{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_14461/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_14461","id":"gutenberg_14461","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14461","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Other","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Demonology","Witchcraft"],"text":"LETTERS ON DEMONOLOGY\n\nAND WITCHCRAFT\n\nBY\n\nSIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.\n\nWith An Introduction By Henry Morley Ll.d., Professor Of English\nLiterature At University College, London\n\nLondon George Routledge And Sons\n\nBroadway, Ludgate Hill\n\nNew York: 9 Lafayette Place\n\n1884\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nSir Walter Scott's \"Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft\" were his\ncontribution to a series of books, published by John Murray, which\nappeared between the years 1829 and 1847, and formed a collection of\neighty volumes known as \"Murray's Family Library.\" The series was\nplanned to secure a wide diffusion of good literature in cheap\nfive-shilling volumes, and Scott's \"Letters,\" written and published in\n1830, formed one of the earlier books in the collection.\n\nThe Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge had been founded in\nthe autumn of 1826, and Charles Knight, who had then conceived a plan of\na National Library, was entrusted, in July, 1827, with the\nsuperintendence of its publications. Its first treatises appeared in\nsixpenny numbers, once a fortnight. Its \"British Almanac\" and \"Companion\nto the Almanac\" first appeared at the beginning of 1829. Charles Knight\nstarted also in that year his own \"Library of Entertaining Knowledge.\"\nJohn Murray's \"Family Library\" was then begun, and in the spring of\n1832--the year of the Reform Bill--the advance of civilization by the\ndiffusion of good literature, through cheap journals as well as cheap\nbooks, was sought by the establishment of \"Chambers's Edinburgh Journal\"\nin the North, and in London of \"The Penny Magazine.\"\n\nIn the autumn of that year, 1832, on the 21st of September, Sir Walter\nScott died. The first warning of death had come to him in February,\n1830, with a stroke of apoplexy. He had been visited by an old friend\nwho brought him memoirs of her father, which he had promised to revise\nfor the press. He seemed for half an hour to be bending over the papers\nat his desk, and reading them; then he rose, staggered into the\ndrawing-room, and fell, remaining speechless until he had been bled.\nDieted for weeks on pulse and water, he so far recovered that to friends\noutside his family but little change in him was visible. In that\ncondition, in the month after his seizure, he was writing these Letters,\nand also a fourth series of the \"Tales of a Grandfather.\" The slight\nsoftening of the brain found after death had then begun. But the old\ndelight in anecdote and skill in story-telling that, at the beginning of\nhis career, had caused a critic of his \"Border Minstrelsy\" to say that\nit contained the germs of a hundred romances, yet survived. It gave to\nScott's \"Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft\" what is for us now a\npathetic charm. Here and there some slight confusion of thought or style\nrepresents the flickering of a light that flashes yet with its old\nbrilliancy. There is not yet the manifest suggestion of the loss of\npower that we find presently afterwards in \"Count Robert of Paris\" and\n\"Castle Dangerous,\" published in 1831 as the Fourth Series of \"Tales of\nMy Landlord,\" with which he closed his life's work at the age of sixty.\n\nMilton has said that he who would not be frustrate of his hope to write\nwell in laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem. Scott's life\nwas a true poem, of which the music entered into all he wrote. If in his\nearlier days the consciousness of an unlimited productive power tempted\nhim to make haste to be rich, that he might work out, as founder of a\nfamily, an ideal of life touched by his own genius of romance, there was\nnot in his desire for gain one touch of sordid greed, and his ideal of\nlife only brought him closer home to all its duties. Sir Walter Scott's\ngood sense, as Lord Cockburn said, was a more wonderful gift than his\ngenius. When the mistake of a trade connection with James Ballantyne\nbrought ruin to him in 1826, he repudiated bankruptcy, took on himself\nthe burden of a debt of \u00a3130,000, and sacrificed his life to the\nsuccessful endeavour to pay off all. What was left unpaid at his death\nwas cleared afterwards by the success of his annotated edition of his\nnovels. No tale of physical strife in the battlefield could be as heroic\nas the story of the close of Scott's life, with five years of a\ndeath-struggle against adversity, animated by the truest sense of\nhonour. When the ruin was impending he wrote in his diary, \"If things go\nbadly in London, the magic wand of the Unknown will be shivered in his\ngrasp. The feast of fancy will be over with the feeling of independence.\nHe shall no longer have the delight of waking in the morning with bright\nideas in his mind, hasten to commit them to paper, and count them\nmonthly, as the means of planting such scaurs and purchasing such\nwastes; replacing dreams of fiction by other prospective visions of\nwalks by\n\n'Fountain-heads, and pathless groves;\n Places which pale passion loves.'\n\nThis cannot be; but I may work substantial husbandry--_i.e._ write\nhistory, and such concerns.\" It was under pressure of calamity like this\nthat Sir Walter Scott was compelled to make himself known as the author\nof \"Waverley.\" Closely upon this followed the death of his wife, his\nthirty years' companion. \"I have been to her room,\" he wrote in May,\n1826; \"there was no voice in it--no stirring; the pressure of the coffin\nwas visible on the bed, but it had been removed elsewhere; all was neat\nas she loved it, but all was calm--calm as death. I remembered the last\nsight of her: she raised herself in bed, and tried to turn her eyes\nafter me, and said with a sort of smile, 'You have all such melancholy\nfaces.' These were the last words I ever heard her utter, and I hurried\naway, for she did not seem quite conscious of what she said; when I\nreturned, immediately departing, she was in a deep sleep. It is deeper\nnow. This was but seven days since. They are arranging the chamber of\ndeath--that which was long the apartment of connubial happiness, and of\nwhose arrangement (better than in richer houses) she was so proud. They\nare treading fast and thick. For weeks you could have heard a footfall.\nOh, my God!\"\n\nA few years yet of his own battle, while the shadows of night and death\nwere gathering about him, and they were re-united. In these \"Letters\nupon Demonology and Witchcraft,\" addressed to his son-in-law, written\nunder the first grasp of death, the old kindliness and good sense,\njoined to the old charm in story-telling, stand firm yet against every\nassault; and even in the decay that followed, when the powers were\nbroken of the mind that had breathed, and is still breathing, its own\nhealth into the minds of tens of thousands of his countrymen, nothing\ncould break the fine spirit of love and honour that was in him. When the\nend was very near, and the son-in-law to whom these Letters were\naddressed found him one morning entirely himself, though in the last\nextreme of feebleness: his eye was clear and calm--every trace of the\nwild fire of delirium was extinguished: \"Lockhart,\" he said, \"I may have\nbut a minute to speak to you. My dear, be a good man--be virtuous, be\nreligious--be a good man. Nothing else will give you any comfort when\nyou come to lie here.\"\n\nAnother volume of this Library may give occasion to recall Scott in the\nnoontide of his strength, companion of\n\n\"The blameless Muse who trains her sons\n For hope and calm enjoyment.\"\n\nHere we remember only how from among dark clouds the last light of his\ngenius shone on the path of those who were endeavouring to make the\ndaily bread of intellectual life--good books--common to all.\n\n                                              H.M.\n_February, 1884._\n\n\nLETTERS\n\nON\n\nDEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT\n\nTo J.G. LOCKHART, ESQ.\n\n\n\n\nLETTER I.\n\n\n    Origin of the general Opinions respecting Demonology among\n    Mankind--The Belief in the Immortality of the Soul is the main\n    inducement to credit its occasional re-appearance--The Philosophical\n    Objections to the Apparition of an Abstract Spirit little understood\n    by the Vulgar and Ignorant--The situations of excited Passion\n    incident to Humanity, which teach Men to wish or apprehend\n    Supernatural Apparitions--They are often presented by the Sleeping\n    Sense--Story of Somnambulism--The Influence of Credulity contagious,\n    so that Individuals will trust the Evidence of others in despite of\n    their own Senses--Examples from the \"Historia Verdadera\" of Bernal\n    Dias del Castillo, and from the Works of Patrick Walker--The\n    apparent Evidence of Intercourse with the Supernatural World is\n    sometimes owing to a depraved State of the bodily Organs--Difference\n    between this Disorder and Insanity, in which the Organs retain their\n    tone, though that of the Mind is lost--Rebellion of the Senses of a\n    Lunatic against the current of his Reveries--Narratives of a\n    contrary Nature, in which the Evidence of the Eyes overbore the\n    Conviction of the Understanding--Example of a London Man of\n    Pleasure--Of Nicolai, the German Bookseller and Philosopher--Of a\n    Patient of Dr. Gregory--Of an Eminent Scottish Lawyer, deceased--Of\n    this same fallacious Disorder are other instances, which have but\n    sudden and momentary endurance--Apparition of Maupertuis--Of a late\n    illustrious modern Poet--The Cases quoted chiefly relating to false\n    Impressions on the Visual Nerve, those upon the Ear next\n    considered--Delusions of the Touch chiefly experienced in\n    Sleep--Delusions of the Taste--And of the Smelling--Sum of the\n    Argument.\n\n\nYou have asked of me, my dear friend, that I should assist the \"Family\nLibrary\" with the history of a dark chapter in human nature, which the\nincreasing civilization of all well-instructed countries has now almost\nblotted out, though the subject attracted no ordinary degree of\nconsideration in the older times of their history.\n\nAmong much reading of my earlier days, it is no doubt true that I\ntravelled a good deal in the twilight regions of superstitious\ndisquisitions. Many hours have I lost--\"I would their debt were\nless!\"--in examining old as well as more recent narratives of this\ncharacter, and even in looking into some of the criminal trials so\nfrequent in early days, upon a subject which our fathers considered as a\nmatter of the last importance. And, of late years, the very curious\nextracts published by Mr. Pitcairn, from the Criminal Records of\nScotland, are, besides their historical value, of a nature so much\ncalculated to illustrate the credulity of our ancestors on such\nsubjects, that, by perusing them, I have been induced more recently to\nrecall what I had read and thought upon the subject at a former period.\n\nAs, however, my information is only miscellaneous, and I make no\npretensions, either to combat the systems of those by whom I am\nanticipated in consideration of the subject, or to erect any new one of\nmy own, my purpose is, after a general account of Demonology and\nWitchcraft, to confine myself to narratives of remarkable cases, and to\nthe observations which naturally and easily arise out of them;--in the\nconfidence that such a plan is, at the present time of day, more likely\nto suit the pages of a popular miscellany, than an attempt to reduce the\ncontents of many hundred tomes, from the largest to the smallest size,\ninto an abridgement, which, however compressed, must remain greatly too\nlarge for the reader's powers of patience.\n\nA few general remarks on the nature of Demonology, and the original\ncause of the almost universal belief in communication betwixt mortals\nand beings of a power superior to themselves, and of a nature not to be\ncomprehended by human organs, are a necessary introduction to the\nsubject.\n\nThe general, or, it may be termed, the universal belief of the\ninhabitants of the earth, in the existence of spirits separated from the\nencumbrance and incapacities of the body, is grounded on the\nconsciousness of the divinity that speaks in our bosoms, and\ndemonstrates to all men, except the few who are hardened to the\ncelestial voice, that there is within us a portion of the divine\nsubstance, which is not subject to the law of death and dissolution, but\nwhich, when the body is no longer fit for its abode, shall seek its own\nplace, as a sentinel dismissed from his post. Unaided by revelation, it\ncannot be hoped that mere earthly reason should be able to form any\nrational or precise conjecture concerning the destination of the soul\nwhen parted from the body; but the conviction that such an\nindestructible essence exists, the belief expressed by the poet in a\ndifferent sense, _Non omnis moriar_ must infer the existence of many\nmillions of spirits who have not been annihilated, though they have\nbecome invisible to mortals who still see, hear, and perceive, only by\nmeans of the imperfect organs of humanity. Probability may lead some of\nthe most reflecting to anticipate a state of future rewards and\npunishments; as those experienced in the education of the deaf and dumb\nfind that their pupils, even while cut off from all instruction by\nordinary means, have been able to form, out of their own unassisted\nconjectures, some ideas of the existence of a Deity, and of the\ndistinction between the soul and body--a circumstance which proves how\nnaturally these truths arise in the human mind. The principle that they\ndo so arise, being taught or communicated, leads to further conclusions.\n\nThese spirits, in a state of separate existence, being admitted to\nexist, are not, it may be supposed, indifferent to the affairs of\nmortality, perhaps not incapable of influencing them. It is true that,\nin a more advanced state of society, the philosopher may challenge the\npossibility of a separate appearance of a disembodied spirit, unless in\nthe case of a direct miracle, to which, being a suspension of the laws\nof nature, directly wrought by the Maker of these laws, for some express\npurpose, no bound or restraint can possibly be assigned. But under this\nnecessary limitation and exception, philosophers might plausibly argue\nthat, when the soul is divorced from the body, it loses all those\nqualities which made it, when clothed with a mortal shape, obvious to\nthe organs of its fellow-men. The abstract idea of a spirit certainly\nimplies that it has neither substance, form, shape, voice, or anything\nwhich can render its presence visible or sensible to human faculties.\nBut these sceptic doubts of philosophers on the possibility of the\nappearance of such separated spirits, do not arise till a certain degree\nof information has dawned upon a country, and even then only reach a\nvery small proportion of reflecting and better-informed members of\nsociety. To the multitude, the indubitable fact, that so many millions\nof spirits exist around and even amongst us, seems sufficient to support\nthe belief that they are, in certain instances at least, by some means\nor other, able to communicate with the world of humanity. The more\nnumerous part of mankind cannot form in their mind the idea of the\nspirit of the deceased existing, without possessing or having the power\nto assume the appearance which their acquaintance bore during his life,\nand do not push their researches beyond this point.\n\nEnthusiastic feelings of an impressive and solemn nature occur both in\nprivate and public life, which seem to add ocular testimony to an\nintercourse betwixt earth and the world beyond it. For example, the son\nwho has been lately deprived of his father feels a sudden crisis\napproach, in which he is anxious to have recourse to his sagacious\nadvice--or a bereaved husband earnestly desires again to behold the form\nof which the grave has deprived him for ever--or, to use a darker yet\nvery common instance, the wretched man who has dipped his hand in his\nfellow-creature's blood, is haunted by the apprehension that the phantom\nof the slain stands by the bedside of his murderer. In all or any of\nthese cases, who shall doubt that imagination, favoured by\ncircumstances, has power to summon up to the organ of sight, spectres\nwhich only exist in the mind of those by whom their apparition seems to\nbe witnessed?\n\nIf we add, that such a vision may take place in the course of one of\nthose lively dreams in which the patient, except in respect to the\nsingle subject of one strong impression, is, or seems, sensible of the\nreal particulars of the scene around him, a state of slumber which often\noccurs; if he is so far conscious, for example, as to know that he is\nlying on his own bed, and surrounded by his own familiar furniture at\nthe time when the supposed apparition is manifested, it becomes almost\nin vain to argue with the visionary against the reality of his dream,\nsince the spectre, though itself purely fanciful, is inserted amidst so\nmany circumstances which he feels must be true beyond the reach of doubt\nor question. That which is undeniably certain becomes, in a manner, a\nwarrant for the reality of the appearance to which doubt would have been\notherwise attached. And if any event, such as the death of the person\ndreamt of, chances to take place, so as to correspond with the nature\nand the time of the apparition, the coincidence, though one which must\nbe frequent, since our dreams usually refer to the accomplishment of\nthat which haunts our minds when awake, and often presage the most\nprobable events, seems perfect, and the chain of circumstances touching\nthe evidence may not unreasonably be considered as complete. Such a\nconcatenation, we repeat, must frequently take place, when it is\nconsidered of what stuff dreams are made--how naturally they turn upon\nthose who occupy our mind while awake, and, when a soldier is exposed to\ndeath in battle, when a sailor is incurring the dangers of the sea, when\na beloved wife or relative is attacked by disease, how readily our\nsleeping imagination rushes to the very point of alarm, which when\nwaking it had shuddered to anticipate. The number of instances in which\nsuch lively dreams have been quoted, and both asserted and received as\nspiritual communications, is very great at all periods; in ignorant\ntimes, where the natural cause of dreaming is misapprehended and\nconfused with an idea of mysticism, it is much greater. Yet, perhaps,\nconsidering the many thousands of dreams which must, night after night,\npass through the imagination of individuals, the number of coincidences\nbetween the vision and real event are fewer and less remarkable than a\nfair calculation of chances would warrant us to expect. But in countries\nwhere such presaging dreams are subjects of attention, the number of\nthose which seemed to be coupled with the corresponding issue, is large\nenough to spread a very general belief of a positive communication\nbetwixt the living and the dead.\n\nSomnambulism and other nocturnal deceptions frequently lend their aid to\nthe formation of such _phantasmata_ as are formed in this middle state,\nbetwixt sleeping and waking. A most respectable person, whose active\nlife had been spent as master and part owner of a large merchant vessel\nin the Lisbon trade, gave the writer an account of such an instance\nwhich came under his observation. He was lying in the Tagus, when he was\nput to great anxiety and alarm by the following incident and its\nconsequences. One of his crew was murdered by a Portuguese assassin, and\na report arose that the ghost of the slain man haunted the vessel.\nSailors are generally superstitious, and those of my friend's vessel\nbecame unwilling to remain on board the ship; and it was probable they\nmight desert rather then return to England with the ghost for a\npassenger. To prevent so great a calamity, the captain determined to\nexamine the story to the bottom. He soon found that, though all\npretended to have seen lights and heard noises, and so forth, the weight\nof the evidence lay upon the statement of one of his own mates, an\nIrishman and a Catholic, which might increase his tendency to\nsuperstition, but in other respects a veracious, honest, and sensible\nperson, whom Captain ----had no reason to suspect would wilfully deceive\nhim. He affirmed to Captain S---- with the deepest obtestations, that\nthe spectre of the murdered man appeared to him almost nightly, took him\nfrom his place in the vessel, and, according to his own expression,\nworried his life out. He made these communications with a degree of\nhorror which intimated the reality of his distress and apprehensions.\nThe captain, without any argument at the time, privately resolved to\nwatch the motions of the ghost-seer in the night; whether alone, or with\na witness, I have forgotten. As the ship bell struck twelve, the sleeper\nstarted up, with a ghastly and disturbed countenance, and lighting a\ncandle, proceeded to the galley or cook-room of the vessel. He sate down\nwith his eyes open, staring before him as on some terrible object which\nhe beheld with horror, yet from which he could not withhold his eyes.\nAfter a short space he arose, took up a tin can or decanter, filled it\nwith water, muttering to himself all the while--mixed salt in the water,\nand sprinkled it about the galley. Finally, he sighed deeply, like one\nrelieved from a heavy burden, and, returning to his hammock, slept\nsoundly. In the next morning the haunted man told the usual precise\nstory of his apparition, with the additional circumstances, that the\nghost had led him to the galley, but that he had fortunately, he knew\nnot how, obtained possession of some holy water, and succeeded in\ngetting rid of his unwelcome visitor. The visionary was then informed of\nthe real transactions of the night, with so many particulars as to\nsatisfy him he had been the dupe of his imagination; he acquiesced in\nhis commander's reasoning, and the dream, as often happens in these\ncases, returned no more after its imposture had been detected. In this\ncase, we find the excited imagination acting upon the half-waking\nsenses, which were intelligent enough for the purpose of making him\nsensible where he was, but not sufficiently so to judge truly of the\nobjects before him.\n\nBut it is not only private life alone, or that tenor of thought which\nhas been depressed into melancholy by gloomy anticipations respecting\nthe future, which disposes the mind to mid-day fantasies, or to nightly\napparitions--a state of eager anxiety, or excited exertion, is equally\nfavourable to the indulgence of such supernatural communications. The\nanticipation of a dubious battle, with all the doubt and uncertainty of\nits event, and the conviction that it must involve his own fate and that\nof his country, was powerful enough to conjure up to the anxious eye of\nBrutus the spectre of his murdered friend C\u00e6sar, respecting whose death\nhe perhaps thought himself less justified than at the Ides of March,\nsince, instead of having achieved the freedom of Rome, the event had\nonly been the renewal of civil wars, and the issue might appear most\nlikely to conclude in the total subjection of liberty. It is not\nmiraculous that the masculine spirit of Marcus Brutus, surrounded by\ndarkness and solitude, distracted probably by recollection of the\nkindness and favour of the great individual whom he had put to death to\navenge the wrongs of his country, though by the slaughter of his own\nfriend, should at length place before his eyes in person the appearance\nwhich termed itself his evil genius, and promised again to meet him at\nPhilippi. Brutus' own intentions, and his knowledge of the military art,\nhad probably long since assured him that the decision of the civil war\nmust take place at or near that place; and, allowing that his own\nimagination supplied that part of his dialogue with the spectre, there\nis nothing else which might not be fashioned in a vivid dream or a\nwaking reverie, approaching, in absorbing and engrossing character, the\nusual matter of which dreams consist. That Brutus, well acquainted with\nthe opinions of the Platonists, should be disposed to receive without\ndoubt the idea that he had seen a real apparition, and was not likely to\nscrutinize very minutely the supposed vision, may be naturally\nconceived; and it is also natural to think, that although no one saw the\nfigure but himself, his contemporaries were little disposed to examine\nthe testimony of a man so eminent, by the strict rules of\ncross-examination and conflicting evidence, which they might have\nthought applicable to another person, and a less dignified occasion.\n\nEven in the field of death, and amid the mortal tug of combat itself,\nstrong belief has wrought the same wonder, which we have hitherto\nmentioned as occurring in solitude and amid darkness; and those who were\nthemselves on the verge of the world of spirits, or employed in\ndispatching others to these gloomy regions, conceived they beheld the\napparitions of those beings whom their national mythology associated\nwith such scenes. In such moments of undecided battle, amid the\nviolence, hurry, and confusion of ideas incident to the situation, the\nancients supposed that they saw their deities, Castor and Pollux,\nfighting in the van for their encouragement; the heathen Scandinavian\nbeheld the Choosers of the slain; and the Catholics were no less easily\nled to recognize the warlike Saint George or Saint James in the very\nfront of the strife, showing them the way to conquest. Such apparitions\nbeing generally visible to a multitude, have in all times been supported\nby the greatest strength of testimony. When the common feeling of\ndanger, and the animating burst of enthusiasm, act on the feelings of\nmany men at once, their minds hold a natural correspondence with each\nother, as it is said is the case with stringed instruments tuned to the\nsame pitch, of which, when one is played, the chords of the others are\nsupposed to vibrate in unison with the tones produced. If an artful or\nenthusiastic individual exclaims, in the heat of action, that he\nperceives an apparition of the romantic kind which has been intimated,\nhis companions catch at the idea with emulation, and most are willing to\nsacrifice the conviction of their own senses, rather than allow that\nthey did not witness the same favourable emblem, from which all draw\nconfidence and hope. One warrior catches the idea from another; all are\nalike eager to acknowledge the present miracle, and the battle is won\nbefore the mistake is discovered. In such cases, the number of persons\npresent, which would otherwise lead to detection of the fallacy, becomes\nthe means of strengthening it.\n\nOf this disposition, to see as much of the supernatural as is seen by\nothers around, or, in other words, to trust to the eyes of others rather\nthan to our own, we may take the liberty to quote two remarkable\ninstances.\n\nThe first is from the \"Historia Verdadera\" of Don Bernal Dias del\nCastillo, one of the companions of the celebrated Cortez in his Mexican\nconquest. After having given an account of a great victory over extreme\nodds, he mentions the report inserted in the contemporary Chronicle of\nGomara, that Saint Iago had appeared on a white horse in van of the\ncombat, and led on his beloved Spaniards to victory. It is very curious\nto observe the Castilian cavalier's internal conviction that the rumour\narose out of a mistake, the cause of which he explains from his own\nobservation; whilst, at the same time, he does not venture to disown the\nmiracle. The honest Conquestador owns that he himself did not see this\nanimating vision; nay, that he beheld an individual cavalier, named\nFrancisco de Morla, mounted on a chestnut horse, and fighting\nstrenuously in the very place where Saint James is said to have\nappeared. But instead of proceeding to draw the necessary inference, the\ndevout Conquestador exclaims--\"Sinner that I am, what am I that I should\nhave beheld the blessed apostle!\"\n\nThe other instance of the infectious character of superstition occurs in\na Scottish book, and there can be little doubt that it refers, in its\nfirst origin, to some uncommon appearance of the aurora borealis, or the\nnorthern lights, which do not appear to have been seen in Scotland so\nfrequently as to be accounted a common and familiar atmospherical\nphenomenon, until the beginning of the eighteenth century. The passage\nis striking and curious, for the narrator, Peter Walker, though an\nenthusiast, was a man of credit, and does not even affect to have seen\nthe wonders, the reality of which he unscrupulously adopts on the\ntestimony of others, to whose eyes he trusted rather than to his own.\nThe conversion of the sceptical gentleman of whom he speaks is highly\nillustrative of popular credulity carried away into enthusiasm, or into\nimposture, by the evidence of those around, and at once shows the\nimperfection of such a general testimony, and the ease with which it is\nprocured, since the general excitement of the moment impels even the\nmore cold-blooded and judicious persons present to catch up the ideas\nand echo the exclamations of the majority, who, from the first, had\nconsidered the heavenly phenomenon as a supernatural weapon-schaw, held\nfor the purpose of a sign and warning of civil wars to come.\n\n\"In the year 1686, in the months of June and July,\" says the honest\nchronicler, \"many yet alive can witness that about the Crossford Boat,\ntwo miles beneath Lanark, especially at the Mains, on the water of\nClyde, many people gathered together for several afternoons, where there\nwere showers of bonnets, hats, guns, and swords, which covered the trees\nand the ground; companies of men in arms marching in order upon the\nwaterside; companies meeting companies, going all through other, and\nthen all falling to the ground and disappearing; other companies\nimmediately appeared, marching the same way. I went there three\nafternoons together, and, as I observed, there were two-thirds of the\npeople that were together saw, and a third that saw not; and, _though I\ncould see nothing_, there was such a fright and trembling on those that\ndid see, that was discernible to all from those that saw not. There was\na gentleman standing next to me who spoke as too many gentlemen and\nothers speak, who said, 'A pack of damned witches and warlocks that have\nthe second sight! the devil ha't do I see;' and immediately there was a\ndiscernible change in his countenance. With as much fear and trembling\nas any woman I saw there, he called out, 'All you that do not see, say\nnothing; for I persuade you it is matter of fact, and discernible to all\nthat is not stone-blind.' And those who did see told what works (_i.e._,\nlocks) the guns had, and their length and wideness, and what handles the\nswords had, whether small or three-barr'd, or Highland guards, and the\nclosing knots of the bonnets, black or blue; and those who did see them\nthere, whenever they went abroad, saw a bonnet and a sword drop in the\nway.\"[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Walker's \"Lives,\" Edinburgh, 1827, vol. i. p. xxxvi. It is\nevident that honest Peter believed in the apparition of this martial\ngear on the principle of Partridge's terror for the ghost of Hamlet--not\nthat he was afraid himself, but because Garrick showed such evident\nmarks of terror.]\n\nThis singular phenomenon, in which a multitude believed, although only\ntwo-thirds of them saw what must, if real, have been equally obvious to\nall, may be compared with the exploit of the humourist, who planted\nhimself in an attitude of astonishment, with his eyes riveted on the\nwell-known bronze lion that graces the front of Northumberland House in\nthe Strand, and having attracted the attention of those who looked at\nhim by muttering, \"By heaven it wags! it wags again!\" contrived in a few\nminutes to blockade the whole street with an immense crowd, some\nconceiving that they had absolutely seen the lion of Percy wag his tail,\nothers expecting' to witness the same phenomenon.\n\nOn such occasions as we have hitherto mentioned, we have supposed that\nthe ghost-seer has been in full possession of his ordinary powers of\nperception, unless in the case of dreamers, in whom they may have been\nobscured by temporary slumber, and the possibility of correcting\nvagaries of the imagination rendered more difficult by want of the\nordinary appeal to the evidence of the bodily senses. In other respects\ntheir blood beat temperately, they possessed the ordinary capacity of\nascertaining the truth or discerning the falsehood of external\nappearances by an appeal to the organ of sight. Unfortunately, however,\nas is now universally known and admitted, there certainly exists more\nthan one disorder known to professional men of which one important\nsymptom is a disposition to see apparitions.\n\nThis frightful disorder is not properly insanity, although it is\nsomewhat allied to that most horrible of maladies, and may, in many\nconstitutions, be the means of bringing it on, and although such\nhallucinations are proper to both. The difference I conceive to be that,\nin cases of insanity, the mind of the patient is principally affected,\nwhile the senses, or organic system, offer in vain to the lunatic their\ndecided testimony against the fantasy of a deranged imagination. Perhaps\nthe nature of this collision--between a disturbed imagination and organs\nof sense possessed of their usual accuracy--cannot be better described\nthan in the embarrassment expressed by an insane patient confined in the\nInfirmary of Edinburgh. The poor man's malady had taken a gay turn. The\nhouse, in his idea, was his own, and he contrived to account for all\nthat seemed inconsistent with his imaginary right of property--there\nwere many patients in it, but that was owing to the benevolence of his\nnature, which made him love to see the relief of distress. He went\nlittle, or rather never abroad--but then his habits were of a domestic\nand rather sedentary character. He did not see much company--but he\ndaily received visits from the first characters in the renowned medical\nschool of this city, and he could not therefore be much in want of\nsociety. With so many supposed comforts around him--with so many visions\nof wealth and splendour--one thing alone disturbed the peace of the poor\noptimist, and would indeed have confounded most _bons vivants_. \"He was\ncurious,\" he said, \"in his table, choice in his selection of cooks, had\nevery day a dinner of three regular courses and a dessert; and yet,\nsomehow or other, everything he eat _tasted of porridge_.\" This dilemma\ncould be no great wonder to the friend to whom the poor patient\ncommunicated it, who knew the lunatic eat nothing but this simple\naliment at any of his meals. The case was obvious. The disease lay in\nthe extreme vivacity of the patient's imagination, deluded in other\ninstances, yet not absolutely powerful enough to contend with the honest\nevidence of his stomach and palate, which, like Lord Peter's brethren in\n\"The Tale of a Tub,\" were indignant at the attempt to impose boiled\noatmeal upon them, instead of such a banquet as Ude would have displayed\nwhen peers were to partake of it. Here, therefore, is one instance of\nactual insanity, in which the sense of taste controlled and attempted to\nrestrain the ideal hypothesis adopted by a deranged imagination. But the\ndisorder to which I previously alluded is entirely of a bodily\ncharacter, and consists principally in a disease of the visual organs,\nwhich present to the patient a set of spectres or appearances which have\nno actual existence. It is a disease of the same nature which renders\nmany men incapable of distinguishing colours; only the patients go a\nstep further, and pervert the external form of objects. In their case,\ntherefore, contrary to that of the maniac, it is not the mind, or rather\nthe imagination, which imposes upon and overpowers the evidence of the\nsenses, but the sense of seeing (or hearing) which betrays its duty and\nconveys false ideas to a sane intellect.\n\nMore than one learned physician, who have given their attestations to\nthe existence of this most distressing complaint, have agreed that it\nactually occurs, and is occasioned by different causes. The most\nfrequent source of the malady is in the dissipated and intemperate\nhabits of those who, by a continued series of intoxication, become\nsubject to what is popularly called the Blue Devils, instances of which\nmental disorder may be known to most who have lived for any period of\ntheir lives in society where hard drinking was a common vice. The joyous\nvisions suggested by intoxication when the habit is first acquired, in\ntime disappear, and are supplied by frightful impressions and scenes,\nwhich destroy the tranquillity of the unhappy debauchee. Apparitions of\nthe most unpleasant appearance are his companions in solitude, and\nintrude even upon his hours of society: and when by an alteration of\nhabits, the mind is cleared of these frightful ideas, it requires but\nthe slightest renewal of the association to bring back the full tide of\nmisery upon the repentant libertine.\n\nOf this the following instance was told to the author by a gentleman\nconnected with the sufferer. A young man of fortune, who had led what is\ncalled so gay a life as considerably to injure both his health and\nfortune, was at length obliged to consult the physician upon the means\nof restoring, at least, the former. One of his principal complaints was\nthe frequent presence of a set of apparitions, resembling a band of\nfigures dressed in green, who performed in his drawing-room a singular\ndance, to which he was compelled to bear witness, though he knew, to his\ngreat annoyance, that the whole _corps de ballet_ existed only in his\nown imagination. His physician immediately informed him that he had\nlived upon town too long and too fast not to require an exchange to a\nmore healthy and natural course of life. He therefore prescribed a\ngentle course of medicine, but earnestly recommended to his patient to\nretire to his own house in the country, observe a temperate diet and\nearly hours, practising regular exercise, on the same principle avoiding\nfatigue, and assured him that by doing so he might bid adieu to black\nspirits and white, blue, green, and grey, with all their trumpery. The\npatient observed the advice, and prospered. His physician, after the\ninterval of a month, received a grateful letter from him, acknowledging\nthe success of his regimen. The greens goblins had disappeared, and with\nthem the unpleasant train of emotions to which their visits had given\nrise, and the patient had ordered his town-house to be disfurnished and\nsold, while the furniture was to be sent down to his residence in the\ncountry, where he was determined in future to spend his life, without\nexposing himself to the temptations of town. One would have supposed\nthis a well-devised scheme for health. But, alas! no sooner had the\nfurniture of the London drawing-room been placed in order in the gallery\nof the old manor-house, than the former delusion returned in full force:\nthe green _figurant\u00e9s_, whom the patient's depraved imagination had so\nlong associated with these moveables, came capering and frisking to\naccompany them, exclaiming with great glee, as if the sufferer should\nhave been rejoiced to see them, \"Here we all are--here we all are!\" The\nvisionary, if I recollect right, was so much shocked at their\nappearance, that he retired abroad, in despair that any part of Britain\ncould shelter him from the daily persecution of this domestic ballet.\n\nThere is reason to believe that such cases are numerous, and that they\nmay perhaps arise not only from the debility of stomach brought on by\nexcess in wine or spirits, which derangement often sensibly affects the\neyes and sense of sight, but also because the mind becomes habitually\npredominated over by a train of fantastic visions, the consequence of\nfrequent intoxication; and is thus, like a dislocated joint, apt again\nto go wrong, even when a different cause occasions the derangement.\n\nIt is easy to be supposed that habitual excitement by means of any other\nintoxicating drug, as opium, or its various substitutes, must expose\nthose who practise the dangerous custom to the same inconvenience. Very\nfrequent use of the nitrous oxide which affects the senses so strongly,\nand produces a short but singular state of ecstasy, would probably be\nfound to occasion this species of disorder. But there are many other\ncauses which medical men find attended with the same symptom, of\nembodying before the eyes of a patient imaginary illusions which are\nvisible to no one else. This persecution of spectral deceptions is also\nfound to exist when no excesses of the patient can be alleged as the\ncause, owing, doubtless, to a deranged state of the blood or nervous\nsystem.\n\nThe learned and acute Dr. Ferriar of Manchester was the first who\nbrought before the English public the leading case, as it may be called,\nin this department, namely, that of Mons. Nicolai, the celebrated\nbookseller of Berlin. This gentleman was not a man merely of books, but\nof letters, and had the moral courage to lay before the Philosophical\nSociety of Berlin an account of his own sufferings, from having been, by\ndisease, subjected to a series of spectral illusions. The leading\ncircumstances of this case may be stated very shortly, as it has been\nrepeatedly before the public, and is insisted on by Dr. Ferriar, Dr.\nHibbert, and others who have assumed Demonology as a subject. Nicolai\ntraces his illness remotely to a series of disagreeable incidents which\nhad happened to him in the beginning of the year 1791. The depression of\nspirits which was occasioned by these unpleasant occurrences, was aided\nby the consequences of neglecting a course of periodical bleeding which\nhe had been accustomed to observe. This state of health brought on the\ndisposition to see _phantasmata_, who visited, or it may be more\nproperly said frequented, the apartments of the learned bookseller,\npresenting crowds of persons who moved and acted before him, nay, even\nspoke to and addressed him. These phantoms afforded nothing unpleasant\nto the imagination of the visionary either in sight or expression, and\nthe patient was possessed of too much firmness to be otherwise affected\nby their presence than with a species of curiosity, as he remained\nconvinced from the beginning to the end of the disorder, that these\nsingular effects were merely symptoms of the state of his health, and\ndid not in any other respect regard them as a subject of apprehension.\nAfter a certain time, and some use of medicine, the phantoms became less\ndistinct in their outline, less vivid in their colouring, faded, as it\nwere, on the eye of the patient, and at length totally disappeared.\n\nThe case of Nicolai has unquestionably been that of many whose love of\nscience has not been able to overcome their natural reluctance to\ncommunicate to the public the particulars attending the visitation of a\ndisease so peculiar. That such illnesses have been experienced, and have\nended fatally, there can be no doubt; though it is by no means to be\ninferred, that the symptom of importance to our present discussion has,\non all occasions, been produced from the same identical cause.\n\nDr. Hibbert, who has most ingeniously, as well as philosophically,\nhandled this subject, has treated it also in a medical point of view,\nwith science to which we make no pretence, and a precision of detail to\nwhich our superficial investigation affords us no room for extending\nourselves.\n\nThe visitation of spectral phenomena is described by this learned\ngentleman as incidental to sundry complaints; and he mentions, in\nparticular, that the symptom occurs not only in plethora, as in the case\nof the learned Prussian we have just mentioned, but is a frequent hectic\nsymptom--often an associate of febrile and inflammatory\ndisorders--frequently accompanying inflammation of the brain--a\nconcomitant also of highly excited nervous irritability--equally\nconnected with hypochondria--and finally united in some cases with gout,\nand in others with the effects of excitation produced by several gases.\nIn all these cases there seems to be a morbid degree of sensibility,\nwith which this symptom is ready to ally itself, and which, though\ninaccurate as a medical definition, may be held sufficiently descriptive\nof one character of the various kinds of disorder with which this\npainful symptom may be found allied.\n\nA very singular and interesting illustration of such combinations as Dr.\nHibbert has recorded of the spectral illusion with an actual disorder,\nand that of a dangerous kind, was frequently related in society by the\nlate learned and accomplished Dr. Gregory of Edinburgh, and sometimes, I\nbelieve, quoted by him in his lectures. The narrative, to the author's\nbest recollection, was as follows:--A patient of Dr. Gregory, a person,\nit is understood, of some rank, having requested the doctor's advice,\nmade the following extraordinary statement of his complaint. \"I am in\nthe habit,\" he said, \"of dining at five, and exactly as the hour of six\narrives I am subjected to the following painful visitation. The door of\nthe room, even when I have been weak enough to bolt it, which I have\nsometimes done, flies wide open; an old hag, like one of those who\nhaunted the heath of Forres, enters with a frowning and incensed\ncountenance, comes straight up to me with every demonstration of spite\nand indignation which could characterize her who haunted the merchant\nAbudah in the Oriental tale; she rushes upon me, says something, but so\nhastily that I cannot discover the purport, and then strikes me a severe\nblow with her staff. I fall from my chair in a swoon, which is of longer\nor shorter endurance. To the recurrence of this apparition I am daily\nsubjected. And such is my new and singular complaint.\" The doctor\nimmediately asked whether his patient had invited any one to sit with\nhim when he expected such a visitation. He was answered in the negative.\nThe nature of the complaint, he said, was so singular, it was so likely\nto be imputed to fancy, or even to mental derangement, that he had\nshrunk from communicating the circumstance to any one. \"Then,\" said the\ndoctor, \"with your permission, I will dine with you to-day,\n_t\u00e9te-\u00e0-t\u00e9te_, and we will see if your malignant old woman will venture\nto join our company.\" The patient accepted the proposal with hope and\ngratitude, for he had expected ridicule rather than sympathy. They met\nat dinner, and Dr. Gregory, who suspected some nervous disorder, exerted\nhis powers of conversation, well known to be of the most varied and\nbrilliant character, to keep the attention of his host engaged, and\nprevent him from thinking on the approach of the fated hour, to which he\nwas accustomed to look forward with so much terror. He succeeded in his\npurpose better than he had hoped. The hour of six came almost unnoticed,\nand it was hoped might pass away without any evil consequence; but it\nwas scarce a moment struck when the owner of the house exclaimed, in an\nalarmed voice, \"The hag comes again!\" and dropped back in his chair in a\nswoon, in the way he had himself described. The physician caused him to\nbe let blood, and satisfied himself that the periodical shocks of which\nhis patient complained arose from a tendency to apoplexy.\n\nThe phantom with the crutch was only a species of machinery, such as\nthat with which fancy is found to supply the disorder called\n_Ephialtes_, or nightmare, or indeed any other external impression upon\nour organs in sleep, which the patient's morbid imagination may\nintroduce into the dream preceding the swoon. In the nightmare an\noppression and suffocation is felt, and our fancy instantly conjures up\na spectre to lie on our bosom. In like manner it may be remarked, that\nany sudden noise which the slumberer hears, without being actually\nawakened by it--any casual touch of his person occurring in the same\nmanner--becomes instantly adopted in his dream, and accommodated to the\ntenor of the current train of thought, whatever that may happen to be;\nand nothing is more remarkable than the rapidity with which imagination\nsupplies a complete explanation of the interruption, according to the\nprevious train of ideas expressed in the dream, even when scarce a\nmoment of time is allowed for that purpose. In dreaming, for example, of\na duel, the external sound becomes, in the twinkling of an eye, the\ndischarge of the combatants' pistols;--is an orator haranguing in his\nsleep, the sound becomes the applause of his supposed audience;--is the\ndreamer wandering among supposed ruins, the noise is that of the fall of\nsome part of the mass. In short, an explanatory system is adopted during\nsleep with such extreme rapidity, that supposing the intruding alarm to\nhave been the first call of some person to awaken the slumberer, the\nexplanation, though requiring some process of argument or deduction, is\nusually formed and perfect before the second effort of the speaker has\nrestored the dreamer to the waking world and its realities. So rapid and\nintuitive is the succession of ideas in sleep, as to remind us of the\nvision of the prophet Mahommed, in which he saw the whole wonders of\nheaven and hell, though the jar of water which fell when his ecstasy\ncommenced, had not spilled its contents when he returned to ordinary\nexistence.\n\nA second, and equally remarkable instance, was communicated to the\nauthor by the medical man under whose observation it fell, but who was,\nof course, desirous to keep private the name of the hero of so singular\na history. Of the friend by whom the facts were attested I can only say,\nthat if I found myself at liberty to name him, the rank which he holds\nin his profession, as well as his attainments in science and philosophy,\nform an undisputed claim to the most implicit credit.\n\nIt was the fortune of this gentleman to be called in to attend the\nillness of a person now long deceased, who in his lifetime stood, as I\nunderstand, high in a particular department of the law, which often\nplaced the property of others at his discretion and control, and whose\nconduct, therefore, being open to public observation, he had for many\nyears borne the character of a man of unusual steadiness, good sense,\nand integrity. He was, at the time of my friend's visits, confined\nprincipally to his sick-room, sometimes to bed, yet occasionally\nattending to business, and exerting his mind, apparently with all its\nusual strength and energy, to the conduct of important affairs intrusted\nto him; nor did there, to a superficial observer, appear anything in his\nconduct, while so engaged, that could argue vacillation of intellect, or\ndepression of mind. His outward symptoms of malady argued no acute or\nalarming disease. But slowness of pulse, absence of appetite, difficulty\nof digestion, and constant depression of spirits, seemed to draw their\norigin from some hidden cause, which the patient was determined to\nconceal. The deep gloom of the unfortunate gentleman--the embarrassment,\nwhich he could not conceal from his friendly physician--the briefness\nand obvious constraint with which he answered the interrogations of his\nmedical adviser, induced my friend to take other methods for prosecuting\nhis inquiries. He applied to the sufferer's family, to learn, if\npossible, the source of that secret grief which was gnawing the heart\nand sucking the life-blood of his unfortunate patient. The persons\napplied to, after conversing together previously, denied all knowledge\nof any cause for the burden which obviously affected their relative. So\nfar as they knew--and they thought they could hardly be deceived--his\nworldly affairs were prosperous; no family loss had occurred which could\nbe followed with such persevering distress; no entanglements of\naffection could be supposed to apply to his age, and no sensation of\nsevere remorse could be consistent with his character. The medical\ngentleman had finally recourse to serious argument with the invalid\nhimself, and urged to him the folly of devoting himself to a lingering\nand melancholy death, rather than tell the subject of affliction which\nwas thus wasting him. He specially pressed upon him the injury which he\nwas doing to his own character, by suffering it to be inferred that the\nsecret cause of his dejection and its consequences was something too\nscandalous or flagitious to be made known, bequeathing in this manner to\nhis family a suspected and dishonoured name, and leaving a memory with\nwhich might be associated the idea of guilt, which the criminal had died\nwithout confessing. The patient, more moved by this species of appeal\nthan by any which had yet been urged, expressed his desire to speak out\nfrankly to Dr.----. Every one else was removed, and the door of the\nsick-room made secure, when he began his confession in the following\nmanner:--\n\n\"You cannot, my dear friend, be more conscious than I, that I am in the\ncourse of dying under the oppression of the fatal disease which consumes\nmy vital powers; but neither can you understand the nature of my\ncomplaint, and manner in which it acts upon me, nor, if you did, I fear,\ncould your zeal and skill avail to rid me of it.\"--\"It is possible,\"\nsaid the physician, \"that my skill may not equal my wish of serving you;\nyet medical science has many resources, of which those unacquainted with\nits powers never can form an estimate. But until you plainly tell me\nyour symptoms of complaint, it is impossible for either of us to say\nwhat may or may not be in my power, or within that of medicine.\"--\"I may\nanswer you,\" replied the patient, \"that my case is not a singular one,\nsince we read of it in the famous novel of Le Sage. You remember,\ndoubtless, the disease of which the Duke d'Olivarez is there stated to\nhave died?\"--\"Of the idea,\" answered the medical gentleman, \"that he was\nhaunted by an apparition, to the actual existence of which he gave no\ncredit, but died, nevertheless, because he was overcome and heart-broken\nby its imaginary presence.\"--\"I, my dearest doctor,\" said the sick man,\n\"am in that very case; and so painful and abhorrent is the presence of\nthe persecuting vision, that my reason is totally inadequate to combat\nthe effects of my morbid imagination, and I am sensible I am dying, a\nwasted victim to an imaginary disease.\" The medical gentleman listened\nwith anxiety to his patient's statement, and for the present judiciously\navoiding any contradiction of the sick man's preconceived fancy,\ncontented himself with more minute inquiry into the nature of the\napparition with which he conceived himself haunted, and into the history\nof the mode by which so singular a disease had made itself master of his\nimagination, secured, as it seemed, by strong powers of the\nunderstanding, against an attack so irregular. The sick person replied\nby stating that its advances were gradual, and at first not of a\nterrible or even disagreeable character. To illustrate this, he gave the\nfollowing account of the progress of his disease:--\n\n\"My visions,\" he said, \"commenced two or three years since, when I found\nmyself from time to time embarrassed by the presence of a large cat,\nwhich came and disappeared I could not exactly tell how, till the truth\nwas finally forced upon me, and I was compelled to regard it as no\ndomestic household cat, but as a bubble of the elements, which had no\nexistence save in my deranged visual organs or depraved imagination.\nStill I had not that positive objection to the animal entertained by a\nlate gallant Highland chieftain, who has been seen to change to all the\ncolours of his own plaid if a cat by accident happened to be in the room\nwith him, even though he did not see it. On the contrary, I am rather a\nfriend to cats, and endured with so much equanimity the presence of my\nimaginary attendant, that it had become almost indifferent to me; when,\nwithin the course of a few months, it gave place to, or was succeeded\nby, a spectre of a more important sort, or which at least had a more\nimposing appearance. This was no other than the apparition of a\ngentleman-usher, dressed as if to wait upon a Lord Lieutenant of\nIreland, a Lord High Commissioner of the Kirk, or any other who bears on\nhis brow the rank and stamp of delegated sovereignty.\n\n\"This personage, arrayed in a court dress, with bag and sword, tamboured\nwaistcoat, and chapeau-bras, glided beside me like the ghost of Beau\nNash; and, whether in my own house or in another, ascended the stairs\nbefore me, as if to announce me in the drawing-room, and at sometimes\nappeared to mingle with the company, though it was sufficiently evident\nthat they were not aware of his presence, and that I alone was sensible\nof the visionary honours which this imaginary being seemed desirous to\nrender me. This freak of the fancy did not produce much impression on\nme, though it led me to entertain doubts on the nature of my disorder\nand alarm for the effect it might produce on my intellects. But that\nmodification of my disease also had its appointed duration. After a few\nmonths the phantom of the gentleman-usher was seen no more, but was\nsucceeded by one horrible to the sight and distressing to the\nimagination, being no other than the image of death itself--the\napparition of a _skeleton_. Alone or in company,\" said the unfortunate\ninvalid, \"the presence of this last phantom never quits me. I in vain\ntell myself a hundred times over that it is no reality, but merely an\nimage summoned up by the morbid acuteness of my own excited imagination\nand deranged organs of sight. But what avail such reflections, while the\nemblem at once and presage of mortality is before my eyes, and while I\nfeel myself, though in fancy only, the companion of a phantom\nrepresenting a ghastly inhabitant of the grave, even while I yet breathe\non the earth? Science, philosophy, even religion, has no cure for such a\ndisorder; and I feel too surely that I shall die the victim to so\nmelancholy a disease, although I have no belief whatever in the reality\nof the phantom which it places before me.\"\n\nThe physician was distressed to perceive, from these details, how\nstrongly this visionary apparition was fixed in the imagination of his\npatient. He ingeniously urged the sick man, who was then in bed, with\nquestions concerning the circumstances of the phantom's appearance,\ntrusting he might lead him, as a sensible man, into such contradictions\nand inconsistencies as might bring his common-sense, which seemed to be\nunimpaired, so strongly into the field as might combat successfully the\nfantastic disorder which produced such fatal effects. \"This skeleton,\nthen,\" said the doctor, \"seems to you to be always present to your\neyes?\" \"It is my fate, unhappily,\" answered the invalid, \"always to see\nit.\" \"Then I understand,\" continued the physician, \"it is now present to\nyour imagination?\" \"To my imagination it certainly is so,\" replied the\nsick man. \"And in what part of the chamber do you now conceive the\napparition to appear?\" the physician inquired. \"Immediately at the foot\nof my bed. When the curtains are left a little open,\" answered the\ninvalid, \"the skeleton, to my thinking, is placed between them, and\nfills the vacant space.\" \"You say you are sensible of the delusion,\"\nsaid his friend; \"have you firmness to convince yourself of the truth of\nthis? Can you take courage enough to rise and place yourself in the spot\nso seeming to be occupied, and convince yourself of the illusion?\" The\npoor man sighed, and shook his head negatively. \"Well,\" said the doctor,\n\"we will try the experiment otherwise.\" Accordingly, he rose from his\nchair by the bedside, and placing himself between the two half-drawn\ncurtains at the foot of the bed, indicated as the place occupied by the\napparition, asked if the spectre was still visible? \"Not entirely so,\"\nreplied the patient, \"because your person is betwixt him and me; but I\nobserve his skull peering above your shoulder.\"\n\nIt is alleged the man of science started on the instant, despite\nphilosophy, on receiving an answer ascertaining, with such minuteness,\nthat the ideal spectre was close to his own person. He resorted to other\nmeans of investigation and cure, but with equally indifferent success.\nThe patient sunk into deeper and deeper dejection, and died in the same\ndistress of mind in which he had spent the latter months of his life;\nand his case remains a melancholy instance of the power of imagination\nto kill the body, even when its fantastic terrors cannot overcome the\nintellect, of the unfortunate persons who suffer under them. The\npatient, in the present case, sunk under his malady; and the\ncircumstances of his singular disorder remaining concealed, he did not,\nby his death and last illness, lose any of his well-merited reputation\nfor prudence and sagacity which had attended him during the whole course\nof his life.\n\nHaving added these two remarkable instances to the general train of\nsimilar facts quoted by Ferriar, Hibbert, and other writers who have\nmore recently considered the subject, there can, we think, be little\ndoubt of the proposition, that the external organs may, from various\ncauses, become so much deranged as to make false representations to the\nmind; and that, in such cases, men, in the literal sense, really _see_\nthe empty and false forms and _hear_ the ideal sounds which, in a more\nprimitive state of society, are naturally enough referred to the action\nof demons or disembodied spirits. In such unhappy cases the patient is\nintellectually in the condition of a general whose spies have been\nbribed by the enemy, and who must engage himself in the difficult and\ndelicate task of examining and correcting, by his own powers of\nargument, the probability of the reports which are too inconsistent to\nbe trusted to.\n\nBut there is a corollary to this proposition, which is worthy of notice.\nThe same species of organic derangement which, as a continued habit of\nhis deranged vision, presented the subject of our last tale with the\nsuccessive apparitions of his cat, his gentleman-usher, and the fatal\nskeleton, may occupy, for a brief or almost momentary space, the vision\nof men who are otherwise perfectly clear-sighted. Transitory deceptions\nare thus presented to the organs which, when they occur to men of\nstrength of mind and of education, give way to scrutiny, and their\ncharacter being once investigated, the true takes the place of the\nunreal representation. But in ignorant times those instances in which\nany object is misrepresented, whether through the action of the senses,\nor of the imagination, or the combined influence of both, for however\nshort a space of time, may be admitted as direct evidence of a\nsupernatural apparition; a proof the more difficult to be disputed if\nthe phantom has been personally witnessed by a man of sense and\nestimation, who, perhaps satisfied in the general as to the actual\nexistence of apparitions, has not taken time or trouble to correct his\nfirst impressions. This species of deception is so frequent that one of\nthe greatest poets of the present time answered a lady who asked him if\nhe believed in ghosts:--\"No, madam; I have seen too many myself.\" I may\nmention one or two instances of the kind, to which no doubt can be\nattached.\n\nThe first shall be the apparition of Maupertuis to a brother professor\nin the Royal Society of Berlin.\n\nThis extraordinary circumstance appeared in the Transactions of the\nSociety, but is thus stated by M. Thiebault in his \"Recollections of\nFrederick the Great and the Court of Berlin.\" It is necessary to premise\nthat M. Gleditsch, to whom the circumstance happened, was a botanist of\neminence, holding the professorship of natural philosophy at Berlin, and\nrespected as a man of an habitually serious, simple, and tranquil\ncharacter.\n\nA short time after the death of Maupertuis,[2] M. Gleditsch being\nobliged to traverse the hall in which the Academy held its sittings,\nhaving some arrangements to make in the cabinet of natural history,\nwhich was under his charge, and being willing to complete them on the\nThursday before the meeting, he perceived, on entering the hall, the\napparition of M. de Maupertuis, upright and stationary, in the first\nangle on his left hand, having his eyes fixed on him. This was about\nthree o'clock, afternoon. The professor of natural philosophy was too\nwell acquainted with physical science to suppose that his late\npresident, who had died at B\u00e2le, in the family of Messrs. Bernoullie,\ncould have found his way back to Berlin in person. He regarded the\napparition in no other light than as a phantom produced by some\nderangement of his own proper organs. M. Gleditsch went to his own\nbusiness, without stopping longer than to ascertain exactly the\nappearance of that object. But he related the vision to his brethren,\nand assured them that it was as defined and perfect as the actual person\nof Maupertuis could have presented. When it is recollected that\nMaupertuis died at a distance from Berlin, once the scene of his\ntriumphs--overwhelmed by the petulant ridicule of Voltaire, and out of\nfavour with Frederick, with whom to be ridiculous was to be\nworthless--we can hardly wonder at the imagination even of a man of\nphysical science calling up his Eidolon in the hall of his former\ngreatness.\n\n[Footnote 2: Long the president of the Berlin Academy, and much favoured\nby Frederick II., till he was overwhelmed by the ridicule of Voltaire.\nHe retired, in a species of disgrace, to his native country of\nSwitzerland, and died there shortly afterwards.]\n\nThe sober-minded professor did not, however, push his investigation to\nthe point to which it was carried by a gallant soldier, from whose mouth\na particular friend of the author received the following circumstances\nof a similar story.\n\nCaptain C---- was a native of Britain, but bred in the Irish Brigade. He\nwas a man of the most dauntless courage, which he displayed in some\nuncommonly desperate adventures during the first years of the French\nRevolution, being repeatedly employed by the royal family in very\ndangerous commissions. After the King's death he came over to England,\nand it was then the following circumstance took place.\n\nCaptain C---- was a Catholic, and, in his hour of adversity at least,\nsincerely attached to the duties of his religion. His confessor was a\nclergyman who was residing as chaplain to a man of rank in the west of\nEngland, about four miles from the place where Captain C---- lived. On\nriding over one morning to see this gentleman, his penitent had the\nmisfortune to find him very ill from a dangerous complaint. He retired\nin great distress and apprehension of his friend's life, and the feeling\nbrought back upon him many other painful and disagreeable recollections.\nThese occupied him till the hour of retiring to bed, when, to his great\nastonishment, he saw in the room the figure of the absent confessor. He\naddressed it, but received no answer--the eyes alone were impressed by\nthe appearance. Determined to push the matter to the end, Captain C----\nadvanced on the phantom, which appeared to retreat gradually before him.\nIn this manner he followed it round the bed, when it seemed to sink down\non an elbow-chair, and remain there in a sitting posture. To ascertain\npositively the nature of the apparition, the soldier himself sate down\non the same chair, ascertaining thus, beyond question, that the whole\nwas illusion; yet he owned that, had his friend died about the same\ntime, he would not well have known what name to give to his vision. But\nas the confessor recovered, and, in Dr. Johnson's phrase, \"nothing came\nof it,\" the incident was only remarkable as showing that men of the\nstrongest nerves are not exempted from such delusions.\n\nAnother illusion of the same nature we have the best reason for vouching\nas a fact, though, for certain reasons, we do not give the names of the\nparties. Not long after the death of a late illustrious poet, who had\nfilled, while living, a great station in the eye of the public, a\nliterary friend, to whom the deceased had been well known, was engaged,\nduring the darkening twilight of an autumn evening, in perusing one of\nthe publications which professed to detail the habits and opinions of\nthe distinguished individual who was now no more. As the reader had\nenjoyed the intimacy of the deceased to a considerable degree, he was\ndeeply interested in the publication, which contained some particulars\nrelating to himself and other friends. A visitor was sitting in the\napartment, who was also engaged in reading. Their sitting-room opened\ninto an entrance-hall, rather fantastically fitted up with articles of\narmour, skins of wild animals, and the like. It was when laying down his\nbook, and passing into this hall, through which the moon was beginning\nto shine, that the individual of whom I speak saw, right before him, and\nin a standing posture, the exact representation of his departed friend,\nwhose recollection had been so strongly brought to his imagination. He\nstopped for a single moment, so as to notice the wonderful accuracy with\nwhich fancy had impressed upon the bodily eye the peculiarities of dress\nand posture of the illustrious poet. Sensible, however, of the delusion,\nhe felt no sentiment save that of wonder at the extraordinary accuracy\nof the resemblance, and stepped onwards towards the figure, which\nresolved itself, as he approached, into the various materials of which\nit was composed. These were merely a screen, occupied by great-coats,\nshawls, plaids, and such other articles as usually are found in a\ncountry entrance-hall. The spectator returned to the spot from which he\nhad seen the illusion, and endeavoured, with all his power, to recall\nthe image which had been so singularly vivid. But this was beyond his\ncapacity; and the person who had witnessed the apparition, or, more\nproperly, whose excited state had been the means of raising it, had only\nto return into the apartment, and tell his young friend under what a\nstriking hallucination he had for a moment laboured.\n\nThere is every reason to believe that instances of this kind are\nfrequent among persons of a certain temperament, and when such occur in\nan early period of society, they are almost certain to be considered as\nreal supernatural appearances. They differ from those of Nicolai, and\nothers formerly noticed, as being of short duration, and constituting no\nhabitual or constitutional derangement of the system. The apparition of\nMaupertuis to Monsieur Gleditsch, that of the Catholic clergyman to\nCaptain C----, that of a late poet to his friend, are of the latter\ncharacter. They bear to the former the analogy, as we may say, which a\nsudden and temporary fever-fit has to a serious feverish illness. But,\neven for this very reason, it is more difficult to bring such momentary\nimpressions back to their real sphere of optical illusions, since they\naccord much better with our idea of glimpses of the future world than\nthose in which the vision is continued or repeated for hours, days, and\nmonths, affording opportunities of discovering, from other\ncircumstances, that the symptom originates in deranged health.\n\nBefore concluding these observations upon the deceptions of the senses,\nwe must remark that the eye is the organ most essential to the purpose\nof realizing to our mind the appearance of external objects, and that\nwhen the visual organ becomes depraved for a greater or less time, and\nto a farther or more limited extent, its misrepresentation of the\nobjects of sight is peculiarly apt to terminate in such hallucinations\nas those we have been detailing. Yet the other senses or organs, in\ntheir turn, and to the extent of their power, are as ready, in their\nvarious departments, as the sight itself, to retain false or doubtful\nimpressions, which mislead, instead of informing, the party to whom they\nare addressed.\n\nThus, in regard to the ear, the next organ in importance to the eye, we\nare repeatedly deceived by such sounds as are imperfectly gathered up\nand erroneously apprehended. From the false impressions received from\nthis organ also arise consequences similar to those derived from\nerroneous reports made by the organs of sight. A whole class of\nsuperstitious observances arise, and are grounded upon inaccurate and\nimperfect hearing. To the excited and imperfect state of the ear we owe\nthe existence of what Milton sublimely calls--\n\nThe airy tongues that syllable men's names,\nOn shores, in desert sands, and wildernesses.\n\nThese also appear such natural causes of alarm, that we do not\nsympathize more readily with Robinson Crusoe's apprehensions when he\nwitnesses the print of the savage's foot in the sand, than in those\nwhich arise from his being waked from sleep by some one calling his name\nin the solitary island, where there existed no man but the shipwrecked\nmariner himself. Amidst the train of superstitions deduced from the\nimperfections of the ear, we may quote that visionary summons which the\nnatives of the Hebrides acknowledged as one sure sign of approaching\nfate. The voice of some absent, or probably some deceased, relative was,\nin such cases, heard as repeating the party's name. Sometimes the aerial\nsummoner intimated his own death, and at others it was no uncommon\ncircumstance that the person who fancied himself so called, died in\nconsequence;--for the same reason that the negro pines to death who is\nlaid under the ban of an Obi woman, or the Cambro-Briton, whose name is\nput into the famous cursing well, with the usual ceremonies, devoting\nhim to the infernal gods, wastes away and dies, as one doomed to do so.\nIt may be remarked also, that Dr. Johnson retained a deep impression\nthat, while he was opening the door of his college chambers, he heard\nthe voice of his mother, then at many miles' distance, call him by his\nname; and it appears he was rather disappointed that no event of\nconsequence followed a summons sounding so decidedly supernatural. It is\nunnecessary to dwell on this sort of auricular deception, of which most\nmen's recollection will supply instances. The following may he stated as\none serving to show by what slender accidents the human ear may be\nimposed upon. The author was walking, about two years since, in a wild\nand solitary scene with a young friend, who laboured under the infirmity\nof a severe deafness, when he heard what he conceived to be the cry of a\ndistant pack of hounds, sounding intermittedly. As the season was\nsummer, this, on a moment's reflection, satisfied the hearer that it\ncould not be the clamour of an actual chase, and yet his ears repeatedly\nbrought back the supposed cry. He called upon his own dogs, of which two\nor three were with the walking party. They came in quietly, and\nobviously had no accession to the sounds which had caught the author's\nattention, so that he could not help saying to his companion, \"I am\ndoubly sorry for your infirmity at this moment, for I could otherwise\nhave let you hear the cry of the Wild Huntsman.\" As the young gentleman\nused a hearing tube, he turned when spoken to, and, in doing so, the\ncause of the phenomenon became apparent. The supposed distant sound was\nin fact a nigh one, being the singing of the wind in the instrument\nwhich the young gentleman was obliged to use, but which, from various\ncircumstances, had never occurred to his elder friend as likely to\nproduce the sounds he had heard.\n\nIt is scarce necessary to add, that the highly imaginative superstition\nof the Wild Huntsman in Germany seems to have had its origin in strong\nfancy, operating upon the auricular deceptions, respecting the numerous\nsounds likely to occur in the dark recesses of pathless forests. The\nsame clew may be found to the kindred Scottish belief, so finely\nembodied by the nameless author of \"Albania:\"--\n\n\"There, since of old the haughty Thanes of Ross\nWere wont, with clans and ready vassals thronged,\nTo wake the bounding stag, or guilty wolf;\nThere oft is heard at midnight or at noon,\nBeginning faint, but rising still more loud,\nAnd louder, voice of hunters, and of hounds,\nAnd horns hoarse-winded, blowing far and keen.\nForthwith the hubbub multiplies, the air\nLabours with louder shouts and rifer din\nOf close pursuit, the broken cry of deer\nMangled by throttling dogs, the shouts of men,\nAnd hoofs, thick-beating on the hollow hill:\nSudden the grazing heifer in the vale\nStarts at the tumult, and the herdsman's ears\nTingle with inward dread. Aghast he eyes\nThe upland ridge, and every mountain round,\nBut not one trace of living wight discerns,\nNor knows, o'erawed and trembling as he stands,\nTo what or whom he owes his idle fear--\nTo ghost, to witch, to fairy, or to fiend,\nBut wonders, and no end of wondering finds.\"[3]\n\nIt must also be remembered, that to the auricular deceptions practised\nby the means of ventriloquism or otherwise, may be traced many of the\nmost successful impostures which credulity has received as supernatural\ncommunications.\n\n[Footnote 3: The poem of \"Albania\" is, in its original folio edition, so\nextremely scarce that I have only seen a copy belonging to the amiable\nand ingenious Dr. Beattie, besides the one which I myself possess,\nprinted in the earlier part of last century. It was reprinted by my late\nfriend Dr. Leyden in a small volume entitled \"Scottish Descriptive\nPoems.\" \"Albania\" contains the above, and many other poetical passages\nof the highest merit.]\n\nThe sense of touch seems less liable to perversion than either that of\nsight or smell, nor are there many cases in which it can become\naccessary to such false intelligence as the eye and ear, collecting\ntheir objects from a greater distance and by less accurate enquiry, are\nbut too ready to convey. Yet there is one circumstance in which the\nsense of touch as well as others is very apt to betray its possessor\ninto inaccuracy, in respect to the circumstances which it impresses on\nits owner. The case occurs during sleep, when the dreamer touches with\nhis hand some other part of his own person. He is clearly, in this case,\nboth the actor and patient, both the proprietor of the member touching,\nand of that which is touched; while, to increase the complication, the\nhand is both toucher of the limb on which it rests, and receives an\nimpression of touch from it; and the same is the case with the limb,\nwhich at one and the same time receives an impression from the hand, and\nconveys to the mind a report respecting the size, substance, and the\nlike, of the member touching. Now, as during sleep the patient is\nunconscious that both limbs are his own identical property, his mind is\napt to be much disturbed by the complication of sensations arising from\ntwo parts of his person being at once acted upon, and from their\nreciprocal action; and false impressions are thus received, which,\naccurately enquired into, would afford a clew to many puzzling phenomena\nin the theory of dreams. This peculiarity of the organ of touch, as also\nthat it is confined to no particular organ, but is diffused over the\nwhole person of the man, is noticed by Lucretius:--\n\n\"Ut si forte manu, quam vis jam corporis, ipse\n Tute tibi partem ferias, reque experiare.\"\n\nA remarkable instance of such an illusion was told me by a late\nnobleman. He had fallen asleep, with some uneasy feelings arising from\nindigestion. They operated in their usual course of visionary terrors.\nAt length they were all summed up in the apprehension that the phantom\nof a dead man held the sleeper by the wrist, and endeavoured to drag him\nout of bed. He awaked in horror, and still felt the cold dead grasp of a\ncorpse's hand on his right wrist. It was a minute before he discovered\nthat his own left hand was in a state of numbness, and with it he had\naccidentally encircled his right arm.