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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14461 ***
+
+LETTERS ON DEMONOLOGY
+
+AND WITCHCRAFT
+
+BY
+
+SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.
+
+With An Introduction By Henry Morley Ll.d., Professor Of English
+Literature At University College, London
+
+London George Routledge And Sons
+
+Broadway, Ludgate Hill
+
+New York: 9 Lafayette Place
+
+1884
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Sir Walter Scott's "Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft" were his
+contribution to a series of books, published by John Murray, which
+appeared between the years 1829 and 1847, and formed a collection of
+eighty volumes known as "Murray's Family Library." The series was
+planned to secure a wide diffusion of good literature in cheap
+five-shilling volumes, and Scott's "Letters," written and published in
+1830, formed one of the earlier books in the collection.
+
+The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge had been founded in
+the autumn of 1826, and Charles Knight, who had then conceived a plan of
+a National Library, was entrusted, in July, 1827, with the
+superintendence of its publications. Its first treatises appeared in
+sixpenny numbers, once a fortnight. Its "British Almanac" and "Companion
+to the Almanac" first appeared at the beginning of 1829. Charles Knight
+started also in that year his own "Library of Entertaining Knowledge."
+John Murray's "Family Library" was then begun, and in the spring of
+1832--the year of the Reform Bill--the advance of civilization by the
+diffusion of good literature, through cheap journals as well as cheap
+books, was sought by the establishment of "Chambers's Edinburgh Journal"
+in the North, and in London of "The Penny Magazine."
+
+In the autumn of that year, 1832, on the 21st of September, Sir Walter
+Scott died. The first warning of death had come to him in February,
+1830, with a stroke of apoplexy. He had been visited by an old friend
+who brought him memoirs of her father, which he had promised to revise
+for the press. He seemed for half an hour to be bending over the papers
+at his desk, and reading them; then he rose, staggered into the
+drawing-room, and fell, remaining speechless until he had been bled.
+Dieted for weeks on pulse and water, he so far recovered that to friends
+outside his family but little change in him was visible. In that
+condition, in the month after his seizure, he was writing these Letters,
+and also a fourth series of the "Tales of a Grandfather." The slight
+softening of the brain found after death had then begun. But the old
+delight in anecdote and skill in story-telling that, at the beginning of
+his career, had caused a critic of his "Border Minstrelsy" to say that
+it contained the germs of a hundred romances, yet survived. It gave to
+Scott's "Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft" what is for us now a
+pathetic charm. Here and there some slight confusion of thought or style
+represents the flickering of a light that flashes yet with its old
+brilliancy. There is not yet the manifest suggestion of the loss of
+power that we find presently afterwards in "Count Robert of Paris" and
+"Castle Dangerous," published in 1831 as the Fourth Series of "Tales of
+My Landlord," with which he closed his life's work at the age of sixty.
+
+Milton has said that he who would not be frustrate of his hope to write
+well in laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem. Scott's life
+was a true poem, of which the music entered into all he wrote. If in his
+earlier days the consciousness of an unlimited productive power tempted
+him to make haste to be rich, that he might work out, as founder of a
+family, an ideal of life touched by his own genius of romance, there was
+not in his desire for gain one touch of sordid greed, and his ideal of
+life only brought him closer home to all its duties. Sir Walter Scott's
+good sense, as Lord Cockburn said, was a more wonderful gift than his
+genius. When the mistake of a trade connection with James Ballantyne
+brought ruin to him in 1826, he repudiated bankruptcy, took on himself
+the burden of a debt of £130,000, and sacrificed his life to the
+successful endeavour to pay off all. What was left unpaid at his death
+was cleared afterwards by the success of his annotated edition of his
+novels. No tale of physical strife in the battlefield could be as heroic
+as the story of the close of Scott's life, with five years of a
+death-struggle against adversity, animated by the truest sense of
+honour. When the ruin was impending he wrote in his diary, "If things go
+badly in London, the magic wand of the Unknown will be shivered in his
+grasp. The feast of fancy will be over with the feeling of independence.
+He shall no longer have the delight of waking in the morning with bright
+ideas in his mind, hasten to commit them to paper, and count them
+monthly, as the means of planting such scaurs and purchasing such
+wastes; replacing dreams of fiction by other prospective visions of
+walks by
+
+'Fountain-heads, and pathless groves;
+ Places which pale passion loves.'
+
+This cannot be; but I may work substantial husbandry--_i.e._ write
+history, and such concerns." It was under pressure of calamity like this
+that Sir Walter Scott was compelled to make himself known as the author
+of "Waverley." Closely upon this followed the death of his wife, his
+thirty years' companion. "I have been to her room," he wrote in May,
+1826; "there was no voice in it--no stirring; the pressure of the coffin
+was visible on the bed, but it had been removed elsewhere; all was neat
+as she loved it, but all was calm--calm as death. I remembered the last
+sight of her: she raised herself in bed, and tried to turn her eyes
+after me, and said with a sort of smile, 'You have all such melancholy
+faces.' These were the last words I ever heard her utter, and I hurried
+away, for she did not seem quite conscious of what she said; when I
+returned, immediately departing, she was in a deep sleep. It is deeper
+now. This was but seven days since. They are arranging the chamber of
+death--that which was long the apartment of connubial happiness, and of
+whose arrangement (better than in richer houses) she was so proud. They
+are treading fast and thick. For weeks you could have heard a footfall.
+Oh, my God!"
+
+A few years yet of his own battle, while the shadows of night and death
+were gathering about him, and they were re-united. In these "Letters
+upon Demonology and Witchcraft," addressed to his son-in-law, written
+under the first grasp of death, the old kindliness and good sense,
+joined to the old charm in story-telling, stand firm yet against every
+assault; and even in the decay that followed, when the powers were
+broken of the mind that had breathed, and is still breathing, its own
+health into the minds of tens of thousands of his countrymen, nothing
+could break the fine spirit of love and honour that was in him. When the
+end was very near, and the son-in-law to whom these Letters were
+addressed found him one morning entirely himself, though in the last
+extreme of feebleness: his eye was clear and calm--every trace of the
+wild fire of delirium was extinguished: "Lockhart," he said, "I may have
+but a minute to speak to you. My dear, be a good man--be virtuous, be
+religious--be a good man. Nothing else will give you any comfort when
+you come to lie here."
+
+Another volume of this Library may give occasion to recall Scott in the
+noontide of his strength, companion of
+
+"The blameless Muse who trains her sons
+ For hope and calm enjoyment."
+
+Here we remember only how from among dark clouds the last light of his
+genius shone on the path of those who were endeavouring to make the
+daily bread of intellectual life--good books--common to all.
+
+                                              H.M.
+_February, 1884._
+
+
+LETTERS
+
+ON
+
+DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT
+
+To J.G. LOCKHART, ESQ.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER I.
+
+
+    Origin of the general Opinions respecting Demonology among
+    Mankind--The Belief in the Immortality of the Soul is the main
+    inducement to credit its occasional re-appearance--The Philosophical
+    Objections to the Apparition of an Abstract Spirit little understood
+    by the Vulgar and Ignorant--The situations of excited Passion
+    incident to Humanity, which teach Men to wish or apprehend
+    Supernatural Apparitions--They are often presented by the Sleeping
+    Sense--Story of Somnambulism--The Influence of Credulity contagious,
+    so that Individuals will trust the Evidence of others in despite of
+    their own Senses--Examples from the "Historia Verdadera" of Bernal
+    Dias del Castillo, and from the Works of Patrick Walker--The
+    apparent Evidence of Intercourse with the Supernatural World is
+    sometimes owing to a depraved State of the bodily Organs--Difference
+    between this Disorder and Insanity, in which the Organs retain their
+    tone, though that of the Mind is lost--Rebellion of the Senses of a
+    Lunatic against the current of his Reveries--Narratives of a
+    contrary Nature, in which the Evidence of the Eyes overbore the
+    Conviction of the Understanding--Example of a London Man of
+    Pleasure--Of Nicolai, the German Bookseller and Philosopher--Of a
+    Patient of Dr. Gregory--Of an Eminent Scottish Lawyer, deceased--Of
+    this same fallacious Disorder are other instances, which have but
+    sudden and momentary endurance--Apparition of Maupertuis--Of a late
+    illustrious modern Poet--The Cases quoted chiefly relating to false
+    Impressions on the Visual Nerve, those upon the Ear next
+    considered--Delusions of the Touch chiefly experienced in
+    Sleep--Delusions of the Taste--And of the Smelling--Sum of the
+    Argument.
+
+
+You have asked of me, my dear friend, that I should assist the "Family
+Library" with the history of a dark chapter in human nature, which the
+increasing civilization of all well-instructed countries has now almost
+blotted out, though the subject attracted no ordinary degree of
+consideration in the older times of their history.
+
+Among much reading of my earlier days, it is no doubt true that I
+travelled a good deal in the twilight regions of superstitious
+disquisitions. Many hours have I lost--"I would their debt were
+less!"--in examining old as well as more recent narratives of this
+character, and even in looking into some of the criminal trials so
+frequent in early days, upon a subject which our fathers considered as a
+matter of the last importance. And, of late years, the very curious
+extracts published by Mr. Pitcairn, from the Criminal Records of
+Scotland, are, besides their historical value, of a nature so much
+calculated to illustrate the credulity of our ancestors on such
+subjects, that, by perusing them, I have been induced more recently to
+recall what I had read and thought upon the subject at a former period.
+
+As, however, my information is only miscellaneous, and I make no
+pretensions, either to combat the systems of those by whom I am
+anticipated in consideration of the subject, or to erect any new one of
+my own, my purpose is, after a general account of Demonology and
+Witchcraft, to confine myself to narratives of remarkable cases, and to
+the observations which naturally and easily arise out of them;--in the
+confidence that such a plan is, at the present time of day, more likely
+to suit the pages of a popular miscellany, than an attempt to reduce the
+contents of many hundred tomes, from the largest to the smallest size,
+into an abridgement, which, however compressed, must remain greatly too
+large for the reader's powers of patience.
+
+A few general remarks on the nature of Demonology, and the original
+cause of the almost universal belief in communication betwixt mortals
+and beings of a power superior to themselves, and of a nature not to be
+comprehended by human organs, are a necessary introduction to the
+subject.
+
+The general, or, it may be termed, the universal belief of the
+inhabitants of the earth, in the existence of spirits separated from the
+encumbrance and incapacities of the body, is grounded on the
+consciousness of the divinity that speaks in our bosoms, and
+demonstrates to all men, except the few who are hardened to the
+celestial voice, that there is within us a portion of the divine
+substance, which is not subject to the law of death and dissolution, but
+which, when the body is no longer fit for its abode, shall seek its own
+place, as a sentinel dismissed from his post. Unaided by revelation, it
+cannot be hoped that mere earthly reason should be able to form any
+rational or precise conjecture concerning the destination of the soul
+when parted from the body; but the conviction that such an
+indestructible essence exists, the belief expressed by the poet in a
+different sense, _Non omnis moriar_ must infer the existence of many
+millions of spirits who have not been annihilated, though they have
+become invisible to mortals who still see, hear, and perceive, only by
+means of the imperfect organs of humanity. Probability may lead some of
+the most reflecting to anticipate a state of future rewards and
+punishments; as those experienced in the education of the deaf and dumb
+find that their pupils, even while cut off from all instruction by
+ordinary means, have been able to form, out of their own unassisted
+conjectures, some ideas of the existence of a Deity, and of the
+distinction between the soul and body--a circumstance which proves how
+naturally these truths arise in the human mind. The principle that they
+do so arise, being taught or communicated, leads to further conclusions.
+
+These spirits, in a state of separate existence, being admitted to
+exist, are not, it may be supposed, indifferent to the affairs of
+mortality, perhaps not incapable of influencing them. It is true that,
+in a more advanced state of society, the philosopher may challenge the
+possibility of a separate appearance of a disembodied spirit, unless in
+the case of a direct miracle, to which, being a suspension of the laws
+of nature, directly wrought by the Maker of these laws, for some express
+purpose, no bound or restraint can possibly be assigned. But under this
+necessary limitation and exception, philosophers might plausibly argue
+that, when the soul is divorced from the body, it loses all those
+qualities which made it, when clothed with a mortal shape, obvious to
+the organs of its fellow-men. The abstract idea of a spirit certainly
+implies that it has neither substance, form, shape, voice, or anything
+which can render its presence visible or sensible to human faculties.
+But these sceptic doubts of philosophers on the possibility of the
+appearance of such separated spirits, do not arise till a certain degree
+of information has dawned upon a country, and even then only reach a
+very small proportion of reflecting and better-informed members of
+society. To the multitude, the indubitable fact, that so many millions
+of spirits exist around and even amongst us, seems sufficient to support
+the belief that they are, in certain instances at least, by some means
+or other, able to communicate with the world of humanity. The more
+numerous part of mankind cannot form in their mind the idea of the
+spirit of the deceased existing, without possessing or having the power
+to assume the appearance which their acquaintance bore during his life,
+and do not push their researches beyond this point.
+
+Enthusiastic feelings of an impressive and solemn nature occur both in
+private and public life, which seem to add ocular testimony to an
+intercourse betwixt earth and the world beyond it. For example, the son
+who has been lately deprived of his father feels a sudden crisis
+approach, in which he is anxious to have recourse to his sagacious
+advice--or a bereaved husband earnestly desires again to behold the form
+of which the grave has deprived him for ever--or, to use a darker yet
+very common instance, the wretched man who has dipped his hand in his
+fellow-creature's blood, is haunted by the apprehension that the phantom
+of the slain stands by the bedside of his murderer. In all or any of
+these cases, who shall doubt that imagination, favoured by
+circumstances, has power to summon up to the organ of sight, spectres
+which only exist in the mind of those by whom their apparition seems to
+be witnessed?
+
+If we add, that such a vision may take place in the course of one of
+those lively dreams in which the patient, except in respect to the
+single subject of one strong impression, is, or seems, sensible of the
+real particulars of the scene around him, a state of slumber which often
+occurs; if he is so far conscious, for example, as to know that he is
+lying on his own bed, and surrounded by his own familiar furniture at
+the time when the supposed apparition is manifested, it becomes almost
+in vain to argue with the visionary against the reality of his dream,
+since the spectre, though itself purely fanciful, is inserted amidst so
+many circumstances which he feels must be true beyond the reach of doubt
+or question. That which is undeniably certain becomes, in a manner, a
+warrant for the reality of the appearance to which doubt would have been
+otherwise attached. And if any event, such as the death of the person
+dreamt of, chances to take place, so as to correspond with the nature
+and the time of the apparition, the coincidence, though one which must
+be frequent, since our dreams usually refer to the accomplishment of
+that which haunts our minds when awake, and often presage the most
+probable events, seems perfect, and the chain of circumstances touching
+the evidence may not unreasonably be considered as complete. Such a
+concatenation, we repeat, must frequently take place, when it is
+considered of what stuff dreams are made--how naturally they turn upon
+those who occupy our mind while awake, and, when a soldier is exposed to
+death in battle, when a sailor is incurring the dangers of the sea, when
+a beloved wife or relative is attacked by disease, how readily our
+sleeping imagination rushes to the very point of alarm, which when
+waking it had shuddered to anticipate. The number of instances in which
+such lively dreams have been quoted, and both asserted and received as
+spiritual communications, is very great at all periods; in ignorant
+times, where the natural cause of dreaming is misapprehended and
+confused with an idea of mysticism, it is much greater. Yet, perhaps,
+considering the many thousands of dreams which must, night after night,
+pass through the imagination of individuals, the number of coincidences
+between the vision and real event are fewer and less remarkable than a
+fair calculation of chances would warrant us to expect. But in countries
+where such presaging dreams are subjects of attention, the number of
+those which seemed to be coupled with the corresponding issue, is large
+enough to spread a very general belief of a positive communication
+betwixt the living and the dead.
+
+Somnambulism and other nocturnal deceptions frequently lend their aid to
+the formation of such _phantasmata_ as are formed in this middle state,
+betwixt sleeping and waking. A most respectable person, whose active
+life had been spent as master and part owner of a large merchant vessel
+in the Lisbon trade, gave the writer an account of such an instance
+which came under his observation. He was lying in the Tagus, when he was
+put to great anxiety and alarm by the following incident and its
+consequences. One of his crew was murdered by a Portuguese assassin, and
+a report arose that the ghost of the slain man haunted the vessel.
+Sailors are generally superstitious, and those of my friend's vessel
+became unwilling to remain on board the ship; and it was probable they
+might desert rather then return to England with the ghost for a
+passenger. To prevent so great a calamity, the captain determined to
+examine the story to the bottom. He soon found that, though all
+pretended to have seen lights and heard noises, and so forth, the weight
+of the evidence lay upon the statement of one of his own mates, an
+Irishman and a Catholic, which might increase his tendency to
+superstition, but in other respects a veracious, honest, and sensible
+person, whom Captain ----had no reason to suspect would wilfully deceive
+him. He affirmed to Captain S---- with the deepest obtestations, that
+the spectre of the murdered man appeared to him almost nightly, took him
+from his place in the vessel, and, according to his own expression,
+worried his life out. He made these communications with a degree of
+horror which intimated the reality of his distress and apprehensions.
+The captain, without any argument at the time, privately resolved to
+watch the motions of the ghost-seer in the night; whether alone, or with
+a witness, I have forgotten. As the ship bell struck twelve, the sleeper
+started up, with a ghastly and disturbed countenance, and lighting a
+candle, proceeded to the galley or cook-room of the vessel. He sate down
+with his eyes open, staring before him as on some terrible object which
+he beheld with horror, yet from which he could not withhold his eyes.
+After a short space he arose, took up a tin can or decanter, filled it
+with water, muttering to himself all the while--mixed salt in the water,
+and sprinkled it about the galley. Finally, he sighed deeply, like one
+relieved from a heavy burden, and, returning to his hammock, slept
+soundly. In the next morning the haunted man told the usual precise
+story of his apparition, with the additional circumstances, that the
+ghost had led him to the galley, but that he had fortunately, he knew
+not how, obtained possession of some holy water, and succeeded in
+getting rid of his unwelcome visitor. The visionary was then informed of
+the real transactions of the night, with so many particulars as to
+satisfy him he had been the dupe of his imagination; he acquiesced in
+his commander's reasoning, and the dream, as often happens in these
+cases, returned no more after its imposture had been detected. In this
+case, we find the excited imagination acting upon the half-waking
+senses, which were intelligent enough for the purpose of making him
+sensible where he was, but not sufficiently so to judge truly of the
+objects before him.
+
+But it is not only private life alone, or that tenor of thought which
+has been depressed into melancholy by gloomy anticipations respecting
+the future, which disposes the mind to mid-day fantasies, or to nightly
+apparitions--a state of eager anxiety, or excited exertion, is equally
+favourable to the indulgence of such supernatural communications. The
+anticipation of a dubious battle, with all the doubt and uncertainty of
+its event, and the conviction that it must involve his own fate and that
+of his country, was powerful enough to conjure up to the anxious eye of
+Brutus the spectre of his murdered friend Cæsar, respecting whose death
+he perhaps thought himself less justified than at the Ides of March,
+since, instead of having achieved the freedom of Rome, the event had
+only been the renewal of civil wars, and the issue might appear most
+likely to conclude in the total subjection of liberty. It is not
+miraculous that the masculine spirit of Marcus Brutus, surrounded by
+darkness and solitude, distracted probably by recollection of the
+kindness and favour of the great individual whom he had put to death to
+avenge the wrongs of his country, though by the slaughter of his own
+friend, should at length place before his eyes in person the appearance
+which termed itself his evil genius, and promised again to meet him at
+Philippi. Brutus' own intentions, and his knowledge of the military art,
+had probably long since assured him that the decision of the civil war
+must take place at or near that place; and, allowing that his own
+imagination supplied that part of his dialogue with the spectre, there
+is nothing else which might not be fashioned in a vivid dream or a
+waking reverie, approaching, in absorbing and engrossing character, the
+usual matter of which dreams consist. That Brutus, well acquainted with
+the opinions of the Platonists, should be disposed to receive without
+doubt the idea that he had seen a real apparition, and was not likely to
+scrutinize very minutely the supposed vision, may be naturally
+conceived; and it is also natural to think, that although no one saw the
+figure but himself, his contemporaries were little disposed to examine
+the testimony of a man so eminent, by the strict rules of
+cross-examination and conflicting evidence, which they might have
+thought applicable to another person, and a less dignified occasion.
+
+Even in the field of death, and amid the mortal tug of combat itself,
+strong belief has wrought the same wonder, which we have hitherto
+mentioned as occurring in solitude and amid darkness; and those who were
+themselves on the verge of the world of spirits, or employed in
+dispatching others to these gloomy regions, conceived they beheld the
+apparitions of those beings whom their national mythology associated
+with such scenes. In such moments of undecided battle, amid the
+violence, hurry, and confusion of ideas incident to the situation, the
+ancients supposed that they saw their deities, Castor and Pollux,
+fighting in the van for their encouragement; the heathen Scandinavian
+beheld the Choosers of the slain; and the Catholics were no less easily
+led to recognize the warlike Saint George or Saint James in the very
+front of the strife, showing them the way to conquest. Such apparitions
+being generally visible to a multitude, have in all times been supported
+by the greatest strength of testimony. When the common feeling of
+danger, and the animating burst of enthusiasm, act on the feelings of
+many men at once, their minds hold a natural correspondence with each
+other, as it is said is the case with stringed instruments tuned to the
+same pitch, of which, when one is played, the chords of the others are
+supposed to vibrate in unison with the tones produced. If an artful or
+enthusiastic individual exclaims, in the heat of action, that he
+perceives an apparition of the romantic kind which has been intimated,
+his companions catch at the idea with emulation, and most are willing to
+sacrifice the conviction of their own senses, rather than allow that
+they did not witness the same favourable emblem, from which all draw
+confidence and hope. One warrior catches the idea from another; all are
+alike eager to acknowledge the present miracle, and the battle is won
+before the mistake is discovered. In such cases, the number of persons
+present, which would otherwise lead to detection of the fallacy, becomes
+the means of strengthening it.
+
+Of this disposition, to see as much of the supernatural as is seen by
+others around, or, in other words, to trust to the eyes of others rather
+than to our own, we may take the liberty to quote two remarkable
+instances.
+
+The first is from the "Historia Verdadera" of Don Bernal Dias del
+Castillo, one of the companions of the celebrated Cortez in his Mexican
+conquest. After having given an account of a great victory over extreme
+odds, he mentions the report inserted in the contemporary Chronicle of
+Gomara, that Saint Iago had appeared on a white horse in van of the
+combat, and led on his beloved Spaniards to victory. It is very curious
+to observe the Castilian cavalier's internal conviction that the rumour
+arose out of a mistake, the cause of which he explains from his own
+observation; whilst, at the same time, he does not venture to disown the
+miracle. The honest Conquestador owns that he himself did not see this
+animating vision; nay, that he beheld an individual cavalier, named
+Francisco de Morla, mounted on a chestnut horse, and fighting
+strenuously in the very place where Saint James is said to have
+appeared. But instead of proceeding to draw the necessary inference, the
+devout Conquestador exclaims--"Sinner that I am, what am I that I should
+have beheld the blessed apostle!"
+
+The other instance of the infectious character of superstition occurs in
+a Scottish book, and there can be little doubt that it refers, in its
+first origin, to some uncommon appearance of the aurora borealis, or the
+northern lights, which do not appear to have been seen in Scotland so
+frequently as to be accounted a common and familiar atmospherical
+phenomenon, until the beginning of the eighteenth century. The passage
+is striking and curious, for the narrator, Peter Walker, though an
+enthusiast, was a man of credit, and does not even affect to have seen
+the wonders, the reality of which he unscrupulously adopts on the
+testimony of others, to whose eyes he trusted rather than to his own.
+The conversion of the sceptical gentleman of whom he speaks is highly
+illustrative of popular credulity carried away into enthusiasm, or into
+imposture, by the evidence of those around, and at once shows the
+imperfection of such a general testimony, and the ease with which it is
+procured, since the general excitement of the moment impels even the
+more cold-blooded and judicious persons present to catch up the ideas
+and echo the exclamations of the majority, who, from the first, had
+considered the heavenly phenomenon as a supernatural weapon-schaw, held
+for the purpose of a sign and warning of civil wars to come.
+
+"In the year 1686, in the months of June and July," says the honest
+chronicler, "many yet alive can witness that about the Crossford Boat,
+two miles beneath Lanark, especially at the Mains, on the water of
+Clyde, many people gathered together for several afternoons, where there
+were showers of bonnets, hats, guns, and swords, which covered the trees
+and the ground; companies of men in arms marching in order upon the
+waterside; companies meeting companies, going all through other, and
+then all falling to the ground and disappearing; other companies
+immediately appeared, marching the same way. I went there three
+afternoons together, and, as I observed, there were two-thirds of the
+people that were together saw, and a third that saw not; and, _though I
+could see nothing_, there was such a fright and trembling on those that
+did see, that was discernible to all from those that saw not. There was
+a gentleman standing next to me who spoke as too many gentlemen and
+others speak, who said, 'A pack of damned witches and warlocks that have
+the second sight! the devil ha't do I see;' and immediately there was a
+discernible change in his countenance. With as much fear and trembling
+as any woman I saw there, he called out, 'All you that do not see, say
+nothing; for I persuade you it is matter of fact, and discernible to all
+that is not stone-blind.' And those who did see told what works (_i.e._,
+locks) the guns had, and their length and wideness, and what handles the
+swords had, whether small or three-barr'd, or Highland guards, and the
+closing knots of the bonnets, black or blue; and those who did see them
+there, whenever they went abroad, saw a bonnet and a sword drop in the
+way."[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: Walker's "Lives," Edinburgh, 1827, vol. i. p. xxxvi. It is
+evident that honest Peter believed in the apparition of this martial
+gear on the principle of Partridge's terror for the ghost of Hamlet--not
+that he was afraid himself, but because Garrick showed such evident
+marks of terror.]
+
+This singular phenomenon, in which a multitude believed, although only
+two-thirds of them saw what must, if real, have been equally obvious to
+all, may be compared with the exploit of the humourist, who planted
+himself in an attitude of astonishment, with his eyes riveted on the
+well-known bronze lion that graces the front of Northumberland House in
+the Strand, and having attracted the attention of those who looked at
+him by muttering, "By heaven it wags! it wags again!" contrived in a few
+minutes to blockade the whole street with an immense crowd, some
+conceiving that they had absolutely seen the lion of Percy wag his tail,
+others expecting' to witness the same phenomenon.
+
+On such occasions as we have hitherto mentioned, we have supposed that
+the ghost-seer has been in full possession of his ordinary powers of
+perception, unless in the case of dreamers, in whom they may have been
+obscured by temporary slumber, and the possibility of correcting
+vagaries of the imagination rendered more difficult by want of the
+ordinary appeal to the evidence of the bodily senses. In other respects
+their blood beat temperately, they possessed the ordinary capacity of
+ascertaining the truth or discerning the falsehood of external
+appearances by an appeal to the organ of sight. Unfortunately, however,
+as is now universally known and admitted, there certainly exists more
+than one disorder known to professional men of which one important
+symptom is a disposition to see apparitions.
