churches than any other houses,
because demons have a peculiar spite at
houses that are set apart for the peculiar Sell-
vice of God.” g
Everything that was strange or remarka-
ble, everything at all out of the usual course,
everything that was not clear and plain was
attributed to supernatural interposition. In-
deed our fathers lived as they thought, con-
tinually in the midst of miracles, and felt
themselves surrounded at all times, in all
scenes, with innumerable invisible beings.
250
The beautiful verse of Milton describes their
faith—
• Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen; both when we wake and when we sleep.”
What was to him, however, a momentary
vision of the imagination was to them like a
perpetual perception of the senses; it was a
practical belief, an every-day common senti-
ment, an all-pervading feeling. But these
supernatural beings very frequently became
visible to the mortal eyes of our superstitious
ancestors. The instances indeed were not
rare, of individuals having seen the devil
himself in human shape.
The following passage is extracted from a
letter written to Increase Mather by John
Higginson. -
‘The godly Mr Sharp who was ruling
elder of the church of Salem, almost thirty
years after, related it of himself, that being
bred up to learning, till he was eighteen
years old, and then taken off and put to be
an apprentice to a draper in London, he
yet, notwithstanding, continued a strong in-
clination and eager affection to books, with a
25]
curiosity of hearkening after, and reading of
the strangest and oddest books he could get;
spending much of his time that way to the
neglect of his business; at one time, there
came a man into the shop and brought a
book with him, and said to him, ‘Here is a
book for you, keep this till I call for it again,’
and so went away. Mr Sharp, after his
wonted bookish manner, was eagerly affect-
ed to look into that book and read it, which
he did; but as he read in it, he was seized
on by a strange kind of horror both of body
and mind, the hair of his head standing up,
and finding these effects several times, he ac-
quainted his master with it, who observing
the same effects, they concluded it was a
conjuringbook, and resolved to burn it, which
they did. He that brought it in the shape
of a man, never coming to call for it, they
concluded it was the devil. He taking this
as a solemn warning from God, to take heed
what books he read, was much taken off
from his former bookishness, confining him-
self to reading the Bible, and other known
252
good books of Divinity, which were profita-
ble to his soul.” -
Kircher relates the following anecdote
with a full belief of its truth. He had a
friend who was zealously and perseveringly
devoted to the study of Alchemy. At one
time, while he was intent upon his operations,
agentleman entered his laboratory, and kind-
ly offered to assist him. In a few moments a
large mass of the purest gold was brought
forth from the crucible. The gentleman
then took his hat and went out ; before leav-
ing the apartment, however, he wrote a re-
cipe for making the precious article. The
grateful and admiring mortal continued his
operations, according to the directions of his
visitor; but the charm was lost, he could not
succeed, and was finally completely ruined
by his costly and fruitless experiments.
Both he and his friend Kircher were fully
persuaded that the mysterious stranger visitor
was the devil.
Baxter has recorded a curious interview
between Satan and Mr White of Dorches-
ter, Assessor to the Westminster Assembly.
253
‘The devil, in a light night stood by his
bedside. The Assessor looked awhile whe-
ther he would say or do anything, and then
said, “If thou hast nothing to do, I have;”
and so turned himself to sleep.” Dr Hib-
bert is of opinion that the Rev. Mr White
treated his Satanic Majesty, on this occa-
sion, with ‘a cool contempt, to which he had
not often been accustomed.’