\n\nThe taste and the smell, like the touch, convey more direct intelligence\nthan the eye and the ear, and are less likely than those senses to aid\nin misleading the imagination. We have seen the palate, in the case of\nthe porridge-fed lunatic, enter its protest against the acquiescence of\neyes, ears, and touch, in the gay visions which gilded the patient's\nconfinement. The palate, however, is subject to imposition as well as\nthe other senses. The best and most acute _bon vivant_ loses his power\nof discriminating betwixt different kinds of wine, if he is prevented\nfrom assisting his palate by the aid of his eyes,--that is, if the\nglasses of each are administered indiscriminately while he is\nblindfolded. Nay, we are authorized to believe that individuals have\ndied in consequence of having supposed themselves to have taken poison,\nwhen, in reality, the draught they had swallowed as such was of an\ninnoxious or restorative quality. The delusions of the stomach can\nseldom bear upon our present subject, and are not otherwise connected\nwith supernatural appearances, than as a good dinner and its\naccompaniments are essential in fitting out a daring Tam of Shanter, who\nis fittest to encounter them when the poet's observation is not unlikely\nto apply--\n\n\"Inspiring bauld John Barleycorn,\nWhat dangers thou canst make us scorn!\nWi' tippenny we fear nae evil,\nWi' usquebae we'll face the devil.\nThe swats sae ream'd in Tammie's noddle,\nFair play, he caredna deils a bodle!\"\n\nNeither has the sense of smell, in its ordinary state, much connexion\nwith our present subject. Mr. Aubrey tells us, indeed, of an apparition\nwhich disappeared with a curious perfume as well as a most melodious\ntwang; and popular belief ascribes to the presence of infernal spirits a\nstrong relish of the sulphureous element of which they are inhabitants.\nSuch accompaniments, therefore, are usually united with other materials\nfor imposture. If, as a general opinion assures us, which is not\npositively discountenanced by Dr. Hibbert, by the inhalation of certain\ngases or poisonous herbs, necromancers can dispose a person to believe\nhe sees phantoms, it is likely that the nostrils are made to inhale such\nsuffumigation as well as the mouth.[4]\n\n[Footnote 4: Most ancient authors, who pretend to treat of the wonders\nof natural magic, give receipts for calling up phantoms. The lighting\nlamps fed by peculiar kinds of medicated oil, and the use of\nsuffumigations of strong and deleterious herbs, are the means\nrecommended. From these authorities, perhaps, a professor of legerdemain\nassured Dr. Alderson of Hull, that he could compose a preparation of\nantimony, sulphur, and other drugs, which, when burnt in a confined\nroom, would have the effect of causing the patient to suppose he saw\nphantoms.--See \"Hibbert on Apparitions,\" p. 120.]\n\nI have now arrived, by a devious path, at the conclusion of this letter,\nthe object of which is to show from what attributes of our nature,\nwhether mental or corporeal, arises that predisposition to believe in\nsupernatural occurrences. It is, I think, conclusive that mankind, from\na very early period, have their minds prepared for such events by the\nconsciousness of the existence of a spiritual world, inferring in the\ngeneral proposition the undeniable truth that each man, from the monarch\nto the beggar, who has once acted his part on the stage, continues to\nexist, and may again, even in a disembodied state, if such is the\npleasure of Heaven, for aught that we know to the contrary, be permitted\nor ordained to mingle amongst those who yet remain in the body. The\nabstract possibility of apparitions must be admitted by every one who\nbelieves in a Deity, and His superintending omnipotence. But imagination\nis apt to intrude its explanations and inferences founded on inadequate\nevidence. Sometimes our violent and inordinate passions, originating in\nsorrow for our friends, remorse for our crimes, our eagerness of\npatriotism, or our deep sense of devotion--these or other violent\nexcitements of a moral character, in the visions of night, or the rapt\necstasy of the day, persuade us that we witness, with our eyes and ears,\nan actual instance of that supernatural communication, the possibility\nof which cannot be denied. At other times the corporeal organs impose\nupon the mind, while the eye and the ear, diseased, deranged, or misled,\nconvey false impressions to the patient. Very often both the mental\ndelusion and the physical deception exist at the same time, and men's\nbelief of the phenomena presented to them, however erroneously, by the\nsenses, is the firmer and more readily granted, that the physical\nimpression corresponded with the mental excitement.\n\nSo many causes acting thus upon each other in various degrees, or\nsometimes separately, it must happen early in the infancy of every\nsociety that there should occur many apparently well-authenticated\ninstances of supernatural intercourse, satisfactory enough to\nauthenticate peculiar examples of the general proposition which is\nimpressed upon us by belief of the immortality of the soul. These\nexamples of undeniable apparitions (for they are apprehended to be\nincontrovertible), fall like the seed of the husbandman into fertile and\nprepared soil, and are usually followed by a plentiful crop of\nsuperstitious figments, which derive their sources from circumstances\nand enactments in sacred and profane history, hastily adopted, and\nperverted from their genuine reading. This shall be the subject of my\nnext letter.\n\n\n\n\nLETTER II.\n\n    Consequences of the Fall on the Communication between Man and the\n    Spiritual World--Effects of the Flood--Wizards of Pharaoh--Text in\n    Exodus against Witches--The word _Witch_ is by some said to mean\n    merely Poisoner--Or if in the Holy Text it also means a Divineress,\n    she must, at any rate, have been a Character very different to be\n    identified with it--The original, _Chasaph_, said to mean a person\n    who dealt in Poisons, often a Traffic of those who dealt with\n    familiar Spirits--But different from the European Witch of the\n    Middle Ages--Thus a Witch is not accessary to the Temptation of\n    Job--The Witch of the Hebrews probably did not rank higher than a\n    Divining Woman--Yet it was a Crime deserving the Doom of Death,\n    since it inferred the disowning of Jehovah's Supremacy--Other Texts\n    of Scripture, in like manner, refer to something corresponding more\n    with a Fortune-teller or Divining Woman than what is now called a\n    Witch--Example of the Witch of Endor--Account of her Meeting with\n    Saul--Supposed by some a mere Impostor--By others, a Sorceress\n    powerful enough to raise the Spirit of the Prophet by her own\n    Art--Difficulties attending both Positions--A middle Course adopted,\n    supposing that, as in the Case of Balak, the Almighty had, by\n    Exertion of His Will, substituted Samuel, or a good Spirit in his\n    Character, for the Deception which the Witch intended to\n    produce--Resumption of the Argument, showing that the Witch of Endor\n    signified something very different from the modern Ideas of\n    Witchcraft--The Witches mentioned in the New Testament are not less\n    different from modern Ideas than those of the Books of Moses, nor do\n    they appear to have possessed the Power ascribed to\n    Magicians--Articles of Faith which we may gather from Scripture on\n    this point--That there might be certain Powers permitted by the\n    Almighty to Inferior, and even Evil Spirits, is possible; and in\n    some sense the Gods of the Heathens might be accounted Demons--More\n    frequently, and in a general sense, they were but logs of wood,\n    without sense or power of any kind, and their worship founded on\n    imposture--Opinion that the Oracles were silenced at the Nativity\n    adopted by Milton--Cases of Demoniacs--The Incarnate Possessions\n    probably ceased at the same time as the intervention of\n    Miracles--Opinion of the Catholics--Result, that witchcraft, as the\n    Word is interpreted in  the Middle Ages, neither occurs under the\n    Mosaic or Gospel Dispensation--It arose in the Ignorant Period, when\n    the Christians considered the Gods of the Mahommedan or Heathen\n    Nations as Fiends, and their Priests as Conjurers or\n    Wizards--Instance as to the Saracens, and among the Northern\n    Europeans yet unconverted--The Gods of Mexico and Peru explained on\n    the same system--Also the Powahs of North America--Opinion of\n    Mather--Gibb, a supposed Warlock, persecuted by the other\n    Dissenters--Conclusion.\n\n\nWhat degree of communication might have existed between the human race\nand the inhabitants of the other world had our first parents kept the\ncommands of the Creator, can only be subject of unavailing speculation.\nWe do not, perhaps, presume too much when we suppose, with Milton, that\none necessary consequence of eating the \"fruit of that forbidden tree\"\nwas removing to a wider distance from celestial essences the beings who,\nalthough originally but a little lower than the angels, had, by their\nown crime, forfeited the gift of immortality, and degraded themselves\ninto an inferior rank of creation.\n\nSome communication between the spiritual world, by the union of those\ntermed in Scripture \"sons of God\" and the daughters of Adam, still\ncontinued after the Fall, though their inter-alliance was not approved\nof by the Ruler of mankind. We are given to understand--darkly, indeed,\nbut with as much certainty as we can be entitled to require--that the\nmixture between the two species of created beings was sinful on the part\nof both, and displeasing to the Almighty. It is probable, also, that the\nextreme longevity of the antediluvian mortals prevented their feeling\nsufficiently that they had brought themselves under the banner of\nAzrael, the angel of death, and removed to too great a distance the\nperiod between their crime and its punishment. The date of the avenging\nFlood gave birth to a race whose life was gradually shortened, and who,\nbeing admitted to slighter and rarer intimacy with beings who possessed\na higher rank in creation, assumed, as of course, a lower position in\nthe scale. Accordingly, after this period we hear no more of those\nunnatural alliances which preceded the Flood, and are given to\nunderstand that mankind, dispersing into different parts of the world,\nseparated from each other, and began, in various places, and under\nseparate auspices, to pursue the work of replenishing the world, which\nhad been imposed upon them as an end of their creation. In the meantime,\nwhile the Deity was pleased to continue his manifestations to those who\nwere destined to be the fathers of his elect people, we are made to\nunderstand that wicked men--it may be by the assistance of fallen\nangels--were enabled to assert rank with, and attempt to match, the\nprophets of the God of Israel. The matter must remain uncertain whether\nit was by sorcery or legerdemain that the wizards of Pharaoh, King of\nEgypt, contended with Moses, in the face of the prince and people,\nchanged their rods into serpents, and imitated several of the plagues\ndenounced against the devoted kingdom. Those powers of the Magi,\nhowever, whether obtained by supernatural communications, or arising\nfrom knowledge of legerdemain and its kindred accomplishments, were\nopenly exhibited; and who can doubt that--though we may be left in some\ndarkness both respecting the extent of their skill and the source from\nwhich it was drawn--we are told all which it can be important for us to\nknow? We arrive here at the period when the Almighty chose to take upon\nhimself directly to legislate for his chosen people, without having\nobtained any accurate knowledge whether the crime of witchcraft, or the\nintercourse between the spiritual world and embodied beings, for evil\npurposes, either existed after the Flood, or was visited with any open\nmarks of Divine displeasure.\n\nBut in the law of Moses, dictated by the Divinity himself, was announced\na text, which, as interpreted literally, having been inserted into the\ncriminal code of all Christian nations, has occasioned much cruelty and\nbloodshed, either from its tenor being misunderstood, or that, being\nexclusively calculated for the Israelites, it made part of the judicial\nMosaic dispensation, and was abrogated, like the greater part of that\nlaw, by the more benign and clement dispensation of the Gospel.\n\nThe text alluded to is that verse of the twenty-second chapter of Exodus\nbearing, \"men shall not suffer a witch to live.\" Many learned men have\naffirmed that in this remarkable passage the Hebrew word CHASAPH means\nnothing more than poisoner, although, like the word _veneficus_, by\nwhich it is rendered in the Latin version of the Septuagint, other\nlearned men contend that it hath the meaning of a witch also, and may be\nunderstood as denoting a person who pretended to hurt his or her\nneighbours in life, limb, or goods, either by noxious potions, by\ncharms, or similar mystical means. In this particular the witches of\nScripture had probably some resemblance to those of ancient Europe, who,\nalthough their skill and power might be safely despised, as long as they\nconfined themselves to their charms and spells, were very apt to eke out\ntheir capacity of mischief by the use of actual poison, so that the\nepithet of sorceress and poisoner were almost synonymous. This is known\nto have been the case in many of those darker iniquities which bear as\ntheir characteristic something connected with hidden and prohibited\narts. Such was the statement in the indictment of those concerned in the\nfamous murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, when the arts of Forman and other\nsorcerers having been found insufficient to touch the victim's life,\npractice by poison was at length successfully resorted to; and numerous\nsimilar instances might be quoted. But supposing that the Hebrew witch\nproceeded only by charms, invocations, or such means as might be\ninnoxious, save for the assistance of demons or familiars, the connexion\nbetween the conjurer and the demon must have been of a very different\ncharacter under the law of Moses, from that which was conceived in\nlatter days to constitute witchcraft. There was no contract of\nsubjection to a diabolic power, no infernal stamp or sign of such a\nfatal league, no revellings of Satan and his hags, and no infliction of\ndisease or misfortune upon good men. At least there is not a word in\nScripture authorizing us to believe that such a system existed. On the\ncontrary, we are told (how far literally, how far metaphorically, it is\nnot for us to determine) that, when the Enemy of mankind desired to\nprobe the virtue of Job to the bottom, he applied for permission to the\nSupreme Governor of the world, who granted him liberty to try his\nfaithful servant with a storm of disasters, for the more brilliant\nexhibition of the faith which he reposed in his Maker. In all this, had\nthe scene occurred after the manner of the like events in latter days,\nwitchcraft, sorceries, and charms would have been introduced, and the\nDevil, instead of his own permitted agency, would have employed his\nservant the witch as the necessary instrument of the Man of Uzz's\nafflictions. In like manner, Satan desired to have Peter, that he might\nsift him like wheat. But neither is there here the agency of any\nsorcerer or witch. Luke xxii. 31.\n\nSupposing the powers of the witch to be limited, in the time of Moses,\nto enquiries at some pretended deity or real evil spirit concerning\nfuture events, in what respect, may it be said, did such a crime deserve\nthe severe punishment of death? To answer this question, we must reflect\nthat the object of the Mosaic dispensation being to preserve the\nknowledge of the True Deity within the breasts of a selected and\nseparated people, the God of Jacob necessarily showed himself a jealous\nGod to all who, straying from the path of direct worship of Jehovah, had\nrecourse to other deities, whether idols or evil spirits, the gods of\nthe neighbouring heathen. The swerving from their allegiance to the true\nDivinity, to the extent of praying to senseless stocks and stones which\ncould return them no answer, was, by the Jewish law, an act of rebellion\nto their own Lord God, and as such most fit to be punished capitally.\nThus the prophets of Baal were deservedly put to death, not on account\nof any success which they might obtain by their intercessions and\ninvocations (which, though enhanced with all their vehemence, to the\nextent of cutting and wounding themselves, proved so utterly unavailing\nas to incur the ridicule of the prophet), but because they were guilty\nof apostasy from the real Deity, while they worshipped, and encouraged\nothers to worship, the false divinity Baal. The Hebrew witch, therefore,\nor she who communicated, or attempted to communicate, with an evil\nspirit, was justly punished with death, though her communication with\nthe spiritual world might either not exist at all, or be of a nature\nmuch less intimate than has been ascribed to the witches of later days;\nnor does the existence of this law, against the witches of the Old\nTestament sanction, in any respect, the severity of similar enactments\nsubsequent to the Christian revelation, against a different class of\npersons, accused of a very different species of crime.\n\nIn another passage, the practices of those persons termed witches in the\nHoly Scriptures are again alluded to; and again it is made manifest that\nthe sorcery or witchcraft of the Old Testament resolves itself into a\ntrafficking with idols, and asking counsel of false deities; in other\nwords, into idolatry, which, notwithstanding repeated prohibitions,\nexamples, and judgments, was still the prevailing crime of the\nIsraelites. The passage alluded to is in Deuteronomy xviii. 10,\nii--\"There shall not be found among you anyone that maketh his son or\nhis daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an\nobserver of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a\nconsulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.\" Similar\ndenunciations occur in the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of\nLeviticus. In like manner, it is a charge against Manasses (2 Chronicles\nxxxviii.) that he caused his children to pass through the fire, observed\ntimes, used enchantments and witchcraft, and dealt with familiar spirits\nand with wizards. These passages seem to concur with the former, in\nclassing witchcraft among other desertions of the prophets of the Deity,\nin order to obtain responses by the superstitious practices of the pagan\nnations around them. To understand the texts otherwise seems to confound\nthe modern system of witchcraft, with all its unnatural and improbable\noutrages on common sense, with the crime of the person who, in classical\ndays, consulted the oracle of Apollo--a capital offence in a Jew, but\nsurely a venial sin in an ignorant and deluded pagan.\n\nTo illustrate the nature of the Hebrew witch and her prohibited criminal\ntraffic, those who have written on this subject have naturally dwelt\nupon the interview between Saul and the Witch of Endor, the only\ndetailed and particular account of such a transaction which is to be\nfound in the Bible; a fact, by the way, which proves that the crime of\nwitchcraft (capitally punished as it was when discovered) was not\nfrequent among the chosen people, who enjoyed such peculiar\nmanifestations of the Almighty's presence. The Scriptures seem only to\nhave conveyed to us the general fact (being what is chiefly edifying) of\nthe interview between the witch and the King of Israel. They inform us\nthat Saul, disheartened and discouraged by the general defection of his\nsubjects, and the consciousness of his own unworthy and ungrateful\ndisobedience, despairing of obtaining an answer from the offended Deity,\nwho had previously communicated with him through his prophets, at length\nresolved, in his desperation, to go to a divining woman, by which course\nhe involved himself in the crime of the person whom he thus consulted,\nagainst whom the law denounced death--a sentence which had been often\nexecuted by Saul himself on similar offenders. Scripture proceeds to\ngive us the general information that the king directed the witch to call\nup the Spirit of Samuel, and that the female exclaimed that gods had\narisen out of the earth--that Saul, more particularly requiring a\ndescription of the apparition (whom, consequently, he did not himself\nsee), she described it as the figure of an old man with a mantle. In\nthis figure the king acknowledges the resemblance of Samuel, and sinking\non his face, hears from the apparition, speaking in the character of the\nprophet, the melancholy prediction of his own defeat and death.\n\nIn this description, though all is told which is necessary to convey to\nus an awful moral lesson, yet we are left ignorant of the minuti\u00e6\nattending the apparition, which perhaps we ought to accept as a sure\nsign that there was no utility in our being made acquainted with them.\nIt is impossible, for instance, to know with certainty whether Saul was\npresent when the woman used her conjuration, or whether he himself\npersonally ever saw the appearance which the Pythoness described to him.\nIt is left still more doubtful whether anything supernatural was\nactually evoked, or whether the Pythoness and her assistant meant to\npractise a mere deception, taking their chance to prophesy the defeat\nand death of the broken-spirited king as an event which the\ncircumstances in which he was placed rendered highly probable, since he\nwas surrounded by a superior army of Philistines, and his character as a\nsoldier rendered it likely that he would not survive a defeat which must\ninvolve the loss of his kingdom. On the other hand, admitting that the\napparition had really a supernatural character, it remains equally\nuncertain what was its nature or by what power it was compelled to an\nappearance, unpleasing, as it intimated, since the supposed spirit of\nSamuel asks wherefore he was disquieted in the grave. Was the power of\nthe witch over the invisible world so great that, like the Erictho of\nthe heathen poet, she could disturb the sleep of the just, and\nespecially that of a prophet so important as Samuel; and are we to\nsuppose that he, upon whom the Spirit of the Lord was wont to descend,\neven while he was clothed with frail mortality, should be subject to be\ndisquieted in his grave at the voice of a vile witch, and the command of\nan apostate prince? Did the true Deity refuse Saul the response of his\nprophets, and could a witch compel the actual spirit of Samuel to make\nanswer notwithstanding?\n\nEmbarrassed by such difficulties, another course of explanation has been\nresorted to, which, freed from some of the objections which attend the\ntwo extreme suppositions, is yet liable to others. It has been supposed\nthat something took place upon this remarkable occasion similar to that\nwhich disturbed the preconcerted purpose of the prophet Balaam, and\ncompelled him to exchange his premeditated curses for blessings.\nAccording to this hypothesis, the divining woman of Endor was preparing\nto practise upon Saul those tricks of legerdemain or jugglery by which\nshe imposed upon meaner clients who resorted to her oracle. Or we may\nconceive that in those days, when the laws of Nature were frequently\nsuspended by manifestations of the Divine Power, some degree of juggling\nmight be permitted between mortals and the spirits of lesser note; in\nwhich case we must suppose that the woman really expected or hoped to\ncall up some supernatural appearance. But in either case, this second\nsolution of the story supposes that the will of the Almighty\nsubstituted, on that memorable occasion, for the phantasmagoria intended\nby the witch, the spirit of Samuel in his earthly resemblance--or, if\nthe reader may think this more likely, some good being, the messenger of\nthe Divine pleasure, in the likeness of the departed prophet--and, to\nthe surprise of the Pythoness herself, exchanged the juggling farce: of\nsheer deceit or petty sorcery which she had intended to produce, for a\ndeep tragedy, capable of appalling the heart of the hardened tyrant, and\nfurnishing an awful lesson to future times.\n\nThis exposition has the advantage of explaining the surprise expressed\nby the witch at the unexpected consequences of her own invocation, while\nit removes the objection of supposing the spirit of Samuel subject to\nher influence. It does not apply so well to the complaint of Samuel that\nhe was _disquieted_, since neither the prophet, nor any good angel\nwearing his likeness, could be supposed to complain of an apparition\nwhich took place in obedience to the direct command of the Deity. If,\nhowever, the phrase is understood, not as a murmuring against the\npleasure of Providence, but as a reproach to the prophet's former friend\nSaul, that his sins and discontents, which were the ultimate cause of\nSamuel's appearance, had withdrawn the prophet for a space from the\nenjoyment and repose of Heaven, to review this miserable spot of\nmortality, guilt, grief, and misfortune, the words may, according to\nthat interpretation, wear no stronger sense of complaint than might\nbecome the spirit of a just man made perfect, or any benevolent angel by\nwhom he might be represented. It may be observed that in Ecclesiasticus\n(xlvi. 19, 20), the opinion of Samuel's actual appearance is adopted,\nsince it is said of this man of God, that _after death he prophesied,\nand showed the king his latter end_.\n\nLeaving the further discussion of this dark and difficult question to\nthose whose studies have qualified them to give judgment on so obscure a\nsubject, it so far appears clear that the Witch of Endor, was not a\nbeing such as those believed in by our ancestors, who could transform\nthemselves and others into the appearance of the lower animals, raise\nand allay tempests, frequent the company and join the revels of evil\nspirits, and, by their counsel and assistance, destroy human lives, and\nwaste the fruits of the earth, or perform feats of such magnitude as to\nalter the face of Nature. The Witch of Endor was a mere fortune-teller,\nto whom, in despair of all aid or answer from the Almighty, the\nunfortunate King of Israel had recourse in his despair, and by whom, in\nsome way or other, he obtained the awful certainty of his own defeat and\ndeath. She was liable, indeed, deservedly to the punishment of death for\nintruding herself upon the task of the real prophets, by whom the will\nof God was at that time regularly made known. But her existence and her\ncrimes can go no length to prove the possibility that another class of\nwitches, no otherwise resembling her than as called by the same name,\neither existed at a more recent period, or were liable to the same\ncapital punishment, for a very different and much more doubtful class of\noffences, which, however odious, are nevertheless to be proved possible\nbefore they can be received as a criminal charge.\n\nWhatever may be thought of other occasional expressions in the Old\nTestament, it cannot be said that, in any part of that sacred volume, a\ntext occurs indicating the existence of a system of witchcraft, under\nthe Jewish dispensation, in any respect similar to that against which\nthe law-books of so many European nations have, till very lately,\ndenounced punishment; far less under the Christian dispensation--a\nsystem under which the emancipation of the human race from the Levitical\nlaw was happily and miraculously perfected. This latter crime is\nsupposed to infer a compact implying reverence and adoration on the part\nof the witch who comes under the fatal bond, and patronage, support, and\nassistance on the part of the diabolical patron. Indeed, in the four\nGospels, the word, under any sense, does not occur; although, had the\npossibility of so enormous a sin been admitted, it was not likely to\nescape the warning censure of the Divine Person who came to take away\nthe sins of the world. Saint Paul, indeed, mentions the sin of\nwitchcraft, in a cursory manner, as superior in guilt to that of\ningratitude; and in the offences of the flesh it is ranked immediately\nafter idolatry, which juxtaposition inclines us to believe that the\nwitchcraft mentioned by the Apostle must have been analogous to that of\nthe Old Testament, and equivalent to resorting to the assistance of\nsoothsayers, or similar forbidden arts, to acquire knowledge of\ntoturity. Sorcerers are also joined with other criminals, in the Book of\nRevelations, as excluded from the city of God And with these occasional\nnotices, which indicate that there was a transgression so called, but\nleave us ignorant of us exact nature, the writers upon witchcraft\nattempt to wring out of the New Testament proofs of a crime in itself so\ndisgustingly improbable. Neither do the exploits of Elymas, called the\nSorcerer, or Simon, called Magus or the Magician, entitle them to rank\nabove the class of impostors who assumed a character to which they had\nno real title, and put their own mystical and ridiculous pretensions to\nsupernatural power in competition with those who had been conferred on\npurpose to diffuse the gospel, and facilitate its reception by the\nexhibition of genuine miracles. It is clear that, from his presumptuous\nand profane proposal to acquire, by purchase, a portion of those powers\nwhich were directly derived from inspiration, Simon Magus displayed a\ndegree of profane and brutal ignorance inconsistent with his possessing\neven the intelligence of a skilful impostor; and it is plain that a\nleagued vassal of hell--should we pronounce him such--would have better\nknown his own rank and condition, compared to that of the apostles, than\nto have made such a fruitless and unavailing proposal, by which he could\nonly expose his own impudence and ignorance.\n\nWith this observation we may conclude our brief remarks upon\n_witchcraft_, as the word occurs in the Scripture; and it now only\nremains to mention the nature of the _demonology_, which, as gathered\nfrom the sacred volumes, every Christian believer is bound to receive as\na thing declared and proved to be true.\n\nAnd in the first place, no man can read the Bible, or call himself a\nChristian, without believing that, during the course of time\ncomprehended by the Divine writers, the Deity, to confirm the faith of\nthe Jews, and to overcome and confound the pride of the heathens,\nwrought in the land many great miracles, using either good spirits, the\ninstruments of his pleasure, or fallen angels, the permitted agents of\nsuch evil as it was his will should be inflicted upon, or suffered by,\nthe children of men. This proposition comprehends, of course, the\nacknowledgment of the truth of miracles during this early period, by\nwhich the ordinary laws of nature were occasionally suspended, and\nrecognises the existence in the spiritual world of the two grand\ndivisions of angels and devils, severally exercising their powers\naccording to the commission or permission of the Ruler of the universe.\n\nSecondly, wise men have thought and argued that the idols of the heathen\nwere actually fiends, or, rather, that these enemies of mankind had\npower to assume the shape and appearance of those feeble deities, and to\ngive a certain degree of countenance to the faith of the worshippers, by\nworking seeming miracles, and returning, by their priests or their\noracles, responses which \"palter'd in a double sense\" with the deluded\npersons who consulted them. Most of the fathers of the Christian Church\nhave intimated such an opinion. This doctrine has the advantage of\naffording, to a certain extent, a confirmation of many miracles related\nin pagan or classical history, which are thus ascribed to the agency of\nevil spirits. It corresponds also with the texts of Scripture which\ndeclare that the gods of the heathen are all devils and evil spirits;\nand the idols of Egypt are classed, as in Isaiah, chap. xix. ver. 2,\nwith charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and with wizards. But\nwhatever license it may be supposed was permitted to the evil spirits of\nthat period--and although, undoubtedly, men owned the sway of deities\nwho were, in fact, but personifications of certain evil passions of\nhumanity, as, for example, in their sacrifices to Venus, to Bacchus, to\nMars, &c., and therefore might be said, in one sense, to worship evil\nspirits--we cannot, in reason, suppose that every one, or the thousandth\npart of the innumerable idols worshipped among the heathen, was endowed\nwith supernatural power; it is clear that the greater number fell under\nthe description applied to them in another passage of Scripture, in\nwhich the part of the tree burned in the fire for domestic purposes is\ntreated as of the same power and estimation as that carved into an\nimage, and preferred for Gentile homage. This striking passage, in which\nthe impotence of the senseless block, and the brutish ignorance of the\nworshipper, whose object of adoration is the work of his own hands,\noccurs in the 44th chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah, verse 10 _et\nseq_. The precise words of the text, as well as common sense, forbid us\nto believe that the images so constructed by common artisans became the\nhabitation or resting-place of demons, or possessed any manifestation of\nstrength or power, whether through demoniacal influence or otherwise.\nThe whole system of doubt, delusion, and trick exhibited by the oracles,\nsavours of the mean juggling of impostors, rather than the audacious\nintervention of demons. Whatever degree of power the false gods of\nheathendom, or devils in their name, might be permitted occasionally to\nexert, was unquestionably under the general restraint and limitation of\nprovidence; and though, on the one hand, we cannot deny the possibility\nof such permission being granted in cases unknown to us, it is certain,\non the other, that the Scriptures mention no one specific instance of\nsuch influence expressly recommended to our belief.\n\nThirdly, as the backsliders among the Jews repeatedly fell off to the\nworship of the idols of the neighbouring heathens, so they also resorted\nto the use of charms and enchantments, founded on a superstitious\nperversion of their own Levitical ritual, in which they endeavoured by\nsortilege, by Teraphim, by observation of augury, or the flight of\nbirds, which they called _Nahas_, by the means of Urim and Thummim, to\nfind as it were a byroad to the secrets of futurity. But for the same\nreason that withholds us from delivering any opinion upon the degree to\nwhich the devil and his angels might be allowed to countenance the\nimpositions of the heathen priesthood, it is impossible for us\nconclusively to pronounce what effect might be permitted by supreme\nProvidence to the ministry of such evil spirits as presided over, and,\nso far as they had liberty, directed, these sinful enquiries among the\nJews themselves. We are indeed assured from the sacred writings, that\nthe promise of the Deity to his chosen people, if they conducted\nthemselves agreeably to the law which he had given, was, that the\ncommunication with the invisible world would be enlarged, so that in the\nfulness of his time he would pour out his spirit upon all flesh, when\ntheir sons and daughters should prophesy, their old men see visions, and\ntheir young men dream dreams. Such were the promises delivered to the\nIsraelites by Joel, Ezekiel, and other holy seers, of which St. Peter,\nin the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, hails the fulfilment\nin the mission of our Saviour. And on the other hand, it is no less\nevident that the Almighty, to punish the disobedience of the Jews,\nabandoned them to their own fallacious desires, and suffered them to be\ndeceived by the lying oracles, to which, in flagrant violation of his\ncommands, they had recourse. Of this the punishment arising from the\nDeity abandoning Ahab to his own devices, and suffering him to be\ndeceived by a lying spirit, forms a striking instance.\n\nFourthly, and on the other hand, abstaining with reverence from\naccounting ourselves judges of the actions of Omnipotence, we may safely\nconclude that it was not his pleasure to employ in the execution of his\njudgments the consequences of any such species of league or compact\nbetwixt devils and deluded mortals, as that denounced in the laws of our\nown ancestors under the name of _witchcraft_. What has been translated\nby that word seems little more than the art of a medicator of poisons,\ncombined with that of a Pythoness or false prophetess; a crime, however,\nof a capital nature, by the Levitical law, since, in the first capacity,\nit implied great enmity to mankind, and in the second, direct treason to\nthe divine Legislator. The book of Tobit contains, indeed, a passage\nresembling more an incident in an Arabian tale or Gothic romance, than a\npart of inspired writing. In this, the fumes produced by broiling the\nliver of a certain fish are described as having power to drive away an\nevil genius who guards the nuptial chamber of an Assyrian princess, and\nwho has strangled seven bridegrooms in succession, as they approached\nthe nuptial couch. But the romantic and fabulous strain of this legend\nhas induced the fathers of all Protestant churches to deny it a place\namongst the writings sanctioned by divine origin, and we may therefore\nbe excused from entering into discussion on such imperfect evidence.\n\nLastly, in considering the incalculable change which took place upon the\nAdvent of our Saviour and the announcement of his law, we may observe\nthat, according to many wise and learned men, his mere appearance upon\nearth, without awaiting the fulfilment of his mission, operated as an\nact of banishment of such heathen deities as had hitherto been suffered\nto deliver oracles, and ape in some degree the attributes of the Deity.\nMilton has, in the \"Paradise Lost,\" it may be upon conviction of its\ntruth, embraced the theory which identifies the followers of Satan with\nthe gods of the heathen; and, in a tone of poetry almost unequalled,\neven in his own splendid writings, he thus describes, in one of his\nearlier pieces, the departure of these pretended deities on the eve of\nthe blessed Nativity:--\n\n  \"The oracles are dumb,\n   No voice or hideous hum\nRuns through the arched roof in words deceiving;\n   Apollo from his shrine\n   Can no more divine,\nWith hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving;\nNo nightly trance or breathed spell\nInspires the pale-eyed priests from the prophetic cell.\n\n  \"The lonely mountains o'er,\n   And the resounding shore,\nA voice of weeping heard and loud lament;\n   From haunted spring and dale,\n   Edged with poplar pale,\nThe parting Genius is with sighing sent;\nWith flower-inwoven tresses torn,\nThe Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.\n\n  \"In consecrated earth,\n  And on the holy hearth,\nThe Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint;\n  In urns and altars round,\n  A drear and dying sound\nAffrights the Flamens at their service quaint;\nAnd the chill marble seems to sweat,\nWhile each peculiar Power foregoes his wonted seat.\n\n  \"Peor and Baalim\n  Forsake their temples dim,\nWith that twice-battered god of Palestine;\n  And mooned Ashtaroth,\n  Heaven's queen and mother both,\nNow sits not girt with tapers' holy shine;\nThe Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn;\nIn vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz mourn.\n\n  \"And sullen Moloch, fled,\n  Hath left in shadows dread\nHis burning idol all of darkest hue;\n  In vain with cymbals ring,\n  They call the grisly king,\nIn dismal dance about the furnace blue;\nThe brutish gods of Nile as fast,\nIsis and Orus, and the Dog Anubis, haste.\"\n\nThe quotation is a long one, but it is scarcely possible to shorten what\nis so beautiful and interesting a description of the heathen deities,\nwhether in the classic personifications of Greece, the horrible shapes\nworshipped by mere barbarians, or the hieroglyphical enormities of the\nEgyptian Mythology. The idea of identifying the pagan deities,\nespecially the most distinguished of them, with the manifestation of\ndemoniac power, and concluding that the descent of our Saviour struck\nthem with silence, so nobly expressed in the poetry of Milton, is not\ncertainly to be lightly rejected. It has been asserted, in simple prose,\nby authorities of no mean weight; nor does there appear anything\ninconsistent in the faith of those who, believing that, in the elder\ntime, fiends and demons were permitted an enlarged degree of power in\nuttering predictions, may also give credit to the proposition, that at\nthe Divine Advent that power was restrained, the oracles silenced, and\nthose demons who had aped the Divinity of the place were driven from\ntheir abode on earth, honoured as it was by a guest so awful.\n\nIt must be noticed, however, that this great event had not the same\neffect on that peculiar class of fiends who were permitted to vex\nmortals by the alienation of their minds, and the abuse of their\npersons, in the case of what is called Demoniacal possession. In what\nexact sense we should understand this word _possession_ it is impossible\nto discover; but we feel it impossible to doubt (notwithstanding learned\nauthorities to the contrary) that it was a dreadful disorder, of a kind\nnot merely natural; and may be pretty well assured that it was suffered\nto continue after the Incarnation, because the miracles effected by our\nSaviour and his apostles, in curing those tormented in this way,\nafforded the most direct proofs of his divine mission, even out of the\nvery mouths of those ejected fiends, the most malignant enemies of a\npower to which they dared not refuse homage and obedience. And here is\nan additional proof that witchcraft, in its ordinary and popular sense,\nwas unknown at that period; although cases of possession are repeatedly\nmentioned in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, yet in no one\ninstance do the devils ejected mention a witch or sorcerer, or plead the\ncommands of such a person, as the cause of occupying or tormenting the\nvictim;--whereas, in a great proportion of those melancholy cases of\nwitchcraft with which the records of later times abound, the stress of\nthe evidence is rested on the declaration of the possessed, or the demon\nwithin him, that some old man or woman in the neighbourhood had\ncompelled the fiend to be the instrument of evil.\n\nIt must also be admitted that in another most remarkable respect, the\npower of the Enemy of mankind was rather enlarged than bridled or\nrestrained, in consequence of the Saviour coming upon earth. It is\nindisputable that, in order that Jesus might have his share in every\nspecies of delusion and persecution which the fallen race of Adam is\nheir to, he personally suffered the temptation in the wilderness at the\nhand of Satan, whom, without resorting to his divine power, he drove,\nconfuted, silenced, and shamed, from his presence. But it appears, that\nalthough Satan was allowed, upon this memorable occasion, to come on\nearth with great power, the permission was given expressly because his\ntime was short.\n\nThe indulgence which was then granted to him in a case so unique and\npeculiar soon passed over and was utterly restrained. It is evident\nthat, after the lapse of the period during which it pleased the Almighty\nto establish His own Church by miraculous displays of power, it could\nnot consist with his kindness and wisdom to leave the enemy in the\npossession of the privilege of deluding men by imaginary miracles\ncalculated for the perversion of that faith which real miracles were no\nlonger present to support. There would, we presume to say, be a shocking\ninconsistency in supposing that false and deceitful prophecies and\nportents should be freely circulated by any demoniacal influence,\ndeceiving men's bodily organs, abusing their minds, and perverting their\nfaith, while the true religion was left by its great Author devoid of\nevery supernatural sign and token which, in the time of its Founder and\nHis immediate disciples, attested and celebrated their inappreciable\nmission. Such a permission on the part of the Supreme Being would be (to\nspeak under the deepest reverence) an abandonment of His chosen people,\nransomed at such a price, to the snares of an enemy from whom the worst\nevils were to be apprehended. Nor would it consist with the remarkable\npromise in holy writ, that \"God will not suffer His people to be tempted\nabove what they are able to bear.\" I Cor. X. 13. The Fathers of the\nFaith are not strictly agreed at what period the miraculous power was\nwithdrawn from the Church; but few Protestants are disposed to bring it\ndown beneath the accession of Constantine, when the Christian religion\nwas fully established in supremacy. The Roman Catholics, indeed, boldly\naffirm that the power of miraculous interference with the course of\nNature is still in being; but the enlightened even of this faith, though\nthey dare not deny a fundamental tenet of their church, will hardly\nassent to any particular case, without nearly the same evidence which\nmight conquer the incredulity of their neighbours the Protestants. It is\nalike inconsistent with the common sense of either that fiends should be\npermitted to work marvels which are no longer exhibited on the part of\nHeaven, or in behalf of religion.\n\nIt will be observed that we have not been anxious to decide upon the\nlimits of probability on this question. It is not necessary for us to\nascertain in what degree the power of Satan was at liberty to display\nitself during the Jewish dispensation, or down to what precise period in\nthe history of the Christian Church cures of demoniacal possession or\nsimilar displays of miraculous power may have occurred. We have avoided\ncontroversy on that head, because it comprehends questions not more\ndoubtful than unedifying. Little benefit could arise from attaining the\nexact knowledge of the manner in which the apostate Jews practised\nunlawful charms or auguries. After their conquest and dispersion they\nwere remarked among the Romans for such superstitious practices; and the\nlike, for What we know, may continue to linger among the benighted\nwanderers of their race at the present day. But all these things are\nextraneous to our enquiry, the purpose of which was to discover whether\nany real evidence could be derived from sacred history to prove the\nearly existence of that branch of demonology which has been the object,\nin comparatively modern times, of criminal prosecution and capital\npunishment. We have already alluded to this as the contract of\nwitchcraft, in which, as the term was understood in the Middle Ages, the\ndemon and the witch or wizard combined their various powers of doing\nharm to inflict calamities upon the person and property, the fortune and\nthe fame, of innocent human beings, imposing the most horrible diseases,\nand death itself, as marks of their slightest ill-will; transforming\ntheir own persons and those of others at their pleasure; raising\ntempests to ravage the crops of their enemies, or carrying them home to\ntheir own garners; annihilating or transferring to their own dairies the\nproduce of herds; spreading pestilence among cattle, infecting and\nblighting children; and, in a word, doing more evil than the heart of\nman might be supposed capable of conceiving, by means far beyond mere\nhuman power to accomplish. If it could be supposed that such unnatural\nleagues existed, and that there were wretches wicked enough, merely for\nthe gratification of malignant spite or the enjoyment of some beastly\nrevelry, to become the wretched slaves of infernal spirits, most just\nand equitable would be those laws which cut them off from the midst of\nevery Christian commonwealth. But it is still more just and equitable,\nbefore punishment be inflicted for any crime, to prove that there is a\npossibility of that crime being committed. We have therefore advanced an\nimportant step in our enquiry when we have ascertained that the _witch_\nof the Old Testament was not capable of anything beyond the\nadministration of baleful drugs or the practising of paltry imposture;\nin other words, that she did not hold the character ascribed to a modern\nsorceress. We have thus removed out of the argument the startling\nobjection that, in denying the existence of witchcraft, we deny the\npossibility of a crime which was declared capital in the Mosaic law, and\nare left at full liberty to adopt the opinion, that the more modern\nsystem of witchcraft was a part, and by no means the least gross, of\nthat mass of errors which appeared among the members of the Christian\nChurch when their religion, becoming gradually corrupted by the devices\nof men and the barbarism of those nations among whom it was spread\nshowed, a light indeed, but one deeply tinged with the remains of that\nvery pagan ignorance which its Divine Founder came to dispel.\n\nWe will, in a future part of this enquiry, endeavour to show that many\nof the particular articles of the popular belief respecting magic and\nwitchcraft were derived from the opinions which the ancient heathens\nentertained as part of their religion. To recommend them, however, they\nhad principles lying deep in the human mind and heart of all times; the\ntendency to belief in supernatural agencies is natural, and indeed seems\nconnected with and deduced from the invaluable conviction of the\ncertainty of a future state. Moreover, it is very possible that\nparticular stories of this class may have seemed undeniable in the dark\nages, though our better instructed period can explain them in a\nsatisfactory manner by the excited temperament of spectators, or the\ninfluence of delusions produced by derangement of the intellect or\nimperfect reports of the external senses. They obtained, however,\nuniversal faith and credit; and the churchmen, either from craft or from\nignorance, favoured the progress of a belief which certainly contributed\nin a most powerful manner to extend their own authority over the human\nmind.\n\nTo pass from the pagans of antiquity--the Mahommedans, though their\nprofession of faith is exclusively unitarian, were accounted worshippers\nof evil spirits, who were supposed to aid them in their continual\nwarfare against the Christians, or to protect and defend them in the\nHoly Land, where their abode gave so much scandal and offence to the\ndevout. Romance, and even history, combined in representing all who were\nout of the pale of the Church as the personal vassals of Satan, who\nplayed his deceptions openly amongst them; and Mahound, Termagaunt, and\n_Apollo_ were, in the opinion of the Western Crusaders, only so many\nnames of the arch-fiend and his principal angels. The most enormous\nfictions spread abroad and believed through Christendom attested the\nfact, that there were open displays of supernatural aid afforded by the\nevil spirits to the Turks and Saracens; and fictitious reports were not\nless liberal in assigning to the Christians extraordinary means of\ndefence through the direct protection of blessed saints and angels, or\nof holy men yet in the flesh, but already anticipating the privileges\nproper to a state of beatitude and glory, and possessing the power to\nwork miracles.\n\nTo show the extreme grossness of these legends, we may give an example\nfrom the romance of \"Richard Coeur de Lion,\" premising at the same time\nthat, like other romances, it was written in what the author designed to\nbe the style of true history, and was addressed to hearers and readers,\nnot as a tale of fiction, but a real narrative of facts, so that the\nlegend is a proof of what the age esteemed credible and were disposed to\nbelieve as much as if had been extracted from a graver chronicle.\n\nThe renowned Saladin, it is said, had dispatched an embassy to King\nRichard, with the present of a colt recommended as a gallant war-horse,\nchallenging Coeur de Lion to meet him in single combat between the\narmies, for the purpose of deciding at once their pretensions to the\nland of Palestine, and the theological question whether the God of the\nChristians, or Jupiter, the deity of the Saracens, should be the future\nobject of adoration by the subjects of both monarchs. Now, under this\nseemingly chivalrous defiance was concealed a most unknightly stratagem,\nand which we may at the same time call a very clumsy trick for the devil\nto be concerned in. A Saracen clerk had conjured two devils into a mare\nand her colt, with the instruction, that whenever the mare neighed, the\nfoal, which was a brute of uncommon size, should kneel down to suck his\ndam. The enchanted foal was sent to King Richard in the belief that the\nfoal, obeying the signal of its dam as usual, the Soldan who mounted the\nmare might get an easy advantage over him.\n\nBut the English king was warned by an angel in a dream of the intended\nstratagem, and the colt was, by the celestial mandate, previously to the\ncombat, conjured in the holy name to be obedient to his rider during the\nencounter. The fiend-horse intimated his submission by drooping his\nhead, but his word was not entirely credited. His ears were stopped with\nwax. In this condition, Richard, armed at all points and with various\nmarks of his religious faith displayed on his weapons, rode forth to\nmeet Saladin, and the Soldan, confident of his stratagem, encountered\nhim boldly. The mare neighed till she shook the ground for miles around;\nbut the sucking devil, whom the wax prevented from hearing the summons,\ncould not obey the signal. Saladin was dismounted, and narrowly escaped\ndeath, while his army were cut to pieces by the Christians. It is but an\nawkward tale of wonder where a demon is worsted by a trick which could\nhardly have cheated a common horse-jockey; but by such legends our\nancestors were amused and interested, till their belief respecting the\ndemons of the Holy Land seems to have been not very far different from\nthat expressed in the title of Ben Jonson's play, \"The Devil is an Ass.\"\n\nOne of the earliest maps ever published, which appeared at Rome in the\nsixteenth century, intimates a similar belief in the connexion of the\nheathen nations of the north of Europe with the demons of the spiritual\nworld. In Esthonia, Lithuania, Courland, and such districts, the chart,\nfor want, it may be supposed, of an accurate account of the country,\nexhibits rude cuts of the fur-clad natives paying homage at the shrines\nof demons, who make themselves visibly present to them; while at other\nplaces they are displayed as doing battle with the Teutonic knights, or\nother military associations formed for the conversion or expulsion of\nthe heathens in these parts. Amid the pagans, armed with scimitars and\ndressed in caftans, the fiends are painted as assisting them, pourtrayed\nin all the modern horrors of the cloven foot, or, as the Germans term\nit, horse's foot, bat wings, saucer eyes, locks like serpents, and tail\nlike a dragon. These attributes, it may be cursorily noticed, themselves\nintimate the connexion of modern demonology with the mythology of the\nancients. The cloven foot is the attribute of Pan--to whose talents for\ninspiring terror we owe the word _panic_--the snaky tresses are borrowed\nfrom the shield of Minerva, and the dragon train alone seems to be\nconnected with the Scriptural history.[5]\n\n[Footnote 5: The chart alluded to is one of the _jac-similes_ of an\nancient planisphere, engraved in bronze about the end of the 15th\ncentury, and called the Borgian Table, from its possessor, Cardinal\nStephen Borgia, and preserved in his museum at Veletri.]\n\nOther heathen nations, whose creeds could not have directly contributed\nto the system of demonology, because their manners and even their very\nexistence was unknown when it was adopted, were nevertheless involved,\nso soon as Europeans became acquainted with them, in the same charge of\nwitchcraft and worship of demons brought by the Christians of the Middle\nAges against the heathens of northern Europe and the Mahommedans of the\nEast. We learn from the information of a Portuguese voyager that even\nthe native Christians (called those of St. Thomas), whom the discoverers\nfound in India when they first arrived there, fell under suspicion of\ndiabolical practices. It was almost in vain that the priests of one of\ntheir chapels produced to the Portuguese officers and soldiers a holy\nimage, and called on them, as good Christians, to adore the Blessed\nVirgin. The sculptor had been so little acquainted with his art, and the\nhideous form which he had produced resembled an inhabitant of the\ninfernal regions so much more than Our Lady of Grace, that one of the\nEuropean officers, while, like his companions, he dropped on his knees,\nadded the loud protest, that if the image represented the Devil, he paid\nhis homage to the Holy Virgin.\n\nIn South America the Spaniards justified the unrelenting cruelties\nexercised on the unhappy natives by reiterating, in all their accounts\nof the countries which they discovered and conquered, that the Indians,\nin their idol worship, were favoured by the demons with a direct\nintercourse, and that their priests inculcated doctrines and rites the\nfoulest and most abhorrent to Christian ears. The great snake-god of\nMexico, and other idols worshipped with human sacrifices and bathed in\nthe gore of their prisoners, gave but too much probability to this\naccusation; and if the images themselves were not actually tenanted by\nevil spirits, the worship which the Mexicans paid to them was founded\nupon such deadly cruelty and dark superstition as might easily be\nbelieved to have been breathed into mortals by the agency of hell.\n\nEven in North America, the first settlers in New England and other parts\nof that immense continent uniformly agreed that they detected among the\ninhabitants traces of an intimate connexion with Satan. It is scarce\nnecessary to remark that this opinion was founded exclusively upon the\ntricks practised by the native powahs, or cunning men, to raise\nthemselves to influence among the chiefs, and to obtain esteem with the\npeople, which, possessed as they were professionally of some skill in\njugglery and the knowledge of some medical herbs and secrets, the\nunderstanding of the colonists was unable to trace to their real\nsource--legerdemain and imposture. By the account, however, of the\nReverend Cotton Mather, in his _Magnalia_, book vi.,[6] he does not\nascribe to these Indian conjurers any skill greatly superior to a maker\nof almanacks or common fortune-teller. \"They,\" says the Doctor,\n\"universally acknowledged and worshipped many gods, and therefore highly\nesteemed and reverenced their priests, powahs, or wizards, who were\nesteemed as having immediate converse with the gods. To them, therefore,\nthey addressed themselves in all difficult cases: yet could not all that\ndesired that dignity, as they esteemed it, obtain familiarity with the\ninfernal spirits. Nor were all powahs alike successful in their\naddresses; but they became such, either by immediate revelation, or in\nthe use of certain rites and ceremonies, which tradition had left as\nconducing to that end. In so much, that parents, out of zeal, often\ndedicated their children to the gods, and educated them accordingly,\nobserving a certain diet, debarring sleep, &c.: yet of the many\ndesigned, but few obtained their desire. Supposing that where the\npractice of witchcraft has been highly esteemed, there must be given the\nplainest demonstration of mortals having familiarity with infernal\nspirits, I am willing to let my reader know, that, not many years since,\nhere died one of the powahs, who never pretended to astrological\nknowledge, yet could precisely inform such who desired his assistance,\nfrom whence goods stolen from them were gone, and whither carried, with\nmany things of the like nature; nor was he ever known to endeavour to\nconceal his knowledge to be immediately _from a god subservient to him\nthat the English worship_. This powah, being by an Englishman worthy of\ncredit (who lately informed me of the same), desired to advise him who\nhad taken certain goods which had been stolen, having formerly been an\neye-witness of his ability, the powah, after a little pausing, demanded\nwhy he requested that from him, since himself served another God? that\ntherefore he could not help him; but added, '_If you can believe that my\ngod may help you, I will try what I can do_; which diverted the man from\nfurther enquiry. I must a little digress, and tell my reader, that this\npowah's wife was accounted a godly woman, and lived in the practice and\nprofession of the Christian religion, not only by the approbation, but\nencouragement of her husband. She constantly prayed in the family, and\nattended the public worship on the Lord's days. He declared that he\ncould not blame her, for that she served a god that was above his; but\nthat as to himself, his god's continued kindness obliged him not to\nforsake his service.\" It appears, from the above and similar passages,\nthat Dr. Cotton Mather, an honest and devout, but sufficiently credulous\nman, had mistaken the purpose of the tolerant powah. The latter only\ndesired to elude the necessity of his practices being brought under the\nobservant eye of an European, while he found an ingenious apology in the\nadmitted superiority which he naturally conceded to the Deity of a\npeople, advanced, as he might well conceive, so far above his own in\npower and attainments, as might reasonably infer a corresponding\nsuperiority in the nature and objects of their worship.\n\n[Footnote 6: \"On Remarkable Mercies of Divine Providence.\"]\n\nFrom another narrative we are entitled to infer that the European wizard\nwas held superior to the native sorcerer of North America. Among the\nnumberless extravagances of the Scottish Dissenters of the 17th century,\nnow canonized in a lump by those who view them in the general light of\nenemies to Prelacy, was a certain ship-master, called, from his size,\nMeikle John Gibb. This man, a person called Jamie, and one or two other\nmen, besides twenty or thirty females who adhered to them, went the\nwildest lengths of enthusiasm. Gibb headed a party, who followed him\ninto the moorlands, and at the Ford Moss, between Airth and Stirling,\nburned their Bibles, as an act of solemn adherence to their new faith.\nThey were apprehended in consequence, and committed to prison; and the\nrest of the Dissenters, however differently they were affected by the\npersecution of Government, when it applied to themselves, were\nnevertheless much offended that these poor mad people were not brought\nto capital punishment for their blasphemous extravagances; and imputed\nit as a fresh crime to the Duke of York that, though he could not be\noften accused of toleration, he considered the discipline of the house\nof correction as more likely to bring the unfortunate Gibbites to their\nsenses than the more dignified severities of a public trial and the\ngallows. The Cameronians, however, did their best to correct this\nscandalous lenity. As Meikle John Gibb, who was their comrade in\ncaptivity, used to disturb their worship in jail by his maniac howling,\ntwo of them took turn about to hold him down by force, and silence him\nby a napkin thrust into his mouth. This mode of quieting the unlucky\nheretic, though sufficiently emphatic, being deemed ineffectual or\ninconvenient, George Jackson, a Cameronian, who afterwards suffered at\nthe gallows, dashed the maniac with his feet and hands against the wall,\nand beat him so severely that the rest were afraid that he had killed\nhim outright. After which specimen of fraternal chastisement, the\nlunatic, to avoid the repetition of the discipline, whenever the\nprisoners began worship, ran behind the door, and there, with his own\nnapkin crammed into his mouth, sat howling like a chastised cur. But on\nbeing finally transported to America, John Gibb, we are assured, was\nmuch admired by the heathen for his familiar converse with the devil\nbodily, and offering sacrifices to him. \"He died there,\" says Walker,\n\"about the year 1720.\"[7] We must necessarily infer that the pretensions\nof the natives to supernatural communication could not be of a high\nclass, since we find them honouring this poor madman as their superior;\nand, in general, that the magic, or powahing, of the North American\nIndians was not of a nature to be much apprehended by the British\ncolonists, since the natives themselves gave honour and precedence to\nthose Europeans who came among them with the character of possessing\nintercourse with the spirits whom they themselves professed to worship.\n\n[Footnote 7: See Patrick Walker's \"Biographia Presbyteriana,\" vol. ii.\np. 23; also \"God's Judgment upon Persecutors,\" and Wodrow's \"History,\"\nupon the article John Gibb.]\n\nNotwithstanding this inferiority on the part of the powahs, it occurred\nto the settlers that the heathen Indians and Roman Catholic Frenchmen\nwere particularly favoured by the demons, who sometimes adopted their\nappearance, and showed themselves in their likeness, to the great\nannoyance of the colonists. Thus, in the year 1692, a party of real or\nimaginary French and Indians exhibited themselves occasionally to the\ncolonists of the town of Gloucester, in the county of Essex, New\nEngland, alarmed the country around very greatly, skirmished repeatedly\nwith the English, and caused the raising of two regiments, and the\ndispatching a strong reinforcement to the assistance of the settlement.\nBut as these visitants, by whom they were plagued more than a fortnight,\nthough they exchanged fire with the settlers, never killed or scalped\nany one, the English became convinced that they were not real Indians\nand Frenchmen, but that the devil and his agents had assumed such an\nappearance, although seemingly not enabled effectually to support it,\nfor the molestation of the colony.[8]\n\n[Footnote 8: \"Magnalia,\" book vii. article xviii. The fact is also\nalleged in the \"Life of Sir William Phipps.\"]\n\nIt appears, then, that the ideas of superstition which the more ignorant\nconverts to the Christian faith borrowed from the wreck of the classic\nmythology, were so rooted in the minds of their successors, that these\nfound corroboration of their faith in demonology in the practice of\nevery pagan nation whose destiny it was to encounter them as enemies,\nand that as well within the limits of Europe as in every other part of\nthe globe to which their arms were carried. In a word, it may be safely\nlaid down, that the commonly received doctrine of demonology, presenting\nthe same general outlines, though varied according to the fancy of\nparticular nations, existed through all Europe. It seems to have been\nfounded originally on feelings incident to the human heart, or diseases\nto which the human frame is liable--to have been largely augmented by\nwhat classic superstitions survived the ruins of paganism--and to have\nreceived new contributions from the opinions collected among the\nbarbarous nations, whether of the east or of the west. It is now\nnecessary to enter more minutely into the question, and endeavour to\ntrace from what especial sources the people of the Middle Ages derived\nthose notions which gradually assumed the shape of a regular system of\ndemonology.\n\n\n\n\nLETTER III.\n\n    Creed of Zoroaster--Received partially into most Heathen\n    Nations--Instances among the Celtic Tribes of Scotland--Beltane\n    Feast--Gudeman's Croft--Such abuses admitted into Christianity after\n    the earlier Ages of the Church--Law of the Romans against Witchcraft\n    --Roman customs survive the fall of their\n    Religion--Instances--Demonology of the Northern\n    Barbarians--Nicksas--Bhargeist--Correspondence between the Northern\n    and Roman Witches--The power of Fascination ascribed to the\n    Sorceresses--Example from the \"Eyrbiggia Saga\"--The Prophetesses of\n    the Germans--The Gods of Valhalla not highly regarded by their\n    Worshippers--Often defied by the Champions--Demons of the\n    North--Story of Assueit and Asmund--Action of Ejectment against\n    Spectres--Adventure of a Champion with the Goddess Freya--Conversion\n    of the Pagans of Iceland to Christianity--Northern Superstitions\n    mixed with those of the Celts--Satyrs of the North--Highland\n    Ourisk--Meming the Satyr.\n\n\nThe creed of Zoroaster, which naturally occurs to unassisted reason as a\nmode of accounting for the mingled existence of good and evil in the\nvisible world--that belief which, in one modification or another,\nsupposes the co-existence of a benevolent and malevolent principle,\nwhich contend together without either being able decisively to prevail\nover his antagonist, leads the fear and awe deeply impressed on the\nhuman mind to the worship as well of the author of evil, so tremendous\nin all the effects of which credulity accounts him the primary cause, as\nto that of his great opponent, who is loved and adored as the father of\nall that is good and bountiful. Nay, such is the timid servility of\nhuman nature that the worshippers will neglect the altars of the Author\nof good rather than that of Arimanes, trusting with indifference to the\nwell-known mercy of the one, while they shrink from the idea of\nirritating the vengeful jealousy of the awful father of evil.\n\nThe Celtic tribes, by whom, under various denominations, Europe seems to\nhave been originally peopled, possessed, in common with other savages, a\nnatural tendency to the worship of the evil principle. They did not,\nperhaps, adore Arimanes under one sole name, or consider the malignant\ndivinities as sufficiently powerful to undertake a direct struggle with\nthe more benevolent gods; yet they thought it worth while to propitiate\nthem by various expiatory rites and prayers, that they, and the\nelementary tempests which they conceived to be under their direct\ncommand, might be merciful to suppliants who had acknowledged their\npower, and deprecated their vengeance.\n\nRemains of these superstitions might be traced till past the middle of\nthe last century, though fast becoming obsolete, or passing into mere\npopular customs of the country, which the peasantry observe without\nthinking of their origin. About 1769, when Mr. Pennant made his tour,\nthe ceremony of the Baaltein, Beltane, or First of May, though varying\nin different districts of the Highlands, was yet in strict observance,\nand the cake, which was then baken with scrupulous attention to certain\nrites and forms, was divided into fragments, which were formally\ndedicated to birds or beasts of prey that they, or rather the being\nwhose agents they were, might spare the flocks and herds.[9]\n\n[Footnote 9: See Tennant's \"Scottish Tour,\" vol. i. p. III. The\ntraveller mentions that some festival of the same kind was in his time\nobserved in Gloucestershire.]\n\nAnother custom of similar origin lingered late among us. In many\nparishes of Scotland there was suffered to exist a certain portion of\nland, called _the gudeman's croft_, which was never ploughed or\ncultivated, but suffered to remain waste, like the TEMENOS of a pagan\ntemple, Though it was not expressly avowed, no one doubted that \"the\ngoodman's croft\" was set apart for some evil being; in fact, that it was\nthe portion of the arch-fiend himself, whom our ancestors distinguished\nby a name which, while it was generally understood, could not, it was\nsupposed, be offensive to the stern inhabitant of the regions of\ndespair. This was so general a custom that the Church published an\nordinance against it as an impious and blasphemous usage.\n\nThis singular custom sunk before the efforts of the clergy in the\nseventeenth century; but there must still be many alive who, in\nchildhood, have been taught to look with wonder on knolls and patches of\nground left uncultivated, because, whenever a ploughshare entered the\nsoil, the elementary spirits were supposed to testify their displeasure\nby storm and thunder. Within our own memory, many such places,\nsanctified to barrenness by some favourite popular superstition,\nexisted, both in Wales and Ireland, as well as in Scotland; but the high\nprice of agricultural produce during the late war renders it doubtful if\na veneration for greybearded superstition has suffered any one of them\nto remain undesecrated. For the same reason the mounts called Sith\nBhruaith were respected, and it was deemed unlawful and dangerous to cut\nwood, dig earth and stones, or otherwise disturb them.[10]\n\n[Footnote 10: See \"Essay on the Subterranean Commonwealth,\" by Mr.\nRobert Kirke, minister of Aberfoyle.]\n\nNow, it may at first sight seem strange that the Christian religion\nshould have permitted the existence of such gross and impious relics of\nheathenism, in a land where its doctrines had obtained universal\ncredence. But this will not appear so wonderful when it is recollected\nthat the original Christians under the heathen emperors were called to\nconversion by the voice of apostles and saints, invested for the purpose\nwith miraculous powers, as well of language, for communicating their\ndoctrine to the Gentiles, as of cures, for the purpose of authenticating\ntheir mission. These converts must have been in general such elect\npersons as were effectually called to make part of the infant church;\nand when hypocrites ventured, like Ananias and Sapphira, to intrude\nthemselves into so select an association, they were liable, at the\nDivine pleasure, to be detected and punished. On the contrary, the\nnations who were converted after Christianity had become the religion of\nthe empire were not brought within the pale upon such a principle of\nselection, as when the church consisted of a few individuals, who had,\nupon conviction, exchanged the errors of the pagan religion for the\ndangers and duties incurred by those who embraced a faith inferring the\nself-denial of its votaries, and at the same time exposing them to\npersecution. When the cross became triumphant, and its cause no longer\nrequired the direction of inspired men, or the evidence of miracles, to\ncompel reluctant belief, it is evident that the converts who thronged\ninto the fold must have, many of them, entered because Christianity was\nthe prevailing faith--many because it was the church, the members of\nwhich rose most readily to promotion--many, finally, who, though content\nto resign the worship of pagan divinities, could not at once clear their\nminds of heathen ritual and heathen observances, which they\ninconsistently laboured to unite with the more simple and majestic faith\nthat disdained such impure union. If this was the case, even in the\nRoman empire, where the converts to the Christian faith must have found,\namong the earlier members of the church, the readiest and the soundest\ninstruction, how much more imperfectly could those foreign and barbarous\ntribes receive the necessary religious information from some zealous and\nenthusiastic preacher, who christened them by hundreds in one day? Still\nless could we imagine them to have acquired a knowledge of Christianity,\nin the genuine and perfect sense of the word, when, as was frequently\nthe case, they only assumed the profession of the religion that had\nbecome the choice of some favoured chief, whose example they followed in\nmere love and loyalty, without, perhaps, attaching more consequence to a\nchange of religion than to a change of garments. Such hasty converts,\nprofessing themselves Christians, but neither weaned from their old\nbelief, nor instructed in their new one, entered the sanctuary without\nlaying aside the superstitions with which their young minds had been\nimbued; and accustomed to a plurality of deities, some of them, who\nbestowed unusual thought on the matter, might be of opinion that, in\nadopting the God of the Christians, they had not renounced the service\nof every inferior power.\n\nIf, indeed, the laws of the empire could have been supposed to have had\nany influence over those fierce barbarians, who conceived that the\nempire itself lay before them as a spoil, they might have been told that\nConstantine, taking the offence of alleged magicians and sorcerers in\nthe same light in which it was viewed in the law of Moses, had denounced\ndeath against any who used these unlawful enquiries into futurity. \"Let\nthe unlawful curiosity of prying into futurity,\" says the law, \"be\nsilent in every one henceforth and for ever.[11] For, subjected to the\navenging sword of the law, he shall be punished capitally who disobeys\nour commands in this matter.\"\n\n[Footnote 11: \"Codex,\" lib. ix. tit. 18, cap. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8.]\n\nIf, however, we look more closely into this enactment, we shall be led\nto conclude that the civil law does not found upon the prohibitions and\npenalties in Scripture; although it condemns the _ars mathematica_ (for\nthe most mystic and uncertain of all sciences, real or pretended, at\nthat time held the title which now distinguishes the most exact) as a\ndamnable art, and utterly interdicted, and declares that the\npractitioners therein should die by fire, as enemies of the human\nrace--yet the reason of this severe treatment seems to be different from\nthat acted upon in the Mosaical institutions. The weight of the crime\namong the Jews was placed on the blasphemy of the diviners, and their\ntreason against the theocracy instituted by Jehovah. The Roman\nlegislators were, on the other hand, moved chiefly by the danger arising\nto the person of the prince and the quiet of the state, so apt to be\nunsettled by every pretence or encouragement to innovation. The reigning\nemperors, therefore, were desirous to place a check upon the mathematics\n(as they termed the art of divination), much more for a political than a\nreligious cause, since we observe, in the history of the empire, how\noften the dethronement or death of the sovereign was produced by\nconspiracies or mutinies which took their rise from pretended\nprophecies. In this mode of viewing the crime, the lawyers of the lower\nempire acted upon the example of those who had compiled the laws of the\ntwelve tables.[12] The mistaken and misplaced devotion which Horace\nrecommends to the rural nymph, Phidyle, would have been a crime of a\ndeep dye in a Christian convert, and must have subjected him to\nexcommunication, as one relapsed to the rites of paganism; but he might\nindulge his superstition by supposing that though he must not worship\nPan or Ceres as gods, he was at liberty to fear them in their new\ncapacity of fiends. Some compromise between the fear and the conscience\nof the new converts, at a time when the church no longer consisted\nexclusively of saints, martyrs, and confessors, the disciples of\ninspired Apostles, led them, and even their priestly guides, subject\nlike themselves to human passions and errors, to resort as a charm, if\nnot as an act of worship, to those sacrifices, words, and ritual, by\nwhich the heathen, whom they had succeeded, pretended to arrest evil or\nprocure benefits.\n\n[Footnote 12: By this more ancient code, the punishment of death was\nindeed denounced against those who destroyed crops, awakened storms, or\nbrought over to their barns and garners the fruits of the earth; but, by\ngood fortune, it left the agriculturists of the period at liberty to use\nthe means they thought most proper to render their fields fertile and\nplentiful. Pliny informs us that one Caius Furius Cresinus, a Roman of\nmean estate, raised larger crops from a small field than his neighbours\ncould obtain from more ample possessions. He was brought before the\njudge upon a charge averring that he conjured the fruits of the earth,\nproduced by his neighbours' farms, into his own possession. Cresinus\nappeared, and, having proved the return of his farm to be the produce of\nhis own hard and unremitting labour, as well as superior skill, was\ndismissed with the highest honours.]\n\nWhen such belief in a hostile principle and its imaginations was become\ngeneral in the Roman empire, the ignorance of its conquerors, those wild\nnations, Franks, Goths, Vandals, Huns, and similar classes of unrefined\nhumanity, made them prone to an error which there were few judicious\npreachers to warn them against; and we ought rather to wonder and admire\nthe Divine clemency, which imparted to so rude nations the light of the\nGospel, and disposed them to receive a religion so repugnant to their\nwarlike habits, than that they should, at the same time, have adopted\nmany gross superstitions, borrowed from the pagans, or retained numbers\nof those which had made part of their own national forms of heathenism.