+
+This frightful disorder is not properly insanity, although it is
+somewhat allied to that most horrible of maladies, and may, in many
+constitutions, be the means of bringing it on, and although such
+hallucinations are proper to both. The difference I conceive to be that,
+in cases of insanity, the mind of the patient is principally affected,
+while the senses, or organic system, offer in vain to the lunatic their
+decided testimony against the fantasy of a deranged imagination. Perhaps
+the nature of this collision--between a disturbed imagination and organs
+of sense possessed of their usual accuracy--cannot be better described
+than in the embarrassment expressed by an insane patient confined in the
+Infirmary of Edinburgh. The poor man's malady had taken a gay turn. The
+house, in his idea, was his own, and he contrived to account for all
+that seemed inconsistent with his imaginary right of property--there
+were many patients in it, but that was owing to the benevolence of his
+nature, which made him love to see the relief of distress. He went
+little, or rather never abroad--but then his habits were of a domestic
+and rather sedentary character. He did not see much company--but he
+daily received visits from the first characters in the renowned medical
+school of this city, and he could not therefore be much in want of
+society. With so many supposed comforts around him--with so many visions
+of wealth and splendour--one thing alone disturbed the peace of the poor
+optimist, and would indeed have confounded most _bons vivants_. "He was
+curious," he said, "in his table, choice in his selection of cooks, had
+every day a dinner of three regular courses and a dessert; and yet,
+somehow or other, everything he eat _tasted of porridge_." This dilemma
+could be no great wonder to the friend to whom the poor patient
+communicated it, who knew the lunatic eat nothing but this simple
+aliment at any of his meals. The case was obvious. The disease lay in
+the extreme vivacity of the patient's imagination, deluded in other
+instances, yet not absolutely powerful enough to contend with the honest
+evidence of his stomach and palate, which, like Lord Peter's brethren in
+"The Tale of a Tub," were indignant at the attempt to impose boiled
+oatmeal upon them, instead of such a banquet as Ude would have displayed
+when peers were to partake of it. Here, therefore, is one instance of
+actual insanity, in which the sense of taste controlled and attempted to
+restrain the ideal hypothesis adopted by a deranged imagination. But the
+disorder to which I previously alluded is entirely of a bodily
+character, and consists principally in a disease of the visual organs,
+which present to the patient a set of spectres or appearances which have
+no actual existence. It is a disease of the same nature which renders
+many men incapable of distinguishing colours; only the patients go a
+step further, and pervert the external form of objects. In their case,
+therefore, contrary to that of the maniac, it is not the mind, or rather
+the imagination, which imposes upon and overpowers the evidence of the
+senses, but the sense of seeing (or hearing) which betrays its duty and
+conveys false ideas to a sane intellect.
+
+More than one learned physician, who have given their attestations to
+the existence of this most distressing complaint, have agreed that it
+actually occurs, and is occasioned by different causes. The most
+frequent source of the malady is in the dissipated and intemperate
+habits of those who, by a continued series of intoxication, become
+subject to what is popularly called the Blue Devils, instances of which
+mental disorder may be known to most who have lived for any period of
+their lives in society where hard drinking was a common vice. The joyous
+visions suggested by intoxication when the habit is first acquired, in
+time disappear, and are supplied by frightful impressions and scenes,
+which destroy the tranquillity of the unhappy debauchee. Apparitions of
+the most unpleasant appearance are his companions in solitude, and
+intrude even upon his hours of society: and when by an alteration of
+habits, the mind is cleared of these frightful ideas, it requires but
+the slightest renewal of the association to bring back the full tide of
+misery upon the repentant libertine.
+
+Of this the following instance was told to the author by a gentleman
+connected with the sufferer. A young man of fortune, who had led what is
+called so gay a life as considerably to injure both his health and
+fortune, was at length obliged to consult the physician upon the means
+of restoring, at least, the former. One of his principal complaints was
+the frequent presence of a set of apparitions, resembling a band of
+figures dressed in green, who performed in his drawing-room a singular
+dance, to which he was compelled to bear witness, though he knew, to his
+great annoyance, that the whole _corps de ballet_ existed only in his
+own imagination. His physician immediately informed him that he had
+lived upon town too long and too fast not to require an exchange to a
+more healthy and natural course of life. He therefore prescribed a
+gentle course of medicine, but earnestly recommended to his patient to
+retire to his own house in the country, observe a temperate diet and
+early hours, practising regular exercise, on the same principle avoiding
+fatigue, and assured him that by doing so he might bid adieu to black
+spirits and white, blue, green, and grey, with all their trumpery. The
+patient observed the advice, and prospered. His physician, after the
+interval of a month, received a grateful letter from him, acknowledging
+the success of his regimen. The greens goblins had disappeared, and with
+them the unpleasant train of emotions to which their visits had given
+rise, and the patient had ordered his town-house to be disfurnished and
+sold, while the furniture was to be sent down to his residence in the
+country, where he was determined in future to spend his life, without
+exposing himself to the temptations of town. One would have supposed
+this a well-devised scheme for health. But, alas! no sooner had the
+furniture of the London drawing-room been placed in order in the gallery
+of the old manor-house, than the former delusion returned in full force:
+the green _figurantés_, whom the patient's depraved imagination had so
+long associated with these moveables, came capering and frisking to
+accompany them, exclaiming with great glee, as if the sufferer should
+have been rejoiced to see them, "Here we all are--here we all are!" The
+visionary, if I recollect right, was so much shocked at their
+appearance, that he retired abroad, in despair that any part of Britain
+could shelter him from the daily persecution of this domestic ballet.
+
+There is reason to believe that such cases are numerous, and that they
+may perhaps arise not only from the debility of stomach brought on by
+excess in wine or spirits, which derangement often sensibly affects the
+eyes and sense of sight, but also because the mind becomes habitually
+predominated over by a train of fantastic visions, the consequence of
+frequent intoxication; and is thus, like a dislocated joint, apt again
+to go wrong, even when a different cause occasions the derangement.
+
+It is easy to be supposed that habitual excitement by means of any other
+intoxicating drug, as opium, or its various substitutes, must expose
+those who practise the dangerous custom to the same inconvenience. Very
+frequent use of the nitrous oxide which affects the senses so strongly,
+and produces a short but singular state of ecstasy, would probably be
+found to occasion this species of disorder. But there are many other
+causes which medical men find attended with the same symptom, of
+embodying before the eyes of a patient imaginary illusions which are
+visible to no one else. This persecution of spectral deceptions is also
+found to exist when no excesses of the patient can be alleged as the
+cause, owing, doubtless, to a deranged state of the blood or nervous
+system.
+
+The learned and acute Dr. Ferriar of Manchester was the first who
+brought before the English public the leading case, as it may be called,
+in this department, namely, that of Mons. Nicolai, the celebrated
+bookseller of Berlin. This gentleman was not a man merely of books, but
+of letters, and had the moral courage to lay before the Philosophical
+Society of Berlin an account of his own sufferings, from having been, by
+disease, subjected to a series of spectral illusions. The leading
+circumstances of this case may be stated very shortly, as it has been
+repeatedly before the public, and is insisted on by Dr. Ferriar, Dr.
+Hibbert, and others who have assumed Demonology as a subject. Nicolai
+traces his illness remotely to a series of disagreeable incidents which
+had happened to him in the beginning of the year 1791. The depression of
+spirits which was occasioned by these unpleasant occurrences, was aided
+by the consequences of neglecting a course of periodical bleeding which
+he had been accustomed to observe. This state of health brought on the
+disposition to see _phantasmata_, who visited, or it may be more
+properly said frequented, the apartments of the learned bookseller,
+presenting crowds of persons who moved and acted before him, nay, even
+spoke to and addressed him. These phantoms afforded nothing unpleasant
+to the imagination of the visionary either in sight or expression, and
+the patient was possessed of too much firmness to be otherwise affected
+by their presence than with a species of curiosity, as he remained
+convinced from the beginning to the end of the disorder, that these
+singular effects were merely symptoms of the state of his health, and
+did not in any other respect regard them as a subject of apprehension.
+After a certain time, and some use of medicine, the phantoms became less
+distinct in their outline, less vivid in their colouring, faded, as it
+were, on the eye of the patient, and at length totally disappeared.
+
+The case of Nicolai has unquestionably been that of many whose love of
+science has not been able to overcome their natural reluctance to
+communicate to the public the particulars attending the visitation of a
+disease so peculiar. That such illnesses have been experienced, and have
+ended fatally, there can be no doubt; though it is by no means to be
+inferred, that the symptom of importance to our present discussion has,
+on all occasions, been produced from the same identical cause.
+
+Dr. Hibbert, who has most ingeniously, as well as philosophically,
+handled this subject, has treated it also in a medical point of view,
+with science to which we make no pretence, and a precision of detail to
+which our superficial investigation affords us no room for extending
+ourselves.
+
+The visitation of spectral phenomena is described by this learned
+gentleman as incidental to sundry complaints; and he mentions, in
+particular, that the symptom occurs not only in plethora, as in the case
+of the learned Prussian we have just mentioned, but is a frequent hectic
+symptom--often an associate of febrile and inflammatory
+disorders--frequently accompanying inflammation of the brain--a
+concomitant also of highly excited nervous irritability--equally
+connected with hypochondria--and finally united in some cases with gout,
+and in others with the effects of excitation produced by several gases.
+In all these cases there seems to be a morbid degree of sensibility,
+with which this symptom is ready to ally itself, and which, though
+inaccurate as a medical definition, may be held sufficiently descriptive
+of one character of the various kinds of disorder with which this
+painful symptom may be found allied.
+
+A very singular and interesting illustration of such combinations as Dr.
+Hibbert has recorded of the spectral illusion with an actual disorder,
+and that of a dangerous kind, was frequently related in society by the
+late learned and accomplished Dr. Gregory of Edinburgh, and sometimes, I
+believe, quoted by him in his lectures. The narrative, to the author's
+best recollection, was as follows:--A patient of Dr. Gregory, a person,
+it is understood, of some rank, having requested the doctor's advice,
+made the following extraordinary statement of his complaint. "I am in
+the habit," he said, "of dining at five, and exactly as the hour of six
+arrives I am subjected to the following painful visitation. The door of
+the room, even when I have been weak enough to bolt it, which I have
+sometimes done, flies wide open; an old hag, like one of those who
+haunted the heath of Forres, enters with a frowning and incensed
+countenance, comes straight up to me with every demonstration of spite
+and indignation which could characterize her who haunted the merchant
+Abudah in the Oriental tale; she rushes upon me, says something, but so
+hastily that I cannot discover the purport, and then strikes me a severe
+blow with her staff. I fall from my chair in a swoon, which is of longer
+or shorter endurance. To the recurrence of this apparition I am daily
+subjected. And such is my new and singular complaint." The doctor
+immediately asked whether his patient had invited any one to sit with
+him when he expected such a visitation. He was answered in the negative.
+The nature of the complaint, he said, was so singular, it was so likely
+to be imputed to fancy, or even to mental derangement, that he had
+shrunk from communicating the circumstance to any one. "Then," said the
+doctor, "with your permission, I will dine with you to-day,
+_téte-à-téte_, and we will see if your malignant old woman will venture
+to join our company." The patient accepted the proposal with hope and
+gratitude, for he had expected ridicule rather than sympathy. They met
+at dinner, and Dr. Gregory, who suspected some nervous disorder, exerted
+his powers of conversation, well known to be of the most varied and
+brilliant character, to keep the attention of his host engaged, and
+prevent him from thinking on the approach of the fated hour, to which he
+was accustomed to look forward with so much terror. He succeeded in his
+purpose better than he had hoped. The hour of six came almost unnoticed,
+and it was hoped might pass away without any evil consequence; but it
+was scarce a moment struck when the owner of the house exclaimed, in an
+alarmed voice, "The hag comes again!" and dropped back in his chair in a
+swoon, in the way he had himself described. The physician caused him to
+be let blood, and satisfied himself that the periodical shocks of which
+his patient complained arose from a tendency to apoplexy.
+
+The phantom with the crutch was only a species of machinery, such as
+that with which fancy is found to supply the disorder called
+_Ephialtes_, or nightmare, or indeed any other external impression upon
+our organs in sleep, which the patient's morbid imagination may
+introduce into the dream preceding the swoon. In the nightmare an
+oppression and suffocation is felt, and our fancy instantly conjures up
+a spectre to lie on our bosom. In like manner it may be remarked, that
+any sudden noise which the slumberer hears, without being actually
+awakened by it--any casual touch of his person occurring in the same
+manner--becomes instantly adopted in his dream, and accommodated to the
+tenor of the current train of thought, whatever that may happen to be;
+and nothing is more remarkable than the rapidity with which imagination
+supplies a complete explanation of the interruption, according to the
+previous train of ideas expressed in the dream, even when scarce a
+moment of time is allowed for that purpose. In dreaming, for example, of
+a duel, the external sound becomes, in the twinkling of an eye, the
+discharge of the combatants' pistols;--is an orator haranguing in his
+sleep, the sound becomes the applause of his supposed audience;--is the
+dreamer wandering among supposed ruins, the noise is that of the fall of
+some part of the mass. In short, an explanatory system is adopted during
+sleep with such extreme rapidity, that supposing the intruding alarm to
+have been the first call of some person to awaken the slumberer, the
+explanation, though requiring some process of argument or deduction, is
+usually formed and perfect before the second effort of the speaker has
+restored the dreamer to the waking world and its realities. So rapid and
+intuitive is the succession of ideas in sleep, as to remind us of the
+vision of the prophet Mahommed, in which he saw the whole wonders of
+heaven and hell, though the jar of water which fell when his ecstasy
+commenced, had not spilled its contents when he returned to ordinary
+existence.
+
+A second, and equally remarkable instance, was communicated to the
+author by the medical man under whose observation it fell, but who was,
+of course, desirous to keep private the name of the hero of so singular
+a history. Of the friend by whom the facts were attested I can only say,
+that if I found myself at liberty to name him, the rank which he holds
+in his profession, as well as his attainments in science and philosophy,
+form an undisputed claim to the most implicit credit.
+
+It was the fortune of this gentleman to be called in to attend the
+illness of a person now long deceased, who in his lifetime stood, as I
+understand, high in a particular department of the law, which often
+placed the property of others at his discretion and control, and whose
+conduct, therefore, being open to public observation, he had for many
+years borne the character of a man of unusual steadiness, good sense,
+and integrity. He was, at the time of my friend's visits, confined
+principally to his sick-room, sometimes to bed, yet occasionally
+attending to business, and exerting his mind, apparently with all its
+usual strength and energy, to the conduct of important affairs intrusted
+to him; nor did there, to a superficial observer, appear anything in his
+conduct, while so engaged, that could argue vacillation of intellect, or
+depression of mind. His outward symptoms of malady argued no acute or
+alarming disease. But slowness of pulse, absence of appetite, difficulty
+of digestion, and constant depression of spirits, seemed to draw their
+origin from some hidden cause, which the patient was determined to
+conceal. The deep gloom of the unfortunate gentleman--the embarrassment,
+which he could not conceal from his friendly physician--the briefness
+and obvious constraint with which he answered the interrogations of his
+medical adviser, induced my friend to take other methods for prosecuting
+his inquiries. He applied to the sufferer's family, to learn, if
+possible, the source of that secret grief which was gnawing the heart
+and sucking the life-blood of his unfortunate patient. The persons
+applied to, after conversing together previously, denied all knowledge
+of any cause for the burden which obviously affected their relative. So
+far as they knew--and they thought they could hardly be deceived--his
+worldly affairs were prosperous; no family loss had occurred which could
+be followed with such persevering distress; no entanglements of
+affection could be supposed to apply to his age, and no sensation of
+severe remorse could be consistent with his character. The medical
+gentleman had finally recourse to serious argument with the invalid
+himself, and urged to him the folly of devoting himself to a lingering
+and melancholy death, rather than tell the subject of affliction which
+was thus wasting him. He specially pressed upon him the injury which he
+was doing to his own character, by suffering it to be inferred that the
+secret cause of his dejection and its consequences was something too
+scandalous or flagitious to be made known, bequeathing in this manner to
+his family a suspected and dishonoured name, and leaving a memory with
+which might be associated the idea of guilt, which the criminal had died
+without confessing. The patient, more moved by this species of appeal
+than by any which had yet been urged, expressed his desire to speak out
+frankly to Dr.----. Every one else was removed, and the door of the
+sick-room made secure, when he began his confession in the following
+manner:--
+
+"You cannot, my dear friend, be more conscious than I, that I am in the
+course of dying under the oppression of the fatal disease which consumes
+my vital powers; but neither can you understand the nature of my
+complaint, and manner in which it acts upon me, nor, if you did, I fear,
+could your zeal and skill avail to rid me of it."--"It is possible,"
+said the physician, "that my skill may not equal my wish of serving you;
+yet medical science has many resources, of which those unacquainted with
+its powers never can form an estimate. But until you plainly tell me
+your symptoms of complaint, it is impossible for either of us to say
+what may or may not be in my power, or within that of medicine."--"I may
+answer you," replied the patient, "that my case is not a singular one,
+since we read of it in the famous novel of Le Sage. You remember,
+doubtless, the disease of which the Duke d'Olivarez is there stated to
+have died?"--"Of the idea," answered the medical gentleman, "that he was
+haunted by an apparition, to the actual existence of which he gave no
+credit, but died, nevertheless, because he was overcome and heart-broken
+by its imaginary presence."--"I, my dearest doctor," said the sick man,
+"am in that very case; and so painful and abhorrent is the presence of
+the persecuting vision, that my reason is totally inadequate to combat
+the effects of my morbid imagination, and I am sensible I am dying, a
+wasted victim to an imaginary disease." The medical gentleman listened
+with anxiety to his patient's statement, and for the present judiciously
+avoiding any contradiction of the sick man's preconceived fancy,
+contented himself with more minute inquiry into the nature of the
+apparition with which he conceived himself haunted, and into the history
+of the mode by which so singular a disease had made itself master of his
+imagination, secured, as it seemed, by strong powers of the
+understanding, against an attack so irregular. The sick person replied
+by stating that its advances were gradual, and at first not of a
+terrible or even disagreeable character. To illustrate this, he gave the
+following account of the progress of his disease:--
+
+"My visions," he said, "commenced two or three years since, when I found
+myself from time to time embarrassed by the presence of a large cat,
+which came and disappeared I could not exactly tell how, till the truth
+was finally forced upon me, and I was compelled to regard it as no
+domestic household cat, but as a bubble of the elements, which had no
+existence save in my deranged visual organs or depraved imagination.
+Still I had not that positive objection to the animal entertained by a
+late gallant Highland chieftain, who has been seen to change to all the
+colours of his own plaid if a cat by accident happened to be in the room
+with him, even though he did not see it. On the contrary, I am rather a
+friend to cats, and endured with so much equanimity the presence of my
+imaginary attendant, that it had become almost indifferent to me; when,
+within the course of a few months, it gave place to, or was succeeded
+by, a spectre of a more important sort, or which at least had a more
+imposing appearance. This was no other than the apparition of a
+gentleman-usher, dressed as if to wait upon a Lord Lieutenant of
+Ireland, a Lord High Commissioner of the Kirk, or any other who bears on
+his brow the rank and stamp of delegated sovereignty.
+
+"This personage, arrayed in a court dress, with bag and sword, tamboured
+waistcoat, and chapeau-bras, glided beside me like the ghost of Beau
+Nash; and, whether in my own house or in another, ascended the stairs
+before me, as if to announce me in the drawing-room, and at sometimes
+appeared to mingle with the company, though it was sufficiently evident
+that they were not aware of his presence, and that I alone was sensible
+of the visionary honours which this imaginary being seemed desirous to
+render me. This freak of the fancy did not produce much impression on
+me, though it led me to entertain doubts on the nature of my disorder
+and alarm for the effect it might produce on my intellects. But that
+modification of my disease also had its appointed duration. After a few
+months the phantom of the gentleman-usher was seen no more, but was
+succeeded by one horrible to the sight and distressing to the
+imagination, being no other than the image of death itself--the
+apparition of a _skeleton_. Alone or in company," said the unfortunate
+invalid, "the presence of this last phantom never quits me. I in vain
+tell myself a hundred times over that it is no reality, but merely an
+image summoned up by the morbid acuteness of my own excited imagination
+and deranged organs of sight. But what avail such reflections, while the
+emblem at once and presage of mortality is before my eyes, and while I
+feel myself, though in fancy only, the companion of a phantom
+representing a ghastly inhabitant of the grave, even while I yet breathe
+on the earth? Science, philosophy, even religion, has no cure for such a
+disorder; and I feel too surely that I shall die the victim to so
+melancholy a disease, although I have no belief whatever in the reality
+of the phantom which it places before me."
+
+The physician was distressed to perceive, from these details, how
+strongly this visionary apparition was fixed in the imagination of his
+patient. He ingeniously urged the sick man, who was then in bed, with
+questions concerning the circumstances of the phantom's appearance,
+trusting he might lead him, as a sensible man, into such contradictions
+and inconsistencies as might bring his common-sense, which seemed to be
+unimpaired, so strongly into the field as might combat successfully the
+fantastic disorder which produced such fatal effects. "This skeleton,
+then," said the doctor, "seems to you to be always present to your
+eyes?" "It is my fate, unhappily," answered the invalid, "always to see
+it." "Then I understand," continued the physician, "it is now present to
+your imagination?" "To my imagination it certainly is so," replied the
+sick man. "And in what part of the chamber do you now conceive the
+apparition to appear?" the physician inquired. "Immediately at the foot
+of my bed. When the curtains are left a little open," answered the
+invalid, "the skeleton, to my thinking, is placed between them, and
+fills the vacant space." "You say you are sensible of the delusion,"
+said his friend; "have you firmness to convince yourself of the truth of
+this? Can you take courage enough to rise and place yourself in the spot
+so seeming to be occupied, and convince yourself of the illusion?" The
+poor man sighed, and shook his head negatively. "Well," said the doctor,
+"we will try the experiment otherwise." Accordingly, he rose from his
+chair by the bedside, and placing himself between the two half-drawn
+curtains at the foot of the bed, indicated as the place occupied by the
+apparition, asked if the spectre was still visible? "Not entirely so,"
+replied the patient, "because your person is betwixt him and me; but I
+observe his skull peering above your shoulder."
+
+It is alleged the man of science started on the instant, despite
+philosophy, on receiving an answer ascertaining, with such minuteness,
+that the ideal spectre was close to his own person. He resorted to other
+means of investigation and cure, but with equally indifferent success.
+The patient sunk into deeper and deeper dejection, and died in the same
+distress of mind in which he had spent the latter months of his life;
+and his case remains a melancholy instance of the power of imagination
+to kill the body, even when its fantastic terrors cannot overcome the
+intellect, of the unfortunate persons who suffer under them. The
+patient, in the present case, sunk under his malady; and the
+circumstances of his singular disorder remaining concealed, he did not,
+by his death and last illness, lose any of his well-merited reputation
+for prudence and sagacity which had attended him during the whole course
+of his life.
+
+Having added these two remarkable instances to the general train of
+similar facts quoted by Ferriar, Hibbert, and other writers who have
+more recently considered the subject, there can, we think, be little
+doubt of the proposition, that the external organs may, from various
+causes, become so much deranged as to make false representations to the
+mind; and that, in such cases, men, in the literal sense, really _see_
+the empty and false forms and _hear_ the ideal sounds which, in a more
+primitive state of society, are naturally enough referred to the action
+of demons or disembodied spirits. In such unhappy cases the patient is
+intellectually in the condition of a general whose spies have been
+bribed by the enemy, and who must engage himself in the difficult and
+delicate task of examining and correcting, by his own powers of
+argument, the probability of the reports which are too inconsistent to
+be trusted to.
+
+But there is a corollary to this proposition, which is worthy of notice.
+The same species of organic derangement which, as a continued habit of
+his deranged vision, presented the subject of our last tale with the
+successive apparitions of his cat, his gentleman-usher, and the fatal
+skeleton, may occupy, for a brief or almost momentary space, the vision
+of men who are otherwise perfectly clear-sighted. Transitory deceptions
+are thus presented to the organs which, when they occur to men of
+strength of mind and of education, give way to scrutiny, and their
+character being once investigated, the true takes the place of the
+unreal representation. But in ignorant times those instances in which
+any object is misrepresented, whether through the action of the senses,
+or of the imagination, or the combined influence of both, for however
+short a space of time, may be admitted as direct evidence of a
+supernatural apparition; a proof the more difficult to be disputed if
+the phantom has been personally witnessed by a man of sense and
+estimation, who, perhaps satisfied in the general as to the actual
+existence of apparitions, has not taken time or trouble to correct his
+first impressions. This species of deception is so frequent that one of
+the greatest poets of the present time answered a lady who asked him if
+he believed in ghosts:--"No, madam; I have seen too many myself." I may
+mention one or two instances of the kind, to which no doubt can be
+attached.
+
+The first shall be the apparition of Maupertuis to a brother professor
+in the Royal Society of Berlin.
+
+This extraordinary circumstance appeared in the Transactions of the
+Society, but is thus stated by M. Thiebault in his "Recollections of
+Frederick the Great and the Court of Berlin." It is necessary to premise
+that M. Gleditsch, to whom the circumstance happened, was a botanist of
+eminence, holding the professorship of natural philosophy at Berlin, and
+respected as a man of an habitually serious, simple, and tranquil
+character.
+
+A short time after the death of Maupertuis,[2] M. Gleditsch being
+obliged to traverse the hall in which the Academy held its sittings,
+having some arrangements to make in the cabinet of natural history,
+which was under his charge, and being willing to complete them on the
+Thursday before the meeting, he perceived, on entering the hall, the
+apparition of M. de Maupertuis, upright and stationary, in the first
+angle on his left hand, having his eyes fixed on him. This was about
+three o'clock, afternoon. The professor of natural philosophy was too
+well acquainted with physical science to suppose that his late
+president, who had died at Bâle, in the family of Messrs. Bernoullie,
+could have found his way back to Berlin in person. He regarded the
+apparition in no other light than as a phantom produced by some
+derangement of his own proper organs. M. Gleditsch went to his own
+business, without stopping longer than to ascertain exactly the
+appearance of that object. But he related the vision to his brethren,
+and assured them that it was as defined and perfect as the actual person
+of Maupertuis could have presented. When it is recollected that
+Maupertuis died at a distance from Berlin, once the scene of his
+triumphs--overwhelmed by the petulant ridicule of Voltaire, and out of
+favour with Frederick, with whom to be ridiculous was to be
+worthless--we can hardly wonder at the imagination even of a man of
+physical science calling up his Eidolon in the hall of his former
+greatness.
+
+[Footnote 2: Long the president of the Berlin Academy, and much favoured
+by Frederick II., till he was overwhelmed by the ridicule of Voltaire.
+He retired, in a species of disgrace, to his native country of
+Switzerland, and died there shortly afterwards.]
+
+The sober-minded professor did not, however, push his investigation to
+the point to which it was carried by a gallant soldier, from whose mouth
+a particular friend of the author received the following circumstances
+of a similar story.
