{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_71924/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_71924","id":"gutenberg_71924","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71924","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Religious","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Occultism","Witchcraft"],"text":"THE SECRETS\n\n                                   OF\n\n                              BLACK ARTS!\n\n                             A KEY NOTE TO\n\n                              WITCHCRAFT,\n\n             DEVINATION, OMENS, FOREWARNINGS, APPARITIONS.\n               SORCERY, D\u00c6MONOLOGY, DREAMS, PREDICTIONS,\n                              VISIONS, AND\n\n                                  THE\n\n                             DEVIL\u2019S LEGACY\n\n                            TO EARTH MORTALS\n\n                        COMPACTS WITH THE DEVIL!\n\n                   WITH THE MOST AUTHENTIC HISTORY OF\n\n                            SALEM WITCHCRAFT\n\n\n                       Compiled By the Publisher.\n\n\n\n\n                          The Devil\u2019s Legacy.\n\n[Illustration:P]erhaps the title of this Book\u2015\u201cThe Devil\u2019s Legacy\nto Earth Mortals\u201d may at first seem somewhat strange; they will\npause as they do at a Witches Prayer, and wonder whether they had\nbest look into it or no, lest they should really raise the Devil\nby reading what he has bequeathed to mankind.\n\nIt is a question, not yet determined by the learned, whether the word\nDevil be singular, that is to say, the name of a person standing by\nhimself, or a noun of multitude; if it be a singular, and so must be\nused personally only as a proper name, it consequently implies one\nimperial devil, monarch, or god of the whole clan of Hell; justly\ndistinguished by term, The Devil, or as the Scots call him, The\nmuckle-horned Dee\u2019l, or as others in a wilder dialect, The Devil of\nHell, that is to say, The Devil of a devil; or (better still) as the\nScriptures expresses it, by way of emphasis, the great red dragon, the\nDevil, and Satan.\n\nBut if we take this word to be, as above, a noun of multitude, and so\nto be used ambidexter, as occasion presents, singular or plural, then\nthe Devil signifies Satan by himself, or Satan with all his legions\nat his heels, as you please, more or less. It is thus expressed in\nScripture, where the person possessed (Matt. iv. 24.) is first said\nto be possessed of the Devil, singular; and our Saviour asks him, as\nspeaking to a single person, WHAT IS THY NAME? and is answered in the\nplural and singular together, MY NAME IS LEGION, FOR WE ARE MANY.\n\nNor will it be any wrong to the Devil, supposing him a single person,\nseeing entitling him to the conduct of all his inferior agents, is\nwhat he will take rather for an addition to his infernal glory, than a\ndiminution or lessening of him in the extent of his fame.\n\nVery few, if any, of those who believe there is a God, and acknowledge\nthe debt of homage which mankind owes to the supreme Governor of the\nworld, doubt the existence of the Devil, except here and there one,\nwhom we call practical atheists; and it is the character of an atheist,\nif there is such a creature on earth, that he believes neither God nor\nDevil.\n\nAs the belief of both these stands upon a level, and that God and the\nDevil seems to have an equal share in our faith, so the evidence of\ntheir existence seems to stand upon a level too, in many things; and as\nthey are known by their works in the same particular cases, so they are\ndiscovered after the same manner of demonstration.\n\nNay, in some respects, it is equally criminal to deny the reality of\nthem both, only with this difference, that to believe the existence of\na God is a debt to nature, and to believe the existence of the Devil\nis a like debt to reason; one is a demonstration from the reality of\nvisible causes, and the other a deduction from the like reality of\ntheir effects.\n\nOne demonstration of the existence of God is from the universal\nwell-guided consent of all nations to worship and adore a supreme\npower; one demonstration of the existence of the Devil, is from the\navowed ill-guided consent of some nations, who, knowing no other god,\nmake a god of the Devil for want of a better.\n\nTaking it, then, as the generality of mankind do, that there is a grand\nDevil, a superior of the whole black race; that they all fell, together\nwith their general Satan at the head of them; that though he, Satan,\ncould not maintain his high station in heaven, yet that he did continue\nhis dignity among the rest who are called his servants, in Scripture,\nhis angels; that he has a kind of dominion of or authority over the\nrest, and that they were all, how many millions soever in number, at\nhis command; employed by him in all his hellish designs, and in all his\nwicked contrivances for the destruction of man, and for the setting\nup his own kingdom in the world. All the infernal things we converse\nwith in the world, are fathered upon the Devil, as one undivided simple\nessence, by how many agents soever working; everything evil, frightful\nin appearance, wicked in its actings, horrible in its manner, monstrous\nin its effects, is called the Devil; in a word, Devil is the common\nname for all devils, that is to say, for all evil spirits, all evil\npowers, all evil works, and even all evil things; yet it is remarkable\nthe Devil is no Old Testament word, and we never find it used in all\nthe Old Testament but four times, and then not once [in] the singular\nnumber, and not once to signify Satan, as it is now understood.\n\nThat the Devil is not yet a close prisoner, we have evidence enough to\nconfirm; he is let out by connivance, and has some little latitudes and\nadvantages for mischief, by that means; returning at certain seasons\nto his confinement again. This might hold, were it not, that the\ncomparison must suggest, that the power which has cast him down could\nbe deluded, and the under-keepers or jailers, under whose charge he was\nin custody, could wink at his excursions, and the lord of the place\nknow nothing of the matter.\n\nIt is our firm belief that the Devil still runs riot over all\nChristendom, and will do so until the coming of that period yet hidden\nin the womb of time.\n\nWe have ample evidence to justify us in this belief, as every Age of\nthe world has felt his blighting hand and suffered from his accursed\nwork. Everything about us that is evil bears his footprints, and as\neach succeeding generation appears, some new phase of the Devil\u2019s\ncunning hand looms up to our sight. As man bequeaths his earthly\npossessions to those that follow him, so has the Devil left behind him\nhis dark footprints over the entire face of the earth, and each step\nthat we take we see the reflection of the Devil in thousands of forms.\nFirst among the long black Catalogue is\n\n\n\n\n                              BLACK ART.\n\n\n                              WITCHCRAFT.\n\nNext to sorcery we may recollect the case of witchcraft, which occurs\noftener, particularly in modern times, than any other alleged mode\nof changing by supernatural means the future course of events. The\nsorcerer, was frequently a man of learning and intellectual abilities,\nsometimes of comparative opulence and respectable situation in society.\nBut the witch or wizard was almost uniformly old, decrepid, and nearly\nor altogether in a state of penury. The functions, however, of the\nwitch and the sorcerer were in a great degree the same. The earliest\naccount of a witch, attended with any degree of detail, is that of\nthe witch of Endor in the Bible, who among other things, professed\nthe power of calling up the dead upon occasion from the peace of\nthe sepulcher, it appears clear, that the witch of Ender 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\nand death. She was liable, indeed, deservedly, to the punishment of\ndeath, for intruding herself upon the task of the real prophets, by\nwhom the will of God was, in that time, regularly made known. But her\nexistence and her crimes can go no length to prove the possibility\nthat another class of witches, not otherwise resembling her than as\ncalled by the same name, either existed at a more recent period, or\nwere liable to the same capital punishment, for a very different and\nmuch more doubtful class of offences, which, however odious, are\nnevertheless to be proved possible before they can be received as a\ncriminal charge.\n\nWitches also claimed the faculty of raising storms, and in various\nways disturbing the course of nature. They appear in most cases to\nhave been brought into action by the impulse of private malice. They\noccasioned mortality of greater or less extent in man and beast. They\nblighted the opening prospect of a plentiful harvest. They covered the\nheavens with clouds, and sent abroad withering and malignant blasts.\nThey undermined the health of those who were so unfortunate as to\nincur their animosity, and caused them to waste away gradually with\nincurable disease. They were notorious two or three centuries ago for\nthe power of the \u201cevil eye.\u201d The vulgar, both great and small, dreaded\ntheir displeasure, and sought by small gifts, and fair speeches, but\ninsincere, and the offspring of terror only, to avert the pernicous\nconsequences of their malice. They were famed for fabricating small\nimages of wax, to represent the objects of their persecution; and, as\nthese by gradual and often studiously protracted degrees wasted before\nthe fire, so the unfortunate butts of their resentment perished with a\nlingering, but inevitable death.\n\nThis faith in extraordinary events, and superstitious fear of what is\nsupernatural, has diffused itself through every climate of the world,\nin a certain stage of human intellect, and while refinement had not\nyet got the better of barbarism. The Celts of antiquity had their\nDruids, a branch of whose special profession was the exercise of magic.\nThe Chaldeans and Egyptians had their wise men, their magicians, and\ntheir sorcerers. The Negroes have their fore-tellers of events, their\namulets, and their reporters and believers of miraculous occurrences. A\nsimilar race of men was found by Columbus and the other discoverers of\nthe New World in America; and facts of a parallel nature are attested\nto us in the islands of the South Seas. And, as phenomena of this\nsort were universal in their nature, without distinction of climate,\nwhether torrid or frozen, and independantly of the discordant manners\nand customs of different countries, so have they been very slow and\nrecent in their disappearing. Queen Elizabeth sent to consult Dr. John\nDee, the astrologer, respecting a lucky day for her coronation; King\nJames the First employed much of his learned leasure upon questions of\nwitchcraft and demonology, in which he fully believed; and Sir Matthew\nHale in the year 1664 caused two old women to be hanged upon a charge\nof unlawful communion with infernal agents.\n\n\n                       COMPACTS WITH THE DEVIL.\n\nThe power of these witches as we find in their earliest records\noriginated in their intercourse with \u201cfamiliar spirits,\u201d invisible\nbeings who must be supposed to be enlisted in the armies of the prince\nof darkness. We do not read in these ancient memorials of any league\nof mutual benefit entered into between the merely human party, and his\nor her supernatural assistant. But modern times have amply supplied\nthis defect. The witch or sorcerer could not secure the assistance\nof the demon but by a sure and faithful compact, by which the human\nparty obtained the industrious and vigilant service of his familiar\nfor a certain term of years, only on condition that, when the term was\nexpired, the demon of undoubted right was to obtain possession of the\nindentured party, and to convey him irremissibly and forever to the\nregions of the damned. The contract was drawn out in authentic form,\nsigned by the sorcerer, and attested with his blood, and was then\ncarried away by the demon, to be produced again at the appointed time.\n\n\u201cTo deny the possibility, nay actual exsitence of Witchcraft and\nSorcery, is at once flatly to contradict the revealed Word of God,\nin various passages both of the Old and New Testament; and the thing\nitself is a truth to which every Nation in the World hath in its turn\nborne testimony, either by examples seemingly well attested, or by\nprohibitory laws, which at least suppose the possibility of commerce\nwith evil spirits.\u201d\u2015Blackstone\u2019s \u201cCommentaries,\u201d book iv. chapter 4,\np. 61.\n\nAn anonymous seventeenth-century writer reasons as follows:\u2015\u201cTo know\nthings aright and perfectly is to know the causes thereof. A definition\ndoth consist of those causes which give the whole essence, and contain\nthe perfect nature of the thing defined; where that is therefore found\nout, there appears the very clear light. If it be perfect, it is much\nthe greater; though if it be not fully perfect, yet it giveth some\ngood light. For which respect, though I dare not say I can give a\nperfect definition in this matter, which is hard to do even in known\nthings, because the essential form is hard to be found, yet I do give\na definition which may at the least give notice and make known what\nmanner of persons they be of whom I am to speak:\u2015A witch is one that\nworketh by the the Devil, or by some devilish or curious art, either\nhurting or healing, revealing things secret, or foretelling things to\ncome, which the Devil hath devised to entangle and snare men\u2019s souls\nwithal unto damnation. The Conjuror, the Enchanter, the Sorcerer, the\nDiviner, and whatsoever other sort there is, are indeed encompassed\nwithin this circle. The Devil doth (no doubt) after divers forms, deal\nin these. But no man is able to show an essential difference in each of\nthem from the rest. I hold it no wisdom or labor well spent to travel\nmuch therein. One artificer had devised them all.\u201d\n\n\u201cThou shalt not suffer a witch to live.\u201d\u2015Exodus xxii. 18. \u201cNeither\nshall ye use enchantment.\u201d\u2015Levit. xix. 26. \u201cRegard not them which\nhave familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by\nthem.\u201d\u2015Ibid. ver. 31. \u201cWhen thou art come into the land which the Lord\nthy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations\nof those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that\nmaketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth\ndivination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or\na charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a necromancer.\nFor all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and\nbecause of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out\nfrom before thee.\u201d\u2015Deut. xviii. 9-12. Of Manasseh is recorded, that\n\u201cHe caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the\nson of Himon: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used\nwitchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards.\u201d\u20152\nChron. xxxiii. 6. Lastly, St. Paul mentions \u201cwitchcraft\u201d amongst such\n\u201cworks of the flesh\u201d as \u201cadultery, fornication, heresies, drunkenness,\nand murders.\u201d\u2015Galat. v. 19-21.\n\nMany of the heathens cordially defended magic and necromancy. For\nexample, Asclepiades, who lived in the time of Pompey the Great, cured\ndiseases by magic, enjoining upon his patient, in the case of falling\nsickness, to bind upon his arm a Cross with a Nail driven into it.\nJulianus, the magician, is reported to have driven the plague out of\nRome by magical power. Apuleius, a deciple of Plato, wrote at length\non magic. To him may be added Marcellus and Alexander Trallian. Pliny\nasserts in very plain language that necromancy was so prevalent in\nhis day, but was condemned by the wisest, that it was classed with\ntreason and poisoning. And it is notorious that magic was long used as\na convenient though inefficient weapon against Christianity.\u2015Vide,\nlikewise, Livy i. 20, and Strabo, lib. vi.\n\nIt is impossible to point to any period when the belief in witchcraft\nand necromancy was perfectly obliterated, or to any nation which\naltogether repudiated it. If one particular phase was removed, or\ndiscountenanced, some other form, substantially and inherently similar,\neventually took its place.\n\nTouching the antiquity of Witchcraft, we must needs confess that it\nhath been of very ancient time, because the Scriptures do testify so\nmuch, for in the time of Moses it was very rife in Egypt. Neither was\nit then newly sprung up, being common, and grown into such ripeness\namong the nations, that the Lord, reckoning by divers kinds, saith that\nthe Gentiles did commit such abominations, for which He would cast\nthem out before the children of Israel.\u2015\u201cWhat a Witch is, and the\nAntiquities of Witchcraft,\u201d A. D. 1612.\n\nThe following passage, from a sermon by the late Canon Melville, is\ninteresting: \u201cIt is unnecessary for us to inquire what those arts may\nhave been in which the Ephesians are said to have greatly excelled.\nThere seems no reason for doubting that, as we have already stated,\nthey were of the nature of magic, sorcery, or witchcraft; though we\ncannot profess accurately to define what such terms might import. The\nEphesians, as some in all ages have done, probably laid claim to the\nintercourse with invisible beings, and professed to derive from that\nintercourse acquaintance with, and power over, future events. And\nthough the very name of witchcraft be now held in contempt, and the\nsupposition of communion with evil spirits scouted as a fable of what\nare called the dark ages, we own that we have difficulty in believing\nthat all which has passed by the names of magic and sorcery may be\nresolved into sleight of hand, deception, and trick. The visible world\nand the invisible are in very close contact: there is, indeed, a veil\non our eyes, preventing our gazing on spiritual beings and things, but\nwe doubt not that whatever passes upon the earth is open to the view of\nhigher and immaterial creatures. And as we are sure that a man of piety\nand prayer enlists good angels on his side and engages them to perform\ntowards him the ministrations of kindness, we know not why there\ncannot be such a thing as a man whose wickedness has caused his being\nabandoned by the Spirit of God, and who, in this his desertion, has\nthrown open to evil angels the chambers of his soul, and made himself\nso completely their instrument, that they may use him in the uttering\nor working strange things, which shall have all the air of prophecy or\nmiracle.\u201d\n\nThe oldest and most authentic record from which we can derive our\nideas on the subject of witchcraft, unquestionably is the Bible. The\nEgyptians and Chaldeans were early distinguished for their supposed\nproficiency in magic, in the production of supernatural phenomena, and\nin penetrating into the secrets of future time. The first appearance\nof men thus extraordinarily gifted, or advancing pretensions of this\nsort, recorded in Scripture, is on occasion of Pharoah\u2019s dream of the\nseven years of plenty, and seven years of famine. At that period the\nking \u201csent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all the wise\nmen; but they could not interpret the dream,\u201d which Joseph afterwards\nexpounded.\n\nTheir second appearance was upon a most memorable occasion, when Moses\nand Aaron, armed with miraculous powers, came to a subsequent king of\nEgypt, to demand from him that their countrymen might be permitted to\ndepart to another tract of the world. They produced a miracle as the\nevidence of their divine mission: and the king, who was also named\nPharoah, \u201ccalled before him the wise men and the sorcerers of Egypt,\nwho with their enchantments did in like manner\u201d as Moses had done;\ntill, after some experiments in which they were apparently successful,\nthey at length were compelled to allow themselves overcome, and fairly\nto confess to their master, \u201cThis is the finger of God\u201d!\n\nThe spirit of the Jewish history loudly affirms, that the Creator\nof heaven and earth had adopted this nation for his chosen people,\nand therefore demanded their exclusive homage, and that they should\nacknowledge no other God. It is on this principle that it is made one\nof his early commands to them, \u201cThou shalt not suffer a witch to live.\u201d\nAnd elsewhere the meaning of this prohibition is more fully explained:\n\u201cThere shall not be found among you any one that useth divination, or\nan observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a\nconsulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer; these\nshall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones.\u201d\n\nAs a matter of fact, it is computed that in the year 1515, no less than\nfive hundred witches were burnt in Geneva alone, and the same was the\ncase in other parts of Christendom,\u2015a proof at once of the craft and\npower of Satan, and of the demorilization of those who had deliberately\nelected to become his servants and slaves. The earliest statute against\nwitchcraft enacted in England, was passed in the reign of King Henry\nVI.; and additional laws of great stringency and severity, sorely\nneeded, were enacted under the Tudors, by Henry VIII., Queen Elizabeth,\nand James I. In the year 1604, the great Act of Parliament against\nwitchcraft, drawn up by Coke and Bacon, was passed; and it is asserted\nthat no less than twelve bishops attended the committee of the House\nof Lords when the bill was under discussion. Sir Matthew Hale and Sir\nThomas Browne, men of high legal and literary rank and mark, each gave\nevidence at the trials which speedily followed. In this particular,\nas in some others, England followed Geneva. Between the years 1565\nand 1700, eleven wizards or sorcerers were burnt at the stake in the\nCarrefour du Bordage, in Guernsey, the square devoted by the city\nauthorities of that island to this kind of punishment. The last case of\ndeath for Witchcraft there took place in 1747.\n\nIt may here be put on record that at the period of the Reformation,\nand during the succeeding century, the power of casting out devils\nwas claimed exclusively by those who remained in visible communion\nwith the See of Rome, and many Roman Catholic writers of those periods\nmaintained that no such power belonged either to any teacher of heresy\nor to schismatics.\n\n\n             HOPKINS, THE WITCH-FINDER, AND HIS VICTIMS.\n\n                         FROM AN OLD RECORD.\n\nIn the spring of 1645 several witches were seized at Manningtree in\nEngland and were subsequently condemned and hanged. One of these was\nan old woman named Elizabeth Clarke, and the most important witness\nagainst her was \u201cMatthew Hopkins, of Manningtree, gent.\u201d It appears\nthat Hopkins had watched with her several nights in a room in the house\nof a Mr. Edwards in which she was confined, to keep her from sleeping\nuntil she made a confession, and to see if she was visited by her\nfamiliars. He declared, among other things, that on the night of the\n24th of March, which appears to have been the third night of watching,\nafter he had refused to let her call one of her imps or familiars, she\nconfessed that six or seven years before, she had surrendered herself\nto the devil, who came to her in the form of \u201ca proper gentleman, with\na laced band.\u201d Soon after this a little dog appeared, fat and short\nin the legs, in color white, with sandy spots, which when he hindered\nit from approaching her, vanished from his sight. She confessed that\nit was one of her imps named Janiara. Immediately after this had\ndisappeared, another came in the form of a greyhound, which she called\nVinegar Tom; and it was followed by another in the form of a polecat.\n\u201cAnd this informant further saith, that going from the house of the\nsaid Mr. Edwards to his own house, about nine or ten o\u2019clock of the\nnight with his greyhound with him, he saw the greyhound suddenly give\na jump, and run as if she had been in full course after a hare; and\nthat when the informant made haste to see what his greyhound so eagerly\npursued, he espied a white thing about the size of a kitten, and the\ngreyhound standing aloof from it; and that, by-and-by, the said white\nimp or kitten danced about the said greyhound and by all likelihood bit\na piece of the flesh of her shoulder, for the greyhound came shrieking\nand crying to this informant with a piece of the flesh torn from her\nshoulder. And this informant further saith that coming into his own\nyard that night, he espied a black thing porportioned like a cat, only\nit was thrice as big, sitting on a strawberry bed, and fixing its eyes\non this informant; and when he went toward it, it leaped over the pale\ntoward this informant, as he thought, but ran quite through the yard\nwith his greyhound after it to a great gate which was underset with a\npair of turnbull-strings, and did throw the said gate wide open, and\nthen vanished; and the said greyhound returned again to this informant\nshaking and trembling exceedingly.\u201d Hopkins had not ventured to remain\nalone with the witch, but had with him John Stern, who also added\n\u201cgentleman\u201d to his name, and who confirmed all that Hopkins had said,\ndeposed to the coming of imps and added that the third imp was called\nSack-and-Sugar. They watched at night with another woman, named Rebecca\nWest, and saw her imps in the same manner. She stated that the first\ntime she saw Satan he came to her at night, and told her he must be her\nhusband, and married her. The severe treatment to which the accused\nwere exposed, forced confessions from them all, and they avowed being\nguilty of every species of mischief, from the taking away of human\nlife to the spoiling of milk. The names and forms of their imps were\nequally fantastic. Rebecca Jones, a witch from St. Osythe\u2019s, said that\nshe had met a man in a ragged suit with great eyes, that terrified her\nexceedingly, and that he gave her three things like moles but without\ntails, which she fed with milk. Another had an imp in the form of\na white dog, which she called Elimanzer, and which she fed on milk\npottage. One had three imps, which she called Prick-ear, Jack and Frog.\nSeveral witnesses, poor and ignorant people, were brought to testify to\nthe mischief which had been done by these means. A countryman gravely\nrelated how, passing at day by the house of one of the women, named\nAnne West, he was surprised to find her door open at that early hour,\nand looking in he saw three or four things like black rabbits, one of\nwhich ran after him. He seized upon it, and tried to kill it, but it\nseemed in his hands like a piece of wool, and stretched out in length\nas he pulled it without any apparent injury. Then recollecting that\nthere was a spring near at hand, he hurried thither and attempted\nto drown it, but it vanished from his sight as soon as he put it in\nthe water. He then returned toward the house and seeing Anne West\nstanding outside the door in her smock, he asked why she sent her\nimps to torment him. This seems to have been the first appearance of\nMatthew Hopkins as a witch-finder, for which he afterwards became\nnotorious, and which he now assumed as a legal profession. He proceeded\nin a regular circuit through Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambrigeshire, and\nHuntingdon, accompanied by John Sterne and a woman whose business it\nwas to examine the bodies of the females in search of their marks. In\nAugust 1645, we find them at Bury, in Suffolk, where, on the 27th of\nthat month, no less than eighteen witches were executed at once, and a\nhundred and twenty more were to have been tried, but a sudden movement\nof the king\u2019s troops in that direction obliged the judges to adjourn\nthe session. Some of the imps here appeared in the shape of snakes,\nwasps and hornets, and even of snails. They were mostly employed\nin petty offences; one man and his wife were guilty only of having\nbewitched the beer in a brewhouse and making it stink. Others however,\nconfessed to have caused mischief of a more serious character.