At the same time that the proceedings
were taking place in Salem with reference to
the witches, that is, in the summer of 1692,
about a dozen evil spirits in the guise of
Frenchmen and Indians were seen hovering
around the houses and skulking over the fields
and through the woods in the town of Glou-
cester. Their movements were observed by
many of the inhabitants, and the whole pop-
ulation of the Cape was kept in a state of
agitation and alarm in consequence of their
mysterious appearance for three weeks. The
inhabitants retired to the garrison, and put
themselves in a state of defence against
the diabolical besiegers. Sixty men were
despatched from Ipswich in military array to
21
254
reinforce the garrison, and several valiantsal-
lies were made from its walls; much powder
was expended, but no corporeal or incorporeal
blood was shed. An account of these events
was drawn up by the Rev. John Emerson,
then the minister of the first parish in Glou-
cester, from which the facts now mentioned
have been selected. It is very minute and
particular. The appearance and dress of
the supernatural enemies is described; they
wore white waistcoats, blue shirts and white
breeches, and had bushy heads of black
hair. Mr Emerson concludes his account
by expressing the hope, that “all rational per-
sons will be satisfied that Gloucester was
not alarmed last summer for above a ſortnight
together by real French and Indians, but
that the devil and his agents were the cause
of all the molestation, which at this time be-
fel the town.” It was regarded by the most
considerate persons at the time, as an artful
contrivance of the devil, to create a diver-
sion of the attention of the pious colonists
from his operations through the witches in
Salem, and by dividing and distracting their
255
forces, to obtain an advantage over them in
the war he was waging against their churches
and their religion.
Indeed, there is nothing more curious or
instructive in the history of that period, than
the light which it sheds upon the influence of
the belief of the personal existence and ope-
rations of the devil, when that belief is car-
ried out fully into its practical effects. The
christian doctrine had relapsed into a system
almost identical with manicheism. Wierus
thus describes Satan, as he was regarded in
the prevalent theology. “He possesses great
courage, incredible cunning, superhuman
wisdom, the most acute penetration, con-
summate prudence, an incomparable skill in
veiling the most pernicious artifices under a
specious disguise, and a malicious and infi-
nite hatred towards the human race, impla-
cable and incurable.” — Milton merely re-
sponded to the popular sentiment in making
Satan a character of lofty dignity, and in
placing him on an elevation not “less than
Archangel ruined.’ Hally well, in his work
on witchcraft, declares that, ‘ that mighty
256
angel of darkness is not foolishly nor idly to
be scoffed at, or blasphemed. The devil,'
says he, “may properly be looked upon as a
dignity, though his glory be pale and wan,
and those once bright and orient colors faded
and darkened in his robes, and the scrip-
tures represent him as a prince, though it be
of devils.” Although our fathers cannot be
charged with having regarded the devil in
this respectſul and deferential light, it must
be acknowledged, that they gave him a con-
spicuous and distinguished, we might almost
say, a dignified agency in the affairs of life,
and the government of the world; they were
prone to confess, if not to revere his pre-
sence, in all scenes, and at all times. He
occupied a wide space, not merely in their
theology and philosophy, but in their daily
and familiar thoughts.”
Cotton Mather, in one of his sermons,
* It is much to be regretted that Farmer, after hav-
ing written with such admirable success upon the temp-
tation, the demoniacs, miracles, and the worship of hu-
man spirits, did not live to accomplish his original
design, by giving to the world a complete discussion
and elucidation of the scripture doctrine of the devil.
257
carries home this peculiar belieſ to the con-
Sciences of his hearers, in a manner that
could not have failed to quicken and startle
the most dull and drowsy among them.
* No place,’ says he, ‘that I know of has got
such a spell upon it, as will always keep the
devil out. The meetinghouse, wherein we
assemble for the worship of God, is filled
with many holy people, and many holy con-
cerns continually; but if our eyes were so
refined, as the servant of the prophet had his
of old, I suppose we should now see a throng
of devils in this very place. The apostle
has intimated that angels come in among us;
there are angels it seems, that hark how I
preach, and how you hear, at this hour.