+
+Captain C---- was a native of Britain, but bred in the Irish Brigade. He
+was a man of the most dauntless courage, which he displayed in some
+uncommonly desperate adventures during the first years of the French
+Revolution, being repeatedly employed by the royal family in very
+dangerous commissions. After the King's death he came over to England,
+and it was then the following circumstance took place.
+
+Captain C---- was a Catholic, and, in his hour of adversity at least,
+sincerely attached to the duties of his religion. His confessor was a
+clergyman who was residing as chaplain to a man of rank in the west of
+England, about four miles from the place where Captain C---- lived. On
+riding over one morning to see this gentleman, his penitent had the
+misfortune to find him very ill from a dangerous complaint. He retired
+in great distress and apprehension of his friend's life, and the feeling
+brought back upon him many other painful and disagreeable recollections.
+These occupied him till the hour of retiring to bed, when, to his great
+astonishment, he saw in the room the figure of the absent confessor. He
+addressed it, but received no answer--the eyes alone were impressed by
+the appearance. Determined to push the matter to the end, Captain C----
+advanced on the phantom, which appeared to retreat gradually before him.
+In this manner he followed it round the bed, when it seemed to sink down
+on an elbow-chair, and remain there in a sitting posture. To ascertain
+positively the nature of the apparition, the soldier himself sate down
+on the same chair, ascertaining thus, beyond question, that the whole
+was illusion; yet he owned that, had his friend died about the same
+time, he would not well have known what name to give to his vision. But
+as the confessor recovered, and, in Dr. Johnson's phrase, "nothing came
+of it," the incident was only remarkable as showing that men of the
+strongest nerves are not exempted from such delusions.
+
+Another illusion of the same nature we have the best reason for vouching
+as a fact, though, for certain reasons, we do not give the names of the
+parties. Not long after the death of a late illustrious poet, who had
+filled, while living, a great station in the eye of the public, a
+literary friend, to whom the deceased had been well known, was engaged,
+during the darkening twilight of an autumn evening, in perusing one of
+the publications which professed to detail the habits and opinions of
+the distinguished individual who was now no more. As the reader had
+enjoyed the intimacy of the deceased to a considerable degree, he was
+deeply interested in the publication, which contained some particulars
+relating to himself and other friends. A visitor was sitting in the
+apartment, who was also engaged in reading. Their sitting-room opened
+into an entrance-hall, rather fantastically fitted up with articles of
+armour, skins of wild animals, and the like. It was when laying down his
+book, and passing into this hall, through which the moon was beginning
+to shine, that the individual of whom I speak saw, right before him, and
+in a standing posture, the exact representation of his departed friend,
+whose recollection had been so strongly brought to his imagination. He
+stopped for a single moment, so as to notice the wonderful accuracy with
+which fancy had impressed upon the bodily eye the peculiarities of dress
+and posture of the illustrious poet. Sensible, however, of the delusion,
+he felt no sentiment save that of wonder at the extraordinary accuracy
+of the resemblance, and stepped onwards towards the figure, which
+resolved itself, as he approached, into the various materials of which
+it was composed. These were merely a screen, occupied by great-coats,
+shawls, plaids, and such other articles as usually are found in a
+country entrance-hall. The spectator returned to the spot from which he
+had seen the illusion, and endeavoured, with all his power, to recall
+the image which had been so singularly vivid. But this was beyond his
+capacity; and the person who had witnessed the apparition, or, more
+properly, whose excited state had been the means of raising it, had only
+to return into the apartment, and tell his young friend under what a
+striking hallucination he had for a moment laboured.
+
+There is every reason to believe that instances of this kind are
+frequent among persons of a certain temperament, and when such occur in
+an early period of society, they are almost certain to be considered as
+real supernatural appearances. They differ from those of Nicolai, and
+others formerly noticed, as being of short duration, and constituting no
+habitual or constitutional derangement of the system. The apparition of
+Maupertuis to Monsieur Gleditsch, that of the Catholic clergyman to
+Captain C----, that of a late poet to his friend, are of the latter
+character. They bear to the former the analogy, as we may say, which a
+sudden and temporary fever-fit has to a serious feverish illness. But,
+even for this very reason, it is more difficult to bring such momentary
+impressions back to their real sphere of optical illusions, since they
+accord much better with our idea of glimpses of the future world than
+those in which the vision is continued or repeated for hours, days, and
+months, affording opportunities of discovering, from other
+circumstances, that the symptom originates in deranged health.
+
+Before concluding these observations upon the deceptions of the senses,
+we must remark that the eye is the organ most essential to the purpose
+of realizing to our mind the appearance of external objects, and that
+when the visual organ becomes depraved for a greater or less time, and
+to a farther or more limited extent, its misrepresentation of the
+objects of sight is peculiarly apt to terminate in such hallucinations
+as those we have been detailing. Yet the other senses or organs, in
+their turn, and to the extent of their power, are as ready, in their
+various departments, as the sight itself, to retain false or doubtful
+impressions, which mislead, instead of informing, the party to whom they
+are addressed.
+
+Thus, in regard to the ear, the next organ in importance to the eye, we
+are repeatedly deceived by such sounds as are imperfectly gathered up
+and erroneously apprehended. From the false impressions received from
+this organ also arise consequences similar to those derived from
+erroneous reports made by the organs of sight. A whole class of
+superstitious observances arise, and are grounded upon inaccurate and
+imperfect hearing. To the excited and imperfect state of the ear we owe
+the existence of what Milton sublimely calls--
+
+The airy tongues that syllable men's names,
+On shores, in desert sands, and wildernesses.
+
+These also appear such natural causes of alarm, that we do not
+sympathize more readily with Robinson Crusoe's apprehensions when he
+witnesses the print of the savage's foot in the sand, than in those
+which arise from his being waked from sleep by some one calling his name
+in the solitary island, where there existed no man but the shipwrecked
+mariner himself. Amidst the train of superstitions deduced from the
+imperfections of the ear, we may quote that visionary summons which the
+natives of the Hebrides acknowledged as one sure sign of approaching
+fate. The voice of some absent, or probably some deceased, relative was,
+in such cases, heard as repeating the party's name. Sometimes the aerial
+summoner intimated his own death, and at others it was no uncommon
+circumstance that the person who fancied himself so called, died in
+consequence;--for the same reason that the negro pines to death who is
+laid under the ban of an Obi woman, or the Cambro-Briton, whose name is
+put into the famous cursing well, with the usual ceremonies, devoting
+him to the infernal gods, wastes away and dies, as one doomed to do so.
+It may be remarked also, that Dr. Johnson retained a deep impression
+that, while he was opening the door of his college chambers, he heard
+the voice of his mother, then at many miles' distance, call him by his
+name; and it appears he was rather disappointed that no event of
+consequence followed a summons sounding so decidedly supernatural. It is
+unnecessary to dwell on this sort of auricular deception, of which most
+men's recollection will supply instances. The following may he stated as
+one serving to show by what slender accidents the human ear may be
+imposed upon. The author was walking, about two years since, in a wild
+and solitary scene with a young friend, who laboured under the infirmity
+of a severe deafness, when he heard what he conceived to be the cry of a
+distant pack of hounds, sounding intermittedly. As the season was
+summer, this, on a moment's reflection, satisfied the hearer that it
+could not be the clamour of an actual chase, and yet his ears repeatedly
+brought back the supposed cry. He called upon his own dogs, of which two
+or three were with the walking party. They came in quietly, and
+obviously had no accession to the sounds which had caught the author's
+attention, so that he could not help saying to his companion, "I am
+doubly sorry for your infirmity at this moment, for I could otherwise
+have let you hear the cry of the Wild Huntsman." As the young gentleman
+used a hearing tube, he turned when spoken to, and, in doing so, the
+cause of the phenomenon became apparent. The supposed distant sound was
+in fact a nigh one, being the singing of the wind in the instrument
+which the young gentleman was obliged to use, but which, from various
+circumstances, had never occurred to his elder friend as likely to
+produce the sounds he had heard.
+
+It is scarce necessary to add, that the highly imaginative superstition
+of the Wild Huntsman in Germany seems to have had its origin in strong
+fancy, operating upon the auricular deceptions, respecting the numerous
+sounds likely to occur in the dark recesses of pathless forests. The
+same clew may be found to the kindred Scottish belief, so finely
+embodied by the nameless author of "Albania:"--
+
+"There, since of old the haughty Thanes of Ross
+Were wont, with clans and ready vassals thronged,
+To wake the bounding stag, or guilty wolf;
+There oft is heard at midnight or at noon,
+Beginning faint, but rising still more loud,
+And louder, voice of hunters, and of hounds,
+And horns hoarse-winded, blowing far and keen.
+Forthwith the hubbub multiplies, the air
+Labours with louder shouts and rifer din
+Of close pursuit, the broken cry of deer
+Mangled by throttling dogs, the shouts of men,
+And hoofs, thick-beating on the hollow hill:
+Sudden the grazing heifer in the vale
+Starts at the tumult, and the herdsman's ears
+Tingle with inward dread. Aghast he eyes
+The upland ridge, and every mountain round,
+But not one trace of living wight discerns,
+Nor knows, o'erawed and trembling as he stands,
+To what or whom he owes his idle fear--
+To ghost, to witch, to fairy, or to fiend,
+But wonders, and no end of wondering finds."[3]
+
+It must also be remembered, that to the auricular deceptions practised
+by the means of ventriloquism or otherwise, may be traced many of the
+most successful impostures which credulity has received as supernatural
+communications.
+
+[Footnote 3: The poem of "Albania" is, in its original folio edition, so
+extremely scarce that I have only seen a copy belonging to the amiable
+and ingenious Dr. Beattie, besides the one which I myself possess,
+printed in the earlier part of last century. It was reprinted by my late
+friend Dr. Leyden in a small volume entitled "Scottish Descriptive
+Poems." "Albania" contains the above, and many other poetical passages
+of the highest merit.]
+
+The sense of touch seems less liable to perversion than either that of
+sight or smell, nor are there many cases in which it can become
+accessary to such false intelligence as the eye and ear, collecting
+their objects from a greater distance and by less accurate enquiry, are
+but too ready to convey. Yet there is one circumstance in which the
+sense of touch as well as others is very apt to betray its possessor
+into inaccuracy, in respect to the circumstances which it impresses on
+its owner. The case occurs during sleep, when the dreamer touches with
+his hand some other part of his own person. He is clearly, in this case,
+both the actor and patient, both the proprietor of the member touching,
+and of that which is touched; while, to increase the complication, the
+hand is both toucher of the limb on which it rests, and receives an
+impression of touch from it; and the same is the case with the limb,
+which at one and the same time receives an impression from the hand, and
+conveys to the mind a report respecting the size, substance, and the
+like, of the member touching. Now, as during sleep the patient is
+unconscious that both limbs are his own identical property, his mind is
+apt to be much disturbed by the complication of sensations arising from
+two parts of his person being at once acted upon, and from their
+reciprocal action; and false impressions are thus received, which,
+accurately enquired into, would afford a clew to many puzzling phenomena
+in the theory of dreams. This peculiarity of the organ of touch, as also
+that it is confined to no particular organ, but is diffused over the
+whole person of the man, is noticed by Lucretius:--
+
+"Ut si forte manu, quam vis jam corporis, ipse
+ Tute tibi partem ferias, reque experiare."
+
+A remarkable instance of such an illusion was told me by a late
+nobleman. He had fallen asleep, with some uneasy feelings arising from
+indigestion. They operated in their usual course of visionary terrors.
+At length they were all summed up in the apprehension that the phantom
+of a dead man held the sleeper by the wrist, and endeavoured to drag him
+out of bed. He awaked in horror, and still felt the cold dead grasp of a
+corpse's hand on his right wrist. It was a minute before he discovered
+that his own left hand was in a state of numbness, and with it he had
+accidentally encircled his right arm.
+
+The taste and the smell, like the touch, convey more direct intelligence
+than the eye and the ear, and are less likely than those senses to aid
+in misleading the imagination. We have seen the palate, in the case of
+the porridge-fed lunatic, enter its protest against the acquiescence of
+eyes, ears, and touch, in the gay visions which gilded the patient's
+confinement. The palate, however, is subject to imposition as well as
+the other senses. The best and most acute _bon vivant_ loses his power
+of discriminating betwixt different kinds of wine, if he is prevented
+from assisting his palate by the aid of his eyes,--that is, if the
+glasses of each are administered indiscriminately while he is
+blindfolded. Nay, we are authorized to believe that individuals have
+died in consequence of having supposed themselves to have taken poison,
+when, in reality, the draught they had swallowed as such was of an
+innoxious or restorative quality. The delusions of the stomach can
+seldom bear upon our present subject, and are not otherwise connected
+with supernatural appearances, than as a good dinner and its
+accompaniments are essential in fitting out a daring Tam of Shanter, who
+is fittest to encounter them when the poet's observation is not unlikely
+to apply--
+
+"Inspiring bauld John Barleycorn,
+What dangers thou canst make us scorn!
+Wi' tippenny we fear nae evil,
+Wi' usquebae we'll face the devil.
+The swats sae ream'd in Tammie's noddle,
+Fair play, he caredna deils a bodle!"
+
+Neither has the sense of smell, in its ordinary state, much connexion
+with our present subject. Mr. Aubrey tells us, indeed, of an apparition
+which disappeared with a curious perfume as well as a most melodious
+twang; and popular belief ascribes to the presence of infernal spirits a
+strong relish of the sulphureous element of which they are inhabitants.
+Such accompaniments, therefore, are usually united with other materials
+for imposture. If, as a general opinion assures us, which is not
+positively discountenanced by Dr. Hibbert, by the inhalation of certain
+gases or poisonous herbs, necromancers can dispose a person to believe
+he sees phantoms, it is likely that the nostrils are made to inhale such
+suffumigation as well as the mouth.[4]
+
+[Footnote 4: Most ancient authors, who pretend to treat of the wonders
+of natural magic, give receipts for calling up phantoms. The lighting
+lamps fed by peculiar kinds of medicated oil, and the use of
+suffumigations of strong and deleterious herbs, are the means
+recommended. From these authorities, perhaps, a professor of legerdemain
+assured Dr. Alderson of Hull, that he could compose a preparation of
+antimony, sulphur, and other drugs, which, when burnt in a confined
+room, would have the effect of causing the patient to suppose he saw
+phantoms.--See "Hibbert on Apparitions," p. 120.]
+
+I have now arrived, by a devious path, at the conclusion of this letter,
+the object of which is to show from what attributes of our nature,
+whether mental or corporeal, arises that predisposition to believe in
+supernatural occurrences. It is, I think, conclusive that mankind, from
+a very early period, have their minds prepared for such events by the
+consciousness of the existence of a spiritual world, inferring in the
+general proposition the undeniable truth that each man, from the monarch
+to the beggar, who has once acted his part on the stage, continues to
+exist, and may again, even in a disembodied state, if such is the
+pleasure of Heaven, for aught that we know to the contrary, be permitted
+or ordained to mingle amongst those who yet remain in the body. The
+abstract possibility of apparitions must be admitted by every one who
+believes in a Deity, and His superintending omnipotence. But imagination
+is apt to intrude its explanations and inferences founded on inadequate
+evidence. Sometimes our violent and inordinate passions, originating in
+sorrow for our friends, remorse for our crimes, our eagerness of
+patriotism, or our deep sense of devotion--these or other violent
+excitements of a moral character, in the visions of night, or the rapt
+ecstasy of the day, persuade us that we witness, with our eyes and ears,
+an actual instance of that supernatural communication, the possibility
+of which cannot be denied. At other times the corporeal organs impose
+upon the mind, while the eye and the ear, diseased, deranged, or misled,
+convey false impressions to the patient. Very often both the mental
+delusion and the physical deception exist at the same time, and men's
+belief of the phenomena presented to them, however erroneously, by the
+senses, is the firmer and more readily granted, that the physical
+impression corresponded with the mental excitement.
+
+So many causes acting thus upon each other in various degrees, or
+sometimes separately, it must happen early in the infancy of every
+society that there should occur many apparently well-authenticated
+instances of supernatural intercourse, satisfactory enough to
+authenticate peculiar examples of the general proposition which is
+impressed upon us by belief of the immortality of the soul. These
+examples of undeniable apparitions (for they are apprehended to be
+incontrovertible), fall like the seed of the husbandman into fertile and
+prepared soil, and are usually followed by a plentiful crop of
+superstitious figments, which derive their sources from circumstances
+and enactments in sacred and profane history, hastily adopted, and
+perverted from their genuine reading. This shall be the subject of my
+next letter.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER II.
+
+    Consequences of the Fall on the Communication between Man and the
+    Spiritual World--Effects of the Flood--Wizards of Pharaoh--Text in
+    Exodus against Witches--The word _Witch_ is by some said to mean
+    merely Poisoner--Or if in the Holy Text it also means a Divineress,
+    she must, at any rate, have been a Character very different to be
+    identified with it--The original, _Chasaph_, said to mean a person
+    who dealt in Poisons, often a Traffic of those who dealt with
+    familiar Spirits--But different from the European Witch of the
+    Middle Ages--Thus a Witch is not accessary to the Temptation of
+    Job--The Witch of the Hebrews probably did not rank higher than a
+    Divining Woman--Yet it was a Crime deserving the Doom of Death,
+    since it inferred the disowning of Jehovah's Supremacy--Other Texts
+    of Scripture, in like manner, refer to something corresponding more
+    with a Fortune-teller or Divining Woman than what is now called a
+    Witch--Example of the Witch of Endor--Account of her Meeting with
+    Saul--Supposed by some a mere Impostor--By others, a Sorceress
+    powerful enough to raise the Spirit of the Prophet by her own
+    Art--Difficulties attending both Positions--A middle Course adopted,
+    supposing that, as in the Case of Balak, the Almighty had, by
+    Exertion of His Will, substituted Samuel, or a good Spirit in his
+    Character, for the Deception which the Witch intended to
+    produce--Resumption of the Argument, showing that the Witch of Endor
+    signified something very different from the modern Ideas of
+    Witchcraft--The Witches mentioned in the New Testament are not less
+    different from modern Ideas than those of the Books of Moses, nor do
+    they appear to have possessed the Power ascribed to
+    Magicians--Articles of Faith which we may gather from Scripture on
+    this point--That there might be certain Powers permitted by the
+    Almighty to Inferior, and even Evil Spirits, is possible; and in
+    some sense the Gods of the Heathens might be accounted Demons--More
+    frequently, and in a general sense, they were but logs of wood,
+    without sense or power of any kind, and their worship founded on
+    imposture--Opinion that the Oracles were silenced at the Nativity
+    adopted by Milton--Cases of Demoniacs--The Incarnate Possessions
+    probably ceased at the same time as the intervention of
+    Miracles--Opinion of the Catholics--Result, that witchcraft, as the
+    Word is interpreted in  the Middle Ages, neither occurs under the
+    Mosaic or Gospel Dispensation--It arose in the Ignorant Period, when
+    the Christians considered the Gods of the Mahommedan or Heathen
+    Nations as Fiends, and their Priests as Conjurers or
+    Wizards--Instance as to the Saracens, and among the Northern
+    Europeans yet unconverted--The Gods of Mexico and Peru explained on
+    the same system--Also the Powahs of North America--Opinion of
+    Mather--Gibb, a supposed Warlock, persecuted by the other
+    Dissenters--Conclusion.
+
+
+What degree of communication might have existed between the human race
+and the inhabitants of the other world had our first parents kept the
+commands of the Creator, can only be subject of unavailing speculation.
+We do not, perhaps, presume too much when we suppose, with Milton, that
+one necessary consequence of eating the "fruit of that forbidden tree"
+was removing to a wider distance from celestial essences the beings who,
+although originally but a little lower than the angels, had, by their
+own crime, forfeited the gift of immortality, and degraded themselves
+into an inferior rank of creation.
+
+Some communication between the spiritual world, by the union of those
+termed in Scripture "sons of God" and the daughters of Adam, still
+continued after the Fall, though their inter-alliance was not approved
+of by the Ruler of mankind. We are given to understand--darkly, indeed,
+but with as much certainty as we can be entitled to require--that the
+mixture between the two species of created beings was sinful on the part
+of both, and displeasing to the Almighty. It is probable, also, that the
+extreme longevity of the antediluvian mortals prevented their feeling
+sufficiently that they had brought themselves under the banner of
+Azrael, the angel of death, and removed to too great a distance the
+period between their crime and its punishment. The date of the avenging
+Flood gave birth to a race whose life was gradually shortened, and who,
+being admitted to slighter and rarer intimacy with beings who possessed
+a higher rank in creation, assumed, as of course, a lower position in
+the scale. Accordingly, after this period we hear no more of those
+unnatural alliances which preceded the Flood, and are given to
+understand that mankind, dispersing into different parts of the world,
+separated from each other, and began, in various places, and under
+separate auspices, to pursue the work of replenishing the world, which
+had been imposed upon them as an end of their creation. In the meantime,
+while the Deity was pleased to continue his manifestations to those who
+were destined to be the fathers of his elect people, we are made to
+understand that wicked men--it may be by the assistance of fallen
+angels--were enabled to assert rank with, and attempt to match, the
+prophets of the God of Israel. The matter must remain uncertain whether
+it was by sorcery or legerdemain that the wizards of Pharaoh, King of
+Egypt, contended with Moses, in the face of the prince and people,
+changed their rods into serpents, and imitated several of the plagues
+denounced against the devoted kingdom. Those powers of the Magi,
+however, whether obtained by supernatural communications, or arising
+from knowledge of legerdemain and its kindred accomplishments, were
+openly exhibited; and who can doubt that--though we may be left in some
+darkness both respecting the extent of their skill and the source from
+which it was drawn--we are told all which it can be important for us to
+know? We arrive here at the period when the Almighty chose to take upon
+himself directly to legislate for his chosen people, without having
+obtained any accurate knowledge whether the crime of witchcraft, or the
+intercourse between the spiritual world and embodied beings, for evil
+purposes, either existed after the Flood, or was visited with any open
+marks of Divine displeasure.
+
+But in the law of Moses, dictated by the Divinity himself, was announced
+a text, which, as interpreted literally, having been inserted into the
+criminal code of all Christian nations, has occasioned much cruelty and
+bloodshed, either from its tenor being misunderstood, or that, being
+exclusively calculated for the Israelites, it made part of the judicial
+Mosaic dispensation, and was abrogated, like the greater part of that
+law, by the more benign and clement dispensation of the Gospel.
+
+The text alluded to is that verse of the twenty-second chapter of Exodus
+bearing, "men shall not suffer a witch to live." Many learned men have
+affirmed that in this remarkable passage the Hebrew word CHASAPH means
+nothing more than poisoner, although, like the word _veneficus_, by
+which it is rendered in the Latin version of the Septuagint, other
+learned men contend that it hath the meaning of a witch also, and may be
+understood as denoting a person who pretended to hurt his or her
+neighbours in life, limb, or goods, either by noxious potions, by
+charms, or similar mystical means. In this particular the witches of
+Scripture had probably some resemblance to those of ancient Europe, who,
+although their skill and power might be safely despised, as long as they
+confined themselves to their charms and spells, were very apt to eke out
+their capacity of mischief by the use of actual poison, so that the
+epithet of sorceress and poisoner were almost synonymous. This is known
+to have been the case in many of those darker iniquities which bear as
+their characteristic something connected with hidden and prohibited
+arts. Such was the statement in the indictment of those concerned in the
+famous murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, when the arts of Forman and other
+sorcerers having been found insufficient to touch the victim's life,
+practice by poison was at length successfully resorted to; and numerous
+similar instances might be quoted. But supposing that the Hebrew witch
+proceeded only by charms, invocations, or such means as might be
+innoxious, save for the assistance of demons or familiars, the connexion
+between the conjurer and the demon must have been of a very different
+character under the law of Moses, from that which was conceived in
+latter days to constitute witchcraft. There was no contract of
+subjection to a diabolic power, no infernal stamp or sign of such a
+fatal league, no revellings of Satan and his hags, and no infliction of
+disease or misfortune upon good men. At least there is not a word in
+Scripture authorizing us to believe that such a system existed. On the
+contrary, we are told (how far literally, how far metaphorically, it is
+not for us to determine) that, when the Enemy of mankind desired to
+probe the virtue of Job to the bottom, he applied for permission to the
+Supreme Governor of the world, who granted him liberty to try his
+faithful servant with a storm of disasters, for the more brilliant
+exhibition of the faith which he reposed in his Maker. In all this, had
+the scene occurred after the manner of the like events in latter days,
+witchcraft, sorceries, and charms would have been introduced, and the
+Devil, instead of his own permitted agency, would have employed his
+servant the witch as the necessary instrument of the Man of Uzz's
+afflictions. In like manner, Satan desired to have Peter, that he might
+sift him like wheat. But neither is there here the agency of any
+sorcerer or witch. Luke xxii. 31.
+
+Supposing the powers of the witch to be limited, in the time of Moses,
+to enquiries at some pretended deity or real evil spirit concerning
+future events, in what respect, may it be said, did such a crime deserve
+the severe punishment of death? To answer this question, we must reflect
+that the object of the Mosaic dispensation being to preserve the
+knowledge of the True Deity within the breasts of a selected and
+separated people, the God of Jacob necessarily showed himself a jealous
+God to all who, straying from the path of direct worship of Jehovah, had
+recourse to other deities, whether idols or evil spirits, the gods of
+the neighbouring heathen. The swerving from their allegiance to the true
+Divinity, to the extent of praying to senseless stocks and stones which
+could return them no answer, was, by the Jewish law, an act of rebellion
+to their own Lord God, and as such most fit to be punished capitally.
+Thus the prophets of Baal were deservedly put to death, not on account
+of any success which they might obtain by their intercessions and
+invocations (which, though enhanced with all their vehemence, to the
+extent of cutting and wounding themselves, proved so utterly unavailing
+as to incur the ridicule of the prophet), but because they were guilty
+of apostasy from the real Deity, while they worshipped, and encouraged
+others to worship, the false divinity Baal. The Hebrew witch, therefore,
+or she who communicated, or attempted to communicate, with an evil
+spirit, was justly punished with death, though her communication with
+the spiritual world might either not exist at all, or be of a nature
+much less intimate than has been ascribed to the witches of later days;
+nor does the existence of this law, against the witches of the Old
+Testament sanction, in any respect, the severity of similar enactments
+subsequent to the Christian revelation, against a different class of
+persons, accused of a very different species of crime.
+
+In another passage, the practices of those persons termed witches in the
+Holy Scriptures are again alluded to; and again it is made manifest that
+the sorcery or witchcraft of the Old Testament resolves itself into a
+trafficking with idols, and asking counsel of false deities; in other
+words, into idolatry, which, notwithstanding repeated prohibitions,
+examples, and judgments, was still the prevailing crime of the
+Israelites. The passage alluded to is in Deuteronomy xviii. 10,
+ii--"There shall not be found among you anyone that maketh his son or
+his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an
+observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a
+consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer." Similar
+denunciations occur in the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of
+Leviticus. In like manner, it is a charge against Manasses (2 Chronicles
+xxxviii.) that he caused his children to pass through the fire, observed
+times, used enchantments and witchcraft, and dealt with familiar spirits
+and with wizards. These passages seem to concur with the former, in
+classing witchcraft among other desertions of the prophets of the Deity,
+in order to obtain responses by the superstitious practices of the pagan
+nations around them. To understand the texts otherwise seems to confound
+the modern system of witchcraft, with all its unnatural and improbable
+outrages on common sense, with the crime of the person who, in classical
+days, consulted the oracle of Apollo--a capital offence in a Jew, but
+surely a venial sin in an ignorant and deluded pagan.