\n\nThe most remarkable victim of this inquisition, was an aged clergyman\nnamed Lowes, who had been vicar of Brandeston, near Framlingham, in\nthat county fifty years, a well known opponent of the new church\ngovernment. This man, we are told by Sterne, one of the inquisitors,\nhad been indicted for a common imbanatator, and for witchcraft above\nthirty years before, and the grand jury found the bill for a common\nimbanator, who now, after he was found with the marks, confessed that\nin pride of heart to be equal with, or rather above God, the devil\ntook advantage of him, and he covenanted with the devil and sealed it\nwith his blood, and had those familiars or spirits, which sucked on\nthe marks found on his body, and did much harm both by sea and land,\nespecially by sea, for he confessed he being at Lungarfort, in Suffolk,\nwhere he preached, as he walked upon the wall there, he saw a great\nsail of ships pass by, and that, as they were sailing by, one of the\nthree imps, namely, his yellow one, forthwith appeared to him and asked\nhim what he should do, and he bade it go and sink such a ship, one\nthat belonged to Ipswich, so he confessed that the imp went forthwith\naway, and he stood still and viewed the ships, and perceived that the\nship to be immediately in more trouble and danger than the rest; for he\nsaid the water was more boisterous near that than the rest, tumbling\nup and down with waves, and soon after it sunk directly down into the\nsea, when all the rest sailed on in safety; then he confessed, he made\nfourteen widows in one quarter of an hour. When asked if it did not\ngrieve him to see so many men cast away in a short time, he swore by\nhis Maker, \u201cNo; he was joyful to see what power his imps had.\u201d He was\nhanged, in 1645, at Bury St. Edmund\u2019s.\n\n\n                     APPARITION OF A LIVING MAN.\n\nAbout sixty or seventy years ago, a man of piety and integrity arrived\nin Germany from Philadelphia, to visit his poor old parents, and, with\nhis well-earned wealth, to place them beyond the reach of care. He went\nout to America while he was still young, and had succeeded so far as\nto become overlooker of various mills on the Delaware river, in which\nsituation he had honorably laid up a considerable sum.\n\nIn the neighborhood of Philadelphia, not far from the mills\nabove-mentioned, there dwelt a solitary man in a lonely house. He\nwas very benevolent, but extremely retired and reserved, and strange\nthings were related of him, among which was his being able to tell a\nperson things that were unknown to every one else. Now it happened,\nthat the captain of a vessel belonging to Philadelphia, was about to\nsail to Africa and Europe. He promised his wife that he would return\nin a certain time, and also that he would write to her frequently. She\nwaited long, but no letters arrived: the time appointed passed over,\nbut her beloved husband did not return. She was now deeply distressed\nand knew not where to look for counsel or consolation. At length, a\nfriend advised her for once to go to the pious solitary and tell her\ngriefs. The woman followed his advice, and went to him. After she had\ntold him all her troubles, he desired her to wait a while there, until\nhe returned and brought her an answer. She sat down to wait, and the\nman opening a door, went into his closet. But the woman thinking he\nstayed a long, long time, rose up, went to the window in the door,\nlifted up the little curtain, and looking in, saw him lying on the\ncouch or sofa like a corpse; she then immediately went back to her\nplace. At length he came and told her that her husband was in London,\nin a coffee-house which he named, and that he would return very soon:\nhe then told her also the reason why he had been unable to write. The\nwoman went home pretty much at ease.\n\nWhat the solitary had told her was minutely fulfilled, her husband\nreturned, and the reasons of his delay and his not writing were just\nthe same as the man had stated. The woman was now curious to know what\nwould be the result, if she visited the friendly solitary in company\nwith her husband. The visit was arranged, but when the captain saw the\nman, he was struck with amazement; he afterwards told his wife that he\nhad seen this very man, on such a day (it was the very day that the\nwoman had been with him), in a coffee-house in London; and that he had\ntold him that his wife was much distressed about him; that he had then\nstated the reason why his return was delayed, and of his not writing,\nand that he would shortly come back, on which he lost sight of the man\namong the company.\n\n\n                      PROVIDENTIAL FOREBODINGS.\n\nIn the \u201cMuseum of Wonders,\u201d vol. 2, chap. ii., page 152, there is a\nstriking instance of a presentiment, related by Madame de Beaumont,\nin the eigth volume of the \u201cUniversal Magazine for Art and Nature.\u201d\nShe says, \u201cMy whole family still remembers an accident, from which my\nfather was preserved by a presentiment of danger. Sailing upon the\nriver is one of the common amusements of the city of Rouen, in France.\nMy father also took great pleasure in these water-parties, and he\nseldom suffered many weeks to pass over without enjoying it. On one\noccasion he agreed with a party to sail to Port St. Omer, about ten\nmiles from Rouen. Dinner and musical instruments had been sent on board\nthe vessel, and every preparation made for a pleasant excursion. When\nit was time to go on board, an aunt of my father\u2019s, who was deaf and\ndumb, uttered a kind of howl, placed herself at the door, blocked up\nthe way with her arms, struck her arms together, and gave by signs\nto understand that she conjured him to remain at home. My father who\nhad promised himself much pleasure from this excursion, only laughed\nat her entreaties: but the lady fell at his feet, and manifested such\npoignant signs of grief, that he at length determined to yield to her\nentreaties, and postpone his excursion to another day. He therefore\nendeavored to detain the rest also; but they laughed at him for being\nso easily persuaded, and set sail. Scarcely had the vessel proceeded\nhalf the distance, before those on board had the greatest reason to\nrepent that they had not followed his advice. The vessel went to\npieces, several lost their lives, and those that saved themselves by\nswimming were so much terrified at their narrow escape, that they with\ndifficulty got the better of it.\u201d\n\nNo mechanical explanation can apply to this remarkable presentiment.\nThe warning angel found he could work on no one better than the person\nwho was deaf and dumb, he therefore selected her for the execution of\nhis commission.\n\nIn the same volume of the \u201cMuseum of Wonders,\u201d page 153, there is an\nequally striking presentiment related, which the editor had from the\nlips of a credible person. This individual had a friend who had a\nresponsible situation in the country. Being unmarried, he committed\nhis domestic concerns to the care of a housekeeper, who had been with\nhim many years. His birthday arrived, he made many preparations for\ncelebrating it; and told his housekeeper early in the morning, that as\nthe day was fine, she should clean out a certain arbor in the garden,\nwhich he named, because he intended to pass the day in it with his\nguests. Scarcely had she received this commission, than she seemed\nquite in a maze, and she delayed the fulfillment of it. At length\nshe entreated him rather to receive his guests in one of the rooms\nof the house, for she had a presentiment that the arbor would that\nday be struck by lightning. He laughed at her assertion, as there was\nno appearance of a storm coming on that day, and on her renewing her\nentreaties, he was only the more urgent that the arbor he had pointed\nout should be made ready, that it might not appear that he gave way to\nher superstitious feelings. At length she went, and did as her master\nordered her. The day continued fine, the company that had been invited\narrived, they went into the arbor and made themselves merry. In the\nmeantime, however, clouds had gathered in the distant horizon, and were\nat length powerfully driven toward the place by the wind. The company\nwere so intent upon their entertainment, that they did not in the least\nobserve it; but scarcely was the housekeeper aware that the storm was\napproaching, than she begged her master to leave the arbor with his\ncompany, for she could not divest herself at all of the idea of the\nlightning striking it. At first they would not listen to her, but she\ncontinued her entreaties unremittingly; and, at length, as the storm\napproached with great violence, they suffered themselves to be induced\nto leave the arbor. They had not been in the room more than a few\nminutes when the lightning struck the arbor, and dashed everything that\nhad been left in it to pieces.\n\n\n                    LOTTERY PRIZES WON BY DREAMS.\n\n          FROM A LETTER IN MORITZ\u2019S EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY.\n\n\u201cYou desire me to give you a written account of what I lately verbally\nrelated to you regarding the soul\u2019s faculty of prescience. As my\nexperience rests solely upon dreams, I have certainly reason to\napprehend that many will take me for a fantastic dreamer; but if I can\ncontribute anything to the very useful object of your work, it is no\nmatter\u2015let people think what they will. Be that as it may, I vouch for\nthe truth and veracity of what I shall now more particularly relate.\n\n\u201cIn the year 1768, while learning the business of an apothecary in the\nroyal medical establishment at Berlin, I played in the seventy-second\ndrawing of the Prussian numerical lottery, which took place on the 30th\nof May of the same year, and fixed upon the numbers 22 and 60.\n\n\u201cIn the night preceeding the day of drawing, I dreamed that toward\ntwelve o\u2019clock at noon, which is the time when the lottery is generally\ndrawn, the master-apothecary sent down to me to tell me that I must\ncome up to him. On going up stairs, he told me to go immediately to Mr.\nMylius, the auctioneer, on the other side of the castle, and ask him if\nhe had disposed of the books which had been left with him for sale; but\nthat I must return speedily, because he waited for his answer.\n\n\u201c\u2018That\u2019s just the thing,\u2019 thought I, still dreaming; \u2018the lottery will\njust be drawing, and as I have executed my commission, I will run\nquickly to the general lottery-office, and see if my numbers come out\u2019\n(the lottery was drawn at that time in the open street); \u2018if I only\nwalk quick, I shall be at home again soon enough.\u2019\n\n\u201cI went therefore immediately, (still in my dream.) in compliance with\nthe orders I had received, to Mr. Mylius, the auctioneer, executed my\ncommission, and, after receiving his answer, ran hastily to the general\nlottery-office, on the \u2018Hunters\u2019 Bridge.\u2019 Here I found the customary\npreparations, and a considerable number of spectators. They had already\nbegun to put the numbers into the wheel\u2015and the moment I came up, No.\n60 was exhibited and called out. \u2018Oh,\u2019 thought I, \u2018it is a good omen,\nthat just one of my own numbers should be called out the moment I\narrive.\u2019\n\n\u201cAs I had not much time, I now wished for nothing so much as that they\nwould hasten as much as possible with telling in the remaining numbers.\nAt length they were all counted in, and now I saw them bind the eyes of\nthe boy belonging to the orphan-school, and the numbers afterward drawn\nin the customary manner.\n\n\u201cWhen the first number was exhibited and called out, it was No. 22. \u2018A\ngood omen again!\u2019 thought I; \u2018No. 60 will also certainly come out.\u2019 The\nsecond number was drawn\u2015and behold, it was No. 60!\n\n\u201cNow they may draw what they will, said I to some one who stood near\nme; \u2018my numbers are out\u2015I have no more time to spare.\u2019 With that, I\nturned myself about and ran directly home.\n\n\u201cHere I awoke, and was as clearly conscious of my dream as I am\nnow relating it. If its natural connection and the very particular\nperspicuity, had not been so striking, I should have regarded it as\nnothing else than a common dream, in the general sense of the term. But\nthis made me pay attention to it, and excited my curiosity so much that\nI could scarcely wait till noon.\n\n\u201cAt length it struck eleven, but still there was no appearance of\nmy dream being fulfilled. It struck a quarter\u2015it struck half-past\neleven\u2015and still there was no probability of it. I had already given\nup all hope, when one of the work-people unexpectedly came to me, and\ntold me to go up stairs immediately to the master-apothecary. I went\nup full of expectation, and heard with the greatest astonishment that\nI must go directly to Mr. Mylius, the auctioneer, on the other side\nof the castle, and ask him if he had disposed of the books at auction\nwhich had been entrusted to him. He told me also, at the same time, to\nreturn quickly, because he waited for an answer.\n\n\u201cWho could have made more despatch than I? I went in haste to Mr.\nMylius, the auctioneer, executed my commission, and, then after\nreceiving his answer, ran as quickly as possible to the general\nlottery-office, on the \u2018Hunters\u2019 Bidge\u2019; and, full of astonishment, I\nsaw that No. 60 was exhibited and called out the moment I arrived. As\nmy dream had been thus far so punctually fulfilled, I was now willing\nto wait the end of it, although I had so little time; I therefore\nwished for nothing so much as that they would hasten with counting\nin the remaining numbers. At length they finished. The eyes of the\norphan-boy were bound, as customary, and it is easy to conceive the\neagerness with which I awaited the final accomplishment of my dream.\n\n\u201cThe first number was drawn and called out, and behold, it was No. 22!\nThe second was drawn, and this was also as I had dreamed, No. 60!\n\n\u201cIt now occurred to me that I had already stayed longer than my errand\nallowed; I therefore requested the person who was next to me in the\ncrowd to let me pass. \u2018What,\u2019 said one of them to me, \u2018will you not\nwait till the numbers are all out?\u2019 \u2018No,\u2019 said I, \u2018my numbers are\nalready out, and they may now draw what they please, for ought I care.\u2019\nWith that, I turned about, pushed through the crowd, and ran hastily\nand joyfully home. Thus was the whole of my dream fulfilled, not only\nin substance, but literally and verbatim.\n\n\u201cIt will perhaps not be disagreeable to you, if I relate two other\noccurences of a similar nature:\u2015\n\n\u201cOn the 18th of August, 1776, I dreamed I was walking in the vicinity\nof the \u2018Silesian Gate,\u2019 and intended to go home thence, directly across\nthe field, by the Ricksdorf or Dresden road.\n\n\u201cI found the field full of stubble, and it seemed as if the corn that\nhad stood there had only been reaped and housed a short time before.\nThis was really the case, although I had not previously seen it.\nOn entering the Ricksdorf road, I perceived that some persons had\ncollected before one of the first houses, and were looking up at it. I\nconsequently supposed that something new had occurred in or before the\nhouse, and for this reason, on coming up, I asked the first person I\nmet\u2015\u2018What is the matter here?\u2019 He answered with great indifference,\n\u2018The lottery is drawn.\u2019\u2015\u2018So,\u2019 said I, \u2018is it drawn already? What\nnumbers are out?\u2019 \u2018There they stand,\u2019 replied he, and pointed with\nhis finger to the door of a shop that was in the house, which I now\nperceived for the first time.\n\n\u201cI looked at the door, and found that the numbers were written up, on\na black border round the door, as is frequently the case. In order to\nascertain if there was really a shop, with a receiving house for the\nlottery, at the commencement of the Ricksdorf road, I did not think it\ntoo much trouble to go there, and found that this was really the case.\nTo my great vexation, I found that only one of my numbers had come out.\nI looked over the numbers once more, in order not to forget them, and\nthen went home disappointed.\n\n\u201cOn awaking, I was hindered, by an accidental noise, from immediately\nrecollecting my dream, but shortly afterward it again occurred to\nme; and, after a little reflection, I remembered it as clearly as I\nhave now related it, but found it difficult to recollect all the five\nnumbers.\n\n\u201cThat No. 47 was the first, and No. 21 the second of the numbers, I\nremembered perfectly well; that the third which followed was a 6, I was\nalso certain, only I was not confident whether the 0 which I had seen\nhereabouts belonged to the 6 or the following number 4, which I also\nremembered very distinctly to have seen; and I was not certain of this,\nit might have been just as well 6 and 4 alone as 60 and 40.\n\n\u201cI was the least confident as to the fifth number: that it was between\n50 and 60 I was certain, but which I could not precisely determine. I\nhad already laid money upon No. 21, and this was the number which,\naccording to my dream, should come out.\n\n\u201cAs remarkable as my dream appeared to be in other respects, yet\nI was diffident of it, from being unable to remember all the five\nnumbers. Although I was quite certain that among the sixteen numbers\nmentioned\u2015that is, those between 50 and 60, and the six previously\nindicated\u2015all the five which I had seen in my dream were contained;\nand although there was still time to secure the numbers, yet it did not\nsuit me on account of the considerable sum it would require to stake\nupon all the sixteen numbers, I therefore contented myself with a few\nAMBS and TERNES, and had, besides this, the disappointment of selecting\na bad conjunction of numbers.\n\n\u201cThe third day afterward (the 21st of August, 1776) the lottery was\ndrawn. It was the two hundred and fifteenth drawing, and all the\nfive numbers which I had seen in my dream came out exactly\u2015namely,\n60, 4, 21, 52, 42; and I now remembered that No. 52 was the fifth of\nthose which I had seen in my dream, and which I could not previously\nrecollect with certainty.\n\n\u201cInstead of some thousand dollars, I was now compelled to be contented\nwith about twenty!\n\n\u201cThe third, and, for the present, the last occurrence of this kind,\nwhich I shall relate, was as follows:\u2015\n\n\u201cOn the 21st of September, 1777, I dreamed that a good friend of mine\nvisited me, and after the conversation had turned upon the lottery,\nhe desired that he might draw some numbers out of my little wheel of\nfortune which I had at that time.\n\n\u201cHe drew several numbers, with the intention of staking money upon\nthem. When he had done drawing, I took all the numbers out of the\nwheel, laid them before me upon the table, and said to him, \u2018The number\nwhich I now take up will certainly come out at the next drawing.\u2019 I put\nmy hand into the heap and drew out a number, unfolded it, and looked at\nit: it was very plainly 25. I was going to fold it up and put it again\ninto the wheel, but that very moment I awoke.\n\n\u201cHaving so clear a recollection of my dream, as I have now related\nit, I had much confidence in the number, and therefore staked so much\nupon it as to be satisfied with the winnings; but two hours before the\nlottery was drawn, I received my money back from the lottery-agent,\nwith the news that my number was completely filled up. The lottery was\ndrawn on the 24th of September, and the number really came out.\n\n\u201cAlthough I very willingly allow, and am well aware that many and\nperhaps the generality of dreams arise from causes which are founded\nmerely in the body, and therefore can have no further significance\u2015yet\nI believe I have been convinced by repeated experience that there are\nnot unfrequently dreams, in the origin and existence of which the body,\nas such, has no part; and to these, in my opinion, belong the three\ninstances above mentioned.\n\n\u201cI do not think that the contents of these dreams ought to give\noccasion to any one to judge wrongfully; for otherwise, I could just as\nwell have selected others: but I have placed them together precisely\nbecause of their similarity.\n\n                            \u201cCHRIST KNAPE,\n             \u201cDoc. of Philosophy, Medicine, and Surgery.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                      REMARKABLE FULFILLMENT OF A\n                              PREDICTION.\n\n                         FROM A GERMAN AUTHOR.\n\n\nIn my younger days, there was a dinner given in the village of\nFloremburgh, Westphalia, where I was born, on the occasion of a\nbaptism, to which the clergyman, a worthy man, was invited. During\ndinner, the conversation turned upon the grave-digger of the place,\nwho was well known, particularly on account of his second-sight, and\neven feared; for as often as he saw a corpse, he was always telling\nthat there would be a funeral out of such a house. Now, as the event\ninvariably took place, the inhabitants of the house he indicated\nwere placed by the man\u2019s tale in the greatest dilemma and anxiety,\nparticularly if there was any one in the house who was sickly, whose\ndeath might probably be hastened if the prediction was not concealed\nfrom him\u2015which, however, generally took place.\n\nThis man\u2019s prophecying was an abomination to the clergyman. He forbade\nit, he reproved, he scolded, but all to no purpose; for the poor dolt,\nalthough he was a drunkard, and a man of low and vulgar sentiments,\nbelieved firmly that it was a prophetic gift of God, and that he must\nmake it known, in order that the people might still repent. At length,\nas all reproof was in vain, the clergyman gave him notice that if he\nannounced one funeral more, he should be deprived of his place, and\nexpelled the village. This availed\u2015the grave-digger was silent from\nthat time forward. Half a year afterward, in autumn, about the year\n1745, the grave-digger comes to the clergyman and says: \u201cSir, you\nhave forbidden me to announce any more funerals, and I have not done\nso since, nor will I do so any more; but I must now tell you something\nthat is particularly remarkable, that you may see that my second-sight\nis really true. In a few weeks a corpse will be brought up the meadow,\nwhich will be drawn on a sledge by an ox.\u201d The clergyman seemingly\npaid no attention to this, but listened to it with indifference, and\nreplied: \u201cOnly go about your business, and leave off such superstitious\nfollies; it is sinful to have anything to do with them.\u201d\n\nThe thing, nevertheless, appeared extremely singular and remarkable to\nthe clergyman; for, in my country, a corpse being drawn on a sledge\nby an ox is most disgraceful, because the bodies of those that commit\nsuicide, and notorious malefactors, are thus drawn on sledges.\n\nSome weeks after a strong body of Austrian troops passed through the\nvillage on their way to the Netherlands. While resting there a day,\nthe snow fell nearly three feet deep. At the same time, a woman died\nin another village of the same parish. The military took away all the\nhorses out of the country to drag their wagons. Meanwhile the corpse\nlay there; no horses came back; the corpse began to putrify, and the\nstench became intolerable: they were, therefore, compelled to make a\nvirtue of necessity\u2015to place the corpse upon a sledge and harness an\nox to the vehicle.\n\nIn the meantime, the clergyman, and the schoolmaster with his scholars,\nproceeded to the entrance of the village to meet the corpse; and, as\nthe funeral came along the meadow in this array, the grave-digger\nstepped up to the clergyman, pulled him by the gown, pointed with his\nfinger to it, and said not a word.\n\nSuch was the tale, with all its circumstances, as related by the\nclergyman. I was well acquainted with the good man: he was incapable of\ntelling an untruth, much less in a matter which contradicted all his\nprinciples.\n\nAnother history of this kind, for the truth of which I can vouch, was\nrelated to me by my late father and his brother, both very pious men,\nand to whom it would have been impossible to have told a falsehood.\n\nBoth of them had business, on one occasion, in the Westphalian provence\nof Mark, when they were invited to dinner at the protestant preacher\u2019s.\nDuring the repast, the subject of second-sight was likewise brought\nupon the carpet. The minister spoke of it with acrimony, because he had\nalso a grave-digger who was afflicted with that evil; he had often and\nrepeatedly forbidden him from mentioning it, but all to no purpose. On\none occasion, the prognosticator came to the minister and said, \u201cI have\nto tell you, sir, that in a short time there will be a funeral from\nyour house, and you will have to follow the coffin before all the other\nfuneral attendants.\u201d Terror, anger, and displeasure, got so much the\nbetter of the good pastor, that he drove the thoughtless fellow out of\nthe door; for his wife was near her confinement: and, notwithstanding\nevery rational view which he took, he passed a melancholy time of it,\ntill at length his wife was safely delivered and out of danger. He now\nreproached the grave-digger most bitterly, and said, \u201cSee, now, how\nunfounded thy reveries have been!\u201d But the corpse-seer only smiled and\nsaid, \u201cSir, the matter is not yet finished.\u201d\n\nImmediately afterward the preacher\u2019s servant-maid died of an\napoplexy. Now, it is the custom there for the master of the house,\non such occasions, to immediately follow the coffin, before the next\nrelatives; but this time the preacher endeavored to avoid it, in order\nto confound the corpse-seer. He did not venture, however, to offend\nthe parents of the deceased, which he would have done most grossly\nif he had not followed the coffin. He found, therefore, a suitable\nexcuse in the circumstance that his wife\u2015who, according to the custom\nprevalent there, was then to go to church for the first time after her\nconfinement\u2015should take his place, and he would then accompany the\nschoolmaster and his scholars, as was usual.\n\nThis was discussed and agreed upon, and the parents were likewise\nsatisfied with it. On the day the funeral was to take place, the\ncompany assembled at the parsonage. The coffin lay on a bier in the\nporch; the schoolmaster with his scholars stood in a circle in front of\nthe house and sang;\u2015the minister was just going out to his appointed\nplace; his wife stepped behind the coffin, and the bearers laid hold\nof the bier, when that very moment the minister\u2019s wife fell down in\na fit; she was taken into a room, and brought again to herself, but\nwas so ill that she could not go to church; and the minister was so\nterrified by this accident, that it no longer occurred to him to make\nthe grave-digger into a liar, but he stepped very quietly behind the\ncoffin, as the prognosticator would have it.\n\n\n\n\n                      EXTRAORDINARY FOREWARNING,\n\n      AS IT REALLY OCCURRED IN LORD TYRONE\u2019S FAMILY, IN IRELAND.\n\n\nLord Tyrone and Lady Beresford were born in Ireland; they were both\nleft orphans in their infancy, to the care of the same person, by whom\nthey were both educated in the principles of Deism. When they were\neach of them about fourteen years of age they fell into very different\nhands. The persons on whom the care of them now devolved, used every\npossible endeavor to eradicate the erroneous principles they had\nimbibed, and to persuade them to embrace the revealed religion, but in\nvain; their arguments were insuffient to convince them, but they were\npowerful enough to stagger their former faith. Though now separated\nfrom each other, their friendship continued unalterable, and they\nseemed to regard each other with a sincere and fraternal affection.\nAfter some years had elapsed, and they were each of them grown up, they\nmade a solemn promise to each other, that whoever should first die,\nwould, if permitted, appear to the other to declare what religion was\nmost approved of by the Supreme Being. Lady Beresford was shortly after\naddressed by Sir Marcus Beresford, to whom, after a few years; she was\nmarried; but no change in condition had power to alter her friendship;\nthe families frequently visited each other, and often spent more than a\nfortnight together. A short time after one of those visits, Sir Marcus\nBeresford remarked when his lady came down to breakfast in the morning,\nthat her countenance was unusually pale, and bore evident marks of\nterror and confusion; he inquired anxiously after her health, she\nassured him she was well, perfectly well; he repeated his inquiries,\nand begged to know if anything had disordered her; she replied no, she\nwas as well as usual. \u201cHave you hurt your wrist, have you sprained it?\u201d\nsaid he, observing a black ribbon bound round it. She replied no, she\nhad not; but added, \u201clet me conjure you, Sir M. never to inquire the\ncause of my wearing this ribbon, you will never more see me without it;\nif it concerned you as a husband to know it, I would not for a moment\nconceal it from you. I never in my life denied a request, but of this\nI must entreat you to forgive my refusal, and never to urge me further\non the subject.