And our own sad experience is enough to
intimate that the devils are likewise rendez-
vousing here. It is reported in Job, i. 5,
“When the sons of God came to present
themselves before the Lord, Satan came also
among them.” When we are in our church
assemblies, O, how many devils do you
imagine, crowd in among us! There is a
devil that rocks one to sleep. There is a
21%
258
devil that makes another to be thinking of,
he scarcely knows what, himself. And there
is a devil that makes another to be pleasing
himself with wanton and wicked specula-
tions. It is also possible, that we have our
closets, or our studies gloriously perfumed
with devotions every day; but, alas ! can
we shut the devil out of them 2 No; let
us go where we will, we shall still find a
devil migh unto us. Only when we come to
Heaven, we shall be out of his reach for-
ever.” t
It is very remarkable that such a train of
thought as this, did not suggest to the mind
of Dr Mather, the true doctrine of the Bible
respecting the devil. One would have sup-
posed, that in carrying out the mode of
speaking of him as a person to this extent, it
would have occurred to him that it might be
that the scriptural expressions of a similar
kind, were also mere personifications of
moral and abstract ideas. In describing the
imattention, irreverence, and unholy reflec-
tions of his hearers, as the operations of the
devil, it is wonderful that his eyes were
259
not opened to discern the import of our Sa-
viour's interpretation of the parable of the
tares, in which he declares that he under-
stands by the devil, whatever obstructs the
growth of virtue and piety in the soul, the
causes that efface good impressions, and give
a wrong inclination to the thoughts and af-
fections, such as ‘the cares of this world,’
or ‘the deceitfulness of riches.’ By these
are the tares planted, and by these is their
growth promoted. ‘The enemy that sowed
them is the devil.” &, .
Satan was regarded as the foe and oppo-
ser of all improvement in knowledge and
civilization. The same writer thus quaintly
expresses this opinion. He has hindered
mankind for many ages, from hitting those
useful inventions, which yet were so obvious
and facile, that it is everybody’s wonder
that they were not sooner hit upon. The
bemisted world must jog on for thousands of
years without the knowledge of the load-
stone, till a Neapolitan stumbled upon it
about three hundred years ago. Nor must
the world be blessed with such a matchless
260
engine of learning and virtue as that of print-
ing, till about the middle of the fifteenth cen-
tury. Nor could one old man all over the
face of the whole earth, have the benefit of
such a little though most needful thing as a
pair of spectacles, till a Dutchman, a little
while ago, accommodated us. Indeed, as the
devil does begrutch us all manner of good, so
he does annoy us with all manner of woe.’
Without a knowledge of this sentiment,
the witchcraft delusion of our fathers could
not have been wholly understood. They
were under an impression that the devil hav-
ing failed to prevent the progress of knowl-
edge in Europe had abandoned his efforts to
obstruct it effectually there, had withdrawn
into the American wilderness, intending here
to make a final stand, and had resolved to
retain an undiminished empire over the
whole continent, and his pagan allies, the na-
tive inhabitants. Our fathers accounted for
the extraordinary descent and incursions of
the evil one among them, at the time to
which we have referred, on the supposition
that it was a desperate effort to prevent
261
them from bringing civilization and christian-
ity within his favorite retreat, and their souls
were fired with the glorious thought, that by
carrying on the war with Vigór against him
and his confederates, the yſtches, they would
become chosen and honored instruments
in the hand of God for breaking down and
abolishing the last strong hold on the earth
of the kingdom of darkness.
Great ignorance prevailed in the world
at that time in some of the departments of
intelleptual and moral philosophy. While
the imagination was called into a more ex-
tensive and emergetic action, than at any
succeeding or previous period, its properties
and laws were but little understood ; the ex-
tent of the connexion between the will and
the muscular system ; the reciprocal influ-
ence of the nerves, and the fancy; and the
strong and universally pervading sympathy
between our physical and moral constitutions,
were almost wholly unknown. These im-
portant subjects are but imperfectly under-
stood, indeed, at the present day.
There is nothing more mysterious, than

the self-deluding power of the mind; and
there never were scenes in which it was
more clearly displayed than the witchcraft
prosecutions. Honest men testified with
perfect confidence and sincerity to the most
absurd impossibilities, while those who
thought themselves victims of diabolical influ-
ence would actually exhibit in their corpo-
real frames all the appropriate symptoms of
the sufferings their imaginations had brought
upon them. But dreams appear to have
been the most fruitful source of delusion.