+
+To illustrate the nature of the Hebrew witch and her prohibited criminal
+traffic, those who have written on this subject have naturally dwelt
+upon the interview between Saul and the Witch of Endor, the only
+detailed and particular account of such a transaction which is to be
+found in the Bible; a fact, by the way, which proves that the crime of
+witchcraft (capitally punished as it was when discovered) was not
+frequent among the chosen people, who enjoyed such peculiar
+manifestations of the Almighty's presence. The Scriptures seem only to
+have conveyed to us the general fact (being what is chiefly edifying) of
+the interview between the witch and the King of Israel. They inform us
+that Saul, disheartened and discouraged by the general defection of his
+subjects, and the consciousness of his own unworthy and ungrateful
+disobedience, despairing of obtaining an answer from the offended Deity,
+who had previously communicated with him through his prophets, at length
+resolved, in his desperation, to go to a divining woman, by which course
+he involved himself in the crime of the person whom he thus consulted,
+against whom the law denounced death--a sentence which had been often
+executed by Saul himself on similar offenders. Scripture proceeds to
+give us the general information that the king directed the witch to call
+up the Spirit of Samuel, and that the female exclaimed that gods had
+arisen out of the earth--that Saul, more particularly requiring a
+description of the apparition (whom, consequently, he did not himself
+see), she described it as the figure of an old man with a mantle. In
+this figure the king acknowledges the resemblance of Samuel, and sinking
+on his face, hears from the apparition, speaking in the character of the
+prophet, the melancholy prediction of his own defeat and death.
+
+In this description, though all is told which is necessary to convey to
+us an awful moral lesson, yet we are left ignorant of the minutiæ
+attending the apparition, which perhaps we ought to accept as a sure
+sign that there was no utility in our being made acquainted with them.
+It is impossible, for instance, to know with certainty whether Saul was
+present when the woman used her conjuration, or whether he himself
+personally ever saw the appearance which the Pythoness described to him.
+It is left still more doubtful whether anything supernatural was
+actually evoked, or whether the Pythoness and her assistant meant to
+practise a mere deception, taking their chance to prophesy the defeat
+and death of the broken-spirited king as an event which the
+circumstances in which he was placed rendered highly probable, since he
+was surrounded by a superior army of Philistines, and his character as a
+soldier rendered it likely that he would not survive a defeat which must
+involve the loss of his kingdom. On the other hand, admitting that the
+apparition had really a supernatural character, it remains equally
+uncertain what was its nature or by what power it was compelled to an
+appearance, unpleasing, as it intimated, since the supposed spirit of
+Samuel asks wherefore he was disquieted in the grave. Was the power of
+the witch over the invisible world so great that, like the Erictho of
+the heathen poet, she could disturb the sleep of the just, and
+especially that of a prophet so important as Samuel; and are we to
+suppose that he, upon whom the Spirit of the Lord was wont to descend,
+even while he was clothed with frail mortality, should be subject to be
+disquieted in his grave at the voice of a vile witch, and the command of
+an apostate prince? Did the true Deity refuse Saul the response of his
+prophets, and could a witch compel the actual spirit of Samuel to make
+answer notwithstanding?
+
+Embarrassed by such difficulties, another course of explanation has been
+resorted to, which, freed from some of the objections which attend the
+two extreme suppositions, is yet liable to others. It has been supposed
+that something took place upon this remarkable occasion similar to that
+which disturbed the preconcerted purpose of the prophet Balaam, and
+compelled him to exchange his premeditated curses for blessings.
+According to this hypothesis, the divining woman of Endor was preparing
+to practise upon Saul those tricks of legerdemain or jugglery by which
+she imposed upon meaner clients who resorted to her oracle. Or we may
+conceive that in those days, when the laws of Nature were frequently
+suspended by manifestations of the Divine Power, some degree of juggling
+might be permitted between mortals and the spirits of lesser note; in
+which case we must suppose that the woman really expected or hoped to
+call up some supernatural appearance. But in either case, this second
+solution of the story supposes that the will of the Almighty
+substituted, on that memorable occasion, for the phantasmagoria intended
+by the witch, the spirit of Samuel in his earthly resemblance--or, if
+the reader may think this more likely, some good being, the messenger of
+the Divine pleasure, in the likeness of the departed prophet--and, to
+the surprise of the Pythoness herself, exchanged the juggling farce: of
+sheer deceit or petty sorcery which she had intended to produce, for a
+deep tragedy, capable of appalling the heart of the hardened tyrant, and
+furnishing an awful lesson to future times.
+
+This exposition has the advantage of explaining the surprise expressed
+by the witch at the unexpected consequences of her own invocation, while
+it removes the objection of supposing the spirit of Samuel subject to
+her influence. It does not apply so well to the complaint of Samuel that
+he was _disquieted_, since neither the prophet, nor any good angel
+wearing his likeness, could be supposed to complain of an apparition
+which took place in obedience to the direct command of the Deity. If,
+however, the phrase is understood, not as a murmuring against the
+pleasure of Providence, but as a reproach to the prophet's former friend
+Saul, that his sins and discontents, which were the ultimate cause of
+Samuel's appearance, had withdrawn the prophet for a space from the
+enjoyment and repose of Heaven, to review this miserable spot of
+mortality, guilt, grief, and misfortune, the words may, according to
+that interpretation, wear no stronger sense of complaint than might
+become the spirit of a just man made perfect, or any benevolent angel by
+whom he might be represented. It may be observed that in Ecclesiasticus
+(xlvi. 19, 20), the opinion of Samuel's actual appearance is adopted,
+since it is said of this man of God, that _after death he prophesied,
+and showed the king his latter end_.
+
+Leaving the further discussion of this dark and difficult question to
+those whose studies have qualified them to give judgment on so obscure a
+subject, it so far appears clear that the Witch of Endor, was not a
+being such as those believed in by our ancestors, who could transform
+themselves and others into the appearance of the lower animals, raise
+and allay tempests, frequent the company and join the revels of evil
+spirits, and, by their counsel and assistance, destroy human lives, and
+waste the fruits of the earth, or perform feats of such magnitude as to
+alter the face of Nature. The Witch of Endor was a mere fortune-teller,
+to whom, in despair of all aid or answer from the Almighty, the
+unfortunate King of Israel had recourse in his despair, and by whom, in
+some way or other, he obtained the awful certainty of his own defeat and
+death. She was liable, indeed, deservedly to the punishment of death for
+intruding herself upon the task of the real prophets, by whom the will
+of God was at that time regularly made known. But her existence and her
+crimes can go no length to prove the possibility that another class of
+witches, no otherwise resembling her than as called by the same name,
+either existed at a more recent period, or were liable to the same
+capital punishment, for a very different and much more doubtful class of
+offences, which, however odious, are nevertheless to be proved possible
+before they can be received as a criminal charge.
+
+Whatever may be thought of other occasional expressions in the Old
+Testament, it cannot be said that, in any part of that sacred volume, a
+text occurs indicating the existence of a system of witchcraft, under
+the Jewish dispensation, in any respect similar to that against which
+the law-books of so many European nations have, till very lately,
+denounced punishment; far less under the Christian dispensation--a
+system under which the emancipation of the human race from the Levitical
+law was happily and miraculously perfected. This latter crime is
+supposed to infer a compact implying reverence and adoration on the part
+of the witch who comes under the fatal bond, and patronage, support, and
+assistance on the part of the diabolical patron. Indeed, in the four
+Gospels, the word, under any sense, does not occur; although, had the
+possibility of so enormous a sin been admitted, it was not likely to
+escape the warning censure of the Divine Person who came to take away
+the sins of the world. Saint Paul, indeed, mentions the sin of
+witchcraft, in a cursory manner, as superior in guilt to that of
+ingratitude; and in the offences of the flesh it is ranked immediately
+after idolatry, which juxtaposition inclines us to believe that the
+witchcraft mentioned by the Apostle must have been analogous to that of
+the Old Testament, and equivalent to resorting to the assistance of
+soothsayers, or similar forbidden arts, to acquire knowledge of
+toturity. Sorcerers are also joined with other criminals, in the Book of
+Revelations, as excluded from the city of God And with these occasional
+notices, which indicate that there was a transgression so called, but
+leave us ignorant of us exact nature, the writers upon witchcraft
+attempt to wring out of the New Testament proofs of a crime in itself so
+disgustingly improbable. Neither do the exploits of Elymas, called the
+Sorcerer, or Simon, called Magus or the Magician, entitle them to rank
+above the class of impostors who assumed a character to which they had
+no real title, and put their own mystical and ridiculous pretensions to
+supernatural power in competition with those who had been conferred on
+purpose to diffuse the gospel, and facilitate its reception by the
+exhibition of genuine miracles. It is clear that, from his presumptuous
+and profane proposal to acquire, by purchase, a portion of those powers
+which were directly derived from inspiration, Simon Magus displayed a
+degree of profane and brutal ignorance inconsistent with his possessing
+even the intelligence of a skilful impostor; and it is plain that a
+leagued vassal of hell--should we pronounce him such--would have better
+known his own rank and condition, compared to that of the apostles, than
+to have made such a fruitless and unavailing proposal, by which he could
+only expose his own impudence and ignorance.
+
+With this observation we may conclude our brief remarks upon
+_witchcraft_, as the word occurs in the Scripture; and it now only
+remains to mention the nature of the _demonology_, which, as gathered
+from the sacred volumes, every Christian believer is bound to receive as
+a thing declared and proved to be true.
+
+And in the first place, no man can read the Bible, or call himself a
+Christian, without believing that, during the course of time
+comprehended by the Divine writers, the Deity, to confirm the faith of
+the Jews, and to overcome and confound the pride of the heathens,
+wrought in the land many great miracles, using either good spirits, the
+instruments of his pleasure, or fallen angels, the permitted agents of
+such evil as it was his will should be inflicted upon, or suffered by,
+the children of men. This proposition comprehends, of course, the
+acknowledgment of the truth of miracles during this early period, by
+which the ordinary laws of nature were occasionally suspended, and
+recognises the existence in the spiritual world of the two grand
+divisions of angels and devils, severally exercising their powers
+according to the commission or permission of the Ruler of the universe.
+
+Secondly, wise men have thought and argued that the idols of the heathen
+were actually fiends, or, rather, that these enemies of mankind had
+power to assume the shape and appearance of those feeble deities, and to
+give a certain degree of countenance to the faith of the worshippers, by
+working seeming miracles, and returning, by their priests or their
+oracles, responses which "palter'd in a double sense" with the deluded
+persons who consulted them. Most of the fathers of the Christian Church
+have intimated such an opinion. This doctrine has the advantage of
+affording, to a certain extent, a confirmation of many miracles related
+in pagan or classical history, which are thus ascribed to the agency of
+evil spirits. It corresponds also with the texts of Scripture which
+declare that the gods of the heathen are all devils and evil spirits;
+and the idols of Egypt are classed, as in Isaiah, chap. xix. ver. 2,
+with charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and with wizards. But
+whatever license it may be supposed was permitted to the evil spirits of
+that period--and although, undoubtedly, men owned the sway of deities
+who were, in fact, but personifications of certain evil passions of
+humanity, as, for example, in their sacrifices to Venus, to Bacchus, to
+Mars, &c., and therefore might be said, in one sense, to worship evil
+spirits--we cannot, in reason, suppose that every one, or the thousandth
+part of the innumerable idols worshipped among the heathen, was endowed
+with supernatural power; it is clear that the greater number fell under
+the description applied to them in another passage of Scripture, in
+which the part of the tree burned in the fire for domestic purposes is
+treated as of the same power and estimation as that carved into an
+image, and preferred for Gentile homage. This striking passage, in which
+the impotence of the senseless block, and the brutish ignorance of the
+worshipper, whose object of adoration is the work of his own hands,
+occurs in the 44th chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah, verse 10 _et
+seq_. The precise words of the text, as well as common sense, forbid us
+to believe that the images so constructed by common artisans became the
+habitation or resting-place of demons, or possessed any manifestation of
+strength or power, whether through demoniacal influence or otherwise.
+The whole system of doubt, delusion, and trick exhibited by the oracles,
+savours of the mean juggling of impostors, rather than the audacious
+intervention of demons. Whatever degree of power the false gods of
+heathendom, or devils in their name, might be permitted occasionally to
+exert, was unquestionably under the general restraint and limitation of
+providence; and though, on the one hand, we cannot deny the possibility
+of such permission being granted in cases unknown to us, it is certain,
+on the other, that the Scriptures mention no one specific instance of
+such influence expressly recommended to our belief.
+
+Thirdly, as the backsliders among the Jews repeatedly fell off to the
+worship of the idols of the neighbouring heathens, so they also resorted
+to the use of charms and enchantments, founded on a superstitious
+perversion of their own Levitical ritual, in which they endeavoured by
+sortilege, by Teraphim, by observation of augury, or the flight of
+birds, which they called _Nahas_, by the means of Urim and Thummim, to
+find as it were a byroad to the secrets of futurity. But for the same
+reason that withholds us from delivering any opinion upon the degree to
+which the devil and his angels might be allowed to countenance the
+impositions of the heathen priesthood, it is impossible for us
+conclusively to pronounce what effect might be permitted by supreme
+Providence to the ministry of such evil spirits as presided over, and,
+so far as they had liberty, directed, these sinful enquiries among the
+Jews themselves. We are indeed assured from the sacred writings, that
+the promise of the Deity to his chosen people, if they conducted
+themselves agreeably to the law which he had given, was, that the
+communication with the invisible world would be enlarged, so that in the
+fulness of his time he would pour out his spirit upon all flesh, when
+their sons and daughters should prophesy, their old men see visions, and
+their young men dream dreams. Such were the promises delivered to the
+Israelites by Joel, Ezekiel, and other holy seers, of which St. Peter,
+in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, hails the fulfilment
+in the mission of our Saviour. And on the other hand, it is no less
+evident that the Almighty, to punish the disobedience of the Jews,
+abandoned them to their own fallacious desires, and suffered them to be
+deceived by the lying oracles, to which, in flagrant violation of his
+commands, they had recourse. Of this the punishment arising from the
+Deity abandoning Ahab to his own devices, and suffering him to be
+deceived by a lying spirit, forms a striking instance.
+
+Fourthly, and on the other hand, abstaining with reverence from
+accounting ourselves judges of the actions of Omnipotence, we may safely
+conclude that it was not his pleasure to employ in the execution of his
+judgments the consequences of any such species of league or compact
+betwixt devils and deluded mortals, as that denounced in the laws of our
+own ancestors under the name of _witchcraft_. What has been translated
+by that word seems little more than the art of a medicator of poisons,
+combined with that of a Pythoness or false prophetess; a crime, however,
+of a capital nature, by the Levitical law, since, in the first capacity,
+it implied great enmity to mankind, and in the second, direct treason to
+the divine Legislator. The book of Tobit contains, indeed, a passage
+resembling more an incident in an Arabian tale or Gothic romance, than a
+part of inspired writing. In this, the fumes produced by broiling the
+liver of a certain fish are described as having power to drive away an
+evil genius who guards the nuptial chamber of an Assyrian princess, and
+who has strangled seven bridegrooms in succession, as they approached
+the nuptial couch. But the romantic and fabulous strain of this legend
+has induced the fathers of all Protestant churches to deny it a place
+amongst the writings sanctioned by divine origin, and we may therefore
+be excused from entering into discussion on such imperfect evidence.
+
+Lastly, in considering the incalculable change which took place upon the
+Advent of our Saviour and the announcement of his law, we may observe
+that, according to many wise and learned men, his mere appearance upon
+earth, without awaiting the fulfilment of his mission, operated as an
+act of banishment of such heathen deities as had hitherto been suffered
+to deliver oracles, and ape in some degree the attributes of the Deity.
+Milton has, in the "Paradise Lost," it may be upon conviction of its
+truth, embraced the theory which identifies the followers of Satan with
+the gods of the heathen; and, in a tone of poetry almost unequalled,
+even in his own splendid writings, he thus describes, in one of his
+earlier pieces, the departure of these pretended deities on the eve of
+the blessed Nativity:--
+
+  "The oracles are dumb,
+   No voice or hideous hum
+Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving;
+   Apollo from his shrine
+   Can no more divine,
+With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving;
+No nightly trance or breathed spell
+Inspires the pale-eyed priests from the prophetic cell.
+
+  "The lonely mountains o'er,
+   And the resounding shore,
+A voice of weeping heard and loud lament;
+   From haunted spring and dale,
+   Edged with poplar pale,
+The parting Genius is with sighing sent;
+With flower-inwoven tresses torn,
+The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.
+
+  "In consecrated earth,
+  And on the holy hearth,
+The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint;
+  In urns and altars round,
+  A drear and dying sound
+Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint;
+And the chill marble seems to sweat,
+While each peculiar Power foregoes his wonted seat.
+
+  "Peor and Baalim
+  Forsake their temples dim,
+With that twice-battered god of Palestine;
+  And mooned Ashtaroth,
+  Heaven's queen and mother both,
+Now sits not girt with tapers' holy shine;
+The Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn;
+In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz mourn.
+
+  "And sullen Moloch, fled,
+  Hath left in shadows dread
+His burning idol all of darkest hue;
+  In vain with cymbals ring,
+  They call the grisly king,
+In dismal dance about the furnace blue;
+The brutish gods of Nile as fast,
+Isis and Orus, and the Dog Anubis, haste."
+
+The quotation is a long one, but it is scarcely possible to shorten what
+is so beautiful and interesting a description of the heathen deities,
+whether in the classic personifications of Greece, the horrible shapes
+worshipped by mere barbarians, or the hieroglyphical enormities of the
+Egyptian Mythology. The idea of identifying the pagan deities,
+especially the most distinguished of them, with the manifestation of
+demoniac power, and concluding that the descent of our Saviour struck
+them with silence, so nobly expressed in the poetry of Milton, is not
+certainly to be lightly rejected. It has been asserted, in simple prose,
+by authorities of no mean weight; nor does there appear anything
+inconsistent in the faith of those who, believing that, in the elder
+time, fiends and demons were permitted an enlarged degree of power in
+uttering predictions, may also give credit to the proposition, that at
+the Divine Advent that power was restrained, the oracles silenced, and
+those demons who had aped the Divinity of the place were driven from
+their abode on earth, honoured as it was by a guest so awful.
+
+It must be noticed, however, that this great event had not the same
+effect on that peculiar class of fiends who were permitted to vex
+mortals by the alienation of their minds, and the abuse of their
+persons, in the case of what is called Demoniacal possession. In what
+exact sense we should understand this word _possession_ it is impossible
+to discover; but we feel it impossible to doubt (notwithstanding learned
+authorities to the contrary) that it was a dreadful disorder, of a kind
+not merely natural; and may be pretty well assured that it was suffered
+to continue after the Incarnation, because the miracles effected by our
+Saviour and his apostles, in curing those tormented in this way,
+afforded the most direct proofs of his divine mission, even out of the
+very mouths of those ejected fiends, the most malignant enemies of a
+power to which they dared not refuse homage and obedience. And here is
+an additional proof that witchcraft, in its ordinary and popular sense,
+was unknown at that period; although cases of possession are repeatedly
+mentioned in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, yet in no one
+instance do the devils ejected mention a witch or sorcerer, or plead the
+commands of such a person, as the cause of occupying or tormenting the
+victim;--whereas, in a great proportion of those melancholy cases of
+witchcraft with which the records of later times abound, the stress of
+the evidence is rested on the declaration of the possessed, or the demon
+within him, that some old man or woman in the neighbourhood had
+compelled the fiend to be the instrument of evil.
+
+It must also be admitted that in another most remarkable respect, the
+power of the Enemy of mankind was rather enlarged than bridled or
+restrained, in consequence of the Saviour coming upon earth. It is
+indisputable that, in order that Jesus might have his share in every
+species of delusion and persecution which the fallen race of Adam is
+heir to, he personally suffered the temptation in the wilderness at the
+hand of Satan, whom, without resorting to his divine power, he drove,
+confuted, silenced, and shamed, from his presence. But it appears, that
+although Satan was allowed, upon this memorable occasion, to come on
+earth with great power, the permission was given expressly because his
+time was short.
+
+The indulgence which was then granted to him in a case so unique and
+peculiar soon passed over and was utterly restrained. It is evident
+that, after the lapse of the period during which it pleased the Almighty
+to establish His own Church by miraculous displays of power, it could
+not consist with his kindness and wisdom to leave the enemy in the
+possession of the privilege of deluding men by imaginary miracles
+calculated for the perversion of that faith which real miracles were no
+longer present to support. There would, we presume to say, be a shocking
+inconsistency in supposing that false and deceitful prophecies and
+portents should be freely circulated by any demoniacal influence,
+deceiving men's bodily organs, abusing their minds, and perverting their
+faith, while the true religion was left by its great Author devoid of
+every supernatural sign and token which, in the time of its Founder and
+His immediate disciples, attested and celebrated their inappreciable
+mission. Such a permission on the part of the Supreme Being would be (to
+speak under the deepest reverence) an abandonment of His chosen people,
+ransomed at such a price, to the snares of an enemy from whom the worst
+evils were to be apprehended. Nor would it consist with the remarkable
+promise in holy writ, that "God will not suffer His people to be tempted
+above what they are able to bear." I Cor. X. 13. The Fathers of the
+Faith are not strictly agreed at what period the miraculous power was
+withdrawn from the Church; but few Protestants are disposed to bring it
+down beneath the accession of Constantine, when the Christian religion
+was fully established in supremacy. The Roman Catholics, indeed, boldly
+affirm that the power of miraculous interference with the course of
+Nature is still in being; but the enlightened even of this faith, though
+they dare not deny a fundamental tenet of their church, will hardly
+assent to any particular case, without nearly the same evidence which
+might conquer the incredulity of their neighbours the Protestants. It is
+alike inconsistent with the common sense of either that fiends should be
+permitted to work marvels which are no longer exhibited on the part of
+Heaven, or in behalf of religion.
+
+It will be observed that we have not been anxious to decide upon the
+limits of probability on this question. It is not necessary for us to
+ascertain in what degree the power of Satan was at liberty to display
+itself during the Jewish dispensation, or down to what precise period in
+the history of the Christian Church cures of demoniacal possession or
+similar displays of miraculous power may have occurred. We have avoided
+controversy on that head, because it comprehends questions not more
+doubtful than unedifying. Little benefit could arise from attaining the
+exact knowledge of the manner in which the apostate Jews practised
+unlawful charms or auguries. After their conquest and dispersion they
+were remarked among the Romans for such superstitious practices; and the
+like, for What we know, may continue to linger among the benighted
+wanderers of their race at the present day. But all these things are
+extraneous to our enquiry, the purpose of which was to discover whether
+any real evidence could be derived from sacred history to prove the
+early existence of that branch of demonology which has been the object,
+in comparatively modern times, of criminal prosecution and capital
+punishment. We have already alluded to this as the contract of
+witchcraft, in which, as the term was understood in the Middle Ages, the
+demon and the witch or wizard combined their various powers of doing
+harm to inflict calamities upon the person and property, the fortune and
+the fame, of innocent human beings, imposing the most horrible diseases,
+and death itself, as marks of their slightest ill-will; transforming
+their own persons and those of others at their pleasure; raising
+tempests to ravage the crops of their enemies, or carrying them home to
+their own garners; annihilating or transferring to their own dairies the
+produce of herds; spreading pestilence among cattle, infecting and
+blighting children; and, in a word, doing more evil than the heart of
+man might be supposed capable of conceiving, by means far beyond mere
+human power to accomplish. If it could be supposed that such unnatural
+leagues existed, and that there were wretches wicked enough, merely for
+the gratification of malignant spite or the enjoyment of some beastly
+revelry, to become the wretched slaves of infernal spirits, most just
+and equitable would be those laws which cut them off from the midst of
+every Christian commonwealth. But it is still more just and equitable,
+before punishment be inflicted for any crime, to prove that there is a
+possibility of that crime being committed. We have therefore advanced an
+important step in our enquiry when we have ascertained that the _witch_
+of the Old Testament was not capable of anything beyond the
+administration of baleful drugs or the practising of paltry imposture;
+in other words, that she did not hold the character ascribed to a modern
+sorceress. We have thus removed out of the argument the startling
+objection that, in denying the existence of witchcraft, we deny the
+possibility of a crime which was declared capital in the Mosaic law, and
+are left at full liberty to adopt the opinion, that the more modern
+system of witchcraft was a part, and by no means the least gross, of
+that mass of errors which appeared among the members of the Christian
+Church when their religion, becoming gradually corrupted by the devices
+of men and the barbarism of those nations among whom it was spread
+showed, a light indeed, but one deeply tinged with the remains of that
+very pagan ignorance which its Divine Founder came to dispel.
+
+We will, in a future part of this enquiry, endeavour to show that many
+of the particular articles of the popular belief respecting magic and
+witchcraft were derived from the opinions which the ancient heathens
+entertained as part of their religion. To recommend them, however, they
+had principles lying deep in the human mind and heart of all times; the
+tendency to belief in supernatural agencies is natural, and indeed seems
+connected with and deduced from the invaluable conviction of the
+certainty of a future state. Moreover, it is very possible that
+particular stories of this class may have seemed undeniable in the dark
+ages, though our better instructed period can explain them in a
+satisfactory manner by the excited temperament of spectators, or the
+influence of delusions produced by derangement of the intellect or
+imperfect reports of the external senses. They obtained, however,
+universal faith and credit; and the churchmen, either from craft or from
+ignorance, favoured the progress of a belief which certainly contributed
+in a most powerful manner to extend their own authority over the human
+mind.
+
+To pass from the pagans of antiquity--the Mahommedans, though their
+profession of faith is exclusively unitarian, were accounted worshippers
+of evil spirits, who were supposed to aid them in their continual
+warfare against the Christians, or to protect and defend them in the
+Holy Land, where their abode gave so much scandal and offence to the
+devout. Romance, and even history, combined in representing all who were
+out of the pale of the Church as the personal vassals of Satan, who
+played his deceptions openly amongst them; and Mahound, Termagaunt, and
+_Apollo_ were, in the opinion of the Western Crusaders, only so many
+names of the arch-fiend and his principal angels. The most enormous
+fictions spread abroad and believed through Christendom attested the
+fact, that there were open displays of supernatural aid afforded by the
+evil spirits to the Turks and Saracens; and fictitious reports were not
+less liberal in assigning to the Christians extraordinary means of
+defence through the direct protection of blessed saints and angels, or
+of holy men yet in the flesh, but already anticipating the privileges
+proper to a state of beatitude and glory, and possessing the power to
+work miracles.
+
+To show the extreme grossness of these legends, we may give an example
+from the romance of "Richard Coeur de Lion," premising at the same time
+that, like other romances, it was written in what the author designed to
+be the style of true history, and was addressed to hearers and readers,
+not as a tale of fiction, but a real narrative of facts, so that the
+legend is a proof of what the age esteemed credible and were disposed to
+believe as much as if had been extracted from a graver chronicle.