\n\nThus, though the thrones of Jupiter and the superior deities of the\nheathen Pantheon were totally overthrown and broken to pieces, fragments\nof their worship and many of their rites survived the conversion to\nChristianity--nay, are in existence even at this late and enlightened\nperiod, although those by whom they are practised have not preserved the\nleast memory of their original purpose. We may hastily mention one or\ntwo customs of classical origin, in addition to the Beltane and those\nalready noticed, which remain as examples that the manners of the Romans\nonce gave the tone to the greater part of the island of Britain, and at\nleast to the whole which was to the south of the wall of Severus.\n\nThe following customs still linger in the south of Scotland, and belong\nto this class: The bride, when she enters the house of her husband, is\nlifted over the threshold, and to step on it or over it voluntarily is\nreckoned a bad omen. This custom was universal in Rome, where it was\nobserved as keeping in memory the rape of the Sabines, and that it was\nby a show of violence towards the females that the object of peopling\nthe city was attained. On the same occasion a sweet cake, baked for the\npurpose, is broken above the head of the bride; which is also a rite of\nclassic antiquity.\n\nIn like manner, the Scottish, even of the better rank, avoid contracting\nmarriage in the month of May, which genial season of flowers and breezes\nmight, in other respects, appear so peculiarly favourable for that\npurpose. It was specially objected to the marriage of Mary with the\nprofligate Earl of Bothwell, that the union was formed within this\ninterdicted month. This prejudice was so rooted among the Scots that, in\n1684, a set of enthusiasts, called Gibbites, proposed to renounce it,\namong a long list of stated festivals, fast-days, popish relics, not\nforgetting the profane names of the days of the week, names of the\nmonths, and all sorts of idle and silly practices which their tender\nconsciences took an exception to. This objection to solemnize marriage\nin the merry month of May, however fit a season for courtship, is also\nborrowed from the Roman pagans, which, had these fanatics been aware of\nit, would have been an additional reason for their anathema against the\npractice. The ancients have given us as a maxim, that it is only bad\nwomen who marry in that month.[13]\n\n[Footnote 13: \"Mal\u00e6 nubent Maia.\"]\n\nThe custom of saying God bless you, when a person in company sneezes,\nis, in like manner, derived from sternutation being considered as a\ncrisis of the plague at Athens, and the hope that, when it was attained\nthe patient had a chance of recovery.\n\nBut besides these, and many other customs which the various nations of\nEurope received from the classical times, and which it is not our object\nto investigate, they derived from thence a shoal of superstitious\nbeliefs, which, blended and mingled with those which they brought with\nthem out of their own country, fostered and formed the materials of a\ndemonological creed which has descended down almost to our own times.\nNixas, or Nicksa, a river or ocean god, worshipped on the shores of the\nBaltic, seems to have taken uncontested possession of the attributes of\nNeptune. Amid the twilight winters and overpowering tempests of these\ngloomy regions, he had been not unnaturally chosen as the power most\nadverse to man, and the supernatural character with which he was\ninvested has descended to our time under two different aspects. The Nixa\nof the Germans is one of those fascinating and lovely fays whom the\nancients termed Naiads; and unless her pride is insulted or her jealousy\nawakened by an inconstant lover, her temper is generally mild and her\nactions beneficent. The Old Nick known in England is an equally genuine\ndescendant of the northern sea-god, and possesses a larger portion of\nhis powers and terrors The British sailor, who fears nothing else,\nconfesses his terror for this terrible being, and believes him the\nauthor of almost all the various calamities to which the precarious life\nof a seaman is so continually exposed.\n\nThe Bhar-guest, or Bhar-geist, by which name it is generally\nacknowledged through various country parts of England, and particularly\nin Yorkshire, also called a Dobie--a local spectre which haunts a\nparticular spot under various forms--is a deity, as his name implies, of\nTeutonic descent; and if it be true, as the author has been informed,\nthat some families bearing the name of Dobie carry a phantom or spectre,\npassant, in their armorial bearings,[14] it plainly implies that,\nhowever the word may have been selected for a proper name, its original\nderivation had not then been forgotten.\n\n[Footnote 14: A similar bearing has been ascribed, for the same reason,\nto those of the name of Fantome, who carried of old a goblin, or\nphantom, in a shroud sable passant, on a field azure. Both bearings are\nfounded on what is called canting heraldry, a species of art disowned by\nthe writers on the science, yet universally made use of by those who\npractice the art of blazonry.]\n\nThe classic mythology presented numerous points in which it readily\ncoalesced with that of the Germans, Danes, and Northmen of a later\nperiod. They recognized the power of Erictho, Canidia, and other\nsorceresses, whose spell could perplex the course of the elements,\nintercept the influence of the sun, and prevent his beneficial operation\nupon the fruits of the earth, call down the moon from her appointed\nsphere, and disturb the original and destined course of Nature by their\nwords and charms and the power of the evil spirits whom they invoked.\nThey were also professionally implicated in all such mystic and secret\nrites and ceremonies as were used to conciliate the favour of the\ninfernal powers, whose dispositions were supposed as dark and wayward as\ntheir realms were gloomy and dismal. Such hags were frequent agents in\nthe violation of unburied bodies, and it was believed, by the vulgar at\nleast, that it was dangerous to leave corpses unguarded lest they should\nbe mangled by the witches, who took from them the most choice\ningredients composing their charms. Above all, it must not be forgotten\nthat these frightful sorceresses possessed the power of transforming\nthemselves and others into animals, which are used in their degree of\nquadrupeds, or in whatever other laborious occupation belongs to the\ntransformed state. The poets of the heathens, with authors of fiction,\nsuch as Lucian and Apuleius, ascribe all these powers to the witches of\nthe pagan world, combining them with the art of poisoning, and of making\nmagical philtres to seduce the affections of the young and beautiful;\nand such were the characteristics which, in greater or less extent, the\npeople of the Middle Ages ascribed to the witches of their day.\n\nBut in thus adopting the superstitions of the ancients, the conquerors\nof the Roman Empire combined them with similar articles of belief which\nthey had brought with them from their original settlements in the North,\nwhere the existence of hags of the same character formed a great feature\nin their Sagas and their Chronicles. It requires but a slight\nacquaintance with these compositions to enable the reader to recognize\nin the Galdrakinna of the Scalds the _Stryga_ or witch-woman of more\nclassical climates. In the northern ideas of witches there was no\nirreligion concerned with their lore. On the contrary, the possession of\nmagical knowledge was an especial attribute of Odin himself; and to\nintrude themselves upon a deity, and compel him to instruct them in what\nthey desired to know, was accounted not an act of impiety, but of\ngallantry and high courage, among those sons of the sword and the spear.\nTheir matrons possessed a high reputation for magic, for prophetic\npowers, for creating illusions; and, if not capable of transformations\nof the human body, they were at least able to impose such fascination on\nthe sight of their enemies as to conceal for a period the objects of\nwhich they were in search.\n\nThere is a remarkable story in the Eyrbiggia Saga (\"Historia\nEyranorum\"), giving the result of such a controversy between two of\nthese gifted women, one of whom was determined on discovering and\nputting to death the son of the other, named Katla, who in a brawl had\ncut off the hand of the daughter-in-law of Geirada. A party detached to\navenge this wrong, by putting Oddo to death, returned deceived by the\nskill of his mother. They had found only Katla, they said, spinning flax\nfrom a large distaff. \"Fools,\" said Geirada, \"that distaff was the man\nyou sought.\" They returned, seized the distaff, and burnt it. But this\nsecond time, the witch disguised her son under the appearance of a tame\nkid. A third time he was a hog, which grovelled among the ashes. The\nparty returned yet again; augmented as one of Katla's maidens, who kept\nwatch, informed her mistress, by one in a blue mantle. \"Alas!\" said\nKatla, \"it is the sorceress Geirada, against whom spells avail not.\"\nAccordingly, the hostile party, entering for the fourth time, seized on\nthe object of their animosity, and put him to death.[15] This species of\nwitchcraft is well known in Scotland as the _glamour,_ or _deceptio\nvisus_, and was supposed to be a special attribute of the race of\nGipsies.\n\n[Footnote 15: Eyrbiggia Saga, in \"Northern Antiquities.\"]\n\nNeither are those prophetesses to be forgotten, so much honoured among\nthe German tribes, that, as we are assured by Tacitus, they rose to the\nhighest rank in their councils, by their supposed supernatural\nknowledge, and even obtained a share in the direction of their armies.\nThis peculiarity in the habits of the North was so general, that it was\nno unusual thing to see females, from respect to their supposed views\ninto futurity, and the degree of divine inspiration which was vouchsafed\nto them, arise to the degree of HAXA, or chief priestess, from which\ncomes the word _Hexe_, now universally used for a witch; a circumstance\nwhich plainly shows that the mythological system of the ancient natives\nof the North had given to the modern language an appropriate word for\ndistinguishing those females who had intercourse with the spiritual\nworld.[16]\n\n[Footnote 16: It may be worth while to notice that the word Haxa is\nstill used in Scotland in its sense of a druidess, or chief priestess,\nto distinguish the places where such females exercised their ritual.\nThere is a species of small intrenchment on the western descent of the\nEildon hills, which Mr. Milne, in his account of the parish of Melrose,\ndrawn up about eighty years ago, says, was denominated _Bourjo_, a word\nof unknown derivation, by which the place is still known. Here an\nuniversal and subsisting tradition bore that human sacrifices were of\nyore offered, while the people assisting could behold the ceremony from\nthe elevation of the glacis which slopes inward. With this place of\nsacrifice communicated a path, still discernible, called the\n_Haxell-gate_, leading to a small glen or narrow valley called the\n_Haxellcleuch_--both which words are probably derived from the Haxa or\nchief priestess of the pagans.]\n\nIt is undeniable that these Pythonesses were held in high respect while\nthe pagan religion lasted; but for that very reason they became odious\nso soon as the tribe was converted to Christianity. They were, of\ncourse, if they pretended to retain their influence, either despised as\nimpostors or feared as sorceresses; and the more that, in particular\ninstances, they became dreaded for their power, the more they were\ndetested, under the conviction that they derived it from the enemy of\nman. The deities of the northern heathens underwent a similar\nmetamorphosis, resembling that proposed by Drawcansir in the\n\"Rehearsal,\" who threatens \"to make a god subscribe himself a devil.\"\n\nThe warriors of the North received this new impression concerning the\ninfluence of their deities, and the source from which it was derived,\nwith the more indifference, as their worship, when their mythology was\nmost generally established, was never of a very reverential or\ndevotional character. Their idea of their own merely human prowess was\nso high, that the champions made it their boast, as we have already\nhinted, they would not give way in fight even to the immortal gods\nthemselves. Such, we learn from C\u00e6sar, was the idea of the Germans\nconcerning the Suevi, or Swabians, a tribe to whom the others yielded\nthe palm of valour; and many individual stories are told in the Sagas\nconcerning bold champions, who had fought, not only with the sorcerers,\nbut with the demigods of the system, and come off unharmed, if not\nvictorious, in the contest. Hother, for example, encountered the god\nThor in battle, as Diomede, in the Iliad, engages with Mars, and with\nlike success. Bartholsine[17] gives us repeated examples of the same\nkind. \"Know this,\" said Kiartan to Olaus Trigguasen, \"that I believe\nneither in idols nor demons. I have travelled through various strange\ncountries, and have encountered many giants and monsters, and have never\nbeen conquered by them; I therefore put my sole trust in my own strength\nof body and courage of soul.\" Another yet more broad answer was made to\nSt. Olaus, King of Norway, by Gaukater. \"I am neither Pagan nor\nChristian. My comrades and I profess no other religion than a perfect\nconfidence in our own strength and invincibility in battle.\" Such\nchieftains were of the sect of Mezentius--\n\n\"Dextra mihi Deus, et telum, quod missile libro,\n Nunc adsint!\"[18]\n\nAnd we cannot wonder that champions of such a character, careless of\ntheir gods while yet acknowledged as such, readily regarded them as\ndemons after their conversion to Christianity.\n\n[Footnote 17: \"De causis contempt\u00e6 necis,\" lib. i. cap 6.]\n\n[Footnote 18: \"\u00c6neid,\" lib. x. line 773.]\n\nTo incur the highest extremity of danger became accounted a proof of\nthat insuperable valour for which every Northman desired to be famed,\nand their annals afford numerous instances of encounters with ghosts,\nwitches, furies, and fiends, whom the Kiemp\u00e9, or champions, compelled to\nsubmit to their mere mortal strength, and yield to their service the\nweapons or other treasures which they guarded in their tombs.\n\nThe Norsemen were the more prone to these superstitions, because it was\na favourite fancy of theirs that, in many instances, the change from\nlife to death altered the temper of the human spirit from benignant to\nmalevolent; or perhaps, that when the soul left the body, its departure\nwas occasionally supplied by a wicked demon, who took the opportunity to\nenter and occupy its late habitation.\n\nUpon such a supposition the wild fiction that follows is probably\ngrounded; which, extravagant as it is, possesses something striking to\nthe imagination. Saxo Grammaticus tells us of the fame of two Norse\nprinces or chiefs, who had formed what was called a brotherhood in arms,\nimplying not only the firmest friendship and constant support during all\nthe adventures which they should undertake in life, but binding them by\na solemn compact, that after the death of either, the survivor should\ndescend alive into the sepulchre of his brother-in-arms, and consent to\nbe buried alongst with him. The task of fulfilling this dreadful compact\nfell upon Asmund, his companion, Assueit, having been slain in battle.\nThe tomb was formed after the ancient northern custom in what was called\nthe age of hills, that is, when it was usual to bury persons of\ndistinguished merit or rank on some conspicuous spot, which was crowned\nwith a mound. With this purpose a deep narrow vault was constructed, to\nbe the apartment of the future tomb over which the sepulchral heap was\nto be piled. Here they deposited arms, trophies, poured forth, perhaps,\nthe blood of victims, introduced into the tomb the war-horses of the\nchampions, and when these rites had been duly paid, the body of Assueit\nwas placed in the dark and narrow house, while his faithful\nbrother-in-arms entered and sat down by the corpse, without a word or\nlook which testified regret or unwillingness to fulfil his fearful\nengagement. The soldiers who had witnessed this singular interment of\nthe dead and living, rolled a huge stone to the mouth of the tomb, and\npiled so much earth and stones above the spot as made a mound visible\nfrom a great distance, and then, with loud lamentation for the loss of\nsuch undaunted leaders, they dispersed themselves like a flock which has\nlost its shepherd.\n\nYears passed away after years, and a century had elapsed ere a noble\nSwedish rover, bound upon some high adventure and supported by a gallant\nband of followers, arrived in the valley which took its name from the\ntomb of the brethren-in-arms. The story was told to the strangers, whose\nleader determined on opening the sepulchre, partly because, as already\nhinted, it was reckoned a heroic action to brave the anger of departed\nheroes by violating their tombs; partly to attain the arms and swords of\nproof with which the deceased had done their great actions. He set his\nsoldiers to work, and soon removed the earth and stones from one side of\nthe mound, and laid bare the entrance. But the stoutest of the rovers\nstarted back when, instead of the silence of a tomb, they heard within\nhorrid cries, the clash of swords, the clang of armour, and all the\nnoise of a mortal combat between two furious champions. A young warrior\nwas let down into the profound tomb by a cord, which was drawn up\nshortly after, in hopes of news from beneath. But when the adventurer\ndescended, some one threw him from the cord, and took his place in the\nnoose. When the rope was pulled up, the soldiers, instead of their\ncompanion, beheld Asmund, the survivor of the brethren-in-arms. He\nrushed into the open air, his sword drawn in his hand, his armour half\ntorn from his body, the left side of his face almost scratched off, as\nby the talons of some wild beast. He had no sooner appeared in the light\nof day, than, with the improvisatory poetic talent, which these\nchampions often united with heroic strength and bravery, he poured forth\na string of verses containing the history of his hundred years' conflict\nwithin the tomb. It seems that no sooner was the sepulchre closed than\nthe corpse of the slain Assueit arose from the ground, inspired by some\nravenous goule, and having first torn to pieces and devoured the horses\nwhich had been entombed with them, threw himself upon the companion who\nhad just given him such a sign of devoted friendship, in order to treat\nhim in the same manner. The hero, no way discountenanced by the horrors\nof his situation, took to his arms, and defended himself manfully\nagainst Assueit, or rather against the evil demon who tenanted that\nchampion's body. In this manner the living brother waged a preternatural\ncombat, which had endured during a whole century, when Asmund, at last\nobtaining the victory, prostrated his enemy, and by driving, as he\nboasted, a stake through his body, had finally reduced him to the state\nof quiet becoming a tenant of the tomb. Having chanted the triumphant\naccount of his contest and victory, this mangled conqueror fell dead\nbefore them. The body of Assueit was taken out of the tomb, burnt, and\nthe ashes dispersed to heaven; whilst that of the victor, now lifeless\nand without a companion, was deposited there, so that it was hoped his\nslumbers might remain undisturbed.[19] The precautions taken against\nAssueit's reviving a second time, remind us of those adopted in the\nGreek islands and in the Turkish provinces against the vampire. It\naffords also a derivation of the ancient English law in case of suicide,\nwhen a stake was driven through the body, originally to keep it secure\nin the tomb.\n\n[Footnote 19: See Saxo Grammaticus, \"Hist. Dan.,\" lib. v.]\n\nThe Northern people also acknowledged a kind of ghosts, who, when they\nhad obtained possession of a building, or the right of haunting it, did\nnot defend themselves against mortals on the knightly principle of duel,\nlike Assueit, nor were amenable to the prayers of the priest or the\nspells of the sorcerer, but became tractable when properly convened in a\nlegal process. The Eyrbiggia Saga acquaints us, that the mansion of a\nrespectable landholder in Iceland was, soon after the settlement of that\nisland, exposed to a persecution of this kind. The molestation was\nproduced by the concurrence of certain mystical and spectral phenomena,\ncalculated to introduce such persecution. About the commencement of\nwinter, with that slight exchange of darkness and twilight which\nconstitutes night and day in these latitudes, a contagious disease arose\nin a family of consequence and in the neighbourhood, which, sweeping off\nseveral members of the family at different times, seemed to threaten\nthem all with death. But the death of these persons was attended with\nthe singular consequence that their spectres were seen to wander in the\nneighbourhood of the mansion-house, terrifying, and even assaulting,\nthose of the living family who ventured abroad. As the number of the\ndead members of the devoted household seemed to increase in proportion\nto that of the survivors, the ghosts took it upon them to enter the\nhouse, and produce their a\u00ebrial forms and wasted physiognomy, even in\nthe stove where the fire was maintained for the general use of the\ninhabitants, and which, in an Iceland winter, is the only comfortable\nplace of assembling the family. But the remaining inhabitants of the\nplace, terrified by the intrusion of these spectres, chose rather to\nwithdraw to the other extremity of the house, and abandon their warm\nseats, than to endure the neighbourhood of the phantoms. Complaints were\nat length made to a pontiff of the god Thor, named Snorro, who exercised\nconsiderable influence in the island. By his counsel, the young\nproprietor of the haunted mansion assembled a jury, or inquest, of his\nneighbours, constituted in the usual judicial form, as if to judge an\nordinary civil matter, and proceeded, in their presence, to cite\nindividually the various phantoms and resemblances of the deceased\nmembers of the family, to show by what warrant they disputed with him\nand his servants the quiet possession of his property, and what defence\nthey could plead for thus interfering with and incommoding the living.\nThe spectres of the dead, by name, and in order as summoned, appeared on\ntheir being called, and muttering some regrets at being obliged to\nabandon their dwelling, departed, or vanished, from the astonished\ninquest. Judgment then went against the ghosts by default; and the trial\nby jury, of which we here can trace the origin, obtained a triumph\nunknown to any of the great writers who have made it the subject of\neulogy.[20]\n\n[Footnote 20: Eyrbiggia Saga. See \"Northern Antiquities.\"]\n\nIt was not only with the spirits of the dead that the warlike people of\nthe North made war without timidity, and successfully entered into suits\nof ejectment. These daring champions often braved the indignation even\nof the superior deities of their mythology, rather than allow that there\nexisted any being before whom their boldness could quail. Such is the\nsingular story how a young man of high courage, in crossing a desolate\nridge of mountains, met with a huge waggon, in which the goddess, Freya\n(_i.e._, a gigantic idol formed to represent her), together with her\nshrine, and the wealthy offerings attached to it, was travelling from\none district of the country to another. The shrine, or sanctuary of the\nidol, was, like a modern caravan travelling with a show, screened by\nboards and curtains from the public gaze, and the equipage was under the\nimmediate guidance of the priestess of Freya, a young, good-looking, and\nattractive woman. The traveller naturally associated himself with the\npriestess, who, as she walked on foot, apparently was in no degree\ndispleased with the company of a powerful and handsome young man, as a\nguide and companion on the journey. It chanced, however, that the\npresence of the champion, and his discourse with the priestess, was less\nsatisfactory to the goddess than to the parties principally concerned.\nBy a certain signal the divinity summoned the priestess to the\nsanctuary, who presently returned, with tears in her eyes and terror in\nher countenance, to inform her companion that it was the will of Freya\nthat he should depart, and no longer travel in their company. \"You must\nhave mistaken the meaning of the goddess,\" said the champion; \"Freya\ncannot have formed a wish so unreasonable as to desire I should abandon\nthe straight and good road, which leads me directly on my journey, to\nchoose precipitous paths and by-roads, where I may break my neck.\"\n\"Nevertheless,\" said the priestess, \"the goddess will be highly offended\nif you disobey her commands, nor can I conceal from you that she may\npersonally assault you.\" \"It will be at her own peril if she should be\nso audacious,\" said the champion, \"for I will try the power of this axe\nagainst the strength of beams and boards.\" The priestess chid him for\nhis impiety; but being unable to compel him to obey the goddess's\nmandate, they again relapsed into familiarity, which advanced to such a\npoint that a clattering noise within the tabernacle, as of machinery put\nin motion, intimated to the travellers that Freya, who perhaps had some\nqualities in common with the classical Vesta, thought a personal\ninterruption of this t\u00eate-\u00e0-t\u00eate ought to be deferred no longer. The\ncurtains flew open, and the massive and awkward idol, who, we may\nsuppose, resembled in form the giant created by Frankenstein, leapt\nlumbering from the carriage, and, rushing on the intrusive traveller,\ndealt him, with its wooden hands and arms, such tremendous blows, as\nwere equally difficult to parry or to endure. But the champion was armed\nwith a double-edged Danish axe, with which he bestirred himself with so\nmuch strength and activity, that at length he split the head of the\nimage, and with a severe blow hewed off its left leg. The image of Freya\nthen fell motionless to the ground, and the demon which had animated it\nfled yelling from the battered tenement. The champion was now victor;\nand, according to the law of arms, took possession of the female and the\nbaggage. The priestess, the divinity of whose patroness had been by the\nevent of the combat sorely lessened in her eyes, was now easily induced\nto become the associate and concubine of the conqueror. She accompanied\nhim to the district whither he was travelling, and there displayed the\nshrine of Freya, taking care to hide the injuries which the goddess had\nreceived in the brawl. The champion came in for a share of a gainful\ntrade driven by the priestess, besides appropriating to himself most of\nthe treasures which the sanctuary had formerly contained. Neither does\nit appear that Freya, having, perhaps, a sensible recollection of the\npower of the axe, ever again ventured to appear in person for the\npurpose of calling her false stewards to account.\n\nThe national estimation of deities, concerning whom such stories could\nbe told and believed, was, of course, of no deep or respectful\ncharacter. The Icelanders abandoned Odin, Freya, Thor, and their whole\npagan mythology, in consideration of a single disputation between the\nheathen priests and the Christian missionaries. The priests threatened\nthe island with a desolating eruption of the volcano called Hecla, as\nthe necessary consequence of the vengeance of their deities. Snorro, the\nsame who advised the inquest against the ghosts, had become a convert to\nthe Christian religion, and was present on the occasion, and as the\nconference was held on the surface of what had been a stream of lava,\nnow covered with vegetable substances, he answered the priests with much\nreadiness, \"To what was the indignation of the gods owing when the\nsubstance on which we stand was fluid and scorching? Believe me, men of\nIceland, the eruption of the volcano depends on natural circumstances\nnow as it did then, and is not the engine of vengeance intrusted to Thor\nand Odin.\" It is evident that men who reasoned with so much accuracy\nconcerning the imbecility of Odin and Thor were well prepared, on\nabandoning their worship, to consider their former deities, of whom they\nbelieved so much that was impious, in the light of evil demons.\n\nBut there were some particulars of the Northern creed in which it\ncorresponded so exactly with that of the classics as leaves room to\ndoubt whether the original As\u00e6, or Asiatics, the founders of the\nScandinavian system, had, before their migration from Asia, derived them\nfrom some common source with those of the Greeks and Romans; or whether,\non the other hand, the same proneness of the human mind to superstition\nhas caused that similar ideas are adopted in different regions, as the\nsame plants are found in distant countries without the one, as far as\ncan be discovered, having obtained the seed from the others.\n\nThe classical fiction, for example, of the satyrs and other subordinate\ndeities of wood and wild, whose power is rather delusive than\nformidable, and whose supernatural pranks intimate rather a wish to\ninflict terror than to do hurt, was received among the Northern people,\nand perhaps transferred by them to the Celtic tribes. It is an idea\nwhich seems common to many nations. The existence of a satyr, in the\nsilvan form, is even pretended to be proved by the evidence of Saint\nAnthony, to whom one is said to have appeared in the desert. The\nScottish Gael have an idea of the same kind, respecting a goblin called\n_Ourisk_, whose form is like that of Pan, and his attendants something\nbetween a man and a goat, the nether extremities being in the latter\nform. A species of cavern, or rather hole, in the rock, affords to the\nwildest retreat in the romantic neighbourhood of Loch Katrine a name\ntaken from classical superstition. It is not the least curious\ncircumstance that from this silvan deity the modern nations of Europe\nhave borrowed the degrading and unsuitable emblems of the goat's visage\nand form, the horns, hoofs, and tail, with which they have depicted the\nauthor of evil when it pleased him to show himself on earth. So that the\nalteration of a single word would render Pope's well-known line more\ntruly adapted to the fact, should we venture to read--\n\n\"And Pan to _Satan_ lends his heathen horn.\"\n\nWe cannot attribute the transferrence of the attributes of the Northern\nsatyr, or Celtic ourisk, to the arch-fiend, to any particular\nresemblance between the character of these deities and that of Satan. On\nthe contrary, the ourisk of the Celts was a creature by no means\npeculiarly malevolent or formidably powerful, but rather a melancholy\nspirit, which dwelt in wildernesses far removed from men. If we are to\nidentify him with the Brown Dwarf of the Border moors, the ourisk has a\nmortal term of life and a hope of salvation, as indeed the same high\nclaim was made by the satyr who appeared to St. Anthony. Moreover, the\nHighland ourisk was a species of lubber fiend, and capable of being\nover-reached by those who understood philology. It is related of one of\nthese goblins which frequented a mill near the foot of Loch Lomond, that\nthe miller, desiring to get rid of this meddling spirit, who injured the\nmachinery by setting the water on the wheel when there was no grain to\nbe grinded, contrived to have a meeting with the goblin by watching in\nhis mill till night. The ourisk then entered, and demanded the miller's\nname, and was informed that he was called _Myself_; on which is founded\na story almost exactly like that of OUTIS in the \"Odyssey,\" a tale\nwhich, though classic, is by no means an elegant or ingenious fiction,\nbut which we are astonished to find in an obscure district, and in the\nCeltic tongue, seeming to argue some connexion or communication between\nthese remote Highlands of Scotland and the readers of Homer in former\ndays, which we cannot account for. After all, perhaps, some Churchman\nmore learned than his brethren may have transferred the legend from\nSicily to Duncrune, from the shores of the Mediterranean to those of\nLoch Lomond. I have heard it also told that the celebrated freebooter,\nRob Roy, once gained a victory by disguising a part of his men with\ngoat-skins, so as to resemble the _ourisk_ or Highland satyr.\n\nThere was an individual satyr called, I think, Meming, belonging to the\nScandinavian mythology, of a character different from the ourisk, though\nsimilar in shape, whom it was the boast of the highest champions to seek\nout in the solitudes which he inhabited. He was an armourer of extreme\ndexterity, and the weapons which he forged were of the highest value.\nBut as club-law pervaded the ancient system of Scandinavia, Meming had\nthe humour of refusing to work for any customer save such as compelled\nhim to it with force of arms. He may be, perhaps, identified with the\nrecusant smith who fled before Fingal from Ireland to the Orkneys, and\nbeing there overtaken, was compelled to forge the sword which Fingal\nafterwards wore in all his battles, and which was called the Son of the\ndark brown Luno, from the name of the armourer who forged it.[21]\n\n[Footnote 21: The weapon is often mentioned in Mr. MacPherson's\nparaphrases; but the Irish ballad, which gives a spirited account of the\ndebate between the champion and the armourer, is nowhere introduced.]\n\nFrom this it will appear that there were originals enough in the\nmythology of the Goths, as well as Celts, to furnish the modern\nattributes ascribed to Satan in later times, when the object of painter\nor poet was to display him in his true form and with all his terrors.\nEven the genius of Guido and of Tasso have been unable to surmount this\nprejudice, the more rooted, perhaps, that the wicked are described as\ngoats in Scripture, and that the devil is called the old dragon. In\nRaffael's famous painting of the archangel Michael binding Satan, the\ndignity, power, and angelic character expressed by the seraph form an\nextraordinary contrast to the poor conception of a being who ought not,\neven in that lowest degradation, to have seemed so unworthy an\nantagonist. Neither has Tasso been more happy, where he represents the\ndivan of darkness in the enchanted forest as presided over by a monarch\nhaving a huge tail, hoofs, and all the usual accompaniments of popular\ndiablerie. The genius of Milton alone could discard all these vulgar\npuerilities, and assign to the author of evil the terrible dignity of\none who should seem not \"less than archangel ruined.\" This species of\ndegradation is yet grosser when we take into consideration the changes\nwhich popular opinions have wrought respecting the taste, habits,\npowers, modes of tempting, and habits of tormenting, which are such as\nmight rather be ascribed to some stupid superannuated and doting ogre of\na fairy tale, than to the powerful-minded demon who fell through pride\nand rebellion, not through folly or incapacity.\n\nHaving, however, adopted our present ideas of the devil as they are\nexpressed by his nearest acquaintances, the witches, from the accounts\nof satyrs, which seem to have been articles of faith both among the\nCeltic and Gothic tribes, we must next notice another fruitful fountain\nof demonological fancies. But as this source of the mythology of the\nMiddle Ages must necessarily comprehend some account of the fairy folk,\nto whom much of it must be referred, it is necessary to make a pause\nbefore we enter upon the mystic and marvellous connexion supposed to\nexist between the impenitent kingdom of Satan and those merry dancers by\nmoonlight.\n\n\n\n\nLETTER IV.\n\n    The Fairy Superstition is derived from different sources--The\n    Classical Worship of the Silvans, or Rural Deities, proved by Roman\n    Altars discovered--The Gothic Duergar, or Dwarfs--Supposed to be\n    derived from the Northern Laps, or Fins--\"The\n    Niebelungen-Lied\"--King Laurin's Adventure--Celtic Fairies of a\n    gayer character, yet their pleasures empty and illusory--Addicted to\n    carry off Human Beings, both Infants and Adults--Adventures of a\n    Butler in Ireland--The Elves supposed to pay a Tax to Hell--The\n    Irish, Welsh, Highlanders, and Manxmen held the same belief--It was\n    rather rendered more gloomy by the Northern Traditions--Merlin and\n    Arthur carried off by the Fairies--Also Thomas of Erceldoune--His\n    Amour with the Queen of Elfland--His re-appearance in latter\n    times--Another account from Reginald Scot--Conjectures on the\n    derivation of the word Fairy.\n\n\nWe may premise by observing, that the classics had not forgotten to\nenrol in their mythology a certain species of subordinate deities,\nresembling the modern elves in their habits. Good old Mr. Gibb, of the\nAdvocates' Library (whom all lawyers whose youth he assisted in their\nstudies, by his knowledge of that noble collection, are bound to name\nwith gratitude), used to point out, amongst the ancient altars under his\ncharge, one which is consecrated, _Diis campestribus,_ and usually\nadded, with a wink, \"The fairies, ye ken.\"[22] This relic of antiquity\nwas discovered near Roxburgh Castle, and a vicinity more delightfully\nappropriate to the abode of the silvan deities can hardly be found.\n\n[Footnote 22: Another altar of elegant form and perfectly preserved,\nwas, within these few weeks, dug up near the junction of the Leader and\nthe Tweed, in the neighbourhood of the village of Newstead, to the east\nof Melrose. It was inscribed by Carrius Domitianus, the prefect of the\ntwentieth legion, to the god Sylvanus, forming another instance how much\nthe wild and silvan character of the country disposed the feelings of\nthe Romans to acknowledge the presence of the rural deities. The altar\nis preserved at Drygrange, the seat of Mr. Tod.]\n\nTwo rivers of considerable size, made yet more remarkable by the fame\nwhich has rendered them in some sort classical, unite their streams\nbeneath the vestiges of an extensive castle, renowned in the wars with\nEngland, and for the valiant, noble, and even royal blood, which has\nbeen shed around and before it--a landscape ornamented with the distant\nvillage and huge abbey tower of Kelso, arising out of groves of aged\ntrees--the modern mansion of Fleurs, with its terrace, its woods, and\nits extensive lawn--form altogether a kingdom for Oberon and Titania to\nreign in, or any spirit who, before their time, might love scenery, of\nwhich the majesty, and even the beauty, impress the mind with a sense of\nawe mingled with pleasure. These silvans, satyrs, and fauns with whom\nsuperstition peopled the lofty banks and tangled copses of this romantic\ncountry, were obliged to give place to deities very nearly resembling\nthemselves in character, who probably derive some of their attributes\nfrom their classic predecessors, although more immediately allied to the\nbarbarian conquerors. We allude to the fairies, which, as received into\nthe popular creed, and as described by the poets who have made use of\nthem as machinery, are certainly among the most pleasing legacies of\nfancy.\n\nDr. Leyden, who exhausted on this subject, as upon most others, a\nprofusion of learning, found the first idea of the elfin people in the\nNorthern opinions concerning the duergar, or dwarfs.[23] These were,\nhowever, it must be owned, spirits of a coarser sort, more laborious\nvocation, and more malignant temper, and in all respects less propitious\nto humanity, than the fairies (properly so called), which were the\ninvention of the Celtic people, and displayed that superiority of taste\nand fancy which, with the love of music and poetry, has been generally\nascribed to their race, through its various classes and modifications.\n\n[Footnote 23: See the essay on the Fairy Superstition, in the\n\"Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,\" of which many of the materials were\ncontributed by Dr. Leyden, and the whole brought into its present form\nby the author.]\n\nIn fact, there seems reason to conclude that these duergar were\noriginally nothing else than the diminutive natives of the Lappish,\nLettish, and Finnish nations, who, flying before the conquering weapons\nof the As\u00e6, sought the most retired regions of the North, and there\nendeavoured to hide themselves from their Eastern invaders. They were a\nlittle, diminutive race, but possessed of some skill probably in mining\nor smelting minerals, with which the country abounds. Perhaps also they\nmight, from their acquaintance with the changes of the clouds, or\nmeteorological phenomena, be judges of weather, and so enjoy another\ntitle to supernatural skill. At any rate, it has been plausibly supposed\nthat these poor people, who sought caverns and hiding-places from the\npersecution of the As\u00e6, were in some respects compensated for\ninferiority in strength and stature by the art and power with which the\nsuperstition of the enemy invested them. These oppressed yet dreaded\nfugitives obtained, naturally enough, the character of the German\nspirits called Kobold, from which the English goblin and the Scottish\nbogle, by some inversion and alteration of pronunciation, are evidently\nderived.\n\nThe Kobolds were a species of gnomes, who haunted the dark and solitary\nplaces, and were often seen in the mines, where they seemed to imitate\nthe labours of the miners, and sometimes took pleasure in frustrating\ntheir objects and rendering their toil unfruitful. Sometimes they were\nmalignant, especially if neglected or insulted; but sometimes also they\nwere indulgent to individuals whom they took under their protection.\nWhen a miner, therefore, hit upon a rich vein of ore, the inference\ncommonly was, not that he possessed more skill, industry, or even luck,\nthan his fellow-workmen, but that the spirits of the mine had directed\nhim to the treasure. The employment and apparent occupation of these\nsubterranean gnomes or fiends, led very naturally to identify the Fin,\nor Laplander, with the Kobold; but it was a bolder stretch of the\nimagination which confounded this reserved and sullen race with the\nlivelier and gayer spirit which bears correspondence with the British\nfairy. Neither can we be surprised that the duergar, ascribed by many\npersons to this source, should exhibit a darker and more malignant\ncharacter than the elves that revel by moonlight in more southern\nclimates.\n\nAccording to the old Norse belief, these dwarfs form the current\nmachinery of the Northern Sagas, and their inferiority in size is\nrepresented as compensated by skill and wisdom superior to those of\nordinary mortals. In the \"Niebelungen-Lied,\" one of the oldest romances\nof Germany, and compiled, it would seem, not long after the time of\nAttila, Theodorick of Bern, or of Verona, figures among a cycle of\nchampions over whom he presides, like the Charlemagne of France or\nArthur of England. Among others vanquished by him is the Elf King, or\nDwarf Laurin, whose dwelling was in an enchanted garden of roses, and\nwho had a body-guard of giants, a sort of persons seldom supposed to be\nthemselves conjurers. He becomes a formidable opponent to Theodorick and\nhis chivalry; but as he attempted by treachery to attain the victory, he\nis, when overcome, condemned to fill the dishonourable yet appropriate\noffice of buffoon and juggler at the Court of Verona.[24]\n\n[Footnote 24: See an abstract, by the late learned Henry Weber, of \"A\nLay on this subject of King Laurin,\" complied by Henry of Osterdingen.\n\"Northern Antiquities,\" Edinburgh, 1814.]\n\nSuch possession of supernatural wisdom is still imputed by the natives\nof the Orkney and Zetland Islands to the people called _Drows_, being a\ncorruption of duergar or _dwarfs_, and who may, in most other respects,\nbe identified with the Caledonian fairies. Lucas Jacobson Debes, who\ndates his description of Feroe from his Pathmos, in Thorshaven, March\n12, 1670, dedicates a long chapter to the spectres who disturbed his\ncongregation, and sometimes carried off his hearers. The actors in these\ndisturbances he states to be the _Skow_, or _Biergen-Trold_--_i.e._, the\nspirits of the woods and mountains, sometimes called subterranean\npeople, and adds, they appeared in deep caverns and among horrid rocks;\nas also, that they haunted the places where murders or other deeds of\nmortal sin had been acted. They appear to have been the genuine northern\ndwarfs, or Trows, another pronunciation of Trollds, and are considered\nby the reverend author as something very little better than actual\nfiends.\n\nBut it is not only, or even chiefly, to the Gothic race that we must\ntrace the opinions concerning the elves of the middle ages; these, as\nalready hinted, were deeply blended with the attributes which the Celtic\ntribes had, from the remotest ages, ascribed to their deities of rocks,\nvalleys, and forests. We have already observed, what indeed makes a\ngreat feature of their national character, that the power of the\nimagination is peculiarly active among the Celts, and leads to an\nenthusiasm concerning national music and dancing, national poetry and\nsong, the departments in which fancy most readily indulges herself. The\nIrish, the Welsh, the Gael, or Scottish Highlander, all tribes of Celtic\ndescent, assigned to the Men of Peace, Good Neighbours, or by whatever\nother names they called these sylvan pigmies, more social habits, and a\ncourse of existence far more gay, than the sullen and heavy toils of the\nmore saturnine Duergar. Their elves did not avoid the society of men,\nthough they behaved to those who associated with them with caprice,\nwhich rendered it dangerous to displease them; and although their gifts\nwere sometimes valuable, they were usually wantonly given and\nunexpectedly resumed.\n\nThe employment, the benefits, the amusements of the Fairy court,\nresembled the aerial people themselves. Their government was always\nrepresented as monarchical. A King, more frequently a Queen of Fairies,\nwas acknowledged; and sometimes both held their court together. Their\npageants and court entertainments comprehended all that the imagination\ncould conceive of what was, by that age, accounted gallant and splendid.\nAt their processions they paraded more beautiful steeds than those of\nmere earthly parentage--the hawks and hounds which they employed in\ntheir chase were of the first race. At their daily banquets, the board\nwas set forth with a splendour which the proudest kings of the earth\ndared not aspire to; and the hall of their dancers echoed to the most\nexquisite music. But when viewed by the eye of a seer the illusion\nvanished. The young knights and beautiful ladies showed themselves as\nwrinkled carles and odious hags--their wealth turned into\nslate-stones--their splendid plate into pieces of clay fantastically\ntwisted--and their victuals, unsavoured by salt (prohibited to them, we\nare told, because an emblem of eternity), became tasteless and\ninsipid--the stately halls were turned into miserable damp caverns--all\nthe delights of the Elfin Elysium vanished at once. In a word, their\npleasures were showy, but totally unsubstantial--their activity\nunceasing, but fruitless and unavailing--and their condemnation appears\nto have consisted in the necessity of maintaining the appearance of\nconstant industry or enjoyment, though their toil was fruitless and\ntheir pleasures shadowy and unsubstantial. Hence poets have designed\nthem as \"_the crew that never rest_.\" Besides the unceasing and useless\nbustle in which these spirits seemed to live, they had propensities\nunfavourable and distressing to mortals.\n\nOne injury of a very serious nature was supposed to be constantly\npractised by the fairies against \"the human mortals,\" that of carrying\noff their children, and breeding them as beings of their race.\nUnchristened infants were chiefly exposed to this calamity; but adults\nwere also liable to be abstracted from earthly commerce, notwithstanding\nit was their natural sphere. With respect to the first, it may be easily\nconceived that the want of the sacred ceremony of introduction into the\nChristian church rendered them the more obnoxious to the power of those\ncreatures, who, if not to be in all respects considered as fiends, had\nnevertheless, considering their constant round of idle occupation,\nlittle right to rank themselves among good spirits, and were accounted\nby most divines as belonging to a very different class. An adult, on the\nother hand, must have been engaged in some action which exposed him to\nthe power of the spirits, and so, as the legal phrase went, \"taken in\nthe manner.\" Sleeping on a fairy mount, within which the Fairy court\nhappened to be held for the time, was a very ready mode of obtaining a\npass for Elfland. It was well for the individual if the irate elves were\ncontented, on such occasions, with transporting him through the air to a\ncity at some forty miles' distance, and leaving, perhaps, his hat or\nbonnet on some steeple between, to mark the direct line of his course.\nOthers, when engaged in some unlawful action, or in the act of giving\nway to some headlong and sinful passion, exposed themselves also to\nbecome inmates of Fairyland.\n\nThe same belief on these points obtained in Ireland. Glanville, in his\n\"Eighteenth Relation,\" tells us of the butler of a gentleman, a\nneighbour of the Earl of Orrery, who was sent to purchase cards. In\ncrossing the fields, he saw a table surrounded by people apparently\nfeasting and making merry. They rose to salute him, and invited him to\njoin in their revel; but a friendly voice from the party whispered in\nhis ear, \"Do nothing which this company invite you to.\" Accordingly,\nwhen he refused to join in feasting, the table vanished, and the company\nbegan to dance and play on musical instruments; but the butler would not\ntake part in these recreations. They then left off dancing, and betook\nthemselves to work; but neither in this would the mortal join them. He\nwas then left alone for the present; but in spite of the exertions of my\nLord Orrery, in spite of two bishops who were his guests at the time, in\nspite of the celebrated Mr. Greatrix, it was all they could do to\nprevent the butler from being carried off bodily from amongst them by\nthe fairies, who considered him as their lawful prey. They raised him in\nthe air above the heads of the mortals, who could only run beneath, to\nbreak his fall when they pleased to let him go. The spectre which\nformerly advised the poor man continued to haunt him, and at length\ndiscovered himself to be the ghost of an acquaintance who had been dead\nfor seven years. \"You know,\" added he, \"I lived a loose life, and ever\nsince have I been hurried up and down in a restless condition, with the\ncompany you saw, and shall be till the day of judgment.\" He added, \"that\nif the butler had acknowledged God in all his ways, he had not suffered\nso much by their means; he reminded him that he had not prayed to God in\nthe morning before he met with this company in the field, and, moreover,\nthat he was then going on an unlawful business.\"\n\nIt is pretended that Lord Orrery confirmed the whole of this story, even\nto having seen the butler raised into the air by the invisible beings\nwho strove to carry him off. Only he did not bear witness to the passage\nwhich seems to call the purchase of cards an unlawful errand.[25]\n\n[Footnote 25: \"Sadducismus Triumphatus,\" by Joseph Glanville, p. 131.\nEdinburgh, 1790.]\n\nIndividuals, whose lives had been engaged in intrigues of politics or\nstratagems of war, were sometimes surreptitiously carried off to\nFairyland; as Alison Pearson, the sorceress who cured Archbishop\nAdamson, averred that she had recognised in the Fairy court the\ncelebrated Secretary Lethington and the old Knight of Buccleuch, the one\nof whom had been the most busy politician, the other one of the most\nunwearied partisans of Queen Mary, during the reign of that unfortunate\nqueen. Upon the whole, persons carried off by sudden death were usually\nsuspected of having fallen into the hands of the fairies, and unless\nredeemed from their power, which it was not always safe to attempt, were\ndoomed to conclude their lives with them. We must not omit to state that\nthose who had an intimate communication with these spirits, while they\nwere yet inhabitants of middle earth, were most apt to be seized upon\nand carried off to Elfland before their death.\n\nThe reason assigned for this kidnapping of the human race, so peculiar\nto the elfin people, is said to be that they were under a necessity of\npaying to the infernal regions a yearly tribute out of their population,\nwhich they were willing to defray by delivering up to the prince of\nthese regions the children of the human race, rather than their own.\nFrom this it must be inferred, that they have offspring among\nthemselves, as it is said by some authorities, and particularly by Mr.\nKirke, the minister of Aberfoyle. He indeed adds that, after a certain\nlength of life, these spirits are subject to the universal lot of\nmortality--a position, however, which has been controverted, and is\nscarcely reconcilable to that which holds them amenable to pay a tax to\nhell, which infers existence as eternal as the fire which is not\nquenched. The opinions on the subject of the fairy people here\nexpressed, are such as are entertained in the Highlands and some remote\nquarters of the Lowlands of Scotland. We know, from the lively and\nentertaining legends published by Mr. Crofton Croker--which, though in\nmost cases told with the wit of the editor and the humour of his\ncountry, contain points of curious antiquarian information--that the\nopinions of the Irish are conformable to the account we have given of\nthe general creed of the Celtic nations respecting elves. If the Irish\nelves are anywise distinguished from those of Britain, it seems to be by\ntheir disposition to divide into factions and fight among themselves--a\npugnacity characteristic of the Green Isle. The Welsh fairies, according\nto John Lewis, barrister-at-law, agree in the same general attributes\nwith those of Ireland and Britain. We must not omit the creed of the\nManxmen, since we find, from the ingenious researches of Mr. Waldron,\nthat the Isle of Man, beyond other places in Britain, was a peculiar\ndepository of the fairy traditions, which, on the island being conquered\nby the Norse, became, in all probability, chequered with those of\nScandinavia from a source peculiar and more direct than that by which\nthey reached Scotland or Ireland.\n\nSuch as it was, the popular system of the Celts easily received the\nnorthern admixture of Drows and Duergar, which gave the belief, perhaps,\na darker colouring than originally belonged to the British fairyland. It\nwas from the same source also, in all probability, that additional\nlegends were obtained of a gigantic and malignant female, the Hecate of\nthis mythology, who rode on the storm and marshalled the rambling host\nof wanderers under her grim banner. This hag (in all respects the\nreverse of the Mab or Titania of the Celtic creed) was called Nicneven\nin that later system which blended the faith of the Celts and of the\nGoths on this subject. The great Scottish poet Dunbar has made a\nspirited description of this Hecate riding at the head of witches and\ngood neighbours (fairies, namely), sorceresses and elves, indifferently,\nupon the ghostly eve of All-Hallow Mass.[26] In Italy we hear of the\nhags arraying themselves under the orders of Diana (in her triple\ncharacter of Hecate, doubtless) and Herodias, who were the joint leaders\nof their choir. But we return to the more simple fairy belief, as\nentertained by the Celts before they were conquered by the Saxons.\n\n[Footnote 26: See \"Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy.\"]\n\nOf these early times we can know little; but it is singular to remark\nwhat light the traditions of Scotland throw upon the poetry of the\nBritons of Cumberland, then called Reged. Merlin Wyllt, or the wild, is\nmentioned by both; and that renowned wizard, the son of an elf or fairy,\nwith King Arthur, the dubious champion of Britain at that early period,\nwere both said by tradition to have been abstracted by the fairies, and\nto have vanished without having suffered death, just at the time when it\nwas supposed that the magic of the wizard and the celebrated sword of\nthe monarch, which had done so much to preserve British independence,\ncould no longer avert the impending ruin. It may be conjectured that\nthere was a desire on the part of Arthur or his surviving champions to\nconceal his having received a mortal wound in the fatal battle of\nCamlan; and to that we owe the wild and beautiful incident so finely\nversified by Bishop Percy, in which, in token of his renouncing in\nfuture the use of arms, the monarch sends his attendant, sole survivor\nof the field, to throw his sword Excalibar into the lake hard by. Twice\neluding the request, the esquire at last complied, and threw the\nfar-famed weapon into the lonely mere. A hand and arm arose from the\nwater and caught Excalibar by the hilt, flourished it thrice, and then\nsank into the lake.[27] The astonished messenger returned to his master\nto tell him the marvels he had seen, but he only saw a boat at a\ndistance push from the land, and heard shrieks of females in agony:--\n\n\"And whether the king was there or not\n  He never knew, he never colde\n For never since that doleful day\n  Was British Arthur seen on molde.\"\n\n\n[Footnote 27: See \"Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.\"]\n\nThe circumstances attending the disappearance of Merlin would probably\nbe found as imaginative as those of Arthur's removal, but they cannot be\nrecovered; and what is singular enough, circumstances which originally\nbelonged to the history of this famous bard, said to be the son of the\nDemon himself, have been transferred to a later poet, and surely one of\nscarce inferior name, Thomas of Erceldoune. The legend was supposed to\nbe only preserved among the inhabitants of his native valleys, but a\ncopy as old as the reign of Henry VII. has been recovered. The story is\ninteresting and beautifully told, and, as one of the oldest fairy\nlegends, may well be quoted in this place.\n\nThomas of Erceldoune, in Lauderdale, called the Rhymer, on account of\nhis producing a poetical romance on the subject of Tristrem and Yseult,\nwhich is curious as the earliest specimen of English verse known to\nexist, flourished in the reign of Alexander III. of Scotland. Like other\nmen of talent of the period, Thomas was suspected of magic. He was said\nalso to have the gift of prophecy, which was accounted for in the\nfollowing peculiar manner, referring entirely to the elfin\nsuperstition:--As True Thomas (we give him the epithet by anticipation)\nlay on Huntly Bank, a place on the descent of the Eildon Hills, which\nraise their triple crest above the celebrated Monastery of Melrose, he\nsaw a lady so extremely beautiful that he imagined it must be the Virgin\nMary herself. Her appointments, however, were rather those of an Amazon\nor goddess of the woods. Her steed was of the highest beauty and spirit,\nand at his mane hung thirty silver bells and nine, which made music to\nthe wind as she paced along. Her saddle was of _royal bone_ (ivory),\nlaid over with _orfeverie_--_i.e._, goldsmith's work. Her stirrups, her\ndress, all corresponded with her extreme beauty and the magnificence of\nher array. The fair huntress had her bow in her hand, and her arrows at\nher belt. She led three greyhounds in a leash, and three raches, or\nhounds of scent, followed her closely. She rejected and disclaimed the\nhomage which Thomas desired to pay to her; so that, passing from one\nextremity to the other, Thomas became as bold as he had at first been\nhumble. The lady warns him that he must become her slave if he should\nprosecute his suit towards her in the manner he proposes. Before their\ninterview terminates, the appearance of the beautiful lady is changed\ninto that of the most hideous hag in existence. One side is blighted and\nwasted, as if by palsy; one eye drops from her head; her colour, as\nclear as the virgin silver, is now of a dun leaden hue. A witch from the\nspital or almshouse would have been a goddess in comparison to the late\nbeautiful huntress. Hideous as she was, Thomas's irregular desires had\nplaced him under the control of this hag, and when she bade him take\nleave of sun, and of the leaf that grew on tree, he felt himself under\nthe necessity of obeying her. A cavern received them, in which,\nfollowing his frightful guide, he for three days travelled in darkness,\nsometimes hearing the booming of a distant ocean, sometimes walking\nthrough rivers of blood, which crossed their subterranean path. At\nlength they emerged into daylight, in a most beautiful orchard. Thomas,\nalmost fainting for want of food, stretches out his hand towards the\ngoodly fruit which hangs around him, but is forbidden by his\nconductress, who informs him these are the fatal apples which were the\ncause of the fall of man. He perceives also that his guide had no sooner\nentered this mysterious ground, and breathed its magic air, than she was\nrevived in beauty, equipage, and splendour, as fair, or fairer, than he\nhad first seen her on the mountain. She then commands him to lay his\nhead upon her knee, and proceeds to explain to him the character of the\ncountry. \"Yonder right-hand path,\" she says, \"conveys the spirits of the\nblessed to Paradise; yon downward and well-worn way leads sinful souls\nto the place of everlasting punishment; the third road, by yonder dark\nbrake, conducts to the milder place of pain from which prayer and mass\nmay release offenders. But see you yet a fourth road, sweeping along the\nplain to yonder splendid castle? Yonder is the road to Elfland, to which\nwe are now bound. The lord of the castle is king of the country, and I\nam his queen. But, Thomas, I would rather be drawn with wild horses,\nthan he should know what hath passed between you and me. Therefore, when\nwe enter yonder castle, observe strict silence, and answer no question\nthat is asked at you, and I will account for your silence by saying I\ntook your speech when I brought you from middle earth.\"\n\nHaving thus instructed her lover, they journeyed on to the castle, and\nentering by the kitchen, found themselves in the midst of such a festive\nscene as might become the mansion of a great feudal lord or prince.\nThirty carcases of deer were lying on the massive kitchen board, under\nthe hands of numerous cooks, who toiled to cut them up and dress them,\nwhile the gigantic greyhounds which had taken the spoil lay lapping the\nblood, and enjoying the sight of the slain game. They came next to the\nroyal hall, where the king received his loving consort without censure\nor suspicion. Knights and ladies, dancing by threes (reels perhaps),\noccupied the floor of the hall, and Thomas, the fatigues of his journey\nfrom the Eildon hills forgotten, went forward and joined in the revelry.\nAfter a period, however, which seemed to him a very short one, the queen\nspoke with him apart, and bade him prepare to return to his own country.\n\"Now,\" said the queen, \"how long think you that you have been here?\"\n\"Certes, fair lady,\" answered Thomas, \"not above these seven days.\" \"You\nare deceived,\" answered the queen, \"you have been seven _years_ in this\ncastle; and it is full time you were gone. Know, Thomas, that the fiend\nof hell will come to this castle to-morrow to demand his tribute, and so\nhandsome a man as you will attract his eye. For all the world would I\nnot suffer you to be betrayed to such a fate; therefore up, and let us\nbe going.\" These terrible news reconciled Thomas to his departure from\nElfin land, and the queen was not long in placing him upon Huntly bank,\nwhere the birds were singing. She took a tender leave of him, and to\nensure his reputation, bestowed on him the tongue which _could not lie_.\nThomas in vain objected to this inconvenient and involuntary adhesion to\nveracity, which would make him, as he thought, unfit for church or for\nmarket, for king's court or for lady's bower. But all his remonstrances\nwere disregarded by the lady, and Thomas the Rhymer, whenever the\ndiscourse turned on the future, gained the credit of a prophet whether\nhe would or not; for he could say nothing but what was sure to come to\npass. It is plain that had Thomas been a legislator instead of a poet,\nwe have here the story of Numa and Egeria. Thomas remained several years\nin his own tower near Erceldoune, and enjoyed the fame of his\npredictions, several of which are current among the country people to\nthis day. At length, as the prophet was entertaining the Earl of March\nin his dwelling, a cry of astonishment arose in the village, on the\nappearance of a hart and hind,[28] which left the forest and, contrary\nto their shy nature, came quietly onward, traversing the village towards\nthe dwelling of Thomas. The prophet instantly rose from the board; and,\nacknowledging the prodigy as the summons of his fate, he accompanied the\nhart and hind into the forest, and though occasionally seen by\nindividuals to whom he has chosen to show himself, has never again mixed\nfamiliarly with mankind.\n\n[Footnote 28: This last circumstance seems imitated from a passage in\nthe \"Life of Merlin,\" by Jeffrey of Monmouth. See Ellis's \"Ancient\nRomances,\" vol. i. p. 73.]\n\nThomas of Erceldoune, during his retirement, has been supposed, from\ntime to time, to be levying forces to take the field in some crisis of\nhis country's fate. The story has often been told of a daring\nhorse-jockey having sold a black horse to a man of venerable and antique\nappearance, who appointed the remarkable hillock upon Eildon hills,\ncalled the Lucken-hare, as the place where, at twelve o'clock at night,\nhe should receive the price. He came, his money was paid in ancient\ncoin, and he was invited by his customer to view his residence. The\ntrader in horses followed his guide in the deepest astonishment through\nseveral long ranges of stalls, in each of which a horse stood\nmotionless, while an armed warrior lay equally still at the charger's\nfeet. \"All these men,\" said the wizard in a whisper, \"will awaken at the\nbattle of Sheriffmoor.\" At the extremity of this extraordinary depot\nhung a sword and a horn, which the prophet pointed out to the\nhorse-dealer as containing the means of dissolving the spell. The man in\nconfusion took the horn, and attempted to wind it. The horses instantly\nstarted in their stalls, stamped, and shook their bridles, the men arose\nand clashed their armour, and the mortal, terrified at the tumult he had\nexcited, dropped the horn from his hand. A voice like that of a giant,\nlouder even than the tumult around, pronounced these words:--\n\n\"Woe to the coward that ever he was born,\n That did not draw the sword before he blew the horn!\"\n\nA whirlwind expelled the horse-dealer from the cavern, the entrance to\nwhich he could never again find. A moral might be perhaps extracted from\nthe legend--namely, that it is best to be armed against danger before\nbidding it defiance. But it is a circumstance worth notice, that\nalthough this edition of the tale is limited to the year 1715, by the\nvery mention of the Sheriffmoor, yet a similar story appears to have\nbeen current during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, which is given by\nReginald Scot. The narrative is edifying as peculiarly illustrative of\nthe mode of marring a curious tale in telling it, which was one of the\nvirtues professed by Caius when he hired himself to King Lear. Reginald\nScot, incredulous on the subject of witchcraft, seems to have given some\nweight to the belief of those who thought that the spirits of famous men\ndo, after death, take up some particular habitations near cities, towns,\nand countries, and act as tutelary and guardian spirits to the places\nwhich they loved while in the flesh.\n\n\"But more particularly to illustrate this conjecture,\" says he, \"I could\nname a person who hath lately appeared thrice since his decease, at\nleast some ghostly being or other that calls itself by the name of such\na person who was dead above a hundred years ago, and was in his lifetime\naccounted as a prophet or predicter by the assistance of sublunary\nspirits; and now, at his appearance, did also give strange predictions\nrespecting famine and plenty, war and bloodshed, and the end of the\nworld. By the information of the person that had communication with him,\nthe last of his appearances was in the following manner:--\"I had been,\"\nsaid he, \"to sell a horse at the next market town, but not attaining my\nprice, as I returned home by the way I met this man, who began to be\nfamiliar with me, asking what news, and how affairs moved through the\ncountry. I answered as I thought fit; withal, I told him of my horse,\nwhom he began to cheapen, and proceeded with me so far that the price\nwas agreed upon. So he turned back with me, and told me that if I would\ngo along with him I should receive my money. On our way we went, I upon\nmy horse, and he on another milk-white beast After much travel I asked\nhim where he dwelt and what his name was. He told me that his dwelling\nwas a mile off, at a place called _Farran_, of which place I had never\nheard, though I knew all the country round about.[29] He also told me\nthat he himself was that person of the family of Learmonths[30] so much\nspoken of as a prophet. At which I began to be somewhat fearful,\nperceiving we were on a road which I never had been on before, which\nincreased my fear and amazement more. Well, on we went till he brought\nme under ground, I knew not how, into the presence of a beautiful woman,\nwho paid the money without a word speaking. He conducted me out again\nthrough a large and long entry, where I saw above six hundred men in\narmour laid prostrate on the ground as if asleep. At last I found myself\nin the open field by the help of the moonlight, in the very place where\nI first met him, and made a shift to get home by three in the morning.\nBut the money I had received was just double of what I esteemed it when\nthe woman paid me, of which at this instant I have several pieces to\nshow, consisting of ninepennies, thirteen pence-halfpennies,\" &c.[31]\n\n[Footnote 29: In this the author is in the same ignorance as his\nnamesake Reginald, though having at least as many opportunities of\ninformation.]\n\n[Footnote 30: In popular tradition, the name of Thomas the Rhymer was\nalways averred to be Learmonth. though he neither uses it himself, nor\nis described by his son other than Le Rymour. The Learmonths of Dairsie,\nin Fife, claimed descent from the prophet.]\n\n[Footnote 31: \"Discourse of Devils and Spirits appended to the Discovery\nof Witchcraft,\" by Reginald Scot, Esq., book ii. chap. 3, sec. 10.]\n\nIt is a great pity that this horse-dealer, having specimens of the fairy\ncoin, of a quality more permanent than usual, had not favoured us with\nan account of an impress so valuable to medalists. It is not the less\nedifying, as we are deprived of the more picturesque parts of the story,\nto learn that Thomas's payment was as faithful as his prophecies. The\nbeautiful lady who bore the purse must have been undoubtedly the Fairy\nQueen, whose affection, though, like that of his own heroine Yseult, we\ncannot term it altogether laudable, seems yet to have borne a faithful\nand firm character.\n\nI have dwelt at some length on the story of Thomas the Rhymer, as the\noldest tradition of the kind which has reached us in detail, and as\npretending to show the fate of the first Scottish poet, whose existence,\nand its date, are established both by history and records; and who, if\nwe consider him as writing in the Anglo-Norman language, was certainly\none among the earliest of its versifiers. But the legend is still more\ncurious, from its being the first and most distinguished instance of a\nman alleged to have obtained supernatural knowledge by means of the\nfairies.\n\nWhence or how this singular community derived their more common popular\nname, we may say has not as yet been very clearly established. It is the\nopinion of the learned that the Persian word Peri, expressing an\nunearthly being, of a species very similar, will afford the best\nderivation, if we suppose it to have reached Europe through the medium\nof the Arabians, in whose alphabet the letter P does not exist, so that\nthey pronounce the word Feri instead of Peri. Still there is something\nuncertain in this etymology. We hesitate to ascribe either to the\nPersians or the Arabians the distinguishing name of an ideal\ncommonwealth, the notion of which they certainly did not contribute to\nus. Some are, therefore, tempted to suppose that the elves may have\nobtained their most frequent name from their being _par excellence_ a\n_fair_ or _comely_ people, a quality which they affected on all\noccasions; while the superstition of the Scottish was likely enough to\ngive them a name which might propitiate the vanity for which they deemed\nthe race remarkable; just as, in other instances, they called the fays\n\"men of peace,\" \"good neighbours,\" and by other titles of the like\nimport. It must be owned, at the same time, that the words _fay_ and\n_fairy_ may have been mere adoptions of the French _fee_ and _feerie_,\nthough these terms, on the other side of the Channel, have reference to\na class of spirits corresponding, not to our fairies, but with the far\ndifferent Fata of the Italians. But this is a question which we\nwillingly leave for the decision of better etymologists than ourselves.\n\n\n\n\nLETTER V.\n\n    Those who dealt in fortune-telling, mystical cures by charms, and\n    the like, often claimed an intercourse with Fairyland--Hudhart or\n    Hudikin--Pitcairn's \"Scottish Criminal Trials\"--Story of Bessie\n    Dunlop and her Adviser--Her Practice of Medicine--And of Discovery\n    of Theft--Account of her Familiar, Thome Reid--Trial of Alison\n    Pearson--Account of her Familiar, William Sympson--Trial of the Lady\n    Fowlis, and of Hector Munro, her Stepson--Extraordinary species of\n    Charm used by the latter--Confession of John Stewart, a Juggler, of\n    his Intercourse with the Fairies--Trial and Confession of Isobel\n    Gowdie--Use of Elf-arrow Heads--Parish of Aberfoyle--Mr. Kirke, the\n    Minister of Aberfoyle's Work on Fairy Superstitions--He is himself\n    taken to Fairyland--Dr. Grahame's interesting Work, and his\n    Information on Fairy Superstitions--Story of a Female in East\n    Lothian carried off by the Fairies--Another instance from Pennant.\n\n\nTo return to Thomas the Rhymer, with an account of whose legend I\nconcluded last letter, it would seem that the example which it afforded\nof obtaining the gift of prescience, and other supernatural powers, by\nmeans of the fairy people, became the common apology of those who\nattempted to cure diseases, to tell fortunes, to revenge injuries, or to\nengage in traffic with the invisible world, for the purpose of\nsatisfying their own wishes, curiosity, or revenge, or those of others.\nThose who practised the petty arts of deception in such mystic cases,\nbeing naturally desirous to screen their own impostures, were willing to\nbe supposed to derive from the fairies, or from mortals transported to\nfairyland the power necessary to effect the displays of art which they\npretended to exhibit. A confession of direct communication and league\nwith Satan, though the accused were too frequently compelled by torture\nto admit and avow such horrors, might, the poor wretches hoped, be\navoided by the avowal of a less disgusting intercourse with sublunary\nspirits, a race which might be described by negatives, being neither\nangels, devils, nor the souls of deceased men; nor would it, they might\nflatter themselves, be considered as any criminal alliance, that they\nheld communion with a race not properly hostile to man, and willing, on\ncertain conditions, to be useful and friendly to him. Such an\nintercourse was certainly far short of the witch's renouncing her\nsalvation, delivering herself personally to the devil, and at once\nensuring condemnation in this world, together with the like doom in the\nnext.\n\nAccordingly, the credulous, who, in search of health, knowledge,\ngreatness, or moved by any of the numberless causes for which men seek\nto look into futurity, were anxious to obtain superhuman assistance, as\nwell as the numbers who had it in view to dupe such willing clients,\nbecame both cheated and cheaters, alike anxious to establish the\npossibility of a harmless process of research into futurity, for\nlaudable, or at least innocent objects, as healing diseases and the\nlike; in short, of the existence of white magic, as it was called, in\nopposition to that black art exclusively and directly derived from\nintercourse with Satan. Some endeavoured to predict a man's fortune in\nmarriage or his success in life by the aspect of the stars; others\npretended to possess spells, by which they could reduce and compel an\nelementary spirit to enter within a stone, a looking-glass, or some\nother local place of abode, and confine her there by the power of an\nespecial charm, conjuring her to abide and answer the questions of her\nmaster. Of these we shall afterwards say something; but the species of\nevasion now under our investigation is that of the fanatics or impostors\nwho pretended to draw information from the equivocal spirits called\nfairies; and the number of instances before us is so great as induces us\nto believe that the pretence of communicating with Elfland, and not with\nthe actual demon, was the manner in which the persons accused of\nwitchcraft most frequently endeavoured to excuse themselves, or at least\nto alleviate the charges brought against them of practising sorcery. But\nthe Scottish law did not acquit those who accomplished even praiseworthy\nactions, such as remarkable cures by mysterious remedies; and the\nproprietor of a patent medicine who should in those days have attested\nhis having wrought such miracles as we see sometimes advertised, might\nperhaps have forfeited his life before he established the reputation of\nhis drop, elixir, or pill.\n\nSometimes the soothsayers, who pretended to act on this information from\nsublunary spirits, soared to higher matters than the practice of physic,\nand interfered in the fate of nations. When James I. was murdered at\nPerth in 1437, a Highland woman prophesied the course and purpose of the\nconspiracy, and had she been listened to, it might have been\ndisconcerted. Being asked her source of knowledge, she answered Hudhart\nhad told her; which might either be the same with Hudkin, a Dutch spirit\nsomewhat similar to Friar Rush or Robin Goodfellow,[32] or with the\nred-capped demon so powerful in the case of Lord Soulis, and other\nwizards, to whom the Scots assigned rather more serious influence.\n\n[Footnote 32: Hudkin is a very familiar devil, who will do nobody hurt,\nexcept he receive injury; but he cannot abide that, nor yet be mocked.\nHe talketh with men friendly, sometimes visibly, sometimes invisibly.\nThere go as many tales upon this Hudkin in some parts of Germany as\nthere did in England on Robin Goodfellow.--\"Discourse concerning\nDevils,\" annexed to \"The Discovery of Witchcraft,\" by Reginald Scot,\nbook i. chap. 21.]\n\nThe most special account which I have found of the intercourse between\nFairyland and a female professing to have some influence in that court,\ncombined with a strong desire to be useful to the distressed of both\nsexes, occurs in the early part of a work to which I have been\nexceedingly obliged in the present and other publications.[33] The\ndetails of the evidence, which consists chiefly of the unfortunate\nwoman's own confession, are more full than usual, and comprehend some\ncurious particulars. To spare technical repetitions, I must endeavour to\nselect the principal facts in evidence in detail, so far as they bear\nupon the present subject.\n\n[Footnote 33: The curious collection of trials, from \"The Criminal\nRecords of Scotland,\" now in the course of publication, by Robert\nPitcairn, Esq., affords so singular a picture of the manners and habits\nof our ancestors, while yet a semibarbarous people, that it is equally\nworth the attention of the historian, the antiquary, the philosopher,\nand the poet.]