\u201d \u201cVery well, my lady, (said he, smiling) since you so\nearnestly desire me, I will inquire no further.\u201d The conversation here\nended; but breakfast was scarcely over when Lady B. inquired if the\npost was come in? she was told it was not. In a few minutes she again\nrang the bell for her servant, and repeated the inquiry, \u201cIs not the\npost yet come?\u201d she was told it was not. \u201cDo you expect any letter,\n(said Sir M.) that you are so anxious concerning the coming of the\npost?\u201d \u201cI do, (she answered) I expect to hear that Lord Tyrone is dead:\nhe died last Tuesday, at four o\u2019clock.\u201d \u201cI never in my life, (said Sir\nM.) believed you superstitious, but you must have had some idle dream\nwhich has thus alarmed you.\u201d\n\nAt that instant a servant opened the door, and delivered to them a\nletter, sealed with black. \u201cIt is as I expected, (exclaimed Lady B.) he\nis dead.\u201d Sir M. opened the letter, it came from Lord Tyrone\u2019s stewart,\nand contained the melancholy intelligence that his master died the\nTuesday preceding, at the very time that Lady B. had specified. Sir M.\nentreated her to compose her spirits, and to endeavor as much as lay in\nher power not to make herself unhappy. She assured him that she felt\nmuch easier than she had for some time past; and added, \u201cI can inform\nyou of something which I know will prove welcome. I can assure you\nbeyond the possibility of a doubt, that I am with child of a son.\u201d Sir\nM. received the intelligence with that pleasure that might be expected,\nand expressed in the strongest terms, the felicity he should experience\nfrom such an event, which he had so long ardently desired.\n\nAfter a period of some months, Lady B. was delivered of a son; she had\nbefore been the mother of two daughters only. Sir Marcus survived the\nbirth of his son little more than four years. After his decease his\nlady went but little from home; she visited no family but that of a\nclergyman, who resided in the same village, with whom she frequently\npassed a few hours, the rest of her time was entirely devoted to\nsolitude, and she appeared forever determined to banish all other\nsociety. The clergyman\u2019s family consisted of himself, his wife, and one\nson, who at Sir M\u2019s. death was quite a youth; to this son, however, she\nwas afterwards married, in the space of a few years, notwithstanding\nthe disparity of his years, and the manifest imprudence of such a\nconnection, so unequal in every respect.\n\nThe event justified the expectation of every one. Lady B. was treated\nby her young husband with neglect and cruelty, and the whole of his\nconduct evinced him the most abandoned libertine, utterly destitute of\nevery principle of virtue and humanity. To this her second husband,\nLady B. brought two daughters; afterwards, such was the profligacy of\nhis conduct, that she insisted upon a separation. They parted for\nsometime, when so great was the sorrow he expressed for his former\nill conduct, that, won over by his supplication and promises, she\nwas induced to pardon, and once more reside with him; and was, after\nsometime made the mother of a son.\n\nThe day on which she had him in a month, being the anniversary of her\nbirthday, she sent for Lady \u2015\u2015, of whose friendship she had long been\npossessed, and a few friends, to request them to spend the day with\nher. About noon the clergyman by whom she had been baptised, and with\nwhom she had all her life maintained an intimacy, came into the room\nto inquire after her health; she told him she felt perfectly well,\nand requested him to spend the day with her, it being her birthday.\n\u201cFor, (said she) I am forty-eight this day.\u201d \u201cNo, my lady, (answered\nthe clergyman) you are mistaken, your mother and myself have had many\ndisputes concerning your age, and I have at length discovered I am\nright; happening to go last week to the parish where you were born, I\nwas resolved to put an end to my doubt by searching the register, and\nfind that you are forty-seven this day.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou have signed my death warrant, (said she) I have not much longer to\nlive. I must, therefore entreat you to leave me immediately, as I have\nsomething of importance to settle before I die.\u201d\n\nWhen the clergyman had left Lady B. she sent to forbid her company\ncoming; and at the same time to request Lady \u2015\u2015, and her son, of whom\nSir M. Beresford was father, and who then was about twelve years of\nage, to come to her apartment. Immediatly upon their arrival, having\nordered her attendants to quit the room, \u201cI have (said she) something\nto communicate to you both before I die, a period which is not far\ndistant. You, lady are no stranger to the friendship that always\nexisted between Lord Tyrone and myself; we were educated under the\nsame roof, in the same principles, those of Deism. When the friends\ninto whose hands we afterwards fell, endeavored to persuade us to\nembrace the revealed religion, their arguments, though insufficient\nto convince us, were powerful enough to stagger our former faith, and\nto leave us wavering between two opinions. In this perplexing state\nof doubt and uncertainty, we made a solemn promise to each other,\nthat whichever should happen to die first, would, if permitted by the\nAlmighty, appear to the other to declare what religion was acceptable\nto him. Accordingly one night, when Sir M. and myself were in bed, I\nawoke, and discovered Lord Tyrone sitting by my bedside; I screamed\nout, and endeavored, but in vain, to awake Sir M. \u2018For heaven\u2019s sake,\nLord Tyrone, (said I) by what means, or for what purpose came you this\ntime of night?\u2019 \u2018Have you forgot our promise? (said he) I died last\nTuesday, at four o\u2019clock, and have been permitted by the Supreme Being\nto appear to you, to assure you that the revealed religion is the true\nand only religion by which we can be saved. I am further suffered to\ninform you, that you are with child of a son, who is decreed to marry\nmy daughter; not many years after his birth, Sir M. will die, and you\nwill marry again, and to a man whose ill treatment you will be rendered\nmiserable by; you will bring him two daughters, and afterwards a son,\nin child-bed of whom you will die, in the forty-seventh year of your\nage.\u2019\n\n\u201cJust heaven, (exclaimed I) and cannot I prevent this?\u2019 \u2018Undoubtly you\nmay, (returned he); you have a free assent, and may prevent all by\nresisting every temptation to a second marriage; but your passions are\nstrong, you know not their power; hitherto you have had no trial, nor\nam I allowed to tell you, but if after this warning you persist in your\ninfidelity, your lot in another world will be miserable indeed.\u2019 \u2018May\nI ask, (said I) if you are happy?\u2019 \u2018Had I been otherwise, (said he) I\nshould not have been thus permitted to appear to you.\u2019 \u2018I may thence\ninfer that you are happy?\u2019 He smiled, but did not answer.\n\n\u201cBut how, said I, when the morning comes, shall I be convinced that\nyour appearance to me thus has been real, and not the mere phantom\nof my imagination.\u2019 \u2018Will not the news of my death, (said he) be\nsufficient to convince you?\u2019 \u2018No (returned I,) I might have had such\na dream, and that dream might accidentally come to pass; I must have\nstronger proofs of its reality.\u2019 \u2018You shall,\u2019 said he; then waving his\nhand, the bed curtains, which were of crimson velvet, were instantly\ndrawn through a large iron hoop, by which the tester of the bed, which\nwas of an oval form, was suspended: \u2018In that (said he) you cannot be\nmistaken; no mortal could have performed this.\u2019 \u2018True, (said I) but\nsleeping we are often possessed of far greater strength than awake;\nthough awake I could not have done it, asleep I might. I shall still\ndoubt.\u2019 He then said, \u2018You have a pocket-book, on the leaves of which\nI will write: you know my handwriting.\u2019 I replied \u2018Yes.\u2019 He wrote with\na pencil on one side of the leaves. \u2018Still, (said I) in the morning, I\ndoubt, though awake I may not imitate your hand, asleep I might.\u2019\n\n\u2018You are born of belief, I must not touch you, it would injure you\nirreparably, it is not for spirits to touch mortal flesh.\u2019 I do not\nmind a small blemish,\u2019 said I. \u2018You are a woman of spirit, (said he)\nhold out your hand.\u2019 I did; he touched my wrist; his hand was as cold\nas marble; in a moment the sinews shrunk up, every nerve withered. \u2018Now\n(said he) while you live, let no mortal eye behold that wrist, to see\nit will be sacrilege.\u2019 He stopped; I turned to him again\u2015he was gone.\nDuring the time in which I had conversed with him, my thoughts were\nperfectly calm and collected, but the moment he was gone I felt chilled\nwith horror, and a cold sweat came over me; every limb and joint shook\nunder me; I endeavored to awake Sir M. but in vain; all my efforts were\nineffectual. In this state of agitation I lay some time, when a shower\nof tears came to my relief, and I droped asleep. In the morning Sir\nMarcus arose and dressed himself as usual, without perceiving the state\nin which the curtains remained. When I awoke, I found Sir Marcus was\ngone down. I arose, and having put on my clothes, went into the gallery\nadjoining our apartment, and took from thence a long broom, such a one\nas in a large house is frequently used to sweep the cornices, with the\nhelp of which, though not without difficulty, I took down the curtains,\nas I imagined their extraordinary position would excite wonder among\nthe servants, and occasion inquiries I wished to avoid. I then went\nto my bureau, locked up the pocket-book and took out a piece of black\nribbon which I bound round my wrist. When I came down, the agitation of\nmy mind on my countenance, was too visible to pass long unobserved by\nSir Marcus; he instantly remarked my confusion, and inquired the cause.\nI told him I was well, perfectly well, but informed him Lord Tyrone was\nno more, that he died on the preceding Tuesday at the hour of four, and\nat the same time entreated him to drop all inquiries concerning the\nblack ribbon he noticed on my wrist. He kindly desisted any further\nimportunity, nor did he ever after imagine the cause. You, my son, as\nhad been foretold, I brought into the world with much rejoicing, and\nin little more than four years after your birth your father died in my\narms. After the melancholy event, I determined, as the, only probable\nmeans by which to avoid the dreadful sequel of the prediction, to give\nup every pleasure, and to pass the remainder of my days in solitude.\nBut few can endure to remain in a state of superstition. I commenced\nan intercourse with one family, and only one; nor could I then see\nthe fatal consequences which afterwards resulted from it. Little did\nI imagine that their son, their only son, then a mere youth, would\nprove the person alloted by fate to prove my undoing. In a few years I\nceased to regard him with indifference; I endeavored by every possible\nmeans to repel a passion, the fatal consequences of which, if ever I\nshould be weak enough to yield to its impulse, I too well knew, and\nfondly imagined I should overcome its influence; when in the evening\nof one fatal day ended my fortitude, and plunged me in a moment down\nthat abyss I had been so long meditating how to shun. He had frequently\nbeen soliciting his parents to go into the army, and at length obtained\ntheir permission, and came to bid me farewell before his departure.\n\nThe moment he entered the room he fell down on his knees at my feet\nand, told me he was miserable, that I alone was the cause of it.\nThat instant my fortitude forsook me, I gave myself up for lost; and\nconsidering my fate as inevitable, without further hesitation consented\nto an union, the immediate result of which I knew to be misery, and its\nend death. The conduct of my husband, after a few years were passed,\namply warranted my demand for a separation; I hoped by this means to\navoid the fatal sequel to the prophecy; but, won over by his repeated\nentreaties, I was prevailed on to pardon and once more to reside with\nhim, though not until I had, as I supposed, passed my forty-seventh\nyear; but, I have heard this day from indisputable authority that I\nhave hitherto laid under a mistake with regard to my age, that I am but\nforty-seven this day. Of the near approach of my death, I entertain not\nthe least doubt, but I do not dread it; armed with the sacred precepts\nof Christianity, I can meet the King of Terrors without dismay; and,\nwithout a tear, bid adieu to the regions of mortality for ever.\n\n\u201cWhen I am dead, as the necessity of its concealment closes with my\nlife, I wish that you, my lady, would unbind my wrist, take from hence\nthe ribbon, and let my son with yourself behold it.\u201d Lady B. here\npaused for some time, but resuming her conversation, she entreated her\nson to behave so as to merit the high honor he would in future receive\nfrom an union with lord Tyrone\u2019s daughter. Lady B. then expressed a\nwish to lie down on a bed to compose herself asleep. Lady \u2015\u2015, and\nher son immediately called her attendants, and quitted the room, after\nhaving first desired them attentively to watch their mistress, and\nshould they observe any change in her, to call instantly. An hour\npassed, and all was silent in the room, they listened at the door and\nevery thing was still; but in half an hour more a bell rung violently,\nthey flew to her apartment, but before they reached the door of it\nthey heard the servants exclaim, \u201cmy mistress is dead.\u201d Lady \u2015\u2015, then\ndesiring the servants to quit the room. Lady B\u2019s son with herself then\napproached the bed of his mother, they knelt down by the side of it.\nLady \u2015\u2015, they lifted up her hand, unbound the black ribbon, and found\nthe wrist exactly in the same state Lady B. had described, every nerve\nwithered, every sinew shrunk up. Lady B\u2019s son, as has been predicted,\nis now married to Lord Tyrone\u2019s daughter; the black ribbon and\npocket-book are now in the possession of Lady \u2015\u2015, by whom the above\nnarrative is stated, in Ireland; who together with the Tyrone family,\nwill be found to attest its truth.\n\n\n                          THE \u201cWHITE LADY.\u201d\n\nOne of the most attractive, blood-curdling, hair-raising and\ngoose-flesh causing legends in the whole history of superstition is\nthat of the appearance of the \u201cWhite Lady\u201d as the precursor of death\nin the royal family of Prussia. In the first place the \u201cWhite Lady\u201d is\nduplex; there are two of her. One is the unhappy ghost of the Countess\nAgnes of Orlamunde, who is alleged to have departed this life after the\nprocrastinating fashion peculiar to the middle ages, by being walled\nup alive in a vault in the palace at Berlin. The occasion for this\nincarceration is said to have been her poisoning of the two sons of\nthe then Margrave of Brandenburgh (incidentally her own, by the way),\nwho stood in the road to her promised marriage to the Margrave. The\nother personality of the \u201cWhite Lady\u201d was, while in the flesh, the\nPrincess Bertha von Rosenberg, who lived in the fifteenth century died\nin the odor of sanctity, bequeathed a gift to the poor and this gift\nhaving been falsely discontinued, \u201cwalks\u201d at periods inconvenient to\nthe Hohenzollern family, to remind them of the impropriety of their\ncourse. Once in 1628, the \u201cWhite Lady\u201d made her appearance at the\npalace in Berlin and made the remark, in Latin, \u201cI wait for judgment.\u201d\nPending the incident for which she waited, a Hohenzollern departed\nthis life. Again, some hundred or so of years later, she was seen at\nthe Castle of Neuhaus, in Bohemia, when she casually observed to the\nprincess who encountered her, \u201cIt is ten o\u2019clock.\u201d This chronological\ninformation so affected the princess that she died in a few weeks. The\nlatest appearance of La Dame Blanche was in 1879, again in the palace\nin Berlin; immediately there occured the death of Prince Wald[emar].\nWe are informed that this persistent and long-lived spectre was seen\nnot long since by the night sentinels on guard at the royal castle at\nBerlin\u2015and now Berlin society is all agog with a delicious fear and\nwonderment, waiting for grim Death to cry.\u2015_Telegram._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOne of the most singular freaks of nature ever falling under our\nobservation is the fungus growth in the possession of Mr. Simon Snyder,\nkeeper of the hotel at Conville, Iowa. In May, 1882, Mr. Snyder lost\na hand while working in a planing mill at Portsmouth, Ohio, and the\namputated member was buried in his garden. Two weeks after there grew\nout of the mound covering the cairn a fungus plant of the exact form of\nthe hand. It was visited by hundreds of people many of whom thought it\nwas a portent of evil. On his removal to Conville, Mr. Snyder brought\nthe fungus preserved in alcohol. They are of a dark brown color, and\nwhat is as remarkable as the growth itself, the fore-finger in its\nshortened length is a reproduction of the original which had been\namputated two years before. It will pay visitors to Conville to see\nthis wonderful duplication.\n\nHOW DID IT GET THERE?\u2015We saw on Tuesday afternoon a perfectly formed,\napparently human hand, that of an infant, taken from the centre of a\nnew-grown potato, in a field near town. The formation is so perfect\nthat the smallest fibres and ligaments are quite apparent, and by\ntouching the thumb or wrist the motion is felt throughout the whole\nhand.\u2015_From the Cape Breton Advocate._\n\n\n                          OF MEDICAL HERBS.\n\nThe old writers on Astrology and Magic give voluminous directions for\ngathering herbs and plants at certain periods during the waxing and\nwaning of the Moon; but the more modern professors of the art, for the\nmost part reject these formulas and rely rather upon the nature of the\nplants themselves, and upon the predominating stellar influences at the\ntime their juices are expressed and prepared for use, for the efficacy\nof the various vegetable medicines used in Astrological Pharmacy.\n\nAn English Astrologer who published a work on Chiromancy in 1671,\ninsists in his preface thereto, that any plant bearing a resemblance\nto a portion of the human frame, is a specific for the diseases of the\nmember which it is assimilated to. He gives several illustrations of\nhis opinion, a few of which, modernized from the quaint and somewhat\ncoarse language of the book, are cited below.\n\nHow far facts will bear out the doctrine of affinities laid down by the\nauthor, the reader can ascertain by experiment.\n\nMaiden Hair and the Moss of Quinces resemble the fibres of the head.\nHence a decoction thereof is good for baldness.\n\nPlants resembling the figure of the heart are comforting thereto.\nTherefore the Citron-apple, Fuller\u2019s Thistle, Spikenard, Balm, Mint,\nWhite-beet, parsley, and Motherwort, which bear in leaves and roots a\nheart-like form are congenial to that organ.\n\nHerbs that simulate the shape of the lungs, as Sage, Lungwort,\nHounds-tongue and Camphrey, are good for pulmonary complaints,\n\nVegetable productions like in figure to the ears, as the leaves of\nFolefoot or wild Spikenard rightly prepared as a conserve and eaten,\nimprove the hearing and memory. Oil extracted from the shells of\nsea-snails, which have the turnings and curvature of the ears, also\ntends wonderfully to the cure of deafness.\n\nWhen plants resemble the nose in their configuration, as the leaves\nof the Wild Water Mint; they are beneficial in restoring the sense of\nsmell.\n\nCertain plants having a semblance of the womb\u2015as Birthwort or\nHeartwort, Ladies\u2019 Seal or Briony, etc., conduce much to a safe\naccouchement.\n\nShrubs and Herbs like unto the bladder and gall are excellent for those\nparts; as Night-shade, Alkakenge and Nux Visicaria. These relieve the\ngravel and stone.\n\nHerbs formed like the milt, as Miltwort, Spleenwort, and Lupins, are\nrecommended for the strengtheing of that part of the human viscera.\n\nPlants that are liver-shaped, as the herb Trinity, Liverwort, Agarick,\nFermitory and Figs, are efficacious in bilious diseases.\n\nWalnuts, Indian Nuts, Leeks and the root of Ragwort, because of their\nform, are said when duly prepared to further generation and prevent\nsterility.\n\nHerbs and Seeds, in shape like the teeth, as Toothwort, Pine Kernel,\netc., preserve the dental organization.\n\nPlants of knobbed form, like the knuckles or joints, as Galingale and\nthe Knotty Odoriferous rush (Calamus,) are good for spinal complaints,\nrenal diseases, foot gout, knee swellings, and all joint pains\nwhatsoever.\n\nOily vegetable products, as the Filbert, Walnut, Almond, etc., tend to\nfatness of body. Plants naturally lean emaciate those who take them;\nas Sarsaparilla or long-leaved Rosa Solie.\n\nFleshy plants make flesh for the eaters; for instance the Onion, Leek\nand Colewort. Certain plants fortify and brace the nerves; for example,\nthe Sensitive plant, Nettles, the roots of Mallorus, the herb Neuras,\netc. The same are to be used as outward applications.\n\nHerbs milky in their substance propagate milk; as Lettuce and the fruit\nof the Almond and Fig trees.\n\nPlants of a serous nature purge the noxious humors between the flesh\nand the skin, as Spurge and Scamony.\n\nHerbs whose acidity turns milk to curd, are said to lead to\nprocreation. Such are Gallium, and the seeds of Spurge.\n\nThose semples that obstruct the coagulation of milk, as Rue mixed with\nCummin, will relieve a sore breast when the milk is knotted in it, if\napplied thereto.\n\nPlants that are hollow, as the stalks of Grain, Reeds, Leeks, Garlick,\netc., are good to purge, open and soothe the hollow parts of the body.\n\nThe following from \u201cHermeppus Redivivus,\u201d a work now out of print,\nprescribes the method of preparing the famous ELIXIR OF LIFE. This\nsupposed specific for the renewal and perpetuation of youth and beauty,\nwas sought for during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth\ncenturies with as much avidity as the philosopher\u2019s stone, which the\nalchemists believed would, like the touch of Midas, change all meaner\nsubstances into the regal metal\u2015GOLD.\n\n\n                      THE FAMOUS ELIXIR OF LIFE.\n\n                         PREPARED FROM BALM.\n\n\u201cIn the proper season of the year, when the herb is at its full growth,\nand, consequently, its juices in their whole vigor, gather at the\nfittest time of the day a sufficient quantity of balm, wipe it clean,\nand pick it; then put it in a stone mortar, and, by laborious beating,\nreduce it into a thin pap.\n\n\u201cTake this glutinous and odoriferous substance and put it into a\nbolt-head, which is to be hermetically sealed, and then place it in a\ndunghill, or some gentle heat equivalent thereto, where it must digest\nfor forty days.\n\n\u201cWhen it is taken out, the matter will appear clearer than ever, and\nhave a quicker scent. Then separate the grosser parts, which, however,\nare, not to be thrown away. Put this liquid into a gentle bath, that\nthe remaining gross particles may perfectly subside. In the meantime,\ndry calcine, and extract the fixed salt of the grosser parts, separated\nas before mentioned, which fixed salt is to be joined to the liquor\nwhen filtrated.\n\n\u201cNext take sea salt, well purified, melt it, and, by setting it in a\ncold place, it will run, and become clear and limpid. Take equal parts\nof both liquors, mix thoroughly, and having hermetically sealed them\nin a proper glass, let them be carefully exposed to the sun, in the\nwarmest season of the year, for about six weeks. At the end of this\nspace, the prim muens of the balm will appear swimming on the top like\na bright green oil, which is to be carefully separated and preserved.\nOf this oil, a few drops taken in a glass of wine for several days\ntogether, will bring to pass those wonders that are reported of the\nCountess of Desmond and others; for it will entirely change the juices\nof the human body, reviving the decaying frame of life, and restoring\nthe spirits of long lost youth.\u201d\n\nThe author who records this curious and wonderful discovery, remarks,\n\u201cIf after the medicine is thus prepared, any doubt be had of its\nefficacy, or of its manner of operation, let a few drops be given every\nday on raw meat to any old dog or cat, and in less than a fortnight, by\nthe changing of their coats and other incontestable changes, the virtue\nof this preparation will sufficiently appear.\u201d\n\nThis is the preparation of balm which Mr. Boyle (the celebrated\nchemist) mentions in his works; and in which he tells us that \u201cDr.\nLe Fevre\u201d gave him an account of it, \u201cin the presence of a famous\nphysician, and another virtuoso, to whom he applied, as knowing the\ntruth of what he said, that an intimate friend of his, whom,\u201d says Mr.\nBoyle, \u201che named to me, having prepared the primums ens of balm, to\nsatisfy himself the better of its effects, made a trial upon himself,\nand took of it according to the prescription, for above a fortnight;\nlong before which, his nails, both of his hands and feet, began to\nloosen themselves from the skin, (but without pain,) which, at length,\nfalling off of their own accord, this gentleman keeps yet by him in a\nbox for a rarity; but would not pursue the trial any farther, being\nsatisfied with what he had found, and being in no need of such physic;\nbut having given of the same medicated wine, for ten or twelve days,\nto a woman that served in his house, and who was near seventy years of\nage, without letting her know what he expected, the peculiar signs of\nyouth in females became so apparent that she was alarmed, and he did\nnot prosecute the experiment any farther. And when I asked,\u201d says Mr.\nBoyle, \u201cwhy he made no trial on beasts, it was answered, that though\nhe had but little of the medicine, yet he put apart an old hen, and\nmoistening her food with some drops of it for a week, about the sixth\nday she began to moult her feathers by degrees till she became naked;\nbut before a fortnight was passed, she began to regain others, which,\nwhen they were come to their full growth, appeared fair and better\ncolored than at first.\u201d\n\nAnd he added, \u201cthat besides that her crest was raised she also laid\nmore eggs than she was wont to do before.\u201d\n\nIn our childhood, our mothers\u2019 maids have so terrified us with an ugly\ndevil having horns on his head, fire in his mouth, and a tail at his\nbreech; eyes like a basin, fangs like a dog, claws like a bear, a skin\nlike 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 frayed us with\nbull-beggars, spirits, witches, unchins, elves, hags, faries, satyrs,\npans, fauhes, sylvans, kitt-with-the-candlestick, tritrons, centaurs,\ndwarfs, giants, imps, calcars, conjureres, nymphs, changelings,\nincubus, Robin Goodfellow, the spoorn, the man-in-the-oak, the\nhellwain, the firedrake, the puckle, Tom Thum, Hobgoblin, Tom Tumbler,\nBoneless, and such other bugbears, that we are afrad of our own\nshadows, insomuch that some never fear the devil but on a dark night;\nand then a polled sheep is a perilous beast, and many times is taken\nfor our father\u2019s soul, especially in a churchyard, where a right hardy\nman hitherto durst not to have passed by night but his hair would stand\nupright.\n\nIt is asserted by several authorities that no less than three thousand\npersons were executed for Witchcraft during that dark period of\nheretical pravity, the Great Rebellion. Now, as \u201cRebellion,\u201d according\nto the express assurance of the Prophet Samuel (1 Sam. xv. 23) \u201cis as\nthe sin of Witchcraft,\u201d no hearty believer in God\u2019s revelation can\nbe at all surprised to find that both Witchcraft and Rebellion in an\natmosphere of heresy flourished together, under that odious tyrant and\nhypocritical fanatic, Oliver Cromwell: when the altar was thrown down\nand both King and Archbishop were murdered.\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, five hundred persons were executed at Geneva, under the\ncharacter of \u201cProtestant witches;\u201d from which we may suppose many\nsuffered for heresy. Forty-eight witches were burnt at Ravensburgh\nwithin four years, as Hutchison reports, on the authority of Mengho,\nthe author of the Malleus Maleficarum. In Lorraine, the learned\ninquisitor, Remigius, boasts that he put to death nine hundred people\nin fifteen years. As many were banished from that country; so that\nwhole towns were on the point of becoming desolate. In 1524, a thousand\npersons were put to death in one year at Coma, in Italy, and about one\nhundred every year for several years.