+
+The renowned Saladin, it is said, had dispatched an embassy to King
+Richard, with the present of a colt recommended as a gallant war-horse,
+challenging Coeur de Lion to meet him in single combat between the
+armies, for the purpose of deciding at once their pretensions to the
+land of Palestine, and the theological question whether the God of the
+Christians, or Jupiter, the deity of the Saracens, should be the future
+object of adoration by the subjects of both monarchs. Now, under this
+seemingly chivalrous defiance was concealed a most unknightly stratagem,
+and which we may at the same time call a very clumsy trick for the devil
+to be concerned in. A Saracen clerk had conjured two devils into a mare
+and her colt, with the instruction, that whenever the mare neighed, the
+foal, which was a brute of uncommon size, should kneel down to suck his
+dam. The enchanted foal was sent to King Richard in the belief that the
+foal, obeying the signal of its dam as usual, the Soldan who mounted the
+mare might get an easy advantage over him.
+
+But the English king was warned by an angel in a dream of the intended
+stratagem, and the colt was, by the celestial mandate, previously to the
+combat, conjured in the holy name to be obedient to his rider during the
+encounter. The fiend-horse intimated his submission by drooping his
+head, but his word was not entirely credited. His ears were stopped with
+wax. In this condition, Richard, armed at all points and with various
+marks of his religious faith displayed on his weapons, rode forth to
+meet Saladin, and the Soldan, confident of his stratagem, encountered
+him boldly. The mare neighed till she shook the ground for miles around;
+but the sucking devil, whom the wax prevented from hearing the summons,
+could not obey the signal. Saladin was dismounted, and narrowly escaped
+death, while his army were cut to pieces by the Christians. It is but an
+awkward tale of wonder where a demon is worsted by a trick which could
+hardly have cheated a common horse-jockey; but by such legends our
+ancestors were amused and interested, till their belief respecting the
+demons of the Holy Land seems to have been not very far different from
+that expressed in the title of Ben Jonson's play, "The Devil is an Ass."
+
+One of the earliest maps ever published, which appeared at Rome in the
+sixteenth century, intimates a similar belief in the connexion of the
+heathen nations of the north of Europe with the demons of the spiritual
+world. In Esthonia, Lithuania, Courland, and such districts, the chart,
+for want, it may be supposed, of an accurate account of the country,
+exhibits rude cuts of the fur-clad natives paying homage at the shrines
+of demons, who make themselves visibly present to them; while at other
+places they are displayed as doing battle with the Teutonic knights, or
+other military associations formed for the conversion or expulsion of
+the heathens in these parts. Amid the pagans, armed with scimitars and
+dressed in caftans, the fiends are painted as assisting them, pourtrayed
+in all the modern horrors of the cloven foot, or, as the Germans term
+it, horse's foot, bat wings, saucer eyes, locks like serpents, and tail
+like a dragon. These attributes, it may be cursorily noticed, themselves
+intimate the connexion of modern demonology with the mythology of the
+ancients. The cloven foot is the attribute of Pan--to whose talents for
+inspiring terror we owe the word _panic_--the snaky tresses are borrowed
+from the shield of Minerva, and the dragon train alone seems to be
+connected with the Scriptural history.[5]
+
+[Footnote 5: The chart alluded to is one of the _jac-similes_ of an
+ancient planisphere, engraved in bronze about the end of the 15th
+century, and called the Borgian Table, from its possessor, Cardinal
+Stephen Borgia, and preserved in his museum at Veletri.]
+
+Other heathen nations, whose creeds could not have directly contributed
+to the system of demonology, because their manners and even their very
+existence was unknown when it was adopted, were nevertheless involved,
+so soon as Europeans became acquainted with them, in the same charge of
+witchcraft and worship of demons brought by the Christians of the Middle
+Ages against the heathens of northern Europe and the Mahommedans of the
+East. We learn from the information of a Portuguese voyager that even
+the native Christians (called those of St. Thomas), whom the discoverers
+found in India when they first arrived there, fell under suspicion of
+diabolical practices. It was almost in vain that the priests of one of
+their chapels produced to the Portuguese officers and soldiers a holy
+image, and called on them, as good Christians, to adore the Blessed
+Virgin. The sculptor had been so little acquainted with his art, and the
+hideous form which he had produced resembled an inhabitant of the
+infernal regions so much more than Our Lady of Grace, that one of the
+European officers, while, like his companions, he dropped on his knees,
+added the loud protest, that if the image represented the Devil, he paid
+his homage to the Holy Virgin.
+
+In South America the Spaniards justified the unrelenting cruelties
+exercised on the unhappy natives by reiterating, in all their accounts
+of the countries which they discovered and conquered, that the Indians,
+in their idol worship, were favoured by the demons with a direct
+intercourse, and that their priests inculcated doctrines and rites the
+foulest and most abhorrent to Christian ears. The great snake-god of
+Mexico, and other idols worshipped with human sacrifices and bathed in
+the gore of their prisoners, gave but too much probability to this
+accusation; and if the images themselves were not actually tenanted by
+evil spirits, the worship which the Mexicans paid to them was founded
+upon such deadly cruelty and dark superstition as might easily be
+believed to have been breathed into mortals by the agency of hell.
+
+Even in North America, the first settlers in New England and other parts
+of that immense continent uniformly agreed that they detected among the
+inhabitants traces of an intimate connexion with Satan. It is scarce
+necessary to remark that this opinion was founded exclusively upon the
+tricks practised by the native powahs, or cunning men, to raise
+themselves to influence among the chiefs, and to obtain esteem with the
+people, which, possessed as they were professionally of some skill in
+jugglery and the knowledge of some medical herbs and secrets, the
+understanding of the colonists was unable to trace to their real
+source--legerdemain and imposture. By the account, however, of the
+Reverend Cotton Mather, in his _Magnalia_, book vi.,[6] he does not
+ascribe to these Indian conjurers any skill greatly superior to a maker
+of almanacks or common fortune-teller. "They," says the Doctor,
+"universally acknowledged and worshipped many gods, and therefore highly
+esteemed and reverenced their priests, powahs, or wizards, who were
+esteemed as having immediate converse with the gods. To them, therefore,
+they addressed themselves in all difficult cases: yet could not all that
+desired that dignity, as they esteemed it, obtain familiarity with the
+infernal spirits. Nor were all powahs alike successful in their
+addresses; but they became such, either by immediate revelation, or in
+the use of certain rites and ceremonies, which tradition had left as
+conducing to that end. In so much, that parents, out of zeal, often
+dedicated their children to the gods, and educated them accordingly,
+observing a certain diet, debarring sleep, &c.: yet of the many
+designed, but few obtained their desire. Supposing that where the
+practice of witchcraft has been highly esteemed, there must be given the
+plainest demonstration of mortals having familiarity with infernal
+spirits, I am willing to let my reader know, that, not many years since,
+here died one of the powahs, who never pretended to astrological
+knowledge, yet could precisely inform such who desired his assistance,
+from whence goods stolen from them were gone, and whither carried, with
+many things of the like nature; nor was he ever known to endeavour to
+conceal his knowledge to be immediately _from a god subservient to him
+that the English worship_. This powah, being by an Englishman worthy of
+credit (who lately informed me of the same), desired to advise him who
+had taken certain goods which had been stolen, having formerly been an
+eye-witness of his ability, the powah, after a little pausing, demanded
+why he requested that from him, since himself served another God? that
+therefore he could not help him; but added, '_If you can believe that my
+god may help you, I will try what I can do_; which diverted the man from
+further enquiry. I must a little digress, and tell my reader, that this
+powah's wife was accounted a godly woman, and lived in the practice and
+profession of the Christian religion, not only by the approbation, but
+encouragement of her husband. She constantly prayed in the family, and
+attended the public worship on the Lord's days. He declared that he
+could not blame her, for that she served a god that was above his; but
+that as to himself, his god's continued kindness obliged him not to
+forsake his service." It appears, from the above and similar passages,
+that Dr. Cotton Mather, an honest and devout, but sufficiently credulous
+man, had mistaken the purpose of the tolerant powah. The latter only
+desired to elude the necessity of his practices being brought under the
+observant eye of an European, while he found an ingenious apology in the
+admitted superiority which he naturally conceded to the Deity of a
+people, advanced, as he might well conceive, so far above his own in
+power and attainments, as might reasonably infer a corresponding
+superiority in the nature and objects of their worship.
+
+[Footnote 6: "On Remarkable Mercies of Divine Providence."]
+
+From another narrative we are entitled to infer that the European wizard
+was held superior to the native sorcerer of North America. Among the
+numberless extravagances of the Scottish Dissenters of the 17th century,
+now canonized in a lump by those who view them in the general light of
+enemies to Prelacy, was a certain ship-master, called, from his size,
+Meikle John Gibb. This man, a person called Jamie, and one or two other
+men, besides twenty or thirty females who adhered to them, went the
+wildest lengths of enthusiasm. Gibb headed a party, who followed him
+into the moorlands, and at the Ford Moss, between Airth and Stirling,
+burned their Bibles, as an act of solemn adherence to their new faith.
+They were apprehended in consequence, and committed to prison; and the
+rest of the Dissenters, however differently they were affected by the
+persecution of Government, when it applied to themselves, were
+nevertheless much offended that these poor mad people were not brought
+to capital punishment for their blasphemous extravagances; and imputed
+it as a fresh crime to the Duke of York that, though he could not be
+often accused of toleration, he considered the discipline of the house
+of correction as more likely to bring the unfortunate Gibbites to their
+senses than the more dignified severities of a public trial and the
+gallows. The Cameronians, however, did their best to correct this
+scandalous lenity. As Meikle John Gibb, who was their comrade in
+captivity, used to disturb their worship in jail by his maniac howling,
+two of them took turn about to hold him down by force, and silence him
+by a napkin thrust into his mouth. This mode of quieting the unlucky
+heretic, though sufficiently emphatic, being deemed ineffectual or
+inconvenient, George Jackson, a Cameronian, who afterwards suffered at
+the gallows, dashed the maniac with his feet and hands against the wall,
+and beat him so severely that the rest were afraid that he had killed
+him outright. After which specimen of fraternal chastisement, the
+lunatic, to avoid the repetition of the discipline, whenever the
+prisoners began worship, ran behind the door, and there, with his own
+napkin crammed into his mouth, sat howling like a chastised cur. But on
+being finally transported to America, John Gibb, we are assured, was
+much admired by the heathen for his familiar converse with the devil
+bodily, and offering sacrifices to him. "He died there," says Walker,
+"about the year 1720."[7] We must necessarily infer that the pretensions
+of the natives to supernatural communication could not be of a high
+class, since we find them honouring this poor madman as their superior;
+and, in general, that the magic, or powahing, of the North American
+Indians was not of a nature to be much apprehended by the British
+colonists, since the natives themselves gave honour and precedence to
+those Europeans who came among them with the character of possessing
+intercourse with the spirits whom they themselves professed to worship.
+
+[Footnote 7: See Patrick Walker's "Biographia Presbyteriana," vol. ii.
+p. 23; also "God's Judgment upon Persecutors," and Wodrow's "History,"
+upon the article John Gibb.]
+
+Notwithstanding this inferiority on the part of the powahs, it occurred
+to the settlers that the heathen Indians and Roman Catholic Frenchmen
+were particularly favoured by the demons, who sometimes adopted their
+appearance, and showed themselves in their likeness, to the great
+annoyance of the colonists. Thus, in the year 1692, a party of real or
+imaginary French and Indians exhibited themselves occasionally to the
+colonists of the town of Gloucester, in the county of Essex, New
+England, alarmed the country around very greatly, skirmished repeatedly
+with the English, and caused the raising of two regiments, and the
+dispatching a strong reinforcement to the assistance of the settlement.
+But as these visitants, by whom they were plagued more than a fortnight,
+though they exchanged fire with the settlers, never killed or scalped
+any one, the English became convinced that they were not real Indians
+and Frenchmen, but that the devil and his agents had assumed such an
+appearance, although seemingly not enabled effectually to support it,
+for the molestation of the colony.[8]
+
+[Footnote 8: "Magnalia," book vii. article xviii. The fact is also
+alleged in the "Life of Sir William Phipps."]
+
+It appears, then, that the ideas of superstition which the more ignorant
+converts to the Christian faith borrowed from the wreck of the classic
+mythology, were so rooted in the minds of their successors, that these
+found corroboration of their faith in demonology in the practice of
+every pagan nation whose destiny it was to encounter them as enemies,
+and that as well within the limits of Europe as in every other part of
+the globe to which their arms were carried. In a word, it may be safely
+laid down, that the commonly received doctrine of demonology, presenting
+the same general outlines, though varied according to the fancy of
+particular nations, existed through all Europe. It seems to have been
+founded originally on feelings incident to the human heart, or diseases
+to which the human frame is liable--to have been largely augmented by
+what classic superstitions survived the ruins of paganism--and to have
+received new contributions from the opinions collected among the
+barbarous nations, whether of the east or of the west. It is now
+necessary to enter more minutely into the question, and endeavour to
+trace from what especial sources the people of the Middle Ages derived
+those notions which gradually assumed the shape of a regular system of
+demonology.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER III.
+
+    Creed of Zoroaster--Received partially into most Heathen
+    Nations--Instances among the Celtic Tribes of Scotland--Beltane
+    Feast--Gudeman's Croft--Such abuses admitted into Christianity after
+    the earlier Ages of the Church--Law of the Romans against Witchcraft
+    --Roman customs survive the fall of their
+    Religion--Instances--Demonology of the Northern
+    Barbarians--Nicksas--Bhargeist--Correspondence between the Northern
+    and Roman Witches--The power of Fascination ascribed to the
+    Sorceresses--Example from the "Eyrbiggia Saga"--The Prophetesses of
+    the Germans--The Gods of Valhalla not highly regarded by their
+    Worshippers--Often defied by the Champions--Demons of the
+    North--Story of Assueit and Asmund--Action of Ejectment against
+    Spectres--Adventure of a Champion with the Goddess Freya--Conversion
+    of the Pagans of Iceland to Christianity--Northern Superstitions
+    mixed with those of the Celts--Satyrs of the North--Highland
+    Ourisk--Meming the Satyr.
+
+
+The creed of Zoroaster, which naturally occurs to unassisted reason as a
+mode of accounting for the mingled existence of good and evil in the
+visible world--that belief which, in one modification or another,
+supposes the co-existence of a benevolent and malevolent principle,
+which contend together without either being able decisively to prevail
+over his antagonist, leads the fear and awe deeply impressed on the
+human mind to the worship as well of the author of evil, so tremendous
+in all the effects of which credulity accounts him the primary cause, as
+to that of his great opponent, who is loved and adored as the father of
+all that is good and bountiful. Nay, such is the timid servility of
+human nature that the worshippers will neglect the altars of the Author
+of good rather than that of Arimanes, trusting with indifference to the
+well-known mercy of the one, while they shrink from the idea of
+irritating the vengeful jealousy of the awful father of evil.
+
+The Celtic tribes, by whom, under various denominations, Europe seems to
+have been originally peopled, possessed, in common with other savages, a
+natural tendency to the worship of the evil principle. They did not,
+perhaps, adore Arimanes under one sole name, or consider the malignant
+divinities as sufficiently powerful to undertake a direct struggle with
+the more benevolent gods; yet they thought it worth while to propitiate
+them by various expiatory rites and prayers, that they, and the
+elementary tempests which they conceived to be under their direct
+command, might be merciful to suppliants who had acknowledged their
+power, and deprecated their vengeance.
+
+Remains of these superstitions might be traced till past the middle of
+the last century, though fast becoming obsolete, or passing into mere
+popular customs of the country, which the peasantry observe without
+thinking of their origin. About 1769, when Mr. Pennant made his tour,
+the ceremony of the Baaltein, Beltane, or First of May, though varying
+in different districts of the Highlands, was yet in strict observance,
+and the cake, which was then baken with scrupulous attention to certain
+rites and forms, was divided into fragments, which were formally
+dedicated to birds or beasts of prey that they, or rather the being
+whose agents they were, might spare the flocks and herds.[9]
+
+[Footnote 9: See Tennant's "Scottish Tour," vol. i. p. III. The
+traveller mentions that some festival of the same kind was in his time
+observed in Gloucestershire.]
+
+Another custom of similar origin lingered late among us. In many
+parishes of Scotland there was suffered to exist a certain portion of
+land, called _the gudeman's croft_, which was never ploughed or
+cultivated, but suffered to remain waste, like the TEMENOS of a pagan
+temple, Though it was not expressly avowed, no one doubted that "the
+goodman's croft" was set apart for some evil being; in fact, that it was
+the portion of the arch-fiend himself, whom our ancestors distinguished
+by a name which, while it was generally understood, could not, it was
+supposed, be offensive to the stern inhabitant of the regions of
+despair. This was so general a custom that the Church published an
+ordinance against it as an impious and blasphemous usage.
+
+This singular custom sunk before the efforts of the clergy in the
+seventeenth century; but there must still be many alive who, in
+childhood, have been taught to look with wonder on knolls and patches of
+ground left uncultivated, because, whenever a ploughshare entered the
+soil, the elementary spirits were supposed to testify their displeasure
+by storm and thunder. Within our own memory, many such places,
+sanctified to barrenness by some favourite popular superstition,
+existed, both in Wales and Ireland, as well as in Scotland; but the high
+price of agricultural produce during the late war renders it doubtful if
+a veneration for greybearded superstition has suffered any one of them
+to remain undesecrated. For the same reason the mounts called Sith
+Bhruaith were respected, and it was deemed unlawful and dangerous to cut
+wood, dig earth and stones, or otherwise disturb them.[10]
+
+[Footnote 10: See "Essay on the Subterranean Commonwealth," by Mr.
+Robert Kirke, minister of Aberfoyle.]
+
+Now, it may at first sight seem strange that the Christian religion
+should have permitted the existence of such gross and impious relics of
+heathenism, in a land where its doctrines had obtained universal
+credence. But this will not appear so wonderful when it is recollected
+that the original Christians under the heathen emperors were called to
+conversion by the voice of apostles and saints, invested for the purpose
+with miraculous powers, as well of language, for communicating their
+doctrine to the Gentiles, as of cures, for the purpose of authenticating
+their mission. These converts must have been in general such elect
+persons as were effectually called to make part of the infant church;
+and when hypocrites ventured, like Ananias and Sapphira, to intrude
+themselves into so select an association, they were liable, at the
+Divine pleasure, to be detected and punished. On the contrary, the
+nations who were converted after Christianity had become the religion of
+the empire were not brought within the pale upon such a principle of
+selection, as when the church consisted of a few individuals, who had,
+upon conviction, exchanged the errors of the pagan religion for the
+dangers and duties incurred by those who embraced a faith inferring the
+self-denial of its votaries, and at the same time exposing them to
+persecution. When the cross became triumphant, and its cause no longer
+required the direction of inspired men, or the evidence of miracles, to
+compel reluctant belief, it is evident that the converts who thronged
+into the fold must have, many of them, entered because Christianity was
+the prevailing faith--many because it was the church, the members of
+which rose most readily to promotion--many, finally, who, though content
+to resign the worship of pagan divinities, could not at once clear their
+minds of heathen ritual and heathen observances, which they
+inconsistently laboured to unite with the more simple and majestic faith
+that disdained such impure union. If this was the case, even in the
+Roman empire, where the converts to the Christian faith must have found,
+among the earlier members of the church, the readiest and the soundest
+instruction, how much more imperfectly could those foreign and barbarous
+tribes receive the necessary religious information from some zealous and
+enthusiastic preacher, who christened them by hundreds in one day? Still
+less could we imagine them to have acquired a knowledge of Christianity,
+in the genuine and perfect sense of the word, when, as was frequently
+the case, they only assumed the profession of the religion that had
+become the choice of some favoured chief, whose example they followed in
+mere love and loyalty, without, perhaps, attaching more consequence to a
+change of religion than to a change of garments. Such hasty converts,
+professing themselves Christians, but neither weaned from their old
+belief, nor instructed in their new one, entered the sanctuary without
+laying aside the superstitions with which their young minds had been
+imbued; and accustomed to a plurality of deities, some of them, who
+bestowed unusual thought on the matter, might be of opinion that, in
+adopting the God of the Christians, they had not renounced the service
+of every inferior power.
+
+If, indeed, the laws of the empire could have been supposed to have had
+any influence over those fierce barbarians, who conceived that the
+empire itself lay before them as a spoil, they might have been told that
+Constantine, taking the offence of alleged magicians and sorcerers in
+the same light in which it was viewed in the law of Moses, had denounced
+death against any who used these unlawful enquiries into futurity. "Let
+the unlawful curiosity of prying into futurity," says the law, "be
+silent in every one henceforth and for ever.[11] For, subjected to the
+avenging sword of the law, he shall be punished capitally who disobeys
+our commands in this matter."
+
+[Footnote 11: "Codex," lib. ix. tit. 18, cap. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8.]
+
+If, however, we look more closely into this enactment, we shall be led
+to conclude that the civil law does not found upon the prohibitions and
+penalties in Scripture; although it condemns the _ars mathematica_ (for
+the most mystic and uncertain of all sciences, real or pretended, at
+that time held the title which now distinguishes the most exact) as a
+damnable art, and utterly interdicted, and declares that the
+practitioners therein should die by fire, as enemies of the human
+race--yet the reason of this severe treatment seems to be different from
+that acted upon in the Mosaical institutions. The weight of the crime
+among the Jews was placed on the blasphemy of the diviners, and their
+treason against the theocracy instituted by Jehovah. The Roman
+legislators were, on the other hand, moved chiefly by the danger arising
+to the person of the prince and the quiet of the state, so apt to be
+unsettled by every pretence or encouragement to innovation. The reigning
+emperors, therefore, were desirous to place a check upon the mathematics
+(as they termed the art of divination), much more for a political than a
+religious cause, since we observe, in the history of the empire, how
+often the dethronement or death of the sovereign was produced by
+conspiracies or mutinies which took their rise from pretended
+prophecies. In this mode of viewing the crime, the lawyers of the lower
+empire acted upon the example of those who had compiled the laws of the
+twelve tables.[12] The mistaken and misplaced devotion which Horace
+recommends to the rural nymph, Phidyle, would have been a crime of a
+deep dye in a Christian convert, and must have subjected him to
+excommunication, as one relapsed to the rites of paganism; but he might
+indulge his superstition by supposing that though he must not worship
+Pan or Ceres as gods, he was at liberty to fear them in their new
+capacity of fiends. Some compromise between the fear and the conscience
+of the new converts, at a time when the church no longer consisted
+exclusively of saints, martyrs, and confessors, the disciples of
+inspired Apostles, led them, and even their priestly guides, subject
+like themselves to human passions and errors, to resort as a charm, if
+not as an act of worship, to those sacrifices, words, and ritual, by
+which the heathen, whom they had succeeded, pretended to arrest evil or
+procure benefits.
+
+[Footnote 12: By this more ancient code, the punishment of death was
+indeed denounced against those who destroyed crops, awakened storms, or
+brought over to their barns and garners the fruits of the earth; but, by
+good fortune, it left the agriculturists of the period at liberty to use
+the means they thought most proper to render their fields fertile and
+plentiful. Pliny informs us that one Caius Furius Cresinus, a Roman of
+mean estate, raised larger crops from a small field than his neighbours
+could obtain from more ample possessions. He was brought before the
+judge upon a charge averring that he conjured the fruits of the earth,
+produced by his neighbours' farms, into his own possession. Cresinus
+appeared, and, having proved the return of his farm to be the produce of
+his own hard and unremitting labour, as well as superior skill, was
+dismissed with the highest honours.]
+
+When such belief in a hostile principle and its imaginations was become
+general in the Roman empire, the ignorance of its conquerors, those wild
+nations, Franks, Goths, Vandals, Huns, and similar classes of unrefined
+humanity, made them prone to an error which there were few judicious
+preachers to warn them against; and we ought rather to wonder and admire
+the Divine clemency, which imparted to so rude nations the light of the
+Gospel, and disposed them to receive a religion so repugnant to their
+warlike habits, than that they should, at the same time, have adopted
+many gross superstitions, borrowed from the pagans, or retained numbers
+of those which had made part of their own national forms of heathenism.
+
+Thus, though the thrones of Jupiter and the superior deities of the
+heathen Pantheon were totally overthrown and broken to pieces, fragments
+of their worship and many of their rites survived the conversion to
+Christianity--nay, are in existence even at this late and enlightened
+period, although those by whom they are practised have not preserved the
+least memory of their original purpose. We may hastily mention one or
+two customs of classical origin, in addition to the Beltane and those
+already noticed, which remain as examples that the manners of the Romans
+once gave the tone to the greater part of the island of Britain, and at
+least to the whole which was to the south of the wall of Severus.
+
+The following customs still linger in the south of Scotland, and belong
+to this class: The bride, when she enters the house of her husband, is
+lifted over the threshold, and to step on it or over it voluntarily is
+reckoned a bad omen. This custom was universal in Rome, where it was
+observed as keeping in memory the rape of the Sabines, and that it was
+by a show of violence towards the females that the object of peopling
+the city was attained. On the same occasion a sweet cake, baked for the
+purpose, is broken above the head of the bride; which is also a rite of
+classic antiquity.
+
+In like manner, the Scottish, even of the better rank, avoid contracting
+marriage in the month of May, which genial season of flowers and breezes
+might, in other respects, appear so peculiarly favourable for that
+purpose. It was specially objected to the marriage of Mary with the
+profligate Earl of Bothwell, that the union was formed within this
+interdicted month. This prejudice was so rooted among the Scots that, in
+1684, a set of enthusiasts, called Gibbites, proposed to renounce it,
+among a long list of stated festivals, fast-days, popish relics, not
+forgetting the profane names of the days of the week, names of the
+months, and all sorts of idle and silly practices which their tender
+consciences took an exception to. This objection to solemnize marriage
+in the merry month of May, however fit a season for courtship, is also
+borrowed from the Roman pagans, which, had these fanatics been aware of
+it, would have been an additional reason for their anathema against the
+practice. The ancients have given us as a maxim, that it is only bad
+women who marry in that month.[13]
+
+[Footnote 13: "Malæ nubent Maia."]
+
+The custom of saying God bless you, when a person in company sneezes,
+is, in like manner, derived from sternutation being considered as a
+crisis of the plague at Athens, and the hope that, when it was attained
+the patient had a chance of recovery.
+
+But besides these, and many other customs which the various nations of
+Europe received from the classical times, and which it is not our object
+to investigate, they derived from thence a shoal of superstitious
+beliefs, which, blended and mingled with those which they brought with
+them out of their own country, fostered and formed the materials of a
+demonological creed which has descended down almost to our own times.