\n\nOn the 8th November, 1576, Elizabeth or Bessie Dunlop, spouse to Andro\nJak, in Lyne, in the Barony of Dalry, Ayrshire, was accused of sorcery\nand witchcraft and abuse of the people. Her answers to the\ninterrogatories of the judges or prosecutors ran thus: It being required\nof her by what art she could tell of lost goods or prophesy the event of\nillness, she replied that of herself she had no knowledge or science of\nsuch matters, but that when questions were asked at her concerning such\nmatters, she was in the habit of applying to one Thome Reid, who died at\nthe battle of Pinkie (10th September, 1547), as he himself affirmed, and\nwho resolved her any questions which she asked at him. This person she\ndescribed as a respectable elderly-looking man, grey-bearded, and\nwearing a grey coat, with Lombard sleeves of the auld fashion. A pair of\ngrey breeches and white stockings gartered above the knee, a black\nbonnet on his head, close behind and plain before, with silken laces\ndrawn through the lips thereof, and a white wand in his hand, completed\nthe description of what we may suppose a respectable-looking man of the\nprovince and period. Being demanded concerning her first interview with\nthis mysterious Thome Reid, she gave rather an affecting account of the\ndisasters with which she was then afflicted, and a sense of which\nperhaps aided to conjure up the imaginary counsellor. She was walking\nbetween her own house and the yard of Monkcastle, driving her cows to\nthe common pasture, and making heavy moan with herself, weeping bitterly\nfor her cow that was dead, her husband and child that were sick of the\nland-ill (some contagious sickness of the time), while she herself was\nin a very infirm state, having lately borne a child. On this occasion\nshe met Thome Reid for the first time, who saluted her courteously,\nwhich she returned. \"Sancta Maria, Bessie!\" said the apparition, \"why\nmust thou make such dole and weeping for any earthly thing?\" \"Have I not\nreason for great sorrow,\" said she, \"since our property is going to\ndestruction, my husband is on the point of death, my baby will not live,\nand I am myself at a weak point? Have I not cause to have a sore heart?\"\n\"Bessie,\" answered the spirit, \"thou hast displeased God in asking\nsomething that thou should not, and I counsel you to amend your fault. I\ntell thee, thy child shall die ere thou get home; thy two sheep shall\nalso die; but thy husband shall recover, and be as well and feir as ever\nhe was.\" The good woman was something comforted to hear that her husband\nwas to be spared in such her general calamity, but was rather alarmed to\nsee her ghostly counsellor pass from her and disappear through a hole in\nthe garden wall, seemingly too narrow to admit of any living person\npassing through it. Another time he met her at the Thorn of Dawmstarnik,\nand showed his ultimate purpose by offering her plenty of every thing if\nshe would but deny Christendom and the faith she took at the font-stone.\nShe answered, that rather than do that she would be torn at horses'\nheels, but that she would be conformable to his advice in less matters.\nHe parted with her in some displeasure. Shortly afterwards he appeared\nin her own house about noon, which was at the time occupied by her\nhusband and three tailors. But neither Andrew Jak nor the three tailors\nwere sensible of the presence of the phantom warrior who was slain at\nPinkie; so that, without attracting their observation, he led out the\ngood-wife to the end of the house near the kiln. Here he showed her a\ncompany of eight women and four men. The women were busked in their\nplaids, and very seemly. The strangers saluted her, and said, \"Welcome,\nBessie; wilt thou go with us?\" But Bessie was silent, as Thome Reid had\npreviously recommended. After this she saw their lips move, but did not\nunderstand what they said; and in a short time they removed from thence\nwith a hideous ugly howling sound, like that of a hurricane. Thome Reid\nthen acquainted her that these were the good wights (fairies) dwelling\nin the court of Elfland, who came to invite her to go thither with them.\nBessie answered that, before she went that road, it would require some\nconsideration. Thome answered, \"Seest thou not me both meat-worth,\nclothes-worth, and well enough in person?\" and engaged she should be\neasier than ever she was. But she replied, she dwelt with her husband\nand children, and would not leave them; to which Thome Reid replied, in\nvery ill-humour, that if such were her sentiments, she would get little\ngood of him.\n\nAlthough they thus disagreed on the principal object of Thome Reid's\nvisits, Bessie Dunlop affirmed he continued to come to her frequently,\nand assist her with his counsel; and that if any one consulted her about\nthe ailments of human beings or of cattle, or the recovery of things\nlost and stolen, she was, by the advice of Thome Reid, always able to\nanswer the querists. She was also taught by her (literally ghostly)\nadviser how to watch the operation of the ointments he gave her, and to\npresage from them the recovery or death of the patient. She said Thome\ngave her herbs with his own hand, with which she cured John Jack's bairn\nand Wilson's of the Townhead. She also was helpful to a waiting-woman of\nthe young Lady Stanlie, daughter of the Lady Johnstone, whose disease,\naccording to the opinion of the infallible Thome Reid, was \"a cauld\nblood that came about her heart,\" and frequently caused her to swoon\naway. For this Thome mixed a remedy as generous as the balm of Gilead\nitself. It was composed of the most potent ale, concocted with spices\nand a little white sugar, to be drunk every morning before taking food.\nFor these prescriptions Bessie Dunlop's fee was a peck of meal and some\ncheese. The young woman recovered. But the poor old Lady Kilbowie could\nget no help for her leg, which had been crooked for years; for Thome\nReid said the marrow of the limb was perished and the blood benumbed, so\nthat she would never recover, and if she sought further assistance, it\nwould be the worse for her. These opinions indicate common sense and\nprudence at least, whether we consider them as originating with the\n_umquhile_ Thome Reid, or with the culprit whom he patronized. The\njudgments given in the case of stolen goods were also well chosen; for\nthough they seldom led to recovering the property, they generally\nalleged such satisfactory reasons for its not being found as effectually\nto cover the credit of the prophetess. Thus Hugh Scott's cloak could not\nbe returned, because the thieves had gained time to make it into a\nkirtle. James Jamieson and James Baird would, by her advice, have\nrecovered their plough-irons, which had been stolen, had it not been the\nwill of fate that William Dougal, sheriff's officer, one of the parties\nsearching for them, should accept a bribe of three pounds not to find\nthem. In short, although she lost a lace which Thome Reid gave her out\nof his own hand, which, tied round women in childbirth, had the power of\nhelping their delivery, Bessy Dunlop's profession of a wise woman seems\nto have flourished indifferently well till it drew the evil eye of the\nlaw upon her.\n\nMore minutely pressed upon the subject of her familiar, she said she had\nnever known him while among the living, but was aware that the person so\ncalling himself was one who had, in his lifetime, actually been known in\nmiddle earth as Thome Reid, officer to the Laird of Blair, and who died\nat Pinkie. Of this she was made certain, because he sent her on errands\nto his son, who had succeeded in his office, and to others his\nrelatives, whom he named, and commanded them to amend certain trespasses\nwhich he had done while alive, furnishing her with sure tokens by which\nthey should know that it was he who had sent her. One of these errands\nwas somewhat remarkable. She was to remind a neighbour of some\nparticular which she was to recall to his memory by the token that Thome\nReid and he had set out together to go to the battle which took place on\nthe Black Saturday; that the person to whom the message was sent was\ninclined rather to move in a different direction, but that Thome Reid\nheartened him to pursue his journey, and brought him to the Kirk of\nDalry, where he bought a parcel of figs, and made a present of them to\nhis companion, tying them in his handkerchief; after which they kept\ncompany till they came to the field upon the fatal Black Saturday, as\nthe battle of Pinkie was long called.\n\nOf Thome's other habits, she said that he always behaved with the\nstrictest propriety, only that he pressed her to go to Elfland with him,\nand took hold of her apron as if to pull her along. Again, she said she\nhad seen him in public places, both in the churchyard at Dalry and on\nthe street of Edinburgh, where he walked about among other people, and\nhandled goods that were exposed to sale, without attracting any notice.\nShe herself did not then speak to him, for it was his command that, upon\nsuch occasions, she should never address him unless he spoke first to\nher. In his theological opinions, Mr. Reid appeared to lean to the\nChurch of Rome, which, indeed, was most indulgent to the fairy folk. He\nsaid that the _new law, i.e.,_ the Reformation, was not good, and that\nthe old faith should return again, but not exactly as it had been\nbefore. Being questioned why this visionary sage attached himself to her\nmore than to others, the accused person replied, that when she was\nconfined in childbirth of one of her boys, a stout woman came into her\nhut, and sat down on a bench by her bed, like a mere earthly gossip;\nthat she demanded a drink, and was accommodated accordingly; and\nthereafter told the invalid that the child should die, but that her\nhusband, who was then ailing, should recover. This visit seems to have\nbeen previous to her meeting Thome Reid near Monkcastle garden, for that\nworthy explained to her that her stout visitant was Queen of Fairies,\nand that he had since attended her by the express command of that lady,\nhis queen and mistress. This reminds us of the extreme doting attachment\nwhich the Queen of the Fairies is represented to have taken for Dapper\nin \"The Alchemist.\" Thome Reid attended her, it would seem, on being\nsummoned thrice, and appeared to her very often within four years. He\noften requested her to go with him on his return to Fairyland, and when\nshe refused, he shook his head, and said she would repent it.\n\nIf the delicacy of the reader's imagination be a little hurt at\nimagining the elegant Titania in the disguise of a _stout_ woman, a\nheavy burden for a clumsy bench, drinking what Christopher Sly would\nhave called very sufficient small-beer with a peasant's wife, the\nfollowing description of the fairy host may come more near the idea he\nhas formed of that invisible company:--Bessie Dunlop declared that as\nshe went to tether her nag by the side of Restalrig Loch (Lochend, near\nthe eastern port of Edinburgh), she heard a tremendous sound of a body\nof riders rushing past her with such a noise as if heaven and earth\nwould come together; that the sound swept past her and seemed to rush\ninto the lake with a hideous rumbling noise. All this while she saw\nnothing; but Thome Reid showed her that the noise was occasioned by the\nwights, who were performing one of their cavalcades upon earth.\n\nThe intervention of Thome Reid as a partner in her trade of petty\nsorcery did not avail poor Bessie Dunlop, although his affection to her\nwas apparently entirely platonic--the greatest familiarity on which he\nventured was taking hold of her gown as he pressed her to go with him to\nElfland. Neither did it avail her that the petty sorcery which she\npractised was directed to venial or even beneficial purposes. The sad\nwords on the margin of the record, \"Convict and burnt,\" sufficiently\nexpress the tragic conclusion of a curious tale.\n\nAlison Pearson, in Byrehill, was, 28th May, 1588, tried for invocation\nof the spirits of the devil, specially in the vision of one Mr. William\nSympson, her cousin and her mother's brother's son, who she affirmed was\na great scholar and doctor of medicine, dealing with charms and abusing\nthe ignorant people. Against this poor woman her own confession, as in\nthe case of Bessie Dunlop, was the principal evidence.\n\nAs Bessie Dunlop had Thome Reid, Alison Pearson had also a familiar in\nthe court of Elfland. This was her relative, William Sympson aforesaid,\nborn in Stirling, whose father was king's smith in that town. William\nhad been taken away, she said, by a man of Egypt (a Gipsy), who carried\nhim to Egypt along with him; that he remained there twelve years, and\nthat his father died in the meantime for opening a priest's book and\nlooking upon it. She declared that she had renewed her acquaintance with\nher kinsman so soon as he returned. She further confessed that one day\nas she passed through Grange Muir she lay down in a fit of sickness, and\nthat a green man came to her, and said if she would be faithful he might\ndo her good. In reply she charged him, in the name of God and by the law\nhe lived upon, if he came for her soul's good to tell his errand. On\nthis the green man departed. But he afterwards appeared to her with many\nmen and women with him, and against her will she was obliged to pass\nwith them farther than she could tell, with piping, mirth, and good\ncheer; also that she accompanied them into Lothian, where she saw\npuncheons of wine with tasses or drinking-cups. She declared that when\nshe told of these things she was sorely tormented, and received a blow\nthat took away the power of her left side, and left on it an ugly mark\nwhich had no feeling. She also confessed that she had seen before\nsunrise the good neighbours make their salves with pans and fires.\nSometimes, she said, they came in such fearful forms as frightened her\nvery much. At other times they spoke her fair, and promised her that she\nshould never want if faithful, but if she told of them and their doings,\nthey threatened to martyr her. She also boasted of her favour with the\nQueen of Elfland and the good friends she had at that court,\nnotwithstanding that she was sometimes in disgrace there, and had not\nseen the queen for seven years. She said William Sympson is with the\nfairies, and that he lets her know when they are coming; and that he\ntaught her what remedies to use, and how to apply them. She declared\nthat when a whirlwind blew the fairies were commonly there, and that her\ncousin Sympson confessed that every year the tithe of them were taken\naway to hell. The celebrated Patrick Adamson, an excellent divine and\naccomplished scholar, created by James VI. Archbishop of St. Andrews,\nswallowed the prescriptions of this poor hypochondriac with good faith\nand will, eating a stewed fowl, and drinking out at two draughts a quart\nof claret, medicated with the drugs she recommended. According to the\nbelief of the time, this Alison Pearson transferred the bishop's\nindisposition from himself to a white palfrey, which died in\nconsequence. There is a very severe libel on him for this and other\nthings unbecoming his order, with which he was charged, and from which\nwe learn that Lethington and Buccleuch were seen by Dame Pearson in the\nFairyland.[34] This poor woman's kinsman, Sympson, did not give better\nshelter to her than Thome Reid had done to her predecessor. The margin\nof the court-book again bears the melancholy and brief record,\n\"_Convicta et combusta_.\"\n\n[Footnote 34: See \"Scottish Poems,\" edited by John G. Dalzell, p. 321.]\n\nThe two poor women last mentioned are the more to be pitied as, whether\nenthusiasts or impostors, they practised their supposed art exclusively\nfor the advantage of mankind. The following extraordinary detail\ninvolves persons of far higher quality, and who sought to familiars for\nmore baneful purposes.\n\nKatherine Munro, Lady Fowlis, by birth Katherine Ross of Balnagowan, of\nhigh rank, both by her own family and that of her husband, who was the\nfifteenth Baron of Fowlis, and chief of the warlike clan of Munro, had a\nstepmother's quarrel with Robert Munro, eldest son of her husband, which\nshe gratified by forming a scheme for compassing his death by unlawful\narts. Her proposed advantage in this was, that the widow of Robert, when\nhe was thus removed, should marry with her brother, George Ross of\nBalnagowan; and for this purpose, her sister-in-law, the present Lady\nBalnagowan, was also to be removed. Lady Fowlis, if the indictment had a\nsyllable of truth, carried on her practices with the least possible\ndisguise. She assembled persons of the lowest order, stamped with an\ninfamous celebrity as witches; and, besides making pictures or models in\nclay, by which they hoped to bewitch Robert Munro and Lady Balnagowan,\nthey brewed, upon one occasion, poison so strong that a page tasting of\nit immediately took sickness. Another earthen jar (Scottic\u00e8 _pig_) of\nthe same deleterious liquor was prepared by the Lady Fowlis, and sent\nwith her own nurse for the purpose of administering it to Robert Munro.\nThe messenger having stumbled in the dark, broke the jar, and a rank\ngrass grew on the spot where it fell, which sheep and cattle abhorred to\ntouch; but the nurse, having less sense than the brute beasts, and\ntasting of the liquor which had been spilled, presently died. What is\nmore to our present purpose, Lady Fowlis made use of the artillery of\nElfland in order to destroy her stepson and sister-in-law. Laskie\nLoncart, one of the assistant hags, produced two of what the common\npeople call elf-arrow heads, being, in fact, the points of flint used\nfor arming the ends of arrow-shafts in the most ancient times, but\naccounted by the superstitious the weapons by which the fairies were\nwont to destroy both man and beast. The pictures of the intended victims\nwere then set up at the north end of the apartment, and Christian Ross\nMalcolmson, an assistant hag, shot two shafts at the image of Lady\nBalnagowan, and three against the picture of Robert Munro, by which\nshots they were broken, and Lady Fowlis commanded new figures to be\nmodelled. Many similar acts of witchcraft and of preparing poisons were\nalleged against Lady Fowlis.\n\nHer son-in-law, Hector Munro, one of his stepmother's prosecutors, was,\nfor reasons of his own, active in a similar conspiracy against the life\nof his own brother. The rites that he practised were of an uncouth,\nbarbarous, and unusual nature. Hector, being taken ill, consulted on his\ncase some of the witches or soothsayers, to whom this family appears to\nhave been partial. The answer was unanimous that he must die unless the\nprincipal man of his blood should suffer death in his stead. It was\nagreed that the vicarious substitute for Hector must mean George Munro,\nbrother to him by the half-blood (the son of the Katharine Lady Fowlis\nbefore commemorated). Hector sent at least seven messengers for this\nyoung man, refusing to receive any of his other friends till he saw the\nsubstitute whom he destined to take his place in the grave. When George\nat length arrived, Hector, by advice of a notorious witch, called Marion\nMacIngarach, and of his own foster-mother, Christian Neil Dalyell,\nreceived him with peculiar coldness and restraint. He did not speak for\nthe space of an hour, till his brother broke silence and asked, \"How he\ndid?\" Hector replied, \"That he was the better George had come to visit\nhim,\" and relapsed into silence, which seemed singular when compared\nwith the anxiety he had displayed to see his brother; but it was, it\nseems, a necessary part of the spell. After midnight the sorceress\nMarion MacIngarach, the chief priestess or Nicneven of the company, went\nforth with her accomplices, carrying spades with them. They then\nproceeded to dig a grave not far from the seaside, upon a piece of land\nwhich formed the boundary betwixt two proprietors. The grave was made as\nnearly as possible to the size of their patient Hector Munro, the earth\ndug out of the grave being laid aside for the time. After ascertaining\nthat the operation of the charm on George Munro, the destined victim,\nshould be suspended for a time, to avoid suspicion, the conspirators\nproceeded to work their spell in a singular, impressive, and, I believe,\nunique manner. The time being January, 1588, the patient, Hector Munro,\nwas borne forth in a pair of blankets, accompanied with all who were\nentrusted with the secret, who were warned to be strictly silent till\nthe chief sorceress should have received her information from the angel\nwhom they served. Hector Munro was carried to his grave and laid\ntherein, the earth being filled in on him, and the grave secured with\nstakes as at a real funeral. Marion MacIngarach, the Hecate of the\nnight, then sat down by the grave, while Christian Neil Dalyell, the\nfoster-mother, ran the breadth of about nine ridges distant, leading a\nboy in her hand, and, coming again to the grave where Hector Munro was\ninterred alive, demanded of the witch which victim she would choose, who\nreplied that she chose Hector to live and George to die in his stead.\nThis form of incantation was thrice repeated ere Mr. Hector was removed\nfrom his chilling bed in a January grave and carried home, all remaining\nmute as before. The consequence of a process which seems ill-adapted to\nproduce the former effect was that Hector Munro recovered, and after the\nintervention of twelve months George Munro, his brother, died. Hector\ntook the principal witch into high favour, made her keeper of his sheep,\nand evaded, it is said, to present her to trial when charged at Aberdeen\nto produce her. Though one or two inferior persons suffered death on\naccount of the sorceries practised in the house of Fowlis, the Lady\nKatharine and her stepson Hector had both the unusual good fortune to be\nfound not guilty. Mr. Pitcairn remarks that the juries, being composed\nof subordinate persons not suitable to the rank or family of the person\ntried, has all the appearance of having been packed on purpose for\nacquittal. It might also, in some interval of good sense, creep into the\nheads of Hector Munro's assize that the enchantment being performed in\nJanuary, 1588, and the deceased being only taken ill of his fatal\ndisease in April, 1590, the distance between the events might seem too\ngreat to admit the former being regarded as the cause of the latter.[35]\n\n[Footnote 35: Pitcairn's \"Trials,\" vol. i. pp. 191-201.]\n\nAnother instance of the skill of a sorcerer being traced to the\ninstructions of the elves is found in the confession of John Stewart,\ncalled a vagabond, but professing skill in palmistry and jugglery, and\naccused of having assisted Margaret Barclay, or Dein, to sink or cast\naway a vessel belonging to her own good brother. It being demanded of\nhim by what means he professed himself to have knowledge of things to\ncome, the said John confessed that the space of twenty-six years ago, he\nbeing travelling on All-Hallow Even night, between the towns of Monygoif\n(so spelled) and Clary, in Galway, he met with the King of the Fairies\nand his company, and that the King of the Fairies gave him a stroke with\na white rod over the forehead, which took from him the power of speech\nand the use of one eye, which he wanted for the space of three years. He\ndeclared that the use of speech and eyesight was restored to him by the\nKing of Fairies and his company, on an Hallowe'en night, at the town of\nDublin, in Ireland, and that since that time he had joined these people\nevery Saturday at seven o'clock, and remained with them all the night;\nalso, that they met every Hallow-tide, sometimes on Lanark Hill\n(Tintock, perhaps), sometimes on Kilmaurs Hill, and that he was then\ntaught by them. He pointed out the spot of his forehead on which, he\nsaid, the King of the Fairies struck him with a white rod, whereupon the\nprisoner, being blindfolded, they pricked the spot with a large pin,\nwhereof he expressed no sense or feeling. He made the usual declaration,\nthat he had seen many persons at the Court of Fairy, whose names he\nrehearsed particularly, and declared that all such persons as are taken\naway by sudden death go with the King of Elfland. With this man's\nevidence we have at present no more to do, though we may revert to the\nexecrable proceedings which then took place against this miserable\njuggler and the poor women who were accused of the same crime. At\npresent it is quoted as another instance of a fortune-teller referring\nto Elfland as the source of his knowledge.\n\nAt Auldearne, a parish and burgh of barony in the county of Nairne, the\nepidemic terror of witches seems to have gone very far. The confession\nof a woman called Isobel Gowdie, of date April, 1662, implicates, as\nusual, the Court of Fairy, and blends the operations of witchcraft with\nthe facilities afforded by the fairies. These need be the less insisted\nupon in this place, as the arch-fiend, and not the elves, had the\nimmediate agency in the abominations which she narrates. Yet she had\nbeen, she said, in the Dounie Hills, and got meat there from the Queen\nof Fairies more than she could eat. She added, that the queen is bravely\nclothed in white linen and in white and brown cloth, that the King of\nFairy is a brave man; and there were elf-bulls roaring and _skoilling_\nat the entrance of their palace, which frightened her much. On another\noccasion this frank penitent confesses her presence at a rendezvous of\nwitches, Lammas, 1659, where, after they had rambled through the country\nin different shapes--of cats, hares, and the like--eating, drinking, and\nwasting the goods of their neighbours into whose houses they could\npenetrate, they at length came to the dounie Hills, where the mountain\nopened to receive them, and they entered a fair big room, as bright as\nday. At the entrance ramped and roared the large fairy bulls, which\nalways alarmed Isobel Gowdie. These animals are probably the\nwater-bulls, famous both in Scottish and Irish tradition, which are not\nsupposed to be themselves altogether _canny_ or safe to have concern\nwith. In their caverns the fairies manufactured those elf-arrow heads\nwith which the witches and they wrought so much evil. The elves and the\narch-fiend laboured jointly at this task, the former forming and\nsharpening the dart from the rough flint, and the latter perfecting and\nfinishing (or, as it is called, _dighting_) it. Then came the sport of\nthe meeting. The witches bestrode either corn-straws, bean-stalks, or\nrushes, and calling, \"Horse and Hattock, in the Devil's name!\" which is\nthe elfin signal for mounting, they flew wherever they listed. If the\nlittle whirlwind which accompanies their transportation passed any\nmortal who neglected to bless himself, all such fell under the witches'\npower, and they acquired the right of shooting at him. The penitent\nprisoner gives the names of many whom she and her sisters had so slain,\nthe death for which she was most sorry being that of William Brown, in\nthe Milntown of Mains. A shaft was also aimed at the Reverend Harrie\nForbes, a minister who was present at the examination of Isobel, the\nconfessing party. The arrow fell short, and the witch would have taken\naim again, but her master forbade her, saying the reverend gentleman's\nlife was not subject to their power. To this strange and very particular\nconfession we shall have occasion to recur when witchcraft is the more\nimmediate subject. What is above narrated marks the manner in which the\nbelief in that crime was blended with the fairy superstition.\n\nTo proceed to more modern instances of persons supposed to have fallen\nunder the power of the fairy race, we must not forget the Reverend\nRobert Kirke, minister of the Gospel, the first translator of the Psalms\ninto Gaelic verse. He was, in the end of the seventeenth century,\nsuccessively minister of the Highland parishes of Balquidder and\nAberfoyle, lying in the most romantic district of Perthshire, and within\nthe Highland line. These beautiful and wild regions, comprehending so\nmany lakes, rocks, sequestered valleys, and dim copsewoods, are not even\nyet quite abandoned by the fairies, who have resolutely maintained\nsecure footing in a region so well suited for their residence. Indeed,\nso much was this the case formerly, that Mr. Kirke, while in his latter\ncharge of Aberfoyle, found materials for collecting and compiling his\nEssay on the \"Subterranean and for the most part Invisible People\nheretofore going under the name of Elves, Fawnes, and Fairies, or the\nlike.\"[36] In this discourse, the author, \"with undoubting mind,\"\ndescribes the fairy race as a sort of astral spirits, of a kind betwixt\nhumanity and angels--says, that they have children, nurses, marriages,\ndeaths, and burials, like mortals in appearance; that, in some respect,\nthey represent mortal men, and that individual apparitions, or\ndouble-men, are found among them, corresponding with mortals existing on\nearth. Mr. Kirke accuses them of stealing the milk from the cows, and of\ncarrying away, what is more material, the women in pregnancy, and\nnew-born children from their nurses. The remedy is easy in both cases.\nThe milk cannot be stolen if the mouth of the calf, before he is\npermitted to suck, be rubbed with a certain balsam, very easily come by;\nand the woman in travail is safe if a piece of cold iron is put into the\nbed. Mr. Kirke accounts for this by informing us that the great northern\nmines of iron, lying adjacent to the place of eternal punishment, have a\nsavour odious to these \"fascinating creatures.\" They have, says the\nreverend author, what one would not expect, many light toyish books\n(novels and plays, doubtless), others on Rosycrucian subjects, and of an\nabstruse mystical character; but they have no Bibles or works of\ndevotion. The essayist fails not to mention the elf-arrow heads, which\nhave something of the subtlety of thunderbolts, and can mortally wound\nthe vital parts without breaking the skin. These wounds, he says, he has\nhimself observed in beasts, and felt the fatal lacerations which he\ncould not see.\n\n[Footnote 36: The title continues:--\"Among the Low Country Scots, as\nthey are described by those who have the second sight, and now, to\noccasion farther enquiry, collected and compared by a circumspect\nenquirer residing among the Scottish-Irish (_i.e._, the Gael, or\nHighlanders) in Scotland.\" It was printed with the author's name in\n1691, and reprinted, Edinburgh, 1815, for Longman & Co.]\n\nIt was by no means to be supposed that the elves, so jealous and\nirritable a race as to be incensed against those who spoke of them under\ntheir proper names, should be less than mortally offended at the\ntemerity of the reverend author, who had pryed so deeply into their\nmysteries, for the purpose of giving them to the public. Although,\ntherefore, the learned divine's monument, with his name duly inscribed,\nis to be seen at the east end of the churchyard at Aberfoyle, yet those\nacquainted with his real history do not believe that he enjoys the\nnatural repose of the tomb. His successor, the Rev. Dr. Grahame, has\ninformed us of the general belief that, as Mr. Kirke was walking one\nevening in his night-gown upon a _Dun-shi,_ or fairy mount, in the\nvicinity of the manse or parsonage, behold! he sunk down in what seemed\nto be a fit of apoplexy, which the unenlightened took for death, while\nthe more understanding knew it to be a swoon produced by the\nsupernatural influence of the people whose precincts he had violated.\nAfter the ceremony of a seeming funeral, the form of the Rev. Robert\nKirke appeared to a relation, and commanded him to go to Grahame of\nDuchray, ancestor of the present General Graham Stirling. \"Say to\nDuchray, who is my cousin as well as your own, that I am not dead, but a\ncaptive in Fairyland, and only one chance remains for my liberation.\nWhen the posthumous child, of which my wife has been delivered since my\ndisappearance, shall be brought to baptism, I will appear in the room,\nwhen, if Duchray shall throw over my head the knife or dirk which he\nholds in his hand, I may be restored to society; but if this opportunity\nis neglected, I am lost for ever.\" Duchray was apprised of what was to\nbe done. The ceremony took place, and the apparition of Mr. Kirke was\nvisibly seen while they were seated at table; but Grahame of Duchray, in\nhis astonishment, failed to perform the ceremony enjoined, and it is to\nbe feared that Mr. Kirke still \"drees his weird in Fairyland,\" the Elfin\nstate declaring to him, as the Ocean to poor Falconer, who perished at\nsea after having written his popular poem of \"The Shipwreck\"--\n\n\"Thou hast proclaimed our power--be thou our prey!\"\n\nUpon this subject the reader may consult a very entertaining little\nvolume, called \"Sketches of Perthshire,\"[37] by the Rev. Dr. Grahame of\nAberfoyle. The terrible visitation of fairy vengeance which has lighted\nupon Mr. Kirke has not intimidated his successor, an excellent man and\ngood antiquary, from affording us some curious information on fairy\nsuperstition. He tells us that these capricious elves are chiefly\ndangerous on a Friday, when, as the day of the Crucifixion, evil spirits\nhave most power, and mentions their displeasure at any one who assumes\ntheir accustomed livery of green, a colour fatal to several families in\nScotland, to the whole race of the gallant Grahames in particular;\ninsomuch that we have heard that in battle a Grahame is generally shot\nthrough the green check of his plaid; moreover, that a veteran sportsman\nof the name, having come by a bad fall, he thought it sufficient to\naccount for it, that he had a piece of green whip-cord to complete the\nlash of his hunting-whip. I remember, also, that my late amiable friend,\nJames Grahame, author of \"The Sabbath,\" would not break through this\nancient prejudice of his clan, but had his library table covered with\nblue or black cloth, rather than use the fated colour commonly employed\non such occasions.\n\n[Footnote 37: Edinburgh, 1812.]\n\nTo return from the Perthshire fairies, I may quote a story of a nature\nsomewhat similar to that of Mas Robert Kirke. The life of the excellent\nperson who told it was, for the benefit of her friends and the poor,\nprotracted to an unusual duration; so I conceive that this adventure,\nwhich took place in her childhood, might happen before the middle of\nlast century. She was residing with some relations near the small\nseaport town of North Berwick, when the place and its vicinity were\nalarmed by the following story:--\n\nAn industrious man, a weaver in the little town, was married to a\nbeautiful woman, who, after bearing two or three children, was so\nunfortunate as to die during the birth of a fourth child. The infant was\nsaved, but the mother had expired in convulsions; and as she was much\ndisfigured after death, it became an opinion among her gossips that,\nfrom some neglect of those who ought to have watched the sick woman, she\nmust have been carried off by the elves, and this ghastly corpse\nsubstituted in the place of the body. The widower paid little attention\nto these rumours, and, after bitterly lamenting his wife for a year of\nmourning, began to think on the prudence of forming a new marriage,\nwhich, to a poor artisan with so young a family, and without the\nassistance of a housewife, was almost a matter of necessity. He readily\nfound a neighbour with whose good looks he was satisfied, whilst her\ncharacter for temper seemed to warrant her good usage of his children.\nHe proposed himself and was accepted, and carried the names of the\nparties to the clergyman (called, I believe, Mr. Matthew Reid) for the\ndue proclamation of banns. As the man had really loved his late partner,\nit is likely that this proposed decisive alteration of his condition\nbrought back many reflections concerning the period of their union, and\nwith these recalled the extraordinary rumours which were afloat at the\ntime of her decease, so that the whole forced upon him the following\nlively dream:--As he lay in his bed, awake as he thought, he beheld, at\nthe ghostly hour of midnight, the figure of a female dressed in white,\nwho entered his hut, stood by the side of his bed, and appeared to him\nthe very likeness of his late wife. He conjured her to speak, and with\nastonishment heard her say, like the minister of Aberfoyle, that she was\nnot dead, but the unwilling captive of the Good Neighbours. Like Mr.\nKirke, too, she told him that if all the love which he once had for her\nwas not entirely gone, an opportunity still remained of recovering her,\nor _winning her back_, as it was usually termed, from the comfortless\nrealms of Elfland. She charged him on a certain day of the ensuing week\nthat he should convene the most respectable housekeepers in the town,\nwith the clergyman at their head, and should disinter the coffin in\nwhich she was supposed to have been buried. \"The clergyman is to recite\ncertain prayers, upon which,\" said the apparition, \"I will start from\nthe coffin and fly with great speed round the church, and you must have\nthe fleetest runner of the parish (naming a man famed for swiftness) to\npursue me, and such a one, the smith, renowned for his strength, to hold\nme fast after I am overtaken; and in that case I shall, by the prayers\nof the church, and the efforts of my loving husband and neighbours,\nagain recover my station in human society.\" In the morning the poor\nwidower was distressed with the recollection of his dream, but, ashamed\nand puzzled, took no measures in consequence. A second night, as is not\nvery surprising, the visitation was again repeated. On the third night\nshe appeared with a sorrowful and displeased countenance, upbraided him\nwith want of love and affection, and conjured him, for the last time, to\nattend to her instructions, which, if he now neglected, she would never\nhave power to visit earth or communicate with him again. In order to\nconvince him there was no delusion, he \"saw in his dream\" that she took\nup the nursling at whose birth she had died, and gave it suck; she\nspilled also a drop or two of her milk on the poor man's bed-clothes, as\nif to assure him of the reality of the vision.\n\nThe next morning the terrified widower carried a statement of his\nperplexity to Mr. Matthew Reid, the clergyman. This reverend person,\nbesides being an excellent divine in other respects, was at the same\ntime a man of sagacity, who understood the human passions. He did not\nattempt to combat the reality of the vision which had thrown his\nparishioner into this tribulation, but he contended it could be only an\nillusion of the devil. He explained to the widower that no created being\ncould have the right or power to imprison or detain the soul of a\nChristian--conjured him not to believe that his wife was otherwise\ndisposed of than according to God's pleasure--assured him that\nProtestant doctrine utterly denies the existence of any middle state in\nthe world to come--and explained to him that he, as a clergyman of the\nChurch of Scotland, neither could nor dared authorize opening graves or\nusing the intervention of prayer to sanction rites of a suspicious\ncharacter. The poor man, confounded and perplexed by various feelings,\nasked his pastor what he should do. \"I will give you my best advice,\"\nsaid the clergyman. \"Get your new bride's consent to be married\nto-morrow, or to-day, if you can; I will take it on me to dispense with\nthe rest of the banns, or proclaim them three times in one day. You will\nhave a new wife, and, if you think of the former, it will be only as of\none from whom death has separated you, and for whom you may have\nthoughts of affection and sorrow, but as a saint in Heaven, and not as a\nprisoner in Elfland.\" The advice was taken, and the perplexed widower\nhad no more visitations from his former spouse.\n\nAn instance, perhaps the latest which has been made public, of\ncommunication with the Restless People--(a more proper epithet than that\nof _Daoine Shi_, or Men of Peace, as they are called in Gaelic)--came\nunder Pennant's notice so late as during that observant traveller's tour\nin 1769. Being perhaps the latest news from the invisible commonwealth,\nwe give the tourist's own words.\n\n\"A poor visionary who had been working in his cabbage-garden (in\nBreadalbane) imagined that he was raised suddenly up into the air, and\nconveyed over a wall into an adjacent corn-field; that he found himself\nsurrounded by a crowd of men and women, many of whom he knew to have\nbeen dead for some years, and who appeared to him skimming over the tops\nof the unbending corn, and mingling together like bees going to hive;\nthat they spoke an unknown language, and with a hollow sound; that they\nvery roughly pushed him to and fro, but on his uttering the name of God\nall vanished, but a female sprite, who, seizing him by the shoulder,\nobliged him to promise an assignation at that very hour that day\nseven-night; that he then found his hair was all tied in double knots\n(well known by the name of elf-locks), and that he had almost lost his\nspeech; that he kept his word with the spectre, whom he soon saw\nfloating through the air towards him; that he spoke to her, but she told\nhim she was at that time in too much haste to attend to him, but bid him\ngo away and no harm should befall him, and so the affair rested when I\nleft the country. But it is incredible the mischief these _\u00e6gri somnia_\ndid in the neighbourhood. The friends and neighbours of the deceased,\nwhom the old dreamer had named, were in the utmost anxiety at finding\nthem in such bad company in the other world; the almost extinct belief\nof the old idle tales began to gain ground, and the good minister will\nhave many a weary discourse and exhortation before he can eradicate the\nabsurd ideas this idle story has revived.\"[38]\n\n[Footnote 38: Pennant's \"Tour in Scotland,\" vol. i. p. 110.]\n\nIt is scarcely necessary to add that this comparatively recent tale is\njust the counterpart of the story of Bessie Dunlop, Alison Pearson, and\nof the Irish butler who was so nearly carried off, all of whom found in\nElfland some friend, formerly of middle earth, who attached themselves\nto the child of humanity, and who endeavoured to protect a fellow-mortal\nagainst their less philanthropic companions.\n\nThese instances may tend to show how the fairy superstition, which, in\nits general sense of worshipping the _Dii Campestres_, was much the\nolder of the two, came to bear upon and have connexion with that horrid\nbelief in witchcraft which cost so many innocent persons and crazy\nimpostors their lives for the supposed commission of impossible crimes.\nIn the next chapter I propose to trace how the general disbelief in the\nfairy creed began to take place, and gradually brought into discredit\nthe supposed feats of witchcraft, which afforded pretext for such cruel\npractical consequences.\n\n\n\n\nLETTER VI.\n\n    Immediate Effect of Christianity on Articles of Popular\n    Superstition--Chaucer's Account of the Roman Catholic Priests\n    banishing the Fairies--Bishop Corbett imputes the same Effect to the\n    Reformation--His Verses on that Subject--His Iter\n    Septentrionale--Robin Goodfellow and other Superstitions mentioned\n    by Reginald Scot--Character of the English Fairies--The Tradition\n    had become obsolete in that Author's Time--That of Witches remained\n    in vigour--But impugned by various Authors after the Reformation, as\n    Wierus, Naud\u00e6us, Scot, and others--Demonology defended by Bodinus,\n    Remigius, &c.--Their mutual Abuse of each other--Imperfection of\n    Physical Science at this Period, and the Predominance of Mysticism\n    in that Department.\n\n\nAlthough the influence of the Christian religion was not introduced to\nthe nations of Europe with such radiance as to dispel at once those\nclouds of superstition which continued to obscure the understanding of\nhasty and ill-instructed converts, there can be no doubt that its\nimmediate operation went to modify the erroneous and extravagant\narticles of credulity which lingered behind the old pagan faith, and\nwhich gave way before it, in proportion as its light became more pure\nand refined from the devices of men.\n\nThe poet Chaucer, indeed, pays the Church of Rome, with its monks and\npreaching friars, the compliment of having, at an early period, expelled\nfrom the land all spirits of an inferior and less holy character. The\nverses are curious as well as picturesque, and may go some length to\nestablish the existence of doubts concerning the general belief in\nfairies among the well-instructed in the time of Edward III.\n\nThe fairies of whom the bard of Woodstock talks are, it will be\nobserved, the ancient Celtic breed, and he seems to refer for the\nauthorities of his tale to Bretagne, or Armorica, a genuine Celtic\ncolony:--\n\n\"In old time of the King Artour,\nOf which that Bretons speken great honour,\nAll was this land fulfilled of faerie;\nThe Elf queen, with her joly company,\nDanced full oft in many a grene mead.\nThis was the old opinion, as I rede--\nI speake of many hundred years ago,\nBut now can no man see no elves mo.\nFor now the great charity and prayers\nOf limitours,[39] and other holy freres,\nThat searchen every land and every stream,\nAs thick as motes in the sunne-beam,\nBlessing halls, chambers, kitchenes, and boures,\nCities and burghes, castles high and towers,\nThropes and barnes, sheep-pens and dairies,\nThis maketh that there ben no fairies.\nFor there as wont to walken was an elf,\nThere walketh now the limitour himself,\nIn under nichtes and in morwenings,\nAnd saith his mattins and his holy things,\nAs he goeth in his limitation.\nWomen may now go safely up and doun;\nIn every bush, and under every tree,\nThere is no other incubus than he,\nAnd he ne will don them no dishonour.\"[40]\n\n[Footnote 39: Friars limited to beg within a certain district.]\n\n[Footnote 40: \"Wife of Bath's Tale.\"]\n\nWhen we see the opinion which Chaucer has expressed of the regular\nclergy of his time, in some of his other tales, we are tempted to\nsuspect some mixture of irony in the compliment which ascribes the exile\nof the fairies, with whih the land was \"fulfilled\" in King Arthur's\ntime, to the warmth and zeal of the devotion of the limitary friars.\nIndividual instances of scepticism there might exist among scholars, but\na more modern poet, with a vein of humour not unworthy of Geoffrey\nhimself, has with greater probability delayed the final banishment of\nthe fairies from England, that is, from popular faith, till the reign of\nQueen Elizabeth, and has represented their expulsion as a consequence of\nthe change of religion. Two or three verses of this lively satire may be\nvery well worth the reader's notice, who must, at the same time, be\ninformed that the author, Dr. Corbett, was nothing less than the Bishop\nof Oxford and Norwich in the beginning of the seventeenth century. The\npoem is named \"A proper new Ballad, entitled the Fairies' Farewell, to\nbe sung or whistled to the tune of the Meadow Brow by the learned; by\nthe unlearned to the tune of Fortune:\"--\n\n     \"Farewell, rewards and fairies,\n       Good housewives now may say,\n     For now foul sluts in dairies\n       Do fare as well as they;\n     And though they sweep their hearths no less\n       Than maids were wont to do,\n     Yet who of late for cleanliness\n       Finds sixpence in her shoe?\n\n     \"Lament, lament, old abbies,\n       The fairies' lost command;\n     They did but change priests' babies,\n       But some have changed your land;\n     And all your children sprung from hence\n       Are now grown Puritans,\n     Who live as changelings ever since\n       For love of your domains.\n\n     \"At morning and at evening both,\n       You merry were and glad,\n     So little care of sleep and sloth\n       Those pretty ladies had.\n     When Tom came home from labour.\n       Or Cis to milking rose,\n     Then merrily, merrily went their tabor,\n       And merrily went their toes.\n\n     \"Witness those rings and roundelays\n       Of theirs, which yet remain,\n     Were footed, in Queen Mary's days,\n       On many a grassy plain;\n     But since of late Elizabeth,\n       And later James came in,\n     They never danced on any heath\n       As when the time hath bin.\n\n     \"By which we note, the fairies\n       Were of the old profession,\n     Their songs were Ave Maries,\n       Their dances were procession.\n     But now, alas! they all are dead,\n       Or gone beyond the seas;\n     Or farther for religion fled,\n       Or else they take their ease.\"\n\nThe remaining part of the poem is dedicated to the praise and glory of\nold William Chourne of Staffordshire, who remained a true and stanch\nevidence in behalf of the departed elves, and kept, much it would seem\nto the amusement of the witty bishop, an inexhaustible record of their\npranks and feats, whence the concluding verse--\n\n\"To William all give audience,\n  And pray ye for his noddle,\nFor all the fairies' evidence\n  Were lost if that were addle.\"[41]\n\n[Footnote 41: Corbett's Poems, edited by Octavuis Gilchrist, p. 213.]\n\nThis William Chourne appears to have attended Dr. Corbett's party on the\n_iter septentrionale_, \"two of which were, and two desired to be,\ndoctors;\" but whether William was guide, friend, or domestic seems\nuncertain. The travellers lose themselves in the mazes of Chorley Forest\non their way to Bosworth, and their route becomes so confused that they\nreturn on their steps and labour--\n\n     \"As in a conjuror's circle--William found\n     A mean for our deliverance,--'Turn your cloaks,'\n     Quoth he, 'for Puck is busy in these oaks;\n     If ever you at Bosworth would be found,\n     Then turn your cloaks, for this is fairy ground.'\n     But ere this witchcraft was performed, we meet\n     A very man who had no cloven feet.\n     Though William, still of little faith, has doubt,\n     'Tis Robin, or some sprite that walks about.\n     'Strike him,' quoth he, 'and it will turn to air--\n     Cross yourselves thrice and strike it.'--'Strike that dare,'\n     Thought I, 'for sure this massy forester,\n     In strokes will prove the better conjuror.'\n     But 'twas a gentle keeper, one that knew\n     Humanity and manners, where they grew,\n     And rode along so far, till he could say,\n     'See, yonder Bosworth stands, and this your way.'\"[42]\n\n[Footnote 42: Corbett's Poems, p. 191.]\n\nIn this passage the bishop plainly shows the fairies maintained their\ninfluence in William's imagination, since the courteous keeper was\nmistaken by their associate champion for Puck or Robin Goodfellow. The\nspells resorted to to get rid of his supposed delusions are\nalternatively that of turning the cloak--(recommended in visions of the\nsecond-sight or similar illusions as a means of obtaining a certainty\nconcerning the being which is before imperfectly seen[43])--and that of\nexorcising the spirit with a cudgel; which last, Corbett prudently\nthinks, ought not to be resorted to unless under an absolute conviction\nthat the exorcist is the stronger party. Chaucer, therefore, could not\nbe serious in averring that the fairy superstitions were obsolete in his\nday, since they were found current three centuries afterwards.\n\n[Footnote 43: A common instance is that of a person haunted with a\nresemblance whose face he cannot see. If he turn his cloak or plaid, he\nwill obtain the full sight which he desires, and may probably find it to\nbe his own fetch, or wraith, or double-ganger.]\n\nIt is not the less certain that, as knowledge and religion became more\nwidely and brightly displayed over any country, the superstitious\nfancies of the people sunk gradually in esteem and influence; and in the\ntime of Queen Elizabeth the unceasing labour of many and popular\npreachers, who declaimed against the \"splendid miracles\" of the Church\nof Rome, produced also its natural effect upon the other stock of\nsuperstitions. \"Certainly,\" said Reginald Scot, talking of times before\nhis own, \"some one knave in a white sheet hath cozened and abused many\nthousands, specially when Robin Goodfellow kept such a coil in the\ncountry. In our childhood our mothers' maids have so terrified us with\nan ugly devil having horns on his head, fire in his mouth, and a tail at\nhis breech; eyes like a basin, fangs like a dog, claws like a bear, a\nskin like a negro, and a voice roaring like a lion, whereby we start and\nare afraid when we hear one cry, Boh! and they have so frayd us with\nbull-beggars, spirits, witches, urchins, elves, hags, fairies, satyrs,\nPans, faunes, sylvans, Kitt-with-the-candlestick, tritons, centaurs,\ndwarfs, giants, imps, calcars, conjurers, nymphs, changelings, incubus,\nRobin Goodfellow, the spoorn, the man-in-the-oak, the hellwain, the\nfire-drake, the puckle, Tom Thumb, Hobgoblin, Tom Tumbler, Boneless, and\nsuch other bugbears, that we are afraid of our own shadows, insomuch\nthat some never fear the devil but on a dark night; and then a polled\nsheep is a perilous beast, and many times is taken for our father's\nsoul, specially in a churchyard, where a right hardy man heretofore\ndurst not to have passed by night but his hair would stand upright.\nWell, thanks be to God, this wretched and cowardly infidelity, since the\npreaching of the Gospel, is in part forgotten, and doubtless the rest of\nthese illusions will in a short time, by God's grace, be detected and\nvanish away.\"[44]\n\n[Footnote 44: Reginald Scot's \"Discovery of Witchcraft,\" book vii. chap.\n15.]\n\nIt would require a better demonologist than I am to explain the various\nobsolete superstitions which Reginald Scot has introduced as articles of\nthe old English faith, into the preceding passage. I might indeed say\nthe Phuca is a Celtic superstition, from which the word Pook or Puckle\nwas doubtless derived; and I might conjecture that the man-in-the-oak\nwas the same with the Erl-K\u00f6nig of the Germans; and that the hellwain\nwere a kind of wandering spirits, the descendants of a champion named\nHellequin, who are introduced into the romance of Richard sans Peur. But\nmost antiquaries will be at fault concerning the spoorn,\nKitt-with-the-candlestick, Boneless, and some others. The catalogue,\nhowever, serves to show what progress the English have made in two\ncenturies, in forgetting the very names of objects which had been the\nsources of terror to their ancestors of the Elizabethan age.\n\nBefore leaving the subject of fairy superstition in England we may\nremark that it was of a more playful and gentle, less wild and\nnecromantic character, than that received among the sister people. The\namusements of the southern fairies were light and sportive; their\nresentments were satisfied with pinching or scratching the objects of\ntheir displeasure; their peculiar sense of cleanliness rewarded the\nhousewives with the silver token in the shoe; their nicety was extreme\nconcerning any coarseness or negligence which could offend their\ndelicacy; and I cannot discern, except, perhaps, from the insinuations\nof some scrupulous divines, that they were vassals to or in close\nalliance with the infernals, as there is too much reason to believe was\nthe case with their North British sisterhood.[45] The common nursery\nstory cannot be forgotten, how, shortly after the death of what is\ncalled a nice tidy housewife, the Elfin band was shocked to see that a\nperson of different character, with whom the widower had filled his\ndeserted arms, instead of the nicely arranged little loaf of the whitest\nbread, and a basin of sweet cream, duly placed for their refreshment by\nthe deceased, had substituted a brown loaf and a cobb of herrings.\nIncensed at such a coarse regale, the elves dragged the peccant\nhousewife out of bed, and pulled her down the wooden stairs by the\nheels, repeating, at the same time, in scorn of her churlish\nhospitality--\n\n\"Brown bread and herring cobb!\n Thy fat sides shall have many a bob!\"\n\nBut beyond such playful malice they had no desire to extend their\nresentment.\n\n[Footnote 45: Dr. Jackson, in his \"Treatise on Unbelief,\" opines for the\nsevere opinion. \"Thus are the Fayries, from difference of events\nascribed to them, divided into good and bad, when as it is but one and\nthe same malignant fiend that meddles in both; seeking sometimes to be\nfeared, otherwhiles to be loued as God, for the bodily harmes or good\nturnes supposed to be in his power.\"--Jackson on Unbelief, p. 178, edit.\n1625.]\n\nThe constant attendant upon the English Fairy court was the celebrated\nPuck, or Robin Goodfellow, who to the elves acted in some measure as the\njester or clown of the company--(a character then to be found in the\nestablishment of every person of quality)--or to use a more modern\ncomparison, resembled the Pierrot of the pantomime. His jests were of\nthe most simple and at the same time the broadest comic character--to\nmislead a clown on his path homeward, to disguise himself like a stool,\nin order to induce an old gossip to commit the egregious mistake of\nsitting down on the floor when she expected to repose on a chair, were\nhis special enjoyments. If he condescended to do some work for the\nsleeping family, in which he had some resemblance to the Scottish\nhousehold spirit called a Brownie, the selfish Puck was far from\npractising this labour on the disinterested principle of the northern\ngoblin, who, if raiment or food was left in his way and for his use,\ndeparted from the family in displeasure. Robin Goodfellow, on the\ncontrary, must have both his food and his rest, as Milton informs us,\namid his other notices of country superstitions, in the poem of\nL'Allegro. And it is to be noticed that he represents these tales of the\nfairies, told round the cottage hearth, as of a cheerful rather than a\nserious cast; which illustrates what I have said concerning the milder\ncharacter of the southern superstitions, as compared with those of the\nsame class in Scotland--the stories of which are for the most part of a\nfrightful and not seldom of a disgusting quality.\n\nPoor Robin, however, between whom and King Oberon Shakespeare contrives\nto keep a degree of distinct subordination, which for a moment deceives\nus by its appearance of reality, notwithstanding his turn for wit and\nhumour, had been obscured by oblivion even in the days of Queen Bess. We\nhave already seen, in a passage quoted from Reginald Scot, that the\nbelief was fallen into abeyance; that which follows from the same author\naffirms more positively that Robin's date was over:--\n\n\"Know ye this, by the way, that heretofore Robin Goodfellow and\nHobgoblin were as terrible, and also as credible, to the people as hags\nand witches be now; and in time to come a witch will be as much derided\nand condemned, and as clearly perceived, as the illusion and knavery of\nRobin Goodfellow, upon whom there have gone as many and as credible\ntales as witchcraft, saving that it hath not pleased the translators of\nthe Bible to call spirits by the name of Robin Goodfellow, as they have\ndiviners, soothsayers, poisoners, and cozeners by the name of\nwitches.\"[46] In the same tone Reginald Scot addresses the reader in the\npreface:--\"To make a solemn suit to you that are partial readers to set\naside partiality, to take in good part my writings, and with indifferent\neyes to look upon my book, were labour lost and time ill-employed; for I\nshould no more prevail herein than if, a hundred years since, I should\nhave entreated your predecessors to believe that Robin Goodfellow, that\ngreat and ancient bull-beggar, had been but a cozening merchant, and no\ndevil indeed. But Robin Goodfellow ceaseth now to be much feared, and\nPopery is sufficiently discovered; nevertheless, witches' charms and\nconjurers' cozenage are yet effectual.\" This passage seems clearly to\nprove that the belief in Robin Goodfellow and his fairy companions was\nnow out of date; while that as to witchcraft, as was afterwards but too\nwell shown, kept its ground against argument and controversy, and\nsurvived \"to shed more blood.\"\n\n[Footnote 46: Reginald Scot's \"Discovery of Witchcraft,\" book vii. chap,\nii.]\n\nWe are then to take leave of this fascinating article of the popular\ncreed, having in it so much of interest to the imagination that we\nalmost envy the credulity of those who, in the gentle moonlight of a\nsummer night in England, amid the tangled glades of a deep forest, or\nthe turfy swell of her romantic commons, could fancy they saw the\nfairies tracing their sportive ring. But it is in vain to regret\nillusions which, however engaging, must of necessity yield their place\nbefore the increase of knowledge, like shadows at the advance of morn.\nThese superstitions have already survived their best and most useful\npurpose, having been embalmed in the poetry of Milton and of\nShakespeare, as well as writers only inferior to these great names. Of\nSpenser we must say nothing, because in his \"Faery Queen\" the title is\nthe only circumstance which connects his splendid allegory with the\npopular superstition, and, as he uses it, means nothing more than an\nUtopia or nameless country.\n\nWith the fairy popular creed fell, doubtless, many subordinate articles\nof credulity in England, but the belief in witches kept its ground. It\nwas rooted in the minds of the common people, as well by the easy\nsolution it afforded of much which they found otherwise hard to explain,\nas in reverence to the Holy Scriptures, in which the word _witch,_ being\nused in several places, conveyed to those who did not trouble themselves\nabout the nicety of the translation from the Eastern tongues, the\ninference that the same species of witches were meant as those against\nwhom modern legislation had, in most European nations, directed the\npunishment of death. These two circumstances furnished the numerous\nbelievers in witchcraft with arguments in divinity and law which they\nconceived irrefragable. They might say to the theologist, Will you not\nbelieve in witches? the Scriptures aver their existence;--to the\njurisconsult, Will you dispute the existence of a crime against which\nour own statute-book, and the code of almost all civilized countries,\nhave attested, by laws upon which hundreds and thousands have been\nconvicted, many or even most of whom have, by their judicial\nconfessions, acknowledged their guilt and the justice of their\npunishment? It is a strange scepticism, they might add, which rejects\nthe evidence of Scripture, of human legislature, and of the accused\npersons themselves.\n\nNotwithstanding these specious reasons, the sixteenth and seventeenth\ncenturies were periods when the revival of learning, the invention of\nprinting, the fearless investigations of the Reformers into subjects\nthought formerly too sacred for consideration of any save the clergy,\nhad introduced a system of doubt, enquiry, disregard of authority, when\nunsupported by argument, and unhesitating exercise of the private\njudgment, on subjects which had occupied the bulls of popes and decrees\nof councils. In short, the spirit of the age was little disposed to\nspare error, however venerable, or countenance imposture, however\nsanctioned by length of time and universal acquiescence. Learned writers\narose in different countries to challenge the very existence of this\nimaginary crime, to rescue the reputation of the great men whose\nknowledge, superior to that of their age, had caused them to be\nsuspected of magic, and to put a stop to the horrid superstition whose\nvictims were the aged, ignorant, and defenceless, and which could only\nbe compared to that which sent victims of old through the fire to\nMoloch.\n\nThe courageous interposition of those philosophers who opposed science\nand experience to the prejudices of superstition and ignorance, and in\ndoing so incurred much misrepresentation, and perhaps no little\nill-will, in the cause of truth and humanity, claim for them some\ndistinction in a work on Demonology. The pursuers of exact science to\nits coy retreats, were sure to be the first to discover that the most\nremarkable phenomena in Nature are regulated by certain fixed laws, and\ncannot rationally be referred to supernatural agency, the sufficing\ncause to which superstition attributes all that is beyond her own narrow\npower of explanation. Each advance in natural knowledge teaches us that\nit is the pleasure of the Creator to govern the world by the laws which\nhe has imposed, and which are not in our times interrupted or suspended.\n\nThe learned Wier, or Wierus, was a man of great research in physical\nscience, and studied under the celebrated Cornelius Agrippa, against\nwhom the charge of sorcery was repeatedly alleged by Paulus Jovius and\nother authors, while he suffered, on the other hand, from the\npersecution of the inquisitors of the Church, whose accusation against\nthis celebrated man was, that he denied the existence of spirits, a\ncharge very inconsistent with that of sorcery, which consists in\ncorresponding with them. Wierus, after taking his degree as a doctor of\nmedicine, became physician to the Duke of Cleves, at whose court he\npractised for thirty years with the highest reputation. This learned\nman, disregarding the scandal which, by so doing, he was likely to bring\nupon himself, was one of the first who attacked the vulgar belief, and\nboldly assailed, both by serious arguments and by ridicule, the vulgar\ncredulity on the subject of wizards and witches.\n\nGabriel Naud\u00e9, or Naud\u00e6us, as he termed himself, was a perfect scholar\nand man of letters, busied during his whole life with assembling books\ntogether, and enjoying the office of librarian to several persons of\nhigh rank, amongst others, to Queen Christina of Sweden. He was,\nbesides, a beneficed clergyman, leading a most unblemished life, and so\ntemperate as never to taste any liquor stronger than water; yet did he\nnot escape the scandal which is usually flung by their prejudiced\ncontemporaries upon those disputants whom it is found more easy to\ndefame than to answer. He wrote an interesting work, entitled \"Apologie\npour les Grands Homines Accus\u00e9s de Magie;\" and as he exhibited a good\ndeal of vivacity of talent, and an earnestness in pleading his cause,\nwhich did not always spare some of the superstitions of Rome herself, he\nwas charged by his contemporaries as guilty of heresy and scepticism,\nwhen justice could only accuse him of an incautious eagerness to make\ngood his argument.\n\nAmong persons who, upon this subject, purged their eyes with rue and\neuphrasie, besides the Rev. Dr. Harsnet and many others (who wrote\nrather on special cases of Demonology than on the general question),\nReginald Scot ought to be distinguished. Webster assures us that he was\na \"person of competent learning, pious, and of a good family.\" He seems\nto have been a zealous Protestant, and much of his book, as well as that\nof Harsnet, is designed to throw upon the Papists in particular those\ntricks in which, by confederacy and imposture, the popular ideas\nconcerning witchcraft, possession, and other supernatural fancies, were\nmaintained and kept in exercise; but he also writes on the general\nquestion with some force and talent, considering that his subject is\nincapable of being reduced into a regular form, and is of a nature\nparticularly seductive to an excursive talent. He appears to have\nstudied legerdemain for the purpose of showing how much that is\napparently unaccountable can nevertheless be performed without the\nintervention of supernatural assistance, even when it is impossible to\npersuade the vulgar that the devil has not been consulted on the\noccasion. Scot also had intercourse with some of the celebrated\nfortune-tellers, or Philomaths, of the time; one of whom he brings\nforward to declare the vanity of the science which he himself had once\nprofessed.\n\nTo defend the popular belief of witchcraft there arose a number of\nadvocates, of whom Bodin and some others neither wanted knowledge nor\npowers of reasoning. They pressed the incredulous party with the charge\nthat they denied the existence of a crime against which the law had\ndenounced a capital punishment. As that law was understood to emanate\nfrom James himself, who was reigning monarch during the hottest part of\nthe controversy, the English authors who defended the opposite side were\nobliged to entrench themselves under an evasion, to avoid maintaining an\nargument unpalatable to a degree to those in power, and which might\nperchance have proved unsafe to those who used it. With a certain degree\nof sophistry they answered that they did not doubt the possibility of\nwitches, but only demurred to what is their nature, and how they came to\nbe such--according to the scholastic jargon, that the question in\nrespect to witches was not _de existentia_, but only _de modo\nexistendi_.\n\nBy resorting to so subtle an argument those who impugned the popular\nbelief were obliged, with some inconsistency, to grant that witchcraft\nhad existed, and might exist, only insisting that it was a species of\nwitchcraft consisting of they knew not what, but certainly of something\ndifferent from that which legislators, judges, and juries had hitherto\nconsidered the statute as designed to repress.\n\nIn the meantime (the rather that the debate was on a subject\nparticularly difficult of comprehension) the debating parties grew warm,\nand began to call names. Bodin, a lively Frenchman of an irritable\nhabit, explained the zeal of Wierus to protect the tribe of sorcerers\nfrom punishment, by stating that he himself was a conjurer and the\nscholar of Cornelius Agrippa, and might therefore well desire to save\nthe lives of those accused of the same league with Satan. Hence they\nthrew on their antagonists the offensive names of witch-patrons and\nwitch-advocates, as if it were impossible for any to hold the opinion of\nNaud\u00e6us, Wierus, Scot, &c., without patronizing the devil and the\nwitches against their brethren of mortality. Assailed by such heavy\ncharges, the philosophers themselves lost patience, and retorted abuse\nin their turn, calling Bodin, Delrio, and others who used their\narguments, witch-advocates, and the like, as the affirming and defending\nthe existence of the crime seemed to increase the number of witches, and\nassuredly augmented the list of executions. But for a certain time the\npreponderance of the argument lay on the side of the Demonologists, and\nwe may briefly observe the causes which gave their opinions, for a\nperiod, greater influence than their opponents on the public mind.\n\nIt is first to be observed that Wierus, for what reason cannot well be\nconjectured, except to show the extent of his cabalistical knowledge,\nhad introduced into his work against witchcraft the whole Stenographia\nof Trithemius, which he had copied from the original in the library of\nCornelius Agrippa; and which, suspicious from the place where he found\nit, and from the long catalogue of fiends which it contained, with the\ncharms for raising and for binding them to the service of mortals, was\nconsidered by Bodin as containing proof that Wierus himself was a\nsorcerer; not one of the wisest, certainly, since he thus unnecessarily\nplaced at the disposal of any who might buy the book the whole secrets\nwhich formed his stock-in-trade.\n\nSecondly, we may notice that, from the state of physical science at the\nperiod when Van Helmont, Paracelsus, and others began to penetrate into\nits recesses, it was an unknown, obscure, and ill-defined region, and\ndid not permit those who laboured in it to give that precise and\naccurate account of their discoveries which the progress of reasoning\nexperimentally and from analysis has enabled the late discoverers to do\nwith success. Natural magic--a phrase used to express those phenomena\nwhich could be produced by a knowledge of the properties of matter--had\nso much in it that was apparently uncombined and uncertain, that the art\nof chemistry was accounted mystical, and an opinion prevailed that the\nresults now known to be the consequence of laws of matter, could not be\ntraced through their various combinations even by those who knew the\neffects themselves. Physical science, in a word, was cumbered by a\nnumber of fanciful and incorrect opinions, chiefly of a mystical\ncharacter. If, for instance, it was observed that a flag and a fern\nnever grew near each other, the circumstance was imputed to some\nantipathy between these vegetables; nor was it for some time resolved by\nthe natural rule, that the flag has its nourishment in marshy ground,\nwhereas the fern loves a deep dryish soil. The attributes of the\ndivining-rod were fully credited; the discovery of the philosopher's\nstone was daily hoped for; and electricity, magnetism, and other\nremarkable and misconceived phenomena were appealed to as proof of the\nreasonableness of their expectations. Until such phenomena were traced\nto their sources, imaginary and often mystical causes were assigned to\nthem, for the same reason that, in the wilds of a partially discovered\ncountry, according to the satirist,\n\n\"Geographers on pathless downs\n Place elephants for want of towns.\"\n\nThis substitution of mystical fancies for experimental reasoning gave,\nin the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a doubtful and twilight\nappearance to the various branches of physical philosophy. The learned\nand sensible Dr. Webster, for instance, writing in detection of supposed\nwitchcraft, assumes, as a string of undeniable facts, opinions which our\nmore experienced age would reject as frivolous fancies; \"for example,\nthe effects of healing by the weapon-salve, the sympathetic powder, the\ncuring of various diseases by apprehensions, amulets, or by\ntransplantation.\" All of which undoubted wonders he accuses the age of\ndesiring to throw on the devil's back--an unnecessary load certainly,\nsince such things do not exist, and it is therefore in vain to seek to\naccount for them. It followed that, while the opposers of the ordinary\ntheory might have struck the deepest blows at the witch hypothesis by an\nappeal to common sense, they were themselves hampered by articles of\nphilosophical belief which they must have been sensible contained nearly\nas deep draughts upon human credulity as were made by the Demonologists,\nagainst whose doctrine they protested. This error had a doubly bad\neffect, both as degrading the immediate department in which it occurred,\nand as affording a protection for falsehood in other branches of\nscience. The champions who, in their own province, were obliged by the\nimperfect knowledge of the times to admit much that was mystical and\ninexplicable--those who opined, with Bacon, that warts could be cured by\nsympathy--who thought, with Napier, that hidden treasures could be\ndiscovered by the mathematics--who salved the weapon instead of the\nwound, and detected murders as well as springs of water by the\ndivining-rod, could not consistently use, to confute the believers in\nwitches, an argument turning on the impossible or the incredible.\n\nSuch were the obstacles arising from the vanity of philosophers and the\nimperfection of their science, which suspended the strength of their\nappeal to reason and common sense against the condemning of wretches to\na cruel death on account of crimes which the nature of things rendered\nin modern times totally impossible. We cannot doubt that they suffered\nconsiderably in the contest, which was carried on with much anger and\nmalevolence; but the good seed which they had sown remained uncorrupted\nin the soil, to bear fruit so soon as the circumstances should be\naltered which at first impeded its growth. In the next letter I shall\ntake a view of the causes which helped to remove these impediments, in\naddition, it must always be remembered, to the general increase of\nknowledge and improvement of experimental philosophy.\n\n\n\n\nLETTER VII.\n\n       Penal Laws unpopular when rigidly exercised--Prosecution of Witches\n    placed in the hand of Special Commissioners, _ad\n    inquirendum_--Prosecution for Witchcraft not frequent in the Elder\n    Period of the Roman Empire--Nor in the Middle Ages--Some Cases took\n    place, however--The Maid of Orleans--The Duchess of\n    Gloucester--Richard the Third's Charge against the Relations of the\n    Queen Dowager--But Prosecutions against Sorcerers became more common\n    in the end of the Fourteenth Century--Usually united with the Charge\n    of Heresy--Monstrelet's Account of the Persecution against the\n    Waldenses, under pretext of Witchcraft--Florimond's Testimony\n    concerning the Increase of Witches in his own Time--Bull of Pope\n    Innocent VIII.--Various Prosecutions in Foreign Countries under this\n    severe Law--Prosecutions in Labourt by the Inquisitor De Lancre and\n    his Colleague--Lycanthropy--Witches in Spain--In Sweden--and\n    particularly those Apprehended at Mohra.\n\n\nPenal laws, like those of the Middle Ages, denounced against witchcraft,\nmay be at first hailed with unanimous acquiescence and approbation, but\nare uniformly found to disgust and offend at least the more sensible\npart of the public when the punishments become frequent and are\nrelentlessly inflicted. Those against treason are no exception. Each\nreflecting government will do well to shorten that melancholy reign of\nterror which perhaps must necessarily follow on the discovery of a plot\nor the defeat of an insurrection. They ought not, either in humanity or\npolicy, to wait till the voice of the nation calls to them, as Mec\u00e6nas\nto Augustus, \"_Surge tandem carnifex_!\"\n\nIt is accordingly remarkable, in different countries, how often at some\nparticular period of their history there occurred an epidemic of terror\nof witches, which, as fear is always cruel and credulous, glutted the\npublic with seas of innocent blood; and how uniformly men loathed the\ngore after having swallowed it, and by a reaction natural to the human\nmind desired, in prudence, to take away or restrict those laws which had\nbeen the source of carnage, in order that their posterity might neither\nhave the will nor the means to enter into similar excesses.\n\nA short review of foreign countries, before we come to notice the\nBritish Islands and their Colonies, will prove the truth of this\nstatement. In Catholic countries on the Continent, the various kingdoms\nadopted readily that part of the civil law, already mentioned, which\ndenounces sorcerers and witches as rebels to God, and authors of\nsedition in the empire. But being considered as obnoxious equally to the\ncanon and civil law, Commissions of Inquisition were especially\nempowered to weed out of the land the witches and those who had\nintercourse with familiar spirits, or in any other respect fell under\nthe ban of the Church, as well as the heretics who promulgated or\nadhered to false doctrine. Special warrants were thus granted from time\nto time in behalf of such inquisitors, authorizing them to visit those\nprovinces of Germany, France, or Italy where any report concerning\nwitches or sorcery had alarmed the public mind; and those Commissioners,\nproud of the trust reposed in them, thought it becoming to use the\nutmost exertions on their part, that the subtlety of the examinations,\nand the severity of the tortures they inflicted, might wring the truth\nout of all suspected persons, until they rendered the province in which\nthey exercised their jurisdiction a desert from which the inhabitants\nfled. It would be impossible to give credit to the extent of this\ndelusion, had not some of the inquisitors themselves been reporters of\ntheir own judicial exploits: the same hand which subscribed the sentence\nhas recorded the execution.