\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.\n\nThe dream of the so-called \u201cSwaffham Tinker\u201d is singular, and may well\nbe here reproduced, because it represents an example of the practical\nresults of dreaming, which is quite worthy of consideration:\u2015\n\n\u201cThis Tinker, a hard-working, industrious man, one night dreamed that\nif he took a journey to London, and placed himself at a certain spot\non London Bridge, he should meet one who would tell him something of\ngreat importance to his future prospects. The Tinker, on whom the dream\nmade a deep impression, related it fully to his wife in the morning;\nwho, however, half-laughed at him and half-scolded him for his folly\nin heeding such idle fancies. Next night he is said to have re-dreamed\nthe dream; and again on the third night, when the impression was so\npowerful on his mind that he determined, in spite of the remonstrances\nof his wife and the ridicule of his neighbors, to go to London and see\nthe upshot of it. Accordingly he set off for the metropolis on foot,\nreached it late on the third day (the distance was ninety miles), and\nafter the refreshment of a night\u2019s rest, took his station next day\non a part of the Bridge answering to the description in his dream.\nThere he stood all day, and all the next, and all the third, without\nany communication as to the purpose of his journey; so that towards\nnight, on the third day he began to lose patience and confidence in his\ndream, inwardly cursed his folly in disregarding his wife\u2019s counsel,\nand resolved next day to make the best of his way home. He still kept\nhis station, till late in the evening, when just as he was about to\ndepart, a stranger who had noticed him standing steadfastly and with\nanxious look on the same spot for some days, accosted him, and asked\nhim what he waited there for. After a little hesitation, the Tinker\ntold him his errand, though without acquainting him with the name\nof the place whence he came. The stranger enjoyed a smile at the\nrustic\u2019s simplicity, and advised him to go home and for the future\npay no attention to dreams. \u2018I myself,\u2019 said he, \u2018if I were disposed\nto put faith in such things, might now go a hundred miles into the\ncountry upon a similar errand. I dreamed three nights this week that\nif I went to a place called Swaffham in Norfolk, and dug under an\napple tree in a certain garden on the north side of the town I should\nfind a box of money; but I have something else to do than run after\nsuch idle fancies! No, no, my friend; go home, and work well at your\ncalling, and you will find there the riches you are seeking here.\u2019 The\nastonished Tinker did not doubt that this was the communication he had\nbeen sent to London to receive, but he merely thanked the stranger for\nhis advice, and went away avowing his intention to follow it up. Next\nday he set for home, and on his arrival there said little to his wife\ntouching his journey; but next morning he rose betimes and began to dig\non the spot he supposed to be pointed out by the stranger. When he had\ngot a few feet down, the spade struck upon something hard, which turned\nout to be an iron chest. This he quickly carried to his house, and when\nhe had with difficuly wrenched open the lid, found it, to his great\njoy, to be full of money. After securing his treasure, he observed on\nthe lid of the box an inscription, which, unlearned as he was, he could\nnot decipher. But by a stratagem he got the incription read without any\nsuspicion on the part of his neighbors by some of the Grammar School\nlads, and found it to be\u2015\n\n    \u2018Where this stood\n     Is another twice as good.\u2019\n\nAnd in truth on digging again the lucky Tinker disinterred, below the\nplace where the first chest had lain, a second twice as large, also\nfull of gold and silver coin. It is stated that, become thus a wealthy\nman, the Tinker showed his thankfulness to Providence by building a new\nchancel to the church, the old one being out of repair. And whatever\nfiction the marvellous taste of those ages may have mixed up with the\ntale, certain it is that there is shown to this day a monument in\nSwaffham Church, having an effigy in marble, said to be that of the\nTinker with his Dog at his side and his tools and implements of trade\nlying about him.\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAmong the various histories of singular dreams and corresponding\nevents, the following, which occurred in the early part of the\neighteenth century, seems to merit being here placed on record. Its\nauthenticity will appear from the relation; and it may surely be\nmaintained that a more extraordinary concurrence of fortuitous and\naccidental circumstances can scarcely be produced or paralleld:\u2015\n\nCassius of Parma, who had espoused the cause of Marc Anthony, fled to\nAthens after the battle of Actium. While sleeping in his apartments\nthere, he saw a man enter his chamber, an individual with dark\ncomplexion and dishevelled hair, very tall and stout. Cassius demanded\nwho he was; to which the phantom replied, \u201cI am your evil genius.\u201d\nThe dreamer arose in a fright, and seeing no one present, summoned\nhis slaves, inquiring if any among them had seen a stranger enter the\nappartment. An examination showed the doors of the house to have been\nfirmly closed, so that it was impossible for any one to enter. Cassius\npersuaded that he had been the victim of some chemical illusion, again\nwent to sleep, but the same vision presented itself a second time,\naddressing him with the same words. Cassius, troubled, arose from his\ncouch and summoned lights. At early day-break he was assassinated by\norder of the Emperor Augustus.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTwo Arcedian friends, journeying together, arrived at Megara, at\nwhich place the one took lodgings at the house of a friend, while\nhis companion put up at a public tavern. The traveler lodging at his\nfriend\u2019s, was visited in a dream by his comrade, who supplicated him\nto come and extricate him from a trap set for him by the innkeeper.\nHe awoke suddenly, arose, dressed and hastened himself towards the\ntavern, when an afterthought impelled him to return, and he again\nundressed and went to sleep. Again his comrade presented himself, but\nthis time covered with blood, and beseeching him to avenge his murder.\nThe phantom informed his fellow traveler that he had been treacherously\nassassinated by the tavern keeper, and his body concealed beneath a\ndunghill outside the city gates. Terrified at this second appiration,\nthe Arcadian hesitated no longer, but going to the place designated, he\ndiscovered his friend\u2019s corpse, and was therefore enabled to bring the\nmurderer to justice.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nA tradesman of Paris, sleeping in bed with his wife, dreamed that he\nheard the voice exclaiming to him: \u201cI have now finished forty years,\nseven months, and twenty-nine days of labor, and I am happy.\u201d The wife,\nsleeping by her husband\u2019s side, had the same dream and upon awakening\nin the morning went forth, and without mentioning the occurrence,\nprocured a lottery-ticket bearing the numbers 40-7-29. The same day the\nnumbers came out, and the tradesman lamented his indiscretion in not\ntaking the advice of his nocturnal visitor. His sorrow was turned into\njoy when he learned that his wife, profiting by her dream, had drawn\nthe grand prize in the Royal Lottery.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAn old lady of Paris was in the habit of encouraging her niece by\npromises of wealth, which she never fulfilled; extenuating her\nprocrastination from year to year, by recourse of ingenious expedients,\nand she finally died. Shortly afer her decease, the aunt appeared\nduring the night-time and instructed her niece to remove the centre\ntile of their hearth, where she would discover the oft promised\ntreasure. The young girl obeyed the injunction, but discovered in the\ncavity nothing save a heap of cinders. In vexation of spirit, the\nniece railled vehemently against the duplicity of a relative deceiving\nher after death. On the following night, however, the phantom again\nappeared, and without saying a word, designated four numbers apparently\non the wall. Although placing little reliance upon the injunction\nwhich she conceived to relate to a lottery (then the town talk), the\nniece resolved to try her luck, especially as the ticket offered\nfor her purchase by the dealer bore the same numbers designated by\nthe apparition. Subsequently, these numbers came out in the order\nindicated, and the girl came into possession of four hundred thousand\nfrancs.\n\n\n                          FOLK-LORE OF PINS.\n\nPOPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.\u2015Why, however, north country people are so\npersistent in their refusal to give one another a pin it is not easy\nto discover, as even they themselves cannot give the origin and reason\nof this superstition. When asked for a pin they invariably say, \u201cYou\nmay take one, but mind, I do not give it.\u201d It may, perhaps, have some\nconnection with the vulgar prejudice against giving a knife or other\nsharp instrument, as mentioned by Gay in his \u201cShepherd\u2019s Week.\u201d\n\n    But woe is me! such presents luckless prove,\n    For knives, they tell me, always sever love.\n\n\u2015a supposition as popular now as in days gone by. Another fact\nassociated with pins will doubtless interest those of the fair sex\nabout to enter on the happy state of matrimony. Thus it is still\na prevalent belief in certain places that a bride in removing her\nbridal robe and chaplet at the completion of the marriage ceremonies,\nmust take special care to throw away every pin worn on this eventful\nday. Woe to the bride who keeps even one pin used in the marriage\ntoilet. Woe also to the bridesmaids if they retain any of them, as\ntheir chances of marriage will thereby be materially lessened, and\nanyhow they must give up all hope of being wedded before the following\nWhitsuntide. On the other hand, in Sussex on her return home from\nchurch is often robbed of all the pins about her dress by her single\nfriends present, from the belief that whoever possesses one of them\nwill be married in the course of a year. Much excitement and amusement\nare occasionally caused by the youthful competitors for this supposed\ncharm, and the bride herself is not unfrequently the victim of rather\nrough treatment.\n\nA poor peasant dwelling in the vicinity of Rheims, in Champagne,\nsaw, one night, during his slumbers, a young man, who taking him by\nthe hand, conducted him to the base of an old wall, where, after\ndesignating a huge stone recommended him to raise it up on the morrow,\nhe suddenly vanished. The peasant followed his advice, and found the\nstone indicated in his dream, which upon being displaced, revealing a\nvase filled with golden coins\u2015enriching the dreamer and his family.\n\n\n                     SEEING WITH THE EYES CLOSED.\n\nThe following account of a remarkable case of somnambulism contributed\nto the American Journal of Medical Science by Dr. Belden, an able\npractitioner, who attended the lady afflicted with these somnambulic\nparoxysms:\n\n* * * \u201cAfter several attempts to keep her in bed, it was determined\nto suffer her to take her own course. Released from restraint, she\ndressed herself, went down stairs and proceeded to make preparations\nfor breakfast. She set the table, arranged the various articles with\nthe utmost precision, went into a dark room to a closet at the most\nremote corner of it, from which she took the coffee cups, placed them\non a tray, turned it sideways to pass through the door, avoided all\nintervening obstacles, and deposited the whole safely on the table.\nShe then went into the pantry, the blinds of which were shut and the\ndoors closed after her. She then skimmed the milk, poured the cream\ninto one cup and the milk into another without spilling a drop. She\nthen cut the bread, placed it regularly on the plate, and divided the\nslices in the middle. In fine, she went through the whole operation of\npreparing breakfast with as much precision as she could in open day,\nand this with her eyes closed, and without any light except that of one\nlamp which was standing in the room to enable the family to observe her\noperations. She finally returned voluntarily to bed, and on finding\nthe table arranged for breakfast when she made her appearance in the\nmorning inquired why she had been suffered to sleep while another\nperformed her duty. None of the transactions of the preceding night had\nleft the slightest impression on her mind. In one instance she not only\narranged the table for a meal, but actually prepared a dinner with her\neyes closed.\u201d\n\n\n                    PREVOYANT VISION OF JOHN KNOX.\n\nJohn Knox, the great Scottish Reformer, when upon his death bed,\nexperienced a most remarkable presentiment as to the fate of his friend\nKirkaldy of Grange, who, during the civil war of that period, was\nholding the Castle of Edinburgh in the cause of Mary Queen of Scots and\nof the Anti-Protestant party. The particulars are in this wise related\nby Calderwood, the historian, whose testimony is unimpeachable:\n\n\u201cJohn Knox, being on his death bed, sent for his colleague and\nsuccessor, Mr. Lawson, Mr. Lindsay, Minister of Leith, and the elders\nand deacons of Edinburgh, all of whom he addressed in a farewell speech.\n\n\u201cThey were departing, when Knox called back Lindsay and Lawson, and\ndesired to speak with them in private. \u2018Weel, brother,\u2019 said he\naddressing Lindsay, \u2018I have desired all this day to have had you, that\nI may send you to yon man in the Castle, whom you know I have loved so\ndearly. Go, I pray you, to him, and tell him I have sent you to him yet\nonce to warn him and bid him in the name of God, leave the evil cause\nand give over the Castle. If not, he shall be brought down over the\nwalls of it with shame, and hang against the sun. So hath God assured\nme.\u2019 Lindsay went to the Castle accordingly and delivered Knox\u2019s\nmessage; but Kirkaldy, after conferring with Secretary Letington, said,\n\u2018Go, tell Mr. Knox he is but a drything prophet.\u2019 Mr. Lindsay returned\nto Mr. Knox and reported how he had discharged his commission. \u2018Well!\u2019\nsaid Knox, \u2018I have been earnest with my God anent these two men. For\nthe one, I am sorry so shall befall him; yet, God assureth me that\nthere is mercy for his soul. For the other I have no warrant that it\nshall be well with him.\u2019\n\n\u201cKirkaldy maintained the Castle for some months after Knox\u2019s death, but\nwas at last forced to surrender, whereupon he was condemed to death as\na traitor and hanged at Edinburgh on the 3d of August, 1572, at four\no\u2019clock in the afternoon, the sun being west.\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Prince of Navarre, afterwards King Henry the IV., of France, while\nplaying at dice with a company at the court of Charles IX., on the eve\nof St. Bartholomew, observed several drops of blood to fall upon the\ncloth, which spread consternation among the players.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOn the day upon which Gen. Arnold died in Nova Scotia, the tree under\nwhich Major Andre was captured, near Tarrytown, fell, although there\nwas no storm.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOn the eve of the assassination of Julius C\u00e6sar, the temple of Jupiter\nStabor trembled to its foundation, and an enormous piece of rock fell\nfrom the height of the capitol, and carried with it a Roman standard\nbearer, who was on guard, at the opening of the road.\n\n\n                          THE DIVINING ROD.\n\n    FACTS VERSUS THE DICTUM OF SCIENCE\u2015WHAT A TENNESSEAN CAN DO.\n\nA New York Paper publishes the following item of Interest:\n\nI have seen several articles in regard to the divining rod. I know that\nscience does not recognize such a thing, but were not all the sciences\ntested and proved by practical experiment before they were recognized\nby the scientific world? There is a man in this country who believes\nas strongly in the divining rod as the navigator does in the mariner\u2019s\ncompass. He is not an illiterate, superstitious man, but is as well\ninformed on all subjects as any laboring man you ever met. He does\nnot claim that he is enabled to locate a stream of water or a vein of\nmineral beneath the surface of the earth by any virtue contained in the\nrod, nor is it by the art of hocus pocus, but it is in and through the\ninfluence of electricity, with which his system is abundantly charged.\n\nYou will say: \u201cIf this be true why does he not go to some mining\ncountry and make himself and others rich by locating mineral veins?\u201d\nHe is a man that has had to labor very hard all his life. Now he is\nold and infirm, and unable to travel. This discovery with him dates\nonly a few years back. His field for practice and experiment is limited\nconsequently he gains knowledge on the subject slowly.\n\nI will mention a few of the things that he claims he can do with the\nrod; He can locate a stream of water, and where the ground is perfectly\nlevel, measure its depth below the surface as accurately as you can\nmeasure it after the well is dug. He does not claim the depth within\nless than a foot, because the surface is so seldom perfectly level.\nThere are hundreds of men in East Tennessee that will testify to this\nfact from actual experience. Some of them are as responsible men as\nthere are in the State. He has never failed to convert any man who\nwould go with him, no matter how sceptical, and he has certificates\nfrom a number of as intelligent men as there are in Tennessee. I cannot\ngive you, in this communication, any idea of the various means by\nwhich he is enabled to demonstrate these things, but if you have any\ncuriosity on the subject, and will answer this communication, like\nyou do all others, you will elicit something from him that may be of\ninterest to you.\n\nAnother writer says: \u201cThe divining rod is only another exemplification\nof a power not yet recognized. With a piece of witch hazel I discovered\nthe Witch Hazel Coal Mines. I told the number of feet a shaft would\nhave to be sunk to reach the coal, and even gave the thickness of the\nvein. I got $5,000 for locating the Witch Hazel mines and am also\npaid 12\u00bd cents a ton for every ton of coal taken out of them.\u201d John\nR. Whitelaw, Superintendent of the Cleveland Water Works, says: \u201cAt\nGeauga Lake, Mr. Latimer showed the power of the divining rod. After he\nhad cut one I asked him to go over a little stream that we saw running\nfrom the bank. We knew that the water was there, and we wanted to see\nwhether the rod would work over it. It was surprising. He held the\nprongs so firmly in his hands that the green bark twisted off in his\npalms.\u201d\n\nWater witches are highly regarded in the far West. One man in\nparticular has the reputation in Colorado, of being a trustworthy\ndiviner, and he is always in request. By trade he is a well-digger,\nbut to this commonplace occupation he has added the profession of\nwater finder. And he is not exclusively employed by silly people, but\nby practical men of business. Thus he is designating for a railroad\ncompany all the wells along the new line which they are constructing.\nThe instrument of divination is a forked twig, by preference a mulberry.\n\n\n                            DIVINING ROD.\n\nIn the manuscript Discourse on Witchcraft, 1705, written by John Bell,\np. 41, I find the following account from Theophylact on the subject\nof rabdomanteia, or rod divination: \u201cThey set up two staffs, and\nhaving whispered some verses and incantations, the staffs fell by the\noperation of d\u00e6mons. Then they considered which way each of them fell,\nforward or backward, to the right or left hand, and are agreeably given\nresponses, having made use of the fall of their staffs for their signs.\u201d\n\nWith the divining rod seems connected a lusus nature of ash tree bough,\nresembling the litui of the Roman augurs and the Christian pastoral\nstaff, which still obtains a place, if not on this account I know not\nwhy, in the catalogue of popular superstitions. Seven or eight years\nago I remember to have seen one of these, which I thought extremely\nbeautiful and curious, in the house of an old woman in Beeralston,\nDevonshire, of whom I would most gladly have purchased it; but she\ndeclined parting with it on any account, thinking it would be unlucky\nto do so.\n\nDivination by the rod or wand is mentioned in the prophecy of Ezekiel.\nHosea, too, reproaches the Jews as being infected with the like\nsuperstition: \u201cMy people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff\ndeclareth unto them.\u201d Chap. iv. 12. Not only the Chaldeans used rods\nfor divination, but almost every nation which has pretended to that\nscience has practiced the same method. Herodotus mentions it as a\ncustom of the Alani, and Tacitus of the old Germans.\n\nThe earliest means made use of by the miners for the discovery of the\nlode was the divining rod. The method of procedure was to cut the twig\nof twelve months\u2019 growth, into a forked shape, and to hold this by\nboth hands in a peculiar way, walking across the land until the twig\nbent, which was taken as an indication of the locality of a lode. The\nperson who generally practices this divination boasts himself to be the\nseventh son of a seventh son. The twig of hazel bends in his hands to\nthe conviction of the miners that ore is present; but then the peculiar\nmanner in which the twig is held, bringing muscular action to bear upon\nit, accounts for its gradual deflection, and the circumstances of the\nstrata walked over always containing ore gives a further credit to the\nprocess of divination.\n\nThe vulgar notion, still prevalent in the north of England, of the\nhazel\u2019s tendency to a vein of lead ore, seam or stratum of coal, &c.,\nseems to be a vestige of this rod divination.\n\nThe virgula divina, or bocalns divinatorius, is a forked branch in\nthe form of a Y, cut off an hazel stick, by means whereof people have\npretended to discover mines, springs, &c., underground. The method of\nusing it is this: the person who breaks it, walking very slowly over\nthe places where he suspects mines or springs may be, the effluvia\nexhaling from the metals, or vapor from the water impregnating the\nwood, makes it dip, or incline, which is the sign of a discovery.\n\nWe read, in the same work for Nov. 1751, xxi. 507: \u201cSo early as\nAgricola, the divining rod was in much request, and has obtained great\ncredit for its discovery where to dig for metals and springs of water:\nfor some years past its reputation has been on the decline, but lately\nit has been revived with great success by an ingenious gentleman, who,\nfrom numerous experiments, hath good reason to believe its effects to\nbe more than imagination. He says, that hazel and willow rods, he has\nby experience found, will actually answer with all persons in a good\nstate of health, if they are used with moderation and at some distance\nof time, and after meals, when the operator is in good spirits. The\nhazel, willow, and elm, are all attracted by springs of water; some\nperhaps have the virtue intermittently; the rod, in their hands, will\nattract one half hour, and repel the next. The rod is attracted by\nall metals, coals, amber, and lime-stone, but with different degrees\nof strength. The best rods are those from the hazel, or nut tree, as\nthey are pliant and tough, and cut in the winter months. A shoot that\nterminates equally forked is to be met with, two single ones, of a\nlength and size, may be tied together with a thread, and will answer as\nwell as the other.\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE DEMONSTRATION OF METALLIC TRANSMUTATION, AFFINITY, AND THE SECRET\nOF PHILOSOPHERS; OR, HOW TO CHANGE LEAD INTO QUICKSILVER.\u2015Let there\nbe one pound of lead melted in an earthen vessel, and then put into it\nalso one pound of that tinny metal which is usually called by the name\nof marcasite; and when they are both melted together you must stir them\nup and down, and temper them to a pefect medley with a wooden ladle.\nIn the mean space you must have four pounds of quicksilver warmed in\nanother vessel standing by, to cast in upon that compounded metal,\nfor unless your quicksilver be warm it will not close nor agree with\nyour metals; then temper your quicksilver and your metal together for\na while, and presently after cast it into cold water; so shall it not\ncongeal in any hard lump, but float on the top of the water, and be\nvery quick and lively.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTO TINCTURE SILVER INTO GOLD.\u2015Make first a tart lye, put quicklime\ninto a pot, whose bottom is full of many small holes, put a piece of\nwood or tile-shard upon it, then by degrees pour in the powder and hot\nwater, and by the narrow holes at the bottom let it drain into a clean\nearthen vessel under it; do this again, to make it exceeding tart.\nPowder filbium and put into this, that it may evaporate into the thin\nair; let it boil at an easy fire, for when it boils the water will be\nof a purple color; then strain it into a clean vessel through a linen\ncloth; again, pour on the lye on the powders that remain, and let it\nboil so long at the fire, till the water seems of a bloody color, no\nmore. Then boil the lye that is colored, putting fire under, till the\nwater be all exhaled; but the powder that remains being dry, with the\noil of tartar dried and dissolved, must be cast again upon plates made\nequal of parts of gold and silver, within an earthen crucible; cover it\nso long with coals, and renew your work, till it be perfectly like to\ngold.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIRON CHANGED INTO BRASS.\u2015It is reported that in the Mountain\nCarpatusan, Hill of Pannonia, at a certain town called Smolinitum,\nthere is a lake, in which are three channels, the waters of which are\nso impregnated with copper and gold, that upon adding absolute vitriol\nportions of pure gold become deposited.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE SYMPATHETIC AND OCCULT VIRTUES OF PLANTS, ANIMALS, METALS, &c.\u2015In\nthese few remarks on the sympathetic influences I have ventured to\nturn the light of a great central and positive science upon the\nmysteries, which all men, who dare think, are anxious to penetrate\u2015for\nillustration:\n\nIf we bury a crab for three months in horse-dung, he will turn to\na scorpion. But if you thus bury a scorpion or lizard, he will die\ninstantly. Some, by the use of eels and brandy, cure a person of\ndrunkenness. But how? Why, simply by the power of sympathy. But once\nfor all, let me here say, that this knowledge I cheerfully impart\nfor the good of mankind. And every wise person will see in a moment\nthat great care must be exerted where knowledge might be used for a\nbad purpose. But to proceed. A black cat drops dead at the sight of a\nBengal tiger; a cat of any other color is not affected in the least.\nA snake will kill a bird by looking at it for the space of fifteen\nminutes; but a snake can produce no effect on men or animals. Why?\nBecause the proper sympathies are not brought into action. A rat will\ndie by being compelled to look at or be near an English ferret. If an\nox is killed, and let lie in a tight house with plenty of glass windows\nto admit the light, he will in a short time be converted into millions\nof bees. If he is killed and let lie upon an open field, he will soon\nbe converted into millions of maggots.\n\nBehold the beautiful doctrine of universal affinity or sympathy! If\na lady, with a fresh breast of milk, shall milk a portion of it into\na bag of corks, very soon thereafter her milk will all dry away. Any\nperson who will wear an eelskin around his body will never have a\ncramp. But there is the gut of the ourang-outang, if worn around the\nbody, will cause a cramp as long as the person shall wear it. Persons\nmight be killed in this way, and they would be ignorant of the true\ncause. If one have a severe colic, and hold a live duck to the belly,\nthe colic will immediately remove, but the duck dies. If a chicken,\nor any other living thing, is thus held to the belly, it produces no\nvisible effect, either one way or the other.