+Nixas, or Nicksa, a river or ocean god, worshipped on the shores of the
+Baltic, seems to have taken uncontested possession of the attributes of
+Neptune. Amid the twilight winters and overpowering tempests of these
+gloomy regions, he had been not unnaturally chosen as the power most
+adverse to man, and the supernatural character with which he was
+invested has descended to our time under two different aspects. The Nixa
+of the Germans is one of those fascinating and lovely fays whom the
+ancients termed Naiads; and unless her pride is insulted or her jealousy
+awakened by an inconstant lover, her temper is generally mild and her
+actions beneficent. The Old Nick known in England is an equally genuine
+descendant of the northern sea-god, and possesses a larger portion of
+his powers and terrors The British sailor, who fears nothing else,
+confesses his terror for this terrible being, and believes him the
+author of almost all the various calamities to which the precarious life
+of a seaman is so continually exposed.
+
+The Bhar-guest, or Bhar-geist, by which name it is generally
+acknowledged through various country parts of England, and particularly
+in Yorkshire, also called a Dobie--a local spectre which haunts a
+particular spot under various forms--is a deity, as his name implies, of
+Teutonic descent; and if it be true, as the author has been informed,
+that some families bearing the name of Dobie carry a phantom or spectre,
+passant, in their armorial bearings,[14] it plainly implies that,
+however the word may have been selected for a proper name, its original
+derivation had not then been forgotten.
+
+[Footnote 14: A similar bearing has been ascribed, for the same reason,
+to those of the name of Fantome, who carried of old a goblin, or
+phantom, in a shroud sable passant, on a field azure. Both bearings are
+founded on what is called canting heraldry, a species of art disowned by
+the writers on the science, yet universally made use of by those who
+practice the art of blazonry.]
+
+The classic mythology presented numerous points in which it readily
+coalesced with that of the Germans, Danes, and Northmen of a later
+period. They recognized the power of Erictho, Canidia, and other
+sorceresses, whose spell could perplex the course of the elements,
+intercept the influence of the sun, and prevent his beneficial operation
+upon the fruits of the earth, call down the moon from her appointed
+sphere, and disturb the original and destined course of Nature by their
+words and charms and the power of the evil spirits whom they invoked.
+They were also professionally implicated in all such mystic and secret
+rites and ceremonies as were used to conciliate the favour of the
+infernal powers, whose dispositions were supposed as dark and wayward as
+their realms were gloomy and dismal. Such hags were frequent agents in
+the violation of unburied bodies, and it was believed, by the vulgar at
+least, that it was dangerous to leave corpses unguarded lest they should
+be mangled by the witches, who took from them the most choice
+ingredients composing their charms. Above all, it must not be forgotten
+that these frightful sorceresses possessed the power of transforming
+themselves and others into animals, which are used in their degree of
+quadrupeds, or in whatever other laborious occupation belongs to the
+transformed state. The poets of the heathens, with authors of fiction,
+such as Lucian and Apuleius, ascribe all these powers to the witches of
+the pagan world, combining them with the art of poisoning, and of making
+magical philtres to seduce the affections of the young and beautiful;
+and such were the characteristics which, in greater or less extent, the
+people of the Middle Ages ascribed to the witches of their day.
+
+But in thus adopting the superstitions of the ancients, the conquerors
+of the Roman Empire combined them with similar articles of belief which
+they had brought with them from their original settlements in the North,
+where the existence of hags of the same character formed a great feature
+in their Sagas and their Chronicles. It requires but a slight
+acquaintance with these compositions to enable the reader to recognize
+in the Galdrakinna of the Scalds the _Stryga_ or witch-woman of more
+classical climates. In the northern ideas of witches there was no
+irreligion concerned with their lore. On the contrary, the possession of
+magical knowledge was an especial attribute of Odin himself; and to
+intrude themselves upon a deity, and compel him to instruct them in what
+they desired to know, was accounted not an act of impiety, but of
+gallantry and high courage, among those sons of the sword and the spear.
+Their matrons possessed a high reputation for magic, for prophetic
+powers, for creating illusions; and, if not capable of transformations
+of the human body, they were at least able to impose such fascination on
+the sight of their enemies as to conceal for a period the objects of
+which they were in search.
+
+There is a remarkable story in the Eyrbiggia Saga ("Historia
+Eyranorum"), giving the result of such a controversy between two of
+these gifted women, one of whom was determined on discovering and
+putting to death the son of the other, named Katla, who in a brawl had
+cut off the hand of the daughter-in-law of Geirada. A party detached to
+avenge this wrong, by putting Oddo to death, returned deceived by the
+skill of his mother. They had found only Katla, they said, spinning flax
+from a large distaff. "Fools," said Geirada, "that distaff was the man
+you sought." They returned, seized the distaff, and burnt it. But this
+second time, the witch disguised her son under the appearance of a tame
+kid. A third time he was a hog, which grovelled among the ashes. The
+party returned yet again; augmented as one of Katla's maidens, who kept
+watch, informed her mistress, by one in a blue mantle. "Alas!" said
+Katla, "it is the sorceress Geirada, against whom spells avail not."
+Accordingly, the hostile party, entering for the fourth time, seized on
+the object of their animosity, and put him to death.[15] This species of
+witchcraft is well known in Scotland as the _glamour,_ or _deceptio
+visus_, and was supposed to be a special attribute of the race of
+Gipsies.
+
+[Footnote 15: Eyrbiggia Saga, in "Northern Antiquities."]
+
+Neither are those prophetesses to be forgotten, so much honoured among
+the German tribes, that, as we are assured by Tacitus, they rose to the
+highest rank in their councils, by their supposed supernatural
+knowledge, and even obtained a share in the direction of their armies.
+This peculiarity in the habits of the North was so general, that it was
+no unusual thing to see females, from respect to their supposed views
+into futurity, and the degree of divine inspiration which was vouchsafed
+to them, arise to the degree of HAXA, or chief priestess, from which
+comes the word _Hexe_, now universally used for a witch; a circumstance
+which plainly shows that the mythological system of the ancient natives
+of the North had given to the modern language an appropriate word for
+distinguishing those females who had intercourse with the spiritual
+world.[16]
+
+[Footnote 16: It may be worth while to notice that the word Haxa is
+still used in Scotland in its sense of a druidess, or chief priestess,
+to distinguish the places where such females exercised their ritual.
+There is a species of small intrenchment on the western descent of the
+Eildon hills, which Mr. Milne, in his account of the parish of Melrose,
+drawn up about eighty years ago, says, was denominated _Bourjo_, a word
+of unknown derivation, by which the place is still known. Here an
+universal and subsisting tradition bore that human sacrifices were of
+yore offered, while the people assisting could behold the ceremony from
+the elevation of the glacis which slopes inward. With this place of
+sacrifice communicated a path, still discernible, called the
+_Haxell-gate_, leading to a small glen or narrow valley called the
+_Haxellcleuch_--both which words are probably derived from the Haxa or
+chief priestess of the pagans.]
+
+It is undeniable that these Pythonesses were held in high respect while
+the pagan religion lasted; but for that very reason they became odious
+so soon as the tribe was converted to Christianity. They were, of
+course, if they pretended to retain their influence, either despised as
+impostors or feared as sorceresses; and the more that, in particular
+instances, they became dreaded for their power, the more they were
+detested, under the conviction that they derived it from the enemy of
+man. The deities of the northern heathens underwent a similar
+metamorphosis, resembling that proposed by Drawcansir in the
+"Rehearsal," who threatens "to make a god subscribe himself a devil."
+
+The warriors of the North received this new impression concerning the
+influence of their deities, and the source from which it was derived,
+with the more indifference, as their worship, when their mythology was
+most generally established, was never of a very reverential or
+devotional character. Their idea of their own merely human prowess was
+so high, that the champions made it their boast, as we have already
+hinted, they would not give way in fight even to the immortal gods
+themselves. Such, we learn from Cæsar, was the idea of the Germans
+concerning the Suevi, or Swabians, a tribe to whom the others yielded
+the palm of valour; and many individual stories are told in the Sagas
+concerning bold champions, who had fought, not only with the sorcerers,
+but with the demigods of the system, and come off unharmed, if not
+victorious, in the contest. Hother, for example, encountered the god
+Thor in battle, as Diomede, in the Iliad, engages with Mars, and with
+like success. Bartholsine[17] gives us repeated examples of the same
+kind. "Know this," said Kiartan to Olaus Trigguasen, "that I believe
+neither in idols nor demons. I have travelled through various strange
+countries, and have encountered many giants and monsters, and have never
+been conquered by them; I therefore put my sole trust in my own strength
+of body and courage of soul." Another yet more broad answer was made to
+St. Olaus, King of Norway, by Gaukater. "I am neither Pagan nor
+Christian. My comrades and I profess no other religion than a perfect
+confidence in our own strength and invincibility in battle." Such
+chieftains were of the sect of Mezentius--
+
+"Dextra mihi Deus, et telum, quod missile libro,
+ Nunc adsint!"[18]
+
+And we cannot wonder that champions of such a character, careless of
+their gods while yet acknowledged as such, readily regarded them as
+demons after their conversion to Christianity.
+
+[Footnote 17: "De causis contemptæ necis," lib. i. cap 6.]
+
+[Footnote 18: "Æneid," lib. x. line 773.]
+
+To incur the highest extremity of danger became accounted a proof of
+that insuperable valour for which every Northman desired to be famed,
+and their annals afford numerous instances of encounters with ghosts,
+witches, furies, and fiends, whom the Kiempé, or champions, compelled to
+submit to their mere mortal strength, and yield to their service the
+weapons or other treasures which they guarded in their tombs.
+
+The Norsemen were the more prone to these superstitions, because it was
+a favourite fancy of theirs that, in many instances, the change from
+life to death altered the temper of the human spirit from benignant to
+malevolent; or perhaps, that when the soul left the body, its departure
+was occasionally supplied by a wicked demon, who took the opportunity to
+enter and occupy its late habitation.
+
+Upon such a supposition the wild fiction that follows is probably
+grounded; which, extravagant as it is, possesses something striking to
+the imagination. Saxo Grammaticus tells us of the fame of two Norse
+princes or chiefs, who had formed what was called a brotherhood in arms,
+implying not only the firmest friendship and constant support during all
+the adventures which they should undertake in life, but binding them by
+a solemn compact, that after the death of either, the survivor should
+descend alive into the sepulchre of his brother-in-arms, and consent to
+be buried alongst with him. The task of fulfilling this dreadful compact
+fell upon Asmund, his companion, Assueit, having been slain in battle.
+The tomb was formed after the ancient northern custom in what was called
+the age of hills, that is, when it was usual to bury persons of
+distinguished merit or rank on some conspicuous spot, which was crowned
+with a mound. With this purpose a deep narrow vault was constructed, to
+be the apartment of the future tomb over which the sepulchral heap was
+to be piled. Here they deposited arms, trophies, poured forth, perhaps,
+the blood of victims, introduced into the tomb the war-horses of the
+champions, and when these rites had been duly paid, the body of Assueit
+was placed in the dark and narrow house, while his faithful
+brother-in-arms entered and sat down by the corpse, without a word or
+look which testified regret or unwillingness to fulfil his fearful
+engagement. The soldiers who had witnessed this singular interment of
+the dead and living, rolled a huge stone to the mouth of the tomb, and
+piled so much earth and stones above the spot as made a mound visible
+from a great distance, and then, with loud lamentation for the loss of
+such undaunted leaders, they dispersed themselves like a flock which has
+lost its shepherd.
+
+Years passed away after years, and a century had elapsed ere a noble
+Swedish rover, bound upon some high adventure and supported by a gallant
+band of followers, arrived in the valley which took its name from the
+tomb of the brethren-in-arms. The story was told to the strangers, whose
+leader determined on opening the sepulchre, partly because, as already
+hinted, it was reckoned a heroic action to brave the anger of departed
+heroes by violating their tombs; partly to attain the arms and swords of
+proof with which the deceased had done their great actions. He set his
+soldiers to work, and soon removed the earth and stones from one side of
+the mound, and laid bare the entrance. But the stoutest of the rovers
+started back when, instead of the silence of a tomb, they heard within
+horrid cries, the clash of swords, the clang of armour, and all the
+noise of a mortal combat between two furious champions. A young warrior
+was let down into the profound tomb by a cord, which was drawn up
+shortly after, in hopes of news from beneath. But when the adventurer
+descended, some one threw him from the cord, and took his place in the
+noose. When the rope was pulled up, the soldiers, instead of their
+companion, beheld Asmund, the survivor of the brethren-in-arms. He
+rushed into the open air, his sword drawn in his hand, his armour half
+torn from his body, the left side of his face almost scratched off, as
+by the talons of some wild beast. He had no sooner appeared in the light
+of day, than, with the improvisatory poetic talent, which these
+champions often united with heroic strength and bravery, he poured forth
+a string of verses containing the history of his hundred years' conflict
+within the tomb. It seems that no sooner was the sepulchre closed than
+the corpse of the slain Assueit arose from the ground, inspired by some
+ravenous goule, and having first torn to pieces and devoured the horses
+which had been entombed with them, threw himself upon the companion who
+had just given him such a sign of devoted friendship, in order to treat
+him in the same manner. The hero, no way discountenanced by the horrors
+of his situation, took to his arms, and defended himself manfully
+against Assueit, or rather against the evil demon who tenanted that
+champion's body. In this manner the living brother waged a preternatural
+combat, which had endured during a whole century, when Asmund, at last
+obtaining the victory, prostrated his enemy, and by driving, as he
+boasted, a stake through his body, had finally reduced him to the state
+of quiet becoming a tenant of the tomb. Having chanted the triumphant
+account of his contest and victory, this mangled conqueror fell dead
+before them. The body of Assueit was taken out of the tomb, burnt, and
+the ashes dispersed to heaven; whilst that of the victor, now lifeless
+and without a companion, was deposited there, so that it was hoped his
+slumbers might remain undisturbed.[19] The precautions taken against
+Assueit's reviving a second time, remind us of those adopted in the
+Greek islands and in the Turkish provinces against the vampire. It
+affords also a derivation of the ancient English law in case of suicide,
+when a stake was driven through the body, originally to keep it secure
+in the tomb.
+
+[Footnote 19: See Saxo Grammaticus, "Hist. Dan.," lib. v.]
+
+The Northern people also acknowledged a kind of ghosts, who, when they
+had obtained possession of a building, or the right of haunting it, did
+not defend themselves against mortals on the knightly principle of duel,
+like Assueit, nor were amenable to the prayers of the priest or the
+spells of the sorcerer, but became tractable when properly convened in a
+legal process. The Eyrbiggia Saga acquaints us, that the mansion of a
+respectable landholder in Iceland was, soon after the settlement of that
+island, exposed to a persecution of this kind. The molestation was
+produced by the concurrence of certain mystical and spectral phenomena,
+calculated to introduce such persecution. About the commencement of
+winter, with that slight exchange of darkness and twilight which
+constitutes night and day in these latitudes, a contagious disease arose
+in a family of consequence and in the neighbourhood, which, sweeping off
+several members of the family at different times, seemed to threaten
+them all with death. But the death of these persons was attended with
+the singular consequence that their spectres were seen to wander in the
+neighbourhood of the mansion-house, terrifying, and even assaulting,
+those of the living family who ventured abroad. As the number of the
+dead members of the devoted household seemed to increase in proportion
+to that of the survivors, the ghosts took it upon them to enter the
+house, and produce their aërial forms and wasted physiognomy, even in
+the stove where the fire was maintained for the general use of the
+inhabitants, and which, in an Iceland winter, is the only comfortable
+place of assembling the family. But the remaining inhabitants of the
+place, terrified by the intrusion of these spectres, chose rather to
+withdraw to the other extremity of the house, and abandon their warm
+seats, than to endure the neighbourhood of the phantoms. Complaints were
+at length made to a pontiff of the god Thor, named Snorro, who exercised
+considerable influence in the island. By his counsel, the young
+proprietor of the haunted mansion assembled a jury, or inquest, of his
+neighbours, constituted in the usual judicial form, as if to judge an
+ordinary civil matter, and proceeded, in their presence, to cite
+individually the various phantoms and resemblances of the deceased
+members of the family, to show by what warrant they disputed with him
+and his servants the quiet possession of his property, and what defence
+they could plead for thus interfering with and incommoding the living.
+The spectres of the dead, by name, and in order as summoned, appeared on
+their being called, and muttering some regrets at being obliged to
+abandon their dwelling, departed, or vanished, from the astonished
+inquest. Judgment then went against the ghosts by default; and the trial
+by jury, of which we here can trace the origin, obtained a triumph
+unknown to any of the great writers who have made it the subject of
+eulogy.[20]
+
+[Footnote 20: Eyrbiggia Saga. See "Northern Antiquities."]
+
+It was not only with the spirits of the dead that the warlike people of
+the North made war without timidity, and successfully entered into suits
+of ejectment. These daring champions often braved the indignation even
+of the superior deities of their mythology, rather than allow that there
+existed any being before whom their boldness could quail. Such is the
+singular story how a young man of high courage, in crossing a desolate
+ridge of mountains, met with a huge waggon, in which the goddess, Freya
+(_i.e._, a gigantic idol formed to represent her), together with her
+shrine, and the wealthy offerings attached to it, was travelling from
+one district of the country to another. The shrine, or sanctuary of the
+idol, was, like a modern caravan travelling with a show, screened by
+boards and curtains from the public gaze, and the equipage was under the
+immediate guidance of the priestess of Freya, a young, good-looking, and
+attractive woman. The traveller naturally associated himself with the
+priestess, who, as she walked on foot, apparently was in no degree
+displeased with the company of a powerful and handsome young man, as a
+guide and companion on the journey. It chanced, however, that the
+presence of the champion, and his discourse with the priestess, was less
+satisfactory to the goddess than to the parties principally concerned.
+By a certain signal the divinity summoned the priestess to the
+sanctuary, who presently returned, with tears in her eyes and terror in
+her countenance, to inform her companion that it was the will of Freya
+that he should depart, and no longer travel in their company. "You must
+have mistaken the meaning of the goddess," said the champion; "Freya
+cannot have formed a wish so unreasonable as to desire I should abandon
+the straight and good road, which leads me directly on my journey, to
+choose precipitous paths and by-roads, where I may break my neck."
+"Nevertheless," said the priestess, "the goddess will be highly offended
+if you disobey her commands, nor can I conceal from you that she may
+personally assault you." "It will be at her own peril if she should be
+so audacious," said the champion, "for I will try the power of this axe
+against the strength of beams and boards." The priestess chid him for
+his impiety; but being unable to compel him to obey the goddess's
+mandate, they again relapsed into familiarity, which advanced to such a
+point that a clattering noise within the tabernacle, as of machinery put
+in motion, intimated to the travellers that Freya, who perhaps had some
+qualities in common with the classical Vesta, thought a personal
+interruption of this tête-à-tête ought to be deferred no longer. The
+curtains flew open, and the massive and awkward idol, who, we may
+suppose, resembled in form the giant created by Frankenstein, leapt
+lumbering from the carriage, and, rushing on the intrusive traveller,
+dealt him, with its wooden hands and arms, such tremendous blows, as
+were equally difficult to parry or to endure. But the champion was armed
+with a double-edged Danish axe, with which he bestirred himself with so
+much strength and activity, that at length he split the head of the
+image, and with a severe blow hewed off its left leg. The image of Freya
+then fell motionless to the ground, and the demon which had animated it
+fled yelling from the battered tenement. The champion was now victor;
+and, according to the law of arms, took possession of the female and the
+baggage. The priestess, the divinity of whose patroness had been by the
+event of the combat sorely lessened in her eyes, was now easily induced
+to become the associate and concubine of the conqueror. She accompanied
+him to the district whither he was travelling, and there displayed the
+shrine of Freya, taking care to hide the injuries which the goddess had
+received in the brawl. The champion came in for a share of a gainful
+trade driven by the priestess, besides appropriating to himself most of
+the treasures which the sanctuary had formerly contained. Neither does
+it appear that Freya, having, perhaps, a sensible recollection of the
+power of the axe, ever again ventured to appear in person for the
+purpose of calling her false stewards to account.
+
+The national estimation of deities, concerning whom such stories could
+be told and believed, was, of course, of no deep or respectful
+character. The Icelanders abandoned Odin, Freya, Thor, and their whole
+pagan mythology, in consideration of a single disputation between the
+heathen priests and the Christian missionaries. The priests threatened
+the island with a desolating eruption of the volcano called Hecla, as
+the necessary consequence of the vengeance of their deities. Snorro, the
+same who advised the inquest against the ghosts, had become a convert to
+the Christian religion, and was present on the occasion, and as the
+conference was held on the surface of what had been a stream of lava,
+now covered with vegetable substances, he answered the priests with much
+readiness, "To what was the indignation of the gods owing when the
+substance on which we stand was fluid and scorching? Believe me, men of
+Iceland, the eruption of the volcano depends on natural circumstances
+now as it did then, and is not the engine of vengeance intrusted to Thor
+and Odin." It is evident that men who reasoned with so much accuracy
+concerning the imbecility of Odin and Thor were well prepared, on
+abandoning their worship, to consider their former deities, of whom they
+believed so much that was impious, in the light of evil demons.
+
+But there were some particulars of the Northern creed in which it
+corresponded so exactly with that of the classics as leaves room to
+doubt whether the original Asæ, or Asiatics, the founders of the
+Scandinavian system, had, before their migration from Asia, derived them
+from some common source with those of the Greeks and Romans; or whether,
+on the other hand, the same proneness of the human mind to superstition
+has caused that similar ideas are adopted in different regions, as the
+same plants are found in distant countries without the one, as far as
+can be discovered, having obtained the seed from the others.
+
+The classical fiction, for example, of the satyrs and other subordinate
+deities of wood and wild, whose power is rather delusive than
+formidable, and whose supernatural pranks intimate rather a wish to
+inflict terror than to do hurt, was received among the Northern people,
+and perhaps transferred by them to the Celtic tribes. It is an idea
+which seems common to many nations. The existence of a satyr, in the
+silvan form, is even pretended to be proved by the evidence of Saint
+Anthony, to whom one is said to have appeared in the desert. The
+Scottish Gael have an idea of the same kind, respecting a goblin called
+_Ourisk_, whose form is like that of Pan, and his attendants something
+between a man and a goat, the nether extremities being in the latter
+form. A species of cavern, or rather hole, in the rock, affords to the
+wildest retreat in the romantic neighbourhood of Loch Katrine a name
+taken from classical superstition. It is not the least curious
+circumstance that from this silvan deity the modern nations of Europe
+have borrowed the degrading and unsuitable emblems of the goat's visage
+and form, the horns, hoofs, and tail, with which they have depicted the
+author of evil when it pleased him to show himself on earth. So that the
+alteration of a single word would render Pope's well-known line more
+truly adapted to the fact, should we venture to read--
+
+"And Pan to _Satan_ lends his heathen horn."
+
+We cannot attribute the transferrence of the attributes of the Northern
+satyr, or Celtic ourisk, to the arch-fiend, to any particular
+resemblance between the character of these deities and that of Satan. On
+the contrary, the ourisk of the Celts was a creature by no means
+peculiarly malevolent or formidably powerful, but rather a melancholy
+spirit, which dwelt in wildernesses far removed from men. If we are to
+identify him with the Brown Dwarf of the Border moors, the ourisk has a
+mortal term of life and a hope of salvation, as indeed the same high
+claim was made by the satyr who appeared to St. Anthony. Moreover, the
+Highland ourisk was a species of lubber fiend, and capable of being
+over-reached by those who understood philology. It is related of one of
+these goblins which frequented a mill near the foot of Loch Lomond, that
+the miller, desiring to get rid of this meddling spirit, who injured the
+machinery by setting the water on the wheel when there was no grain to
+be grinded, contrived to have a meeting with the goblin by watching in
+his mill till night. The ourisk then entered, and demanded the miller's
+name, and was informed that he was called _Myself_; on which is founded
+a story almost exactly like that of OUTIS in the "Odyssey," a tale
+which, though classic, is by no means an elegant or ingenious fiction,
+but which we are astonished to find in an obscure district, and in the
+Celtic tongue, seeming to argue some connexion or communication between
+these remote Highlands of Scotland and the readers of Homer in former
+days, which we cannot account for. After all, perhaps, some Churchman
+more learned than his brethren may have transferred the legend from
+Sicily to Duncrune, from the shores of the Mediterranean to those of
+Loch Lomond. I have heard it also told that the celebrated freebooter,
+Rob Roy, once gained a victory by disguising a part of his men with
+goat-skins, so as to resemble the _ourisk_ or Highland satyr.
+
+There was an individual satyr called, I think, Meming, belonging to the
+Scandinavian mythology, of a character different from the ourisk, though
+similar in shape, whom it was the boast of the highest champions to seek
+out in the solitudes which he inhabited. He was an armourer of extreme
+dexterity, and the weapons which he forged were of the highest value.
+But as club-law pervaded the ancient system of Scandinavia, Meming had
+the humour of refusing to work for any customer save such as compelled
+him to it with force of arms. He may be, perhaps, identified with the
+recusant smith who fled before Fingal from Ireland to the Orkneys, and
+being there overtaken, was compelled to forge the sword which Fingal
+afterwards wore in all his battles, and which was called the Son of the
+dark brown Luno, from the name of the armourer who forged it.[21]
+
+[Footnote 21: The weapon is often mentioned in Mr. MacPherson's
+paraphrases; but the Irish ballad, which gives a spirited account of the
+debate between the champion and the armourer, is nowhere introduced.]
+
+From this it will appear that there were originals enough in the
+mythology of the Goths, as well as Celts, to furnish the modern
+attributes ascribed to Satan in later times, when the object of painter
+or poet was to display him in his true form and with all his terrors.
+Even the genius of Guido and of Tasso have been unable to surmount this
+prejudice, the more rooted, perhaps, that the wicked are described as
+goats in Scripture, and that the devil is called the old dragon. In
+Raffael's famous painting of the archangel Michael binding Satan, the
+dignity, power, and angelic character expressed by the seraph form an
+extraordinary contrast to the poor conception of a being who ought not,
+even in that lowest degradation, to have seemed so unworthy an
+antagonist. Neither has Tasso been more happy, where he represents the
+divan of darkness in the enchanted forest as presided over by a monarch
+having a huge tail, hoofs, and all the usual accompaniments of popular
+diablerie. The genius of Milton alone could discard all these vulgar
+puerilities, and assign to the author of evil the terrible dignity of
+one who should seem not "less than archangel ruined." This species of
+degradation is yet grosser when we take into consideration the changes
+which popular opinions have wrought respecting the taste, habits,
+powers, modes of tempting, and habits of tormenting, which are such as
+might rather be ascribed to some stupid superannuated and doting ogre of
+a fairy tale, than to the powerful-minded demon who fell through pride
+and rebellion, not through folly or incapacity.
+
+Having, however, adopted our present ideas of the devil as they are
+expressed by his nearest acquaintances, the witches, from the accounts
+of satyrs, which seem to have been articles of faith both among the
+Celtic and Gothic tribes, we must next notice another fruitful fountain
+of demonological fancies. But as this source of the mythology of the
+Middle Ages must necessarily comprehend some account of the fairy folk,
+to whom much of it must be referred, it is necessary to make a pause
+before we enter upon the mystic and marvellous connexion supposed to
+exist between the impenitent kingdom of Satan and those merry dancers by
+moonlight.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IV.