\n\nIn the earlier period of the Church of Rome witchcraft is frequently\nalluded to, and a capital punishment assigned to those who were supposed\nto have accomplished by sorcery the death of others, or to have\nattempted, by false prophecies or otherwise, under pretext of consulting\nwith the spiritual world, to make innovation in the state. But no\ngeneral denunciation against witchcraft itself, as a league with the\nEnemy of Man, or desertion of the Deity, and a crime _sui generis_,\nappears to have been so acted upon, until the later period of the\nsixteenth century, when the Papal system had attained its highest pitch\nof power and of corruption. The influence of the Churchmen was in early\ntimes secure, and they rather endeavoured, by the fabrication of false\nmiracles, to prolong the blind veneration of the people, than to vex\nothers and weary themselves by secret investigations into dubious and\nmystical trespasses, in which probably the higher and better instructed\nmembers of the clerical order put as little faith at that time as they\ndo now. Did there remain a mineral fountain, respected for the cures\nwhich it had wrought, a huge oak-tree, or venerated mount, which beauty\nof situation had recommended to traditional respect, the fathers of the\nRoman Church were in policy reluctant to abandon such impressive spots,\nor to represent them as exclusively the rendezvous of witches or of evil\nspirits. On the contrary, by assigning the virtues of the spring or the\nbeauty of the tree to the guardianship of some saint, they acquired, as\nit were, for the defence of their own doctrine, a frontier fortress\nwhich they wrested from the enemy, and which it was at least needless to\ndismantle, if it could be conveniently garrisoned and defended. Thus the\nChurch secured possession of many beautiful pieces of scenery, as Mr.\nWhitfield is said to have grudged to the devil the monopoly of all the\nfine tunes.\n\nIt is true that this policy was not uniformly observed. The story of the\ncelebrated Jeanne d'Arc, called the Maid of Orleans, preserves the\nmemory of such a custom, which was in that case turned to the prejudice\nof the poor woman who observed it.\n\nIt is well known that this unfortunate female fell into the hands of the\nEnglish, after having, by her courage and enthusiasm manifested on many\nimportant occasions, revived the drooping courage of the French, and\ninspired them with the hope of once more freeing their country. The\nEnglish vulgar regarded her as a sorceress--the French as an inspired\nheroine; while the wise on both sides considered her as neither the one\nnor the other, but a tool used by the celebrated Dunois to play the part\nwhich he assigned her. The Duke of Bedford, when the ill-starred Jeanne\nfell into his hands, took away her life in order to stigmatize her\nmemory with sorcery and to destroy the reputation she had acquired among\nthe French. The mean recurrence to such a charge against such a person\nhad no more success than it deserved, although Jeanne was condemned both\nby the Parliament of Bordeux and the University of Paris. Her indictment\naccused her of having frequented an ancient oak-tree, and a fountain\narising under it, called the Fated or Fairy Oak of Bourlemont. Here she\nwas stated to have repaired during the hours of divine service, dancing,\nskipping, and making gestures, around the tree and fountain, and hanging\non the branches chaplets and garlands of flowers, gathered for the\npurpose, reviving, doubtless, the obsolete idolatry which in ancient\ntimes had been rendered on the same spot to the _Genius Loci_. The\ncharmed sword and blessed banner, which she had represented as signs of\nher celestial mission, were in this hostile charge against her described\nas enchanted implements, designed by the fiends and fairies whom she\nworshipped to accomplish her temporary success. The death of the\ninnocent, high-minded, and perhaps amiable enthusiast, was not, we are\nsorry to say, a sacrifice to a superstitious fear of witchcraft, but a\ncruel instance of wicked policy mingled with national jealousy and\nhatred.\n\nTo the same cause, about the same period, we may impute the trial of the\nDuchess of Gloucester, wife of the good Duke Humphrey, accused of\nconsulting witches concerning the mode of compassing the death of her\nhusband's nephew, Henry VI. The Duchess was condemned to do penance, and\nthereafter banished to the Isle of Man, while several of her accomplices\ndied in prison or were executed. But in this instance also the alleged\nwitchcraft was only the ostensible cause of a procedure which had its\nreal source in the deep hatred between the Duke of Gloucester and\nCardinal Beaufort, his half-brother. The same pretext was used by\nRichard III. when he brought the charge of sorcery against the Queen\nDowager, Jane Shore, and the queen's kinsmen; and yet again was by that\nunscrupulous prince directed against Morton, afterwards Archbishop of\nCanterbury, and other adherents of the Earl of Richmond. The accusation\nin both cases was only chosen as a charge easily made and difficult to\nbe eluded or repelled.\n\nBut in the meanwhile, as the accusation of witchcraft thus afforded to\ntyranny or policy the ready means of assailing persons whom it might not\nhave been possible to convict of any other crime, the aspersion itself\nwas gradually considered with increase of terror as spreading wider and\nbecoming more contagious. So early as the year 1398 the University of\nParis, in laying down rules for the judicial prosecuting of witches,\nexpress their regret that the crime was growing more frequent than in\nany former age. The more severe enquiries and frequent punishments by\nwhich the judges endeavoured to check the progress of this impious\npractice seem to have increased the disease, as indeed it has been\nalways remarked that those morbid affections of mind which depend on the\nimagination are sure to become more common in proportion as public\nattention is fastened on stories connected with their display.\n\nIn the same century schisms arising from different causes greatly\nalarmed the Church of Rome. The universal spirit of enquiry which was\nnow afloat, taking a different direction in different countries, had in\nalmost all of them stirred up a sceptical dissatisfaction with the\ndogmas of the Church--such views being rendered more credible to the\npoorer classes through the corruption of manners among the clergy, too\nmany of whom wealth and ease had caused to neglect that course of\nmorality which best recommends religious doctrine. In almost every\nnation in Europe there lurked in the crowded cities, or the wild\nsolitude of the country, sects who agreed chiefly in their animosity to\nthe supremacy of Rome and their desire to cast off her domination. The\nWaldenses and Albigenses were parties existing in great numbers through\nthe south of France. The Romanists became extremely desirous to combine\nthe doctrine of the heretics with witchcraft, which, according to their\naccount, abounded especially where the Protestants were most numerous;\nand, the bitterness increasing, they scrupled not to throw the charge of\nsorcery, as a matter of course, upon those who dissented from the\nCatholic standard of faith. The Jesuit Delrio alleges several reasons\nfor the affinity which he considers as existing between the Protestant\nand the sorcerer; he accuses the former of embracing the opinion of\nWierus and other defenders of the devil (as he calls all who oppose his\nown opinions concerning witchcraft), thus fortifying the kingdom of\nSatan against that of the Church.[47]\n\n[Footnote 47: Delrio, \"De Magia.\" See the Preface.]\n\nA remarkable passage in Monstrelet puts in a clear view the point aimed\nat by the Catholics in thus confusing and blending the doctrines of\nheresy and the practice of witchcraft, and how a meeting of inoffensive\nProtestants could be cunningly identified with a Sabbath of hags and\nfiends.\n\n\"In this year (1459), in the town of Arras and county of Artois, arose,\nthrough a terrible and melancholy chance, an opinion called, I know not\nwhy, the Religion of Vaudoisie. This sect consisted, it is said, of\ncertain persons, both men and women, who, under cloud of night, by the\npower of the devil, repaired to some solitary spot, amid woods and\ndeserts, where the devil appeared before them in a human form--save that\nhis visage is never perfectly visible to them--read to the assembly a\nbook of his ordinances, informing them how he would be obeyed;\ndistributed a very little money and a plentiful meal, which was\nconcluded by a scene of general profligacy; after which each one of the\nparty was conveyed home to her or his own habitation.\n\n\"On accusations of access to such acts of madness,\" continues\nMonstrelet, \"several creditable persons of the town of Arras were seized\nand imprisoned along with some foolish women and persons of little\nconsequence. These were so horribly tortured that some of them admitted\nthe truth of the whole accusations, and said, besides, that they had\nseen and recognised in their nocturnal assembly many persons of rank,\nprelates, seigneurs, and governors of bailliages and cities, being such\nnames as the examinators had suggested to the persons examined, while\nthey constrained them by torture to impeach the persons to whom they\nbelonged. Several of those who had been thus informed against were\narrested, thrown into prison, and tortured for so long a time that they\nalso were obliged to confess what was charged against them. After this\nthose of mean condition were executed and inhumanly burnt, while the\nricher and more powerful of the accused ransomed themselves by sums of\nmoney, to avoid the punishment and the shame attending it. Many even of\nthose also confessed being persuaded to take that course by the\ninterrogators, who promised them indemnity for life and fortune. Some\nthere were, of a truth, who suffered with marvellous patience and\nconstancy the torments inflicted on them, and would confess nothing\nimputed to their charge; but they, too, had to give large sums to the\njudges, who exacted that such of them as, notwithstanding their\nmishandling, were still able to move, should banish themselves from that\npart of the country.\" Monstrelet winds up this shocking narrative by\ninforming us \"that it ought not to be concealed that the whole\naccusation was a stratagem of wicked men for their own covetous\npurposes, and in order, by these false accusations and forced\nconfessions, to destroy the life, fame, and fortune of wealthy persons.\"\n\nDelrio himself confesses that Franciscus Balduinus gives an account of\nthe pretended punishment, but real persecution, of these Waldenses, in\nsimilar terms with Monstrelet, whose suspicions are distinctly spoken\nout, and adds that the Parliament of Paris, having heard the affair by\nappeal, had declared the sentence illegal and the judges iniquitous, by\nan arr\u00e9t dated 20th May, 1491. The Jesuit Delrio quotes the passage, but\nadheres with lingering reluctance to the truth of the accusation. \"The\nWaldenses (of whom the Albigenses are a species) were,\" he says, \"never\nfree from the most wretched excess of fascination;\" and finally, though\nhe allows the conduct of the judges to have been most odious, he cannot\nprevail on himself to acquit the parties charged by such interested\naccusers with horrors which should hardly have been found proved even\nupon the most distinct evidence. He appeals on this occasion to\nFlorimond's work on Antichrist. The introduction of that work deserves\nto be quoted, as strongly illustrative of the condition to which the\ncountry was reduced, and calculated to make an impression the very\nreverse probably of that which the writer would have desired:--\n\n\"All those who have afforded us some signs of the approach of Antichrist\nagree that the increase of sorcery and witchcraft is to distinguish the\nmelancholy period of his advent; and was ever age so afflicted with them\nas ours? The seats destined for criminals before our judicatories are\nblackened with persons accused of this guilt. There are not judges\nenough to try them. Our dungeons are gorged with them. No day passes\nthat we do not render our tribunals bloody by the dooms which we\npronounce, or in which we do not return to our homes discountenanced and\nterrified at the horrible contents of the confessions which it has been\nour duty to hear. And the devil is accounted so good a master that we\ncannot commit so great a number of his slaves to the flames but what\nthere shall arise from their ashes a number sufficient to supply their\nplace.\"[48]\n\n[Footnote 48: Florimond, \"Concerning the Antichrist,\" cap. 7, n. 5,\nquoted by Delrio, \"De Magia,\" p. 820.]\n\nThis last statement, by which it appears that the most active and\nunsparing inquisition was taking place, corresponds with the historical\nnotices of repeated persecutions upon this dreadful charge of sorcery. A\nbull of Pope Innocent VIII. rang the tocsin against this formidable\ncrime, and set forth in the most dismal colours the guilt, while it\nstimulated the inquisitors to the unsparing discharge of their duty in\nsearching out and punishing the guilty. \"It is come to our ears,\" says\nthe bull, \"that numbers of both sexes do not avoid to have intercourse\nwith the infernal fiends, and that by their sorceries they afflict both\nman and beast; that they blight the marriage-bed, destroy the births of\nwomen, and the increase of cattle; they blast the corn on the ground,\nthe grapes of the vineyard, the fruits of the trees, the grass and herbs\nof the field.\" For which reasons the inquisitors were armed with the\napostolic power, and called upon to \"convict, imprison, and punish,\" and\nso forth.\n\nDreadful were the consequences of this bull all over the Continent,\nespecially in Italy, Germany, and France,[49] About 1485 Cumanus burnt\nas witches forty-one poor women in one year in the county of Burlia. In\nthe ensuing years he continued the prosecution with such unremitting\nzeal that many fled from the country.\n\n[Footnote 49: Dr. Hutchinson quotes \"H. Institor,\" 105, 161.]\n\nAlciatus states that an inquisitor, about the same period, burnt an\nhundred sorcerers in Piedmont, and persevered in his inquiries till\nhuman patience was exhausted, and the people arose and drove him out of\nthe country, after which the jurisdiction was deferred to the\narchbishop. That prelate consulted Alciatus himself, who had just then\nobtained his doctor's degree in civil law, to which he was afterwards an\nhonour. A number of unfortunate wretches were brought for judgment,\nfitter, according to the civilian's opinion, for a course of hellebore\nthan for the stake. Some were accused of having dishonoured the crucifix\nand denied their salvation; others of having absconded to keep the\nDevil's Sabbath, in spite of bolts and bars; others of having merely\njoined in the choral dances around the witches' tree of rendezvous.\nSeveral of their husbands and relatives swore that they were in bed and\nasleep during these pretended excursions. Alciatus recommended gentle\nand temperate measures; and the minds of the country became at length\ncomposed.[50]\n\n[Footnote 50: Alciat. \"Parerg. Juris,\" lib. viii. chap. 22.]\n\nIn 1488, the country four leagues around Constance was laid waste by\nlightning and tempest, and two women being, by fair means or foul, made\nto confess themselves guilty as the cause of the devastation, suffered\ndeath.\n\nAbout 1515, 500 persons were executed at Geneva, under the character of\n\"Protestant witches,\" from which we may suppose many suffered for\nheresy. Forty-eight witches were burnt at Ravensburgh within four years,\nas Hutchison reports, on the authority of Mengho, the author of the\n\"Malleus Malleficarum.\" In Lorraine the learned inquisitor, Remigius,\nboasts that he put to death 900 people in fifteen years. As many were\nbanished from that country, so that whole towns were on the point of\nbecoming desolate. In 1524, 1,000 persons were put to death in one year\nat Como, in Italy, and about 100 every year after for several years.[51]\n\n[Footnote 51: Bart. de Spina, de Strigilibus.]\n\nIn the beginning of the next century the persecution of witches broke\nout in France with a fury which was hardly conceivable, and multitudes\nwere burnt amid that gay and lively people. Some notion of the extreme\nprejudice of their judges may be drawn from the words of one of the\ninquisitors themselves. Pierre de Lancre, royal councillor in the\nParliament of Bourdeaux, with whom the President Espaignel was joined in\na commission to enquire into certain acts of sorcery, reported to have\nbeen committed in Labourt and its neighbourhood, at the foot of the\nPyrenees, about the month of May, 1619. A few extracts from the preface\nwill best evince the state of mind in which he proceeded to the\ndischarge of his commission.\n\nHis story assumes the form of a narrative of a direct war between Satan\non the one side and the Royal Commissioners on the other, \"because,\"\nsays Councillor de Lancre, with self-complaisance, \"nothing is so\ncalculated to strike terror into the fiend and his dominions as a\ncommission with such plenary powers.\"\n\nAt first, Satan endeavoured to supply his vassals who were brought\nbefore the judges with strength to support the examinations, so that if,\nby intermission of the torture, the wretches should fall into a doze,\nthey declared, when they were recalled from it to the question, that the\nprofound stupor \"had something of Paradise in it, being gilded,\" said\nthe judge, \"with the immediate presence of the devil;\" though, in all\nprobability, it rather derived its charms from the natural comparison\nbetween the insensibility of exhaustion and the previous agony of acute\ntorture. The judges took care that the fiend seldom obtained any\nadvantage in the matter by refusing their victims, in most cases, any\ninterval of rest or sleep. Satan then proceeded, in the way of direct\ndefiance, to stop the mouth of the accused openly, and by mere force,\nwith something like a visible obstruction in their throat.\nNotwithstanding this, to put the devil to shame, some of the accused\nfound means, in spite of him, to confess and be hanged, or rather burnt.\nThe fiend lost much credit by his failure on this occasion. Before the\nformidable Commissioners arrived, he had held his _cour pl\u00e9ni\u00e8re_ before\nthe gates of Bourdeaux, and in the square of the palace of Galienne,\nwhereas he was now insulted publicly by his own vassals, and in the\nmidst of his festival of the Sabbath the children and relations of the\nwitches who had suffered not sticking to say to him, \"Out upon you! Your\npromise was that our mothers who were prisoners should not die; and look\nhow you have kept your word with us! They have been burnt, and are a\nheap of ashes.\" To appease this mutiny Satan had two evasions. He\nproduced illusory fires, and encouraged the mutinous to walk through\nthem, assuring them that the judicial pile was as frigid and inoffensive\nas those which he exhibited to them. Again, taking his refuge in lies,\nof which he is well known to be the father, he stoutly affirmed that\ntheir parents, who seemed to have suffered, were safe in a foreign\ncountry, and that if their children would call on them they would\nreceive an answer. They made the invocation accordingly, and Satan\nanswered each of them in a tone which resembled the voice of the\nlamented parent almost as successfully as Monsieur Alexandra could have\ndone.\n\nProceeding to a yet more close attack, the Commissioners, on the eve of\none of the Fiend's Sabbaths, placed the gibbet on which they executed\ntheir victims just on the spot where Satan's gilded chair was usually\nstationed. The devil was much offended at such an affront, and yet had\nso little power in the matter that he could only express his resentment\nby threats that he would hang Messieurs D'Amon and D'Urtubbe, gentlemen\nwho had solicited and promoted the issuing of the Commission, and would\nalso burn the Commissioners themselves in their own fire. We regret to\nsay that Satan was unable to execute either of these laudable\nresolutions. Ashamed of his excuses, he abandoned for three or four\nsittings his attendance on the Sabbaths, sending as his representative\nan imp of subordinate account, and in whom no one reposed confidence.\nWhen he took courage again to face his parliament, the Arch-fiend\ncovered his defection by assuring them that he had been engaged in a\nlawsuit with the Deity, which he had gained with costs, and that six\nscore of infant children were to be delivered up to him in name of\ndamages, and the witches were directed to procure such victims\naccordingly. After this grand fiction he confined himself to the petty\nvengeance of impeding the access of confessors to the condemned, which\nwas the more easy as few of them could speak the Basque language. I have\nno time to detail the ingenious method by which the learned Councillor\nde Lancre explains why the district of Labourt should be particularly\nexposed to the pest of sorcery. The chief reason seems to be that it is\na mountainous, a sterile, and a border country, where the men are all\nfishers and the women smoke tobacco and wear short petticoats.\n\nTo a person who, in this presumptuous, trifling, and conceited spirit,\nhas composed a quarto volume full of the greatest absurdities and\ngrossest obscenities ever impressed on paper, it was the pleasure of the\nmost Christian Monarch to consign the most absolute power which could be\nexercised on these poor people; and he might with as much prudence have\nturned a ravenous wolf upon an undefended flock, of whom the animal was\nthe natural enemy, as they were his natural prey. The priest, as well as\nthe ignorant peasant, fell under the suspicion of this fell Commission;\nand De Lancre writes, with much complacency, that the accused were\nbrought to trial to the number of forty in one day--with what chance of\nescape, when the judges were blinded with prejudice, and could only hear\nthe evidence and the defence through the medium of an interpreter, the\nunderstanding of the reader may easily anticipate.\n\nAmong other gross transgressions of the most ordinary rules, it may be\nremarked that the accused, in what their judges called confessions,\ncontradicted each other at every turn respecting the description of the\nDomdaniel in which they pretended to have been assembled, and the fiend\nwho presided there. All spoke to a sort of gilded throne; but some saw a\nhideous wild he-goat seated there; some a man disfigured and twisted, as\nsuffering torture; some, with better taste, beheld a huge indistinct\nform, resembling one of those mutilated trunks of trees found in ancient\nforests. But De Lancre was no \"Daniel come to judgment,\" and the\ndiscrepancy of evidence, which saved the life and fame of Susannah, made\nno impression in favour of the sorcerers of Labourt.\n\nInstances occur in De Lancre's book of the trial and condemnation of\npersons accused of the crime of _lycanthropy_, a superstition which was\nchiefly current in France, but was known in other countries, and is the\nsubject of great debate between Wier, Naud\u00e9, Scot, on the one hand, and\ntheir demonological adversaries on the other. The idea, said the one\nparty, was that a human being had the power, by sorcery, of transforming\nhimself into the shape of a wolf, and in that capacity, being seized\nwith a species of fury, he rushed out and made havoc among the flocks,\nslaying and wasting, like the animal whom he represented, far more than\nhe could devour. The more incredulous reasoners would not allow of a\nreal transformation, whether with or without the enchanted hide of a\nwolf, which in some cases was supposed to aid the metamorphosis, and\ncontended that lycanthropy only subsisted as a woful species of disease,\na melancholy state of mind, broken with occasional fits of insanity, in\nwhich the patient imagined that he committed the ravages of which he was\naccused. Such a person, a mere youth, was tried at Besan\u00e7on, who gave\nhimself out for a servant, or yeoman pricker, of the Lord of the\nForest--so he called his superior--who was judged to be the devil. He\nwas, by his master's power, transformed into the likeness and performed\nthe usual functions of a wolf, and was attended in his course by one\nlarger, which he supposed the Lord of the Forest himself. These wolves,\nhe said, ravaged the flocks, and throttled the dogs which stood in their\ndefence. If either had not seen the other, he howled, after the manner\nof the animal, to call his comrade to his share of the prey; if he did\nnot come upon this signal, he proceeded to bury it the best way he\ncould.\n\nSuch was the general persecution under Messieurs Espiagnel and De\nLancre. Many similar scenes occurred in France, till the edict of Louis\nXIV. discharging all future prosecutions for witchcraft, after which the\ncrime itself was heard of no more.[52]\n\n[Footnote 52: The reader may sup full on such wild horrors in the\n_causes c\u00e9l\u00e8bres_.]\n\nWhile the spirit of superstition was working such horrors in France, it\nwas not, we may believe, more idle in other countries of Europe. In\nSpain, particularly, long the residence of the Moors, a people putting\ndeep faith in all the day-dreams of witchcraft, good and evil genii,\nspells and talismans, the ardent and devotional temper of the old\nChristians dictated a severe research after sorcerers as well as\nheretics, and relapsed Jews or Mahommedans. In former times, during the\nsubsistence of the Moorish kingdoms in Spain, a school was supposed to\nbe kept open in Toboso for the study, it is said, of magic, but more\nlikely of chemistry, algebra, and other sciences, which, altogether\nmistaken by the ignorant and vulgar, and imperfectly understood even by\nthose who studied them, were supposed to be allied to necromancy, or at\nleast to natural magic. It was, of course, the business of the\nInquisition to purify whatever such pursuits had left of suspicious\nCatholicism, and their labours cost as much blood on accusations of\nwitchcraft and magic as for heresy and relapse.\n\nEven the colder nations of Europe were subject to the same epidemic\nterror for witchcraft, and a specimen of it was exhibited in the sober\nand rational country of Sweden about the middle of last century, an\naccount of which, being translated into English by a respectable\nclergyman, Doctor Horneck, excited general surprise how a whole people\ncould be imposed upon to the degree of shedding much blood, and\ncommitting great cruelty and injustice, on account of the idle\nfalsehoods propagated by a crew of lying children, who in this case were\nboth actors and witnesses.\n\nThe melancholy truth that \"the human heart is deceitful above all\nthings, and desperately wicked,\" is by nothing proved so strongly as by\nthe imperfect sense displayed by children of the sanctity of moral\ntruth. Both the gentlemen and the mass of the people, as they advance in\nyears, learn to despise and avoid falsehood; the former out of pride,\nand from a remaining feeling, derived from the days of chivalry, that\nthe character of a liar is a deadly stain on their honour; the other,\nfrom some general reflection upon the necessity of preserving a\ncharacter for integrity in the course of life, and a sense of the truth\nof the common adage, that \"honesty is the best policy.\" But these are\nacquired habits of thinking. The child has no natural love of truth, as\nis experienced by all who have the least acquaintance with early youth.\nIf they are charged with a fault while they can hardly speak, the first\nwords they stammer forth are a falsehood to excuse it. Nor is this all:\nthe temptation of attracting attention, the pleasure of enjoying\nimportance, the desire to escape from an unpleasing task, or accomplish\na holiday, will at any time overcome the sentiment of truth, so weak is\nit within them. Hence thieves and housebreakers, from a surprisingly\nearly period, find means of rendering children useful in their mystery;\nnor are such acolytes found to evade justice with less dexterity than\nthe more advanced rogues. Where a number of them are concerned in the\nsame mischief, there is something resembling virtue in the fidelity with\nwhich the common secret is preserved. Children, under the usual age of\ntheir being admitted to give evidence, were necessarily often examined\nin witch trials; and it is terrible to see how often the little\nimpostors, from spite or in mere gaiety of spirit, have by their art and\nperseverance made shipwreck of men's lives. But it would be hard to\ndiscover a case which, supported exclusively by the evidence of children\n(the confessions under torture excepted), and obviously existing only in\nthe young witnesses' own imagination, has been attended with such\nserious consequences, or given cause to so extensive and fatal a\ndelusion, as that which occurred in Sweden.\n\nThe scene was the Swedish village of Mohra, in the province of Elfland,\nwhich district had probably its name from some remnant of ancient\nsuperstition. The delusion had come to a great height ere it reached the\nears of government, when, as was the general procedure, Royal\nCommissioners were sent down, men well fitted for the duty entrusted to\nthem; that is, with ears open to receive the incredibilities with which\nthey were to be crammed, and hearts hardened against every degree of\ncompassion to the accused. The complaints of the common people, backed\nby some persons of better condition, were that a number of persons,\nrenowned as witches, had drawn several hundred children of all classes\nunder the devil's authority. They demanded, therefore, the punishment of\nthese agents of hell, reminding the judges that the province had been\nclear of witches since the burning of some on a former occasion. The\naccused were numerous, so many as threescore and ten witches and\nsorcerers being seized in the village of Mohra; three-and-twenty\nconfessed their crimes, and were sent to Faluna, where most of them were\nexecuted. Fifteen of the children were also led to death. Six-and-thirty\nof those who were young were forced to run the gauntlet, as it is\ncalled, and were, besides, lashed weekly at the church doors for a whole\nyear. Twenty of the youngest were condemned to the same discipline for\nthree days only.\n\nThe process seems to have consisted in confronting the children with the\nwitches, and hearing the extraordinary story which the former insisted\nupon maintaining. The children, to the number of three hundred, were\nfound more or less perfect in a tale as full of impossible absurdities\nas ever was told around a nursery fire. Their confession ran thus:--\n\nThey were taught by the witches to go to a cross way, and with certain\nceremonies to invoke the devil by the name of Antecessor, begging him to\ncarry them off to Blockula, meaning, perhaps, the Brockenberg, in the\nHartz forest, a mountain infamous for being the common scene of witches'\nmeetings, and to which Goethe represents the spirit Mephistopheles as\nconducting his pupil Faustus. The devil courteously appeared at the call\nof the children in various forms, but chiefly as a mad Merry-Andrew,\nwith a grey coat, red and blue stockings, a red beard, a high-crowned\nhat, with linen of various colours wrapt round it, and garters of\npeculiar length. He set each child on some beast of his providing, and\nanointed them with a certain unguent composed of the scrapings of altars\nand the filings of church clocks. There is here a discrepancy of\nevidence which in another court would have cast the whole. Most of the\nchildren considered their journey to be corporeal and actual. Some\nsupposed, however, that their strength or spirit only travelled with the\nfiend, and that their body remained behind. Very few adopted this last\nhypothesis, though the parents unanimously bore witness that the bodies\nof the children remained in bed, and could not be awakened out of a deep\nsleep, though they shook them for the purpose of awakening them. So\nstrong was, nevertheless, the belief of nurses and mothers in their\nactual transportation, that a sensible clergyman, mentioned in the\npreface, who had resolved he would watch his son the whole night and see\nwhat hag or fiend would take him from his arms, had the utmost\ndifficulty, notwithstanding, in convincing his mother that the child had\nnot been transported to Blockula during the very night he held him in\nhis embrace.\n\nThe learned translator candidly allows, \"out of so great a multitude as\nwere accused, condemned, and executed, there might be some who suffered\nunjustly, and owed their death more to the malice of their enemies than\nto their skill in the black art, I will readily admit. Nor will I deny,\"\nhe continues, \"but that when the news of these transactions and\naccounts, how the children bewitched fel into fits and strange unusual\npostures, spread abroad in the kingdom, some fearful and credulous\npeople, if they saw their children any way disordered, might think they\nwere bewitched or ready to be carried away by imps.\"[53] The learned\ngentleman here stops short in a train of reasoning, which, followed out,\nwould have deprived the world of the benefit of his translation. For if\nit was possible that some of these unfortunate persons fell a sacrifice\nto the malice of their neighbours or the prejudices of witnesses, as he\nseems ready to grant, is it not more reasonable to believe that the\nwhole of the accused were convicted on similar grounds, than to allow,\nas truth, the slightest part of the gross and vulgar impossibilities\nupon which alone their execution can be justified?\n\n[Footnote 53: Translator's preface to Horneck's \"Account of what\nhappened in the Kingdom of Sweden.\" See appendix to Glanville's work.]\n\nThe Blockula, which was the object of their journey, was a house having\na fine gate painted with divers colours, with a paddock, in which they\nturned the beasts to graze which had brought them to such scenes of\nrevelry. If human beings had been employed they were left slumbering\nagainst the wall of the house. The plan of the devil's palace consisted\nof one large banqueting apartment and several withdrawing-rooms. Their\nfood was homely enough, being broth made of coleworts and bacon, with\nbread and butter, and milk and cheese. The same acts of wickedness and\nprofligacy were committed at Blockula which are usually supposed to take\nplace upon the devil's Sabbath elsewhere; but there was this particular,\nthat the witches had sons and daughters by the fiends, who were married\ntogether, and produced an offspring of toads and serpents.\n\nThese confessions being delivered before the accused witches, they at\nfirst stoutly denied them. At last some of them burst into tears, and\nacquiesced in the horrors imputed to them. They said the practice of\ncarrying off children had been enlarged very lately (which shows the\nwhole rumours to have arisen recently); and the despairing wretches\nconfirmed what the children said, with many other extravagant\ncircumstances, as the mode of elongating a goat's back by means of a\nspit, on which we care not to be particular. It is worth mentioning that\nthe devil, desirous of enjoying his own reputation among his subjects,\npretended at one time to be dead, and was much lamented at Blockula--but\nhe soon revived again.\n\nSome attempts these witches had made to harm individuals on middle\nearth, but with little success. One old sorceress, indeed, attempted to\nstrike a nail, given her by the devil for that purpose, into the head of\nthe minister of Elfland; but as the skull was of unusual solidity, the\nreverend gentleman only felt a headache from her efforts. They could not\nbe persuaded to exhibit any of their tricks before the Commissioners,\nexcusing themselves by alleging that their witchcraft had left them, and\nthat the devil had amused them with the vision of a burning pit, having\na hand thrust out of it.\n\nThe total number who lost their lives on this singular occasion was\nfourscore and four persons, including fifteen children; and at this\nexpense of blood was extinguished a flame that arose as suddenly, burned\nas fiercely, and decayed as rapidly, as any portent of the kind within\nthe annals of superstition. The Commissioners returned to Court with the\nhigh approbation of all concerned; prayers were ordered through the\nchurches weekly, that Heaven would be pleased to restrain the powers of\nthe devil, and deliver the poor creatures who hitherto had groaned under\nit, as well as the innocent children, who were carried off by hundreds\nat once.\n\nIf we could ever learn the true explanation of this story, we should\nprobably find that the cry was led by some clever mischievous boy, who\nwished to apologise to his parents for lying an hour longer in the\nmorning by alleging he had been at Blockula on the preceding night; and\nthat the desire to be as much distinguished as their comrade had\nstimulated the bolder and more acute of his companions to the like\nfalsehoods; whilst those of weaker minds assented, either from fear of\npunishment or the force of dreaming over at night the horrors which were\ndinned into their ears all day. Those who were ingenuous, as it was\ntermed, in their confessions, received praise and encouragement; and\nthose who denied or were silent, and, as it was considered, impenitent,\nwere sure to bear the harder share of the punishment which was addressed\nto all. It is worth while also to observe, that the smarter children\nbegan to improve their evidence and add touches to the general picture\nof Blockula. \"Some of the children talked much of a white angel, which\nused to forbid them what the devil bid them do, and told them that these\ndoings should not last long. And (they added) this better being would\nplace himself sometimes at the door betwixt the witches and the\nchildren, and when they came to Blockula he pulled the children back,\nbut the witches went in.\"\n\nThis additional evidence speaks for itself, and shows the whole tale to\nbe the fiction of the children's imagination, which some of them wished\nto improve upon. The reader may consult \"An Account of what happened in\nthe Kingdom of Sweden in the years 1669 and 1670, and afterwards\ntranslated out of High Dutch into English by Dr. Antony Horneck,\"\nattached to Glanville's \"Sadducismus Triumphatus.\" The translator refers\nto the evidence of Baron Sparr, Ambassador from the Court of Sweden to\nthe Court of England in 1672; and that of Baron Lyonberg, Envoy\nExtraordinary of the same power, both of whom attest the confession and\nexecution of the witches. The King of Sweden himself answered the\nexpress inquiries of the Duke of Holstein with marked reserve. \"His\njudges and commissioners,\" he said, \"had caused divers men, women, and\nchildren, to be burnt and executed on such pregnant evidence as was\nbrought before them. But whether the actions confessed and proved\nagainst them were real, or only the effects of strong imagination, he\nwas not as yet able to determine\"--a sufficient reason, perhaps, why\npunishment should have been at least deferred by the interposition of\nthe royal authority.\n\nWe must now turn our eyes to Britain, in which our knowledge as to such\nevents is necessarily more extensive, and where it is in a high degree\nmore interesting to our present purpose.\n\n\n\n\nLETTER VIII.\n\n    The Effects of the Witch Superstition are to be traced in the Laws\n    of a Kingdom--Usually punished in England as a Crime connected with\n    Politics--Attempt at Murder for Witchcraft not in itself\n    Capital--Trials of Persons of Rank for Witchcraft, connected with\n    State Crimes--Statutes of Henry VIII--How Witchcraft was regarded by\n    the three Leading Sects of Religion in the Sixteenth Century; first,\n    by the Catholics; second, by the Calvinists; third, by the Church of\n    England and Lutherans--Impostures unwarily countenanced by\n    individual Catholic Priests, and also by some Puritanic\n    Clergymen--Statute of 1562, and some cases upon it--Case of\n    Dugdale--Case of the Witches of Warbois, and the execution of the\n    Family of Samuel--That of Jane Wenham, in which some Church of\n    England Clergymen insisted on the Prosecution--Hutchison's Rebuke to\n    them--James the First's Opinion of Witchcraft--His celebrated\n    Statute, 1 Jac. I.--Canon passed by the Convocation against\n    Possession--Case of Mr. Fairfax's Children--Lancashire Witches in\n    1613--Another Discovery in 1634--Webster's Account of the manner in\n    which the Imposture was managed--Superiority of the Calvinists is\n    followed by a severe Prosecution of Witches--Executions in Suffolk,\n    &c. to a dreadful extent--Hopkins, the pretended Witchfinder, the\n    cause of these Cruelties--His Brutal Practices--His\n    Letter--Execution of Mr. Lowis--Hopkins Punished--Restoration of\n    Charles--Trial of Coxe--Of Dunny and Callendar before Lord\n    Hales--Royal Society and Progress of Knowledge--Somersetshire\n    Witches--Opinions of the Populace--A Woman Swum for Witchcraft at\n    Oakly--- Murder at Tring--Act against Witchcraft abolished, and the\n    belief in the Crime becomes forgotten--Witch Trials in New\n    England--Dame Glover's Trial--Affliction of the Parvises, and\n    frightful Increase of the Prosecutions--Suddenly put a stop to--The\n    Penitence of those concerned in them.\n\n\nOur account of Demonology in England must naturally, as in every other\ncountry, depend chiefly on the instances which history contains of the\nlaws and prosecutions against witchcraft. Other superstitions arose and\ndecayed, were dreaded or despised, without greater embarrassment, in the\nprovinces in which they have a temporary currency, than that cowards and\nchildren go out more seldom at night, while the reports of ghosts and\nfairies are peculiarly current. But when the alarm of witchcraft arises,\nSuperstition dips her hand in the blood of the persons accused, and\nrecords in the annals of jurisprudence their trials and the causes\nalleged in vindication of their execution. Respecting other fantastic\nallegations, the proof is necessarily transient and doubtful, depending\nupon the inaccurate testimony of vague report and of doting tradition.\nBut in cases of witchcraft we have before us the recorded evidence upon\nwhich judge and jury acted, and can form an opinion with some degree of\ncertainty of the grounds, real or fanciful, on which they acquitted or\ncondemned. It is, therefore, in tracing, this part of Demonology, with\nits accompanying circumstances, that we have the best chance of\nobtaining an accurate view of our subject.\n\nThe existence of witchcraft was, no doubt, received and credited in\nEngland, as in the countries on the Continent, and originally punished\naccordingly. But after the fourteenth century the practices which fell\nunder such a description were thought unworthy of any peculiar\nanimadversion, unless they were connected with something which would\nhave been of itself a capital crime, by whatever means it had been\neither essayed or accomplished. Thus the supposed paction between a\nwitch and the demon was perhaps deemed in itself to have terrors enough\nto prevent its becoming an ordinary crime, and was not, therefore,\nvisited with any statutory penalty. But to attempt or execute bodily\nharm to others through means of evil spirits, or, in a word, by the\nblack art, was actionable at common law as much as if the party accused\nhad done the same harm with an arrow or pistol-shot. The destruction or\nabstraction of goods by the like instruments, supposing the charge\nproved, would, in like manner, be punishable. _A fortiori_, the\nconsulting soothsayers, familiar spirits, or the like, and the obtaining\nand circulating pretended prophecies to the unsettlement of the State\nand the endangering of the King's title, is yet a higher degree of\nguilt. And it may be remarked that the inquiry into the date of the\nKing's life bears a close affinity with the desiring or compassing the\ndeath of the Sovereign, which is the essence of high treason. Upon such\ncharges repeated trials took place in the courts of the English, and\ncondemnations were pronounced, with sufficient justice, no doubt, where\nthe connexion between the resort to sorcerers and the design to\nperpetrate a felony could be clearly proved. We would not, indeed, be\ndisposed to go the length of so high an authority as Selden, who\npronounces (in his \"Table-Talk\") that if a man heartily believed that he\ncould take the life of another by waving his hat three times and crying\nBuzz! and should, under this fixed opinion, wave his hat and cry Buzz!\naccordingly, he ought to be executed as a murderer. But a false prophecy\nof the King's death is not to be dealt with exactly on the usual\nprinciple; because, however idle in itself, the promulgation of such a\nprediction has, in times such as we are speaking of, a strong tendency\nto work its completion.\n\nMany persons, and some of great celebrity, suffered for the charge of\ntrafficking with witches, to the prejudice of those in authority. We\nhave already mentioned the instance of the Duchess of Gloucester, in\nHenry the Sixth's reign, and that of the Queen Dowager's kinsmen, in the\nProtectorate of Richard, afterwards the Third. In 1521, the Duke of\nBuckingham was beheaded, owing much to his having listened to the\npredictions of one Friar Hopkins. In the same reign, the Maid of Kent,\nwho had been esteemed a prophetess, was put to death as a cheat. She\nsuffered with seven persons who had managed her fits for the support of\nthe Catholic religion, and confessed her fraud upon the scaffold. About\nseven years after this, Lord Hungerford was beheaded for consulting\ncertain soothsayers concerning the length of Henry the Eighth's life.\nBut these cases rather relate to the purpose for which the sorcery was\nemployed, than to the fact of using it.\n\nTwo remarkable statutes were passed in the year 1541; one against false\nprophecies, the other against the act of conjuration, witchcraft, and\nsorcery, and at the same time against breaking and destroying crosses.\nThe former enactment was certainly made to ease the suspicious and\nwayward fears of the tetchy King Henry. The prohibition against\nwitchcraft might be also dictated by the king's jealous doubts of hazard\nto the succession. The enactment against breaking crosses was obviously\ndesigned to check the ravages of the Reformers, who in England as well\nas elsewhere desired to sweep away Popery with the besom of destruction.\nThis latter statute was abrogated in the first year of Edward VI.,\nperhaps as placing an undue restraint on the zeal of good Protestants\nagainst idolatry.\n\nAt length, in 1562, a formal statute against sorcery, as penal in\nitself, was actually passed; but as the penalty was limited to the\npillory for the first transgression, the legislature probably regarded\nthose who might be brought to trial as impostors rather than wizards.\nThere are instances of individuals tried and convicted as impostors and\ncheats, and who acknowledged themselves such before the court and\npeople; but in their articles of visitation the prelates directed\nenquiry to be made after those who should use enchantments, witchcraft,\nsorcery, or any like craft, _invented by the devil_.\n\nBut it is here proper to make a pause for the purpose of enquiring in\nwhat manner the religious disputes which occupied all Europe about this\ntime influenced the proceedings of the rival sects in relation to\nDemonology.\n\nThe Papal Church had long reigned by the proud and absolute humour which\nshe had assumed, of maintaining every doctrine which her rulers had\nadopted in dark ages; but this pertinacity at length made her citadel\ntoo large to be defended at every point by a garrison whom prudence\nwould have required to abandon positions which had been taken in times\nof darkness, and were unsuited to the warfare of a more enlightened age.\nThe sacred motto of the Vatican was, \"_Vestigia nulla retrorsum_;\" and\nthis rendered it impossible to comply with the more wise and moderate of\nher own party, who would otherwise have desired to make liberal\nconcessions to the Protestants, and thus prevent, in its commencement, a\nformidable schism in the Christian world.\n\nTo the system of Rome the Calvinists offered the most determined\nopposition, affecting upon every occasion and on all points to observe\nan order of church-government, as well as of worship, expressly in the\nteeth of its enactments;--in a word, to be a good Protestant, they held\nit almost essential to be in all things diametrically opposite to the\nCatholic form and faith. As the foundation of this sect was laid in\nrepublican states, as its clerical discipline was settled on a\ndemocratic basis, and as the countries which adopted that form of\ngovernment were chiefly poor, the preachers having lost the rank and\nopulence enjoyed by the Roman Church, were gradually thrown on the\nsupport of the people. Insensibly they became occupied with the ideas\nand tenets natural to the common people, which, if they have usually the\nmerit of being honestly conceived and boldly expressed, are not the less\noften adopted with credulity and precipitation, and carried into effect\nwith unhesitating harshness and severity.\n\nBetwixt these extremes the Churchmen of England endeavoured to steer a\nmiddle course, retaining a portion of the ritual and forms of Rome, as\nin themselves admirable, and at any rate too greatly venerated by the\npeople to be changed merely for opposition's sake. Their comparatively\nundilapidated revenue, the connexion of their system with the state,\nwith views of ambition as ample as the station of a churchman ought to\ncommand, rendered them independent of the necessity of courting their\nflocks by any means save regular discharge of their duty; and the\nexcellent provisions made for their education afforded them learning to\nconfute ignorance and enlighten prejudice.\n\nSuch being the general character of the three Churches, their belief in\nand persecution of such crimes as witchcraft and sorcery were\nnecessarily modelled upon the peculiar tenets which each system\nprofessed, and gave rise to various results in the countries where they\nwere severally received.\n\nThe Church of Rome, as we have seen, was unwilling, in her period of\nundisputed power, to call in the secular arm to punish men for\nwitchcraft--a crime which fell especially under ecclesiastical\ncognizance, and could, according to her belief, be subdued by the\nspiritual arm alone. The learned men at the head of the establishment\nmight safely despise the attempt at those hidden arts as impossible; or,\neven if they were of a more credulous disposition, they might be\nunwilling to make laws by which their own enquiries in the mathematics,\nalgebra, chemistry, and other pursuits vulgarly supposed to approach the\nconfines of magic art, might be inconveniently restricted. The more\nselfish part of the priesthood might think that a general belief in the\nexistence of witches should be permitted to remain, as a source both of\npower and of revenue--that if there were no possessions, there could be\nno exorcism-fees--and, in short, that a wholesome faith in all the\nabsurdities of the vulgar creed as to supernatural influences was\nnecessary to maintain the influence of Diana of Ephesus. They suffered\nspells to be manufactured, since every friar had the power of reversing\nthem; they permitted poison to be distilled, because every convent had\nthe antidote, which was disposed of to all who chose to demand it. It\nwas not till the universal progress of heresy, in the end of the\nfifteenth century, that the bull of Pope Innocent VIII., already quoted,\ncalled to convict, imprison, and condemn the sorcerers, chiefly because\nit was the object to transfer the odium of these crimes to the\nWaldenses, and excite and direct the public hatred against the new sect\nby confounding their doctrines with the influences of the devil and his\nfiends. The bull of Pope Innocent was afterwards, in the year 1523,\nenforced by Adrian VI. with a new one, in which excommunication was\ndirected against _sorcerers and heretics_.\n\nWhile Rome thus positively declared herself against witches and\nsorcerers, the Calvinists, in whose numbers must be included the greater\npart of the English Puritans, who, though they had not finally severed\nfrom the communion of the Anglican Church, yet disapproved of her ritual\nand ceremonies as retaining too much of the Papal stamp, ranked\nthemselves, in accordance with their usual policy, in diametrical\nopposition to the doctrine of the Mother Church. They assumed in the\nopposite sense whatever Rome pretended to as a proof of her omnipotent\nauthority. The exorcisms, forms, and rites, by which good Catholics\nbelieved that incarnate fiends could be expelled and evil spirits of\nevery kind rebuked--these, like the holy water, the robes of the priest,\nand the sign of the cross, the Calvinists considered either with scorn\nand contempt as the tools of deliberate quackery and imposture, or with\nhorror and loathing, as the fit emblems and instruments of an idolatrous\nsystem.\n\nSuch of them as did not absolutely deny the supernatural powers of which\nthe Romanists made boast, regarded the success of the exorcising priest,\nto whatever extent they admitted it, as at best a casting out of devils\nby the power of Beelzebub, the King of the Devils. They saw also, and\nresented bitterly, the attempt to confound any dissent from the\ndoctrines of Rome with the proneness to an encouragement of rites of\nsorcery. On the whole, the Calvinists, generally speaking, were of all\nthe contending sects the most suspicious of sorcery, the most undoubting\nbelievers in its existence, and the most eager to follow it up with what\nthey conceived to be the due punishment of the most fearful of crimes.\n\nThe leading divines of the Church of England were, without doubt,\nfundamentally as much opposed to the doctrines of Rome as those who\naltogether disclaimed opinions and ceremonies merely because she had\nentertained them. But their position in society tended strongly to keep\nthem from adopting, on such subjects as we are now discussing, either\nthe eager credulity of the vulgar mind or the fanatic ferocity of their\nCalvinistic rivals. We have no purpose to discuss the matter in\ndetail--enough has probably been said to show generally why the Romanist\nshould have cried out a miracle respecting an incident which the\nAnglican would have contemptuously termed an imposture; while the\nCalvinist, inspired with a darker zeal, and, above all, with the\nunceasing desire of open controversy with the Catholics, would have\nstyled the same event an operation of the devil.\n\nIt followed that, while the divines of the Church of England possessed\nthe upper hand in the kingdom, witchcraft, though trials and even\ncondemnations for that offence occasionally occurred, did not create\nthat epidemic terror which the very suspicion of the offence carried\nwith it elsewhere; so that Reginald Scot and others alleged it was the\nvain pretences and empty forms of the Church of Rome, by the faith\nreposed in them, which had led to the belief of witchcraft or sorcery in\ngeneral. Nor did prosecutions on account of such charges frequently\ninvolve a capital punishment, while learned judges were jealous of the\nimperfection of the evidence to support the charge, and entertained a\nstrong and growing suspicion that legitimate grounds for such trials\nseldom actually existed. On the other hand, it usually happened that\nwherever the Calvinist interest became predominant in Britain, a general\npersecution of sorcerers and witches seemed to take place of\nconsequence. Fearing and hating sorcery more than other Protestants,\nconnecting its ceremonies and usages with those of the detested Catholic\nChurch, the Calvinists were more eager than other sects in searching\nafter the traces of this crime, and, of course, unusually successful, as\nthey might suppose, in making discoveries of guilt, and pursuing it to\nthe expiation of the fagot. In a word, a principle already referred to\nby Dr. Francis Hutchison will be found to rule the tide and the reflux\nof such cases in the different churches. The numbers of witches, and\ntheir supposed dealings with Satan, will increase or decrease according\nas such doings are accounted probable or impossible. Under the former\nsupposition, charges and convictions will be found augmented in a\nterrific degree. When the accusations are disbelieved and dismissed as\nnot worthy of attention, the crime becomes unfrequent, ceases to occupy\nthe public mind, and affords little trouble to the judges.\n\nThe passing of Elizabeth's statute against witchcraft in 1562 does not\nseem to have been intended to increase the number of trials, or cases of\nconviction at least; and the fact is, it did neither the one nor the\nother. Two children were tried in 1574 for counterfeiting possession,\nand stood in the pillory for impostors. Mildred Norrington, called the\nMaid of Westwell, furnished another instance of possession; but she also\nconfessed her imposture, and publicly showed her fits and tricks of\nmimicry. The strong influence already possessed by the Puritans may\nprobably be sufficient to account for the darker issue of certain cases,\nin which both juries and judges in Elizabeth's time must be admitted to\nhave shown fearful severity.\n\nThese cases of possession were in some respects sore snares to the\npriests of the Church of Rome, who, while they were too sagacious not to\nbe aware that the pretended fits, contortions, strange sounds, and other\nextravagances, produced as evidence of the demon's influence on the\npossessed person, were nothing else than marks of imposture by some idle\nvagabond, were nevertheless often tempted to admit them as real, and\ntake the credit of curing them. The period was one when the Catholic\nChurch had much occasion to rally around her all the respect that\nremained to her in a schismatic and heretical kingdom; and when her\nfathers and doctors announced the existence of such a dreadful disease,\nand of the power of the church's prayers, relics, and ceremonies, to\ncure it, it was difficult for a priest, supposing him more tender of the\ninterest of his order than that of truth, to avoid such a tempting\nopportunity as a supposed case of possession offered for displaying the\nhigh privilege in which his profession made him a partaker, or to\nabstain from conniving at the imposture, in order to obtain for his\nchurch the credit of expelling the demon. It was hardly to be wondered\nat, if the ecclesiastic was sometimes induced to aid the fraud of which\nsuch motives forbade him to be the detector. At this he might hesitate\nthe less, as he was not obliged to adopt the suspected and degrading\ncourse of holding an immediate communication _in limine_ with the\nimpostor, since a hint or two, dropped in the supposed sufferer's\npresence, might give him the necessary information what was the most\nexact mode of performing his part, and if the patient was possessed by a\ndevil of any acuteness or dexterity, he wanted no further instruction\nhow to play it. Such combinations were sometimes detected, and brought\nmore discredit on the Church of Rome than was counterbalanced by any\nwhich might be more cunningly managed. On this subject the reader may\nturn to Dr. Harsnett's celebrated book on Popish Impostures, wherein he\ngives the history of several notorious cases of detected fraud, in which\nRoman ecclesiastics had not hesitated to mingle themselves. That of\nGrace Sowerbutts, instructed by a Catholic priest to impeach her\ngrandmother of witchcraft, was a very gross fraud.\n\nSuch cases were not, however, limited to the ecclesiastics of Rome. We\nhave already stated that, as extremes usually approach each other, the\nDissenters, in their violent opposition to the Papists, adopted some of\ntheir ideas respecting demoniacs; and we have now to add that they also\nclaimed, by the vehemence of prayer and the authority of their own\nsacred commission, that power of expelling devils which the Church of\nRome pretended to exercise by rites, ceremonies, and relics. The\nmemorable case of Richard Dugdale, called the Surrey Impostor, was one\nof the most remarkable which the Dissenters brought forward. This youth\nwas supposed to have sold his soul to the devil, on condition of being\nmade the best dancer in Lancashire, and during his possession played a\nnumber of fantastic tricks, not much different from those exhibited by\nexpert posture-masters of the present day. This person threw himself\ninto the hands of the Dissenters, who, in their eagerness, caught at an\nopportunity to relieve an afflicted person, whose case the regular\nclergy appeared to have neglected. They fixed a committee of their\nnumber, who weekly attended the supposed sufferer, and exercised\nthemselves in appointed days of humiliation and fasting during the\ncourse of a whole year. All respect for the demon seems to have\nabandoned the reverend gentlemen, after they had relieved guard in this\nmanner for some little time, and they got so regardless of Satan as to\ntaunt him with the mode in which he executed his promise to teach his\nvassal dancing. The following specimen of raillery is worth\ncommemoration:--\"What, Satan! is this the dancing that Richard gave\nhimself to thee for? &c. Canst thou dance no better? &c. Ransack the old\nrecords of all past times and places in thy memory; canst thou not there\nfind out some better way of trampling? Pump thine invention dry; cannot\nthe universal seed-plot of subtile wiles and stratagems spring up one\nnew method of cutting capers? Is this the top of skill and pride, to\nshuffle feet and brandish knees thus, and to trip like a doe and skip\nlike a squirrel? And wherein differ thy leapings from the hoppings of a\nfrog, or the bouncings of a goat, or friskings of a dog, or\ngesticulations of a monkey? And cannot a palsy shake such a loose leg as\nthat? Dost thou not twirl like a calf that hath the turn, and twitch up\nthy houghs just like a springhault tit?\"[54] One might almost conceive\nthe demon replying to this raillery in the words of Dr. Johnson, \"This\nmerriment of parsons is extremely offensive.\"\n\n[Footnote 54: Hutchison on Witchcraft, p. 162.]\n\nThe dissenters were probably too honest, however simple, to achieve a\ncomplete cure on Dugdale by an amicable understanding; so, after their\nyear of vigil, they relinquished their task by degrees. Dugdale, weary\nof his illness, which now attracted little notice, attended a regular\nphysician, and was cured of that part of his disease which was not\naffected in a regular way _par ordonnance du m\u00e9decin_. But the reverend\ngentlemen who had taken his case in hand still assumed the credit of\ncuring him, and if anything could have induced them to sing _Te Deum_,\nit would have been this occasion. They said that the effect of their\npublic prayers had been for a time suspended, until seconded by the\ncontinued earnestness of their private devotions!\n\nThe ministers of the Church of England, though, from education,\nintercourse with the world, and other advantages, they were less prone\nto prejudice than those of other sects, are yet far from being entirely\nfree of the charge of encouraging in particular instances the witch\nsuperstition. Even while Dr. Hutchison pleads that the Church of England\nhas the least to answer for in that matter, he is under the necessity of\nacknowledging that some regular country clergymen so far shared the\nrooted prejudices of congregations, and of the government which\nestablished laws against it, as to be active in the persecution of the\nsuspected, and even in countenancing the superstitious signs by which in\nthat period the vulgar thought it possible to ascertain the existence of\nthe afflictions by witchcraft, and obtain the knowledge of the\nperpetrator. A singular case is mentioned of three women, called the\nWitches of Warbois. Indeed, their story is a matter of solemn enough\nrecord; for Sir Samuel Cromwell, having received the sum of forty pounds\nas lord of the manor, out of the estate of the poor persons who\nsuffered, turned it into a rent-charge of forty shillings yearly, for\nthe endowment of an annual lecture on the subject of witchcraft, to be\npreached by a doctor or bachelor of divinity of Queen's College,\nCambridge. The accused, one Samuel and his wife, were old and very poor\npersons, and their daughter a young woman. The daughter of a Mr.\nThrogmorton, seeing the poor old woman in a black knitted cap, at a time\nwhen she was not very well, took a whim that she had bewitched her, and\nwas ever after exclaiming against her. The other children of this\nfanciful family caught up the same cry, and the eldest of them at last\ngot up a vastly pretty drama, in which she herself furnished all the\nscenes and played all the parts.\n\nSuch imaginary scenes, or _make-believe_ stories, are the common\namusement of lively children; and most readers may remember having had\nsome Utopia of their own. But the nursery drama of Miss Throgmorton had\na horrible conclusion. This young lady and her sisters were supposed to\nbe haunted by nine spirits, dispatched by the wicked Mother Samuel for\nthat purpose. The sapient parents heard one part of the dialogue, when\nthe children in their fits returned answers, as was supposed, to the\nspirits who afflicted them; and when the patients from time to time\nrecovered, they furnished the counterpart by telling what the spirits\nhad said to them. The names of the spirits were Pluck, Hardname, Catch,\nBlue, and three Smacks, who were cousins. Mrs. Joan Throgmorton, the\neldest (who, like other young women of her age, about fifteen, had some\ndisease on her nerves, and whose fancy ran apparently on love and\ngallantry), supposed that one of the Smacks was her lover, did battle\nfor her with the less friendly spirits, and promised to protect her\nagainst Mother Samuel herself; and the following curious extract will\nshow on what a footing of familiarity the damsel stood with her\nspiritual gallant: \"From whence come you, Mr. Smack?\" says the afflicted\nyoung lady; \"and what news do you bring?\" Smack, nothing abashed,\ninformed her he came from fighting with Pluck: the weapons, great\ncowl-staves; the scene, a ruinous bakehouse in Dame Samuel's yard. \"And\nwho got the mastery, I pray you?\" said the damsel. Smack answered, he\nhad broken Pluck's head. \"I would,\" said the damsel, \"he had broken your\nneck also.\" \"Is that the thanks I am to have for my labour?\" said the\ndisappointed Smack. \"Look you for thanks at my hand?\" said the\ndistressed maiden. \"I would you were all hanged up against each other,\nwith your dame for company, for you are all naught.\" On this repulse,\nexit Smack, and enter Pluck, Blue, and Catch, the first with his head\nbroken, the other limping, and the third with his arm in a sling, all\ntrophies of Smack's victory. They disappeared after having threatened\nvengeance upon the conquering Smack. However, he soon afterwards\nappeared with his laurels. He told her of his various conflicts. \"I\nwonder,\" said Mrs. Joan, or Jane, \"that you are able to beat them; you\nare little, and they very big.\" \"He cared not for that,\" he replied; \"he\nwould beat the best two of them, and his cousins Smacks would beat the\nother two.\" This most pitiful mirth, for such it certainly is, was mixed\nwith tragedy enough. Miss Throgmorton and her sisters railed against\nDarne Samuel; and when Mr. Throgmorton brought her to his house by\nforce, the little fiends longed to draw blood of her, scratch her, and\ntorture her, as the witch-creed of that period recommended; yet the poor\nwoman incurred deeper suspicion when she expressed a wish to leave a\nhouse where she was so coarsely treated and lay under such odious\nsuspicions.\n\nIt was in vain that this unhappy creature endeavoured to avert their\nresentment by submitting to all the ill-usage they chose to put upon\nher; in vain that she underwent unresistingly the worst usage at the\nhand of Lady Cromwell, her landlady, who, abusing her with the worst\nepithets, tore her cap from her head, clipped out some of her hair, and\ngave it to Mrs. Throgmorton to burn it for a counter-charm. Nay, Mother\nSamuel's complaisance in the latter case only led to a new charge. It\nhappened that the Lady Cromwell, on her return home, dreamed of her\nday's work, and especially of the old dame and her cat; and, as her\nladyship died in a _year and quarter_ from that very day, it was\nsagaciously concluded that she must have fallen a victim to the\nwitcheries of the terrible Dame Samuel. Mr. Throgmorton also compelled\nthe old woman and her daughter to use expressions which put their lives\nin the power of these malignant children, who had carried on the farce\nso long that they could not well escape from their own web of deceit but\nby the death of these helpless creatures. For example, the prisoner,\nDame Samuel, was induced to say to the supposed spirit, \"As I am a\nwitch, and a causer of Lady Cromwell's death, I charge thee to come out\nof the maiden.\" The girl lay still; and this was accounted a proof that\nthe poor woman, who, only subdued and crushed by terror and tyranny, did\nas she was bidden, was a witch. One is ashamed of an English judge and\njury when it must be repeated that the evidence of these enthusiastic\nand giddy-pated girls was deemed sufficient to the condemnation of three\ninnocent persons. Goody Samuel, indeed, was at length worried into a\nconfession of her guilt by the various vexations which were practised on\nher. But her husband and daughter continued to maintain their innocence.\nThe last showed a high spirit and proud value for her character. She was\nadvised by some, who pitied her youth, to gain at least a respite by\npleading pregnancy; to which she answered disdainfully, \"No, I will not\nbe both held witch and strumpet!\" The mother, to show her sanity of mind\nand the real value of her confession, caught at the advice recommended\nto her daughter. As her years put such a plea out of the question, there\nwas a laugh among the unfeeling audience, in which the poor old victim\njoined loudly and heartily. Some there were who thought it no joking\nmatter, and were inclined to think they had a Joanna Southcote before\nthem, and that the devil must be the father. These unfortunate Samuels\nwere condemned at Huntingdon, before Mr. Justice Fenner, 4th April,\n1593. It was a singular case to be commemorated by an annual lecture, as\nprovided by Sir Samuel Cromwell, for the purposes of justice were never\nso perverted, nor her sword turned to a more flagrant murder.\n\nWe may here mention, though mainly for the sake of contrast, the\nmuch-disputed case of Jane Wenham, the Witch of Walkerne, as she was\ntermed, which was of a much later date. Some of the country clergy were\ncarried away by the land-flood of superstition in this instance also and\nnot only encouraged the charge, but gave their countenance to some of\nthe ridiculous and indecent tricks resorted to as proofs of witchcraft\nby the lowest vulgar. But the good sense of the judge, seconded by that\nof other reflecting and sensible persons, saved the country from the\nultimate disgrace attendant on too many of these unhallowed trials. The\nusual sort of evidence was brought against this poor woman, by pretences\nof bewitched persons vomiting fire--a trick very easy to those who chose\nto exhibit such a piece of jugglery amongst such as rather desire to be\ntaken in by it than to detect the imposture. The witchfinder practised\nupon her the most vulgar and ridiculous tricks or charms; and out of a\nperverted examination they drew what they called a confession, though of\na forced and mutilated character. Under such proof the jury brought her\nin guilty, and she was necessarily condemned to die. More fortunate,\nhowever, than many persons placed in the like circumstances, Jane Wenham\nwas tried before a sensible and philosophic judge, who could not\nunderstand that the life of an Englishwoman, however mean, should be\ntaken away by a set of barbarous tricks and experiments, the efficacy of\nwhich depended on popular credulity. He reprieved the witch before he\nleft the assize-town. The rest of the history is equally a contrast to\nsome we have told and others we shall have to recount. A humane and\nhigh-spirited gentleman, Colonel Plummer of Gilston, putting at defiance\npopular calumny, placed the poor old woman in a small house near his own\nand under his immediate protection. Here she lived and died, in honest\nand fair reputation, edifying her visitors by her accuracy and attention\nin repeating her devotions; and, removed from her brutal and malignant\nneighbours, never afterwards gave the slightest cause of suspicion or\noffence till her dying day. As this was one of the last cases of\nconviction in England, Dr Hutchison has been led to dilate upon it with\nsome strength of eloquence as well as argument.\n\nHe thus expostulates with some of the better class who were eager for\nthe prosecution:--\"(1) What single fact of sorcery did this Jane Wenham\ndo? What charm did she use, or what act of witchcraft could you prove\nupon her? Laws are against evil actions that can be proved to be of the\nperson's doing. What single fact that was against the statute could you\nfix upon her? I ask (2) Did she so much as speak an imprudent word, or\ndo an immoral action, that you could put into the narrative of her case?\nWhen she was denied a few turnips, she laid them down very submissively;\nwhen she was called witch and bitch, she only took the proper means for\nthe vindication of her good name; when she saw this storm coming upon\nher she locked herself in her own house and tried to keep herself out of\nyour cruel hands; when her door was broken open, and you gave way to\nthat barbarous usage that she met with, she protested her innocence,\nfell upon her knees, and begged she might not go to gaol, and, in her\ninnocent simplicity, would have let you swim her; and at her trial she\ndeclared herself a clear woman. This was her behaviour. And what could\nany of us have done better, excepting in that case where she complied\nwith you too much, and offered to let you swim her?\n\n\"(3) When you used the meanest of paganish and popish\nsuperstitions--when you scratched and mangled and ran pins into her\nflesh, and used that ridiculous trial of the bottle, &c.--whom did you\nconsult, and from whom did you expect your answers? Who was your father?\nand into whose hands did you put yourselves? and (if the true sense of\nthe statute had been turned upon you) which way would you have defended\nyourselves? (4) Durst you have used her in this manner if she had been\nrich? and doth not her poverty increase rather than lessen your guilt in\nwhat you did?\n\n\"And therefore, instead of closing your book with a _liberavimus animas\nnostras_, and reflecting upon the court, I ask you (5) Whether you have\nnot more reason to give God thanks that you met with a wise judge, and a\nsensible gentleman, who kept you from shedding innocent blood, and\nreviving the meanest and cruelest of all superstitions amongst us?\"[55]\n\n[Footnote 55: Hutchison's \"Essay on Witchcraft,\" p. 166.]\n\nBut although individuals of the English Church might on some occasions\nbe justly accused of falling into lamentable errors on a subject where\nerror was so general, it was not an usual point of their professional\ncharacter; and it must be admitted that the most severe of the laws\nagainst witchcraft originated with a Scottish King of England, and that\nthe only extensive persecution following that statute occurred during\nthe time of the Civil Wars, when the Calvinists obtained for a short\nperiod a predominating influence in the councils of Parliament.\n\nJames succeeded to Elizabeth amidst the highest expectations on the part\nof his new people, who, besides their general satisfaction at coming\nonce more under the rule of a king, were also proud of his supposed\nabilities and real knowledge of books and languages, and were naturally,\nthough imprudently, disposed to gratify him by deferring to his judgment\nin matters wherein his studies were supposed to have rendered him a\nspecial proficient. Unfortunately, besides the more harmless freak of\nbecoming a prentice in the art of poetry, by which words and numbers\nwere the only sufferers, the monarch had composed a deep work upon\nDemonology, embracing in their fullest extent the most absurd and gross\nof the popular errors on this subject. He considered his crown and life\nas habitually aimed at by the sworn slaves of Satan. Several had been\nexecuted for an attempt to poison him by magical arts; and the turbulent\nFrancis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, whose repeated attempts on his person\nhad long been James's terror, had begun his course of rebellion by a\nconsultation with the weird sisters and soothsayers. Thus the king, who\nhad proved with his pen the supposed sorcerers to be the direct enemies\nof the Deity, and who conceived he knew them from experience to be his\nown--who, moreover, had upon much lighter occasions (as in the case of\nVorstius) showed no hesitation at throwing his royal authority into the\nscale to aid his arguments--very naturally used his influence, when it\nwas at the highest, to extend and enforce the laws against a crime which\nhe both hated and feared.\n\nThe English statute against witchcraft, passed in the very first year of\nthat reign, is therefore of a most special nature, describing witchcraft\nby all the various modes and ceremonies in which, according to King\nJames's fancy, that crime could be perpetrated; each of which was\ndeclared felony, without benefit of clergy.\n\nThis gave much wider scope to prosecution on the statute than had\nexisted under the milder acts of Elizabeth. Men might now be punished\nfor the practice of witchcraft, as itself a crime, without necessary\nreference to the ulterior objects of the perpetrator. It is remarkable\nthat in the same year, when the legislature rather adopted the passions\nand fears of the king than expressed their own by this fatal enactment,\nthe Convocation of the Church evinced a very different spirit; for,\nseeing the ridicule brought on their sacred profession by forward and\npresumptuous men, in the attempt to relieve demoniacs from a disease\nwhich was commonly occasioned by natural causes, if not the mere\ncreature of imposture, they passed a canon, establishing that no\nminister or ministers should in future attempt to expel any devil or\ndevils, without the license of his bishop; thereby virtually putting a\nstop to a fertile source of knavery among the people, and disgraceful\nfolly among the inferior churchmen.\n\nThe new statute of James does not, however, appear to have led at first\nto many prosecutions. One of the most remarkable was (_proh pudor!_)\ninstigated by a gentleman, a scholar of classical taste, and a beautiful\npoet, being no other than Edward Fairfax of Fayston, in Knaresborough\nForest, the translator of Tasso's \"Jerusalem Delivered.\" In allusion to\nhis credulity on such subjects, Collins has introduced the following\nelegant lines:--\n\n\"How have I sate while piped the pensive wind,\n  To hear thy harp, by British Fairfax strung;\nPrevailing poet, whose undoubting mind\n  Believed the magic wonders which he sung!\"\n\nLike Mr. Throgmorton in the Warbois case, Mr. Fairfax accused six of his\nneighbours of tormenting his children by fits of an extraordinary kind,\nby imps, and by appearing before the afflicted in their own shape during\nthe crisis of these operations. The admitting this last circumstance to\nbe a legitimate mode of proof, gave a most cruel advantage against the\naccused, for it could not, according to the ideas of the demonologists,\nbe confuted even by the most distinct _alibi_. To a defence of that sort\nit was replied that the afflicted person did not see the actual witch,\nwhose corporeal presence must indeed have been obvious to every one in\nthe room as well as to the afflicted, but that the evidence of the\nsufferers related to the appearance of their _spectre_, or apparition;\nand this was accounted a sure sign of guilt in those whose forms were so\nmanifested during the fits of the afflicted, and who were complained of\nand cried out upon by the victim. The obvious tendency of this doctrine,\nas to visionary or spectral evidence, as it was called, was to place the\nlife and fame of the accused in the power of any hypochondriac patient\nor malignant impostor, who might either seem to see, or aver she saw,\nthe _spectrum_ of the accused old man or old woman, as if enjoying and\nurging on the afflictions which she complained of; and, strange to tell,\nthe fatal sentence was to rest, not upon the truth of the witnesses'\neyes, but that of their imagination. It happened fortunately for\nFairfax's memory, that the objects of his prosecution were persons of\ngood character, and that the judge was a man of sense, and made so wise\nand skilful a charge to the jury, that they brought in a verdict of not\nguilty.\n\nThe celebrated case of \"the Lancashire witches\" (whose name was and will\nbe long remembered, partly from Shadwell's play, but more from the\ningenious and well-merited compliment to the beauty of the females of\nthat province which it was held to contain), followed soon after.