A large part of the evidence is susceptible of
explanation by the supposition that the wit-
messes had confounded the visions of their
sleeping, with the actual experiences of their
waking hours. - -
In Mohra, in Sweden, in 1669, the idea
obtained currency that children were carried
off invisibly in the night by witches, to a
place in which the devil held his court, and
brought back again before the morning. It is
probable that the children dreamed that they
had made the mysterious aerial journey, and
some old women also dreamed that they had
conveyed them. The imaginations of all
263
the people became inflamed and bewildered,
until they ſancied and believed that they
saw the whole operation. The particu-
lars of the journeys, of the diabolical resi-
dence, and of all the proceedings there
were related by a large number of confess-
ing children and women. The minister of
the place declared that one night the witches
were congregated in infernal assembly upon
the crown of his head, and that he had had
a violent pain on the spot ever since. And
one of them confessed that having been sent
by the devil to torment the reverend gentle-
man, she had tried to drive a mail into his
skull, but that it was so hard and thick that she
could not penetrate it! Thus was his evi-
dence confirmed and his head-ache explained'
Commissioners were sent by the king to
investigate the case, and the results of their
session were, that eightyfive persons, fifteen
of whom were children, were burnt at the
stake; twenty were whipped with lashes upon
their hands at the church door for three Sab-
baths, and thirtysix were compelled to run the
gauntlet, and be whipped once a week for a
year.
264
About three hundred children testified
that they had been carried to Blockula,
which was the name of the imaginary place
of the diabolical rendezvous,
At the trial of Susanna Martin in Salem,
it was proved that one John Kembel had
agreed to purchase a puppy from the prison-
er, but had aſterwards fallen back from his
bargain, and procured a puppy from Some
other person, and that Martin was heard to say,
‘If I live, I will give him puppies enough.”
These circumstances seem to me to ren-
derit probable that the following piece of ev-
idence given by Kembel, and to which the
court attached great weight, was the re-
sult of a nightmare occasioned by his appre-
hension and dread of the fulfilment of the
old woman’s threat.
“Within a few days after this, Kembel
coming out of the woods, there arose a little
black cloud in the northwest, and Kembel im-
mediately felt a force upon him, which made
him not able to avoid running upon the
stumps of trees that were before him, al-
though he had a broad plain cartway before
265
him; but though he had his axe on his shoul-
der to endanger him in his falls, he could hot
forbear going out of his way to tumble over
them. When he came below the meeting-
house, there appeared to him a little thing like
a puppy of a darkish color, and it shot back-
wards and forwards between his legs. He
had the courage to use all possible endeavors
to cut it with his axe, but he could not hit it;
the puppy gave a jump from him, and went,
as to him it seemed, into the ground. Go-
ing a little further, there appeared unto him
a black puppy, somewhat bigger than the
first, but as black as a coal. Its motions
were quicker than those of his axe. It flew
at his body and at his throat, so over his
shoulders one way, and then over his shoul-
ders another way. His heart now began to
fail him, and he thought the dog would have
tore his throat out; but he recovered him-
self and called upon God in his distress, and
naming the name of Jesus Christ, it vanish-
ed away at once.” &
There is, indeed, at the present day, great
need of a thorough and philosophical discus-
22
266
sion of the principles of evidence. The
liability all men are under to confound the
fictions of their imaginations with the realities
of actual observation is not understood with
sufficient clearness by the community, and
So long as it is not understood and regarded,
serious mistakes and inconveniences will be
apt to occur in seasons of general excite-
ment. We are still disposed to attribute
more importance than we ought to strong
convictions, without stopping to inquire
whether they may not be in reality delusions,
of the understanding. The cause of truth
demands a more thorough examination of
this whole subject. The visions that ap-
peared before the mind of the celebrated
Col. Gardiner, are still regarded by the gen-
erality of pious people as evidence of mirac-
ulous interposition; while just so far as they
are evidence to that point, so far is the au-
thority of Christianity overthrown, for it is a
fact that Lord Herbert of Cherbury believ-
ed with equal sincerity and confidence, that
he had been vouchsaſed a similar vision sanc-
tioning his labors, when about to publish what
267
has been pronounced one of the most pow-
erful attacks ever made upon our religion.