+
+    The Fairy Superstition is derived from different sources--The
+    Classical Worship of the Silvans, or Rural Deities, proved by Roman
+    Altars discovered--The Gothic Duergar, or Dwarfs--Supposed to be
+    derived from the Northern Laps, or Fins--"The
+    Niebelungen-Lied"--King Laurin's Adventure--Celtic Fairies of a
+    gayer character, yet their pleasures empty and illusory--Addicted to
+    carry off Human Beings, both Infants and Adults--Adventures of a
+    Butler in Ireland--The Elves supposed to pay a Tax to Hell--The
+    Irish, Welsh, Highlanders, and Manxmen held the same belief--It was
+    rather rendered more gloomy by the Northern Traditions--Merlin and
+    Arthur carried off by the Fairies--Also Thomas of Erceldoune--His
+    Amour with the Queen of Elfland--His re-appearance in latter
+    times--Another account from Reginald Scot--Conjectures on the
+    derivation of the word Fairy.
+
+
+We may premise by observing, that the classics had not forgotten to
+enrol in their mythology a certain species of subordinate deities,
+resembling the modern elves in their habits. Good old Mr. Gibb, of the
+Advocates' Library (whom all lawyers whose youth he assisted in their
+studies, by his knowledge of that noble collection, are bound to name
+with gratitude), used to point out, amongst the ancient altars under his
+charge, one which is consecrated, _Diis campestribus,_ and usually
+added, with a wink, "The fairies, ye ken."[22] This relic of antiquity
+was discovered near Roxburgh Castle, and a vicinity more delightfully
+appropriate to the abode of the silvan deities can hardly be found.
+
+[Footnote 22: Another altar of elegant form and perfectly preserved,
+was, within these few weeks, dug up near the junction of the Leader and
+the Tweed, in the neighbourhood of the village of Newstead, to the east
+of Melrose. It was inscribed by Carrius Domitianus, the prefect of the
+twentieth legion, to the god Sylvanus, forming another instance how much
+the wild and silvan character of the country disposed the feelings of
+the Romans to acknowledge the presence of the rural deities. The altar
+is preserved at Drygrange, the seat of Mr. Tod.]
+
+Two rivers of considerable size, made yet more remarkable by the fame
+which has rendered them in some sort classical, unite their streams
+beneath the vestiges of an extensive castle, renowned in the wars with
+England, and for the valiant, noble, and even royal blood, which has
+been shed around and before it--a landscape ornamented with the distant
+village and huge abbey tower of Kelso, arising out of groves of aged
+trees--the modern mansion of Fleurs, with its terrace, its woods, and
+its extensive lawn--form altogether a kingdom for Oberon and Titania to
+reign in, or any spirit who, before their time, might love scenery, of
+which the majesty, and even the beauty, impress the mind with a sense of
+awe mingled with pleasure. These silvans, satyrs, and fauns with whom
+superstition peopled the lofty banks and tangled copses of this romantic
+country, were obliged to give place to deities very nearly resembling
+themselves in character, who probably derive some of their attributes
+from their classic predecessors, although more immediately allied to the
+barbarian conquerors. We allude to the fairies, which, as received into
+the popular creed, and as described by the poets who have made use of
+them as machinery, are certainly among the most pleasing legacies of
+fancy.
+
+Dr. Leyden, who exhausted on this subject, as upon most others, a
+profusion of learning, found the first idea of the elfin people in the
+Northern opinions concerning the duergar, or dwarfs.[23] These were,
+however, it must be owned, spirits of a coarser sort, more laborious
+vocation, and more malignant temper, and in all respects less propitious
+to humanity, than the fairies (properly so called), which were the
+invention of the Celtic people, and displayed that superiority of taste
+and fancy which, with the love of music and poetry, has been generally
+ascribed to their race, through its various classes and modifications.
+
+[Footnote 23: See the essay on the Fairy Superstition, in the
+"Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," of which many of the materials were
+contributed by Dr. Leyden, and the whole brought into its present form
+by the author.]
+
+In fact, there seems reason to conclude that these duergar were
+originally nothing else than the diminutive natives of the Lappish,
+Lettish, and Finnish nations, who, flying before the conquering weapons
+of the Asæ, sought the most retired regions of the North, and there
+endeavoured to hide themselves from their Eastern invaders. They were a
+little, diminutive race, but possessed of some skill probably in mining
+or smelting minerals, with which the country abounds. Perhaps also they
+might, from their acquaintance with the changes of the clouds, or
+meteorological phenomena, be judges of weather, and so enjoy another
+title to supernatural skill. At any rate, it has been plausibly supposed
+that these poor people, who sought caverns and hiding-places from the
+persecution of the Asæ, were in some respects compensated for
+inferiority in strength and stature by the art and power with which the
+superstition of the enemy invested them. These oppressed yet dreaded
+fugitives obtained, naturally enough, the character of the German
+spirits called Kobold, from which the English goblin and the Scottish
+bogle, by some inversion and alteration of pronunciation, are evidently
+derived.
+
+The Kobolds were a species of gnomes, who haunted the dark and solitary
+places, and were often seen in the mines, where they seemed to imitate
+the labours of the miners, and sometimes took pleasure in frustrating
+their objects and rendering their toil unfruitful. Sometimes they were
+malignant, especially if neglected or insulted; but sometimes also they
+were indulgent to individuals whom they took under their protection.
+When a miner, therefore, hit upon a rich vein of ore, the inference
+commonly was, not that he possessed more skill, industry, or even luck,
+than his fellow-workmen, but that the spirits of the mine had directed
+him to the treasure. The employment and apparent occupation of these
+subterranean gnomes or fiends, led very naturally to identify the Fin,
+or Laplander, with the Kobold; but it was a bolder stretch of the
+imagination which confounded this reserved and sullen race with the
+livelier and gayer spirit which bears correspondence with the British
+fairy. Neither can we be surprised that the duergar, ascribed by many
+persons to this source, should exhibit a darker and more malignant
+character than the elves that revel by moonlight in more southern
+climates.
+
+According to the old Norse belief, these dwarfs form the current
+machinery of the Northern Sagas, and their inferiority in size is
+represented as compensated by skill and wisdom superior to those of
+ordinary mortals. In the "Niebelungen-Lied," one of the oldest romances
+of Germany, and compiled, it would seem, not long after the time of
+Attila, Theodorick of Bern, or of Verona, figures among a cycle of
+champions over whom he presides, like the Charlemagne of France or
+Arthur of England. Among others vanquished by him is the Elf King, or
+Dwarf Laurin, whose dwelling was in an enchanted garden of roses, and
+who had a body-guard of giants, a sort of persons seldom supposed to be
+themselves conjurers. He becomes a formidable opponent to Theodorick and
+his chivalry; but as he attempted by treachery to attain the victory, he
+is, when overcome, condemned to fill the dishonourable yet appropriate
+office of buffoon and juggler at the Court of Verona.[24]
+
+[Footnote 24: See an abstract, by the late learned Henry Weber, of "A
+Lay on this subject of King Laurin," complied by Henry of Osterdingen.
+"Northern Antiquities," Edinburgh, 1814.]
+
+Such possession of supernatural wisdom is still imputed by the natives
+of the Orkney and Zetland Islands to the people called _Drows_, being a
+corruption of duergar or _dwarfs_, and who may, in most other respects,
+be identified with the Caledonian fairies. Lucas Jacobson Debes, who
+dates his description of Feroe from his Pathmos, in Thorshaven, March
+12, 1670, dedicates a long chapter to the spectres who disturbed his
+congregation, and sometimes carried off his hearers. The actors in these
+disturbances he states to be the _Skow_, or _Biergen-Trold_--_i.e._, the
+spirits of the woods and mountains, sometimes called subterranean
+people, and adds, they appeared in deep caverns and among horrid rocks;
+as also, that they haunted the places where murders or other deeds of
+mortal sin had been acted. They appear to have been the genuine northern
+dwarfs, or Trows, another pronunciation of Trollds, and are considered
+by the reverend author as something very little better than actual
+fiends.
+
+But it is not only, or even chiefly, to the Gothic race that we must
+trace the opinions concerning the elves of the middle ages; these, as
+already hinted, were deeply blended with the attributes which the Celtic
+tribes had, from the remotest ages, ascribed to their deities of rocks,
+valleys, and forests. We have already observed, what indeed makes a
+great feature of their national character, that the power of the
+imagination is peculiarly active among the Celts, and leads to an
+enthusiasm concerning national music and dancing, national poetry and
+song, the departments in which fancy most readily indulges herself. The
+Irish, the Welsh, the Gael, or Scottish Highlander, all tribes of Celtic
+descent, assigned to the Men of Peace, Good Neighbours, or by whatever
+other names they called these sylvan pigmies, more social habits, and a
+course of existence far more gay, than the sullen and heavy toils of the
+more saturnine Duergar. Their elves did not avoid the society of men,
+though they behaved to those who associated with them with caprice,
+which rendered it dangerous to displease them; and although their gifts
+were sometimes valuable, they were usually wantonly given and
+unexpectedly resumed.
+
+The employment, the benefits, the amusements of the Fairy court,
+resembled the aerial people themselves. Their government was always
+represented as monarchical. A King, more frequently a Queen of Fairies,
+was acknowledged; and sometimes both held their court together. Their
+pageants and court entertainments comprehended all that the imagination
+could conceive of what was, by that age, accounted gallant and splendid.
+At their processions they paraded more beautiful steeds than those of
+mere earthly parentage--the hawks and hounds which they employed in
+their chase were of the first race. At their daily banquets, the board
+was set forth with a splendour which the proudest kings of the earth
+dared not aspire to; and the hall of their dancers echoed to the most
+exquisite music. But when viewed by the eye of a seer the illusion
+vanished. The young knights and beautiful ladies showed themselves as
+wrinkled carles and odious hags--their wealth turned into
+slate-stones--their splendid plate into pieces of clay fantastically
+twisted--and their victuals, unsavoured by salt (prohibited to them, we
+are told, because an emblem of eternity), became tasteless and
+insipid--the stately halls were turned into miserable damp caverns--all
+the delights of the Elfin Elysium vanished at once. In a word, their
+pleasures were showy, but totally unsubstantial--their activity
+unceasing, but fruitless and unavailing--and their condemnation appears
+to have consisted in the necessity of maintaining the appearance of
+constant industry or enjoyment, though their toil was fruitless and
+their pleasures shadowy and unsubstantial. Hence poets have designed
+them as "_the crew that never rest_." Besides the unceasing and useless
+bustle in which these spirits seemed to live, they had propensities
+unfavourable and distressing to mortals.
+
+One injury of a very serious nature was supposed to be constantly
+practised by the fairies against "the human mortals," that of carrying
+off their children, and breeding them as beings of their race.
+Unchristened infants were chiefly exposed to this calamity; but adults
+were also liable to be abstracted from earthly commerce, notwithstanding
+it was their natural sphere. With respect to the first, it may be easily
+conceived that the want of the sacred ceremony of introduction into the
+Christian church rendered them the more obnoxious to the power of those
+creatures, who, if not to be in all respects considered as fiends, had
+nevertheless, considering their constant round of idle occupation,
+little right to rank themselves among good spirits, and were accounted
+by most divines as belonging to a very different class. An adult, on the
+other hand, must have been engaged in some action which exposed him to
+the power of the spirits, and so, as the legal phrase went, "taken in
+the manner." Sleeping on a fairy mount, within which the Fairy court
+happened to be held for the time, was a very ready mode of obtaining a
+pass for Elfland. It was well for the individual if the irate elves were
+contented, on such occasions, with transporting him through the air to a
+city at some forty miles' distance, and leaving, perhaps, his hat or
+bonnet on some steeple between, to mark the direct line of his course.
+Others, when engaged in some unlawful action, or in the act of giving
+way to some headlong and sinful passion, exposed themselves also to
+become inmates of Fairyland.
+
+The same belief on these points obtained in Ireland. Glanville, in his
+"Eighteenth Relation," tells us of the butler of a gentleman, a
+neighbour of the Earl of Orrery, who was sent to purchase cards. In
+crossing the fields, he saw a table surrounded by people apparently
+feasting and making merry. They rose to salute him, and invited him to
+join in their revel; but a friendly voice from the party whispered in
+his ear, "Do nothing which this company invite you to." Accordingly,
+when he refused to join in feasting, the table vanished, and the company
+began to dance and play on musical instruments; but the butler would not
+take part in these recreations. They then left off dancing, and betook
+themselves to work; but neither in this would the mortal join them. He
+was then left alone for the present; but in spite of the exertions of my
+Lord Orrery, in spite of two bishops who were his guests at the time, in
+spite of the celebrated Mr. Greatrix, it was all they could do to
+prevent the butler from being carried off bodily from amongst them by
+the fairies, who considered him as their lawful prey. They raised him in
+the air above the heads of the mortals, who could only run beneath, to
+break his fall when they pleased to let him go. The spectre which
+formerly advised the poor man continued to haunt him, and at length
+discovered himself to be the ghost of an acquaintance who had been dead
+for seven years. "You know," added he, "I lived a loose life, and ever
+since have I been hurried up and down in a restless condition, with the
+company you saw, and shall be till the day of judgment." He added, "that
+if the butler had acknowledged God in all his ways, he had not suffered
+so much by their means; he reminded him that he had not prayed to God in
+the morning before he met with this company in the field, and, moreover,
+that he was then going on an unlawful business."
+
+It is pretended that Lord Orrery confirmed the whole of this story, even
+to having seen the butler raised into the air by the invisible beings
+who strove to carry him off. Only he did not bear witness to the passage
+which seems to call the purchase of cards an unlawful errand.[25]
+
+[Footnote 25: "Sadducismus Triumphatus," by Joseph Glanville, p. 131.
+Edinburgh, 1790.]
+
+Individuals, whose lives had been engaged in intrigues of politics or
+stratagems of war, were sometimes surreptitiously carried off to
+Fairyland; as Alison Pearson, the sorceress who cured Archbishop
+Adamson, averred that she had recognised in the Fairy court the
+celebrated Secretary Lethington and the old Knight of Buccleuch, the one
+of whom had been the most busy politician, the other one of the most
+unwearied partisans of Queen Mary, during the reign of that unfortunate
+queen. Upon the whole, persons carried off by sudden death were usually
+suspected of having fallen into the hands of the fairies, and unless
+redeemed from their power, which it was not always safe to attempt, were
+doomed to conclude their lives with them. We must not omit to state that
+those who had an intimate communication with these spirits, while they
+were yet inhabitants of middle earth, were most apt to be seized upon
+and carried off to Elfland before their death.
+
+The reason assigned for this kidnapping of the human race, so peculiar
+to the elfin people, is said to be that they were under a necessity of
+paying to the infernal regions a yearly tribute out of their population,
+which they were willing to defray by delivering up to the prince of
+these regions the children of the human race, rather than their own.
+From this it must be inferred, that they have offspring among
+themselves, as it is said by some authorities, and particularly by Mr.
+Kirke, the minister of Aberfoyle. He indeed adds that, after a certain
+length of life, these spirits are subject to the universal lot of
+mortality--a position, however, which has been controverted, and is
+scarcely reconcilable to that which holds them amenable to pay a tax to
+hell, which infers existence as eternal as the fire which is not
+quenched. The opinions on the subject of the fairy people here
+expressed, are such as are entertained in the Highlands and some remote
+quarters of the Lowlands of Scotland. We know, from the lively and
+entertaining legends published by Mr. Crofton Croker--which, though in
+most cases told with the wit of the editor and the humour of his
+country, contain points of curious antiquarian information--that the
+opinions of the Irish are conformable to the account we have given of
+the general creed of the Celtic nations respecting elves. If the Irish
+elves are anywise distinguished from those of Britain, it seems to be by
+their disposition to divide into factions and fight among themselves--a
+pugnacity characteristic of the Green Isle. The Welsh fairies, according
+to John Lewis, barrister-at-law, agree in the same general attributes
+with those of Ireland and Britain. We must not omit the creed of the
+Manxmen, since we find, from the ingenious researches of Mr. Waldron,
+that the Isle of Man, beyond other places in Britain, was a peculiar
+depository of the fairy traditions, which, on the island being conquered
+by the Norse, became, in all probability, chequered with those of
+Scandinavia from a source peculiar and more direct than that by which
+they reached Scotland or Ireland.
+
+Such as it was, the popular system of the Celts easily received the
+northern admixture of Drows and Duergar, which gave the belief, perhaps,
+a darker colouring than originally belonged to the British fairyland. It
+was from the same source also, in all probability, that additional
+legends were obtained of a gigantic and malignant female, the Hecate of
+this mythology, who rode on the storm and marshalled the rambling host
+of wanderers under her grim banner. This hag (in all respects the
+reverse of the Mab or Titania of the Celtic creed) was called Nicneven
+in that later system which blended the faith of the Celts and of the
+Goths on this subject. The great Scottish poet Dunbar has made a
+spirited description of this Hecate riding at the head of witches and
+good neighbours (fairies, namely), sorceresses and elves, indifferently,
+upon the ghostly eve of All-Hallow Mass.[26] In Italy we hear of the
+hags arraying themselves under the orders of Diana (in her triple
+character of Hecate, doubtless) and Herodias, who were the joint leaders
+of their choir. But we return to the more simple fairy belief, as
+entertained by the Celts before they were conquered by the Saxons.
+
+[Footnote 26: See "Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy."]
+
+Of these early times we can know little; but it is singular to remark
+what light the traditions of Scotland throw upon the poetry of the
+Britons of Cumberland, then called Reged. Merlin Wyllt, or the wild, is
+mentioned by both; and that renowned wizard, the son of an elf or fairy,
+with King Arthur, the dubious champion of Britain at that early period,
+were both said by tradition to have been abstracted by the fairies, and
+to have vanished without having suffered death, just at the time when it
+was supposed that the magic of the wizard and the celebrated sword of
+the monarch, which had done so much to preserve British independence,
+could no longer avert the impending ruin. It may be conjectured that
+there was a desire on the part of Arthur or his surviving champions to
+conceal his having received a mortal wound in the fatal battle of
+Camlan; and to that we owe the wild and beautiful incident so finely
+versified by Bishop Percy, in which, in token of his renouncing in
+future the use of arms, the monarch sends his attendant, sole survivor
+of the field, to throw his sword Excalibar into the lake hard by. Twice
+eluding the request, the esquire at last complied, and threw the
+far-famed weapon into the lonely mere. A hand and arm arose from the
+water and caught Excalibar by the hilt, flourished it thrice, and then
+sank into the lake.[27] The astonished messenger returned to his master
+to tell him the marvels he had seen, but he only saw a boat at a
+distance push from the land, and heard shrieks of females in agony:--
+
+"And whether the king was there or not
+  He never knew, he never colde
+ For never since that doleful day
+  Was British Arthur seen on molde."
+
+
+[Footnote 27: See "Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry."]
+
+The circumstances attending the disappearance of Merlin would probably
+be found as imaginative as those of Arthur's removal, but they cannot be
+recovered; and what is singular enough, circumstances which originally
+belonged to the history of this famous bard, said to be the son of the
+Demon himself, have been transferred to a later poet, and surely one of
+scarce inferior name, Thomas of Erceldoune. The legend was supposed to
+be only preserved among the inhabitants of his native valleys, but a
+copy as old as the reign of Henry VII. has been recovered. The story is
+interesting and beautifully told, and, as one of the oldest fairy
+legends, may well be quoted in this place.
+
+Thomas of Erceldoune, in Lauderdale, called the Rhymer, on account of
+his producing a poetical romance on the subject of Tristrem and Yseult,
+which is curious as the earliest specimen of English verse known to
+exist, flourished in the reign of Alexander III. of Scotland. Like other
+men of talent of the period, Thomas was suspected of magic. He was said
+also to have the gift of prophecy, which was accounted for in the
+following peculiar manner, referring entirely to the elfin
+superstition:--As True Thomas (we give him the epithet by anticipation)
+lay on Huntly Bank, a place on the descent of the Eildon Hills, which
+raise their triple crest above the celebrated Monastery of Melrose, he
+saw a lady so extremely beautiful that he imagined it must be the Virgin
+Mary herself. Her appointments, however, were rather those of an Amazon
+or goddess of the woods. Her steed was of the highest beauty and spirit,
+and at his mane hung thirty silver bells and nine, which made music to
+the wind as she paced along. Her saddle was of _royal bone_ (ivory),
+laid over with _orfeverie_--_i.e._, goldsmith's work. Her stirrups, her
+dress, all corresponded with her extreme beauty and the magnificence of
+her array. The fair huntress had her bow in her hand, and her arrows at
+her belt. She led three greyhounds in a leash, and three raches, or
+hounds of scent, followed her closely. She rejected and disclaimed the
+homage which Thomas desired to pay to her; so that, passing from one
+extremity to the other, Thomas became as bold as he had at first been
+humble. The lady warns him that he must become her slave if he should
+prosecute his suit towards her in the manner he proposes. Before their
+interview terminates, the appearance of the beautiful lady is changed
+into that of the most hideous hag in existence. One side is blighted and
+wasted, as if by palsy; one eye drops from her head; her colour, as
+clear as the virgin silver, is now of a dun leaden hue. A witch from the
+spital or almshouse would have been a goddess in comparison to the late
+beautiful huntress. Hideous as she was, Thomas's irregular desires had
+placed him under the control of this hag, and when she bade him take
+leave of sun, and of the leaf that grew on tree, he felt himself under
+the necessity of obeying her. A cavern received them, in which,
+following his frightful guide, he for three days travelled in darkness,
+sometimes hearing the booming of a distant ocean, sometimes walking
+through rivers of blood, which crossed their subterranean path. At
+length they emerged into daylight, in a most beautiful orchard. Thomas,
+almost fainting for want of food, stretches out his hand towards the
+goodly fruit which hangs around him, but is forbidden by his
+conductress, who informs him these are the fatal apples which were the
+cause of the fall of man. He perceives also that his guide had no sooner
+entered this mysterious ground, and breathed its magic air, than she was
+revived in beauty, equipage, and splendour, as fair, or fairer, than he
+had first seen her on the mountain. She then commands him to lay his
+head upon her knee, and proceeds to explain to him the character of the
+country. "Yonder right-hand path," she says, "conveys the spirits of the
+blessed to Paradise; yon downward and well-worn way leads sinful souls
+to the place of everlasting punishment; the third road, by yonder dark
+brake, conducts to the milder place of pain from which prayer and mass
+may release offenders. But see you yet a fourth road, sweeping along the
+plain to yonder splendid castle? Yonder is the road to Elfland, to which
+we are now bound. The lord of the castle is king of the country, and I
+am his queen. But, Thomas, I would rather be drawn with wild horses,
+than he should know what hath passed between you and me. Therefore, when
+we enter yonder castle, observe strict silence, and answer no question
+that is asked at you, and I will account for your silence by saying I
+took your speech when I brought you from middle earth."
+
+Having thus instructed her lover, they journeyed on to the castle, and
+entering by the kitchen, found themselves in the midst of such a festive
+scene as might become the mansion of a great feudal lord or prince.
+Thirty carcases of deer were lying on the massive kitchen board, under
+the hands of numerous cooks, who toiled to cut them up and dress them,
+while the gigantic greyhounds which had taken the spoil lay lapping the
+blood, and enjoying the sight of the slain game. They came next to the
+royal hall, where the king received his loving consort without censure
+or suspicion. Knights and ladies, dancing by threes (reels perhaps),
+occupied the floor of the hall, and Thomas, the fatigues of his journey
+from the Eildon hills forgotten, went forward and joined in the revelry.
+After a period, however, which seemed to him a very short one, the queen
+spoke with him apart, and bade him prepare to return to his own country.
+"Now," said the queen, "how long think you that you have been here?"
+"Certes, fair lady," answered Thomas, "not above these seven days." "You
+are deceived," answered the queen, "you have been seven _years_ in this
+castle; and it is full time you were gone. Know, Thomas, that the fiend
+of hell will come to this castle to-morrow to demand his tribute, and so
+handsome a man as you will attract his eye. For all the world would I
+not suffer you to be betrayed to such a fate; therefore up, and let us
+be going." These terrible news reconciled Thomas to his departure from
+Elfin land, and the queen was not long in placing him upon Huntly bank,
+where the birds were singing. She took a tender leave of him, and to
+ensure his reputation, bestowed on him the tongue which _could not lie_.
+Thomas in vain objected to this inconvenient and involuntary adhesion to
+veracity, which would make him, as he thought, unfit for church or for
+market, for king's court or for lady's bower. But all his remonstrances
+were disregarded by the lady, and Thomas the Rhymer, whenever the
+discourse turned on the future, gained the credit of a prophet whether
+he would or not; for he could say nothing but what was sure to come to
+pass. It is plain that had Thomas been a legislator instead of a poet,
+we have here the story of Numa and Egeria. Thomas remained several years
+in his own tower near Erceldoune, and enjoyed the fame of his
+predictions, several of which are current among the country people to
+this day. At length, as the prophet was entertaining the Earl of March
+in his dwelling, a cry of astonishment arose in the village, on the
+appearance of a hart and hind,[28] which left the forest and, contrary
+to their shy nature, came quietly onward, traversing the village towards
+the dwelling of Thomas. The prophet instantly rose from the board; and,
+acknowledging the prodigy as the summons of his fate, he accompanied the
+hart and hind into the forest, and though occasionally seen by
+individuals to whom he has chosen to show himself, has never again mixed
+familiarly with mankind.
+
+[Footnote 28: This last circumstance seems imitated from a passage in
+the "Life of Merlin," by Jeffrey of Monmouth. See Ellis's "Ancient
+Romances," vol. i. p. 73.]
+
+Thomas of Erceldoune, during his retirement, has been supposed, from
+time to time, to be levying forces to take the field in some crisis of
+his country's fate. The story has often been told of a daring
+horse-jockey having sold a black horse to a man of venerable and antique
+appearance, who appointed the remarkable hillock upon Eildon hills,
+called the Lucken-hare, as the place where, at twelve o'clock at night,
+he should receive the price. He came, his money was paid in ancient
+coin, and he was invited by his customer to view his residence. The
+trader in horses followed his guide in the deepest astonishment through
+several long ranges of stalls, in each of which a horse stood
+motionless, while an armed warrior lay equally still at the charger's
+feet. "All these men," said the wizard in a whisper, "will awaken at the
+battle of Sheriffmoor." At the extremity of this extraordinary depot
+hung a sword and a horn, which the prophet pointed out to the
+horse-dealer as containing the means of dissolving the spell. The man in
+confusion took the horn, and attempted to wind it. The horses instantly
+started in their stalls, stamped, and shook their bridles, the men arose
+and clashed their armour, and the mortal, terrified at the tumult he had
+excited, dropped the horn from his hand. A voice like that of a giant,
+louder even than the tumult around, pronounced these words:--
+
+"Woe to the coward that ever he was born,
+ That did not draw the sword before he blew the horn!"
+
+A whirlwind expelled the horse-dealer from the cavern, the entrance to
+which he could never again find. A moral might be perhaps extracted from
+the legend--namely, that it is best to be armed against danger before
+bidding it defiance. But it is a circumstance worth notice, that
+although this edition of the tale is limited to the year 1715, by the
+very mention of the Sheriffmoor, yet a similar story appears to have
+been current during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, which is given by
+Reginald Scot. The narrative is edifying as peculiarly illustrative of
+the mode of marring a curious tale in telling it, which was one of the
+virtues professed by Caius when he hired himself to King Lear. Reginald
+Scot, incredulous on the subject of witchcraft, seems to have given some
+weight to the belief of those who thought that the spirits of famous men
+do, after death, take up some particular habitations near cities, towns,
+and countries, and act as tutelary and guardian spirits to the places
+which they loved while in the flesh.