\n\nThe head of a hare being burned, will bring serpents together; but a\nfume of peacock feathers being made, will disperse the serpents. If\na piece of meat is thrown to the dogs, they will seize it with great\navidity; but if a jasper stone be thrown out with the meat, the dogs\nwill instantly run away, with very great fright. Fenelon says that if\nwe wear the clothing of the dead, that it does wonderfully shorten our\nlives.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE CURE OF DISEASES BY MAGICAL, CELESTIAL, AND SYMPATHETIC\nMEANS.\u2015Among a variety of examples, the loadstone is one most\nremarkable proof of the sympathy we speak of. However to hasten to the\npoint. Among stones, those which resemble the rays of the sun by their\ngolden sparkling prevent the falling-sickness and poisons, if worn on\nthe finger. The stone which is called oculis folis, being in figure\nlike the apple of the eye, from which shines forth a ray, comforts the\nbrain and strengthens sight. The carbuncle, which shines by night, has\na virtue against all airy and vaporous poisons. The chrysolite stone,\nof a light green color, when held against the sun, there shines in\nit a ray like a star of gold; this is singularly good for the lungs,\nand cures asthmatical complaints; and if it be bored through, and the\nhollow filled with the mane of an ass, and bound to the left arm, it\nchases away all foolish and idle imaginations and melancholy fears,\nand drives away folly. The stone called iris, which is like crystal in\ncolor, being found with six corners, when held in the shade, and the\nsun suffered to shine through it, represents a natural rainbow in the\nair. The stone heliotropium, green, like a jasper or emerald, beset\nwith red specks, makes the wearer constant, renowned, and famous, and\nconduces to long life; there is likewise another wonderful property\nin this stone, and that is, that it so dazzles the eyes of men that\nit causes the bearer to be invisible; but there must be applied to it\nthe herb bearing the same name, viz., heliotropium, or the sunflower;\nand these kind of virtues Albertus Magnus and William of Paris mention\nin their writings. The jacinth also possesses virtue from the sun\nagainst poisons, pestilences, and pestiferous vapors; likewise it\nrenders the bearer pleasant and acceptable; conduces also to gain\nmoney; being simply held in the mouth, it wonderfully cheers the heart\nand strengthens the mind. Then there is the pyrophi, of a red mixture,\nwhich Albertus Magnus reports that \u00c6sculapius makes mention of in one\nof his epistles to Octavious C\u00e6sar, saying: \u201cThere is a certain poison,\nso intensely cold, which preserves the heart of man\u201d being taken out\nfrom burning; so that if it be put into the fire for any time, it is\nturned into a stone, which stone is called hyrophilus. It possesses a\nwonderful virtue against poison, and it infallibly renders the wearer\nthereof renowned and dreadful to his enemies. Apollonius is reported to\nhave found a stone (which will attract other stones, as the loadstone\ndoes iron) most powerful against all poisons; it is spotted like the\npanther, and therefor some naturalists have given this stone the name\nof pantherur; Aaron calls it evanthum; and some, on accunt of its\nvariety, call it pantochras. It is by such and similar methods the\nmagicians, prophets, and seers of the Middle Ages and biblical times,\nand many of the magi or wise men of ancient ages, succeeded in curing\nnumbers of diseases, without any medicine whatever; these men were the\ntrue magicians, or ancient physicians, and of the race of Hindoos,\nIsraelites, Jews, Arabians, Chinese, Assyrians, Egyptians, Chaldeans,\nand many of our own times. They were usually named SIGNA MAGNA, to\ndistinguish them from the jugglers and sleight-of-hand tricksters, who\nexhibited themselves for money, and whose performances of Legerdemain\nconsisted of a blustering volubility of words, thus diverting the\nattention of their audiences while they, or their accomplices, of which\nthey traveled with one or more, made the necessary changes in their\nparaphernalia to deceive the sense of vision, and apparently reverse\nthe order of things. No uncommon part of their programme was to obtain\nthe loan of large sums of money from the wealthy and moneyed classes,\nthus getting a knowledge of the fact of such a sum being in their\npossession, and afterward by fraud, violence, or digital dexterity,\nsecuring it to themselves. The modern conjurer is, however, usually a\ngentleman of the highest principle, and always prefaces his exhibitions\nby the statement, that by dexterity he proposes to deceive. Most of\nthe apparatus employed is double, or contains two partitions, which by\nsimple turning, the contents are apparently changed.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nALLUMINA CHANGED TO SILVER\u2015LATE PROCESS.\u2015Put it into a crucible,\nfirst breaking it into small fragments, bring it to a white heat for\nfive or six hours, until the metal will stand firm on a red-hot plate\nof iron; then sprinkle it with a mixture of vinegar and sal ammoniac\n(parts equal), when it is cold, put it again into the furnace, and keep\nat a white heat for three days and three nights, the last three or four\nhours adding a little pure lead to make it ductile; you now break it\nonce more into small fragments and replace it in the furnace, adding\nto it little pills made of lime, saltpetre, and brimstone, and by this\nmeans our mixture becomes incorporated into a pretty good silver.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTO CAUSE LETTERS, PAPERS, &c., TO DISAPPEAR.\u2015Valivoni, an old\nmagician, of the time of Agrippa, says: \u201cIf you take uphorbium,\nbdellium, gum armoniac, the roots of both hellebores, the loadstone,\nand a little sulphur, and incorporate them altogether with the blood\nof a hart, the blood of an elephant, and the blood of a black cat, and\nsprinkle it near the papers to be removed, that it unseals them and\nbrings them to your presence, or just where you desire.\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTO STRIKE FEAR AND TERROR INTO THE HEART OF AN ENEMY.\u2015Pythagoras says:\n\u201cThat if a flame be put into the skull of a murderer, and the flame\nof your enemy written therein, it will strike the person whose name\nis so written with fear and trembling, and he will speedily seek your\nforgiveness and become a steadfast friend.\u201d\n\n\n            BY WHAT MEANS MAGICIANS AND NECROMANCERS CALL\n                     FORTH THE SOULS OF THE DEAD.\n\nIt is manifest that the souls after death do as yet love their bodies\nwhich they left, as those souls do whose bodies want due burial, or\nhave left their bodies by violent death, and yet wander about their\ncarcasses in a troubled and moist spirit, beings as it were, allured\nby something that has an affinity with them, the means being known, by\nwhich, in time past, they were joined to their bodies, they be called\nforth and allured by the like vapors, liquors and certain artificial\nlights, songs, sounds, &c., which move the imaginative and spiritual\nharmony of the soul, and sacred invocations, &c.\n\nNecromancy has its name because it works on the bodies of the dead, and\ngives answers by apparitions of the dead, and subterraneous spirits,\nalluring them into the carcasses of the dead by charms and infernal\ninvocations, and by deadly sacrifices and wicked oblations.\n\nThere are two kinds of necromancy: raising the carcasses, which is\nnot done without blood; the other in which the calling up of the\nshadow only suffices. To conclude, it works all its experiments by the\ncarcasses of the slain, and their bones and members, and what is from\nthem.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE MAGIC CRYSTAL is a ball of pure virgin glass, somewhat in the shape\nof an egg; the method of using it, is to hold it in the palm of the\nright hand, retain it there from eleven to twelve o\u2019clock at night, in\na dark room, all the time concentrating your thoughts upon the object\nyou desire to see; about twelve o\u2019clock, the crystal becomes quite\nhot\u2015now look steadily into it, and picture of scenes that appear are\ntranspiring with friends far distant; in fact, it is asserted that the\nmovements of any one can be known, whether husband, wife, lover or\nfriend.\n\n\n\n\n                         THE CORRECT ACCOUNT\n                                OF THE\n                            SALEM WITCHES,\n                         MASSACHUSETTS, U. S.\n\n\nWe now commence some detail of the witch persecution from 1645 to the\n2d charter, 1692, there stood upon the statute book the old Cottonian\nlaw of 1645, against witchcraft, a false recognition, by the highest\nauthority of the devil\u2019s power to appear in the colony; nay, by strange\nconstruction it was made an act of conjuration, a summons to come\nforth, and which he was well pleased to obey. Within one year after\nthe statute recognition of witchcraft, in the jurisdiction, a case\noccurred. It was in Springfield upon the Connecticut river, and in the\nfamily of the Rev. Mr. Moxam. Two of his children betook themselves to\nextreme oddities in speech and behavior, and it was readily supposed\nthey were bewitched, but there was no proof to fix the sorcery upon any\none, until three or four years afterwards, when an old woman of settled\nwitch reputation, upon close examination was said to have confessed her\nguilt, and here the matter rested. The case of Mrs. Margaret Jones of\nCharlestown was fatal. She was reputed a witch of such extraordinary\nmalignity, that her touch would produce blindness, sickness at the\nstomach and violent pains, and in 1648 she was tried and executed. In\ndisgust and distress, her husband went on board a vessel to leave the\ncountry, and then the vessel began to rock as if it would upset, and\nso continued for twelve hours. Upon this the enemies of Jones procured\na warrant of arrest from the Governor and assistants, then sitting at\nBoston; and when he was imprisoned, the vessel became quiet. There were\non board this vessel at the time as she lay in Charles River, eighty\nhorses, shipped for Barbadoes, and this was the witchcraft that rocked\nthe vessel; and as we hear no more of Jones, no doubt the assistants\nsaw the error and released him. In 1652, the year that old Massasoit\nand the Rev. John Cotton died there was another case at Springfield.\nHugh Parsons was indicted for witchcraft. The jury found him guilty;\nbut the magistrates who tried the cause would not agree to it and under\na law of 1651, it was carried to the general court, where the man was\ndischarged.\n\nThe next, was the case of the widow Hibbins, whom Gov. Endicot and the\nassistants hung for witchcraft May 27, 1656. Her husband was a rich\nBoston merchant, and an assistant when the law against witchcraft was\npassed, and thus he qualified his enemies in the devil\u2019s name, to put a\nhalter about his wife\u2019s neck. She was a haughty dame and was not, they\nthought, sufficiently humbled by her husband\u2019s great loss of property\nin later life, and she came under church discipline and censure. But\nthis only inflamed her hot temper, and a witch prosecution could alone\nreduce her to reason. At her trial it was proved, that having once\nseen two persons in the street talking, she said she knew it was about\nher, and unhappily she guessed right. This turned the case against\nher, and she thus lost her life. At her trial they searched her body\nfor the devil\u2019s mark as they did the Quaker maidens, Mary Fisher and\nher friends in less than two months after; but none were found. Before\nexecution Mrs. Hibbons made her will, and therein begged her friends to\nrespect her body, and give it a Christian burial. But the whole colony\nrang with her story. It was exceedingly alarming to the rulers that\nSatan should presume so high as an assistant\u2019s widow, and for more than\nthirty years there were no witch executions here, although there were\nmany supposed cases of the offence.\n\nIn 1662 witchcraft passed over to Connecticut. In Hartford at that\ntime, there was imprisoned as a witch, a Mrs. Greensmith and the\npeculiar art that was used to entrap and convict her deserves our\nnotice. In the same place there lived a girl whom they called Ann\nCole, and much admired for her beauty and ingenuity. She understood\nthe Dutch and French languages, rare attainments then, but which of\nthemselves would hardly excite suspicion to her prejudice, even in the\nrealm of blue laws. But she possessed in addition to these, the power\nof ventriloquism in a high degree, and all combined, came very near to\nher own undoing; indeed they quite undid old Mrs. Greensmith. Ann Cole\nat first only amused herself with the little ones of her own family,\nand when she practiced the deceptive art in the Dutch language, the\nunearthly jargon seeming to came from no visible object, it afforded\nher great amusement to see the terrified urchins gather round the very\ncause of their alarm for protection. Success tempted her on, and she\nbegan to amuse herself with her neighbors. When they came in and were\nseated perhaps the chair would seem to compliment them with \u201chow do\nyou do?\u201d and if they started up in surprise, \u201cpray keep your seat,\u201d\nwould follow in a low coaxing tone; and then the house cat seated in\nAnn\u2019s lap would sing melodiously. But although the facetious maiden\nnever suffered these pastimes to pass without explanation, yet some\ndoubted, and eyed her with jealousy and circulated strange stories,\nand before she had thought of consequences, rumor had declared her\na sort of Magdalene, and that her demons talked to each other, in a\nstrange variety of languages. These reports excited the attention of\ntwo clergymen of the place and they obtained Miss Ann\u2019s consent to\napproach her so near when a conference of her spirits took place, as\nto hear and write down the particulars; and herein commenced the only\nveritable witchcraft of the case; for Ann Cole\u2019s ventriloquism or the\nlistening ministers, feigned the supposed demons to converse with Mrs.\nGreensmith as one in league with them to do mischief, a foul slander\nin either case, and which cost the poor woman her life. The clergyman\nthen repaired to prison, they said the accused was much agitated upon\nlearning the discovery they had made, and by sharp interrogatories was\nmade to confess her familiarity with the devil. She had not signed his\nbook, or made a covenant with him, but at the then coming Christmas,\nshe was to be ready for a high frolic and then all was to have been\nfinished. Strange hymenials for a woman of seventy-five and the mother\nof ten sons and daughters and abundance of grandchildren; and it does\nnot even appear that she was a widow. However the poor woman was hung\nwithout scruple, or space for repentance, and without apparent pity for\nher future state; or whether in her execution they were doing the devil\na good or ill service.\n\nIn October 1671 a demon, it was said entered into Elizabeth Knapp, an\nunmarried girl of Groton, and he caused her alternately to weep and\nlaugh, and then in great agitation to call out money, money, like a\nmodern paper banker.\u2015On the 17th of December following, this demon\nbegan again to speak in the young woman and to utter horrid railings\nagainst the minister of the town, but without harm to his character,\nas the people would not believe him. He next made Elizabeth accuse\nthe minister\u2019s wife as the cause of all her woes; but in this also\nhe obtained no credit; for the pious woman, after prayers with her\naccuser made her confess the slander; and the devil had to shift his\nquarters, for he can never do his business unless he can maintain some\nreputation. In 1679 a demon probably the same infested a house in\nNewbury. Sticks and stones were thrown at the family, by an invisible\nhand: and a staff which hung against the wall, began to swing of its\nown accord; and then leaped down and danced on the hearth, and when\nthey seized it to burn, it could hardly be held on the fire.\u2015So a\ndish, when the owner of the house was writing, leaped into the pail and\nthrew water on his work. At length the terrified family cried to God\nfor help; and then the demons were heard to say mournfully that they\nhad no more power, and soon departed.\n\nIn 1682 one Desborough of Hartford was possessed of a chest of clothes,\nclaimed by his neighbor, but which he would not give up. Soon after\nmany stones, and corn cobs, were thrown at him by an invisible hand.\nThey came in at the doors of the house, and through the windows and\nsometimes even down the chimney. At length fires were set on his lands\nwhich did him much damage. Whereupon he gave up the clothes and his\nvexations ceased.\n\nSo about the same time, a Quaker at Portsmouth, withheld from an old\nwoman of his town, a lot of land which she claimed as her own; and\nstones soon began to be thrown at his house by an invisible hand.\nWhen they were picked up, it was said they were found hot, and smelt\nof brimstone, by which it was readily known from whence they came.\nUpon this the subdued and terrified Quaker settled with the woman\nand his troubles ceased. Both these cases are recorded as examples\nof witchcraft. Yet to us they seem to be those where claimants of\nproperty, seek other remedies than courts of law. But among these\nexamples there is recorded one tale of horror. It appears that at\nHartford, and about the time of Ann Cole\u2019s case, one Mary Johnson a\nyoung girl in her minority, was indicted and tried by the supreme court\nfor familiarity with the devil! The jury returned her guilty; and that\nmainly upon her alleged confessions. I will transcribe a portion of\nCotton Mather\u2019s history of this case. \u201cThe girl said that her first\nfamiliarity with the devil began in her discontent, and by her often\nsaying the devil take this and that, and sometimes wishing the devil\nwould do this or that for her, until at last the devil did appear and\ntendered her what services might best content her. Then if her master\nblamed her for not carrying out the ashes, the devil would come and\nclear the hearth for her. So when she was sent to drive the hogs out of\nthe corn field, the devil would so chase and frighten them as to make\nher laugh most merrily. She further confessed that she had murdered\na child and committed uncleanness with both men and devils;\u201d and it\nwas for an illicit intercourse with the latter, that the Connecticut\ngovenor hung this young woman.\n\nAfter her sentence the Rev. Mr. Stone of Hartford, visited her in\nprison and as he verily thought was successful in turning her heart\ntowards the true God. So that when led out to execution she expressed\na humble hope in the mercies of redemption; and died much to the\nsatisfaction of those gathered round the gallows. In this black\ntransaction who does not see the full success of some vile seducer of\nfemale virtue, in an apparent legalized destruction of his victim. Yet\nit is called a case of lamentable witchcraft. So it was with those\nwho slew the innocent. In 1685 or 6 a book was published at Boston\nwith the approbation of the ministers and magistrates. It recited the\ncases I have named with many others and contained various arguments\nto fortify their credulity. The Rev. Cotton Mather of Boston, a man\nof great influence in church and state was the author; though he at\nthe time withheld his name. He was then a young minister of about five\nand twenty, the son of Mr. Increase Mather then president of Cambridge\ncollege,\u2015a position then of greater civil and church power than any\nother in the land; he was also the grandson of the great John Cotton.\nMather\u2019s opinions and turn of thought were in harmony with those who\nthen ruled in Massachusetts, and we thus consider him.\n\nThis book produced the notorious witch case of the Godwins, of which\nhe also published an account commencing thus. \u201cHaec ipse miserima\nvidi.\u201d John Godwin was a Boston merchant, a character of the first\nrespectability, and he sat under the teachings of Mather himself. A\npoor Irish woman called Glover, with her daughter lived near him. The\nyoung Glover often served in Godwin\u2019s family, and on a certain time\nbeing accused by his eldest daughter of some little theft, she cast\nback a denial and abuse for the accusation. The mother came up also and\ndefended her child, and her passion and wild Irish accent, so terified\nthe little Godwin that she was thrown into hystericks, and they were\nkept up from day to day. Her case excited great commiseration in the\nneighborhood and the physicians who were called in, being puzzled,\npronounced it a \u201cpreternatural visitation;\u201d a very significant phrase,\nby which all understood that the little maid was bewitched. Next her\nlittle sister, and two brothers seeing what was going on, had fits\nalso and were afflicted by the invisibles. They declared they were\npinched and pricked by some one whom they knew not, and then at times\nthey would seem deaf, dumb and blind; and sometimes their mouths would\nbe forced wide open and then suddenly brought together with great\nviolence, to the great hazard of their tongues.\n\nStoughton and Dudley, both first charter rulers, were now also\nsupreme judges, lately commissioned by Sir Edmund; and these at the\nsolicitation of Mather and others, ventured to arraign and to try\nMistress Glover for witch practices on the Godwin family. But she\nwas a stranger to the language and too ignorant to understand legal\nproceedings, and when asked to plead to her indictment, her answer\nwas unintelligible. The court then swore an interpreter, and he soon\nconfessed himself puzzled declaring that he believed some other witch,\nor the devil himself had confounded her language, lest she should tell\ntales. Then they searched Glover\u2019s house and some rag babies were found\nstuffed with goats hair. We must know that the woman was a Catholic and\nsold toys.\n\nWhen one of these images or puppets was brought into court, the witch\nswiftly and oddly started up and seized it, and immediately one of\nthe children had a sad fit before the court and assembly. The judges\nnoted the fact, and repeated the experiment and with the same result,\nas it was said, the children saw not when Glover laid her hand on the\nbaby images. In the end the court was satisfied that she used these\ndolls mysteriously in her work of torment. She owned also that there\nwas one who was her prince, but did not say whether he were the pope\nor the devil. It was suggested that she might be crazed; but a jury of\ndoctors returned, that she was compos mentis. She was finally sentenced\nto death and executed in Boston; yet the afflicted children did not\nrecover but rather grew worse, or they improved by practice, for they\nwould now bark at each other like dogs and then they would purr like\ncats. They would pretend to be in a red hot oven, and pant and sweat\naccordingly; and then that they were cast into cold water and appeared\nvery chilly.\n\nSometimes the devil would bring Miss Godwin a horse, and then she had\nall the graceful motions of an equestrian. One day she rode up stairs\ninto the minister\u2019s study, where upon she cried out as if surprised,\n\u201cthey are gone. God won\u2019t let them come here;\u201d and she was at once\ncured, and sat reading the Bible and other good books for a long time.\nBut when she left the study the demons returned, with her horse,\nand she frolicked as before.\u2015This experiment of the charmed study,\nwas tried before many visitors and with the like success. Mather\u2019s\nexperiments further satisfied him that Miss Godwin\u2019s demons understood\nLatin, Greek, and Hebrew, but none of the Indian languages.\n\nThis tragedy also began in a minister\u2019s family. The Rev. Samuel\nParris, was educated at Cambridge. He first engaged in trade, but\nbeing unsuccessful he turned to the ministry and was settled at Salem\nvillage. At the time now in view, his parish was in a high quarrel of\nwhich his arts to obtain the fee instead of the improvement for life\nonly of the parsonage farm, was the cause. And whilst thus warm with\nmutual malevolence, pastor and flock, the current notions of witchcraft\nsuddenly placed in their power the means of mutual revenge; and they\nwere at once fully delivered over to the effects of their own excited\nwrath. A very mutual but terrible punishment. It was a horrid policy in\nthe charter government to ever use the devil to overawe the people.\nA boundless power of evil, which a child, as well as a minister, or a\ncharter ruler, could set in motion; and then whoever could might lay\nhim. In the latter part of February, 1692, two children in the Parris\nfamily, both about ten years old, Elizabeth his daughter, and Abagail\nWilliams his niece, began to behave in a strange manner; they would\ncreep under chairs, sit in uncommon attitudes and utter language which\nnone could understand; and as they were pitied and indulged; their\nfreaks increased until it was thought they were very like the Godwins,\nand must be bewitched; and the physicians when called in confirmed the\nopinion. Mr. Parris only increased their malady by holding a day of\nsolemn prayer at his house with the neighboring ministers.\n\nBut he had in his family two slaves, John and Tituba his wife. The\nsquaw was from New Spain, and once a subject of the old Montezumian\nempire, and probably was imbued with some of its gloomy and\nunfathomable superstitions. Her thoughts too seemed as busy as her\nmaster\u2019s, and she told him that although no witch herself, she once\nserved a mistress who was, and who taught her how to find them out; and\nshe would try upon the children without hurting them. Parris greedily\ntook with her scheme, and he saw her while she took rye meal and\nkneaded a cake, which she salted in a peculiar manner, and which she\nsaid, when baked in green cabbage leaves in the embers and eaten by\nthe two girls, would make them see their tormentors; and she continued\nthe experiment. But although both she and her master affected to act\nand talk myteriously, yet the children as they crept about shrewdly\nunder the chairs, eyed the cookery with a very jealous interest, and\nwhen they became conscious that the unsavory morsel was for their\nmouths they grew restive; for no necromancy could satisfy them that\nTituba\u2019s briny bread was like gingerbread, or anything good, and they\nbegan to show a rational opposition. But Tituba said they must eat,\nand Mr. Parris began to use authority. \u201cI\u2019ll smell on\u2019t,\u201d said little\nElizabeth, \u201cnow won\u2019t that do? say yes, say yes, good Titty.\u201d But she\nshook her head. Bless me, said the father, how natural they seem; and\nabout the same time the slave pulled the rank cake from the embers,\nand as the hot scent filled the room, Abagail cried out, there! there!\nI see them, I see them as plain as day, and so do I, said little\nElizabeth. O how many! and there\u2019s old Titt, too, she torments us, old\nTitt torments us, said they both.\n\nIt was now all over with the Mexican. In vain she frowned and coaxed by\nturns; or denied that the girls could see witch spectres by the smell\nof her cake only. She discredited her own magic, and which they would\nsustain for self-defense, and the more she labored thus, the more they\nprofessed to be tormented, until Parris himself took their part and\nthreatened Tituba with punishment unless she confessed and disclosed\nher confederate witches. And John, too, her husband, when he saw her\nin distress meanly deserted her. He told master Parris that the girls\nno doubt spoke the truth; that she had for a long time tormented him,\nand was an old hand at it. But discouraged and deserted as she was,\nher master\u2019s whip alone, as she afterwards affirmed, brought her to\nlie, and to confess that the devil engaged her to sign his book, and\nto afflict the children. And thus was acquired the spectral vision by\nthe afflicted so much used and so fatally for the peace of the country,\nas we shall hereafter see. Tituba was imprisoned and so continued,\nuntil sold to pay her prison fees! And Mr. Parris fasted and prayed at\nhis house a whole day. His family now excited a general sympathy and\nconsideration, which others were willing to share. Their persecutions,\nSatan being the author, were somewhat honorable, and Ann Putnam, an\nolder girl of the neighborhood, instigated by her mother no doubt,\npretended to be afflicted also. Thus fortified, they now complained\nof Sarah Good and a Mrs. Osborn. It was supposed that the equivocal\ncharacter of these caused the accusation; and it was the more readily\ncredited. They were committed by two Salem magistrates the first week\nin March. Of Osborn we hear no more; but Mrs. Good was finally executed.