It is dangerous to advance arguments in fa-
vor of any cause which may be founded up-
on nothing better than the reveries of an
ardent imagination
The last circumstance I shall consider as
necessary to the full understanding of the
position of our ancestors, with reference to
the Superstitious delusions that have now oc-
cupied our attention, is the state of biblical
criticism at that period. This department
of knowledge was then in its infancy.
The authority of scripture as it appeared
on the face of the standard version, seemed
to require them to pursue the course they
adopted; and those enlarged and just princi-
ples of interpretation, which we are taught by
the learned of all denominations at the pres-
ent day to apply to the Sacred writings, had
not then been brought into the view of the
people or received by the clergy.
It was gravely argued, for instance, that
there was nothing improbable in the idea
that witches had the power, in virtue of their
268
eompact with the devil, of riding aloft through
the air, because it is recorded in the history
of our Lord’s temptation, that Satan trans-
ported him in a similar manner to the pinna-
cle of the temple, and to the summit of an
exceedingly high mountain. And Cotton
Mather declares that, to his apprehension, the
disclosures of the wonderful operations of
the devil upon and through his subjects, that
were made in the course of the witchcraft
prosecutions, had shed a marvellous light up-
on the scriptures | What a perversion of the
sacred writings, to employ them for the pur-
pose of sanctioning the extravagant and de-
lirious reveries of the human imagination |
What a miserable delusion, to suppose that
the word of God could receive illumination
from the most absurd and horrible supersti-
tions, that ever brooded in darkness over the
mind of man
I would not, my friends, have led you
through the wide field we have now tra-
versed together, had I not believed that we
might gather much useful instruction from
the scenes and objects that have been pre-
269
sented to our contemplation. Let us pause
before we take leave of the subject, and col-
lect and apply that instruction. -
In the terrible consequences that resulted
from the mischievous, and perhaps, at the
outset, merely sportive, proceedings of the
children in Mr Parris’ family, we have a
striking illustration of the principle, that no
one can foretell, with respect either to him-
self or others, the extent of the suffering and
injury that may be occasioned by the least
departure from truth and honesty. In the
horrible succession of crimes through which
those young persons were led to pass, in
the depth of wickedness and depravity into
which they were thrown, we discern the
fate which they are in danger of bringing up-
on themselves who enter upon the career of
wickedness. -
I am sure that no person can compare the
view I have given of the condition of opin-
ion and knowledge, not much more than a
century ago, with their present condition,
without being struck with a grateful and ad-
miring conviction of the wonderful progress
22%
270
that has been made. Who can refrain from
exclaiming, if the modern impulses toward
improvement have pushed forward society
in Science, philosophy and theology, to this
great extent during one century, what limits
can be assigned to its upward progress
What magnificent prospects open upon the
world ! What a glorious assurance is given
to the benevolent and devout mind, that the
predictions of scripture are approaching their
fulfilment, and that the time will surely and
rapidly hasten on, when baleful superstition
and degrading error shall be banished from
the soul of man, and the blessings of knowl-
edge, truth, and pure religion be diffused
through all the families of the earth!
No one can have an adequate knowl-
edge of the human mind, who has not con-
templated its developments in Scenes like
those related in these lectures. It may be
said of the frame of our spiritual, even with
more emphasis than of our corporeal nature,
that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
It is the opinion of observers of the animal
world, that man, when his features and limbs
27]
are all in due proportion, health gliding
through his veins, strength and symmetry
clothing his whole form, intelligence beam-
ing from his countenance, and immortality
stamped on his brow, is indeed the noblest
work of God. We all know, that, in the de-
gradation and corruption to which he can de-
scend, he is the most odious and loathsome ob-
jectin the creation. So it is with our spiritual
nature. The human mind when all its facul-
ties are fully developed, and in proper pro-
portions, reason seated on its throne, imag-
ination shedding abroad its light, memory
embracing the past, hope Smiling upon the
future, faith leaning on heaven, and the aſ-
fections diffusing through all their gentle
warmth, is worthy of its source, deserves its
original title of ‘image of God,” and is great-
er and better than the whole material uni-
verse. It is nobler than all the works of
God, for it is an emanation, a part of God
himself, ‘a ray from the fountain of light.”