\nWhether the first notice of this sorcery sprung from the idle head of a\nmischievous boy, is uncertain; but there is no doubt that it was\nspeedily caught up and fostered for the purpose of gain. The original\nstory ran thus:--\n\nThese Lancaster trials were at two periods, the one in 1613, before Sir\nJames Altham and Sir Edward Bromley, Barons of Exchequer, when nineteen\nwitches were tried at once at Lancaster, and another of the name of\nPreston at York. The report against these people is drawn up by Thomas\nPotts. An obliging correspondent sent me a sight of a copy of this\ncurious and rare book. The chief personage in the drama is Elizabeth\nSoutham, a witch redoubted under the name of Dembdike, an account of\nwhom may be seen in Mr. Roby's \"Antiquities of Lancaster,\" as well as a\ndescription of Maulkins' Tower, the witches' place of meeting. It\nappears that this remote county was full of Popish recusants, travelling\npriests, and so forth; and some of their spells are given in which the\nholy names and things alluded to form a strange contrast with the\npurpose to which they were applied, as to secure a good brewing of ale\nor the like. The public imputed to the accused parties a long train of\nmurders, conspiracies, charms, mischances, hellish and damnable\npractices, \"apparent,\" says the editor, \"on their own examinations and\nconfessions,\" and, to speak the truth, visible nowhere else. Mother\nDembdike had the good luck to die before conviction. Among other tales,\nwe have one of two _female_ devils, called Fancy and Tib. It is\nremarkable that some of the unfortunate women endeavoured to transfer\nthe guilt from themselves to others with whom they had old quarrels,\nwhich confessions were held good evidence against those who made them,\nand against the alleged accomplice also. Several of the unhappy women\nwere found not guilty, to the great displeasure of the ignorant people\nof the county. Such was the first edition of the Lancashire witches. In\nthat which follows the accusation can be more clearly traced to the most\nvillanous conspiracy.\n\nAbout 1634 a boy called Edmund Robinson, whose father, a very poor man,\ndwelt in Pendle Forest, the scene of the alleged witching, declared that\nwhile gathering _bullees_ (wild plums, perhaps) in one of the glades of\nthe forest, he saw two greyhounds, which he imagined to belong to\ngentlemen in that neighbourhood. The boy reported that, seeing nobody\nfollowing them, he proposed to have a course; but though a hare was\nstarted, the dogs refused to run. On this, young Robinson was about to\npunish them with a switch, when one Dame Dickenson, a neighbour's wife,\nstarted up instead of the one greyhound; a little boy instead of the\nother. The witness averred that Mother Dickenson offered him money to\nconceal what he had seen, which he refused, saying \"Nay, thou art a\nwitch.\" Apparently she was determined he should have full evidence of\nthe truth of what he said, for, like the Magician Queen in the Arabian\nTales, she pulled out of her pocket a bridle and shook it over the head\nof the boy who had so lately represented the other greyhound. He was\ndirectly changed into a horse; Mother Dickenson mounted, and took\nRobinson before her. They then rode to a large house or barn called\nHourstoun, into which Edmund Robinson entered with others. He there saw\nsix or seven persons pulling at halters, from which, as they pulled\nthem, meat ready dressed came flying in quantities, together with lumps\nof butter, porringers of milk, and whatever else might, in the boy's\nfancy, complete a rustic feast. He declared that while engaged in the\ncharm they made such ugly faces and looked so fiendish that he was\nfrightened. There was more to the same purpose--as the boy's having seen\none of these hags sitting half-way up his father's chimney, and some\nsuch goodly matter. But it ended in near a score of persons being\ncommitted to prison; and the consequence was that young Robinson was\ncarried from church to church in the neighbourhood, that he might\nrecognise the faces of any persons he had seen at the rendezvous of\nwitches. Old Robinson, who had been an evidence against the former\nwitches in 1613, went along with his son, and knew, doubtless, how to\nmake his journey profitable; and his son probably took care to recognise\nnone who might make a handsome consideration. \"This boy,\" says Webster,\n\"was brought into the church at Kildwick, a parish church, where I,\nbeing then curate there, was preaching at the time, to look about him,\nwhich made some little disturbance for the time.\" After prayers Mr.\nWebster sought and found the boy, and two very unlikely persons, who,\nsays he, \"did conduct him and manage the business: I did desire some\ndiscourse with the boy in private, but that they utterly denied. In the\npresence of a great many many people I took the boy near me and said,\n'Good boy, tell me truly and in earnest, didst thou hear and see such\nstrange things of the motions of the witches as many do report that thou\ndidst relate, or did not some person teach thee to say such things of\nthyself?' But the two men did pluck the boy from me, and said he had\nbeen examined by two able justices of peace, and they never asked him\nsuch a question. To whom I replied, 'The persons accused had the more\nwrong.'\" The boy afterwards acknowledged, in his more advanced years,\nthat he was instructed and suborned to swear these things against the\naccused persons by his father and others, and was heard often to confess\nthat on the day which he pretended to see the said witches at the house\nor barn, he was gathering plums in a neighbour's orchard.[56]\n\n[Footnote 56: Webster on Witchcraft, edition 1677, p. 278.]\n\nThere was now approaching a time when the law against witchcraft,\nsufficiently bloody in itself, was to be pushed to more violent\nextremities than the quiet scepticism of the Church of England clergy\ngave way to. The great Civil War had been preceded and anticipated by\nthe fierce disputes of the ecclesiastical parties. The rash and\nill-judged attempt to enforce upon the Scottish a compliance with the\ngovernment and ceremonies of the High Church divines, and the severe\nprosecutions in the Star Chamber and Prerogative Courts, had given the\nPresbyterian system for a season a great degree of popularity in\nEngland; and as the King's party declined during the Civil War, and the\nstate of church-government was altered, the influence of the Calvinistic\ndivines increased. With much strict morality and pure practice of\nreligion, it is to be regretted these were still marked by unhesitating\nbelief in the existence of sorcery, and a keen desire to extend and\nenforce the legal penalties against it. Wier has considered the clergy\nof every sect as being too eager in this species of persecution: _Ad\ngravem hanc impietatem, connivent theologi plerique omnes_. But it is\nnot to be denied that the Presbyterian ecclesiastics who, in Scotland,\nwere often appointed by the Privy Council Commissioners for the trial of\nwitchcraft, evinced a very extraordinary degree of credulity in such\ncases, and that the temporary superiority of the same sect in England\nwas marked by enormous cruelties of this kind. To this general error we\nmust impute the misfortune that good men, such as Calamy and Baxter,\nshould have countenanced or defended such proceedings as those of the\nimpudent and cruel wretch called Matthew Hopkins, who, in those\nunsettled times, when men did what seemed good in their own eyes,\nassumed the title of Witchfinder General, and, travelling through the\ncounties of Essex, Sussex, Norfolk, and Huntingdon, pretended to\ndiscover witches, superintending their examination by the most\nunheard-of tortures, and compelling forlorn and miserable wretches to\nadmit and confess matters equally absurd and impossible; the issue of\nwhich was the forfeiture of their lives. Before examining these cases\nmore minutely, I will quote Baxter's own words; for no one can have less\ndesire to wrong a devout and conscientious man, such as that divine most\nunquestionably was, though borne aside on this occasion by prejudice and\ncredulity.\n\n\"The hanging of a great number of witches in 1645 and 1646 is famously\nknown. Mr. Calamy went along with the judges on the circuit to hear\ntheir confessions, and see there was no fraud or wrong done them. I\nspoke with many understanding, pious, learned, and credible persons that\nlived in the counties, and some that went to them in the prisons, and\nheard their sad confessions. Among the rest an old _reading parson_,\nnamed Lowis, not far from Framlingham, was one that was hanged, who\nconfessed that he had two imps, and that one of them was always putting\nhim upon doing mischief; and he, being near the sea, as he saw a ship\nunder sail, it moved him to send it to sink the ship; and he consented,\nand saw the ship sink before them.\" Mr. Baxter passes on to another\nstory of a mother who gave her child an imp like a mole, and told her to\nkeep it in a can near the fire, and she would never want; and more such\nstuff as nursery-maids tell froward children to keep them quiet.\n\nIt is remarkable that in this passage Baxter names the Witchfinder\nGeneral rather slightly as \"one Hopkins,\" and without doing him the\njustice due to one who had discovered more than one hundred witches, and\nbrought them to confessions, which that good man received as\nindubitable. Perhaps the learned divine was one of those who believed\nthat the Witchfinder General had cheated the devil out of a certain\nmemorandum-book, in which Satan, for the benefit of his memory\ncertainly, had entered all the witches' names in England, and that\nHopkins availed himself of this record.[57]\n\n[Footnote 57: This reproach is noticed in a very rare tract, which was\nbought at Mr. Lort's sale, by the celebrated collector Mr. Bindley, and\nis now in the author's possession. Its full title is, \"The Discovery of\nWitches, in Answer to several Queries lately delivered to the Judge of\nAssize for the County of Norfolk; and now published by Matthew Hopkins,\nWitchfinder, for the Benefit of the whole Kingdom. Printed for R.\nRoyston, at the Angel, in Inn Lane. 1647.\"]\n\nIt may be noticed that times of misrule and violence seem to create\nindividuals fitted to take advantage from them, and having a character\nsuited to the seasons which raise them into notice and action; just as a\nblight on any tree or vegetable calls to life a peculiar insect to feed\nupon and enjoy the decay which it has produced. A monster like Hopkins\ncould only have existed during the confusion of civil dissension. He was\nperhaps a native of Manningtree, in Essex; at any rate, he resided there\nin the year 1644, when an epidemic outcry of witchcraft arose in that\ntown. Upon this occasion he had made himself busy, and, affecting more\nzeal and knowledge than other men, learned his trade of a witchfinder,\nas he pretends, from experiment. He was afterwards permitted to perform\nit as a legal profession, and moved from one place to another, with an\nassistant named Sterne, and a female. In his defence against an\naccusation of fleecing the country, he declares his regular charge was\ntwenty shillings a town, including charges of living and journeying\nthither and back again with his assistants. He also affirms that he went\nnowhere unless called and invited. His principal mode of discovery was\nto strip the accused persons naked, and thrust pins into various parts\nof their body, to discover the witch's mark, which was supposed to be\ninflicted by the devil as a sign of his sovereignty, and at which she\nwas also said to suckle her imps. He also practised and stoutly defended\nthe trial by swimming, when the suspected person was wrapped in a sheet,\nhaving the great toes and thumbs tied together, and so dragged through a\npond or river. If she sank, it was received in favour of the accused;\nbut if the body floated (which must have occurred ten times for once, if\nit was placed with care on the surface of the water), the accused was\ncondemned, on the principle of King James, who, in treating of this mode\nof trial, lays down that, as witches have renounced their baptism, so it\nis just that the element through which the holy rite is enforced should\nreject them, which is a figure of speech, and no argument. It was\nHopkins's custom to keep the poor wretches waking, in order to prevent\nthem from having encouragement from the devil, and, doubiless, to put\ninfirm, terrified, overwatched persons in the next state to absolute\nmadness; and for the same purpose they were dragged about by their\nkeepers till extreme weariness and the pain of blistered feet might form\nadditional inducements to confession. Hopkins confesses these last\npractices of keeping the accused persons waking, and forcing them to\nwalk for the same purpose, had been originally used by him. But as his\ntract is a professed answer to charges of cruelty and oppression, he\naffirms that both practices were then disused, and that they had not of\nlate been resorted to.\n\nThe boast of the English nation is a manly independence and\ncommon-sense, which will not long permit the license of tyranny or\noppression on the meanest and most obscure sufferers. Many clergymen and\ngentlemen made head against the practices of this cruel oppressor of the\ndefenceless, and it required courage to do so when such an unscrupulous\nvillain had so much interest.\n\nMr. Gaul, a clergyman, of Houghton, in Huntingdonshire, had the courage\nto appear in print on the weaker side; and Hopkins, in consequence,\nassumed the assurance to write to some functionaries of the place the\nfollowing letter, which is an admirable medley of impudence, bullying,\nand cowardice:--\n\n\"My service to your worship presented.--I have this day received a\nletter to come to a town called Great Houghton to search for\nevil-disposed persons called witches (though I hear your minister is far\nagainst us, through ignorance). I intend to come, God willing, the\nsooner to hear his singular judgment in the behalf of such parties. I\nhave known a minister in Suffolk as much against this discovery in a\npulpit, and forced to recant it by the Committee[58] in the same place.\nI much marvel such evil men should have any (much more any of the\nclergy, who should daily speak terror to convince such offenders) stand\nup to take their parts against such as are complainants for the king,\nand sufferers themselves, with their families and estates. I intend to\ngive your town a visit suddenly. I will come to Kimbolton this week, and\nit will be ten to one but I will come to your town first; but I would\ncertainly know before whether your town affords many sticklers for such\ncattle, or is willing to give and allow us good welcome and\nentertainment, as others where I have been, else I shall waive your\nshire (not as yet beginning in any part of it myself), and betake me to\nsuch places where I do and may punish (not only) without control, but\nwith thanks and recompense. So I humbly take my leave, and rest your\nservant to be commanded,\n\n\"MATTHEW HOPKINS.\"\n\n[Footnote 58: Of Parliament.]\n\nThe sensible and courageous Mr. Gaul describes the tortures employed by\nthis fellow as equal to any practised in the Inquisition. \"Having taken\nthe suspected witch, she is placed in the middle of a room, upon a stool\nor table, cross-legged, or in some other uneasy posture, to which, if\nshe submits not, she is then bound with cords; there she is watched and\nkept without meat or sleep for four-and-twenty hours, for, they say,\nthey shall within that time see her imp come and suck. A little hole is\nlikewise made in the door for the imps to come in at; and lest they\nshould come in some less discernible shape, they that watch are taught\nto be ever and anon sweeping the room, and if they see any spiders or\nflies, to kill them; and if they cannot kill them, they may be sure they\nare their imps.\"\n\nIf torture of this kind was applied to the Reverend Mr. Lewis, whose\ndeath is too slightly announced by Mr. Baxter, we can conceive him, or\nany man, to have indeed become so weary of his life as to acknowledge\nthat, by means of his imps, he sunk a vessel, without any purpose of\ngratification to be procured to himself by such iniquity. But in another\ncause a judge would have demanded some proof of the _corpus delecti_,\nsome evidence of a vessel being lost at the period, whence coming and\nwhither bound; in short, something to establish that the whole story was\nnot the idle imagination of a man who might have been entirely deranged,\nand certainly was so at the time he made the admission. John Lewis was\npresented to the vicarage of Brandiston, near Framlington, in Suffolk,\n6th May, 1596, where he lived about fifty years, till executed as a\nwizard on such evidence as we have seen. Notwithstanding the story of\nhis alleged confession, he defended himself courageously at his trial,\nand was probably condemned rather as a royalist and malignant than for\nany other cause. He showed at the execution considerable energy, and to\nsecure that the funeral service of the church should be said over his\nbody, he read it aloud for himself while on the road to the gibbet.\n\nWe have seen that in 1647 Hopkins's tone became lowered, and he began to\ndisavow some of the cruelties he had formerly practised. About the same\ntime a miserable old woman had fallen into the cruel hands of this\nmiscreant near Hoxne, a village in Suffolk, and had confessed all the\nusual enormities, after being without food or rest a sufficient time.\n\"Her imp,\" she said, \"was called Nan.\" A gentleman in the neighbourhood,\nwhose widow survived to authenticate the story, was so indignant that he\nwent to the house, took the woman out of such inhuman hands, dismissed\nthe witchfinders, and after due food and rest the poor old woman could\nrecollect nothing of the confession, but that she gave a favourite\npullet the name of Nan. For this Dr. Hutchison may be referred to, who\nquotes a letter from the relict of the humane gentleman.\n\nIn the year 1645 a Commission of Parliament was sent down, comprehending\ntwo clergymen in esteem with the leading party, one of whom, Mr.\nFairclough of Kellar, preached before the rest on the subject of\nwitchcraft; and after this appearance of enquiry the inquisitions and\nexecutions went on as before. But the popular indignation was so\nstrongly excited against Hopkins, that some gentlemen seized on him, and\nput him to his own favourite experiment of swimming, on which, as he\nhappened to float, he stood convicted of witchcraft, and so the country\nwas rid of him. Whether he was drowned outright or not does not exactly\nappear, but he has had the honour to be commemorated by the author of\nHudibras:--\n\n     \"Hath not this present Parliament\n     A leiger to the devil sent,\n     Fully empower'd to treat about\n     Finding revolted witches out?\n     And has he not within a year\n     Hang'd threescore of them in one shire?\n     Some only for not being drown'd,\n     And some for sitting above ground\n     Whole days and nights upon their breeches,\n     And feeling pain, were hang'd for witches.\n     And some for putting knavish tricks\n     Upon green geese or turkey chicks;\n     Or pigs that suddenly deceased\n     Of griefs unnatural, as he guess'd,\n     Who proved himself at length a witch,\n     And made a rod for his own breech.\" [59]\n\n[Footnote 59: \"Hudibras,\" part ii. canto 3.]\n\nThe understanding reader will easily conceive that this alteration of\nthe current in favour of those who disapproved of witch-prosecutions,\nmust have received encouragement from some quarter of weight and\ninfluence; yet it may sound strangely enough that this spirit of lenity\nshould have been the result of the peculiar principles of those\nsectarians of all denominations, classed in general as Independents,\nwho, though they had originally courted the Presbyterians as the more\nnumerous and prevailing party, had at length shaken themselves loose of\nthat connexion, and finally combated with and overcome them. The\nIndependents were distinguished by the wildest license in their\nreligious tenets, mixed with much that was nonsensical and mystical.\nThey disowned even the title of a regular clergy, and allowed the\npreaching of any one who could draw together a congregation that would\nsupport him, or who was willing, without recompense, to minister to the\nspiritual necessities of his hearers. Although such laxity of discipline\nafforded scope to the wildest enthusiasm, and room for all possible\nvarieties of doctrine, it had, on the other hand, this inestimable\nrecommendation, that it contributed to a degree of general toleration\nwhich was at that time unknown to any other Christian establishment. The\nvery genius of a religion which admitted of the subdivision of sects _ad\ninfinitum_, excluded a legal prosecution of any one of these for heresy\nor apostasy. If there had even existed a sect of Manich\u00e6ans, who made it\ntheir practice to adore the Evil Principle, it may be doubted whether\nthe other sectaries would have accounted them absolute outcasts from the\npale of the church; and, fortunately, the same sentiment induced them to\nregard with horror the prosecutions against witchcraft. Thus the\nIndependents, when, under Cromwell, they attained a supremacy over the\nPresbyterians, who to a certain point had been their allies, were\ndisposed to counteract the violence of such proceedings under pretence\nof witchcraft, as had been driven forward by the wretched Hopkins, in\nEssex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, for three or four years previous to 1647.\n\nThe return of Charles II. to his crown and kingdom, served in some\nmeasure to restrain the general and wholesale manner in which the laws\nagainst witchcraft had been administered during the warmth of the Civil\nWar. The statute of the 1st of King James, nevertheless, yet subsisted;\nnor is it in the least likely, considering the character of the prince,\nthat he, to save the lives of a few old men or women, would have run the\nrisk of incurring the odium of encouraging or sparing a crime still held\nin horror by a great part of his subjects. The statute, however, was\ngenerally administered by wise and skilful judges, and the accused had\nsuch a chance of escape as the rigour of the absurd law permitted.\n\nNonsense, it is too obvious, remained in some cases predominant. In the\nyear 1663 an old dame, named Julian Coxe, was convicted chiefly on the\nevidence of a huntsman, who declared on his oath, that he laid his\ngreyhounds on a hare, and coming up to the spot where he saw them mouth\nher, there he found, on the other side of a bush, Julian Coxe lying\npanting and breathless, in such a manner as to convince him that she had\nbeen the creature which afforded him the course. The unhappy woman was\nexecuted on this evidence.\n\nTwo years afterwards (1664), it is with regret we must quote the\nvenerable and devout Sir Matthew Hales, as presiding at a trial, in\nconsequence of which Amy Dunny and Rose Callender were hanged at Saint\nEdmondsbury. But no man, unless very peculiarly circumstanced, can\nextricate himself from the prejudices of his nation and age. The\nevidence against the accused was laid, 1st, on the effect of spells used\nby ignorant persons to counteract the supposed witchcraft; the use of\nwhich was, under the statute of James I., as criminal as the act of\nsorcery which such counter-charms were meant to neutralize, 2ndly, The\ntwo old women, refused even the privilege of purchasing some herrings,\nhaving expressed themselves with angry impatience, a child of the\nherring-merchant fell ill in conseqence. 3rdly, A cart was driven\nagainst the miserable cottage of Amy Dunny. She scolded, of course; and\nshortly after the cart--(what a good driver will scarce\ncomprehend)--stuck fast in a gate, where its wheels touched neither of\nthe posts, and yet was moved easily forward on one of the posts (by\nwhich it was _not_ impeded) being cut down. 4thly, One of the afflicted\ngirls being closely muffled, went suddenly into a fit upon being touched\nby one of the supposed witches. But upon another trial it was found that\nthe person so blindfolded fell into the same rage at the touch of an\nunsuspected person. What perhaps sealed the fate of the accused was the\nevidence of the celebrated Sir Thomas Browne, \"that the fits were\nnatural, but heightened by the power of the devil co-operating with the\nmalice of witches;\"--a strange opinion, certainly, from the author of a\ntreatise on \"Vulgar Errors!\"[60]\n\n[Footnote 60: See the account of Sir T. Browne in No. XIV. of the\n\"Family Library\" (\"Lives of British Physicians\"), p. 60.]\n\nBut the torch of science was now fairly lighted, and gleamed in more\nthan one kingdom of the world, shooting its rays on every side, and\ncatching at all means which were calculated to increase the\nillumination. The Royal Society, which had taken its rise at Oxford from\na private association who met in Dr. Wilkin's chambers about the year\n1652, was, the year after the Restoration, incorporated by royal\ncharter, and began to publish their Transactions, and give a new and\nmore rational character to the pursuits of philosophy.\n\nIn France, where the mere will of the government could accomplish\ngreater changes, the consequence of an enlarged spirit of scientific\ndiscovery was, that a decisive stop was put to the witch-prosecutions\nwhich had heretofore been as common in that kingdom as in England. About\nthe year 1672 there was a general arrest of very many shepherds and\nothers in Normandy, and the Parliament of Rouen prepared to proceed in\nthe investigation with the usual severity. But an order, or _arret_,\nfrom the king (Louis XIV.), with advice of his council, commanding all\nthese unfortunate persons to be set at liberty and protected, had the\nmost salutary effects all over the kingdom. The French Academy of\nSciences was also founded; and, in imitation, a society of learned\nGermans established a similar institution at Leipsic. Prejudices,\nhowever old, were overawed and controlled--much was accounted for on\nnatural principles that had hitherto been imputed to spiritual\nagency--everything seemed to promise that farther access to the secrets\nof nature might be opened to those who should prosecute their studies\nexperimentally and by analysis--and the mass of ancient opinions which\noverwhelmed the dark subject of which we treat began to be derided and\nrejected by men of sense and education.\n\nIn many cases the prey was now snatched from the spoiler. A pragmatical\njustice of peace in Somersetshire commenced a course of enquiry after\noffenders against the statute of James I., and had he been allowed to\nproceed, Mr. Hunt might have gained a name as renowned for witch-finding\nas that of Mr. Hopkins; but his researches were stopped from higher\nauthority--the lives of the poor people arrested (twelve in number) were\nsaved, and the country remained at quiet, though the supposed witches\nwere suffered to live. The examinations attest some curious particulars,\nwhich may be found in _Sadducismus Triumphatus_: for among the usual\nstring of froward, fanciful, or, as they were called, afflicted\nchildren, brought forward to club their startings, starings, and\nscreamings, there appeared also certain remarkable confessions of the\naccused, from which we learn that the Somerset Satan enlisted his\nwitches, like a wily recruiting sergeant, with one shilling in hand and\ntwelve in promises; that when the party of weird-sisters passed to the\nwitch-meeting they used the magic words, _Thout, tout, throughout, and\nabout_; and that when they departed they exclaimed, _Rentum, Tormentum_!\nWe are further informed that his Infernal Highness, on his departure,\nleaves a smell, and that (in nursery-maid's phrase) not a pretty one,\nbehind him. Concerning this fact we have a curious exposition by Mr.\nGlanville. \"This,\"--according to that respectable authority, \"seems to\nimply the reality of the business, those ascititious particles which he\nheld together in his sensible shape being loosened at the vanishing, and\nso offending the nostrils by their floating and diffusing themselves in\nthe open air.\"[61] How much are we bound to regret that Mr. Justice\nHunt's discovery \"of this hellish kind of witches,\" in itself so clear\nand plain, and containing such valuable information, should have been\nsmothered by meeting with opposition and discouragement from some then\nin authority!\n\n[Footnote 61: Glanville's \"Collection of Relations.\"]\n\nLord Keeper Guildford was also a stifler of the proceedings against\nwitches. Indeed, we may generally remark, during the latter part of the\nseventeenth century, that where the judges were men of education and\ncourage, sharing in the information of the times, they were careful to\ncheck the precipitate ignorance and prejudice of the juries, by giving\nthem a more precise idea of the indifferent value of confessions by the\naccused themselves, and of testimony derived from the pretended visions\nof those supposed to be bewitched. Where, on the contrary, judges shared\nwith the vulgar in their ideas of such fascination, or were contented to\nleave the evidence with the jury, fearful to withstand the general cry\ntoo common on such occasions, a verdict of guilty often followed.\n\nWe are informed by Roger North that a case of this kind happened at the\nassizes in Exeter, where his brother, the Lord Chief Justice, did not\ninterfere with the crown trials, and the other judge left for execution\na poor old woman, condemned, as usual, on her own confession, and on the\ntestimony of a neighbour, who deponed that he saw a cat jump into the\naccused person's cottage window at twilight, one evening, and that he\nverily believed the said cat to be the devil; on which precious\ntestimony the poor wretch was accordingly hanged. On another occasion,\nabout the same time, the passions of the great and little vulgar were so\nmuch excited by the aquittal of an aged village dame, whom the judge had\ntaken some pains to rescue, that Sir John Long, a man of rank and\nfortune, came to the judge in the greatest perplexity, requesting that\nthe hag might not be permitted to return to her miserable cottage on his\nestates, since all his tenants had in that case threatened to leave him.\nIn compassion to a gentleman who apprehended ruin from a cause so\nwhimsical, the dangerous old woman was appointed to be kept by the town\nwhere she was acquitted, at the rate of half-a-crown a week, paid by the\nparish to which she belonged. But behold! in the period betwixt the two\nassizes Sir John Long and his farmers had mustered courage enough to\npetition that this witch should be sent back to them in all her terrors,\nbecause they could support her among them at a shilling a week cheaper\nthan they were obliged to pay to the town for her maintenance. In a\nsubsequent trial before Lord Chief Justice North himself, that judge\ndetected one of those practices which, it is to be feared, were too\ncommon at the time, when witnesses found their advantage in feigning\nthemselves bewitched. A woman, supposed to be the victim of the male\nsorcerer at the bar, vomited pins in quantities, and those straight,\ndiffering from the crooked pins usually produced at such times, and less\neasily concealed in the mouth. The judge, however, discovered, by\ncross-examining a candid witness, that in counterfeiting her fits of\nconvulsion the woman sunk her head on her breast, so as to take up with\nher lips the pins which she had placed ready in her stomacher. The man\nwas acquitted, of course. A frightful old hag, who was present,\ndistinguished herself so much by her benedictions on the judge, that he\nasked the cause of the peculiar interest which she took in the\nacquittal. \"Twenty years ago,\" said the poor woman, \"they would have\nhanged me for a witch, but could not; and now, but for your lordship,\nthey would have murdered my innocent son.\"[62]\n\n[Footnote 62: Roger North's \"Life of Lord-Keeper Guilford.\"]\n\nSuch scenes happened frequently on the assizes, while country gentlemen,\nlike the excellent Sir Roger de Coverley, retained a private share in\nthe terror with which their tenants, servants, and retainers regarded\nsome old Moll White, who put the hounds at fault and ravaged the fields\nwith hail and hurricanes. Sir John Reresby, after an account of a poor\nwoman tried for a witch at York in 1686 and acquitted, as he thought,\nvery properly, proceeds to tell us that, notwithstanding, the sentinel\nupon the jail where she was confined avowed \"that he saw a scroll of\npaper creep from under the prison-door, and then change itself first\ninto a monkey and then into a turkey, which the under-keeper confirmed.\nThis,\" says Sir John, \"I have heard from the mouth of both, and now\nleave it to be believed or disbelieved as the reader may be\ninclined.\"[63] We may see that Reresby, a statesman and a soldier, had\nnot as yet \"plucked the old woman out of his heart.\" Even Addison\nhimself ventured no farther in his incredulity respecting this crime\nthan to contend that although witchcraft might and did exist, there was\nno such thing as a modern instance competently proved.\n\n[Footnote 63: \"Memoirs of Sir John Reresby,\" p. 237.]\n\nAs late as 1682 three unhappy women named Susan Edwards, Mary Trembles,\nand Temperance Lloyd were hanged at Exeter for witchcraft, and, as\nusual, on their own confession. This is believed to be the last\nexecution of the kind in England under form of judicial sentence. But\nthe ancient superstition, so interesting to vulgar credulity, like\nsediment clearing itself from water, sunk down in a deeper shade upon\nthe ignorant and lowest classes of society in proportion as the higher\nregions were purified from its influence. The populace, including the\nignorant of every class, were more enraged against witches when their\npassions were once excited in proportion to the lenity exercised towards\nthe objects of their indignation by those who administered the laws.\nSeveral cases occurred in which the mob, impressed with a conviction of\nthe guilt of some destitute old creatures, took the law into their own\nhands, and proceeding upon such evidence as Hopkins would have had\nrecourse to, at once, in their own apprehension, ascertained their\ncriminality and administered the deserved punishment.\n\nThe following instance of such illegal and inhuman proceedings occurred\nat Oakly, near Bedford, on 12th July, 1707. There was one woman, upwards\nof sixty years of age, who, being under an imputation of witchcraft, was\ndesirous to escape from so foul a suspicion, and to conciliate the\ngood-will of her neighbours, by allowing them to duck her. The parish\nofficers so far consented to their humane experiment as to promise the\npoor woman a guinea if she should clear herself by sinking. The\nunfortunate object was tied up in a wet sheet, her thumbs and great toes\nwere bound together, her cap torn off, and all her apparel searched for\npins; for there is an idea that a single pin spoils the operation of the\ncharm. She was then dragged through the river Ouse by a rope tied round\nher middle. Unhappily for the poor woman, her body floated, though her\nhead remained under water. The experiment was made three times with the\nsame effect. The cry to hang or drown the witch then became general, and\nas she lay half-dead on the bank they loaded the wretch with reproaches,\nand hardly forbore blows. A single humane bystander took her part, and\nexposed himself to rough usage for doing so. Luckily one of the mob\nthemselves at length suggested the additional experiment of weighing the\nwitch against the church Bible. The friend of humanity caught at this\nmeans of escape, supporting the proposal by the staggering argument that\nthe Scripture, being the work of God himself, must outweigh necessarily\nall the operations or vassals of the devil. The reasoning was received\nas conclusive, the more readily as it promised a new species of\namusement. The woman was then weighed against a church Bible of twelve\npounds jockey weight, and as she was considerably preponderant, was\ndismissed with honour. But many of the mob counted her acquittal\nirregular, and would have had the poor dame drowned or hanged on the\nresult of her ducking, as the more authentic species of trial.\n\nAt length a similar piece of inhumanity, which had a very different\nconclusion, led to the final abolition of the statute of James I. as\naffording countenance for such brutal proceedings. An aged pauper, named\nOsborne, and his wife, who resided near Tring, in Staffordshire, fell\nunder the suspicion of the mob on account of supposed witchcraft. The\noverseers of the poor, understanding that the rabble entertained a\npurpose of swimming these infirm creatures, which indeed they had\nexpressed in a sort of proclamation, endeavoured to oppose their purpose\nby securing the unhappy couple in the vestry-room, which they\nbarricaded. They were unable, however, to protect them in the manner\nthey intended. The mob forced the door, seized the accused, and, with\nineffable brutality, continued dragging the wretches through a pool of\nwater till the woman lost her life. A brute in human form, who had\nsuperintended the murder, went among the spectators, and requested money\nfor the sport he had shown them! The life of the other victim was with\ngreat difficulty saved. Three men were tried for their share in this\ninhuman action. Only one of them, named Colley, was condemned and\nhanged. When he came to execution, the rabble, instead of crowding round\nthe gallows as usual, stood at a distance, and abused those who were\nputting to death, they said, an honest fellow for ridding the parish of\nan accursed witch. This abominable murder was committed July 30, 1751.\n\nThe repetitition of such horrors, the proneness of the people to so\ncruel and heart-searing a superstition, was traced by the legislature to\nits source, namely, the yet unabolished statute of James I. Accordingly,\nby the 9th George II. cap. 5, that odious law, so long the object of\nhorror to all ancient and poverty-stricken females in the kingdom, was\nabrogated, and all criminal procedure on the subject of sorcery or\nwitchcraft discharged in future throughout Great Britain; reserving for\nsuch as should pretend to the skill of fortune-tellers, discoverers of\nstolen goods, or the like, the punishment of the correction-house, as\ndue to rogues and vagabonds. Since that period witchcraft has been\nlittle heard of in England, and although the belief in its existence has\nin remote places survived the law that recognised the evidence of the\ncrime, and assigned its punishment--yet such faith is gradually becoming\nforgotten since the rabble have been deprived of all pretext to awaken\nit by their own riotous proceedings. Some rare instances have occurred\nof attempts similar to that for which Colley suffered; and I observe one\nis preserved in that curious register of knowledge, Mr. Hone's \"Popular\nAmusements,\" from which it appears that as late as the end of last\ncentury this brutality was practised, though happily without loss of\nlife.\n\nThe Irish statute against witchcraft still exists, as it would seem.\nNothing occurred in that kingdom which recommended its being formally\nannulled; but it is considered as obsolete, and should so wild a thing\nbe attempted in the present day, no procedure, it is certain, would now\nbe permitted to lie upon it.\n\nIf anything were wanted to confirm the general proposition that the\nepidemic terror of witchcraft increases and becomes general in\nproportion to the increase of prosecutions against witches, it would be\nsufficient to quote certain extraordinary occurrences in New England.\nOnly a brief account can be here given of the dreadful hallucination\nunder which the colonists of that province were for a time deluded and\noppressed by a strange contagious terror, and how suddenly and\nsingularly it was cured, even by its own excess; but it is too strong\nevidence of the imaginary character of this hideous disorder to be\naltogether suppressed.\n\nNew England, as is well known, was peopled mainly by emigrants who had\nbeen disgusted with the government of Charles I. in church and state,\nprevious to the great Civil War. Many of the more wealthy settlers were\nPresbyterians and Calvinists; others, fewer in number and less\ninfluential from their fortune, were Quakers, Anabaptists, or members of\nthe other sects who were included under the general name of\nIndependents. The Calvinists brought with them the same zeal for\nreligion and strict morality which everywhere distinguished them.\nUnfortunately, they were not wise according to their zeal, but\nentertained a proneness to believe in supernatural and direct personal\nintercourse between the devil and his vassals, an error to which, as we\nhave endeavoured to show, their brethren in Europe had from the\nbeginning been peculiarly subject. In a country imperfectly cultivated,\nand where the partially improved spots were embosomed in inaccessible\nforests, inhabited by numerous tribes of savages, it was natural that a\ndisposition to superstition should rather gain than lose ground, and\nthat to other dangers and horrors with which they were surrounded, the\ncolonists should have added fears of the devil, not merely as the Evil\nPrinciple tempting human nature to sin, and thus endangering our\nsalvation, but as combined with sorcerers and witches to inflict death\nand torture upon children and others.\n\nThe first case which I observe was that of four children of a person\ncalled John Goodwin, a mason. The eldest, a girl, had quarrelled with\nthe laundress of the family about some linen which was amissing. The\nmother of the laundress, an ignorant, testy, and choleric old\nIrishwoman, scolded the accuser; and shortly after, the elder Goodwin,\nher sister and two brothers, were seized with such strange diseases that\nall their neighbours concluded they were bewitched. They conducted\nthemselves as those supposed to suffer under maladies created by such\ninfluence were accustomed to do. They stiffened their necks so hard at\none time that the joints could not be moved; at another time their necks\nwere so flexible and supple that it seemed the bone was dissolved. They\nhad violent convulsions, in which their jaws snapped with the force of a\nspring-trap set for vermin. Their limbs were curiously contorted, and to\nthose who had a taste for the marvellous, seemed entirely dislocated and\ndisplaced. Amid these distortions, they cried out against the poor old\nwoman, whose name was Glover, alleging that she was in presence with\nthem adding to their torments. The miserable Irishwoman, who hardly\ncould speak the English language, repeated her Pater Noster and Ave\nMaria like a good Catholic; but there were some words which she had\nforgotten. She was therefore supposed to be unable to pronounce the\nwhole consistently and correctly, and condemned and executed\naccordingly.\n\nBut the children of Goodwin found the trade they were engaged in to be\ntoo profitable to be laid aside, and the eldest in particular continued\nall the external signs of witchcraft and possession. Some of these were\nexcellently calculated to flatter the self-opinion and prejudices of the\nCalvinist ministers by whom she was attended, and accordingly bear in\ntheir very front the character of studied and voluntary imposture. The\nyoung woman, acting, as was supposed, under the influence of the devil,\nread a Quaker treatise with ease and apparent satisfaction; but a book\nwritten against the poor inoffensive Friends the devil would not allow\nhis victim to touch, She could look on a Church of England Prayer-book,\nand read the portions of Scripture which it contains without difficulty\nor impediment; but the spirit which possessed her threw her into fits if\nshe attempted to read the same Scriptures from the Bible, as if the awe\nwhich it is supposed the fiends entertain for Holy Writ depended, not on\nthe meaning of the words, but the arrangement of the page, and the type\nin which they were printed. This singular species of flattery was\ndesigned to captivate the clergyman through his professional opinions;\nothers were more strictly personal. The afflicted damsel seems to have\nbeen somewhat of the humour of the Inamorata of Messrs. Smack, Pluck,\nCatch, and Company, and had, like her, merry as well as melancholy fits.\nShe often imagined that her attendant spirits brought her a handsome\npony to ride off with them to their rendezvous. On such occasions she\nmade a spring upwards, as if to mount her horse, and then, still seated\non her chair, mimicked with dexterity and agility the motions of the\nanimal pacing, trotting, and galloping, like a child on the nurse's\nknee; but when she cantered in this manner upstairs, she affected\ninability to enter the clergyman's study, and when she was pulled into\nit by force, used to become quite well, and stand up as a rational\nbeing. \"Reasons were given for this,\" says the simple minister, \"that\nseem more kind than true.\" Shortly after this, she appears to have\ntreated the poor divine with a species of sweetness and attention, which\ngave him greater embarrassment than her former violence. She used to\nbreak in upon him at his studies to importune him to come downstairs,\nand thus advantaged doubtless the kingdom of Satan by the interruption\nof his pursuits. At length the Goodwins were, or appeared to be, cured.\nBut the example had been given and caught, and the blood of poor Dame\nGlover, which had been the introduction to this tale of a hobby-horse,\nwas to be the forerunner of new atrocities and fearfully more general\nfollies.\n\nThis scene opened by the illness of two girls, a daughter and niece of\nMr. Parvis, the minister of Salem, who fell under an affliction similar\nto that of the Goodwins. Their mouths were stopped, their throats\nchoked, their limbs racked, thorns were stuck into their flesh, and pins\nwere ejected from their stomachs. An Indian and his wife, servants of\nthe family, endeavouring, by some spell of their own, to discover by\nwhom the fatal charm had been imposed on their master's children, drew\nthemselves under suspicion, and were hanged. The judges and juries\npersevered, encouraged by the discovery of these poor Indians' guilt,\nand hoping they might thus expel from the colony the authors of such\npractices. They acted, says Mather, the historian, under a conscientious\nwish to do justly; but the cases of witchcraft and possession increased\nas if they were transmitted by contagion, and the same sort of spectral\nevidence being received which had occasioned the condemnation of the\nIndian woman Titu, became generally fatal. The afflicted persons failed\nnot to see the spectres, as they were termed, of the persons by whom\nthey were tormented. Against this species of evidence no _alibi_ could\nbe offered, because it was admitted, as we have said elsewhere, that the\nreal persons of the accused were not there present; and everything\nrested upon the assumption that the afflicted persons were telling the\ntruth, since their evidence could not be redargued. These spectres were\ngenerally represented as offering their victims a book, on signing which\nthey would be freed from their torments. Sometimes the devil appeared in\nperson, and added his own eloquence to move the afflicted persons to\nconsent.\n\nAt first, as seems natural enough, the poor and miserable alone were\ninvolved; but presently, when such evidence was admitted as\nincontrovertible, the afflicted began to see the spectral appearances of\npersons of higher condition and of irreproachable lives, some of whom\nwere arrested, some made their escape, while several were executed. The\nmore that suffered the greater became the number of afflicted persons,\nand the wider and the more numerous were the denunciations against\nsupposed witches. The accused were of all ages. A child of five years\nold was indicted by some of the afflicted, who imagined they saw this\njuvenile wizard active in tormenting them, and appealed to the mark of\nlittle teeth on their bodies, where they stated it had bitten them. A\npoor dog was also hanged as having been alleged to be busy in this\ninfernal persecution. These gross insults on common reason occasioned a\nrevulsion in public feeling, but not till many lives had been\nsacrificed. By this means nineteen men and women were executed, besides\na stouthearted man named Cory, who refused to plead, and was accordingly\npressed to death according to the old law. On this horrible occasion a\ncircumstance took place disgusting to humanity, which must yet be told,\nto show how superstition can steel the heart of a man against the misery\nof his fellow-creature. The dying man, in the mortal agony, thrust out\nhis tongue, which the sheriff crammed with his cane back again into his\nmouth. Eight persons were condemned besides those who had actually\nsuffered, and no less than two hundred were in prison and under\nexamination.\n\nMen began then to ask whether the devil might not artfully deceive the\nafflicted into the accusation of good and innocent persons by presenting\nwitches and fiends in the resemblance of blameless persons, as engaged\nin the tormenting of their diseased country-folk. This argument was by\nno means inconsistent with the belief in witchcraft, and was the more\nreadily listened to on that account. Besides, men found that no rank or\ncondition could save them from the danger of this horrible accusation if\nthey continued to encourage the witnesses in such an unlimited course as\nhad hitherto been granted to them. Influenced by these reflections, the\nsettlers awoke as from a dream, and the voice of the public, which had\nso lately demanded vengeance on all who were suspected of sorcery, began\nnow, on the other hand, to lament the effusion of blood, under the\nstrong suspicion that part of it at least had been innocently and\nunjustly sacrificed. In Mather's own language, which we use as that of a\nman deeply convinced of the reality of the crime, \"experience showed\nthat the more were apprehended the more were still afflicted by Satan,\nand the number of confessions increasing did but increase the number of\nthe accused, and the execution of some made way to the apprehension of\nothers. For still the afflicted complained of being tormented by new\nobjects as the former were removed, so that some of those that were\nconcerned grew amazed at the number and condition of those that were\naccused, and feared that Satan, by his wiles, had enwrapped innocent\npersons under the imputation of that crime; and at last, as was\nevidently seen, there must be a stop put, or the generation of the\nkingdom of God would fall under condemnation.\"[64]\n\n[Footnote 64: Mather's \"Magnalia,\" book vi. chap. lxxxii. The zealous\nauthor, however, regrets the general gaol delivery on the score of\nsorcery and thinks, had the times been calm, the case might have\nrequired a farther investigation, and that, on the whole, the matter was\nended too abruptly But, the temper of the times considered, he admits\ncandidly that it is better to act moderately in matters capital, and to\nlet the guilty escape, than run the risk of destroying the innocent.]\n\nThe prosecutions were therefore suddenly stopped, the prisoners\ndismissed, the condemned pardoned, and even those who had confessed, the\nnumber of whom was very extraordinary, were pardoned amongst others; and\nthe author we have just quoted thus records the result:--\"When this\nprosecution ceased, the Lord so chained up Satan that the afflicted grew\npresently well. The accused were generally quiet, and for five years\nthere was no such molestation among us.\"\n\nTo this it must be added that the congregation of Salem compelled Mr.\nParvis, in whose family the disturbance had begun, and who, they\nalleged, was the person by whom it was most fiercely driven on in the\ncommencement, to leave his settlement amongst them. Such of the accused\nas had confessed the acts of witchcraft imputed to them generally denied\nand retracted their confessions, asserting them to have been made under\nfear of torture, influence of persuasion, or other circumstances\nexclusive of their free will. Several of the judges and jurors concerned\nin the sentence of those who were executed published their penitence for\ntheir rashness in convicting these unfortunate persons; and one of the\njudges, a man of the most importance in the colony, observed, during the\nrest of his life, the anniversary of the first execution as a day of\nsolemn fast and humiliation for his own share in the transaction. Even\nthe barbarous Indians were struck with wonder at the infatuation of the\nEnglish colonists on this occasion, and drew disadvantageous comparisons\nbetween them and the French, among whom, as they remarked, \"the Great\nSpirit sends no witches.\"\n\nThe system of witchcraft, as believed in Scotland, must next claim our\nattention, as it is different in some respects from that of England, and\nsubsisted to a later period, and was prosecuted with much more severity.\n\n\n\n\nLETTER IX.\n\n    Scottish Trials--Earl of Mar--Lady Glammis--William Barton--Witches\n    of Auldearne--Their Rites and Charms--Their Transformation into\n    Hares--Satan's Severity towards them--Their Crimes--Sir George\n    Mackenzie's Opinion of Witchcraft--Instances of Confessions made by\n    the Accused, in despair, and to avoid future annoyance and\n    persecution--Examination by Pricking--The Mode of Judicial Procedure\n    against Witches, and nature of the Evidence admissible, opened a\n    door to Accusers, and left the Accused no chance of escape--The\n    Superstition of the Scottish Clergy in King James VI.'s time led\n    them, like their Sovereign, to encourage Witch-Prosecutions--Case of\n    Bessie Graham--Supposed Conspiracy to Shipwreck James in his Voyage\n    to Denmark--Meetings of the Witches, and Rites performed to\n    accomplish their purpose--Trial of Margaret Barclay in 1618--Case of\n    Major Weir--Sir John Clerk among the first who declined acting as\n    Commissioner on the Trial of a Witch--Paisley and Pittenweem\n    Witches--A Prosecution in Caithness prevented by the Interference of\n    the King's Advocate in 1718--The Last Sentence of Death for\n    Witchcraft pronounced in Scotland in 1722--Remains of the Witch\n    Superstition--Case of supposed Witchcraft, related from the Author's\n    own knowledge, which took place so late as 1800.\n\n\nFor many years the Scottish nation had been remarkable for a credulous\nbelief in witchcraft, and repeated examples were supplied by the annals\nof sanguinary executions on this sad accusation. Our acquaintance with\nthe slender foundation on which Boetius and Buchanan reared the early\npart of their histories may greatly incline us to doubt whether a king\nnamed Duffus ever reigned in Scotland, and, still more, whether he died\nby the agency of a gang of witches, who inflicted torments upon an image\nmade in his name, for the sake of compassing his death. In the tale of\nMacbeth, which is another early instance of Demonology in Scottish\nhistory, the weird-sisters, who were the original prophetesses, appeared\nto the usurper in a dream, and are described as _vol\u00e6_, or sibyls,\nrather than as witches, though Shakspeare has stamped the latter\ncharacter indelibly upon them.\n\nOne of the earliest real cases of importance founded upon witchcraft\nwas, like those of the Duchess of Gloucester and others in the sister\ncountry, mingled with an accusation of a political nature, which, rather\nthan the sorcery, brought the culprits to their fate. The Earl of Mar,\nbrother of James III. of Scotland, fell under the king's suspicion for\nconsulting with witches and sorcerers how to shorten the king's days. On\nsuch a charge, very inexplicitly stated, the unhappy Mar was bled to\ndeath in his own lodgings without either trial or conviction;\nimmediately after which catastrophe twelve women of obscure rank and\nthree or four wizards, or warlocks, as they were termed, were burnt at\nEdinburgh, to give a colour to the Earl's guilt.\n\nIn the year 1537 a noble matron fell a victim to a similar charge. This\nwas Janet Douglas, Lady Glammis, who, with her son, her second husband,\nand several others, stood accused of attempting James's life by poison,\nwith a view to the restoration of the Douglas family, of which Lady\nGlammis's brother, the Earl of Angus, was the head. She died much pitied\nby the people, who seem to have thought the articles against her forged\nfor the purpose of taking her life, her kindred and very name being so\nobnoxious to the King.\n\nPrevious to this lady's execution there would appear to have been but\nfew prosecuted to death on the score of witchcraft, although the want of\nthe justiciary records of that period leaves us in uncertainty. But in\nthe end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries, when\nsuch charges grew general over Europe, cases of the kind occurred very\noften in Scotland, and, as we have already noticed, were sometimes of a\npeculiar character. There is, indeed, a certain monotony in most tales\nof the kind. The vassals are usually induced to sell themselves at a\nsmall price to the Author of Ill, who, having commonly to do with women,\ndrives a very hard bargain. On the contrary, when he was pleased to\nenact the female on a similar occasion, he brought his gallant, one\nWilliam Barton, a fortune of no less than fifteen pounds, which, even\nsupposing it to have been the Scottish denomination of coin, was a very\nliberal endowment compared with his niggardly conduct towards the fair\nsex on such an occasion. Neither did he pass false coin on this\noccasion, but, on the contrary, generously gave Burton a merk, to keep\nthe fifteen pounds whole. In observing on Satan's conduct in this\nmatter, Master George Sinclair observes that it is fortunate the Enemy\nis but seldom permitted to bribe so high (as \u00a315 Scots); for were this\nthe case, he might find few men or women capable of resisting his\nmunificence. I look upon this as one of the most severe reflections on\nour forefathers' poverty which is extant.\n\nIn many of the Scottish witches' trials, as to the description of\nSatan's Domdaniel, and the Sabbath which he there celebrates, the\nnorthern superstition agrees with that of England. But some of the\nconfessions depart from the monotony of repetition, and add some more\nfanciful circumstances than occur in the general case. Isobel Gowdie's\nconfession, already mentioned, is extremely minute, and some part of it\nat least may be quoted, as there are other passages not very edifying.\nThe witches of Auldearne, according to this penitent, were so numerous,\nthat they were told off into squads, or _covines_, as they were termed,\nto each of which were appointed two officers. One of these was called\nthe Maiden of the Covine, and was usually, like Tam o' Shanter's Nannie,\na girl of personal attractions, whom Satan placed beside himself, and\ntreated with particular attention, which greatly provoked the spite of\nthe old hags, who felt themselves insulted by the preference.[65] When\nassembled, they dug up graves, and possessed themselves of the carcases\n(of unchristened infants in particular), whose joints and members they\nused in their magic unguents and salves. When they desired to secure for\ntheir own use the crop of some neighbour, they made a pretence of\nploughing it with a yoke of paddocks. These foul creatures drew the\nplough, which was held by the devil himself. The plough-harness and\nsoams were of quicken grass, the sock and coulter were made out of a\nriglen's horn, and the covine attended on the operation, praying the\ndevil to transfer to them the fruit of the ground so traversed, and\nleave the proprietors nothing but thistles and briars. The witches'\nsports, with their elfin archery, I have already noticed (page 136).\nThey entered the house of the Earl of Murray himself, and such other\nmansions as were not fenced against them by vigil and prayer, and\nfeasted on the provisions they found there.\n\n[Footnote 65: This word Covine seems to signify a subdivision or squad.\nThe tree near the front of an ancient castle was called the _Covine\ntree_, probably because the lord received his company there.\n\n\"He is lord of the hunting horn,\n  And king of the Covine tree;\nHe's well loo'd in the western waters,\n  But best of his ain minnie.\"]\n\nAs these witches were the countrywomen of the weird sisters in Macbeth,\nthe reader may be desirous to hear some of their spells, and of the\npoetry by which they were accompanied and enforced. They used to hash\nthe flesh of an unchristened child, mixed with that of dogs and sheep,\nand place it in the house of those whom they devoted to destruction in\nbody or goods, saying or singing--\n\n\"We put this intill this hame,\nIn our lord the Devil's name;\nThe first hands that handle thee,\nBurn'd and scalded may they be!\nWe will destroy houses and hald,\nWith the sheep and nolt into the fauld;\nAnd little sall come to the fore,\nOf all the rest of the little store!\"\n\nMetamorphoses were, according to Isobel, very common among them, and the\nforms of crows, cats, hares, and other animals, were on such occasions\nassumed. In the hare shape Isobel herself had a bad adventure. She had\nbeen sent by the devil to Auldearne in that favourite disguise, with\nsome message to her neighbours, but had the misfortune to meet Peter\nPapley of Killhill's servants going to labour, having his hounds with\nthem. The hounds sprung on the disguised witch, \"and I,\" says Isobel,\n\"run a very long time, but being hard pressed, was forced to take to my\nown house, the door being open, and there took refuge behind a chest.\"\nBut the hounds came in and took the other side of the chest, so that\nIsobel only escaped by getting into another house, and gaining time to\nsay the disenchanting rhyme:--\n\n\"Hare, hare, God send thee care!\nI am in a hare's likeness now;\nBut I shall be a woman even now--\nHare, hare, God send thee care!\"\n\nSuch accidents, she said, were not uncommon, and the witches were\nsometimes bitten by the dogs, of which the marks remained after their\nrestoration to human shape. But none had been killed on such occasions.\n\nThe ceremonial of the Sabbath meetings was very strict. The Foul Fiend\nwas very rigid in exacting the most ceremonious attention from his\nvotaries, and the title of Lord when addressed by them. Sometimes,\nhowever, the weird sisters, when whispering amongst themselves,\nirreverently spoke of their sovereign by the name of Black John; upon\nsuch occasions the Fiend rushed on them like a schoolmaster who\nsurprises his pupils in delict, and beat and buffeted them without mercy\nor discretion, saying, \"I ken weel eneugh what you are saying of me.\"\nThen might be seen the various tempers of those whom he commanded.\nAlexander Elder, in Earlseat, often fell under his lord's displeasure\nfor neglect of duty, and, being weak and simple, could never defend\nhimself save with tears, cries, and entreaties for mercy; but some of\nthe women, according to Isobel Gowdie's confession, had more of the\nspirit which animated the old dame of Kellyburn Braes. Margaret Wilson,\nin Auldearne, would \"defend herself finely,\" and make her hands save her\nhead, after the old Scottish manner. Bessie Wilson could also speak very\ncrustily with her tongue, and \"belled the cat\" with the devil stoutly.\nThe others chiefly took refuge in crying \"Pity! mercy!\" and such like,\nwhile Satan kept beating them with wool cards and other sharp scourges,\nwithout attending to their entreaties or complaints. There were\nattendant devils and imps, who served the witches. They were usually\ndistinguished by their liveries, which were sad-dun, grass-green,\nsea-green, and yellow. The witches were taught to call these imps by\nnames, some of which might belong to humanity, while others had a\ndiabolical sound. These were Robert the Jakis, Saunders the Red Reaver,\nThomas the Feary, Swein, an old Scandinavian Duerg probably; the Roaring\nLion, Thief of Hell, Wait-upon-Herself, MacKeeler, Robert the Rule,\nHendrie Craig, and Rorie. These names, odd and uncouth enough, are\nbetter imagined at least than those which Hopkins contrived for the imps\nwhich he discovered--such as Pyewacket, Peck-in-the-Crown,\nSack-and-Sugar, News, Vinegar-Tom, and Grizell Greedigut, the broad\nvulgarity of which epithets shows what a flat imagination he brought to\nsupport his impudent fictions.\n\nThe devil, who commanded the fair sisterhood, being fond of mimicking\nthe forms of the Christian church, used to rebaptize the witches with\ntheir blood, and in his own great name. The proud-stomached Margaret\nWilson, who scorned to take a blow unrepaid, even from Satan himself,\nwas called Pickle-nearest-the-Wind; her compeer, Bessie Wilson, was\nThrow-the-Cornyard; Elspet Nishe's was Bessie Bald; Bessie Hay's\nnickname was Able-and-Stout; and Jane Mairten, the Maiden of the Covine,\nwas called Ower-the-Dike-with-it.\n\nIsobel took upon herself, and imputed to her sisters, as already\nmentioned, the death of sundry persons shot with elf-arrows, because\nthey had omitted to bless themselves as the aerial flight of the hags\nswept past them.[66] She had herself the temerity to shoot at the Laird\nof Park as he was riding through a ford, but missed him through the\ninfluence of the running stream, perhaps, for which she thanks God in\nher confession; and adds, that at the time she received a great cuff\nfrom Bessie Hay for her awkwardness. They devoted the male children of\nthis gentleman (of the well-known family of Gordon of Park, I presume)\nto wasting illness, by the following lines, placing at the same time in\nthe fire figures composed of clay mixed with paste, to represent the\nobject:--\n\n\"We put this water amongst this meal,\nFor long dwining[67] and ill heal;\nWe put it in into the fire,\nTo burn them up stook and stour.[68]\nThat they be burned with our will,\nLike any stikkle[69] in a kiln.\"\n\n[Footnote 66: See p. 136.]\n\n[Footnote 67: Pining.]\n\n[Footnote 68: We should read perhaps, \"limb and lire.\"]\n\n[Footnote 69: Stubble.]\n\nSuch was the singular confession of Isobel Gowdie, made voluntarily, it\nwould seem, and without compulsion of any kind, judicially authenticated\nby the subscription of the notary, clergymen, and gentlemen present;\nadhered to after their separate _diets_, as they are called, of\nexamination, and containing no variety or contradiction in its details.\nWhatever might be her state of mind in other respects, she seems to have\nbeen perfectly conscious of the perilous consequence of her disclosures\nto her own person. \"I do not deserve,\" says she, \"to be seated here at\nease and unharmed, but rather to be stretched on an iron rack: nor can\nmy crimes be atoned for, were I to be drawn asunder by wild horses.\"\n\nIt only remains to suppose that this wretched creature was under the\ndominion of some peculiar species of lunacy, to which a full perusal of\nher confession might perhaps guide a medical person of judgment and\nexperience. Her case is interesting, as throwing upon the rites and\nceremonies of the Scottish witches a light which we seek in vain\nelsewhere.\n\nOther unfortunate persons were betrayed to their own reproof by other\nmeans than the derangement of mind which seems to have operated on\nIsobel Gowdie. Some, as we have seen, endeavoured to escape from the\ncharge of witchcraft by admitting an intercourse with the fairy people;\nan excuse which was never admitted as relevant. Others were subjected to\ncruel tortures, by which our ancestors thought the guilty might be\nbrought to confession, but which far more frequently compelled the\ninnocent to bear evidence against themselves. On this subject the\ncelebrated Sir George Mackenzie, \"that noble wit of Scotland,\" as he is\ntermed by Dryden, has some most judicious reflections, which we shall\nendeavour to abstract as the result of the experience of one who, in his\ncapacity of Lord Advocate, had often occasion to conduct witch-trials,\nand who, not doubting the existence of the crime, was of opinion that,\non account of its very horror, it required the clearest and most strict\nprobation.\n\nHe first insists on the great improbability of the fiend, without riches\nto bestow, and avowedly subjected to a higher power, being able to\nenlist such numbers of recruits, and the little advantage which he\nhimself would gain by doing so. But, 2dly, says Mackenzie, \"the persons\nordinarily accused of this crime are poor ignorant men, or else women,\nwho understand not the nature of what they are accused of; and many\nmistake their own fears and apprehensions for witchcraft, of which I\nshall give two instances. One, of a poor weaver who, after he had\nconfessed witchcraft, being asked how he saw the devil, made answer,\n'Like flies dancing about the candle.' Another, of a woman, who asked\nseriously, when she was accused, if a woman might be a witch and not\nknow it? And it is dangerous that persons, of all others the most\nsimple, should be tried for a crime of all others the most mysterious.\n3rdly, These poor creatures, when they are defamed, become so confounded\nwith fear and the close prison in which they are kept, and so starved\nfor want of meat and drink, either of which wants is enough to disarm\nthe strongest reason, that hardly wiser and more serious people than\nthey would escape distraction; and when men are confounded with fear and\napprehension, they will imagine things the most ridiculous and absurd\"\nof which instances are given. 4thly, \"Most of these poor creatures are\ntortured by their keepers, who, being persuaded they do God good\nservice, think it their duty to vex and torment poor prisoners delivered\nup to them as rebels to heaven and enemies to men; and I know\"\n(continues Sir George), \"_ex certissima scientia_, that most of all that\never were taken were tormented in this manner, and this usage was the\nground of all their confession; and albeit the poor miscreants cannot\nprove this usage, the actors being the only witnesses, yet the judge\nshould be jealous of it, as that which did at first elicit the\nconfession, and for fear of which they dare not retract it.\" 5thly, This\nlearned author gives us an instance how these unfortunate creatures\nmight be reduced to confession by the very infamy which the accusation\ncast upon them, and which was sure to follow, condemning them for life\nto a state of necessity, misery, and suspicion, such as any person of\nreputation would willingly exchange for a short death, however painful.\n\n\"I went when I was a justice-deput to examine some women who had\nconfessed judicially, and one of them, who was a silly creature, told me\nunder secresie, that she had not confest because she was guilty, but\nbeing a poor creature who wrought for her meat, and being defamed for a\nwitch, she knew she would starve, for no person thereafter would either\ngive her meat or lodging, and that all men would beat her and hound dogs\nat her, and that therefore she desired to be out of the world; whereupon\nshe wept most bitterly, and upon her knees called God to witness to what\nshe said. Another told me that she was afraid the devil would challenge\na right to her, after she was said to be his servant, and would haunt\nher, as the minister said, when he was desiring her to confess, and\ntherefore she desired to die. And really ministers are oft times\nindiscreet in their zeal to have poor creatures to confess in this; and\nI recommend to judges that the wisest ministers should be sent to them,\nand those who are sent should be cautious in this particular.\"[70]\n\n[Footnote 70: Mackenzie's \"Criminal Law,\" p. 45.]\n\nAs a corollary to this affecting story, I may quote the case of a woman\nin Lauder jail, who lay there with other females on a charge of\nwitchcraft. Her companions in prison were adjudged to die, and she too\nhad, by a confession as full as theirs, given herself up as guilty. She\ntherefore sent for the minister of the town, and entreated to be put to\ndeath with the others who had been appointed to suffer upon the next\nMonday. The clergyman, however, as well as others, had adopted a strong\npersuasion that this confession was made up in the pride of her heart,\nfor the destruction of her own life, and had no foundation in truth. We\ngive the result in the minister's words:--\n\n\"Therefore much pains was taken on her by ministers and others on\nSaturday, Sunday, and Monday morning, that she might resile from that\nconfession which was suspected to be but a temptation of the devil, to\ndestroy both her soul and body; yea, it was charged home upon her by the\nministers, that there was just ground of jealousy that her confession\nwas not sincere, and she was charged before the Lord to declare the\ntruth, and not to take her blood upon her own head. Yet she stiffly\nadhered to what she had said, and cried always to be put away with the\nrest. Whereupon, on Monday morning, being called before the judges, and\nconfessing before them what she had said, she was found guilty and\ncondemned to die with the rest that same day. Being carried forth to the\nplace of execution, she remained silent during the first, second, and\nthird prayer, and then perceiving that there remained no more but to\nrise and go to the stake, she lifted up her body, and with a loud voice\ncried out, 'Now all you that see me this day, know that I am now to die\nas a witch by my own confession, and I free all men, especially the\nministers and magistrates, of the guilt of my blood. I take it wholly\nupon myself--my blood be upon my own head; and as I must make answer to\nthe God of Heaven presently, I declare I am as free of witchcraft as any\nchild; but being delated by a malicious woman, and put in prison under\nthe name of a witch, disowned by my husband and friends, and seeing no\nground of hope of my coming out of prison, or ever coming in credit\nagain, through the temptation of the devil I made up that confession on\npurpose to destroy my own life, being weary of it, and choosing rather\nto die than live;'--and so died. Which lamentable story, as it did then\nastonish all the spectators, none of which could restrain themselves\nfrom tears; so it may be to all a demonstration of Satan's subtlety,\nwhose design is still to destroy all, partly by tempting many to\npresumption, and some others to despair. These things to be of truth,\nare attested by an eye and ear witness who is yet alive, a faithful\nminister of the gospel.\"[71] It is strange the inference does not seem\nto have been deduced, that as one woman out of very despair renounced\nher own life, the same might have been the case in many other instances,\nwherein the confessions of the accused constituted the principal if not\nsole evidence of the guilt.\n\n[Footnote 71: Sinclair's \"Satan's Invisible World Discovered,\" p. 43.]\n\nOne celebrated mode of detecting witches and torturing them at the same\ntime, to draw forth confession, was by running pins into their body, on\npretence of discovering the devil's stigma, or mark, which was said to\nbe inflicted by him upon all his vassals, and to be insensible to pain.\nThis species of search, the practice of the infamous Hopkins, was in\nScotland reduced to a trade; and the young witchfinder was allowed to\ntorture the accused party, as if in exercise of a lawful calling,\nalthough Sir George Mackenzie stigmatises it as a horrid imposture. I\nobserve in the Collections of Mr. Pitcairn, that at the trial of Janet\nPeaston of Dalkeith the magistrates and ministers of that market town\ncaused John Kincaid of Tranent, the common pricker, to exercise his\ncraft upon her, \"who found two marks of what he called the devil's\nmaking, and which appeared indeed to be so, for she could not feel the\npin when it was put into either of the said marks, nor did they (the\nmarks) bleed when they were taken out again; and when she was asked\nwhere she thought the pins were put in, she pointed to a part of her\nbody distant from the real place. They were pins of three inches in\nlength.\"\n\nBesides the fact that the persons of old people especially sometimes\ncontain spots void of sensibility, there is also room to believe that\nthe professed prickers used a pin the point or lower part of which was,\non being pressed down, sheathed in the upper, which was hollow for the\npurpose, and that which appeared to enter the body did not pierce it at\nall. But, were it worth while to dwell on a subject so ridiculous, we\nmight recollect that in so terrible an agony of shame as is likely to\nconvulse a human being under such a trial, and such personal insults,\nthe blood is apt to return to the heart, and a slight wound, as with a\npin, may be inflicted without being followed by blood. In the latter end\nof the seventeenth century this childish, indecent, and brutal practice\nbegan to be called by its right name. Fountainhall has recorded that in\n1678 the Privy Council received the complaint of a poor woman who had\nbeen abused by a country magistrate and one of those impostors called\nprickers. They expressed high displeasure against the presumption of the\nparties complained against, and treated the pricker as a common\ncheat.[72]\n\n[Footnote 72: Fountainhall's \"Decisions,\" vol. i. p. 15.]\n\nFrom this and other instances it appears that the predominance of the\nsuperstition of witchcraft, and the proneness to persecute those accused\nof such practices in Scotland, were increased by the too great readiness\nof subordinate judges to interfere in matters which were, in fact,\nbeyond their jurisdiction. The Supreme Court of Justiciary was that in\nwhich the cause properly and exclusively ought to have been tried. But,\nin practice, each inferior judge in the country, the pettiest bailie in\nthe most trifling burgh, the smallest and most ignorant baron of a rude\nterritory, took it on him to arrest, imprison, and examine, in which\nexaminations, as we have already seen, the accused suffered the grossest\ninjustice. The copies of these examinations, made up of extorted\nconfessions, or the evidence of inhabile witnesses, were all that were\ntransmitted to the Privy Council, who were to direct the future mode of\nprocedure. Thus no creature was secure against the malice or folly of\nsome defamatory accusation, if there was a timid or superstitious judge,\nthough of the meanest denomination, to be found within the district.\n\nBut, secondly, it was the course of the Privy Council to appoint\ncommissions of the gentlemen of the country, and particularly of the\nclergymen, though not likely, from their education, to be freed from\ngeneral prejudice, and peculiarly liable to be affected by the clamour\nof the neighbourhood againt the delinquent. Now, as it is well known\nthat such a commission could not be granted in a case of murder in the\ncounty where the crime was charged, there seems no good reason why the\ntrial of witches, so liable to excite the passions, should not have been\nuniformly tried by a court whose rank and condition secured them from\nthe suspicion of partiality. But our ancestors arranged it otherwise,\nand it was the consequence that such commissioners very seldom, by\nacquitting the persons brought before them, lost an opportunity of\ndestroying a witch.\n\nNeither must it be forgotten that the proof led in support of the\nprosecution was of a kind very unusual in jurisprudence. The lawyers\nadmitted as evidence what they called _damnum minatum, et malum\nsecutum_--some mischief, that is to say, following close upon a threat,\nor wish of revenge, uttered by the supposed witch, which, though it\nmight be attributed to the most natural course of events, was supposed\nnecessarily to be in consequence of the menaces of the accused.\n\nSometimes this vague species of evidence was still more loosely adduced,\nand allegations of danger threatened and mischief ensuing were admitted,\nthough the menaces had not come from the accused party herself. On 10th\nJune, 1661, as John Stewart, one of a party of stout burghers of\nDalkeith appointed to guard an old woman called Christian Wilson from\nthat town to Niddrie, was cleaning his gun, he was slyly questioned by\nJanet Cocke, another confessing witch, who probably saw his courage was\nnot entirely constant, \"What would you think if the devil raise a\nwhirlwind, and take her from you on the road to-morrow?