\n\nIt is almost incredible, and yet it is sober history, that a little\ndaughter of Sarah Good, five years old only, was accused by the\nafflicted of tormenting them; and they showed what they pretended\nwere the prints of the child\u2019s little teeth on their arms! The Salem\nmagistrates committed this mere infant for witchcraft, but as we hear\nno more of her, she was probably liberated without further harm.\n\nAbout this time there was a great fast at Salem, and another\nproclaimed by the government throughout the colony, \u201cthat the Lord\nwould effectually rebuke Satan and save his people.\u201d And the afflicted\naccusers multiplied daily, and there was added to the number Ann\nPutnam\u2019s mother, goodwives, Pope, Bibber and Goodall, maidens, Mary\nWalcott and Mary Lewis; also, Tituba\u2019s husband John; he turning accuser\nto save himself from being accused. About the same time a society was\nformed in Salem for the detection of witches, and these procured the\naccusation and commitment of many. This formidable band of accusers\nnow cried out against two aged females who were church members, by the\nnames of Corey and Nurse. Mrs. Nurse belonged to the church in Salem\nunder the Rev. Mr. Noyes, and Mrs. Corey was of Mr. Parris\u2019 flock. This\nwas a dark business. It was supposed Parris instigated the accusation.\nFor when made he gave it publicity and strength; and on the following\nLord\u2019s day he preached in his pulpit from this text: \u201cHave I not chosen\ntwelve, and one of you is a devil.\u201d\n\nA Mrs. Cloyes, sister to Nurse, was at the meeting, and during the\nfurious and uncharitable sermon which followed her distress for her\nsister\u2019s life, which it much endangered, constrained her to leave the\nmeeting. A high wind closed the door suddenly after her, and it was\nsaid that she showed temper; and on the following Monday an accusation\nfor witchcraft by the Parris family, and those under its control, went\nafter her, upon which she was carried before Hathorn and Currier for\nexamination. This charge, we know, must have been both malicious and\nfalse, as it was sustained by perjury.\n\nA further knowledge of the temper and insolence of those, in whose\npower the lives and liberties of the citizens were now placed, may be\ngathered from this incident. On the 9th of March a Mr. Lawson, minister\nof Scituate, preached for Mr. Parris, it being the Sabbath day, and the\nbewitched band were present. After the psalm had been sung, Abagail\nWilliams called out to him to stand up and name his text, and when\nhe did so, she said it was very long indeed. In the discourse, he\nexplained some point of doctrine at considerable length, when Mrs. Pope\nsaid loudly, \u201cnow take up some other point, the people have had enough\nof that.\u201d In his improvement he made reference to doctrines which he\nsaid he had established. \u201cPray,\u201d said Abagail again, \u201cwhat doctrines\ndo you mean?\u201d And then Ann Putnam suddenly cried out, there! there! I\nsee a little yellow bird sitting on the minister\u2019s cocked up hat; there\nwhere it hangs on the peg in the pulpit. This was spectral vision;\nnobody else saw it and it seemed to be considered that the devil thus\nscoffed and jeered the congregation through the mouths of the afflicted.\n\nThe six commitments now made of the females\u2015Tituba, Osborn, Good,\nCorey, Nurse, and Sarah Good\u2019s little daughter, were upon the assumed\nauthority of the two Salem magistrates alone, instigated by Parris.\nOn the 11th of April, Danforth the Deputy Governor, with the council\ncame down from Boston and sat formally with Hathorn and Curwin in\nthe place of power.\u2015The Governor Bradstreet the old patentee, who\nhung the Quakers, was now almost ninety; and ill qualified for the\nnew service. Many of the neighboring ministers were also present.\nThis terrible witch inquisition gave a sanction to the delusive and\nmalicious prosecutions, and sealed the doom of many innocent victims.\nThe inquisitors, the accused and a cloud of spectators, met in a large\nmeeting house, Mr. Samuel Parris being employed as clerk, and assuming\nalso a leading part in the production and examination of witnesses.\nThe Rev. Mr. Noyes of Salem, an enthuiast in witch hunting opened the\nbusiness with prayer. After which one of the accused begged that she\nmight go to prayer also; but Danforth told her, they had come there to\nexamine into her witchcrafts, and not to hear her pray! and she gave it\nup. Mr. Parris then began business by calling up as a witness Tituba\u2019s\nhusband John. That cunning treacherous slave knew well how to please\nhis master and save his own neck: and living in the Parris family he\nknew also the views and wishes of those who now controlled the witch\naccusations.\n\nQuestion.\u2015John; who hurt you? A.\u2015Goody Proctor first, and then Goody\nCloyes. Q.\u2015What did she do to you? A.\u2015She (who?) brought the book to\nme, and choked me. Q.\u2015John, tell the truth now, who hurts you; have\nyou been hurt? A.\u2015The first I saw was a gentlewoman.\u2015(This was no\ndoubt, a dark hint at Mrs. Mary English, the wife of one of the first\nmerchants in Salem, and who was afterwards arrested and committed.)\nThis was the woman, who, when the constables were at the door to seize\nand carry her to prison, called her little ones round her, gave them\nher parting blessing and advice, prayed with them, and wept over them,\nas she supposed for the last time, and then gave herself up quietly to\nher fate. Q.\u2015John, who did you see next? A.\u2015Goody Cloyes. Q.\u2015How\noften did she torment you? A.\u2015A good many times. Q.\u2015Do the women\ncome to you mostly in the daytime or in the night? A.\u2015They come most\nin the daytime. Q.\u2015John, do you know Cloyes and Proctor? A.\u2015Yes,\nthere is Goody Cloyes. Upon this Mrs. Cloyes looked sharply at him and\nsaid;\u2015tell me when did I ever come to, or hurt thee? John.\u2015(a little\nabashed,) O, a great many times. O, said Cloyes you are a grievous\nliar! Upon this Parris grew warm. Now, John, said he, tell us what did\nthis Cloyes do to you? A.\u2015She did pinch me and bite me till the blood\ncame. She came and hurt me yesterday at meeting.\n\nThis was the woman whose only crime was leaving Mr. P.\u2019s sermon. The\nmalice of the master, the perjury of the slave, and the despotism of\nDanforth and his assistants were too hard for her. John, too, seems\nto have had the spectral vision in a high degree, though he never\neven smelt of his wife\u2019s cake. He learnt it, no doubt, of the little\ngirls her pupils, as did Ann Putnam and others. Parris then called\nMary Walcot, and asked who hurt her. A.\u2015Goody Cloyes. Q.\u2015What did\nshe do? A.\u2015She hurt me. Q.\u2015Did she bring the book? A.\u2015Yes. Q.\u2015What\nwere you to do with it? A.\u2015Sign it, and be well. Then she fell into\na fit, in affected horror at the devil\u2019s book. Abagail Williams, who\nso successfully outwitted Tituba in the matter of the salted cake, was\nnext called by her uncle Parris. Abagail, said he, did you, by your\nspectral vision, once see a company near this meeting house eat and\ndrink? A.\u2015Yes sir;\u2015it was their witch sacrament. It was on the day of\nthe great fast. They had bread like raw flesh; and they had red drink,\nwhich they said was our blood; and they had it twice that day. Q.\u2015How\nmany were there? A.\u2015About forty; they came together by the sound of a\ntrumpet. They had a minister who preached, and Goody Cloyes and Goody\nGood were their deacons.\n\nMrs. Cloyes was of rather delicate health, and when she heard this\nstrange tissue of falsehood, so great was her surprise and terror,\nthat she sickened and asked for water, but as no one would assist her,\nshe fainted and fell upon the floor. Upon which Abagail cried out,\nthere, there, I see her spirit fly to her sister Nurse in prison for\ncouncil; and she was believed; and as soon as the woman revived, she\nwas forthwith imprisoned.\n\nParris then asked Mary Walcot if she had ever seen a white man. And she\nanswered yes; often. Q.\u2015What sort of man is he? A.\u2015A fine, grave man,\nand when he comes he makes all the witches tremble, and he tells us\nwhen our fits will come on and when they will go off. This was supposed\nto be Jesus Christ come down to pity and to talk with bewitched\nchildren and save the charter churches. A horrid blasphemous fiction,\nbut yet credited by the government of the colony before whom it was\nuttered. The justices then proceeded and said, Elizabeth Proctor, you\nunderstand, that you are here charged with sundry acts of witchcraft,\nwhat say you to it? I take God in heaven to be my witness, that I know\nno more of witchcraft than a child unborn. This woman was of excellent\ncharacter, the mother of a fine family of children, all then dependent\non her for nurture and protection. It is very difficult to account for\nher selection and accusation as a witch. Some accident, or that she was\nobnoxious to the Parris or Putnam family, who fabricated all the early\naccusations, must have been the cause. But when her unhappy husband\nsaw his wife rudely seized like a felon in her once peaceful home, he\nresolved to accompany her to the examination; and his conjugal fidelity\ncost him his life.\n\nHer examination began thus: Question.\u2015Mary Walcot doth this woman hurt\nyou?\u2015Answer.\u2015I never saw her to be hurt by her. Q.\u2015Mary Lewis, does\nshe hurt you? No answer. Q.\u2015Ann Putnam, does she hurt you? She could\nnot speak; and Abagail Williams thrust her hand into her own mouth lest\nshe should speak. A pause, and almost a failure. John, said Mr. Parris,\nwho hurts you? This is the woman, said the Indian, who came in her\nshift to me and choked me. And now the girls were ready to say she hurt\nthem, and brought the devil\u2019s book for them to sign, and the crafty\nAbagail, with affected simplicity and sincerity, said to Mrs. Proctor,\ndid not you tell me that your maid had signed? Dear child, said Mrs.\nProctor, it is not so; remember, dear child, that there is another\njudgment. Then Abagail and Ann seemed to have fits; by and by they\ncried out, look you, there is Proctor on the beam; and her husband,\ntoo; Proctor is a wizard! Proctor is a wizard! The man was confounded.\nThere, said Ann, Proctor is going to take up Mrs. Pope\u2019s feet; and\nher feet flew up; and now, said Abagail, he is going to Goody Bibber;\nand Bibber fell into a fit! The Deputy Governor and Council seemed\nsurprised, and said to Proctor, you see the devil will deceive you, the\npoor children could see what you were about before the women were hurt.\n\u201cRepent, for the devil is bringing you out.\u201d\n\nThe Hon. Court then suffered some experiments to be tried on Mrs.\nProctor. It was affirmed that the afflicted could not strike a witch;\nand Ann Putnam approached and attempted to strike Mrs. P. on the head\nwith her fist, but as the blow descended her fist opened, and her\nfingers\u2019 ends but lightly tapped the woman\u2019s hood, and then Ann cried\nout with consummate art, they burn! they burn!\u2015her fingers burned,\nand she fell upon the floor apparently overcome with pain. All were\nstrongly moved by this incident, so wonderful and yet so sudden. Some\nfancied they saw a blue flame play around Mrs. Proctor, and others were\nquite sure they smelt brimstone. The Court then suddenly turned the\nexperiments upon Proctor himself, and ordered him forthwith to repeat\nthe Lord\u2019s Prayer, without slip or hesitation, to show his innocence.\nIt was a hard case in his present dismay, but he made the effort; and\nhe did very well until he came to the petition \u201cdeliver us from all\nevil;\u201d and this was adjudged to be a perversion of the Lord\u2019s Prayer;\nfor to be delivered from all evil was to be delivered from that under\nwhich he then suffered, and of course opposing the Divine decrees. But\nto be fair with him they put him upon the prayer again, but he had no\nbetter luck than at first. For when he came to \u201challowed be Thy name,\u201d\nhe said \u201chollowed be Thy name.\u201d Here they again stopped him and held\nthat this was a depraving of the words. To make the name of the Deity\nhollow, said they, is to make it vain, light and void, and is blasphemy\nand cursing, rather than a prayer. In fine it was decided that they\ncould not say it, and that he was a guilty man.\n\nAnd thus the unfortunate Proctor, although he came before the\nmagistrates a free and innocent citizen to console and sustain his\nafflicted and terrified wife, by a strange fatality was sent from their\npresence a prisoner charged with a capital offence, upon the exhibition\nof the foolery and malice I have named; and what is equally strange,\nhis wife in the end by a mere accident was saved, but poor Proctor they\nhung.\n\nOn the 19th of April, only eight days after, the imposing witch\ninquisition before Judge Danforth and the council, Hathorn and Curwin\ncalled up for examination Giles Corey, the husband of Martha Corey,\nalready committed. And thus the wrong done to the wife was soon visited\nupon the husband in wanton passion merely, and without shadow of truth\nor justice.\n\nThey thus began with him: Giles Corey, you are now brought before\nauthority upon high suspicion of witchcraft, now tell us the truth\nof the matter. I hope, said Giles, with the blessing of God I shall,\nfor I never had any hand in that matter in my life. Parris, who was\nstill clerk and chief manager, now said to the afflicted girls, which\nof you have seen this man hurt you? I, said Abagail Williams; I, said\nAnn Putnam; I, I, I, said the whole band but one. Hasn\u2019t he hurt you,\ntoo, said Parris coaxingly to Elizabeth Hubbard, but she attempting\nto answer seemed to be taken with a fit. Have you never seen him hurt\nyou, said the same to Benjamin Gould. I have often seen Giles Corey and\nbeen hurt after it, but cannot say he did it. All the girls also said\nthat he brought the devil\u2019s book for them to subscribe. The justices\nthen said, Corey, you hear what these testify; why do you hurt them?\nI never did hurt them. Then it is your spectre that hurts them, tell\nus what you have done? I have done nothing to them. Have you never,\nsaid Parris, entered into a compact with the devil? No, I never did.\n(But he had then recently joined himself to the village church under\nMr. Parris.) What temptations have you had? I never had any. But what\nfrightened you in the cow-house, Giles Corey, said the court, tell us\nthat? Nothing, nothing. Why, here are three witnesses, who have heard\nyou to-day say, that you was frightened in the cow-house. I do not\nremember it.\n\nNote by Mr. Parris\u2015\u201cThere was evidence by several that Corey said,\nhe would make away with himself and charge his death upon his son!\u201d\nAnd Goody Bibber also testified that he called her husband, a damned\ndevilish rogue; and other vile expressions were sworn to in open court.\n\nThe residue of Giles Corey\u2019s fate was most hideous. From the date of\nthis fraudulent, perjured and senseless inquest, he lay helpless and\nalmost forgotten in prison for five months. There he was found on the\n9th of the following September, and with many others brought before\nthe court of trials. But the jury seemed entirely under the court, and\nas, of course, returned all guilty who put themselves on trial. Corey\nnoticed this, and when his turn came he refused to plead, saying it was\nuseless, and that they might do as they pleased with him. But the court\nseemed resolved to signalize his obstinacy, in terror to all others,\nand gave judgment against him of pem forte et dure for standing mute,\nby virtue of which he was taken to prison, placed on his back, with his\narms and legs extended and fastened in that position. Heavy weights\nwere placed upon him, and to be allowed a quantity of poor bread and\nthe nearest standing water that could be found to the prison door, and\nthus to remain until he died. His sufferings were horrible, and on the\n17th of the month he was evidently in death\u2019s agonies, his eyes seemed\nbursting and his tongue swollen greatly out of his mouth. The marshall,\nthe agent of the people\u2019s government, stood over him, and without\ncompassion, thrust back the dying man\u2019s tongue with the point of his\nstaff! And this is the only instance of that horrible judgment, and its\nexecution in our Massachusetts history.\n\nIn the meantime Martha Corey, the wife of Giles, lay bound in the same\nprison under sentence, and with eleven days only to prepare for death;\nthis is Mr. Parris\u2019 account of the mission.\n\n\u201cWe found her (Mrs. Corey) very obdurate, justifying ourselves\nand condemning all who had done anything to her just discovery\nand condemnation. Whereupon, after a little discourse, for her\nimperiousness would not suffer much, and after prayer! which she was\nwilling to decline, the dreadful sentence of excommunication was\npronounced against her.\u201d By which excommunication the woman was in form\nconsigned to the devil\u2019s use forever. How could the Rev. gentleman\npray to God for a blessing on such a work in her prison; and what more\nsecular tyranny ever invented such exquisite cruelty towards a hapless\nfemale. It first compassed her death, and then by clerical necromancy\nsought to destroy her soul! But her courage arose above the necromancy.\nShe was sustained. She made no terms with her destroyers, or with\nfalseness or meanness. Even on the gallows ladder she had strength to\nstill proclaim her innocence in solemn prayer to God, and the gallows\nrope swung her into eternity as acceptable to Him, as if she had died\nin the bosom of her village church.\n\nSo wonderfully had witch accusations now multiplied, that Hathorn and\nCurwin held regular sittings; and the bewitched band of the Parris\nand Putnam family and others associated with them, were sure to find\nthem subjects. For the convenience of the accusers these sessions were\nholden at Salem village, which had now become a point of great public\nobservation and terror. Thus on the 22d of April, they committed for\nfurther proceedings William Hobbs and his wife, Mary Esty and Sara\nWild, all of Topsfield; also, Edward Bishop and his wife, and Philip\nEnglish and his wife, of Salem. And all these were taken on the\ncomplaint of Thomas Putnam, who thus hunted and secured the victims for\nhis wife and daughter Ann with the Parris family to destroy.\n\nWe know the charges of witchcraft against these persons were fictitious\nand foul; and ofttimes hidden causes led to their selection from the\nmass of the citizens.\n\nThe first accusation of the Salem girls out of their own county was\nthat of Mrs. Cary of Charlestown. This, no doubt, like most others,\nemanated from the neighborhood of the woman, the afflicted in Essex\nbeing used as mere instruments to destroy her. It was a startling\nmovement, as the public recalled at once the fatal case of Margaret\nJones and the vessel rocked by horses. The account of Mr. Cary, her\nhusband, remains to this day, and being an eye-witness his record is\nvery interesting. About the 20th of May, the rumor reached him that his\nwife had been named as a witch, at Salem village, and by the advice\nof his friends he resolved to go down and present her, a stranger to\nthe afflicted, and see if they would recognize her. It was a dangerous\nexperiment and cost him dear.\n\nOn the 14th he arrived at the inn, as Hathorn and Curwin, with a great\ncrowd, were entering the meetinghouse for their daily work, and he\nand his wife took a convenient stand where they might note all that\npassed. A minister opened the business with prayer, and he saw that the\nafflicted then present were two girls of about ten or eleven years,\nand three others who appeared to be about eighteen. One of the younger\ngirls could discern most spectres, and talked most (this was the shrewd\nAbagail Williams no doubt). When a prisoner was brought in, he or she\nwas placed at some distance from the justices, with the eyes fixed\ndirectly on them, and the officers held each hand lest they should\npinch the afflicted. The girls were placed between the prisoner and the\nmagistrates, and if at any time the accused looked on them they were\nsure to be struck down in fits, or they screamed out they were hurt.\nSometimes when they came out of their fits and stared round in peoples\u2019\nfaces, the court would say they were struck dumb, and were then to go\nand touch the prisoner at the bar, to be restored to speech. This they\nwould attempt with well dissembled hesitation, but would usually fall\ndown in a fit. They would then be taken up and carried to the prisoner,\nthat he might lay hands on them, and when this was done the justices\nwould say that they were well, though Cary observed, that he could see\nno alteration, though he plainly saw that the justices understood the\nmatter, and the girls were well disciplined.\n\nWhilst all this was passing, Cary and his wife stood in sight of the\nafflicted, unnoticed, except a person came in the crowd and asked her\nname, and it would seem that quite unguardly she gave it. Soon after\nthe examination broke up and Cary and his wife began to hope that their\nexperiment was successful. They then repaired to the tavern, where\nthey found the Indian John. They gave him some cider and he showed\nthem his witch scars, but to Cary they seemed to be of long standing,\nand were more probably the work of his former Spanish master. John\nwas supposed to have been stolen and brought away by the bucaniers,\nwho then infested the American coast. Shortly the bewitched girls\ncame in and began their fits and to tumble about the floor, and the\ncompany looked on in amazement and terror, no one knowing who might be\ncried out upon. As soon as they spoke they cried out Cary! Cary! and\nalmost immediately, as if prepared, a warrant of arrest came from the\njustices then sitting in the house ready to try her. Her accusers were\ntwo girls, of whom she declared to the court, she had not the least\nknowledge before that day. She, too, now had to stand with her hands\noutstretched, like the others in the meeting house. Her husband begged\nthat he might hold one of her hands, but it was denied him. And so Mrs.\nCary stood condemned, her husband, at her request, wiped the sweat from\nher face and the tears from her eyes. As the examination proceeded and\nthe girls testified as usual, she became faint and begged that she\nmight lean on her husband, but Hathorn replied sharply, that so long as\nshe had strength to torment those before them, she had strength enough\nto stand. John now came in and fell upon the floor also, and pretended\nto have a dumb fit. The justices then asked the girls who afflicted\nhim. They replied that it was she (the prisoner), and that they could\nsee that she now lay heavily upon him, though to all other eyes she was\nstanding up and her hands held out. Upon this Cary, in his distress,\nsaid, that God would take vengeance on them for such conduct. But this\nseemed to prejudice the justices, for without more words her mittimus\nwas written. No bail could be taken, and she was sent to Boston prison,\nfrom thence she was removed to Campton prison, where they put irons\nupon her of about eight pounds weight. And although her distress\nbrought a severe sickness yet the irons were not taken off.\n\nWhen the final trials came on at Salem, Cary went down, but when he\nsaw the children\u2019s spectre evidence admitted together with absurd and\nmalicious stories against peoples\u2019 lives, he became satisfied that\nthere was but little chance for his wife\u2019s life, and especially as all\nhis efforts and those of his friends could not procure her a trial in\nMiddlesex County. There was now only one remedy, and he embraced it.\nWith some secret assistance he rescued her from prison and fled to\nRhode Island, the common refuge of those persecuted in Massachusetts.\nBut they were pursued, and he passed on to New York. Here Gov. Fletcher\nreceived them kindly, and sheltered them until the danger was passed.\n\nA few days after this John Alden was brought before the Salem justices,\nupon accusation of witchcraft. He was a man of great consideration in\nthe colony, being employed by the government to supply the fortress on\nthe coast with warlike stores and provisions. His own account of the\ntransaction has been perpetuated in the form of a deposition.\n\nHe states that he was arrested in Boston and sent down to Salem\nvillage, and when all were in presence of the magistrates, the girls\nwere asked who of all the people in the room afflicted them; and one of\nthem pointed to another man then present by the name of Hill, but she\nspake nothing. This girl had a man standing behind her to hold her up\nwhen necessary; and Alden saw him stoop down and place his mouth to her\near, and she cried out Alden! Alden! that it was Alden who afflicted\nher. Hathorn then asked her if she had ever seen Alden, and she said\nno, but the man near her said it was he. All were then ordered into\nthe street and a ring was formed, the children and the justices in the\ncentre; his accuser then cried out, pointing to him, \u201cthere stands\nJohn Alden, a bold fellow, with his hat on before the judges; he sells\npowder and shot to the French Indians.\u201d\n\nThey bid Alden to look at the bewitched, and when he did they seemed to\nbe struck down. He then asked the court why they themselves were not\nstruck down also by his eyes. But no reason was given.\n\nAlden spoke of God\u2019s providence in suffering such creatures to accuse\ninnocent persons, but the Rev. Mr. Noyes, minister of Salem, answered\nhim, that God\u2019s providence governed the world in peace, and with a long\ndiscourse prevented his further difficult questions. Alden was then\ncommitted to the prison in Boston, where he lay over three months, and\nwhen the final trials came on he saw how many were executed, he also\nmade his escape and saved his life.\n\nDeliverance Hobbs of Hopsfield, having been cried out upon and\nimprisoned, seems to have framed her confession in the terms of the\naccusation. She said she had, indeed, signed the devil\u2019s book after\nmany threatenings and great torment from him and his emissaries;\nand that so soon as she had done it, he used her spectre to afflict\npersons. That whilst her spectre was so employed on a certain time,\none of the bewitched maids cried out, there stands Deliverance Hobbs,\nstrike her? Upon which the marshal, a man of courage, standng by, made\na pass at the spot pointed out, with his rapier, and the girl said\nthere! you have given her a small prick about the eye, and Deliverance\nshowed the wound to the justices, who seemed highly gratified to have\nthe maid\u2019s outcry so well authenticated, and to learn that a wound\ngiven to the spectre of a witch, would reach the original, although at\nhome and about her business.\n\nAfter this, says Calef, it was quite common for the afflicted to\ntell of the black man, or a spectre being on the table before the\nmagistrates; and then the by-standers would strike at the places with\ntheir sticks and swords. Justice Curwin once broke his cane at this\nexercise.\n\nThis penitent also confessed that she was at the great witch sacrament\nat Salem village. That George Burroughs was there, that he called all\nthe witches together by the sound of a trumpet; that he preached to\nthem and urged them to pull down Christ\u2019s kingdom and build up that\nof Satan in its stead, and that Salem village should be destroyed,\nbeginning at Mr. Parris\u2019 house. Among her confederates, Deliverance\naccused old Candy, a negress, and who was thereupon brought before\nJustice Hathorn. Candy said, he, you are a witch? Ans. Candy\nwitch!\u2015no, no\u2015Candy no witch in her country\u2015Candy\u2019s mother no witch;\nCandy no witch Barbadoes\u2015this country\u2015mistress Hawks give Candy\nwitch\u2015(indeed!) yes, this country mistress give Candy witch.\n\nWell, Candy, said Hathorn, with unusual mildness, how do you hurt these\nyoung folks, show us the poppets you do it with, Candy. Candy was\nquite happy, and asked to go out of the room, and said she would show\nall. When she returned she held in her hand two rags, with knots tied\nin them. At sight of these Deliverance Hobbs, who had now joined the\nafflicted band, went into a strong fit; and the other girls declared\nthey could now plainly see Goody Hawks, Candy and the devil, standing\ntogether pinching the poppets, and then they (the afflicted) were\nsorely pinched, though no one actually touched them, but it was done in\nspectre. The Court then directed Candy to untie the knots, and when she\ndid so, Deliverance came out of her fit, and all were well. A bit of\nrag was then put in the fire, and the girls cried out that they burned\ndreadfully. To quench it they dipped it in some water, and Deliverance\nstarted like a deer for the river, but was caught by a swift youth\nbefore she plunged in.