But where, I ask, can you find a more
deplorable and miserable object than the
mind in ruins, tossed by its own rebellious
272
principles, and distorted by the monstrously
unequal development of its faculties? You
will look in vain upon the earthquake, the
volcano, or the hurricane, for those elements
of the awful and terrible, that are manifested
in a community of men whose passions have
trampled upon their principles, whose imag-
inations have overthrown the government of
reason, and who are swept along by the
torrent until all order and security are
swallowed up and lost. Such a spectacle
we have now been witnessing. We have seen
the whole population of this place and
vicinity yielding to the sway of their credu-
lous fancies, allowing their passions to be
worked up to a tremendous pitch of excite-
ment, and rushing into excesses of folly and
violence, that have left a dark stain upon
their memory, and will awaken a sense of
shame, pity, and amazement in the minds
of their latest posterity. The principal
causes that led to their delusion, and to the
proceedings connected with it, were, a
proneness to superstition, owing in a great
degree to an ignorance of natural science,
too great a dependence upon the imagination,
and the power of sympathy. -
273
From the first of these, we are happily
free. The discovery of the principles and
laws of the physical universe, has advanced
far enough already to dispel the illusions
and Superstitions that in previous ages occu-
pied all minds. The whole community is
now enabled to inspect and comprehend
the secret processes of nature. Here, in
our halls of science, in our associations for
the diffusion of knowledge, in our Lyceums,
philosophy welcomes the learned and the
unlearned, the old and the young, the rich
and the poor, to the sight of her mysteries;
and stands ready to unfold and reveal to
them the principles that regulate the move-
ments and determine the forces of the out-.
ward universe, from the systems that roll
above us to the most hidden elements of the
earth beneath our feet.
We shall not have occasion to regret that
we have contemplated the errors and suf-
ferings which ignorance of philosophy and
science brought upon our fathers, if we are
thus led to appreciate more gratefully, and
improve more faithfully our own opportu-
274
mities to get knowledge and wisdom. As
we advance into the interior of nature’s
works, and are led in Succession from one
revelation of beauty and grandeur to another,
while the fearful images that darkened and
distressed the faith of our fathers are thus
dissolving and vanishing before us, and the
presence and providence of the infinitely
Good are found to fill all scenes and cause
all effects, may our hearts be led to raise to
Him a loftier adoration and a holier homage
If, while we enjoy a fuller revelation of his
magnificent operations and designs than our
fathers did, the sentiment of piety which
glowed in their hearts, like a coal from the
altar of God, has been permitted to grow
dim in ours, no reproach their errors and
faults can possibly authorize will equal that
which will justly fall upon us.
Another cause of their delusion was too
great a dependence upon the imagination.
We shall find no lesson more clearly taught
by history, by experience, or by observation
than this, that man is never safe while
either his fancy or his feeling is the guiding
275
principle of his nature. There is a strong
and constant attraction between his imagina-
tion and his passions, and if either is permit-
ted to exercise unlimited sway, the other
will most certainly be drawn into co-
operation with it, and when they are
allowed to act without restraint upon each
other and with each other, they lead to the
derangement and convulsion of his whole
system. They constitute the combustible
elements of our being; one serves as the
spark to explode the other. Reason, en-
lightened by revelation and guided by con-
Science, is the great conservative principle;
while that exercises the sovereign power
over the fancy and the passions, we are
safe ; if it is dethroned, no limit can be
assigned to the ruin that may follow. In
the scenes we have now been called to
witness, we have perceived to what lengths
of folly, cruelty, and crime even good men
have been carried, who relinquished the
aid, rejected the counsels, and abandoned
the guidance of their reason.