\" Sure enough, on\ntheir journey to Niddrie the party actually were assailed by a sudden\ngust of wind (not a very uncommon event in that climate), which scarce\npermitted the valiant guard to keep their feet, while the miserable\nprisoner was blown into a pool of water, and with difficulty raised\nagain. There is some ground to hope that this extraordinary evidence was\nnot admitted upon the trial.\n\nThere is a story told of an old wizard, whose real name was Alexander\nHunter, though he was more generally known by the nickname of\nHatteraick, which it had pleased the devil to confer upon him. The man\nhad for some time adopted the credit of being a conjurer, and curing the\ndiseases of man and beast by spells and charms. One summer's day, on a\ngreen hill-side, the devil appeared to him in shape of a grave\n\"Mediciner,\" addressing him thus roundly, \"Sandie, you have too long\nfollowed my trade without acknowledging me for a master. You must now\nenlist with me and become my servant, and I will teach you your trade\nbetter.\" Hatteraick consented to the proposal, and we shall let the Rev.\nMr. George Sinclair tell the rest of the tale.\n\n\"After this he grew very famous through the country for his charming and\ncuring of diseases in men and beasts, and turned a vagrant fellow like a\njockie,[73] gaining meal, and flesh, and money by his charms, such was\nthe ignorance of many at that time. Whatever house he came to none durst\nrefuse Hatteraick an alms, rather for his ill than his good. One day he\ncame to the yait (gate) of Samuelston, when some friends after dinner\nwere going to horse. A young gentleman, brother to the lady, seeing him,\nswitcht him about the ears, saying--'You warlock carle, what have you to\ndo here?' Whereupon the fellow goes away grumbling, and was overheard to\nsay, 'You shall dear buy this ere it be long.' This was _damnum\nminatum_. The young gentleman conveyed his friends a far way off, and\ncame home that way again, where he supped. After supper, taking his\nhorse and crossing Tyne water to go home, he rides through a shady piece\nof a haugh, commonly called Allers, and the evening being somewhat dark,\nhe met with some persons there that begat a dreadful consternation in\nhim, which for the most part he would never reveal. This was _malum\nsecutum_. When he came home the servants observed terror and fear in his\ncountenance. The next day he became distracted, and was bound for\nseveral days. His sister, the Lady Samuelston, hearing of it, was heard\nsay, 'Surely that knave Hatteraick is the cause of his trouble; call for\nhim in all haste.' When he had come to her, 'Sandie,' says she, 'what is\nthis you have done to my brother William?' 'I told him,' says he, 'I\nshould make him repent of his striking me at the yait lately.' She,\ngiving the rogue fair words, and promising him his pockful of meal, with\nbeef and cheese, persuaded the fellow to cure him again. He undertook\nthe business. 'But I must first,' says he, 'have one of his sarks'\n(shirts), which was soon gotten. What pranks he played with it cannot be\nknown, but within a short while the gentleman recovered his health. When\nHatteraick came to receive his wages he told the lady, 'Your brother\nWilliam shall quickly go off the country, but shall never return,' She,\nknowing the fellow's prophecies to hold true, caused the brother to make\na disposition to her of all his patrimony, to the defrauding of his\nyounger brother, George. After that this warlock had abused the country\nfor a long time, he was at last apprehended at Dunbar, and brought into\nEdinburgh, and burnt upon the Castlehill.\"[74]\n\n[Footnote 73: Or Scottish wandering beggar.]\n\n[Footnote 74: Sinclair's \"Satan's Invisible World Discovered,\" p. 98.]\n\nNow, if Hatteraick was really put to death on such evidence, it is worth\nwhile to consider what was its real amount. A hot-tempered swaggering\nyoung gentleman horsewhips a beggar of ill fame for loitering about the\ngate of his sister's house. The beggar grumbles, as any man would. The\nyoung man, riding in the night, and probably in liquor, through a dark\nshady place, is frightened by, he would not, and probably could not,\ntell what, and has a fever fit. His sister employs the wizard to take\noff the spell according to his profession; and here is _damnum minatum,\net malum secutum_, and all legal cause for burning a man to ashes! The\nvagrant Hatteraick probably knew something of the wild young man which\nmight soon oblige him to leave the country; and the selfish Lady\nSamuelston, learning the probability of his departure, committed a fraud\nwhich ought to have rendered her evidence inadmissible.\n\nBesides these particular disadvantages, to which the parties accused of\nthis crime in Scotland were necessarily exposed, both in relation to the\njudicature by which they were tried and the evidence upon which they\nwere convicted, their situation was rendered intolerable by the\ndetestation in which they were held by all ranks. The gentry hated them\nbecause the diseases and death of their relations and children were\noften imputed to them; the grossly superstitious vulgar abhorred them\nwith still more perfect dread and loathing. And amongst those natural\nfeelings, others of a less pardonable description found means to shelter\nthemselves. In one case, we are informed by Mackenzie, a poor girl was\nto die for witchcraft, of whom the real crime was that she had attracted\ntoo great a share, in the lady's opinion, of the attention of the laird.\n\nHaving thus given some reasons why the prosecutions for witchcraft in\nScotland were so numerous and fatal, we return to the general history of\nthe trials recorded from the reign of James V. to the union of the\nkingdoms. Through the reign of Queen Mary these trials for sorcery\nbecame numerous, and the crime was subjected to heavier punishment by\nthe 73rd Act of her 9th Parliament. But when James VI. approached to\nyears of discretion, the extreme anxiety which he displayed to penetrate\nmore deeply into mysteries which others had regarded as a very millstone\nof obscurity, drew still larger attention to the subject. The sovereign\nhad exhausted his talents of investigation on the subject of witchcraft,\nand credit was given to all who acted in defence of the opinions of the\nreigning prince. This natural tendency to comply with the opinions of\nthe sovereign was much augmented by the disposition of the Kirk to the\nsame sentiments. We have already said that these venerable persons\nentertained, with good faith, the general erroneous belief respecting\nwitchcraft--regarding it indeed as a crime which affected their own\norder more nearly than others in the state, since, especially called to\nthe service of heaven, they were peculiarly bound to oppose the\nincursions of Satan. The works which remain behind them show, among\nbetter things, an unhesitating belief in what were called by them\n\"special providences;\" and this was equalled, at least, by their\ncredulity as to the actual interference of evil spirits in the affairs\nof this world. They applied these principles of belief to the meanest\ncauses. A horse falling lame was a snare of the devil to keep the good\nclergyman from preaching; the arrival of a skilful farrier was accounted\na special providence to defeat the purpose of Satan. This was,\ndoubtless, in a general sense true, since nothing can happen without the\nforeknowledge and will of Heaven; but we are authorized to believe that\nthe period of supernatural interference has long passed away, and that\nthe great Creator is content to execute his purposes by the operation of\nthose laws which influence the general course of nature. Our ancient\nScottish divines thought otherwise. Surrounded, as they conceived\nthemselves, by the snares and temptations of hell, and relying on the\naid of Heaven, they entered into war with the kingdom of Satan, as the\ncrusaders of old invaded the land of Palestine, with the same confidence\nin the justice of their cause and similar indifference concerning the\nfeelings of those whom they accounted the enemies of God and man. We\nhave already seen that even the conviction that a woman was innocent of\nthe crime of witchcraft did not induce a worthy clergyman to use any\neffort to withdraw her from the stake; and in the same collection[75]\nthere occur some observable passages of God's providence to a godly\nminister in giving him \"full clearness\" concerning Bessie Grahame,\nsuspected of witchcraft. The whole detail is a curious illustration of\nthe spirit of credulity which well-disposed men brought with them to\nsuch investigations, and how easily the gravest doubts were removed\nrather than a witch should be left undetected.\n\n[Footnote 75: \"Satan's Invisible World,\" by Mr. George Sinclair. The\nauthor was Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow,\nand afterwards minister of Eastwood, in Renfrewshire.]\n\nBessie Grahame had been committed, it would seem, under suspicions of no\ngreat weight, since the minister, after various conferences, found her\ndefence so successful, that he actually pitied her hard usage, and\nwished for her delivery from prison, especially as he doubted whether a\ncivil court would send her to an assize, or whether an assize would be\ndisposed to convict her. While the minister was in this doubt, a fellow\nnamed Begg was employed as a skilful pricker; by whose authority it is\nnot said, he thrust a great brass pin up to the head in a wart on the\nwoman's back, which he affirmed to be the devil's mark. A commission was\ngranted for trial; but still the chief gentlemen in the county refused\nto act, and the clergyman's own doubts were far from being removed. This\nput the worthy man upon a solemn prayer to God, \"that if he would find\nout a way for giving the minister full clearness of her guilt, he would\nacknowledge it as a singular favour and mercy.\" This, according to his\nidea, was accomplished in the following manner, which he regarded as an\nanswer to his prayer. One evening the clergyman, with Alexander Simpson,\nthe kirk-officer, and his own servant, had visited Bessie in her cell,\nto urge her to confession, but in vain. As they stood on the stair-head\nbehind the door, they heard the prisoner, whom they had left alone in\nher place of confinement, discoursing with another person, who used a\nlow and ghostly tone, which the minister instantly recognised as the\nFoul Fiend's voice. But for this discovery we should have been of\nopinion that Bessie Grahame talked to herself, as melancholy and\ndespairing wretches are in the habit of doing. But as Alexander Simpson\npretended to understand the sense of what was said within the cell, and\nthe minister himself was pretty sure he heard two voices at the same\ntime, he regarded the overhearing this conversation as the answer of the\nDeity to his petition, and thenceforth was troubled with no doubts\neither as to the reasonableness and propriety of his prayer, or the\nguilt of Bessie Grahame, though she died obstinate, and would not\nconfess; nay, made a most decent and Christian end, acquitting her\njudges and jury of her blood, in respect of the strong delusion under\nwhich they laboured.\n\nAlthough the ministers, whose opinions were but two strongly on this\nhead in correspondence with the prevailing superstitions of the people,\nnourished in the early system of church government a considerable desire\nto secure their own immunities and privileges as a national church,\nwhich failed not at last to be brought into contact with the king's\nprerogative; yet in the earlier part of his reign, James, when freed\nfrom the influence of such a favourite as the profligate Stuart, Earl of\nArran, was in his personal qualities rather acceptable to the clergy of\nhis kingdom and period. At his departing from Scotland on his romantic\nexpedition to bring home a consort from Denmark, he very politically\nrecommended to the clergy to contribute all that lay in their power to\nassist the civil magistrates, and preserve the public peace of the\nkingdom. The king after his return acknowledged with many thanks the\ncare which the clergy had bestowed in this particular. Nor were they\nslack in assuming the merit to themselves, for they often reminded him\nin their future discords that his kingdom had never been so quiet as\nduring his voyage to Denmark, when the clergy were in a great measure\nintrusted with the charge of the public government.\n\nDuring the halcyon period of union between kirk and king their hearty\nagreement on the subject of witchcraft failed not to heat the fires\nagainst the persons suspected of such iniquity. The clergy considered\nthat the Roman Catholics, their principal enemies, were equally devoted\nto the devil, the mass, and the witches, which in their opinion were\nmutually associated together, and natural allies in the great cause of\nmischief. On the other hand, the pedantic sovereign having exercised his\nlearning and ingenuity in the Demonologia, considered the execution of\nevery witch who was burnt as a necessary conclusion of his own royal\nsyllogisms. The juries were also afraid of the consequences of acquittal\nto themselves, being liable to suffer under an assize of error should\nthey be thought to have been unjustly merciful; and as the witches tried\nwere personally as insignificant as the charge itself was odious, there\nwas no restraint whatever upon those in whose hands their fate lay, and\nthere seldom wanted some such confession as we have often mentioned, or\nsuch evidence as that collected by the minister who overheard the\ndialogue between the witch and her master, to salve their consciences\nand reconcile them to bring in a verdict of guilty.\n\nThe execution of witches became for these reasons very common in\nScotland, where the king seemed in some measure to have made himself a\nparty in the cause, and the clergy esteemed themselves such from the\nvery nature of their profession. But the general spite of Satan and his\nadherents was supposed to be especially directed against James, on\naccount of his match with Anne of Denmark--the union of a Protestant\nprincess with a Protestant prince, the King of Scotland and heir of\nEngland being, it could not be doubted, an event which struck the whole\nkingdom of darkness with alarm. James was self-gratified by the unusual\nspirit which he had displayed on his voyage in quest of his bride, and\nwell disposed to fancy that he had performed it in positive opposition,\nnot only to the indirect policy of Elizabeth, but to the malevolent\npurpose of hell itself. His fleet had been tempest-tost, and he very\nnaturally believed that the prince of the power of the air had been\npersonally active on the occasion.\n\nThe principal person implicated in these heretical and treasonable\nundertakings was one Agnes Simpson, or Samson, called the Wise Wife of\nKeith, and described by Archbishop Spottiswood, not as one of the base\nor ignorant class of ordinary witches, but a grave matron, composed and\ndeliberate in her answers, which were all to some purpose. This grave\ndame, from the terms of her indictment, seems to have been a kind of\nwhite witch, affecting to cure diseases by words and charms, a dangerous\nprofession considering the times in which she lived. Neither did she\nalways keep the right and sheltered side of the law in such delicate\noperations. One article of her indictment proves this, and at the same\ntime establishes that the Wise Woman of Keith knew how to turn her\nprofession to account; for, being consulted in the illness of Isobel\nHamilton, she gave her opinion that nothing could amend her unless the\ndevil was raised; and the sick woman's husband, startling at the\nproposal, and being indifferent perhaps about the issue, would not\nbestow the necessary expenses, whereupon the Wise Wife refused to raise\nthe devil, and the patient died. This woman was principally engaged in\nan extensive conspiracy to destroy the fleet of the queen by raising a\ntempest; and to take the king's life by anointing his linen with\npoisonous materials, and by constructing figures of clay, to be wasted\nand tormented after the usual fashion of necromancy.\n\nAmongst her associates was an unhappy lady of much higher degree. This\nwas Dame Euphane MacCalzean, the widow of a Senator of the College of\nJustice, and a person infinitely above the rank of the obscure witches\nwith whom she was joined in her crime. Mr. Pitcairn supposes that this\nconnexion may have arisen from her devotion to the Catholic faith and\nher friendship for the Earl of Bothwell.\n\nThe third person in this singular league of sorcerers was Doctor John\nFian, otherwise Cunninghame, who was schoolmaster at Tranent, and\nenjoyed much hazardous reputation as a warlock. This man was made the\nhero of the whole tale of necromancy, in an account of it published at\nLondon, and entitled, \"News from Scotland,\" which has been lately\nreprinted by the Roxburghe Club. It is remarkable that the Scottish\nwitchcrafts were not thought sufficiently horrible by the editor of this\ntract, without adding to them the story of a philtre being applied to a\ncow's hair instead of that of the young woman for whom it was designed,\nand telling how the animal came lowing after the sorcerer to his\nschoolroom door, like a second Pasipha\u00eb, the original of which charm\noccurs in the story of Apuleius.[76]\n\n[Footnote 76: \"Lucii Apuleii Metamorphoses,\" lib. iii.]\n\nBesides these persons, there was one Barbara Napier, alias Douglas, a\nperson of some rank; Geillis Duncan, a very active witch; and about\nthirty other poor creatures of the lowest condition--among the rest, and\ndoorkeeper to the conclave, a silly old ploughman, called as his\nnickname Graymeal, who was cuffed by the devil for saying simply, \"God\nbless the king!\"\n\nWhen the monarch of Scotland sprung this strong covey of his favourite\ngame, they afforded the Privy Council and him sport for the greatest\npart of the remaining winter. He attended on the examinations himself,\nand by one means or or other, they were indifferently well dressed to\nhis palate.\n\nAgnes Sampson, the grave matron before mentioned, after being an hour\ntortured by the twisting of a cord around her head, according to the\ncustom of the Buccaneers, confessed that she had consulted with one\nRichard Grahame concerning the probable length of the king's life, and\nthe means of shortening it. But Satan, to whom they at length resorted\nfor advice, told them in French respecting King James, _Il est un homme\nde Dieu_. The poor woman also acknowledged that she had held a meeting\nwith those of her sisterhood, who had charmed a cat by certain spells,\nhaving four joints of men knit to its feet, which they threw into the\nsea to excite a tempest. Another frolic they had when, like the weird\nsisters in Macbeth, they embarked in sieves with much mirth and jollity,\nthe Fiend rolling himself before them upon the waves, dimly seen, and\nresembling a huge haystack in size and appearance. They went on board of\na foreign ship richly laded with wines, where, invisible to the crew,\nthey feasted till the sport grew tiresome, and then Satan sunk the\nvessel and all on board.\n\nFian, or Cunninghame, was also visited by the sharpest tortures,\nordinary and extraordinary. The nails were torn from his fingers with\nsmith's pincers; pins were driven into the places which the nails\nusually defended; his knees were crushed in _the boots_, his finger\nbones were splintered in the pilniewinks. At length his constancy,\nhitherto sustained, as the bystanders supposed, by the help of the\ndevil, was fairly overcome, and he gave an account of a great\nwitch-meeting at North Berwick, where they paced round the church\n_withershinns_, that is, in reverse of the motion of the sun. Fian then\nblew into the lock of the church-door, whereupon the bolts gave way, the\nunhallowed crew entered, and their master the devil appeared to his\nservants in the shape of a black man occupying the pulpit. He was\nsaluted with an \"Hail, Master!\" but the company were dissatisfied with\nhis not having brought a picture of the king, repeatedly promised, which\nwas to place his majesty at the mercy of this infernal crew. The devil\nwas particularly upbraided on this subject by divers respectable-looking\nfemales--no question, Euphane MacCalzean, Barbara Napier, Agnes Sampson,\nand some other amateur witch above those of the ordinary profession. The\ndevil on this memorable occasion forgot himself, and called Fian by his\nown name, instead of the demoniacal _sobriquet_ of Rob the Rowar, which\nhad been assigned to him as Master of the Rows or Rolls. This was\nconsidered as bad taste, and the rule is still observed at every\nrendezvous of forgers, smugglers, or the like, where it is accounted\nvery indifferent manners to name an individual by his own name, in case\nof affording ground of evidence which may upon a day of trial be brought\nagainst him. Satan, something disconcerted, concluded the evening with a\ndivertisement and a dance after his own manner. The former consisted in\ndisinterring a new-buried corpse, and dividing it in fragments among the\ncompany, and the ball was maintained by well-nigh two hundred persons,\nwho danced a ring dance, singing this chant--\n\n\"Cummer, gang ye before; Cummer gang ye.\nGif ye will not gang before, Cummers, let me.\"\n\nAfter this choral exhibition, the music seems to have been rather\nimperfect, the number of dancers considered. Geillis Duncan was the only\ninstrumental performer, and she played on a Jew's harp, called in\nScotland a _trump_. Dr. Fian, muffled, led the ring, and was highly\nhonoured, generally acting as clerk or recorder, as above mentioned.\n\nKing James was deeply interested in those mysterious meetings, and took\ngreat delight to be present at the examinations of the accused. He sent\nfor Geillis Duncan, and caused her to play before him the same tune to\nwhich Satan and his companions led the brawl in North Berwick\nchurchyard.[77] His ears were gratified in another way, for at this\nmeeting it was said the witches demanded of the devil why he did bear\nsuch enmity against the king? who returned the flattering answer that\nthe king was the greatest enemy whom he had in the world.\n\n[Footnote 77: The music of this witch tune is unhappily lost. But that\nof another, believed to have been popular on such occasions, is\npreserved.\n\n\"The silly bit chicken, gar cast her a pickle,\n And she will grow mickle,\n         And she will do good.\"]\n\nAlmost all these poor wretches were executed, nor did Euphane\nMacCalzean's station in life save her from the common doom, which was\nstrangling to death, and burning to ashes thereafter. The majority of\nthe jury which tried Barbara Napier having acquitted her of attendance\nat the North Berwick meeting, were themselves threatened with a trial\nfor wilful error upon an assize, and could only escape from severe\ncensure and punishment by pleading guilty, and submitting themselves to\nthe king's pleasure. This rigorous and iniquitous conduct shows a\nsufficient reason why there should be so few acquittals from a charge of\nwitchcraft where the juries were so much at the mercy of the crown.\n\nIt would be disgusting to follow the numerous cases in which the same\nuniform credulity, the same extorted confessions, the same prejudiced\nand exaggerated evidence, concluded in the same tragedy at the stake and\nthe pile. The alterations and trenching which lately took place for the\npurpose of improving the Castlehill of Edinburgh displayed the ashes of\nthe numbers who had perished in this manner, of whom a large proportion\nmust have been executed between 1590, when the great discovery was made\nconcerning Euphane MacCalzean and the Wise Wife of Keith and their\naccomplices, and the union of the crowns.\n\nNor did King James's removal to England soften this horrible\npersecution. In Sir Thomas Hamilton's Minutes of Proceedings in the\nPrivy Council, there occurs a singular entry, evincing plainly that the\nEarl of Mar, and others of James's Council, were becoming fully sensible\nof the desperate iniquity and inhumanity of these proceedings. I have\nmodernized the spelling that this appalling record may be legible to all\nmy readers.\n\n\"1608, December 1. The Earl of Mar declared to the Council that some\nwomen were taken in Broughton as witches, and being put to an assize and\nconvicted, albeit they persevered constant in their denial to the end,\nyet they were burned quick [_alive_] after such a cruel manner that some\nof them died in despair, renouncing and blaspheming [God]; and others,\nhalf burned, brak out of the fire,[78] and were cast quick in it again,\ntill they were burned to the death.\"\n\n[Footnote 78: I am obliged to the kindness of Mr. Pitcairn for this\nsingular extract. The southern reader must be informed that the\njurisdiction or regality of Broughton embraced Holyrood, Canongate,\nLeith, and other suburban parts of Edinburgh, and bore the same relation\nto that city as the borough of Southwark to London.]\n\nThis singular document shows that even in the reign of James, so soon as\nhis own august person was removed from Edinburgh, his dutiful Privy\nCouncil began to think that they had supt full with horrors, and were\nsatiated with the excess of cruelty which dashed half-consumed wretches\nback into the flames from which they were striving to escape.\n\nBut the picture, however much it may have been disgusting and terrifying\nto the Council at the time, and though the intention of the entry upon\nthe records was obviously for the purpose of preventing such horrid\ncruelties in future, had no lasting effect on the course of justice, as\nthe severities against witches were most unhappily still considered\nnecessary. Through the whole of the sixteenth, and the greater part of\nthe seventeenth century, little abatement in the persecution of this\nmetaphysical crime of witchcraft can be traced in the kingdom. Even\nwhile the Independents held the reins of government, Cromwell himself,\nand his major-generals and substitutes, were obliged to please the\ncommon people of Scotland by abandoning the victims accused of\nwitchcraft to the power of the law, though the journals of the time\nexpress the horror and disgust with which the English sectarians beheld\na practice so inconsistent with their own humane principle of universal\ntoleration.\n\nInstead of plunging into a history of these events which, generally\nspeaking, are in detail as monotonous as they are melancholy, it may\namuse the reader to confine the narrative to a single trial, having in\nthe course of it some peculiar and romantic events. It is the tale of a\nsailor's wife, more tragic in its event than that of the\nchestnut-muncher in Macbeth.[79]\n\n[Footnote 79: A copy of the record of the trial, which took place in\nAyrshire, was sent to me by a friend who withheld his name, so that I\ncan only thank him in this general acknowledgment.]\n\nMargaret Barclay, wife of Archibald Dein, burgess of Irvine, had been\nslandered by her sister-in-law, Janet Lyal, the spouse of John Dein,\nbrother of Archibald, and by John Dein himself, as guilty of some act of\ntheft. Upon this provocation Margaret Barclay raised an action of\nslander before the church court, which prosecution, after some\nprocedure, the kirk-session discharged by directing a reconciliation\nbetween the parties. Nevertheless, although the two women shook hands\nbefore the court, yet the said Margaret Barclay declared that she gave\nher hand only in obedience to the kirk-session, but that she still\nretained her hatred and ill-will against John Dein and his wife, Janet\nLyal. About this time the bark of John Dein was about to sail for\nFrance, and Andrew Train, or Tran, provost of the burgh of Irvine, who\nwas an owner of the vessel, went with him to superintend the commercial\npart of the voyage. Two other merchants of some consequence went in the\nsame vessel, with a sufficient number of mariners. Margaret Barclay, the\nrevengeful person already mentioned, was heard to imprecate curses upon\nthe provost's argosy, praying to God that sea nor salt-water might never\nbear the ship, and that _partans_ (crabs) might eat the crew at the\nbottom of the sea.\n\nWhen, under these auspices, the ship was absent on her voyage, a\nvagabond fellow, named John Stewart, pretending to have knowledge of\njugglery, and to possess the power of a spaeman, came to the residence\nof Tran, the provost, and dropped explicit hints that the ship was lost,\nand that the good woman of the house was a widow. The sad truth was\nafterwards learned on more certain information. Two of the seamen, after\na space of doubt and anxiety, arrived, with the melancholy tidings that\nthe bark, of which John Dein was skipper and Provost Tran part owner,\nhad been wrecked on the coast of England, near Padstow, when all on\nboard had been lost, except the two sailors who brought the notice.\nSuspicion of sorcery, in those days easily awakened, was fixed on\nMargaret Barclay, who had imprecated curses on the ship, and on John\nStewart, the juggler, who had seemed to know of the evil fate of the\nvoyage before he could have become acquainted with it by natural means.\n\nStewart, who was first apprehended, acknowledged that Margaret Barclay,\nthe other suspected person, had applied to him to teach her some magic\narts, \"in order that she might get gear, kye's milk, love of man, her\nheart's desire on such persons as had done her wrong, and, finally, that\nshe might obtain the fruit of sea and land.\" Stewart declared that he\ndenied to Margaret that he possessed the said arts himself, or had the\npower of communicating them. So far was well; but, true or false, he\nadded a string of circumstances, whether voluntarily declared or\nextracted by torture, which tended to fix the cause of the loss of the\nbark on Margaret Barclay. He had come, he said, to this woman's house in\nIrvine, shortly after the ship set sail from harbour. He went to\nMargaret's house by night, and found her engaged, with other two women,\nin making clay figures; one of the figures was made handsome, with fair\nhair, supposed to represent Provost Tran. They then proceeded to mould a\nfigure of a ship in clay, and during this labour the devil appeared to\nthe company in the shape of a handsome black lap-dog, such as ladies use\nto keep.[80] He added that the whole party left the house together, and\nwent into an empty waste-house nearer the seaport, which house he\npointed out to the city magistrates. From this house they went to the\nsea-side, followed by the black lap-dog aforesaid, and cast in the\nfigures of clay representing the ship and the men; after which the sea\nraged, roared, and became red like the juice of madder in a dyer's\ncauldron.\n\n[Footnote 80: This may remind the reader of Cazotte's \"Diable\nAmoureux.\"]\n\nThis confession having been extorted from the unfortunate juggler, the\nfemale acquaintances of Margaret Barclay were next convened, that he\nmight point out her associates in forming the charm, when he pitched\nupon a woman called Isobel Insh, or Taylor, who resolutely denied having\never seen him before. She was imprisoned, however, in the belfry of the\nchurch. An addition to the evidence against the poor old woman Insh was\nthen procured from her own daughter, Margaret Tailzeour, _a child of\neight years old_, who lived as servant with Margaret Barclay, the person\nprincipally accused. This child, who was keeper of a baby belonging to\nMargaret Barclay, either from terror or the innate love of falsehood\nwhich we have observed as proper to childhood, declared that she was\npresent when the fatal models of clay were formed, and that, in plunging\nthem in the sea, Margaret Barclay her mistress, and her mother Isobel\nInsh, were assisted by another woman, and a girl of fourteen years old,\nwho dwelt at the town-head. Legally considered, the evidence of this\nchild was contradictory and inconsistent with the confession of the\njuggler, for it assigned other particulars and _dramatis person\u00e6_ in\nmany respects different. But all was accounted sufficiently regular,\nespecially since the girl failed not to swear to the presence of the\nblack dog, to whose appearance she also added the additional terrors of\nthat of a black man. The dog also, according to her account, emitted\nflashes from its jaws and nostrils to illuminate the witches during the\nperformance of the spell. The child maintained this story even to her\nmother's face, only alleging that Isobel Insh remained behind in the\nwaste-house, and was not present when the images were put into the sea.\nFor her own countenance and presence on the occasion, and to ensure her\nsecrecy, her mistress promised her a pair of new shoes.\n\nJohn Stewart, being re-examined and confronted with the child, was\neasily compelled to allow that the \"little smatchet\" was there, and to\ngive that marvellous account of his correspondence with Elfland which we\nhave noticed elsewhere.\n\nThe conspiracy thus far, as they conceived, disclosed, the magistrates\nand ministers wrought hard with Isobel Insh to prevail upon her to tell\nthe truth; and she at length acknowledged her presence at the time when\nthe models of the ship and mariners were destroyed, but endeavoured so\nto modify her declaration as to deny all personal accession to the\nguilt. This poor creature almost admitted the supernatural powers\nimputed to her, promising Bailie Dunlop (also a mariner), by whom she\nwas imprisoned, that, if he would dismiss her, he should never make a\nbad voyage, but have success in all his dealings by sea and land. She\nwas finally brought to promise that she would fully confess the whole\nthat she knew of the affair on the morrow.\n\nBut finding herself in so hard a strait, the unfortunate woman made use\nof the darkness to attempt an escape. With this view she got out by a\nback window of the belfry, although, says the report, there were \"iron\nbolts, locks, and fetters on her,\" and attained the roof of the church,\nwhere, losing her footing, she sustained a severe fall and was greatly\nbruised. Being apprehended, Bailie Dunlop again urged her to confess;\nbut the poor woman was determined to appeal to a more merciful tribunal,\nand maintained her innocence to the last minute of her life, denying all\nthat she had formerly admitted, and dying five days after her fall from\nthe roof of the church. The inhabitants of Irvine attributed her death\nto poison.\n\nThe scene began to thicken, for a commission was granted for the trial\nof the two remaining persons accused, namely, Stewart, the juggler, and\nMargaret Barclay. The day of trial being arrived, the following singular\nevents took place, which we give as stated in the record:--\n\n\"My Lord and Earl of Eglintoune (who dwells within the space of one mile\nto the said burgh) having come to the said burgh at the earnest request\nof the said justices, for giving to them of his lordship's countenance,\nconcurrence and assistance, in trying of the foresaid devilish\npractices, conform to the tenor of the foresaid commission, the said\nJohn Stewart, for his better preserving to the day of the assize, was\nput in a sure lockfast booth, where no manner of person might have\naccess to him till the downsitting of the Justice Court, and for\navoiding of putting violent hands on himself, he was very strictly\nguarded and fettered by the arms, as use is. And upon that same day of\nthe assize, about half an hour before the downsitting of the Justice\nCourt, Mr. David Dickson, minister at Irvine, and Mr. George Dunbar,\nminister of Air, having gone to him to exhort him to call on his God for\nmercy for his bygone wicked and evil life, and that God would of his\ninfinite mercy loose him out of the bonds of the devil, whom he had\nserved these many years bygone, he acquiesced in their prayer and godly\nexhortation, and uttered these words:--\"I am so straitly guarded that it\nlies not in my power to get my hand to take off my bonnet, nor to get\nbread to my mouth.\" And immediately after the departing of the two\nministers from him, the juggler being sent for at the desire of my Lord\nof Eglintoune, to be confronted with a woman of the burgh of Air, called\nJanet Bous, who was apprehended by the magistrates of the burgh of Air\nfor witchcraft, and sent to the burgh of Irvine purposely for that\naffair, he was found by the burgh officers who went about him, strangled\nand hanged by the cruik of the door, with a _tait_ of hemp, or a string\nmade of hemp, supposed to have been his garter, or string of his bonnet,\nnot above the length of two span long, his knees not being from the\nground half a span, and was brought out of the house, his life not being\ntotally expelled. But notwithstanding of whatsoever means used in the\ncontrary for remeid of his life, he revived not, but so ended his life\nmiserably, by the help of the devil his master.\n\n\"And because there was then only in life the said Margaret Barclay, and\nthat the persons summoned to pass upon her assize and upon the assize of\nthe juggler who, by the help of the devil his master, had put violent\nhands on himself, were all present within the said burgh; therefore, and\nfor eschewing of the like in the person of the said Margaret, our\nsovereign lord's justices in that part particularly above-named,\nconstituted by commission after solemn deliberation and advice of the\nsaid noble lord, whose concurrence and advice was chiefly required and\ntaken in this matter, concluded with all possible diligence before the\ndownsitting of the Justice Court to put the said Margaret in torture; in\nrespect the devil, by God's permission, had made her associates who were\nthe lights of the cause, to be their own _burrioes_ (slayers). They used\nthe torture underwritten as being most safe and gentle (as the said\nnoble lord assured the said justices), by putting of her two bare legs\nin a pair of stocks, and thereafter by onlaying of certain iron gauds\n(bars) severally one by one, and then eiking and augmenting the weight\nby laying on more gauds, and in easing of her by offtaking of the iron\ngauds one or more as occasion offered, which iron gauds were but little\nshort gauds, and broke not the skin of her legs, &c.\n\n\"After using of the which kind of _gentle torture_, the said Margaret\nbegan, according to the increase of the pain, to cry and crave for God's\ncause to take off her shins the foresaid irons, and she should declare\ntruly the whole matter. Which being removed, she began at her former\ndenial; and being of new essayed in torture as of befoir, she then\nuttered these words: 'Take off, take off, and before God I shall show\nyou the whole form!'\n\n\"And the said irons being of new, upon her faithfull promise, removed,\nshe then desired my Lord of Eglintoune, the said four justices, and the\nsaid Mr. David Dickson, minister of the burgh, Mr. George Dunbar,\nminister of Ayr, and Mr. Mitchell Wallace, minister of Kilmarnock, and\nMr. John Cunninghame, minister of Dalry, and Hugh Kennedy, provost of\nAyr, to come by themselves and to remove all others, and she should\ndeclare truly, as she should answer to God the whole matter. Whose\ndesire in that being fulfilled she made her confession in this manner,\nbut (_i.e.,_ without) any kind of demand, freely, without interrogation;\nGod's name by earnest prayer being called upon for opening of her lips,\nand easing of her heart, that she, by rendering of the truth, might\nglorify and magnify his holy name, and disappoint the enemy of her\nsalvation.\"--_Trial of Margaret Barclay, &c_., 1618.\n\nMargaret Barclay, who was a young and lively person, had hitherto\nconducted herself like a passionate and high-tempered woman innocently\naccused, and the only appearance of conviction obtained against her was,\nthat she carried about her rowan-tree and coloured thread, to make, as\nshe said, her cow give milk, when it began to fail. But the _gentle\ntorture_--a strange junction of words--recommended as an anodyne by the\ngood Lord Eglinton--the placing, namely, her legs in the stocks, and\nloading her bare shins with bars of iron, overcame her resolution; when,\nat her screams and declarations that she was willing to tell all, the\nweights were removed. She then told a story of destroying the ship of\nJohn Dein, affirming that it was with the purpose of killing only her\nbrother-in-law and Provost Tran, and saving the rest of the crew. She at\nthe same time involved in the guilt Isobel Crawford. This poor woman was\nalso apprehended, and in great terror confessed the imputed crime,\nretorting the principal blame on Margaret Barclay herself. The trial was\nthen appointed to proceed, when Alexander Dein, the husband of Margaret\nBarclay, appeared in court with a lawyer to act in his wife's behalf.\nApparently, the sight of her husband awakened some hope and desire of\nlife, for when the prisoner was asked by the lawyer whether she wished\nto be defended? she answered, \"As you please But all I have confest was\nin agony of torture; and, before God, all I have spoken is false and\nuntrue.\" To which she pathetically added, \"Ye have been too long in\ncoming.\"\n\nThe jury, unmoved by these affecting circumstances, proceeded upon the\nprinciple that the confession of the accused could not be considered as\nmade under the influence of torture, since the bars were not actually\nupon her limbs at the time it was delivered, although they were placed\nat her elbow ready to be again laid on her bare shins, if she was less\nexplicit in her declaration than her auditors wished. On this nice\ndistinction they in one voice found Margaret Barclay guilty. It is\nsingular that she should have again returned to her confession after\nsentence, and died affirming it; the explanation of which, however,\nmight be either that she had really in her ignorance and folly tampered\nwith some idle spells, or that an apparent penitence for her offence,\nhowever imaginary, was the only mode in which she could obtain any share\nof public sympathy at her death, or a portion of the prayers of the\nclergy and congregation, which, in her circumstances, she might be\nwilling to purchase, even by confession of what all believed respecting\nher. It is remarkable that she earnestly entreated the magistrates that\nno harm should be done to Isobel Crawford, the woman whom she had\nherself accused. This unfortunate young creature was strangled at the\nstake, and her body burnt to ashes, having died with many expressions of\nreligion and penitence.\n\nIt was one fatal consequence of these cruel persecutions, that one pile\nwas usually lighted at the embers of another. Accordingly in the present\ncase, three victims having already perished by this accusation, the\nmagistrates, incensed at the nature of the crime, so perilous as it\nseemed to men of a maritime life, and at the loss of several friends of\ntheir own, one of \"whom had been their principal magistrate, did not\nforbear to insist against Isobel Crawford, inculpated by Margaret\nBarclay's confession. A new commission was granted for her trial, and\nafter the assistant minister of Irvine, Mr. David Dickson, had made\nearnest prayers to God for opening her obdurate and closed heart, she\nwas subjected to the torture of iron bars laid upon her bare shins, her\nfeet being in the stocks, as in the case of Margaret Barclay.\n\nShe endured this torture with incredible firmness, since she did\n\"admirably, without any kind of din or exclamation, suffer above thirty\nstone of iron to be laid on her legs, never shrinking thereat in any\nsort, but remaining, as it were, steady.\" But in shifting the situation\nof the iron bars, and removing them to another part of her shins, her\nconstancy gave way; she broke out into horrible cries (though not more\nthan three bars were then actually on her person) of--\"Tak aff--tak\naff!\" On being relieved from the torture, she made the usual confession\nof all that she was charged with, and of a connexion with the devil\nwhich had subsisted for several years. Sentence was given against her\naccordingly. After this had been denounced, she openly denied all her\nformer confessions, and died without any sign of repentance, offering\nrepeated interruption to the minister in his prayer, and absolutely\nrefusing to pardon the executioner.\n\nThis tragedy happened in the year 1613, and recorded, as it is, very\nparticularly and at considerable length, forms the most detailed\nspecimen I have met with of a Scottish trial for\nwitchcraft--illustrating, in particular, how poor wretches, abandoned,\nas they conceived, by God and the world, deprived of all human sympathy,\nand exposed to personal tortures of an acute description, became\ndisposed to throw away the lives that were rendered bitter to them by a\nvoluntary confession of guilt, rather than struggle hopelessly against\nso many evils. Four persons here lost their lives, merely because the\nthrowing some clay models into the sea, a fact told differently by the\nwitnesses who spoke of it, corresponded with the season, for no day was\nfixed in which a particular vessel was lost. It is scarce possible that,\nafter reading such a story, a man of sense can listen for an instant to\nthe evidence founded on confessions thus obtained, which has been almost\nthe sole reason by which a few individuals, even in modern times, have\nendeavoured to justify a belief in the existence of witchcraft.\n\nThe result of the judicial examination of a criminal, when extorted by\nsuch means, is the most suspicious of all evidence, and even when\nvoluntarily given, is scarce admissible without the corroboration of\nother testimony.\n\nWe might here take leave of our Scottish history of witchcraft by barely\nmentioning that many hundreds, nay perhaps thousands, lost their lives\nduring two centuries on such charges and such evidence as proved the\ndeath of those persons in the trial of the Irvine witches. One case,\nhowever, is so much distinguished by fame among the numerous instances\nwhich occurred in Scottish history, that we are under the necessity of\nbestowing a few words upon those celebrated persons, Major Weir and his\nsister.\n\nThe case of this notorious wizard was remarkable chiefly from his being\na man of some condition (the son of a gentleman, and his mother a lady\nof family in Clydesdale), which was seldom the case with those that fell\nunder similar accusations. It was also remarkable in his case that he\nhad been a Covenanter, and peculiarly attached to that cause. In the\nyears of the Commonwealth this man was trusted and employed by those who\nwere then at the head of affairs, and was in 1649 commander of the\nCity-Guard of Edinburgh, which procured him his title of Major. In this\ncapacity he was understood, as was indeed implied in the duties of that\nofficer at the period, to be very strict in executing severity upon such\nRoyalists as fell under his military charge. It appears that the Major,\nwith a maiden sister who had kept his house, was subject to fits of\nmelancholic lunacy, an infirmity easily reconcilable with the formal\npretences which he made to a high show of religious zeal. He was\npeculiar in his gift of prayer, and, as was the custom of the period,\nwas often called to exercise his talent by the bedside of sick persons,\nuntil it came to be observed that, by some association, which it is more\neasy to conceive than to explain, he could not pray with the same warmth\nand fluency of expression unless when he had in his hand a stick of\npeculiar shape and appearance, which he generally walked with. It was\nnoticed, in short, that when this stick was taken from him, his wit and\ntalent appeared to forsake him. This Major Weir was seized by the\nmagistrates on a strange whisper that became current respecting vile\npractices, which he seems to have admitted without either shame or\ncontrition. The disgusting profligacies which he confessed were of such\na character that it may be charitably hoped most of them were the fruits\nof a depraved imagination, though he appears to have been in many\nrespects a wicked and criminal hypocrite. When he had completed his\nconfession, he avowed solemnly that he had not confessed the hundredth\npart of the crimes which he had committed. From this time he would\nanswer no interrogatory, nor would he have recourse to prayer, arguing\nthat, as he had no hope whatever of escaping Satan, there was no need of\nincensing him by vain efforts at repentance. His witchcraft seems to\nhave been taken for granted on his own confession, as his indictment was\nchiefly founded on the same document, in which he alleged he had never\nseen the devil, but any feeling he had of him was in the dark. He\nreceived sentence of death, which he suffered 12th April, 1670, at the\nGallow-hill, between Leith and Edinburgh. He died so stupidly sullen and\nimpenitent as to justify the opinion that he was oppressed with a kind\nof melancholy frenzy, the consequence perhaps of remorse, but such as\nurged him not to repent, but to despair. It seems probable that he was\nburnt alive. His sister, with whom he was supposed to have had an\nincestuous connexion, was condemned also to death, leaving a stronger\nand more explicit testimony of their mutual sins than could be extracted\nfrom the Major. She gave, as usual, some account of her connexion with\nthe queen of the fairies, and acknowledged the assistance she received\nfrom that sovereign in spinning an unusual quantity of yam. Of her\nbrother she said that one day a friend called upon them at noonday with\na fiery chariot, and invited them to visit a friend at Dalkeith, and\nthat while there her brother received information of the event of the\nbattle of Worcester. No one saw the style of their equipage except\nthemselves. On the scaffold this woman, determining, as she said, to die\n\"with the greatest shame possible,\" was with difficulty prevented from\nthrowing off her clothes before the people, and with scarce less trouble\nwas she flung from the ladder by the executioner. Her last words were in\nthe tone of the sect to which her brother had so long affected to\nbelong: \"Many,\" she said, \"weep and lament for a poor old wretch like\nme; but alas! few are weeping for a broken Covenant.\"\n\nThe Scottish prelatists, upon whom the Covenanters used to throw many\naspersions respecting their receiving proof against shot from the devil,\nand other infernal practices, rejoiced to have an opportunity, in their\nturn, to retort on their adversaries the charge of sorcery. Dr. Hickes,\nthe author of \"Thesaurus Septentrionalis,\" published on the subject of\nMajor Weir, and the case of Mitchell, who fired at the Archbishop of St.\nAndrews his book called \"Ravaillac Redivivus,\" written with the unjust\npurpose of attaching to the religious sect to which the wizard and\nassassin belonged the charge of having fostered and encouraged the\ncrimes they committed or attempted.\n\nIt is certain that no story of witchcraft or necromancy, so many of\nwhich occurred near and in Edinburgh, made such a lasting impression on\nthe public mind as that of Major Weir. The remains of the house in which\nhe and his sister lived are still shown at the head of the West Bow,\nwhich has a gloomy aspect, well suited for a necromancer. It was at\ndifferent times a brazier's shop and a magazine for lint, and in my\nyounger days was employed for the latter use; but no family would\ninhabit the haunted walls as a residence; and bold was the urchin from\nthe High School who dared approach the gloomy ruin at the risk of seeing\nthe Major's enchanted staff parading through the old apartments, or\nhearing the hum of the necromantic wheel, which procured for his sister\nsuch a character as a spinner. At the time I am writing this last\nfortress of superstitious renown is in the course of being destroyed, in\norder to the modern improvements now carrying on in a quarter long\nthought unimprovable.\n\nAs knowledge and learning began to increase, the gentlemen and clergy of\nScotland became ashamed of the credulity of their ancestors, and witch\ntrials, although not discontinued, more seldom disgrace our records of\ncriminal jurisprudence.\n\nSir John Clerk, a scholar and an antiquary, the grandfather of the late\ncelebrated John Clerk of Eldin, had the honour to be amongst the first\nto decline acting as a commissioner on the trial of a witch, to which he\nwas appointed so early as 1678,[81] alleging, drily, that he did not\nfeel himself warlock (that is, conjurer) sufficient to be a judge upon\nsuch an inquisition. Allan Ramsay, his friend, and who must be supposed\nto speak the sense of his many respectable patrons, had delivered his\nopinion on the subject in the \"Gentle Shepherd,\" where Mause's imaginary\nwitchcraft constitutes the machinery of the poem.\n\n[Footnote 81: See Fountainhall's \"Decisions,\" vol. i. p. 15.]\n\nYet these dawnings of sense and humanity were obscured by the clouds of\nthe ancient superstition on more than one distinguished occasion. In\n1676, Sir George Maxwell, of Pollock, apparently a man of melancholic\nand valetudinary habits, believed himself bewitched to death by six\nwitches, one man and five women, who were leagued for the purpose of\ntormenting a clay image in his likeness. The chief evidence on the\nsubject was a vagabond girl, pretending to be deaf and dumb. But as her\nimposture was afterwards discovered and herself punished, it is\nreasonably to be concluded that she had herself formed the picture or\nimage of Sir George, and had hid it where it was afterwards found in\nconsequence of her own information. In the meantime, five of the accused\nwere executed, and the sixth only escaped on account of extreme youth.\n\nA still more remarkable case occurred at Paisley in 1697, where a young\ngirl, about eleven years of age, daughter of John Shaw, of Bargarran,\nwas the principal evidence. This unlucky damsel, beginning her practices\nout of a quarrel with a maid-servant, continued to imitate a case of\npossession so accurately that no less than twenty persons were condemned\nupon her evidence, of whom five were executed, besides one John Reed,\nwho hanged himself in prison, or, as was charitably said, was strangled\nby the devil in person, lest he should make disclosures to the detriment\nof the service. But even those who believed in witchcraft were now\nbeginning to open their eyes to the dangers in the present mode of\nprosecution. \"I own,\" says the Rev. Mr. Bell in his MS. \"Treatise on\nWitchcraft,\" \"there has been much harm done to worthy and innocent\npersons in the common way of finding out witches, and in the means made\nuse of for promoting the discovery of such wretches and bringing them to\njustice; so that oftentimes old age, poverty, features, and ill-fame,\nwith such like grounds not worthy to be represented to a magistrate,\nhave yet moved many to suspect and defame their neighbours, to the\nunspeakable prejudice of Christian charity; a late instance whereof we\nhad in the west, in the business of the sorceries exercised upon the\nLaird of Bargarran's daughter, anno 1697--a time when persons of more\ngoodness and esteem than most of their calumniators were defamed for\nwitches, and which was occasioned mostly by the forwardness and absurd\ncredulity of diverse otherwise worthy ministers of the gospel, and some\ntopping professors in and about the city of Glasgow.\"[82]\n\n[Footnote 82: Law's \"Memorialls,\" edited by C.K. Sliarpe, Esq.:\nPrefatory Notice, p. 93.]\n\nThose who doubted of the sense of the law or reasonableness of the\npractice in such cases, began to take courage and state their objections\nboldly. In the year 1704 a frightful instance of popular bigotry\noccurred at Pittenweem. A strolling vagabond, who affected fits, laid an\naccusation of witchcraft against two women, who were accordingly seized\non, and imprisoned with the usual severities. One of the unhappy\ncreatures, Janet Cornfoot by name, escaped from prison, but was\nunhappily caught, and brought back to Pittenweem, where she fell into\nthe hands of a ferocious mob, consisting of rude seamen and fishers. The\nmagistrates made no attempts for her rescue, and the crowd exercised\ntheir brutal pleasure on the poor old woman, pelted her with stones,\nswung her suspended on a rope betwixt a ship and the shore, and finally\nended her miserable existence by throwing a door over her as she lay\nexhausted on the beach, and heaping stones upon it till she was pressed\nto death. As even the existing laws against witchcraft were transgressed\nby this brutal riot, a warm attack was made upon the magistrates and\nministers of the town by those who were shocked at a tragedy of such a\nhorrible cast, There were answers published, in which the parties\nassailed were zealously defended. The superior authorities were expected\nto take up the affair, but it so happened; during the general\ndistraction of the country concerning the Union, that the murder went\nwithout the investigation which a crime so horrid demanded. Still,\nhowever, it was something gained that the cruelty was exposed to the\npublic. The voice of general opinion was now appealed to, and in the\nlong run the sentiments which it advocates are commonly those of good\nsense and humanity.\n\nThe officers in the higher branches of the law dared now assert their\nofficial authority and reserve for their own decision cases of supposed\nwitchcraft which the fear of public clamour had induced them formerly to\nleave in the hands of inferior judges, operated upon by all the\nprejudices of the country and the populace.\n\nIn 1718, the celebrated lawyer, Robert Dundas of Arniston, then King's\nAdvocate, wrote a severe letter of censure to the Sheriff-depute of\nCaithness, in the first place, as having neglected to communicate\nofficially certain precognitions which he had led respecting some recent\npractices of witchcraft in his county. The Advocate reminded this local\njudge that the duty of inferior magistrates, in such cases, was to\nadvise with the King's Counsel, first, whether they should be made\nsubject of a trial or not; and if so, before what court, and in what\nmanner, it should take place. He also called the magistrate's attention\nto a report, that he, the Sheriff-depute, intended to judge in the case\nhimself; \"a thing of too great difficulty to be tried without very\ndeliberate advice, and beyond the jurisdiction of an inferior court.\"\nThe Sheriff-depute sends, with his apology, the _precognition_[83] of\nthe affair, which is one of the most nonsensical in this nonsensical\ndepartment of the law. A certain carpenter, named William Montgomery,\nwas so infested with cats, which, as his servant-maid reported, \"spoke\namong themselves,\" that he fell in a rage upon a party of these animals\nwhich had assembled in his house at irregular hours, and betwixt his\nHighland arms of knife, dirk, and broadsword, and his professional\nweapon of an axe, he made such a dispersion that they were quiet for the\nnight. In consequence of his blows, two witches were said to have died.\nThe case of a third, named Nin-Gilbert, was still more remarkable. Her\nleg being broken, the injured limb withered, pined, and finally fell\noff; on which the hag was enclosed in prison, where she also died; and\nthe question which remained was, whether any process should be directed\nagainst persons whom, in her compelled confession, she had, as usual,\ninformed against. The Lord Advocate, as may be supposed, quashed all\nfurther procedure.\n\n[Footnote 83: The _precognition_ is the record of the preliminary\nevidence on which the public officers charged in Scotland with duties\nentrusted to a grand jury in England, incur the responsibility of\nsending an accused person to trial.]\n\nIn 1720, an unlucky boy, the third son of James, Lord Torphichen, took\nit into his head, under instructions, it is said, from a knavish\ngovernor, to play the possessed and bewitched person, laying the cause\nof his distress on certain old witches in Calder, near to which village\nhis father had his mansion. The women were imprisoned, and one or two of\nthem died; but the Crown counsel would not proceed to trial. The noble\nfamily also began to see through the cheat. The boy was sent to sea, and\nthough he is said at one time to have been disposed to try his fits\nwhile on board, when the discipline of the navy proved too severe for\nhis cunning, in process of time he became a good sailor, assisted\ngallantly in defence of the vessel against the pirates of Angria, and\nfinally was drowned in a storm.\n\nIn the year 1722, a Sheriff-depute of Sutherland, Captain David Ross of\nLittledean, took it upon him, in flagrant violation of the then\nestablished rules of jurisdiction, to pronounce the last sentence of\ndeath for witchcraft which was ever passed in Scotland. The victim was\nan insane old woman belonging to the parish of Loth, who had so little\nidea of her situation as to rejoice at the sight of the fire which was\ndestined to consume her. She had a daughter lame both of hands and feet,\na circumstance attributed to the witch's having been used to transform\nher into a pony, and get her shod by the devil. It does not appear that\nany punishment was inflicted for this cruel abuse of the law on the\nperson of a creature so helpless; but the son of the lame daughter, he\nhimself distinguished by the same misfortune, was living so lately as to\nreceive the charity of the present Marchioness of Stafford, Countess of\nSutherland in her own right, to whom the poor of her extensive country\nare as well known as those of the higher order.\n\nSince this deplorable action there has been no judicial interference in\nScotland on account of witchcraft, unless to prevent explosions of\npopular enmity against people suspected of such a crime, of which some\ninstances could be produced. The remains of the superstition sometimes\noccur; there can be no doubt that the vulgar are still addicted to the\ncustom of scoring above the breath[84] (as it is termed), and other\ncounter-spells, evincing that the belief in witchcraft is only asleep,\nand might in remote corners be again awakened to deeds of blood. An\ninstance or two may be quoted chiefly as facts known to the author\nhimself.\n\n[Footnote 84: Drawing blood, that is, by two cuts in the form of a cross\non the witch's forehead, confided in all throughout Scotland as the most\npowerful counter charm.]\n\nIn a remote part of the Highlands, an ignorant and malignant woman seems\nreally to have meditated the destruction of her neighbour's property, by\nplacing in a cow-house, or byre as we call it, a pot of baked clay\ncontaining locks of hair, parings of nails, and other trumpery. This\nprecious spell was discovered, the design conjectured, and the witch\nwould have been torn to pieces had not a high-spirited and excellent\nlady in the neighbourhood gathered some of her people (though these were\nnot very fond of the service), and by main force taken the unfortunate\ncreature out of the hands of the populace. The formidable spell is now\nin my possession.\n\nAbout two years since, as they were taking down the walls of a building\nformerly used as a feeding-house for cattle, in the town of Dalkeith,\nthere was found below the threshold-stone the withered heart of some\nanimal stuck full of many scores of pins--a counter-charm, according to\ntradition, against the operations of witchcraft on the cattle which are\nkept within. Among the almost innumerable droves of bullocks which come\ndown every year from the Highlands for the south, there is scarce one\nbut has a curious knot upon his tail, which is also a precaution lest an\nevil eye or an evil spell may do the animal harm.\n\nThe last Scottish story with which I will trouble you happened in or\nshortly after the year 1800, and the whole circumstances are well known\nto me. The dearth of the years in the end of the eighteenth and\nbeginning of this century was inconvenient to all, but distressing to\nthe poor. A solitary old woman, in a wild and lonely district, subsisted\nchiefly by rearing chickens, an operation requiring so much care and\nattention that the gentry, and even the farmers' wives, often find it\nbetter to buy poultry at a certain age than to undertake the trouble of\nbringing them up. As the old woman in the present instance fought her\nway through life better than her neighbours, envy stigmatized her as\nhaving some unlawful mode of increasing the gains of her little trade,\nand apparently she did not take much alarm at the accusation. But she\nfelt, like others, the dearth of the years alluded to, and chiefly\nbecause the farmers were unwilling to sell grain in the very moderate\nquantities which she was able to purchase, and without which her little\nstock of poultry must have been inevitably starved. In distress on this\naccount, the dame went to a neighbouring farmer, a very good-natured,\nsensible, honest man, and requested him as a favour to sell her a peck\nof oats at any price. \"Good neighbour,\" he said, \"I am sorry to be\nobliged to refuse you, but my corn is measured out for Dalkeith market;\nmy carts are loaded to set out, and to open these sacks again, and for\nso small a quantity, would cast my accounts loose, and create much\ntrouble and disadvantage; I dare say you will get all you want at such a\nplace, or such a place.\" On receiving this answer, the old woman's\ntemper gave way. She scolded the wealthy farmer, and wished evil to his\nproperty, which was just setting off for the market. They parted, after\nsome angry language on both sides; and sure enough, as the carts crossed\nthe ford of the river beneath the farm-house, off came the wheel from\none of them, and five or six sacks of corn were damaged by the water.\nThe good farmer hardly knew what to think of this; there were the two\ncircumstances deemed of old essential and sufficient to the crime of\nwitchcraft--_Damnum minatum, et malum secutum_. Scarce knowing what to\nbelieve, he hastened to consult the sheriff of the county, as a friend\nrather than a magistrate, upon a case so extraordinary. The official\nperson showed him that the laws against witchcraft were abrogated, and\nhad little difficulty to bring him to regard the matter in its true\nlight of an accident.\n\nIt is strange, but true, that the accused herself was not to be\nreconciled to the sheriffs doctrine so easily. He reminded her that, if\nshe used her tongue with so much license, she must expose herself to\nsuspicions, and that should coincidences happen to irritate her\nneighbours, she, might suffer harm at a time when there was no one to\nprotect her. He therefore requested her to be more cautious in her\nlanguage for her own sake, professing, at the same time, his belief that\nher words and intentions were perfectly harmless, and that he had no\napprehension of being hurt by her, let her wish her worst to him. She\nwas rather more angry than pleased at the well-meaning sheriffs\nscepticism. \"I would be laith to wish ony ill either to you or yours,\nsir,\" she said; \"for I kenna how it is, but something aye comes after my\nwords when I am ill-guided and speak ower fast.\" In short, she was\nobstinate in claiming an influence over the destiny of others by words\nand wishes, which might have in other times conveyed her to the stake,\nfor which her expressions, their consequences, and her disposition to\ninsist upon their efficacy, would certainly of old have made her a fit\nvictim. At present the story is scarcely worth mentioning, but as it\ncontains material resembling those out of which many tragic incidents\nhave arisen.\n\nSo low, in short, is now the belief in witchcraft, that perhaps it is\nonly received by those half-crazy individuals who feel a species of\nconsequence derived from accidental coincidences, which, were they\nreceived by the community in general, would go near, as on former\noccasions, to cost the lives of those who make their boast of them. At\nleast one hypochondriac patient is known to the author, who believes\nhimself the victim of a gang of witches, and ascribes his illness to\ntheir charms, so that he wants nothing but an indulgent judge to awake\nagain the old ideas of sorcery.\n\n\n\n\nLETTER X.\n\n    Other Mystic Arts independent of Witchcraft--Astrology--Its\n    Influence during the 16th and 17th Centuries--Base Ignorance of\n    those who practised it--Lilly's History of his Life and\n    Times--Astrologer's Society--Dr. Lamb--Dr. Forman--Establishment of\n    the Royal Society--Partridge--Connexion of Astrologers with\n    Elementary Spirits--Dr. Dun--Irish Superstition of the\n    Banshie--Similar Superstition in the\n    Highlands--Brownie--Ghosts--Belief of Ancient Philosophers on that\n    Subject--Inquiry into the respect due to such Tales in Modern\n    Times--Evidence of a Ghost against a Murderer--Ghost of Sir George\n    Villiers--Story of Earl St. Vincent--Of a British General\n    Officer--Of an Apparition in France--Of the Second Lord\n    Lyttelton--Of Bill Jones--Of Jarvis Matcham--Trial of two\n    Highlanders for the Murder of Sergeant Davis, discovered by a\n    Ghost--Disturbances at Woodstock, anno 1649--Imposture called the\n    Stockwell Ghost--Similar Case in Scotland--Ghost appearing to an\n    Exciseman--Story of a Disturbed House discovered by the firmness of\n    the Proprietor--Apparition at Plymouth--A Club of\n    Philosophers--Ghost Adventure of a Farmer--Trick upon a Veteran\n    Soldier--Ghost Stories recommended by the Skill of the Authors who\n    compose them--Mrs. Veal's Ghost--Dunton's Apparition\n    Evidence--Effect of Appropriate Scenery to Encourage a Tendency to\n    Superstition--Differs at distant Periods of Life--Night at Glammis\n    Castle about 1791--Visit to Dunvegan in 1814.\n\n\nWhile the vulgar endeavoured to obtain a glance into the darkness of\nfuturity by consulting the witch or fortune-teller, the great were\nsupposed to have a royal path of their own, commanding a view from a\nloftier quarter of the same _terra incognita_. This was represented as\naccessible by several routes. Physiognomy, chiromancy, and other\nfantastic arts of prediction afforded each its mystical assistance and\nguidance. But the road most flattering to human vanity, while it was at\nthe same time most seductive to human credulity, was that of astrology,\nthe queen of mystic sciences, who flattered those who confided in her\nthat the planets and stars in their spheres figure forth and influence\nthe fate of the creatures of mortality, and that a sage acquainted with\nher lore could predict, with some approach to certainty, the events of\nany man's career, his chance of success in life or in marriage, his\nadvance in favour of the great, or answer any other horary questions, as\nthey were termed, which he might be anxious to propound, provided always\nhe could supply the exact moment of his birth. This, in the sixteenth\nand greater part of the seventeenth centuries, was all that was\nnecessary to enable the astrologer to erect a scheme of the position of\nthe heavenly bodies, which should disclose the life of the interrogator,\nor Native, as he was called, with all its changes, past, present, and to\ncome.\n\nImagination was dazzled by a prospect so splendid; and we find that in\nthe sixteenth century the cultivation of this fantastic science was the\nserious object of men whose understandings and acquirements admit of no\nquestion. Bacon himself allowed the truth which might be found in a\nwell-regulated astrology, making thus a distinction betwixt the art as\ncommonly practised and the manner in which it might, as he conceived, be\nmade a proper use of. But a grave or sober use of this science, if even\nBacon could have taught such moderation, would not have suited the\ntemper of those who, inflamed by hopes of temporal aggrandizement,\npretended to understand and explain to others the language of the stars.\nAlmost all the other paths of mystic knowledge led to poverty; even the\nalchemist, though talking loud and high of the endless treasures his art\nwas to produce, lived from day to day and from year to year upon hopes\nas unsubstantial as the smoke of his furnace. But the pursuits of the\nastrologer were such as called for instant remuneration. He became rich\nby the eager hopes and fond credulity of those who consulted him, and\nthat artist lived by duping others, instead of starving, like others, by\nduping himself. The wisest men have been cheated by the idea that some\nsupernatural influence upheld and guided them; and from the time of\nWallenstein to that of Buonaparte, ambition and success have placed\nconfidence in the species of fatalism inspired by a belief of the\ninfluence of their own star. Such being the case, the science was little\npursued by those who, faithful in their remarks and reports, must soon\nhave discovered its delusive vanity through the splendour of its\nprofessions; and the place of such calm and disinterested pursuers of\ntruth was occupied by a set of men sometimes ingenious, always forward\nand assuming, whose knowledge was imposition, whose responses were, like\nthe oracles of yore, grounded on the desire of deceit, and who, if\nsometimes they were elevated into rank and fortune, were more frequently\nfound classed with rogues and vagabonds. This was the more apt to be the\ncase that a sufficient stock of impudence, and some knowledge by rote of\nthe terms of art, were all the store of information necessary for\nestablishing a conjurer. The natural consequence of the degraded\ncharacter of the professors was the degradation of the art itself.\nLilly, who wrote the history of his own life and times, notices in that\ncurious volume the most distinguished persons of his day, who made\npretensions to astrology, and almost without exception describes them as\nprofligate, worthless, sharking cheats, abandoned to vice, and imposing,\nby the grossest frauds, upon the silly fools who consulted them. From\nwhat we learn of his own history, Lilly himself, a low-born ignorant\nman, with some gloomy shades of fanaticism in his temperament, was\nsufficiently fitted to dupe others, and perhaps cheated himself merely\nby perusing, at an advanced period of life, some of the astrological\ntracts devised by men of less cunning, though perhaps more pretence to\nscience, than he himself might boast. Yet the public still continue to\nswallow these gross impositions, though coming from such unworthy\nauthority. The astrologers embraced different sides of the Civil War,\nand the king on one side, with the Parliamentary leaders on the other,\nwere both equally curious to know, and eager to believe, what Lilly,\nWharton, or Gadbury had discovered from the heavens touching the fortune\nof the strife. Lilly was a prudent person, contriving with some address\nto shift the sails of his prophetic bark so as to suit the current of\nthe time, and the gale of fortune. No person could better discover from\nvarious omens the course of Charles's misfortunes, so soon as they had\ncome to pass. In the time of the Commonwealth he foresaw the perpetual\ndestruction of the monarchy, and in 1660 this did not prevent his\nforeseeing the restoration of Charles II. He maintained some credit even\namong the better classes, for Aubrey and Ashmole both called themselves\nhis friends, being persons extremely credulous, doubtless, respecting\nthe mystic arts. Once a year, too, the astrologers had a public dinner\nor feast, where the knaves were patronised by the company of such fools\nas claimed the title of Philomaths--that is, lovers of the mathematics,\nby which name were still distinguished those who encouraged the pursuit\nof mystical prescience, the most opposite possible to exact science.\nElias Ashmole, the \"most honourable Esquire,\" to whom Lilly's life is\ndedicated, seldom failed to attend; nay, several men of sense and\nknowledge honoured this rendezvous. Congreve's picture of a man like\nForesight, the dupe of astrology and its sister arts, was then common in\nsociety. But the astrologers of the 17th century did not confine\nthemselves to the stars. There was no province of fraud which they did\nnot practise; they were scandalous as panders, and as quacks sold\npotions for the most unworthy purposes. For such reasons the common\npeople detested the astrologers of the great as cordially as they did\nthe more vulgar witches of their own sphere.\n\nDr. Lamb, patronised by the Duke of Buckingham, who, like other\novergrown favourites, was inclined to cherish astrology, was in 1640\npulled to pieces in the city of London by the enraged populace, and his\nmaid-servant, thirteen years afterwards, hanged as a witch at Salisbury.\nIn the villanous transaction of the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, in\nKing James's time, much mention was made of the art and skill of Dr.\nForman, another professor of the same sort with Lamb, who was consulted\nby the Countess of Essex on the best mode of conducting her guilty\nintrigue with the Earl of Somerset. He was dead before the affair broke\nout, which might otherwise have cost him the gibbet, as it did all\nothers concerned, with the exception only of the principal parties, the\natrocious authors of the crime. When the cause was tried, some little\npuppets were produced in court, which were viewed by one party with\nhorror, as representing the most horrid spells. It was even said that\nthe devil was about to pull down the court-house on their being\ndiscovered. Others of the audience only saw in them the baby figures on\nwhich the dressmakers then, as now, were accustomed to expose new\nfashions.\n\nThe erection of the Royal Society, dedicated to far different purposes\nthan the pursuits of astrology, had a natural operation in bringing the\nlatter into discredit; and although the credulity of the ignorant and\nuninformed continued to support some pretenders to that science, the\nname of Philomath, assumed by these persons and their clients, began to\nsink under ridicule and contempt. When Sir Richard Steele set up the\npaper called the _Guardian_, he chose, under the title of Nestor\nIronside, to assume the character of an astrologer, and issued\npredictions accordingly, one of which, announcing the death of a person\ncalled Partridge, once a shoemaker, but at the time the conductor of an\nAstrological Almanack, led to a controversy, which was supported with\ngreat humour by Swift and other wags. I believe you will find that this,\nwith Swift's Elegy on the same person, is one of the last occasions in\nwhich astrology has afforded even a jest to the good people of England.\n\nThis dishonoured science has some right to be mentioned in a \"Treatise\non Demonology,\" because the earlier astrologers, though denying the use\nof all necromancy--that is, unlawful or black magic--pretended always to\na correspondence with the various spirits of the elements, on the\nprinciples of the Rosicrucian philosophy. They affirmed they could bind\nto their service, and imprison in a ring, a mirror, or a stone, some\nfairy, sylph, or salamander, and compel it to appear when called, and\nrender answers to such questions as the viewer should propose. It is\nremarkable that the sage himself did not pretend to see the spirit; but\nthe task of viewer, or reader, was entrusted to a third party, a boy or\ngirl usually under the years of puberty. Dr. Dee, an excellent\nmathematician, had a stone of this kind, and is said to have been\nimposed upon concerning the spirits attached to it, their actions and\nanswers, by the report of one Kelly who acted as his viewer. The\nunfortunate Dee was ruined by his associates both in fortune and\nreputation. His show-stone or mirror is still preserved among other\ncuriosities in the British Museum. Some superstition of the same kind\nwas introduced by the celebrated Count Cagliostro, during the course of\nthe intrigue respecting the diamond necklace in which the late Marie\nAntoinette was so unfortunately implicated.\n\nDismissing this general class of impostors, who are now seldom heard of,\nwe come now briefly to mention some leading superstitions once, perhaps,\ncommon to all the countries of Europe, but now restricted to those which\ncontinue to be inhabited by an undisturbed and native race. Of these,\none of the most beautiful is the Irish fiction which assigns to certain\nfamilies of ancient descent and distinguished rank the privilege of a\nBanshie, as she is called, or household fairy, whose office it is to\nappear, seemingly mourning, while she announces the approaching death of\nsome one of the destined race. The subject has been so lately and\nbeautifully investigated and illustrated by Mr. Crofton Croker and\nothers, that I may dispense with being very particular regarding it. If\nI am rightly informed, the distinction of a banshie is only allowed to\nfamilies of the pure Milesian stock, and is never ascribed to any\ndescendant of the proudest Norman or boldest Saxon who followed the\nbanner of Earl Strongbow, much less to adventurers of later date who\nhave obtained settlements in the Green Isle.