\n\nThe cunning Candy exulted in the efficacy of her charms, and all\nbeholders thought her mistress had practised upon her ignorance, and\nGoody Hawks had to confess to save her life.\n\nAbout this time commeced the Andover tragedy; where as Cotton Mather\nsays, was discovered the most horrid crew of witches that ever\ndisgraced a New England town The wife of Joseph Ballard of Andover\nfell sick, and the town doctor finding her disease too stubborn for his\nart, advised her husband that she was bewitched. This practice was too\ncommon among the early Massachusetts physicians. The hint took with\nBallard; and he forthwith sent men and horses to Salem village, and to\nthe house of Mr. Parris, and brought to Andover old Tituba\u2019s pupils\nAbagail Williams and Mary Walcot. When these came into the sick woman\u2019s\nroom, they said they could well enough see witch spectres hovering\nround her bed and person, but not being acquainted with any Andover\npeople, they could not name the originals. Describe them says the\nhusband; and they did so in language sufficiently vague to embrace half\nthe women in the town;\u2015and still fancy or malignity might select at\npleasure; and fancy or malignity did select at pleasure and that most\nfatally, as the event will show.\n\nDudley Bradstreet, son of the old patentee, was then the acting\nmagistrate in Andover, and he granted a warrant against a number of\nwomen on this occasion and held the examination in the meeting house.\nAfter prayers by the Rev. Mr. Barnard, minister of the town, the women\nwere brought in, and Abagail and Mary fell down in fits at the sight,\nas in time past at Salem; and when the prisoners laid hands on them,\nthey rose up and said they were well. All the old experiments were\ntried with the old success; and Bradstreet committed a number of his\ntowns-women to Salem prison, to answer there, and Abagail and Mary\nreturned home with increased credit. Yet Goody Ballard died soon after\nof a fever; and Dudley Bradstreet repented of the step he had taken.\nSome of these in their weakness were made to confess the wildest witch\npranks on record, and to implicate others as associates, by which more\nthan forty Andover women were ensnared by witch prosecutions and some\nlost their lives.\n\nHere follow some of the recorded confessions of these Andover witches,\nlong after drawn up, with death\u2019s terrors before them. Ann Foster was\none of these. She had been brought to acknowledge, in Salem prison,\nthat she was a witch, and had attended a great witch sacrament at Salem\nvillage; that she rode thither on a pole, behind Martha Carrier, high\nthrough the air; that on their way the pole broke, and that she holding\nfast by Martha, came to the ground and was sorely bruised by the fall,\nbut they mounted again and went on. Being asked what they eat, she\nsaid they carried their bread and cheese in their pockets, and ate it\nbefore the meeting began, sitting under a large tree, with the Andover\ncompany, and they drank water from a brook near by.\n\nOn the 21st of July, Hathorn, Curwin, Gidney and Higginson, assistants,\nsat upon her confession in public, and they began thus: Goody Foster,\nyou know we have spoken with you before; you have committed great\nwickedness, but it seems that God will give you more favor than others,\nsince you relent, but you did not tell us all; your daughter has\nconfessed that she sat with you and Goody Carrier when you did ride\nupon the pole? F.\u2015I did not know. How long has your daughter been a\nwitch? F.\u2015I have no knowledge of it\u2015I cannot tell. Did you see her\nat the witch meeting? F.\u2015No. But you said she was there, and that you\nstood off and did not partake; gve us a full account? F.\u2015I know none\nwho were there but Goody Carrier. Were there not two companies in the\nfield? F.\u2015I know no more. Here Mary Warren, one of the afflicted,\ninterposed a new lie, and said that Carrier\u2019s spectre told her, that\nFoster had made her daughter a witch! and the court then said to F.,\nwill you now confess you did so, about three years ago? F.\u2015I know\nno more about my daughter being a witch, than upon what day I shall\ndie. Are you willing that she should make a free confession? F.\u2015Yes.\nWill you confess? F.\u2015Yes; if I knew anything more I would speak. The\nmagistrate now directed to have Goody Lacy, the daughter, called in,\nand as she entered she began. O, mother, how do you do? O, mother, we\nhave left Christ and the devil hath got hold of us; O, how shall I get\nrid of this evil one! I pray God to break my rocky heart that I may get\nthe victory this time. This witchcraft of the daughter was a surprise\nupon Goody Foster, she came to the confession prepared to accuse\nherself and Goody Carrier, but the danger of her child distressed and\nconfounded her, and when urged to speak she answered incoherently.\nI did not see the devil, I was praying to the Lord. To what Lord,\nsaid the court. F.\u2015To God. To what God do witches pray? F.\u2015I cannot\ntell. The Lord help me! and she sat down overpowered, as the justice\nconcluded guilty of witchcraft, but in truth with her own fictions.\nLacy.\u2015They were some of the higher powers; they were\u2015Goody Lacy, said\nthe court, let your daughter come in; we will examine her a little, and\nwhen Mary Lacy the younger, and granddaughter of Foster entered, she\nstood before the magistrates with downcast looks, an interesting girl\nof seventeen; yet at sight of her Mary Warren fell down in a violent\nfit. Whereupon Hathorn said to Mary sternly, why dare you come here,\nand bring the devil with you, to afflict these poor creatures; now\nlook upon these maids in a mild and friendly way, said he, and then she\nturned upon the afflicted a look so kind and gentle that the bystanders\nsmiled in sympathy, and yet the bewitched band were struck down,\u2015pity,\nthought the beholders, that eyes so mild and blue should bear the\ndevil\u2019s spite in them.\n\nAnd now said Hathorn, do you confess yourself a witch,\u2015she hung her\nhead\u2015tears flowed down and she sobbed out,\u2015ye-s, sir.\n\nWell maiden, said the justice, you are accused of tormenting Goody\nBallard, how do you do it? I don\u2019t know. How long have you been a\nwitch? Not above a week. Have you ever seen the devil? Yes sir. Did he\nbid you worship him? Yes sir. And to afflict people? Yes sir. I see,\nsaid Major Gidney, one of the magistrates, that you are in a fair way\nto obtain mercy. Do you desire to be saved by Christ? Yes sir, I do.\nThen said he, you must tell all you know.\u2015The Lord help me so to do,\nsaid Mary. I was in bed when the devil came to me; in bed! said the\nMajor\u2015the devil came to your bed! how did he look? Like a great black\ndog. O, very well, you may go on,\u2015what did he say? He bade me, said\nMary, obey him and that I should want for nothing, and he promised\nhe would not betray me, but he\u2019s an old liar. How long ago was this,\nsaid Hathorn. About a year. Richard Carrier now comes often a\u2019nights,\nand has me to afflict people.\u2015He\u2019s a rogue, cried the Major, and is\nmaking a very bad use of you! but where do you go? To Goody Ballard\u2019s\nsometimes, and my mother and grandmother and Richard Carrier and his\nmother go there to.\n\nDid you attend the great meeting at Salem village? Yes. Who went with\nyou? My mother, and grandmother and Goody Carrier rode upon a long\npole through the air; and I rode behind Richard Carrier upon another\npole! Did you see any men at the meeting? None but the devil. How did\nhe appear?\u2015Like a black man with a high crowned hat on.\u2015But did you\nsee no other man? Your mother and grandmother say they saw a minister\nthere. I believe I did see a minister. Was not Mr. Burroughs there? Yes\nhe was. Thus was she made, by leading questions to accuse an absent and\ninnocent minister of the gospel. These confessions in the end produced\na sentence of death against Goody Foster and the elder Mary Lacy; but\nthey were reprieved by Sir William Phipps and finally pardoned.\n\nMary Osgood, was one of the Andover witches accused by Abigail Williams\nof afflicting Goody Ballard, and after long imprisonment she was\ninduced to give her confession in the form of a deposition; and she\nstated \u2018that about eleven years before as she one day walked in an\norchard near her house in great distress of mind, she attempted to\npray; at this moment what seemed a cat crossed her path, and by its\nstrange movements so fixed her attention that she ceased to pray. Soon\na strange influence came over her and she prayed again and as she\npresumed to the devil for presently a black man appeared, and offered\nher a large book to sign; she wrote her name in it and where her finger\ntouched the paper, it left a red spot. The apparrition told her that\nshe was his, and that he was her God, and that she must worship him!\nand she believed she consented so to do.\n\nNine years after, the same personage appeared and carried her with\nothers, upon a pole through the air to Five-mile-pond, and there making\nher renounce her former baptism, baptized her, amen, since which she\nafflicted people, and frolicked with the devil upon Sabbath days, and\nother holy festivals.\n\nHathorn, before whom this was also taken, always ready to hunt witches,\nno sooner heard that Mrs. Osgood and the devil had company upon the\npole; than he asked her who they were. She replied they were Goody\nTyler, Mistress Baker, and Dea, Fry\u2019s wife. These were then arrested,\nand constrained to make further witch fictions to save their lives.\nAnd thus was the business driven on. There were sceptics even at this\nseason of the delusion, who denied the validity of spectral evidence.\nIt appears, said they, that the devil can use the spectre of one person\nto afflict another; why may he not take the spectre of an innocent\nperson in that business, and then as things now are, every man\u2019s life\nis at the mercy of the devil; for between him and the afflicted he is\nsure to suffer. Hathorn on this occasion asked Mrs. Osgood whether the\ndevil, or his witches could use the shape of an innocent person to\nafflict people.\u2015She replied that it could not be; for said she, last\nMonday night we witches had a meeting to afflict people, and Goody Dean\nand myself tried to carry the shape of the Rev. Mr. Dean of Andover\nbetween us to make it believed that he afflicted persons; but we could\nnot. And why could you not do it, said the justice. Because, said\nMrs. O., the Lord would not suffer so good a man, to be so used! This\nanswer saved the worthy minister, who had often been hinted at by the\nbewitched. He was not a sound convert to witchcraft.\n\nBut on the 14th of May 1692, Sir William Phipps arrived with the\nProvincial Charter, and immediately took upon himself the government.\n\nOn the second day of June five magistrates sat, and selected for trial\nBridget Bishop, the wife of Edward Bishop of Salem. This poor woman had\nfor many years been reputed a witch; and this by the accusations of one\nSamuel Gray, and although on his death-bed he confessed his sorrow for\nthe wrong he had done her, yet the imputation still rested upon her,\nand now enabled the afflicted, with their managers, to destroy her. And\nabove all, as an excrescence supposed to be a witch teat was found on\nher body. To give currency and popularity to her execution a story was\nfabricated, and most industriously circulated by the witchcraft party,\nthat as Bishop was led out to execution under a strong guard, she gave\na look at the then newly erected meeting house in Salem, so blasting\nand spiteful, that an invisible demon forthwith entered in and tore\ndown a portion of the holy edifice. And this is from Cotton Mather\u2019s\naccount of the Salem witch trials, drawn up for inspection, and by the\nrequest of Sir William, himself. The commissioners then adjourned to\nthe 30th of June following.\n\nAside from the manifest fallacy of her supposed crime, and the\nillegality of Sir William\u2019s commission to try witches, the woman had\nviolated no existing law, statute or common. On the eighth of June,\nand two or three days after her trial and condemnation, the general\ncourt of the province was convened, and their only act was to revive\nthe whole colonial code laws including the old Cottonian laws against\nwitchcraft; and this upon the ground that the authority of these laws,\nceased with the first charter. The law then upon which Mrs. Bishop was\ntried was a dead letter; it was revived, and in two days after she\nwas hung. A strange and startling mistake by men who had charge of\nthe lives and fortunes of the people. So difficult is the art of just\ngovernment.\n\nNo wonder then that Sir William, five days after this witch execution,\nasked council of the leading ministers of the colony in form. And\nthe response drawn up by Cotton Mather is as follows: \u201cThe afflicted\nstate of our poor neighbors, now suffering by molestations from the\ninvisible world, we apprehend, is so deplorable that we think their\ncondition calls for the utmost help of all persons in their several\ncapacities. Yet we acknowledge with thankfulness the success, which\nthe merciful God has given to the sedulous endeavors of our honorable\nrulers, to defeat the abominable witchcrafts which have been committed\nin the country. We judge that in the prosecution of these, and all\nsuch witchcrafts, there is need of exquisite caution, lest too much\ncredulity for things, resting only on the devil\u2019s authority, should\nenable him to get an advantage over us; for we should not be ignorant\nof his devices. All things should be managed with exceeding tenderness\ntowards those complained of, especially if they be persons heretofore\nof unblemished reputation. Nor is the circumstance of the accused\nbeing represented by spectre to the afflicted a sufficient ground for\nconviction; for it is an undoubted thing, that a demon may, by God\u2019s\npermission, appear for ill purposes in the shape of an innocent, yea\nand a virtuous man.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe know not, however, but some remarkable affronts given to devils,\nby our disbelieving their testimonies, may not put a period to the\nprogress of the dreadful calamity now among us in the accusation of so\nmany persons for witchcraft.\u201d\n\nBut lastly say the ministers to Sir William: \u201cWe cannot but humbly\nrecommend unto the government the speedy and vigorous prosecutions\nof such as have rendered themselves obnoxious to the laws of God and\nthe wholesome statutes of the English nation in the detection of\nwitchcraft.\u201d This document was dated Boston, June 16th, 1692, and\nsigned by the principal ministers of the province, and unfortunately\nfor the country the government seemed to heed only the last clause of\nthe device, as will be seen hereafter.\n\nA quorum of Sir William\u2019s commissioners again sat at Salem on the 30th\nof June, for the trial of witches; Lieut. Gov. Stoughton, and Messrs.\nWinthrop, Sewall, and Gidney being present, and on that day they\ncommenced the trial of Susanna Martin of Amesbury.\n\nShe was a woman of uncommon ingenuity and enterprise; and was now a\nwidow, with the care of a considerable estate, and a large family\nthrown upon her. She, like Bishop, had long been reputed a witch, and\nan unsuccessful attempt had once been made to convict her. Mather in\nhis account of her case, drawn up by order of the government, declares,\n\u201cthat she was one of the most impudent, scurrilous, wicked creatures\nin the world,\u201d and the court treated her with great severity. But she\nrepelled all false charges with invincible spirit; as will be seen by\nthe following dialogue which took place at her primary examination, and\nwhich was now detailed in evidence against her.\n\nJustice.\u2015Pray Goody Martin, what ails these young people? Martin.\u2015I\ndon\u2019t know. J.\u2015But what do you think ails them? M.\u2015I do not desire\nto think upon the subject. J.\u2015Do you not think they are bewitched?\nM.\u2015No, I do not think they are. J.\u2015Tell us your thoughts about them\nthen. M.\u2015My thoughts are my own when they are in; but when they are\nout they are another\u2019s\u2015their master! J.\u2015Their master! Who do you\nthink is their master? M.\u2015If they be dealing in witchcraft, Sir, you\nmay know as well as I. J.\u2015Well, mistress Martin, what have you done\ntowards these girls? M.\u2015I have done nothing at all. J.\u2015Why it is\neither you or your spectre. M.\u2015I cannot help what my spectre does.\nJ.\u2015It is either you or your master. How comes it that your spectre\nshould hurt these people? M.\u2015How do I know how it comes? Samuel was\na glorified saint; but he that appeared to Saul, in Samuel\u2019s shape\nmay now appear in any one\u2019s shape. A very pertinent reply and puzzled\nthe justice. Martin was indicted for witchcraft and sorceries upon\nthe body of Mary Walcott on the second day of May, 1692, and also for\ndivers other acts of witchcraft before and after that time, without\nspecification of time or place. John Allen testified, that the widow\nMartin once requested him to cart some staves for her, but he refused\nbecause his cattle were weak and poor; at which she was displeased and\nsaid he would be sorry for it; and before he could reach home his oxen\ntired and fell down. This was supposed to be by witchcraft, though\nAllen said the oxen were too weak to draw staves. After this he turned\nthem upon Salisbury beach to fatten, but they became so wild that no\none could approach them, and when it was attempted to drive them home\nthey ran furiously into the sea and were drowned. Another witness\npurchased a cow of Martin\u2019s son; she opposed the bargain, and soon the\nanimal became furious and unmanageable. And these were considered cases\nof witchcraft.\n\nBernard Peach testified, that once being in bed on a Sabbath night, the\nwidow Martin came into his room through the window, and seizing him,\ndrew up his body into a heap and she then lay upon him about two hours,\nbut at last after a severe struggle he got two of her fingers between\nhis teeth and bit them until she cried out with the pain and vanished.\nAt another time when she was after him he struck her or her spectre\nwith his quarter-staff and it was reported that she was wounded on the\nhead. So it was sworn that she once travelled from Amesbury to Newbury\non a rainy day without wetting even the soles of her feet, and boasted\nthat she scorned to be drabbed. It was concluded in court that the\ndevil helped her on.\n\nBut the most wonderful story told on this occasion was that of Joseph\nRing; the man seems to have been a good fiddler, whom the old charter\nwitches and demons selected for their peculiar use and amusement. He\ntestified that for two years past he had been strangely carried about\nthrough the air to witch revels and dances; that for a long time they\nhad kept him dumb, but since they began to be prosecuted he had in a\nmeasure recovered his speech. His knowledge of them and their power\nover him, began thus:\n\nAs he sat in his house one day, a stranger of suspicious mien applied\nto him to give music to a company of dancers on a certain evening; and\nwhilst the timid and distrustful fiddler hesitated, the proffer of a\nlarge sum of money by the stranger, and which he too readily accepted,\ninduced him to make the desired promise and immediately the man\nvanished so suddenly that Ring was exceedingly startled and repented of\nwhat he had done; but it was too late. At the appointed hour he found\na horse, well caparisoned, standing at his door; he took the hint, but\nno sooner had he mounted into the saddle, than the animal leaped into\nthe air and pushed forward with a velocity which deprived him of all\nconsciousness of time or distance and almost of existence itself. He\nnext found himself in front of a splendid building, with lights from\nevery part streaming out upon night\u2019s darkness, but from whence issued\nno sound of mirth or festivity. Presently Goodman Ring was introduced\ninto a spacious hall, he screwed up his fiddle, began to play, and then\nthe dancing began in good earnest. At once a preternatural influence\ncame over him, and he was amazed at the power of his own instrument,\nwhich seemed to fill that ample hall to its very roof, and to inspire\ndancing which he now plainly saw was superhuman. It was here that he\nsaw the widow Martin, the prisoner at the bar, swinging and dancing\namong the revellers, like a nimble maiden of eighteen; and he was\nwilling to swear to her identity.\n\nWhen the dancing ceased, the personage who first engaged him came with\na book for him to sign, and an ink horn containing something like\nblood. But the fiddler refused his name, and casting his eyes downward\nhe saw that cloven foot which had been the terror of all New England\nfor half a century, and in his distress he called upon God for help. At\nonce a horrid hysteric laugh burst upon his ears, and then suddenly all\nwas darkness, and he found himself in the crotch of a great pine tree,\ncold and comfortless, in a lonely plain, and the stars of midnight\nwinking down upon him. He descended as well as he could, wandered about\nin the woods until morning light, and then found his way home; but he\ncould never again find that pine tree that made the witch palace.\n\nFrom that time forth the witches and demons had power over him and used\nhim as they pleased. And Mather says \u201cthat whenever he was brought unto\ntheir hellish meetings, and showed any disobedience one of the first\nthing they did unto him was, to give him a knock on the back, whereupon\nhe was ever as if bound with chains, incapable of stirring out of the\nplace till they should release him.\u201d\n\nAfter this strange testimony was in, the court asked Martin what she\nhad to say for herself. She replied that she had always led a virtuous\nand holy life, that she knew nothing of the crime whereof she was\naccused, and she protested against the proceedings and the evidence\nagainst her. Yet the jury soon returned a verdict of guilty, and the\ncourt pronounced sentence of death. On the following day Elizabeth Howe\nwas tried. The evidence against her was very similar to that against\nMartin. She was of Ipswich, and first became noted as a witch by an\nabortive attempt to join the church in that place, which led to an\ninvestigation of her character, and brought out her witchcrafts. This\nwoman it was thought had a burning witch bridle, which tortured any\nhorse that wore it to efforts beyond its strength; it would also turn\nto a horse any man or beast on whom it was placed. Isaac Cammins swore\nthat he had a very spirited mare, which he believed Howe used freely\nin her witch frolics. The mare grew sick and weak without apparent\ncause, and upon examination she seemed bruised and lamed as if rapidly\nridden over rocks and rough places, and the marks of the burning witch\nbridle were visible upon her; nay, she was found so sulphurious that,\nthe owner passing near her one night in the stable with his lantern,\nshe took fire, and emitted a blue brimstone blaze, fine as a knitting\nneedle, and which singed her own hair and endangered the barn. The\nbeast died soon after in strange spasms. It further appeared by the\nconfessing witches that Goody Howe was one of those who had been\nbaptized by the devil at Newbury Falls, and before which baptism he\nmade them all kneel down by the river\u2019s brink and worship him.\n\nElizabeth Howe was indicted for witchcraft upon Mary Walcott and Mary\nLewis; the jury returned her guilty and the court sentenced her to\ndeath.\n\nAt this same session were also tried Sarah Good, Rebecca Nurse and\nSarah Wilde, and found guilty.\n\nOn the 19th of July these five were executed. At the gallows Noyes\nurged Sarah Good to confess, and told her she was a witch and she knew\nit; to which she replied: \u201cSir, you are a liar; I am no more a witch\nthan you are a wizard, and if you take my life God will give you blood\nto drink.\u201d\n\nStoughton and his associates were now the terror and scourge of the\ncountry. On the fifth of August they sat at Salem. Six unresisting and\nhelpless females they had already hung without law or crime; and whose\nterror-stricken kindred dare not raise even a murmur of discontent.\nIndeed so subdued appeared the public mind, that they now adventured\nupon the trial of the Rev. George Burroughs, the only gospel teacher\never hung for witchcraft in this or any other Christian country. He had\nformerly been the settled minister of Salem village, and now an avowed\ninfidel in the current notions of witchcraft. The Rev. Mr. Lawson, also\nonce a teacher in the same place, was more pliant, and wrote a book\nflattering to the afflicted and their managers; had Burrows followed\nhis example he might have escaped hanging.\n\nWarily indeed did the prosecutors cast their entanglements about\nthis devoted man. We first see a fictitious witch sacrament, with\nappropriate deacons;\u2015next a clergyman, black-haired, short and\nthick set, with the devil to administer. All knew that this aimed at\nBurroughs. Then eight confessing witches affirmed that so great was his\nfidelity and zeal, that he was to be a king in Satan\u2019s kingdom about\nto be established in Massachusetts. They multiplied his indictments\nto four; for afflicting those four bloody impostors, Mary Walcott,\nElizabeth Hobart, Mary Lewis and Ann Putnam. And he stood before\na prejudiced court and jury without hope of justice, or even of\ncompassion.\n\nThe afflicted began their evidence with fits and outcries. They said\nBurroughs bit them, and showed what they alleged were the prints of his\nteeth on their flesh; and Ann Putnam said that even now his spectre\npresented her the devil\u2019s book, boasting that he was above the ordinary\nrank of witches. Again they were cast into convulsions and could not\nproceed. Stoughton asked Burroughs, who he thought hindered those\nwitnesses from testifying. He replied, perhaps it was the devil. \u201cHow\ncomes the devil,\u201d said his Honor, \u201cso loth to have any testimony borne\nagainst you?\u201d A foul response, but in keeping with his general conduct.\n\nOne of the afflicted declared that she was once in a trance, and that\nBurroughs carried her into a very high mountain and showed her all the\nkingdoms of the earth, and said that he would give her all these, if\nshe would write her name in his book. She did not bid him get behind\nher, but told him that the kingdoms were not his to give, and refused\nto sign. This was a girl of eleven years, how could she distinguish\nbetween a trance and a dream? Yet her story went as evidence into the\ncase.\n\nBurrougs had been twice married, and it was reported that he had\nill-treated his wives. But he asked the court very pertinently how this\ncould go to sustain an indictment for afflicting Mary Walcott and for\nwhich he was then on trial. But the witnesses were not checked, and\nthey testified that they had seen the apparition of two women, who said\nthey were Burrough\u2019s wives; and that he had caused their deaths; and\nthat the Judges must be told of it; and that they did not know (strange\nlanguage for ghosts) but they should appear in court at the trial.\nPresently Abagail Williams cried out in great apparent horror that the\nghosts of those two wives had just now come in and were standing before\nBurrougs and crying for vengeance upon him. Yet Burroughs declared he\nsaw them not, nor were the sound of their voices heard by the court or\njury. At this the prisoner was said to be much appalled. No doubt he\nwas so, at the depravity of the witnesses and their evidence.\n\nBut the girls went yet further, and affirmed that the spectre of\nBurroughs had often threatened to kill them, as he had many others\nwho refused to obey him; and he named among his murdered victims Mrs.\nLawson and her daughter Ann. The story was credited, as they presumed\nhe might well entertain hatred towards the virtuous wife and daughter\nof a man like Deodat Lawson, his predecessor at Salem village. And it\nwas now called to mind, says Mather, that the peculiar circumstances\nof their deaths, excited suspicion of witchcraft; yet no one then\nsuspected from whence it came.\n\nIt was further testified that Burroughs, notwithstanding his holy\norders, hated prayer and the ordinances of religion. His zeal only\nburned in the devil\u2019s cause. The confessing witches also attributed\ntheir seduction to his wiles; he led them on to witch meetings, or\nto sorceries, by the promise of fine clothes and other unhallowed\npleasures; he brought the poppets, or rag babies to them for afflicting\npeople, and taught them where to stick the pins the most effectually;\nhe even exhorted them to bewitch all Salem village, but with caution\nto prevent discovery; and now, they affirmed, for their penitence and\nconfessions, Burroughs and the devils tortured them continually.