The last cause that was mentioned of the
276
conduct of our fathers was the power of
sympathy. Every wise man and good
citizen ought to be aware of the existence
and operation of this power. There seems,
indeed, to be a constitutional, original sym-
pathy in our nature. When men act in
a crowd, their heart-strings are prone to
vibrate in unison. Whatever chord of
passion is struck in one breast, the same
will ring forth its wild note through the
whole mass. This principle shows itself
particularly in seasons of excitement, and
its power rises in proportion to the ardor
and zeal of those upon whom it acts. It
is for every man who desires to be pre-
served from the excesses of popular feeling,
and to prevent the community from plunging
into such a scene as that exhibited here in
1692, to keep his own judgment and emo-
tions as free as possible from a power which
thus seizes all that it can reach, draws them
into its current, and sweeps them round
and round like the Maelstroom, until they
are overwhelmed and buried in its devouring
VOrtex.
277
There is no duty more plain, there is
none more important, than a free and fear-
less expression of opinion on all subjects.
No wise or philosophic person would think
of complaining of the diversities of senti-
ment it is calculated to develope. Such di-
versities are the vital principle of free com-
munities, and where a proper spirit of civil-
ization and religion prevails they create no
Inconvenience. It is probable that there
were many persons here in 1692, who doubt-
ed the propriety of the proceedings at their
commencement, but who were afterwards
prevailed upon to fall into the current and
swell the tide. Who can tell but that if they
had all discharged their duty to their coun-
try, and their consciences, by freely and bold-
ly uttering their disapprobation and declaring
their dissent, who can tell but that the whole
tragedy might have been prevented 2 and if
it might, the blood of the innocent may be
said, in one sense, to be upon their heads.
The leading features and most striking as-
pects of the witchcraft delusion have been
repeated in places, where witches and the in-
23
278
terference of supernatural beings are never
thought of; whenever a community gives
way to its passions and spurns the admoni-
tions and casts off the restraints of reason,
there is a delusion that can hardly be de-
scribed in any other phrase. We cannot
glance our eye over the face of our country,
without beholding such scenes; and so long
as they are exhibited, so long as we permit
ourselves to invest objects of little or no
real importance with such an inordinate im-
aginary interest, that we are ready to go to
every extremity rather than relinquish them;
So long as we yield to the impulse of pas-
Sion, and plunge into excitement, and take
counsel of our feelings rather than our judg-
ment, we are following in the footsteps of
our fanatical ancestors. It would be wiser
to direct our ridicule and reproaches to the
delusions of our own times, rather than to
those of a previous age, and it becomes us to
treat with charity and mercy the failings of
our predecessors, at least until we have
ceased to imitate and repeat them.
If the citizens of this place are instructed
279
by the example of their fathers to imitate
their virtues, while they avoid their errors,
and if by meditating upon the tremendous
tragedy that has now been related, they are
led to avoid the evils that result from the un-
restrained dominion of the passions and im-
agination, to an independent exercise of their
reason and judgment on all occasions and to a
careful self-control; if by contemplating the
Superstitions of their fathers, they are ren-
dered more grateful in the possession of their
own privileges for the acquisition of knowl-
edge and science, and more zealous in their
improvement, the lesson which providence
caused to be inscribed on that page of their
history which has now been read to them,
will not have been given in vain.
I know not in what better terms the dis-
cussion of this subject can be brought to a
termination, than in those which express the
conclusions, to which the mind of one of our
own most distinguished citizens was brought,
after having examined the whole transaction
with the eye of a lawyer and the spirit of a
judge. The following extract is from the
280
Centennial Discourse pronounced in Salem
on the 18th of September, 1828, by the
Hon. Joseph Story, associate Justice of th
Supreme Court of the United States.
‘We may lament them,” says he, “the
errors of the times, which led to these prose-
cutions. But surely our ancestors had no
special reasons for shame in a belief, which J
had the universal sanction of their own and
all former ages, which counted in its train,
philosophers as well as enthusiasts, which
was graced by the learning of prelates, as
well as by the countenance of kings, which
the law supported by its mandates, and the
purest judges felt no compunctions in en-
forcing. Let Witch-Hill remain forever
memorable by this sad catastrophe, not to
perpetuate our dishonor, but as an affecting,
enduring proof of human infirmity, a proof,
that perfect justice belongs to one judgment
seat only — that which is linked to the
throne of God.”
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Do NOT REMOVE
OR
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