\n\nSeveral families of the Highlands of Scotland anciently laid claim to\nthe distinction of an attendant spirit who performed the office of the\nIrish banshie. Amongst them, however, the functions of this attendant\ngenius, whose form and appearance differed in different cases, were not\nlimited to announcing the dissolution of those whose days were numbered.\nThe Highlanders contrived to exact from them other points of service,\nsometimes as warding off dangers of battle; at others, as guarding and\nprotecting the infant heir through the dangers of childhood; and\nsometimes as condescending to interfere even in the sports of the\nchieftain, and point out the fittest move to be made at chess, or the\nbest card to be played at any other game. Among those spirits who have\ndeigned to vouch their existence by appearance of late years, is that of\nan ancestor of the family of MacLean of Lochbuy. Before the death of any\nof his race the phantom-chief gallops along the sea-beach near to the\ncastle, announcing the event by cries and lamentations. The spectre is\nsaid to have rode his rounds and uttered his death-cries within these\nfew years, in consequence of which the family and clan, though much\nshocked, were in no way surprised to hear by next accounts that their\ngallant chief was dead at Lisbon, where he served under Lord Wellington.\n\nOf a meaner origin and occupation was the Scottish Brownie, already\nmentioned as somewhat resembling Robin Goodfellow in the frolicsome days\nof Old England. This spirit was easily banished, or, as it was styled,\nhired away, by the offer of clothes or food; but many of the simple\ninhabitants could little see the prudence of parting with such a useful\ndomestic drudge, who served faithfully, without fee and reward, food or\nraiment. Neither was it all times safe to reject Brownie's assistance.\nThus, we are informed by Brand, that a young man in the Orkneys \"used to\nbrew, and sometimes read upon his Bible; to whom an old woman in the\nhouse said, that Brownie was displeased with that book he read upon,\nwhich, if he continued to do, they would get no more service of Brownie;\nbut he, being better instructed from that book, which was Brownie's\neyesore and the object of his wrath, when he brewed, would not suffer\nany sacrifice to be given to Brownie; whereupon the first and second\nbrewings were spoilt, and for no use; for though the wort wrought well,\nyet in a little time it left off working, and grew cold; but of the\nthird broust, or brewing, he had ale very good, though he would not give\nany sacrifice to Brownie, with whom afterwards they were no more\ntroubled.\" Another story of the same kind is told of a lady in Uist, who\nrefused, on religious grounds, the usual sacrifice to this domestic\nspirit. The first and second brewings failed, but the third succeeded;\nand thus, when Brownie lost the perquisite to which he had been so long\naccustomed, he abandoned the inhospitable house, where his services had\nso long been faithfully rendered. The last place in the south of\nScotland supposed to have been honoured, or benefited, by the residence\nof a Brownie, was Bodsbeck in Moffatdale, which has been the subject of\nan entertaining tale by Mr. James Hogg, the self-instructed genius of\nEttrick Forest.\n\nThese particular superstitions, however, are too limited, and too much\nobliterated from recollection, to call for special discussion. The\ngeneral faith in fairies has already undergone our consideration; but\nsomething remains to be said upon another species of superstition, so\ngeneral that it may be called proper to mankind in every climate; so\ndeeply rooted also in human belief, that it is found to survive in\nstates of society during which all other fictions of the same order are\nentirely dismissed from influence. Mr. Crabbe, with his usual felicity,\nhas called the belief in ghosts \"the last lingering fiction of the\nbrain.\"\n\nNothing appears more simple at the first view of the subject, than that\nhuman memory should recall and bring back to the eye of the imagination,\nin perfect similitude, even the very form and features of a person with\nwhom we have been long conversant, or which have been imprinted in our\nminds with indelible strength by some striking circumstances touching\nour meeting in life. The son does not easily forget the aspect of an\naffectionate father; and, for reasons opposite but equally powerful, the\ncountenance of a murdered person is engraved upon the recollection of\nhis slayer. A thousand additional circumstances, far too obvious to\nrequire recapitulation, render the supposed apparition of the dead the\nmost ordinary spectral phenomenon which is ever believed to occur among\nthe living. All that we have formerly said respecting supernatural\nappearances in general, applies with peculiar force to the belief of\nghosts; for whether the cause of delusion exists in an excited\nimagination or a disordered organic system, it is in this way that it\ncommonly exhibits itself. Hence Lucretius himself, the most absolute of\nsceptics, considers the existence of ghosts, and their frequent\napparition, as facts so undeniable that he endeavours to account for\nthem at the expense of assenting to a class of phenomena very\nirreconcilable to his general system. As he will not allow of the\nexistence of the human soul, and at the same time cannot venture to\nquestion the phenomena supposed to haunt the repositories of the dead,\nhe is obliged to adopt the belief that the body consists of several\ncoats like those of an onion, and that the outmost and thinnest, being\ndetached by death, continues to wander near the place of sepulture, in\nthe exact resemblance of the person while alive.\n\nWe have said there are many ghost stories which we do not feel at\nliberty to challenge as impostures, because we are confident that those\nwho relate them on their own authority actually believe what they\nassert, and may have good reason for doing so, though there is no real\nphantom after all. We are far, therefore, from averring that such tales\nare necessarily false. It is easy to suppose the visionary has been\nimposed upon by a lively dream, a waking reverie, the excitation of a\npowerful imagination, or the misrepresentation of a diseased organ of\nsight; and in one or other of these causes, to say nothing of a system\nof deception which may in many instances be probable, we apprehend a\nsolution will be found for all cases of what are called real ghost\nstories.\n\nIn truth, the evidence with respect to such apparitions is very seldom\naccurately or distinctly questioned. A supernatural tale is in most\ncases received as an agreeable mode of amusing society, and he would be\nrather accounted a sturdy moralist than an entertaining companion who\nshould employ himself in assailing its credibility. It would indeed be a\nsolecism in manners, something like that of impeaching the genuine value\nof the antiquities exhibited by a good-natured collector for the\ngratification of his guests. This difficulty will appear greater should\na company have the rare good fortune to meet the person who himself\nwitnessed the wonders which he tells; a well-bred or prudent man will,\nunder such circumstances, abstain from using the rules of\ncross-examination practised in a court of justice; and if in any case he\npresumes to do so, he is in danger of receiving answers, even from the\nmost candid and honourable persons, which are rather fitted to support\nthe credit of the story which they stand committed to maintain, than to\nthe pure service of unadorned truth. The narrator is asked, for example,\nsome unimportant question with respect to the apparition; he answers it\non the hasty suggestion of his own imagination, tinged as it is with\nbelief of the general fact, and by doing so often gives a feature of\nminute evidence which was before wanting, and this with perfect\nunconsciousness on his own part. It is a rare occurrence, indeed, to\nfind an opportunity of dealing with an actual ghost-seer; such\ninstances, however, I have certainly myself met with, and that in the\ncase of able, wise, candid, and resolute persons, of whose veracity I\nhad every reason to be confident. But in such instances shades of mental\naberration have afterwards occurred, which sufficiently accounted for\nthe supposed apparitions, and will incline me always to feel alarmed in\nbehalf of the continued health of a friend who should conceive himself\nto have witnessed such a visitation.\n\nThe nearest approximation which can be generally made to exact evidence\nin this case, is the word of some individual who has had the story, it\nmay be, from the person to whom it has happened, but most likely from\nhis family, or some friend of the family. Far more commonly the narrator\npossesses no better means of knowledge than that of dwelling in the\ncountry where the thing happened, or being well acquainted with the\noutside of the mansion in the inside of which the ghost appeared.\n\nIn every point the evidence of such a second-hand retailer of the mystic\nstory must fall under the adjudged case in an English court. The judge\nstopped a witness who was about to give an account of the murder upon\ntrial, as it was narrated to him by the ghost of the murdered person.\n\"Hold, sir,\" said his lordship; \"the ghost is an excellent witness, and\nhis evidence the best possible; but he cannot be heard by proxy in this\ncourt. Summon him hither, and I'll hear him in person; but your\ncommunication is mere hearsay, which my office compels me to reject.\"\nYet it is upon the credit of one man, who pledges it upon that of three\nor four persons, who have told it successively to each other, that we\nare often expected to believe an incident inconsistent with the laws of\nNature, however agreeable to our love of the wonderful and the horrible.\n\nIn estimating the truth or falsehood of such stories it is evident we\ncan derive no proofs from that period of society when men affirmed\nboldly, and believed stoutly, all the wonders which could be coined or\nfancied. That such stories are believed and told by grave historians,\nonly shows that the wisest men cannot rise in all things above the\ngeneral ignorance of their age. Upon the evidence of such historians we\nmight as well believe the portents of ancient or the miracles of modern\nRome. For example, we read in Clarendon of the apparition of the ghost\nof Sir George Villiers to an ancient dependant. This is no doubt a story\ntold by a grave author, at a time when such stories were believed by all\nthe world; but does it follow that our reason must acquiesce in a\nstatement so positively contradicted by the voice of Nature through all\nher works? The miracle of raising a dead man was positively refused by\nour Saviour to the Jews, who demanded it as a proof of his mission,\nbecause they had already sufficient grounds of conviction; and, as they\nbelieved them not, it was irresistibly argued by the Divine Person whom\nthey tempted, that neither would they believe if one arose from the\ndead. Shall we suppose that a miracle refused for the conversion of\nGod's chosen people was sent on a vain errand to save the life of a\nprofligate spendthrift? I lay aside, you observe, entirely the not\nunreasonable supposition that Towers, or whatever was the ghost-seer's\nname, desirous to make an impression upon Buckingham, as an old servant\nof his house, might be tempted to give him his advice, of which we are\nnot told the import, in the character of his father's spirit, and\nauthenticate the tale by the mention of some token known to him as a\nformer retainer of the family. The Duke was superstitious, and the ready\ndupe of astrologers and soothsayers. The manner in which he had provoked\nthe fury of the people must have warned every reflecting person of his\napproaching fate; and, the age considered, it was not unnatural that a\nfaithful friend should take this mode of calling his attention to his\nperilous situation. Or, if we suppose that the incident was not a mere\npretext to obtain access to the Duke's ear, the messenger may have been\nimpressed upon by an idle dream--in a word, numberless conjectures might\nbe formed for accounting for the event in a natural way, the most\nextravagant of which is more probable than that the laws of Nature were\nbroken through in order to give a vain and fruitless warning to an\nambitious minion.\n\nIt is the same with all those that are called accredited ghost stories\nusually told at the fireside. They want evidence. It is true that the\ngeneral wish to believe, rather than power of believing, has given some\nsuch stories a certain currency in society. I may mention, as one of the\nclass of tales I mean, that of the late Earl St. Vincent, who watched,\nwith a friend, it is said, a whole night, in order to detect the cause\nof certain nocturnal disturbances which took place in a certain mansion.\nThe house was under lease to Mrs. Ricketts, his sister. The result of\nhis lordship's vigil is said to have been that he heard the noises\nwithout being able to detect the causes, and insisted on his sister\ngiving up the house. This is told as a real story, with a thousand\ndifferent circumstances. But who has heard or seen an authentic account\nfrom Earl St. Vincent, or from his \"companion of the watch,\" or from his\nlordship's sister? And as in any other case such sure species of direct\nevidence would be necessary to prove the facts, it seems unreasonable to\nbelieve such a story on slighter terms. When the particulars are\nprecisely fixed and known, it might be time to enquire whether Lord St.\nVincent, amid the other eminent qualities of a first-rate seaman, might\nnot be in some degree tinged with their tendency to superstition; and\nstill farther, whether, having ascertained the existence of disturbances\nnot immediately or easily detected, his lordship might not advise his\nsister rather to remove than to remain in a house so haunted, though he\nmight believe that poachers or smugglers were the worst ghosts by whom\nit was disturbed.\n\nThe story of two highly respectable officers in the British army, who\nare supposed to have seen the spectre of the brother of one of them in a\nhut, or barrack, in America, is also one of those accredited ghost\ntales, which attain a sort of brevet rank as true, from the mention of\nrespectable names as the parties who witnessed the vision. But we are\nleft without a glimpse when, how, and in what terms, this story obtained\nits currency; as also by whom, and in what manner, it was first\ncirculated; and among the numbers by whom it has been quoted, although\nall agree in the general event, scarcely two, even of those who pretend\nto the best information, tell the story in the same way.\n\nAnother such story, in which the name of a lady of condition is made use\nof as having seen an apparition in a country-seat in France, is so far\nbetter borne out than those I have mentioned, that I have seen a\nnarrative of the circumstances attested by the party principally\nconcerned. That the house was disturbed seems to be certain, but the\ncircumstances (though very remarkable) did not, in my mind, by any means\nexclude the probability that the disturbance and appearances were\noccasioned by the dexterous management of some mischievously-disposed\npersons.\n\nThe remarkable circumstance of Thomas, the second Lord Lyttelton,\nprophesying his own death within a few minutes, upon the information of\nan apparition, has been always quoted as a true story. But of late it\nhas been said and published, that the unfortunate nobleman had\npreviously determined to take poison, and of course had it in his own\npower to ascertain the execution of the prediction. It was no doubt\nsingular that a man, who meditated his exit from the world, should have\nchosen to play such a trick on his friends. But it is still more\ncredible that a whimsical man should do so wild a thing, than that a\nmessenger should be sent from the dead to tell a libertine at what\nprecise hour he should expire.\n\nTo this list other stories of the same class might be added. But it is\nsufficient to show that such stories as these, having gained a certain\ndegree of currency in the world, and bearing creditable names on their\nfront, walk through society unchallenged, like bills through a bank when\nthey bear respectable indorsations, although, it may be, the signatures\nare forged after all. There is, indeed, an unwillingness very closely to\nexamine such subjects, for the secret fund of superstition in every\nman's bosom is gratified by believing them to be true, or at least\ninduces him to abstain from challenging them as false. And no doubt it\nmust happen that the transpiring of incidents, in which men have\nactually seen, or conceived that they saw, apparitions which were\ninvisible to others, contributes to the increase of such stories--which\ndo accordingly sometimes meet us in a shape of veracity difficult to\nquestion.\n\nThe following story was narrated to me by my friend, Mr. William Clerk,\nchief clerk to the Jury Court, Edinburgh, when he first learned it, now\nnearly thirty years ago, from a passenger in the mail-coach. With Mr.\nClerk's consent, I gave the story at that time to poor Mat Lewis, who\npublished it with a ghost-ballad which he adjusted on the same theme.\nFrom the minuteness of the original detail, however, the narrative is\nbetter calculated for prose than verse; and more especially as the\nfriend to whom it was originally communicated is one of the most\naccurate, intelligent, and acute persons whom I have known in the course\nof my life, I am willing to preserve the precise story in this place.\n\nIt was about the eventful year 1800, when the Emperor Paul laid his\nill-judged embargo on British trade, that my friend Mr. William Clerk,\non a journey to London, found himself in company, in the mail-coach,\nwith a seafaring man of middle age and respectable appearance, who\nannounced himself as master of a vessel in the Baltic trade, and a\nsufferer by the embargo. In the course of the desultory conversation\nwhich takes place on such occasions the seaman observed, in compliance\nwith a common superstition, \"I wish we may have good luck on our\njourney--there is a magpie.\" \"And why should that be unlucky?\" said my\nfriend. \"I cannot tell you that,\" replied the sailor; \"but all the world\nagrees that one magpie bodes bad luck--two are not so bad, but three are\nthe devil. I never saw three magpies but twice, and once I had near lost\nmy vessel, and the second I fell from a horse, and was hurt.\" This\nconversation led Mr. Clerk to observe that he supposed he believed also\nin ghosts, since he credited such auguries. \"And if I do,\" said the\nsailor, \"I may have my own reasons for doing so;\" and he spoke this in a\ndeep and serious manner, implying that he felt deeply what he was\nsaying. On being further urged, he confessed that, if he could believe\nhis own eyes, there was one ghost at least which he had seen repeatedly.\nHe then told his story as I now relate it.\n\nOur mariner had in his youth gone mate of a slave vessel from Liverpool,\nof which town he seemed to be a native. The captain of the vessel was a\nman of a variable temper, sometimes kind and courteous to his men, but\nsubject to fits of humour, dislike, and passion, during which he was\nvery violent, tyrannical, and cruel. He took a particular dislike at one\nsailor aboard, an elderly man, called Bill Jones, or some such name. He\nseldom spoke to this person without threats and abuse, which the old\nman, with the license which sailors take on merchant vessels, was very\napt to return. On one occasion Bill Jones appeared slow in getting out\non the yard to hand a sail. The captain, according to custom, abused the\nseaman as a lubberly rascal, who got fat by leaving his duty to other\npeople. The man made a saucy answer, almost amounting to mutiny, on\nwhich, in a towering passion, the captain ran down to his cabin, and\nreturned with a blunderbuss loaded with slugs, with which he took\ndeliberate aim at the supposed mutineer, fired, and mortally wounded\nhim. The man was handed down from the yard, and stretched on the deck,\nevidently dying. He fixed his eyes on the captain, and said, \"Sir, you\nhave done for me, but _I will never leave you_\" The captain, in return,\nswore at him for a fat lubber, and said he would have him thrown into\nthe slave-kettle, where they made food for the negroes, and see how much\nfat he had got. The man died. His body was actually thrown into the\nslave-kettle, and the narrator observed, with a _na\u00efvet\u00e9_ which\nconfirmed the extent of his own belief in the truth of what he told,\n\"There was not much fat about him after all.\"\n\nThe captain told the crew they must keep absolute silence on the subject\nof what had passed; and as the mate was not willing to give an explicit\nand absolute promise, he ordered him to be confined below. After a day\nor two he came to the mate, and demanded if he had an intention to\ndeliver him up for trial when the vessel got home. The mate, who was\ntired of close confinement in that sultry climate, spoke his commander\nfair, and obtained his liberty. When he mingled among the crew once more\nhe found them impressed with the idea, not unnatural in their situation,\nthat the ghost of the dead man appeared among them when they had a spell\nof duty, especially if a sail was to be handed, on which occasion the\nspectre was sure to be out upon the yard before any of the crew. The\nnarrator had seen this apparition himself repeatedly--he believed the\ncaptain saw it also, but he took no notice of it for some time, and the\ncrew, terrified at the violent temper of the man, dared not call his\nattention to it. Thus they held on their course homeward with great fear\nand anxiety.\n\nAt length, the captain invited the mate, who was now in a sort of\nfavour, to go down to the cabin and take a glass of grog with him. In\nthis interview he assumed a very grave and anxious aspect. \"I need not\ntell you, Jack,\" he said, \"what sort of hand we have got on board with\nus. He told me he would never leave me, and he has kept his word. You\nonly see him now and then, but he is always by my side, and never out of\nmy sight. At this very moment I see him--I am determined to bear it no\nlonger, and I have resolved to leave you.\"\n\nThe mate replied that his leaving the vessel while out of the sight of\nany land was impossible. He advised, that if the captain apprehended any\nbad consequences from what had happened, he should run for the west of\nFrance or Ireland, and there go ashore, and leave him, the mate, to\ncarry the vessel into Liverpool. The captain only shook his head\ngloomily, and reiterated his determination to leave the ship. At this\nmoment the mate was called to the deck for some purpose or other, and\nthe instant he got up the companion-ladder he heard a splash in the\nwater, and looking over the ship's side, saw that the captain had thrown\nhimself into the sea from the quarter-gallery, and was running astern at\nthe rate of six knots an hour. When just about to sink he seemed to make\na last exertion, sprung half out of the water, and clasped his hands\ntowards the mate, calling, \"By----, Bill is with me now!\" and then sunk,\nto be seen no more.\n\nAfter hearing this singular story Mr. Clerk asked some questions about\nthe captain, and whether his companion considered him as at all times\nrational. The sailor seemed struck with the question, and answered,\nafter a moment's delay, that in general _he conversationed well enough_.\n\nIt would have been desirable to have been able to ascertain how far this\nextraordinary tale was founded on fact; but want of time and other\ncircumstances prevented Mr. Clerk from learning the names and dates,\nthat might to a certain degree have verified the events. Granting the\nmurder to have taken place, and the tale to have been truly told, there\nwas nothing more likely to arise among the ship's company than the\nbelief in the apparition; as the captain was a man of a passionate and\nirritable disposition, it was nowise improbable that he, the victim of\nremorse, should participate in the horrible visions of those less\nconcerned, especially as he was compelled to avoid communicating his\nsentiments with any one else; and the catastrophe would in such a case\nbe but the natural consequence of that superstitious remorse which has\nconducted so many criminals to suicide or the gallows. If the\nfellow-traveller of Mr. Clerk be not allowed this degree of credit, he\nmust at least be admitted to have displayed a singular talent for the\ncomposition of the horrible in fiction. The tale, properly detailed,\nmight have made the fortune of a romancer.\n\nI cannot forbear giving you, as congenial to this story, another\ninstance of a guilt-formed phantom, which made considerable noise about\ntwenty years ago or more. I am, I think, tolerably correct in the\ndetails, though I have lost the account of the trial. Jarvis\nMatcham--such, if I am not mistaken, was the name of my hero--was\npay-sergeant in a regiment, where he was so highly esteemed as a steady\nand accurate man that he was permitted opportunity to embezzle a\nconsiderable part of the money lodged in his hands for pay of soldiers,\nbounty of recruits (then a large sum), and other charges which fell\nwithin his duty. He was summoned to join his regiment from a town where\nhe had been on the recruiting service, and this perhaps under some shade\nof suspicion. Matcham perceived discovery was at hand, and would have\ndeserted had it not been for the presence of a little drummer lad, who\nwas the only one of his party appointed to attend him. In the\ndesperation of his crime he resolved to murder the poor boy, and avail\nhimself of some balance of money to make his escape. He meditated this\nwickedness the more readily that the drummer, he thought, had been put\nas a spy on him. He perpetrated his crime, and changing his dress after\nthe deed was done, made a long walk across the country to an inn on the\nPortsmouth road, where he halted and went to bed, desiring to be called\nwhen the first Portsmouth coach came. The waiter summoned him\naccordingly, but long after remembered that, when he shook the guest by\nthe shoulder, his first words as he awoke were: \"My God! I did not kill\nhim.\"\n\nMatcham went to the seaport by the coach, and instantly entered as an\nable-bodied landsman or marine, I know not which. His sobriety and\nattention to duty gained him the same good opinion of the officers in\nhis new service which he had enjoyed in the army. He was afloat for\nseveral years, and behaved remarkably well in some actions. At length\nthe vessel came into Plymouth, was paid off, and some of the crew,\namongst whom was Jarvis Matcham, were dismissed as too old for service.\nHe and another seaman resolved to walk to town, and took the route by\nSalisbury. It was when within two or three miles of this celebrated city\nthat they were overtaken by a tempest so sudden, and accompanied with\nsuch vivid lightning and thunder so dreadfully loud, that the obdurate\nconscience of the old sinner began to be awakened. He expressed more\nterror than seemed natural for one who was familiar with the war of\nelements, and began to look and talk so wildly that his companion became\naware that something more than usual was the matter. At length Matcham\ncomplained to his companion that the stones rose from the road and flew\nafter him. He desired the man to walk on the other side of the highway\nto see if they would follow him when he was alone. The sailor complied,\nand Jarvis Matcham complained that the stones still flew after him and\ndid not pursue the other. \"But what is worse,\" he added, coming up to\nhis companion, and whispering, with a tone of mystery and fear, \"who is\nthat little drummer-boy, and what business has he to follow us so\nclosely?\" \"I can see no one,\" answered the seaman, infected by the\nsuperstition of his associate. \"What! not see that little boy with the\nbloody pantaloons!\" exclaimed the secret murderer, so much to the terror\nof his comrade that he conjured him, if he had anything on his mind, to\nmake a clear conscience as far as confession could do it. The criminal\nfetched a deep groan, and declared that he was unable longer to endure\nthe life which he had led for years. He then confessed the murder of the\ndrummer, and added that, as a considerable reward had been offered, he\nwished his comrade to deliver him up to the magistrates of Salisbury, as\nhe would desire a shipmate to profit by his fate, which he was now\nconvinced was inevitable. Having overcome his friend's objections to\nthis mode of proceeding, Jarvis Matcham was surrendered to justice\naccordingly, and made a full confession of his guilt But before the\ntrial the love of life returned. The prisoner denied his confession, and\npleaded Not Guilty. By this time, however, full evidence had been\nprocured from other quarters. Witnesses appeared from his former\nregiment to prove his identity with the murderer and deserter, and the\nwaiter remembered the ominous words which he had spoken when he awoke\nhim to join the Portsmouth coach. Jarvis Matcham was found guilty and\nexecuted. When his last chance of life was over he returned to his\nconfession, and with his dying breath averred, and truly, as he thought,\nthe truth of the vision on Salisbury Plain. Similar stories might be\nproduced, showing plainly that, under the direction of Heaven, the\ninfluence of superstitious fear may be the appointed means of bringing\nthe criminal to repentance for his own sake, and to punishment for the\nadvantage of society.\n\nCases of this kind are numerous and easily imagined, so I shall dwell on\nthem no further; but rather advert to at least an equally abundant class\nof ghost stories, in which the apparition is pleased not to torment the\nactual murderer, but proceeds in a very circuitous manner, acquainting\nsome stranger or ignorant old woman with the particulars of his fate,\nwho, though perhaps unacquainted with all the parties, is directed by a\nphantom to lay the facts before a magistrate. In this respect we must\ncertainly allow that ghosts have, as we are informed by the facetious\nCaptain Grose, forms and customs peculiar to themselves.\n\nThere would be no edification and little amusement in treating of clumsy\ndeceptions of this kind, where the grossness of the imposture detects\nitself. But occasionally cases occur like the following, with respect to\nwhich it is more difficult, to use James Boswell's phrase, \"to know what\nto think.\"\n\nUpon the 10th of June, 1754, Duncan Terig, _alias_ Clark, and Alexander\nBain MacDonald, two Highlanders, were tried before the Court of\nJusticiary, Edinburgh, for the murder of Arthur Davis, sergeant in\nGuise's regiment, on the 28th September, 1749. The accident happened not\nlong after the civil war, the embers of which were still reeking, so\nthere existed too many reasons on account of which an English soldier,\nstraggling far from assistance, might be privately cut off by the\ninhabitants of these wilds. It appears that Sergeant Davis was missing\nfor years, without any certainty as to his fate. At length, an account\nof the murder appeared from the evidence of one Alexander MacPherson (a\nHighlander, speaking no language but Gaelic, and sworn by an\ninterpreter), who gave the following extraordinary account of his cause\nof knowledge:--He was, he said, in bed in his cottage, when an\napparition came to his bedside and commanded him to rise and follow him\nout of doors. Believing his visitor to be one Farquharson, a neighbour\nand friend, the witness did as he was bid; and when they were without\nthe cottage, the appearance told the witness he was the ghost of\nSergeant Davis, and requested him to go and bury his mortal remains,\nwhich lay concealed in a place he pointed out in a moorland tract called\nthe Hill of Christie. He desired him to take Farquharson with him as an\nassistant. Next day the witness went to the place specified, and there\nfound the bones of a human body much decayed. The witness did not at\nthat time bury the bones so found, in consequence of which negligence\nthe sergeant's ghost again appeared to him, upbraiding him with his\nbreach of promise. On this occasion the witness asked the ghost who were\nthe murderers, and received for answer that he had been slain by the\nprisoners at the bar. The witness, after this second visitation, called\nthe assistance of Farquharson, and buried the body.\n\nFarquharson was brought in evidence to prove that the preceding witness,\nMacPherson, had called him to the burial of the bones, and told him the\nsame story which he repeated in court. Isabel MacHardie, a person who\nslept in one of the beds which run along the wall in an ordinary\nHighland hut, declared that upon the night when MacPherson said he saw\nthe ghost, she saw a naked man enter the house and go towards\nMacPherson's bed.\n\nYet though the supernatural incident was thus fortified, and although\nthere were other strong presumptions against the prisoners, the story of\nthe apparition threw an air of ridicule on the whole evidence for the\nprosecution. It was followed up by the counsel for the prisoners asking,\nin the cross-examination of MacPherson, \"What language did the ghost\nspeak in?\" The witness, who was himself ignorant of English, replied,\n\"As good Gaelic as I ever heard in Lochaber.\" \"Pretty well for the ghost\nof an English sergeant,\" answered the counsel. The inference was rather\nsmart and plausible than sound, for, the apparition of the ghost being\nadmitted, we know too little of the other world to judge whether all\nlanguages may not be alike familiar to those who belonged to it. It\nimposed, however, on the jury, who found the accused parties not guilty,\nalthough their counsel and solicitor and most of the court were\nsatisfied of their having committed the murder. In this case the\ninterference of the ghost seems to have rather impeded the vengeance\nwhich it was doubtless the murdered sergeant's desire to obtain. Yet\nthere may be various modes of explaining this mysterious story, of which\nthe following conjecture may pass for one.\n\nThe reader may suppose that MacPherson was privy to the fact of the\nmurder, perhaps as an accomplice or otherwise, and may also suppose\nthat, from motives of remorse for the action, or of enmity to those who\nhad committed it, he entertained a wish to bring them to justice. But\nthrough the whole Highlands there is no character more detestable than\nthat of an informer, or one who takes what is called Tascal-money, or\nreward for discovery of crimes. To have informed against Terig and\nMacDonald might have cost MacPherson his life; and it is far from being\nimpossible that he had recourse to the story of the ghost, knowing well\nthat his superstitious countrymen would pardon his communicating the\ncommission entrusted to him by a being from the other world, although he\nmight probably have been murdered if his delation of the crime had been\nsupposed voluntary. This explanation, in exact conformity with the\nsentiments of the Highlanders on such subjects, would reduce the whole\nstory to a stroke of address on the part of the witness.\n\nIt is therefore of the last consequence, in considering the truth of\nstories of ghosts and apparitions, to consider the possibility of wilful\ndeception, whether on the part of those who are agents in the supposed\ndisturbances, or the author of the legend. We shall separately notice an\ninstance or two of either kind.\n\nThe most celebrated instance in which human agency was used to copy the\ndisturbances imputed to supernatural beings refers to the ancient palace\nof Woodstock, when the Commissioners of the Long Parliament came down to\ndispark what had been lately a royal residence. The Commissioners\narrived at Woodstock, 13th October, 1649, determined to wipe away the\nmemory of all that connected itself with the recollection of monarchy in\nEngland. But in the course of their progress they were encountered by\nobstacles which apparently came from the next world. Their bed-chambers\nwere infested with visits of a thing resembling a dog, but which came\nand passed as mere earthly dogs cannot do. Logs of wood, the remains of\na very large tree called the King's Oak, which they had splintered into\nbillets for burning, were tossed through the house, and the chairs\ndisplaced and shuffled about. While they were in bed the feet of their\ncouches were lifted higher than their heads, and then dropped with\nviolence. Trenchers \"without a wish\" flew at their heads of free will.\nThunder and lightning came next, which were set down to the same cause.\nSpectres made their appearance, as they thought, in different shapes,\nand one of the party saw the apparition of a hoof, which kicked a\ncandlestick and lighted candle into the middle of the room, and then\npolitely scratched on the red snuff to extinguish it. Other and worse\ntricks were practised on the astonished Commissioners who, considering\nthat all the fiends of hell were let loose upon them, retreated from\nWoodstock without completing an errand which was, in their opinion,\nimpeded by infernal powers, though the opposition offered was rather of\na playful and malicious than of a dangerous cast.\n\nThe whole matter was, after the Restoration, discovered to be the trick\nof one of their own party, who had attended the Commissioners as a\nclerk, under the name of Giles Sharp. This man, whose real name was\nJoseph Collins of Oxford, called _Funny Joe_, was a concealed loyalist,\nand well acquainted with the old mansion of Woodstock, where he had been\nbrought up before the Civil War. Being a bold, active spirited man, Joe\navailed himself of his local knowledge of trap-doors and private\npassages so as to favour the tricks which he played off upon his masters\nby aid of his fellow-domestics. The Commissioners' personal reliance on\nhim made his task the more easy, and it was all along remarked that\ntrusty Giles Sharp saw the most extraordinary sights and visions among\nthe whole party. The unearthly terrors experienced by the Commissioners\nare detailed with due gravity by Sinclair, and also, I think, by Dr.\nPlott. But although the detection or explanation of the real history of\nthe Woodstock demons has also been published, and I have myself seen it,\nI have at this time forgotten whether it exists in a separate\ncollection, or where it is to be looked for.\n\nSimilar disturbances have been often experienced while it was the custom\nto believe in and dread such frolics of the invisible world, and under\ncircumstances which induce us to wonder, both at the extreme trouble\ntaken by the agents in these impostures, and the slight motives from\nwhich they have been induced to do much wanton mischief. Still greater\nis our modern surprise at the apparently simple means by which terror\nhas been excited to so general an extent, that even the wisest and most\nprudent have not escaped its contagious influence.\n\nOn the first point I am afraid there can be no better reason assigned\nthan the conscious pride of superiority, which induces the human being\nin all cases to enjoy and practise every means of employing an influence\nover his fellow-mortals; to which we may safely add that general love of\ntormenting, as common to our race as to that noble mimick of humanity,\nthe monkey. To this is owing the delight with which every school-boy\nanticipates the effects of throwing a stone into a glass shop; and to\nthis we must also ascribe the otherwise unaccountable pleasure which\nindividuals have taken in practising the tricksy pranks of a goblin, and\nfilling a household or neighbourhood with anxiety and dismay, with\nlittle gratification to themselves besides the consciousness of\ndexterity if they remain undiscovered, and with the risk of loss of\ncharacter and punishment should the imposture be found out.\n\nIn the year 1772, a train of transactions, commencing upon Twelfth Day,\nthrew the utmost consternation into the village of Stockwell, near\nLondon, and impressed upon some of its inhabitants the inevitable belief\nthat they were produced by invisible agents. The plates, dishes, china,\nand glass-ware and small movables of every kind, contained in the house\nof Mrs. Golding, an elderly lady, seemed suddenly to become animated,\nshifted their places, flew through the room, and were broken to pieces.\nThe particulars of this commotion were as curious as the loss and damage\noccasioned in this extraordinary manner were alarming and intolerable.\nAmidst this combustion, a young woman, Mrs. Golding's maid, named Anne\nRobinson, was walking backwards and forwards, nor could she be prevailed\non to sit down for a moment excepting while the family were at prayers,\nduring which time no disturbance happened. This Anne Robinson had been\nbut a few days in the old lady's service, and it was remarkable that she\nendured with great composure the extraordinary display which others\nbeheld with terror, and coolly advised her mistress not to be alarmed or\nuneasy, as these things could not be helped. This excited an idea that\nshe had some reason for being so composed, not inconsistent with a\ndegree of connexion with what was going forward. The afflicted Mrs.\nGolding, as she might be well termed, considering such a commotion and\ndemolition among her goods and chattels, invited neighbours to stay in\nher house, but they soon became unable to bear the sight of these\nsupernatural proceedings, which went so far that not above two cups and\nsaucers remained out of a valuable set of china. She next abandoned her\ndwelling, and took refuge with a neighbour, but, finding his movables\nwere seized with the same sort of St. Vitus's dance, her landlord\nreluctantly refused to shelter any longer a woman who seemed to be\npersecuted by so strange a subject of vexation. Mrs. Golding's\nsuspicions against Anne Robinson now gaining ground, she dismissed her\nmaid, and the hubbub among her movables ceased at once and for ever.\n\nThis circumstance of itself indicates that Anne Robinson was the cause\nof these extraordinary disturbances, as has been since more completely\nascertained by a Mr. Brayfield, who persuaded Anne, long after the\nevents had happened, to make him her confidant. There was a love story\nconnected with the case, in which the only magic was the dexterity of\nAnne Robinson and the simplicity of the spectators. She had fixed long\nhorse hairs to some of the crockery, and placed wires under others, by\nwhich she could throw them down without touching them. Other things she\ndexterously threw about, which the spectators, who did not watch her\nmotions, imputed to invisible agency. At times, when the family were\nabsent, she loosened the hold of the strings by which the hams, bacon,\nand similar articles were suspended, so that they fell on the slightest\nmotion. She employed some simple chemical secrets, and, delighted with\nthe success of her pranks, pushed them farther than she at first\nintended. Such was the solution of the whole mystery, which, known by\nthe name of the Stockwell ghost, terrified many well-meaning persons,\nand had been nearly as famous as that of Cock Lane, which may be hinted\nat as another imposture of the same kind. So many and wonderful are the\nappearances described, that when I first met with the original\npublication I was strongly impressed with the belief that the narrative\nwas like some of Swift's advertisements, a jocular experiment upon the\ncredulity of the public. But it was certainly published _bona fide_, and\nMr. Hone, on the authority of Mr. Brayfield, has since fully explained\nthe wonder.[85]\n\n[Footnote 85: See Hone's \"Every-Day Book,\" p. 62.]\n\nMany such impositions have been detected, and many others have been\nsuccessfully concealed; but to know what has been discovered in many\ninstances gives us the assurance of the ruling cause in all. I remember\na scene of the kind attempted to be got up near Edinburgh, but detected\nat once by a sheriff's officer, a sort of persons whose habits of\nincredulity and suspicious observation render them very dangerous\nspectators on such occasions. The late excellent Mr. Walker, minister at\nDunottar, in the Mearns, gave me a curious account of an imposture of\nthis kind, practised by a young country girl, who was surprisingly quick\nat throwing stones, turf, and other missiles, with such dexterity that\nit was for a long time impossible to ascertain her agency in the\ndisturbances of which she was the sole cause.\n\nThe belief of the spectators that such scenes of disturbance arise from\ninvisible beings will appear less surprising if we consider the common\nfeats of jugglers, or professors of legerdemain, and recollect that it\nis only the frequent exhibition of such powers which reconciles us to\nthem as matters of course, although they are wonders at which in our\nfathers' time men would have cried out either sorcery or miracles. The\nspectator also, who has been himself duped, makes no very respectable\nappearance when convicted of his error; and thence, if too candid to add\nto the evidence of supernatural agency, is yet unwilling to stand\nconvicted by cross-examination, of having been imposed on, and\nunconsciously becomes disposed rather to colour more highly than the\ntruth, than acquiesce in an explanation resting on his having been too\nhasty a believer. Very often, too, the detection depends upon the\ncombination of certain circumstances, which, apprehended, necessarily\nexplain the whole story.\n\nFor example, I once heard a sensible and intelligent friend in company\nexpress himself convinced of the truth of a wonderful story, told him by\nan intelligent and bold man, about an apparition. The scene lay in an\nancient castle on the coast of Morven or the Isle of Mull, where the\nghost-seer chanced to be resident. He was given to understand by the\nfamily, when betaking himself to rest, that the chamber in which he\nslept was occasionally disquieted by supernatural appearances. Being at\nthat time no believer in such stories, he attended little to this hint,\nuntil the witching hour of night, when he was awakened from a dead sleep\nby the pressure of a human hand on his body. He looked up at the figure\nof a tall Highlander, in the antique and picturesque dress of his\ncountry, only that his brows were bound with a bloody bandage. Struck\nwith sudden and extreme fear, he was willing to have sprung from bed,\nbut the spectre stood before him in the bright moonlight, its one arm\nextended so as to master him if he attempted to rise; the other hand\nheld up in a warning and grave posture, as menacing the Lowlander if he\nshould attempt to quit his recumbent position. Thus he lay in mortal\nagony for more than an hour, after which it pleased the spectre of\nancient days to leave him to more sound repose. So singular a story had\non its side the usual number of votes from the company, till, upon\ncross-examination, it was explained that the principal person concerned\nwas an exciseman. After which _eclaircissement_ the same explanation\nstruck all present, viz., the Highlanders of the mansion had chosen to\ndetain the exciseman by the apparition of an ancient heroic ghost, in\norder to disguise from his vigilance the removal of certain modern\nenough spirits, which his duty might have called upon him to seize. Here\na single circumstance explained the whole ghost story.\n\nAt other times it happens that the meanness and trifling nature of a\ncause not very obvious to observation has occasioned it to be entirely\noverlooked, even on account of that very meanness, since no one is\nwilling to acknowledge that he has been alarmed by a cause of little\nconsequence, and which he would be ashamed of mentioning. An incident of\nthis sort happened to a gentleman of birth and distinction, who is well\nknown in the political world, and was detected by the precision of his\nobservation. Shortly after he succeeded to his estate and title, there\nwas a rumour among his servants concerning a strange noise heard in the\nfamily mansion at night, the cause of which they had found it impossible\nto trace. The gentleman resolved to watch himself, with a domestic who\nhad grown old in the family, and who had begun to murmur strange things\nconcerning the knocking having followed so close upon the death of his\nold master. They watched until the noise was heard, which they listened\nto with that strange uncertainty attending midnight sounds which\nprevents the hearers from immediately tracing them to the spot where\nthey arise, while the silence of the night generally occasions the\nimputing to them more than the due importance which they would receive\nif mingled with the usual noises of daylight. At length the gentleman\nand his servant traced the sounds which they had repeatedly heard to a\nsmall store-room used as a place for keeping provisions of various kinds\nfor the family, of which the old butler had the key. They entered this\nplace, and remained there for some time without hearing the noises which\nthey had traced thither; at length the sound was heard, but much lower\nthan it had formerly seemed to be, while acted upon at a distance by the\nimagination of the hearers. The cause was immediately discovered. A rat\ncaught in an old-fashioned trap had occasioned this tumult by its\nefforts to escape, in which it was able to raise the trap-door of its\nprison to a certain height, but was then obliged to drop it. The noise\nof the fall, resounding through the house, had occasioned the\ndisturbance which, but for the cool investigation of the proprietor,\nmight easily have established an accredited ghost story. The\ncircumstance was told me by the gentleman to whom it happened.\n\nThere are other occasions in which the ghost story is rendered credible\nby some remarkable combination of circumstances very unlikely to have\nhappened, and which no one could have supposed unless some particular\nfortune occasioned a discovery.\n\nAn apparition which took place at Plymouth is well known, but it has\nbeen differently related; and having some reason to think the following\nedition correct, it is an incident so much to my purpose that you must\npardon its insertion.\n\nA club of persons connected with science and literature was formed at\nthe great sea-town I have named. During the summer months the society\nmet in a cave by the sea-shore; during those of autumn and winter they\nconvened within the premises of a tavern, but, for the sake of privacy,\nhad their meetings in a summer-house situated in the garden, at a\ndistance from the main building. Some of the members to whom the\nposition of their own dwellings rendered this convenient, had a pass-key\nto the garden-door, by which they could enter the garden and reach the\nsummer-house without the publicity or trouble of passing through the\nopen tavern. It was the rule of this club that its members presided\nalternately. On one occasion, in the winter, the president of the\nevening chanced to be very ill; indeed, was reported to be on his\ndeath-bed. The club met as usual, and, from a sentiment of respect, left\nvacant the chair which ought to have been occupied by him if in his\nusual health; for the same reason, the conversation turned upon the\nabsent gentleman's talents, and the loss expected to the society by his\ndeath. While they were upon this melancholy theme, the door suddenly\nopened, and the appearance of the president entered the room. He wore a\nwhite wrapper, a nightcap round his brow, the appearance of which was\nthat of death itself. He stalked into the room with unusual gravity,\ntook the vacant place of ceremony, lifted the empty glass which stood\nbefore him, bowed around, and put it to his lips; then replaced it on\nthe table, and stalked out of the room as silent as he had entered it.\nThe company remained deeply appalled; at length, after many observations\non the strangeness of what they had seen, they resolved to dispatch two\nof their number as ambassadors, to see how it fared with the president,\nwho had thus strangely appeared among them. They went, and returned with\nthe frightful intelligence that the friend after whom they had enquired\nwas that evening deceased.\n\nThe astonished party then resolved that they would remain absolutely\nsilent respecting the wonderful sight which they had seen. Their habits\nwere too philosophical to permit them to believe that they had actually\nseen the ghost of their deceased brother, and at the same time they were\ntoo wise men to wish to confirm the superstition of the vulgar by what\nmight seem indubitable evidence of a ghost. The affair was therefore\nkept a strict secret, although, as usual, some dubious rumours of the\ntale found their way to the public. Several years afterwards, an old\nwoman who had long filled the place of a sick-nurse, was taken very ill,\nand on her death-bed was attended by a medical member of the\nphilosophical club. To him, with many expressions of regret, she\nacknowledged that she had long before attended Mr.----, naming the\npresident whose appearance had surprised the club so strangely, and that\nshe felt distress of conscience on account of the manner in which he\ndied. She said that as his malady was attended by light-headedness, she\nhad been directed to keep a close watch upon him during his illness.\nUnhappily she slept, and during her sleep the patient had awaked and\nleft the apartment. When, on her own awaking, she found the bed empty\nand the patient gone, she forthwith hurried out of the house to seek\nhim, and met him in the act of returning. She got him, she said,\nreplaced in bed, but it was only to die there. She added, to convince\nher hearer of the truth of what she said, that immediately after the\npoor gentleman expired, a deputation of two members from the club came\nto enquire after their president's health, and received for answer that\nhe was already dead. This confession explained the whole matter. The\ndelirious patient had very naturally taken the road to the club, from\nsome recollections of his duty of the night. In approaching and retiring\nfrom the apartment he had used one of the pass-keys already mentioned,\nwhich made his way shorter. On the other hand, the gentlemen sent to\nenquire after his health had reached his lodging by a more circuitous\nroad; and thus there had been time for him to return to what proved his\ndeath-bed, long before they reached his chamber. The philosophical\nwitnesses of this strange scene were now as anxious to spread the story\nas they had formerly been to conceal it, since it showed in what a\nremarkable manner men's eyes might turn traitors to them, and impress\nthem with ideas far different from the truth.\n\nAnother occurrence of the same kind, although scarcely so striking in\nits circumstances, was yet one which, had it remained unexplained, might\nhave passed as an indubitable instance of a supernatural apparition.\n\nA Teviotdale farmer was riding from a fair, at which he had indulged\nhimself with John Barleycorn, but not to that extent of defying goblins\nwhich it inspired into the gallant Tam o'Shanter. He was pondering with\nsome anxiety upon the dangers of travelling alone on a solitary road\nwhich passed the corner of a churchyard, now near at hand, when he saw\nbefore him in the moonlight a pale female form standing upon the very\nwall which surrounded the cemetery. The road was very narrow, with no\nopportunity of giving the apparent phantom what seamen call a wide\nberth. It was, however, the only path which led to the rider's home, who\ntherefore resolved, at all risks, to pass the apparition. He accordingly\napproached, as slowly as possible, the spot where the spectre stood,\nwhile the figure remained, now perfectly still and silent, now\nbrandishing its arms and gibbering to the moon. When the farmer came\nclose to the spot he dashed in the spurs and set the horse off upon a\ngallop; but the spectre did not miss its opportunity. As he passed the\ncorner where she was perched, she contrived to drop behind the horseman\nand seize him round the waist, a manoeuvre which greatly increased the\nspeed of the horse and the terror of the rider; for the hand of her who\nsat behind him, when pressed upon his, felt as cold as that of a corpse.\nAt his own house at length he arrived, and bid the servants who came to\nattend him, \"Tak aff the ghaist!\" They took off accordingly a female in\nwhite, and the poor farmer himself was conveyed to bed, where he lay\nstruggling for weeks with a strong nervous fever. The female was found\nto be a maniac, who had been left a widow very suddenly by an\naffectionate husband, and the nature and cause of her malady induced\nher, when she could make her escape, to wander to the churchyard, where\nshe sometimes wildly wept over his grave, and sometimes, standing on the\ncorner of the churchyard wall, looked out, and mistook every stranger on\nhorseback for the husband she had lost. If this woman, which was very\npossible, had dropt from the horse unobserved by him whom she had made\nher involuntary companion, it would have been very hard to have\nconvinced the honest farmer that he had not actually performed part of\nhis journey with a ghost behind him.\n\nThere is also a large class of stories of this sort, where various\nsecrets of chemistry, of acoustics, ventriloquism, or other arts, have\nbeen either employed to dupe the spectators, or have tended to do so\nthrough mere accident and coincidence. Of these it is scarce necessary\nto quote instances; but the following may be told as a tale recounted by\na foreign nobleman known to me nearly thirty years ago, whose life, lost\nin the service of his sovereign, proved too short for his friends and\nhis native land.\n\nAt a certain old castle on the confines of Hungary, the lord to whom it\nbelonged had determined upon giving an entertainment worthy of his own\nrank and of the magnificence of the antique mansion which he inhabited.\nThe guests of course were numerous, and among them was a veteran officer\nof hussars, remarkable for his bravery. When the arrangements for the\nnight were made this officer was informed that there would be difficulty\nin accommodating the company in the castle, large as was, unless some\none would take the risk of sleeping in a room supposed to be haunted,\nand that, as he was known to be above such prejudices, the apartment was\nin the first place proposed for his occupation, as the person least\nlikely to suffer a bad night's rest from such a cause. The major\nthankfully accepted the preference, and having shared the festivity of\nthe evening, retired after midnight, having denounced vengeance against\nany one who should presume by any trick to disturb his repose; a threat\nwhich his habits would, it was supposed, render him sufficiently ready\nto execute. Somewhat contrary to the custom in these cases, the major\nwent to bed, having left his candle burning and laid his trusty pistols,\ncarefully loaded, on the table by his bedside.\n\nHe had not slept an hour when he was awakened by a solemn strain of\nmusic. He looked out. Three ladies, fantastically dressed in green, were\nseen in the lower end of the apartment, who sung a solemn requiem. The\nmajor listened for some time with delight; at length he tired. \"Ladies,\"\nhe said, \"this is very well, but somewhat monotonous--will you be so\nkind as to change the tune?\" The ladies continued singing; he\nexpostulated, but the music was not interrupted. The major began to grow\nangry: \"Ladies,\" he said, \"I must consider this as a trick for the\npurpose of terrifying me, and as I regard it as an impertinence, I shall\ntake a rough mode of stopping it.\" With that he began to handle his\npistols. The ladies sung on. He then get seriously angry: \"I will but\nwait five minutes,\" he said, \"and then fire without hesitation.\" The\nsong was uninterrupted--the five minutes were expired. \"I still give you\nlaw, ladies,\" he said, \"while I count twenty.\" This produced as little\neffect as his former threats. He counted one, two, three accordingly;\nbut on approaching the end of the number, and repeating more than once\nhis determination to fire, the last numbers,\nseventeen--eighteen--nineteen, were pronounced with considerable pauses\nbetween, and an assurance that the pistols were cocked. The ladies sung\non. As he pronounced the word twenty he fired both pistols against the\nmusical damsels--but the ladies sung on! The major was overcome by the\nunexpected inefficacy of his violence, and had an illness which lasted\nmore than three weeks. The trick put upon him may be shortly described\nby the fact that the female choristers were placed in an adjoining room,\nand that he only fired at their reflection thrown forward into that in\nwhich he slept by the effect of a concave mirror.\n\nOther stories of the same kind are numerous and well known. The\napparition of the Brocken mountain, after having occasioned great\nadmiration and some fear, is now ascertained by philosophers to be a\ngigantic reflection, which makes the traveller's shadow, represented\nupon the misty clouds, appear a colossal figure of almost immeasurable\nsize. By a similar deception men have been induced, in Westmoreland and\nother mountainous countries, to imagine they saw troops of horse and\narmies marching and countermarching, which were in fact only the\nreflection of horses pasturing upon an opposite height, or of the forms\nof peaceful travellers.\n\nA very curious case of this kind was communicated to me by the son of\nthe lady principally concerned, and tends to show out of what mean\nmaterials a venerable apparition may be sometimes formed. In youth this\nlady resided with her father, a man of sense and resolution. Their house\nwas situated in the principal street of a town of some size. The back\npart of the house ran at right angles to an Anabaptist chapel, divided\nfrom it by a small cabbage-garden. The young lady used sometimes to\nindulge the romantic love of solitude by sitting in her own apartment in\nthe evening till twilight, and even darkness, was approaching. One\nevening, while she was thus placed, she was surprised to see a gleamy\nfigure, as of some aerial being, hovering, as it were, against the\narched window in the end of the Anabaptist chapel. Its head was\nsurrounded by that halo which painters give to the Catholic saints; and\nwhile the young lady's attention was fixed on an object so\nextraordinary, the figure bent gracefully towards her more than once, as\nif intimating a sense of her presence, and then disappeared. The seer of\nthis striking vision descended to her family, so much discomposed as to\ncall her father's attention. He obtained an account of the cause of her\ndisturbance, and expressed his intention to watch in the apartment next\nnight. He sat accordingly in his daughter's chamber, where she also\nattended him. Twilight came, and nothing appeared; but as the gray light\nfaded into darkness, the same female figure was seen hovering on the\nwindow; the same shadowy form, the same pale light-around the head, the\nsame inclinations, as the evening before. \"What do you think of this?\"\nsaid the daughter to the astonished father. \"Anything, my dear,\" said\nthe father, \"rather than allow that we look upon what is supernatural.\"\nA strict research established a natural cause for the appearance on the\nwindow. It was the custom of an old woman, to whom the garden beneath\nwas rented, to go out at night to gather cabbages. The lantern she\ncarried in her hand threw up the refracted reflection of her form on the\nchapel window. As she stooped to gather her cabbages the reflection\nappeared to bend forward; and that was the whole matter.\n\nAnother species of deception, affecting the credit of such supernatural\ncommunications, arises from the dexterity and skill of the authors who\nhave made it their business to present such stories in the shape most\nlikely to attract belief. Defoe--whose power in rendering credible that\nwhich was in itself very much the reverse was so peculiarly\ndistinguished--has not failed to show his superiority in this species of\ncomposition. A bookseller of his acquaintance had, in the trade phrase,\nrather overprinted an edition of \"Drelincourt on Death,\" and complained\nto Defoe of the loss which was likely to ensue. The experienced\nbookmaker, with the purpose of recommending the edition, advised his\nfriend to prefix the celebrated narrative of Mrs. Veal's ghost, which he\nwrote for the occasion, with such an air of truth, that although in fact\nit does not afford a single tittle of evidence properly so called, it\nnevertheless was swallowed so eagerly by the people that Drelincourt's\nwork on death, which the supposed spirit recommended to the perusal of\nher friend Mrs. Bargrave, instead of sleeping on the editor's shelf,\nmoved off by thousands at once; the story, incredible in itself, and\nunsupported as it was by evidence or enquiry, was received as true,\nmerely from the cunning of the narrator, and the addition of a number of\nadventitious circumstances, which no man alive could have conceived as\nhaving occurred to the mind of a person composing a fiction.\n\nIt did not require the talents of Defoe, though in that species of\ncomposition he must stand unrivalled, to fix the public attention on a\nghost story. John Dunton, a man of scribbling celebrity at the time,\nsucceeded to a great degree in imposing upon the public a tale which he\ncalls the Apparition Evidence. The beginning of it, at least (for it is\nof great length), has something in it a little new. At Mynehead, in\nSomersetshire, lived an ancient gentlewoman named Mrs. Leckie, whose\nonly son and daughter resided in family with her. The son traded to\nIreland, and was supposed to be worth eight or ten thousand pounds. They\nhad a child about five or six years old. This family was generally\nrespected in Mynehead; and especially Mrs. Leckie, the old lady, was so\npleasant in society, that her friends used to say to her, and to each\nother, that it was a thousand pities such an excellent, good-humoured\ngentlewoman must, from her age, be soon lost to her friends. To which\nMrs. Leckie often made the somewhat startling reply: \"Forasmuch as you\nnow seem to like me, I am afraid you will but little care to see or\nspeak with me after my death, though I believe you may have that\nsatisfaction.\" Die, however, she did, and after her funeral was\nrepeatedly seen in her personal likeness, at home and abroad, by night\nand by noonday.\n\nOne story is told of a doctor of physic walking into the fields, who in\nhis return met with this spectre, whom he at first accosted civilly, and\npaid her the courtesy of handing her over a stile. Observing, however,\nthat she did not move her lips in speaking, or her eyes in looking\nround, he became suspicious of the condition of his companion, and\nshowed some desire to be rid of her society. Offended at this, the hag\nat next stile planted herself upon it, and obstructed his passage. He\ngot through at length with some difficulty, and not without a sound\nkick, and an admonition to pay more attention to the next aged\ngentlewoman whom he met. \"But this,\" says John Dunton, \"was a petty and\ninconsiderable prank to what she played in her son's house and\nelsewhere. She would at noonday appear upon the quay of Mynehead, and\ncry, 'A boat, a boat, ho! a boat, a boat, ho!' If any boatmen or seamen\nwere in sight, and did not come, they were sure to be cast away; and if\nthey did come, 'twas all one, they were cast away. It was equally\ndangerous to please and displease her. Her son had several ships sailing\nbetween Ireland and England; no sooner did they make land, and come in\nsight of England, but this ghost would appear in the same garb and\nlikeness as when she was alive, and, standing at the mainmast, would\nblow with a whistle, and though it were never so great a calm, yet\nimmediately there would arise a most dreadful storm, that would break,\nwreck, and drown the ship and goods; only the seamen would escape with\ntheir lives--the devil had no permission from God to take them away. Yet\nat this rate, by her frequent apparitions and disturbances, she had made\na poor merchant of her son, for his fair estate was all buried in the\nsea, and he that was once worth thousands was reduced to a very poor and\nlow condition in the world; for whether the ship were his own or hired,\nor he had but goods on board it to the value of twenty shillings, this\ntroublesome ghost would come as before, whistle in a calm at the\nmainmast at noonday, when they had descried land, and then ship and\ngoods went all out of hand to wreck; insomuch that he could at last get\nno ships wherein to stow his goods, nor any mariner to sail in them; for\nknowing what an uncomfortable, fatal, and losing voyage they should make\nof it, they did all decline his service. In her son's house she hath her\nconstant haunts by day and night; but whether he did not, or would not\nown if he did, see her, he always professed he never saw her. Sometimes\nwhen in bed with his wife, she would cry out, 'Husband, look, there's\nyour mother!' And when he would turn to the right side, then was she\ngone to the left; and when to the left side of the bed, then was she\ngone to the right; only one evening their only child, a girl of about\nfive or six years old, lying in a ruckle-bed under them, cries out, 'Oh,\nhelp me, father! help me, mother! for grandmother will choke me!' and\nbefore they could get to their child's assistance she had murdered it;\nthey finding the poor girl dead, her throat having been pinched by two\nfingers, which stopped her breath and strangled her. This was the sorest\nof all their afflictions; their estate is gone, and now their child is\ngone also; you may guess at their grief and great sorrow. One morning\nafter the child's funeral, her husband being abroad, about eleven in the\nforenoon, Mrs. Leckie the younger goes up into her chamber to dress her\nhead, and as she was looking into the glass she spies her mother-in-law,\nthe old beldam, looking over her shoulder. This cast her into a great\nhorror; but recollecting her affrighted spirits, and recovering the\nexercise of her reason, faith, and hope, having cast up a short and\nsilent prayer to God, she turns about, and bespeaks her: 'In the name of\nGod, mother, why do you trouble me?' 'Peace,' says the spectrum; 'I will\ndo thee no hurt.' 'What will you have of me?' says the daughter,\"\n&c.[86] Dunton, the narrator and probably the contriver of the story,\nproceeds to inform us at length of a commission which the wife of Mr.\nLeckie receives from the ghost to deliver to Atherton, Bishop of\nWaterford, a guilty and unfortunate man, who afterwards died by the\nhands of the executioner; but that part of the subject is too\ndisagreeable and tedious to enter upon.\n\n[Footnote 86: \"Apparition Evidence.\"]\n\nSo deep was the impression made by the story on the inhabitants of\nMynehead, that it is said the tradition of Mrs. Leckie still remains in\nthat port, and that mariners belonging to it often, amid tempestuous\nweather, conceive they hear the whistle-call of the implacable hag who\nwas the source of so much mischief to her own family. However, already\ntoo desultory and too long, it would become intolerably tedious were I\nto insist farther on the peculiar sort of genius by which stories of\nthis kind may be embodied and prolonged.\n\nI may, however, add, that the charm of the tale depends much upon the\nage of the person to whom it is addressed; and that the vivacity of\nfancy which engages us in youth to pass over much that is absurd, in\norder to enjoy some single trait of imagination, dies within us when we\nobtain the age of manhood, and the sadder and graver regions which lie\nbeyond it. I am the more conscious of this, because I have been myself\nat two periods of my life, distant from each other, engaged in scenes\nfavourable to that degree of superstitious awe which my countrymen\nexpressively call being _eerie_.\n\nOn the first of these occasions I was only ninteeen or twenty years old,\nwhen I happened to pass a night in the magnificent old baronial castle\nof Glammis, the hereditary seat of the Earls of Strathmore. The hoary\npile contains much in its appearance, and in the traditions connected\nwith it, impressive to the imagination. It was the scene of the murder\nof a Scottish king of great antiquity; not indeed the gracious Duncan,\nwith whom the name naturally associates itself, but Malcolm the Second.\nIt contains also a curious monument of the peril of feudal times, being\na secret chamber, the entrance of which, by the law or custom of the\nfamily, must only be known to three persons at once, viz., the Earl of\nStrathmore, his heir apparent, and any third person whom they may take\ninto their confidence. The extreme antiquity of the building is vouched\nby the immense thickness of the walls, and the wild and straggling\narrangement of the accommodation within doors. As the late Earl of\nStrathmore seldom resided in that ancient mansion, it was, when I was\nthere, but half-furnished, and that with movables of great antiquity,\nwhich, with the pieces of chivalric armour hanging upon the walls,\ngreatly contributed to the general effect of the whole. After a very\nhospitable reception from the late Peter Proctor, Esq., then seneschal\nof the castle, in Lord Strathmore's absence, I was conducted to my\napartment in a distant corner of the building. I must own, that as I\nheard door after door shut, after my conductor had retired, I began to\nconsider myself too far from the living and somewhat too near the dead.\nWe had passed through what is called \"The King's Room,\" a vaulted\napartment, garnished with stags' antlers and similar trophies of the\nchase, and said by tradition to be the spot of Malcolm's murder, and I\nhad an idea of the vicinity of the castle chapel.\n\nIn spite of the truth of history, the whole night-scene in Macbeth's\ncastle rushed at once upon my mind, and struck my imagination more\nforcibly than even when I have seen its terrors represented by the late\nJohn Kemble and his inimitable sister. In a word, I experienced\nsensations which, though not remarkable either for timidity or\nsuperstition, did not fail to affect me to the point of being\ndisagreeable, while they were mingled at the same time with a strange\nand indescribable kind of pleasure, the recollection of which affords me\ngratification at this moment.\n\nIn the year 1814 accident placed me, then past middle life, in a\nsituation somewhat similar to that which I have described.\n\nI had been on a pleasure voyage with some friends around the north coast\nof Scotland, and in that course had arrived in the salt-water lake under\nthe castle of Dunvegan, whose turrets, situated upon a frowning rock,\nrise immediately above the waves of the loch. As most of the party, and\nI myself in particular, chanced to be well known to the Laird of\nMacleod, we were welcomed to the castle with Highland hospitality, and\nglad to find ourselves in polished society, after a cruise of some\nduration. The most modern part of the castle was founded in the days of\nJames VI.; the more ancient is referred to a period \"whose birth\ntradition notes not.\" Until the present Macleod connected by a\ndrawbridge the site of the castle with the mainland of Skye, the access\nmust have been extremely difficult. Indeed, so much greater was the\nregard paid to security than to convenience, that in former times the\nonly access to the mansion arose through a vaulted cavern in a rock, up\nwhich a staircase ascended from the sea-shore, like the buildings we\nread of in the romances of Mrs. Radcliffe.\n\nSuch a castle, in the extremity of the Highlands, was of course\nfurnished with many a tale of tradition, and many a superstitious\nlegend, to fill occasional intervals in the music and song, as proper to\nthe halls of Dunvegan as when Johnson commemorated them. We reviewed the\narms and ancient valuables of this distinguished family--saw the dirk\nand broadsword of Rorie Mhor, and his horn, which would drench three\nchiefs of these degenerate days. The solemn drinking-cup of the Kings of\nMan must not be forgotten, nor the fairy banner given to Macleod by the\nQueen of Fairies; that magic flag which has been victorious in two\npitched fields, and will still float in the third, the bloodiest and the\nlast, when the Elfin Sovereign shall, after the fight is ended, recall\nher banner, and carry off the standard-bearer.\n\nAmid such tales of ancient tradition I had from Macleod and his lady the\ncourteous offer of the haunted apartment of the castle, about which, as\na stranger, I might be supposed interested. Accordingly, I took\npossession of it about the witching hour. Except perhaps some tapestry\nhangings, and the extreme thickness of the walls, which argued great\nantiquity, nothing could have been more comfortable than the interior of\nthe apartment; but if you looked from the windows the view was such as\nto correspond with the highest tone of superstition. An autumnal blast,\nsometimes driving mist before it, swept along the troubled billows of\nthe lake, which it occasionally concealed, and by fits disclosed. The\nwaves rushed in wild disorder on the shore, and covered with foam the\nsteep piles of rock, which, rising from the sea in forms something\nresembling the human figure, have obtained the name of Macleod's\nMaidens, and in such a night seemed no bad representatives of the\nNorwegian goddesses called Choosers of the Slain, or Riders of the\nStorm. There was something of the dignity of danger in the scene; for on\na platform beneath the windows lay an ancient battery of cannon, which\nhad sometimes been used against privateers even of late years. The\ndistant scene was a view of that part of the Quillan mountains which are\ncalled, from their form, Macleod's Dining-Tables. The voice of an angry\ncascade, termed the Nurse of Rorie Mhor, because that chief slept best\n'in its vicinity, was heard from time to time mingling its notes with\nthose of wind and wave. Such was the haunted room at Dunvegan, and as\nsuch it well deserved a less sleepy inhabitant. In the language of Dr.\nJohnson, who has stamped his memory on this remote place, \"I looked\naround me, and wondered that I was not more affected; but the mind is\nnot at all times equally ready to be moved.\" In a word, it is necessary\nto confess that, of all I heard or saw, the most engaging spectacle was\nthe comfortable bed, in which I hoped to make amends for some rough\nnights on ship-board, and where I slept accordingly without thinking of\nghost or goblin till I was called by my servant in the morning.\n\nFrom this I am taught to infer that tales of ghosts and demonology are\nout of date at forty years and upwards; that it is only in the morning\nof life that this feeling of superstition \"comes o'er us like a summer\ncloud,\" affecting us with fear which is solemn and awful rather than\npainful; and I am tempted to think that, if I were to write on the\nsubject at all, it should have been during a period of life when I could\nhave treated it with more interesting vivacity, and might have been at\nleast amusing if I could not be instructive. Even the present fashion of\nthe world seems to be ill suited for studies of this fantastic nature;\nand the most ordinary mechanic has learning sufficient to laugh at the\nfigments which in former times were believed by persons far advanced in\nthe deepest knowledge of the age.\n\nI cannot, however, in conscience carry my opinion of my countrymen's\ngood sense so far as to exculpate them entirely from the charge of\ncredulity. Those who are disposed to look for them may, without much\ntrouble, see such manifest signs, both of superstition and the\ndisposition to believe in its doctrines, as may render it no useless\noccupation to compare the follies of our fathers with our own. The\nsailors have a proverb that every man in his lifetime must eat a peck of\nimpurity; and it seems yet more clear that every generation of the human\nrace must swallow a certain measure of nonsense. There remains hope,\nhowever, that the grosser faults of our ancestors are now out of date;\nand that whatever follies the present race may be guilty of, the sense\nof humanity is too universally spread to permit them to think of\ntormenting wretches till they confess what is impossible, and then\nburning them for their pains.\n\n\nTHE END.\n\n\nPRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. LONDON AND EDINBURGH.","title":"Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":108608}