\n\nAfter Burroughs was hung, these confessors recanted, and confessed\nagain the utter falsehood of all they had said respecting him. But they\ncould not quicken the dead, or heal the wounds of bereaved friends, nor\nsoften the hearts of such men as Stoughton, Mather, Parris, and the\nlike.\n\nThe evidence was then turned to show that Burroughs was endowed with\npreternatural strength. He had been known to hold out in one hand,\nby the breech, a gun of seven feet barrel as if it had been a pocket\npistol, and then to reverse it, and sticking his forefinger in the\nmuzzle, to hold it out at arm\u2019s length that way. So he would carry a\nfull barrel of cider or molasses without staggering. But he offered\nto show that whatever he did in this way was to try his strength with\nan Indian who did the like, and even more than he could. But they who\ngave the testimony, says Mather, saw no Indian and it was at once\nconcluded it must have been the devil, as Ann Putnam said he often\nappeared like an Indian! How did this testimony refute Burroughs? Did\nthe witnesses see the devil in the shape of an Indian at the time? One\nRuck, a brother-in-law to Burroughs testified to his preternatural\nwalking. On a certain occasion a party in his company went to a distant\nfield to gather strawberries. When they returned, a thunder shower was\nadvancing, and all but the prisoner rode upon horses and at a quick\npace; yet he suddenly slipped out of sight, and to their astonishment\nwas at the house, with his basket of strawberries, before them. But he\noffered to show that another man was with him and walked as fast as he\ndid, but Stoughton and his associates concluded that this pretended\ncompanion must have been the devil also and would not hear the evidence.\n\nAfter this manner was the unfortunate man overwhelmed with false and\nabsurd testimony, and the prejudice of those who held his life at will;\nand it was sneeringly said that he used many twistings and evasions to\nget off, but without effect; for the jury without hesitation returned a\nverdict of guilty, and the court pronounced his death sentence.\n\nAt his execution Mather and other ministers took care to be present.\nBurroughs, with the rest, was carted through the streets of Salem on\nhis way to the gallows. Being on the ladder and the rope about his\nneck, in solemn and decided tones he proclaimed his innocence before\nthe multitude. He then made his dying prayer with a deliberation and\nfervency that won the admiration of all present, and drew tears from\nmany eyes. In conclusion he pronounced the Lord\u2019s prayer without\nhesitancy, and the \u201camen\u201d served the hangman for his death signal,\nand he was swung off. After it was over a strong murmur of discontent\nran through the crowd, a popular uproar was feared, and a rescue of\nthe other prisoners; but Mather, as he sat on his horse in the midst,\naddressed the people to dissuade them from violence. Burroughs, he\nsaid, should not be regarded as a minister after his league with the\ndevil; and both his prayers and address, however earnest, were still\ndeceptive, for the devil himself, he continued, when he will, can\nassume the guise of an angel of light.\n\nAt the same time, and to assist Mather, a story was circulated in the\nassembly that the bewitched girls could plainly see the black man\nstanding near Burroughs, and assisting him in this his last effort.\nAfter this the executions went on in peace. At this session also was\ntried and condemned old Martha Carrier. She was regarded as one of the\nmost decided and active witches in the country. This was the woman,\nof whom it was repeatedly testified, that the devil had promised her\nthat she should be Queen of Hell; an elevation to which her enemies\nreadily awarded her a title. Her true character was untiring industry,\nceaseless vigilance and extraordinary exactitude in the discharge of\nall duties, and so she never sought excuses for remissness or neglect\nshe would grant none to others, and as a majority of the world are ever\non the other side, she first became the terror and then the hatred of\nher delinquent neighbors. In spite to her family, it was said that she\nruled her husband, and that Goodman Carrier would never stick to any\nbargain of goods or chattels, lands or tenement, unsanctioned by her.\nHer children too she kept in strange obedience to her will; but her\u2019s\nwas a well-ordered and a thrifty household. Yet they called her a witch\nuntil the foul stain became deep and fixed.\n\nMather declares that when the poor tortured witnesses were brought\nforward against her in court every one expected their death on the very\nspot. Her malignant look would strike them down, and then her touch,\nher eyes being averted, would raise them up; and when they could speak,\nand testified that her shape had twisted their necks almost round; she\nsaid that they were miserable wretches and no matter if their necks had\nbeen quite twisted off.\n\nShe was indicted for afflicting Mary Walcott and Elizabeth Hubbard; and\nto make sure of her they terrified and tortured two of her own sons\ninto confession, by tying them neck and heels together, until they said\nshe was a witch, and had also given them over to the devil, and they\nparticularized the time and place.\n\nSo old Goody Foster, and her daughter and granddaughter, the two Lacys,\nwere brought up again to renew the old story of the witch sacrament,\nand riding on a pole; a recital of which wonderful adventure deeply\ninterested Stoughton and his associates. Even in open court during the\ntrial Susanna Shelden\u2019s hands were tied so inexplicably with a wheel\nband, which they were obliged to cut, like the Gordian knot.\n\nMost of the testimony on her trial, was similar to that given in\nagainst Bishop, How, and Martin; being of various injuries to the\ncattle and health of the people of Andover. But to every accusation she\nopposed a decided denial; threats could not weaken her, nor promises\nseduce her resolution to abide by the truth. Invitations to repent,\nconfess and be saved and which others accepted so readily, she treated\nwith contempt; her conscience was too sensitive for such falsehood\nand her courage remained unshaken through all the terrors of a public\nprosecution, trial and execution.\n\nAnd who will deny to Martha Carrier\u2019s name a place among those of\nrecorded martyrs for the love of truth.\n\nThe boldness and even ultraism of the Andover witcher in covenanting\nwith the devil, and renouncing infant baptism, and receiving an adult\nbaptism at his hands by plunging in rivers and ponds, (a hit by the\nstanding order at the Anabaptists,) and in riding on poles with him,\nstartled and terrified the country. Some of these practices were\npeculiar to that company, and brought out by spectral discoveries of\nAbagail Williams and other pupils of old Tituba. Under this excitement\nthe General Court met at Boston in October, 1695, and then passed a law\nof death against those who should feed, consult, employ or covenant\nwith no evil or wicked spirit.\n\nJohn Proctor and his wife, with John Willard, were also tried at the\nAugust session of the commissioners.\n\nWillard had for some time been used by the prosecutors as a witch\nhunter, and to bring in the victims for examination; a most odious and\nunpopular office. But the many cases of individual and family distress\nand despair, which he daily witnessed in this employment, at last so\nexcited his compassion, that he refused to act. Immediately upon which,\nand to punish signally the supposed affront and rebellion, he was\ncried out upon as being himself in league and covenant with the devil,\nand well knowing his danger he at once turned and fled northwardly into\nthe wilderness towards Canada. But swift runners were sent on foot in\nthe same direction who soon came up with him. And it was given out by\nhis enemies, that the bewitched girls at Salem were conscious of the\nexact moment of his arrest, though many miles distant; and that one of\nthem cried out in open court, \u201cnow Willard is taken!\u201d which proved to\nbe correct. He was brought back, and hung in terror to all offenders\nagainst the then dominant bloody influences.\n\nProctor and his wife were those whose primary examination of the 11th\nof April has been already detailed. Some of the same magistrates who\nthen advised their commitment, now sat on their final trial, and they\nfound no favor. Both were returned guilty by the jury and both received\nsentence of death from the commissioners, and with only ten days space\nto prepare for eternity.\n\nGoody Proctor turned out to be in delicate health and circumstances,\nand her execution was deferred until the fury of persecution was past,\nand she was saved.\n\nBut for Proctor himself, although he became ensnared by his conjugal\nfidelity, there was no commiseration or hope; and as death nearly\napproached, he showed more fear than any of his suffering companions.\nIndeed, in all these terrors it was notorious that females suffered\nwith the most patience and fortitude.\n\nHis letter to five of the principal clergymen in and about Boston\nshows their supposed influence with the government, and in the witch\nprosecutions.\n\nIt was written in prison a little before his trial, and is addressed\nMessrs. Mather, Allen, Moody, Willard and Bailey.\n\nUp to his last moments, Proctor begged hard for his life, or for only a\nlittle space to prepare, or for repentance, often saying he was not fit\nto die; but all to no purpose.\n\nAfter he went up the ladder he begged Mr. Noyes, his own pastor, to\npray with him; but he refused, because Proctor would not confess\nhimself guilty of witchcraft, and thus give the strongest possible\nsanction to the bloody measures then in progress. As he was at last\nforcibly pushed off, begging for his life and protesting that he was an\ninnocent man.\n\nOn the 9th and 17th of September the witch commissioners sat and\nsentenced to death fifteen more; and on the 22nd of the same month,\neighth of these, viz.: Martha Corey already mentioned, Mary Easty,\nof Topfield, Alice Parker and Ann Pudater of Salem, Margaret Scott of\nRawley, Mary Parker and Samuel Wardwell of Andover, and William Reed\nof Marblehead, were hung; and as the cart with these ascended witch\nhill to the place of execution, it proceeded with difficulty, and at\nlast came to a stand; whereupon the afflicted declared that the devil\nhimself blocked the wheels. Why should he hinder a witch execution? It\nwas doctrine then, that at their death, he had the immediate possession\nof their souls.\n\nIt was on this occasion that the Rev. Mr. Noyes, turning to the eight\nbodies hanging on the tree, said aloud to the by-standers, \u201chow sad it\nis to see those eight fire brands of hell, hanging there!\u201d\n\nWardwell was one of those who had confessed himself guilty of\nwitchcraft; but afterwards denied his confession. When he was on trial\nhis former confession, and the spectre evidence of the afflicted, were\ngiven in against him, and this was all the evidence.\n\nCalef says that at his execution, whilst addressing the people and\nprotesting his innocence, the hangman smoked tobacco, and the smoke\nblowing in his face interrupted his discourse; but the accusers said\nthat it was the devil who smoked him.\n\nHere it seems according to the afflicted, the devil did not wish his\nman to escape; contrary to his allged conduct in the cases of Burroughs\nand Proctor.\n\nMrs. Mary Easty, hung on this occasion, was also the sister of Rebecca\nNurse, and no doubt but that her connection with that ill-fated woman\nwho was herself a victim to sisterly love, was the cause of her\npersecution and death. The three sisters were noted for their mutual\nlove. Her\u2019s was a hard case and excited great public commiseration.\nIt was hoped that her spotless character and example would prove too\nstrong on her trial, for the fictions and fits of the afflicted and\ntheir partizans. But they employed a jury of eight women, and a doctor\nto search her body for the devil\u2019s marks, and an excresence was found\nwhich was pronounced to be a witch teat; and it turned the case against\nher.\n\nShortly before her execution, she called her husband, children and\nfriends about her in prison, and gave them her last farewell, with such\naffectionate and pious exhortation, as drew tears from the eyes of\nall present. She also sent to the court the following petition, which\npresents a vivid picture of her case, and of the unhallowed times on\nwhich she had fallen.\n\n     \u201cTo the Honorable Judge and Bench, now sitting in Salem, and\n     the Rev. Ministers; This petition humbly sheweth; That\n     whereas your poor petitioner being condemned to die, doth\n     humbly beg of you to take into your judicious and pious\n     consideration, that your poor and humble petitioner knowing\n     my own innocency (blessed be the Lord for it) and seeing\n     plainly the subtility and wiles of my accusers towards\n     myself, cannot but judge charitably of others, who are going\n     the same way to death with me, if the Lord step not mightily\n     in.\n\n     \u201cI was confined a whole month, on accusation of witchcraft,\n     and then cleared by the afflicted persons, as some of your\n     Honors know, and in two days time I was cried out upon by\n     them again, and have been since confined, and now am\n     condemned to die. The Lord above knows my innocence, and it\n     will be known at the great day by men and angels. I petition\n     to your Honors, not for my own life, for I know I must die,\n     and my appointed time is set. I question not but your Honors\n     do to the utmost of your powers in the discovery and\n     detecting of witches, and would not for the world be guilty\n     of innocent blood; but by my own innocency I know you are in\n     the wrong way. May the Lord in mercy, direct you in this\n     great work.\n\n     \u201cI would humbly beg that your Honors would be pleased to\n     examine some of those confessing witches; I being confident\n     that there are some of them who have belied themselves and\n     others, as will appear, if not in this world, I am sure it\n     will in the world to come, whither I am going.\n\n     \u201cThey say that myself and others have made a league with the\n     devil; we cannot confess. The Lord knows they belie me, as I\n     question not they do others; the Lord alone who is the\n     searcher of all hearts knows, as I shall answer at his\n     judgment seat, that I know not the least thing of\n     witchcraft, therefore I cannot, I durst not, belie my own\n     soul.\n\n     \u201cI beg your Honors not to deny this my humble petition, from\n     a poor dying innocent person, and I question not but the\n     Lord will give a blessing to your endeavors.\n\n                                                      \u201cMARY EASTY.\u201d\n\nThis touching and modest declaration Mary Easty sealed with her blood.\nHer husband, Captain Isaac Easty, was a soldier, and then stood in arms\nagainst the French and Indians, and to defend the country and the same\npower which forced away his wife from her once happy home and family,\nand without regard to her known piety and virtue, carted her up Witch\nHill and hung her on the limb of a tree.\n\nOf the other persons hung on the 22d of September 1692, few particulars\nhave come down to us, either in history or by tradition. It was the\nlast execution and its atrocity manifestly weakened the authority of\nPhipps\u2019 bloody witch court, and the credit of the Parris afflicted\nband. It swelled the number of victims to twenty, nineteen of whom\nhad now been hung on that fatal gallows-tree, in after ages an object\nof peculiar superstitious dread; and their bodies, unhonored even by\nfuneral decencies, though not unwept by private affection, were cast\nwith public ignominy into untimely graves about its roots. But the tree\nwithered, as was supposed, thunder-smitten, and stood for years with\nleafless, outstretched branches and shattered trunk, until burned to\nthe ground by the descendants in the third and fourth generation of\nthose who suffered on it. In superstitious minds tempests and torrents\ncould not wash away the blood from the unhallowed hill whereon it grew,\nand the soil was cursed and barren of all wholesome vegetation.\n\nBut all were not executed who were tried and sentenced. Besides\nElizabeth Proctor, Abigail Falkner of Andover was saved by her delicate\nfamily condition. At her trial the court took the confession of her\nlittle daughter, ten years old, against her. But Dorcas Hoar of\nBeverly, Rebecca Eams of Boxford, Abigail Hobbs of Topsfield, Mary\nBradbury of Salisbury, and Ann Foster and Mary Lacy of Andover, all\nflattered their persecutors by a confession of the charges against\nthem, and thus escaped death.\n\nThis whole slaughter of the innocent under the similitude of legal\nforms, was the work of little more than three short months. A sudden\nbereavement, indeed, of near and loved friends. When, however, a lawful\ncourt was established, this sham tribunal, happily for the country,\ncame to an end. And it is some consolation to know that it was entirely\ndiscontinued with the regular jurisprudence of the country.\n\nThe last witch trials ever holden in Massachusetts were those five at\nIpswich about the middle of May, 1693, and to which I have already\nreferred.\n\nBy this time the spectre evidence, or the devil\u2019s testimony through\nthe mouths of the afflicted, had become so unpopular that none of\nthe judges dared to sustain it, and the juries also disregarded it;\nand from this time forth it was manifest that there could be no more\nconvictions for alleged witchcrafts.\n\nAnd thus public opinion, operating through the jury and the only\npart of the government at that time through which it could operate,\nin effect annulled the bloody witch law, passed by false agents of\nthe people, against common justice and in favor of the then ruling\npolitical interests and influences; or the old charter church and state\naristocracy. And history rarely reveals to us a more bloody despotism.\nAnd shall it not stand forever as a warning against any interference\nby a people\u2019s self-government with the religion or business of the\ncommunity?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nEarly in the year of 1727 the last witch-fire was kindled with which\nthe air of bonnie Scotland was polluted. Two poor Highland women,\na mother and daughter, were brought before Captain David Ross of\nLittledean, deputy-sheriff of Sutherland, charged with witchcraft and\nconsorting with the devil. The mother was accused of having used her\ndaughter as her \u201chorse and hattock,\u201d causing her to be shod by the\ndevil, so that she was ever after lame in both hands and feet. The\nfact being satisfactorily proved, and Captain David Ross being well\nassured of the same, the poor old woman was put into a tar-barrel and\nburned at Dornoch in the bright month of June. \u201cAnd it is said that\nafter being brought out to execution, the weather proving very severe,\nshe sat composedly warming herself by the fire prepared to consume\nher, while the other instruments of death were getting ready.\u201d The\ndaughter escaped. Afterward she married and had a son who was as lame\nas herself, and in the same manner; though it does not appear that he\nwas ever shod by the devil and witch-ridden. \u201cAnd this son,\u201d says Sir\nWalter Scott, in 1830 \u201cwas living so lately as to receive the charity\nof the present Marchioness of Stafford, Countess of Sutherland in her\nown right.\u201d\n\nThis then, is the last execution for witchcraft in Scotland; and\nin June, 1736, the Acts Anents Witchcraft were formerly repealed.\nHenceforth to the dread of the timid, and the anger of the pious, the\nEnglish Parliament distinctly opposed the express Law of God: \u201cThou\nshalt not suffer a witch to live;\u201d and declared the text upon which so\nmuch critical absurdity had been talked, and in support of which so\nmuch innocent blood had been shed, vain, superstitious, impossible and\ncontrary to that human reason which is the highest Law of God hitherto\nrevealed unto men. But if Parliament could stay executions it could not\nremove beliefs nor give rationality in place of folly.\n\nNot more than sixty years ago an old woman named Elizabeth M\u2019Whirter\nwas \u201cscratched\u201d by one Eaglesham in the parish of Colmonel, Ayrshire,\nbecause his son had fallen sick, and the neighbors said he was\nbewitched. Poor old Bessie M\u2019Whirter was forced over the hills to the\nyoung man\u2019s house, a distance of three miles, and there made to kneel\nby his bedside and repeat the Lord\u2019s Prayer.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn offering this collection of witch stories to the public, I do not\nprofess to have exhausted the subject, or to have made so complete a\nsummary as I might have done, had I the space, but I do not think that\nI have left much untold.\n\nNeither have I attempted to enter into the philosophy of the subject.\nIt is far too wide and deep to be discussed in a few hasty words; and\nto sift such evidence as is left us\u2015to determine what was fraud,\nwhat self-deception, what disease and what the exaggeration of the\nnarrator\u2015would have swelled my book into a more important and bulky\nwork than I intended or wished. As a general rule, I think we may\napply all four conditions to every case reported; in what proportion,\neach reader must judge for himself. Those who believe in direct and\npersonal intercourse between the spirit-world and man will probably\naccept every account with the unquestioning belief of the sixteenth and\nseventeenth centuries; those who have faith in the uniform operations\nof nature, will hold chiefly to the doctrine of fraud; those who have\nseen much of disease and that strange condition called \u201cmesmerism,\u201d\nor \u201csensitiveness,\u201d will detect the presence of nervous derangement,\nmixed up with a vast amount of conscious deception, which the credulity\nand ignorance of the time rendered easy to practice; and those who\nhave been accustomed to sift evidence and examine witnesses will be\ndissatisfied with the loose statements and wild distortion of every\ninstance on record.\n\nThe whole world was overrun with witches. From every town came crowds\nof those lost and damned souls; from every hovel peered out the cursing\nwitch, or cried aloud for help the stricken victim. These poor and old\nand wretched beings, on whose heads lighted the wrath of a world, and\nagainst whom every idle lad or moping maid had a stone to fling at\nwill, were held capable of all but omnipotence. They could destroy the\nbabe in the womb and make the \u201cmother of many children childless among\nwomen;\u201d they could kill with a look and disable with a curse; bring\nstorms or sunshine as they listed; by their \u201cwitch-ropes,\u201d artfully\nwoven, draw to themselves all the profit of their neighbor\u2019s barns and\nbreweries; yet ever remain poor and miserable, glad to beg a mouthful\nof meat or a can of sour milk from the hands of those whom they could\nruin by half a dozen muttered words. They could take on themselves what\nshapes they would, and transport themselves whither they would. No bolt\nnor bar could keep them out; no distance by land or sea was too great\nfor them to accomplish; a straw\u2015a broomstick\u2015the serviceable imp ever\nat hand\u2015was enough for them; and with a pot of magic ointment, and a\ncharm of spoken gibberish, they might visit the king on his throne or\nthe lady in her bower, to do what ill was in their hearts against them\nor to gather to themselves what gain and store they would. Yet with all\nthis power the superstitious world saw nothing doubtful or illogical in\nthe fact of their own exceeding poverty, and never stayed to think that\nif witches and wizards could transport themselves through the air to\nany distance they chose, they would be but slippery holding in prison,\nand not very likely to remain there for the pleasure of being tortured\nand burned at the end. But neither reason nor logic had anything to do\nwith the matter. The whole thing rested on fear, and that practical\natheism of fear, which denies the power of God and the wholesome beauty\nof Nature, to exalt in their stead the supremacy of the devil.\n\nThis belief in the devil\u2019s material presence and power over men was\nthe dark chain that bound them all. Even the boldest opponent of the\nWitchcraft Delusion dared not fling it off. The bravest man, the\nfreest thinker, could not clear his mind of this terrible bugbear,\nthis phantasm of human fear and ignorance, this ghastly lie and morbid\ndelusion, or abandon the slavish belief in Satan for the glad freedom\nof God and Nature.\n\nSuperstition dies hard; or rather, so far as we have yet gone, it does\nnot die at all, but only changes its form and removes its locality. If\neducated people do not now believe in witches and Satanic compacts,\nas in the ignorant old times of which these stories treat, they do\nstill believe in other things which are as much against reason and as\nincapable of proof. And perhaps it may give some cause to think that\nassertion does not necessarily include truth, and that skepticism may\nbe at times a wiser attitude of mind than credulity, when they remember\nthat the best brains in the world were once firmly convinced of the\ntruth of Possession and the diabolical art of witchcraft, and realize\nhow many innocent men and women were murdered on the strength of these\nbeliefs and to vindicate the honor and glory of God. So long as one\nshred of superstition remains in the world, by which human charity is\nsacrificed to an unprovable faith, so long will it be necessary to\ninsist on the dead errors of the past as a gauge for the living follies\nof the present.\n\nBut the snake is scotched, not killed. So far are we in advance of the\nmen of the ruder past, inasmuch as our superstitions, though quite as\nsilly, are less cruel than theirs, and hurt no one but ourselves. Yet\nstill we have our wizards and witches lurking round area gates and\nprowling through the lanes and yards of the remoter country districts;\nstill we have our mediums, who call up the dead from their graves to\ntalk to us more trivial nonsense than ever they talked while living,\nand who reconcile us with humanity by showing us how infinitely\ninferior is spirituality; still we have the unknown mapped out in\nclear lines sharp and firm; and still the impossible is asserted as\nexisting, and men are ready to give their lives in attestation of what\ncontravenes every law of reason and of nature; still we are not content\nto watch and wait and collect and fathom before deciding, but for every\nnew group of facts or appearances must at once draw up a code of laws\nand reasons, and prove, to a mathematical certainty, the properties\nof a chimera, and the divine life and beauty of a lie. Even the mere\nvulgar belief in witchcraft remains among the lower classes. And indeed\nso long as conviction without examination, and belief without proof,\npass as the righteous operations of faith, so long will superstition\nand credulity reign supreme over the mind, and the functions of\ncritical reason be abandoned and foresworn. And as it seems to me that\ncredulity is a less desirable frame of mind than skepticism, I have set\nforth this collection of witch stories as landmarks of the excesses\nto which a blind belief may hurry and impel humanity, and perhaps as\nsome slight aids to that much misused common sense which the holders of\nimpossible theories generally consider it well to tread under foot, and\nloftily ignore.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s Note\n\nWords and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like\nthis_. Illustrated drop cap is indicated [Illustration:P]. Text was\nplaced in brackets where the original was not legible. Punctuation\nwas adjusted to standard usage. Duplicate words at line endings or\npage breaks were removed. Obvious printing errors, such as backwards,\nupside down, missing or partially printed letters and punctuation, were\ncorrected. Otherwise, the many misspelled words in the text were not\ncorrected.","title":"The secrets of black arts! : $b A key note to witchcraft, devination [sic], omens, forwarnings, apparitions, sorcery, d\u00e6monology, dreams, predictions, visions, and the Devil's legacy to earth mortals, compacts with the Devil! With the most authentic history of Salem witchcraft","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":39953}