+
+"But more particularly to illustrate this conjecture," says he, "I could
+name a person who hath lately appeared thrice since his decease, at
+least some ghostly being or other that calls itself by the name of such
+a person who was dead above a hundred years ago, and was in his lifetime
+accounted as a prophet or predicter by the assistance of sublunary
+spirits; and now, at his appearance, did also give strange predictions
+respecting famine and plenty, war and bloodshed, and the end of the
+world. By the information of the person that had communication with him,
+the last of his appearances was in the following manner:--"I had been,"
+said he, "to sell a horse at the next market town, but not attaining my
+price, as I returned home by the way I met this man, who began to be
+familiar with me, asking what news, and how affairs moved through the
+country. I answered as I thought fit; withal, I told him of my horse,
+whom he began to cheapen, and proceeded with me so far that the price
+was agreed upon. So he turned back with me, and told me that if I would
+go along with him I should receive my money. On our way we went, I upon
+my horse, and he on another milk-white beast After much travel I asked
+him where he dwelt and what his name was. He told me that his dwelling
+was a mile off, at a place called _Farran_, of which place I had never
+heard, though I knew all the country round about.[29] He also told me
+that he himself was that person of the family of Learmonths[30] so much
+spoken of as a prophet. At which I began to be somewhat fearful,
+perceiving we were on a road which I never had been on before, which
+increased my fear and amazement more. Well, on we went till he brought
+me under ground, I knew not how, into the presence of a beautiful woman,
+who paid the money without a word speaking. He conducted me out again
+through a large and long entry, where I saw above six hundred men in
+armour laid prostrate on the ground as if asleep. At last I found myself
+in the open field by the help of the moonlight, in the very place where
+I first met him, and made a shift to get home by three in the morning.
+But the money I had received was just double of what I esteemed it when
+the woman paid me, of which at this instant I have several pieces to
+show, consisting of ninepennies, thirteen pence-halfpennies," &c.[31]
+
+[Footnote 29: In this the author is in the same ignorance as his
+namesake Reginald, though having at least as many opportunities of
+information.]
+
+[Footnote 30: In popular tradition, the name of Thomas the Rhymer was
+always averred to be Learmonth. though he neither uses it himself, nor
+is described by his son other than Le Rymour. The Learmonths of Dairsie,
+in Fife, claimed descent from the prophet.]
+
+[Footnote 31: "Discourse of Devils and Spirits appended to the Discovery
+of Witchcraft," by Reginald Scot, Esq., book ii. chap. 3, sec. 10.]
+
+It is a great pity that this horse-dealer, having specimens of the fairy
+coin, of a quality more permanent than usual, had not favoured us with
+an account of an impress so valuable to medalists. It is not the less
+edifying, as we are deprived of the more picturesque parts of the story,
+to learn that Thomas's payment was as faithful as his prophecies. The
+beautiful lady who bore the purse must have been undoubtedly the Fairy
+Queen, whose affection, though, like that of his own heroine Yseult, we
+cannot term it altogether laudable, seems yet to have borne a faithful
+and firm character.
+
+I have dwelt at some length on the story of Thomas the Rhymer, as the
+oldest tradition of the kind which has reached us in detail, and as
+pretending to show the fate of the first Scottish poet, whose existence,
+and its date, are established both by history and records; and who, if
+we consider him as writing in the Anglo-Norman language, was certainly
+one among the earliest of its versifiers. But the legend is still more
+curious, from its being the first and most distinguished instance of a
+man alleged to have obtained supernatural knowledge by means of the
+fairies.
+
+Whence or how this singular community derived their more common popular
+name, we may say has not as yet been very clearly established. It is the
+opinion of the learned that the Persian word Peri, expressing an
+unearthly being, of a species very similar, will afford the best
+derivation, if we suppose it to have reached Europe through the medium
+of the Arabians, in whose alphabet the letter P does not exist, so that
+they pronounce the word Feri instead of Peri. Still there is something
+uncertain in this etymology. We hesitate to ascribe either to the
+Persians or the Arabians the distinguishing name of an ideal
+commonwealth, the notion of which they certainly did not contribute to
+us. Some are, therefore, tempted to suppose that the elves may have
+obtained their most frequent name from their being _par excellence_ a
+_fair_ or _comely_ people, a quality which they affected on all
+occasions; while the superstition of the Scottish was likely enough to
+give them a name which might propitiate the vanity for which they deemed
+the race remarkable; just as, in other instances, they called the fays
+"men of peace," "good neighbours," and by other titles of the like
+import. It must be owned, at the same time, that the words _fay_ and
+_fairy_ may have been mere adoptions of the French _fee_ and _feerie_,
+though these terms, on the other side of the Channel, have reference to
+a class of spirits corresponding, not to our fairies, but with the far
+different Fata of the Italians. But this is a question which we
+willingly leave for the decision of better etymologists than ourselves.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER V.
+
+    Those who dealt in fortune-telling, mystical cures by charms, and
+    the like, often claimed an intercourse with Fairyland--Hudhart or
+    Hudikin--Pitcairn's "Scottish Criminal Trials"--Story of Bessie
+    Dunlop and her Adviser--Her Practice of Medicine--And of Discovery
+    of Theft--Account of her Familiar, Thome Reid--Trial of Alison
+    Pearson--Account of her Familiar, William Sympson--Trial of the Lady
+    Fowlis, and of Hector Munro, her Stepson--Extraordinary species of
+    Charm used by the latter--Confession of John Stewart, a Juggler, of
+    his Intercourse with the Fairies--Trial and Confession of Isobel
+    Gowdie--Use of Elf-arrow Heads--Parish of Aberfoyle--Mr. Kirke, the
+    Minister of Aberfoyle's Work on Fairy Superstitions--He is himself
+    taken to Fairyland--Dr. Grahame's interesting Work, and his
+    Information on Fairy Superstitions--Story of a Female in East
+    Lothian carried off by the Fairies--Another instance from Pennant.
+
+
+To return to Thomas the Rhymer, with an account of whose legend I
+concluded last letter, it would seem that the example which it afforded
+of obtaining the gift of prescience, and other supernatural powers, by
+means of the fairy people, became the common apology of those who
+attempted to cure diseases, to tell fortunes, to revenge injuries, or to
+engage in traffic with the invisible world, for the purpose of
+satisfying their own wishes, curiosity, or revenge, or those of others.
+Those who practised the petty arts of deception in such mystic cases,
+being naturally desirous to screen their own impostures, were willing to
+be supposed to derive from the fairies, or from mortals transported to
+fairyland the power necessary to effect the displays of art which they
+pretended to exhibit. A confession of direct communication and league
+with Satan, though the accused were too frequently compelled by torture
+to admit and avow such horrors, might, the poor wretches hoped, be
+avoided by the avowal of a less disgusting intercourse with sublunary
+spirits, a race which might be described by negatives, being neither
+angels, devils, nor the souls of deceased men; nor would it, they might
+flatter themselves, be considered as any criminal alliance, that they
+held communion with a race not properly hostile to man, and willing, on
+certain conditions, to be useful and friendly to him. Such an
+intercourse was certainly far short of the witch's renouncing her
+salvation, delivering herself personally to the devil, and at once
+ensuring condemnation in this world, together with the like doom in the
+next.
+
+Accordingly, the credulous, who, in search of health, knowledge,
+greatness, or moved by any of the numberless causes for which men seek
+to look into futurity, were anxious to obtain superhuman assistance, as
+well as the numbers who had it in view to dupe such willing clients,
+became both cheated and cheaters, alike anxious to establish the
+possibility of a harmless process of research into futurity, for
+laudable, or at least innocent objects, as healing diseases and the
+like; in short, of the existence of white magic, as it was called, in
+opposition to that black art exclusively and directly derived from
+intercourse with Satan. Some endeavoured to predict a man's fortune in
+marriage or his success in life by the aspect of the stars; others
+pretended to possess spells, by which they could reduce and compel an
+elementary spirit to enter within a stone, a looking-glass, or some
+other local place of abode, and confine her there by the power of an
+especial charm, conjuring her to abide and answer the questions of her
+master. Of these we shall afterwards say something; but the species of
+evasion now under our investigation is that of the fanatics or impostors
+who pretended to draw information from the equivocal spirits called
+fairies; and the number of instances before us is so great as induces us
+to believe that the pretence of communicating with Elfland, and not with
+the actual demon, was the manner in which the persons accused of
+witchcraft most frequently endeavoured to excuse themselves, or at least
+to alleviate the charges brought against them of practising sorcery. But
+the Scottish law did not acquit those who accomplished even praiseworthy
+actions, such as remarkable cures by mysterious remedies; and the
+proprietor of a patent medicine who should in those days have attested
+his having wrought such miracles as we see sometimes advertised, might
+perhaps have forfeited his life before he established the reputation of
+his drop, elixir, or pill.
+
+Sometimes the soothsayers, who pretended to act on this information from
+sublunary spirits, soared to higher matters than the practice of physic,
+and interfered in the fate of nations. When James I. was murdered at
+Perth in 1437, a Highland woman prophesied the course and purpose of the
+conspiracy, and had she been listened to, it might have been
+disconcerted. Being asked her source of knowledge, she answered Hudhart
+had told her; which might either be the same with Hudkin, a Dutch spirit
+somewhat similar to Friar Rush or Robin Goodfellow,[32] or with the
+red-capped demon so powerful in the case of Lord Soulis, and other
+wizards, to whom the Scots assigned rather more serious influence.
+
+[Footnote 32: Hudkin is a very familiar devil, who will do nobody hurt,
+except he receive injury; but he cannot abide that, nor yet be mocked.
+He talketh with men friendly, sometimes visibly, sometimes invisibly.
+There go as many tales upon this Hudkin in some parts of Germany as
+there did in England on Robin Goodfellow.--"Discourse concerning
+Devils," annexed to "The Discovery of Witchcraft," by Reginald Scot,
+book i. chap. 21.]
+
+The most special account which I have found of the intercourse between
+Fairyland and a female professing to have some influence in that court,
+combined with a strong desire to be useful to the distressed of both
+sexes, occurs in the early part of a work to which I have been
+exceedingly obliged in the present and other publications.[33] The
+details of the evidence, which consists chiefly of the unfortunate
+woman's own confession, are more full than usual, and comprehend some
+curious particulars. To spare technical repetitions, I must endeavour to
+select the principal facts in evidence in detail, so far as they bear
+upon the present subject.
+
+[Footnote 33: The curious collection of trials, from "The Criminal
+Records of Scotland," now in the course of publication, by Robert
+Pitcairn, Esq., affords so singular a picture of the manners and habits
+of our ancestors, while yet a semibarbarous people, that it is equally
+worth the attention of the historian, the antiquary, the philosopher,
+and the poet.]
+
+On the 8th November, 1576, Elizabeth or Bessie Dunlop, spouse to Andro
+Jak, in Lyne, in the Barony of Dalry, Ayrshire, was accused of sorcery
+and witchcraft and abuse of the people. Her answers to the
+interrogatories of the judges or prosecutors ran thus: It being required
+of her by what art she could tell of lost goods or prophesy the event of
+illness, she replied that of herself she had no knowledge or science of
+such matters, but that when questions were asked at her concerning such
+matters, she was in the habit of applying to one Thome Reid, who died at
+the battle of Pinkie (10th September, 1547), as he himself affirmed, and
+who resolved her any questions which she asked at him. This person she
+described as a respectable elderly-looking man, grey-bearded, and
+wearing a grey coat, with Lombard sleeves of the auld fashion. A pair of
+grey breeches and white stockings gartered above the knee, a black
+bonnet on his head, close behind and plain before, with silken laces
+drawn through the lips thereof, and a white wand in his hand, completed
+the description of what we may suppose a respectable-looking man of the
+province and period. Being demanded concerning her first interview with
+this mysterious Thome Reid, she gave rather an affecting account of the
+disasters with which she was then afflicted, and a sense of which
+perhaps aided to conjure up the imaginary counsellor. She was walking
+between her own house and the yard of Monkcastle, driving her cows to
+the common pasture, and making heavy moan with herself, weeping bitterly
+for her cow that was dead, her husband and child that were sick of the
+land-ill (some contagious sickness of the time), while she herself was
+in a very infirm state, having lately borne a child. On this occasion
+she met Thome Reid for the first time, who saluted her courteously,
+which she returned. "Sancta Maria, Bessie!" said the apparition, "why
+must thou make such dole and weeping for any earthly thing?" "Have I not
+reason for great sorrow," said she, "since our property is going to
+destruction, my husband is on the point of death, my baby will not live,
+and I am myself at a weak point? Have I not cause to have a sore heart?"
+"Bessie," answered the spirit, "thou hast displeased God in asking
+something that thou should not, and I counsel you to amend your fault. I
+tell thee, thy child shall die ere thou get home; thy two sheep shall
+also die; but thy husband shall recover, and be as well and feir as ever
+he was." The good woman was something comforted to hear that her husband
+was to be spared in such her general calamity, but was rather alarmed to
+see her ghostly counsellor pass from her and disappear through a hole in
+the garden wall, seemingly too narrow to admit of any living person
+passing through it. Another time he met her at the Thorn of Dawmstarnik,
+and showed his ultimate purpose by offering her plenty of every thing if
+she would but deny Christendom and the faith she took at the font-stone.
+She answered, that rather than do that she would be torn at horses'
+heels, but that she would be conformable to his advice in less matters.
+He parted with her in some displeasure. Shortly afterwards he appeared
+in her own house about noon, which was at the time occupied by her
+husband and three tailors. But neither Andrew Jak nor the three tailors
+were sensible of the presence of the phantom warrior who was slain at
+Pinkie; so that, without attracting their observation, he led out the
+good-wife to the end of the house near the kiln. Here he showed her a
+company of eight women and four men. The women were busked in their
+plaids, and very seemly. The strangers saluted her, and said, "Welcome,
+Bessie; wilt thou go with us?" But Bessie was silent, as Thome Reid had
+previously recommended. After this she saw their lips move, but did not
+understand what they said; and in a short time they removed from thence
+with a hideous ugly howling sound, like that of a hurricane. Thome Reid
+then acquainted her that these were the good wights (fairies) dwelling
+in the court of Elfland, who came to invite her to go thither with them.
+Bessie answered that, before she went that road, it would require some
+consideration. Thome answered, "Seest thou not me both meat-worth,
+clothes-worth, and well enough in person?" and engaged she should be
+easier than ever she was. But she replied, she dwelt with her husband
+and children, and would not leave them; to which Thome Reid replied, in
+very ill-humour, that if such were her sentiments, she would get little
+good of him.
+
+Although they thus disagreed on the principal object of Thome Reid's
+visits, Bessie Dunlop affirmed he continued to come to her frequently,
+and assist her with his counsel; and that if any one consulted her about
+the ailments of human beings or of cattle, or the recovery of things
+lost and stolen, she was, by the advice of Thome Reid, always able to
+answer the querists. She was also taught by her (literally ghostly)
+adviser how to watch the operation of the ointments he gave her, and to
+presage from them the recovery or death of the patient. She said Thome
+gave her herbs with his own hand, with which she cured John Jack's bairn
+and Wilson's of the Townhead. She also was helpful to a waiting-woman of
+the young Lady Stanlie, daughter of the Lady Johnstone, whose disease,
+according to the opinion of the infallible Thome Reid, was "a cauld
+blood that came about her heart," and frequently caused her to swoon
+away. For this Thome mixed a remedy as generous as the balm of Gilead
+itself. It was composed of the most potent ale, concocted with spices
+and a little white sugar, to be drunk every morning before taking food.
+For these prescriptions Bessie Dunlop's fee was a peck of meal and some
+cheese. The young woman recovered. But the poor old Lady Kilbowie could
+get no help for her leg, which had been crooked for years; for Thome
+Reid said the marrow of the limb was perished and the blood benumbed, so
+that she would never recover, and if she sought further assistance, it
+would be the worse for her. These opinions indicate common sense and
+prudence at least, whether we consider them as originating with the
+_umquhile_ Thome Reid, or with the culprit whom he patronized. The
+judgments given in the case of stolen goods were also well chosen; for
+though they seldom led to recovering the property, they generally
+alleged such satisfactory reasons for its not being found as effectually
+to cover the credit of the prophetess. Thus Hugh Scott's cloak could not
+be returned, because the thieves had gained time to make it into a
+kirtle. James Jamieson and James Baird would, by her advice, have
+recovered their plough-irons, which had been stolen, had it not been the
+will of fate that William Dougal, sheriff's officer, one of the parties
+searching for them, should accept a bribe of three pounds not to find
+them. In short, although she lost a lace which Thome Reid gave her out
+of his own hand, which, tied round women in childbirth, had the power of
+helping their delivery, Bessy Dunlop's profession of a wise woman seems
+to have flourished indifferently well till it drew the evil eye of the
+law upon her.
+
+More minutely pressed upon the subject of her familiar, she said she had
+never known him while among the living, but was aware that the person so
+calling himself was one who had, in his lifetime, actually been known in
+middle earth as Thome Reid, officer to the Laird of Blair, and who died
+at Pinkie. Of this she was made certain, because he sent her on errands
+to his son, who had succeeded in his office, and to others his
+relatives, whom he named, and commanded them to amend certain trespasses
+which he had done while alive, furnishing her with sure tokens by which
+they should know that it was he who had sent her. One of these errands
+was somewhat remarkable. She was to remind a neighbour of some
+particular which she was to recall to his memory by the token that Thome
+Reid and he had set out together to go to the battle which took place on
+the Black Saturday; that the person to whom the message was sent was
+inclined rather to move in a different direction, but that Thome Reid
+heartened him to pursue his journey, and brought him to the Kirk of
+Dalry, where he bought a parcel of figs, and made a present of them to
+his companion, tying them in his handkerchief; after which they kept
+company till they came to the field upon the fatal Black Saturday, as
+the battle of Pinkie was long called.
+
+Of Thome's other habits, she said that he always behaved with the
+strictest propriety, only that he pressed her to go to Elfland with him,
+and took hold of her apron as if to pull her along. Again, she said she
+had seen him in public places, both in the churchyard at Dalry and on
+the street of Edinburgh, where he walked about among other people, and
+handled goods that were exposed to sale, without attracting any notice.
+She herself did not then speak to him, for it was his command that, upon
+such occasions, she should never address him unless he spoke first to
+her. In his theological opinions, Mr. Reid appeared to lean to the
+Church of Rome, which, indeed, was most indulgent to the fairy folk. He
+said that the _new law, i.e.,_ the Reformation, was not good, and that
+the old faith should return again, but not exactly as it had been
+before. Being questioned why this visionary sage attached himself to her
+more than to others, the accused person replied, that when she was
+confined in childbirth of one of her boys, a stout woman came into her
+hut, and sat down on a bench by her bed, like a mere earthly gossip;
+that she demanded a drink, and was accommodated accordingly; and
+thereafter told the invalid that the child should die, but that her
+husband, who was then ailing, should recover. This visit seems to have
+been previous to her meeting Thome Reid near Monkcastle garden, for that
+worthy explained to her that her stout visitant was Queen of Fairies,
+and that he had since attended her by the express command of that lady,
+his queen and mistress. This reminds us of the extreme doting attachment
+which the Queen of the Fairies is represented to have taken for Dapper
+in "The Alchemist." Thome Reid attended her, it would seem, on being
+summoned thrice, and appeared to her very often within four years. He
+often requested her to go with him on his return to Fairyland, and when
+she refused, he shook his head, and said she would repent it.
+
+If the delicacy of the reader's imagination be a little hurt at
+imagining the elegant Titania in the disguise of a _stout_ woman, a
+heavy burden for a clumsy bench, drinking what Christopher Sly would
+have called very sufficient small-beer with a peasant's wife, the
+following description of the fairy host may come more near the idea he
+has formed of that invisible company:--Bessie Dunlop declared that as
+she went to tether her nag by the side of Restalrig Loch (Lochend, near
+the eastern port of Edinburgh), she heard a tremendous sound of a body
+of riders rushing past her with such a noise as if heaven and earth
+would come together; that the sound swept past her and seemed to rush
+into the lake with a hideous rumbling noise. All this while she saw
+nothing; but Thome Reid showed her that the noise was occasioned by the
+wights, who were performing one of their cavalcades upon earth.
+
+The intervention of Thome Reid as a partner in her trade of petty
+sorcery did not avail poor Bessie Dunlop, although his affection to her
+was apparently entirely platonic--the greatest familiarity on which he
+ventured was taking hold of her gown as he pressed her to go with him to
+Elfland. Neither did it avail her that the petty sorcery which she
+practised was directed to venial or even beneficial purposes. The sad
+words on the margin of the record, "Convict and burnt," sufficiently
+express the tragic conclusion of a curious tale.
+
+Alison Pearson, in Byrehill, was, 28th May, 1588, tried for invocation
+of the spirits of the devil, specially in the vision of one Mr. William
+Sympson, her cousin and her mother's brother's son, who she affirmed was
+a great scholar and doctor of medicine, dealing with charms and abusing
+the ignorant people. Against this poor woman her own confession, as in
+the case of Bessie Dunlop, was the principal evidence.
+
+As Bessie Dunlop had Thome Reid, Alison Pearson had also a familiar in
+the court of Elfland. This was her relative, William Sympson aforesaid,
+born in Stirling, whose father was king's smith in that town. William
+had been taken away, she said, by a man of Egypt (a Gipsy), who carried
+him to Egypt along with him; that he remained there twelve years, and
+that his father died in the meantime for opening a priest's book and
+looking upon it. She declared that she had renewed her acquaintance with
+her kinsman so soon as he returned. She further confessed that one day
+as she passed through Grange Muir she lay down in a fit of sickness, and
+that a green man came to her, and said if she would be faithful he might
+do her good. In reply she charged him, in the name of God and by the law
+he lived upon, if he came for her soul's good to tell his errand. On
+this the green man departed. But he afterwards appeared to her with many
+men and women with him, and against her will she was obliged to pass
+with them farther than she could tell, with piping, mirth, and good
+cheer; also that she accompanied them into Lothian, where she saw
+puncheons of wine with tasses or drinking-cups. She declared that when
+she told of these things she was sorely tormented, and received a blow
+that took away the power of her left side, and left on it an ugly mark
+which had no feeling. She also confessed that she had seen before
+sunrise the good neighbours make their salves with pans and fires.
+Sometimes, she said, they came in such fearful forms as frightened her
+very much. At other times they spoke her fair, and promised her that she
+should never want if faithful, but if she told of them and their doings,
+they threatened to martyr her. She also boasted of her favour with the
+Queen of Elfland and the good friends she had at that court,
+notwithstanding that she was sometimes in disgrace there, and had not
+seen the queen for seven years. She said William Sympson is with the
+fairies, and that he lets her know when they are coming; and that he
+taught her what remedies to use, and how to apply them. She declared
+that when a whirlwind blew the fairies were commonly there, and that her
+cousin Sympson confessed that every year the tithe of them were taken
+away to hell. The celebrated Patrick Adamson, an excellent divine and
+accomplished scholar, created by James VI. Archbishop of St. Andrews,
+swallowed the prescriptions of this poor hypochondriac with good faith
+and will, eating a stewed fowl, and drinking out at two draughts a quart
+of claret, medicated with the drugs she recommended. According to the
+belief of the time, this Alison Pearson transferred the bishop's
+indisposition from himself to a white palfrey, which died in
+consequence. There is a very severe libel on him for this and other
+things unbecoming his order, with which he was charged, and from which
+we learn that Lethington and Buccleuch were seen by Dame Pearson in the
+Fairyland.[34] This poor woman's kinsman, Sympson, did not give better
+shelter to her than Thome Reid had done to her predecessor. The margin
+of the court-book again bears the melancholy and brief record,
+"_Convicta et combusta_."
+
+[Footnote 34: See "Scottish Poems," edited by John G. Dalzell, p. 321.]
+
+The two poor women last mentioned are the more to be pitied as, whether
+enthusiasts or impostors, they practised their supposed art exclusively
+for the advantage of mankind. The following extraordinary detail
+involves persons of far higher quality, and who sought to familiars for
+more baneful purposes.
+
+Katherine Munro, Lady Fowlis, by birth Katherine Ross of Balnagowan, of
+high rank, both by her own family and that of her husband, who was the
+fifteenth Baron of Fowlis, and chief of the warlike clan of Munro, had a
+stepmother's quarrel with Robert Munro, eldest son of her husband, which
+she gratified by forming a scheme for compassing his death by unlawful
+arts. Her proposed advantage in this was, that the widow of Robert, when
+he was thus removed, should marry with her brother, George Ross of
+Balnagowan; and for this purpose, her sister-in-law, the present Lady
+Balnagowan, was also to be removed. Lady Fowlis, if the indictment had a
+syllable of truth, carried on her practices with the least possible
+disguise. She assembled persons of the lowest order, stamped with an
+infamous celebrity as witches; and, besides making pictures or models in
+clay, by which they hoped to bewitch Robert Munro and Lady Balnagowan,
+they brewed, upon one occasion, poison so strong that a page tasting of
+it immediately took sickness. Another earthen jar (Scotticè _pig_) of
+the same deleterious liquor was prepared by the Lady Fowlis, and sent
+with her own nurse for the purpose of administering it to Robert Munro.
+The messenger having stumbled in the dark, broke the jar, and a rank
+grass grew on the spot where it fell, which sheep and cattle abhorred to
+touch; but the nurse, having less sense than the brute beasts, and
+tasting of the liquor which had been spilled, presently died. What is
+more to our present purpose, Lady Fowlis made use of the artillery of
+Elfland in order to destroy her stepson and sister-in-law. Laskie
+Loncart, one of the assistant hags, produced two of what the common
+people call elf-arrow heads, being, in fact, the points of flint used
+for arming the ends of arrow-shafts in the most ancient times, but
+accounted by the superstitious the weapons by which the fairies were
+wont to destroy both man and beast. The pictures of the intended victims
+were then set up at the north end of the apartment, and Christian Ross
+Malcolmson, an assistant hag, shot two shafts at the image of Lady
+Balnagowan, and three against the picture of Robert Munro, by which
+shots they were broken, and Lady Fowlis commanded new figures to be
+modelled. Many similar acts of witchcraft and of preparing poisons were
+alleged against Lady Fowlis.
+
+Her son-in-law, Hector Munro, one of his stepmother's prosecutors, was,
+for reasons of his own, active in a similar conspiracy against the life
+of his own brother. The rites that he practised were of an uncouth,
+barbarous, and unusual nature. Hector, being taken ill, consulted on his
+case some of the witches or soothsayers, to whom this family appears to
+have been partial. The answer was unanimous that he must die unless the
+principal man of his blood should suffer death in his stead. It was
+agreed that the vicarious substitute for Hector must mean George Munro,
+brother to him by the half-blood (the son of the Katharine Lady Fowlis
+before commemorated). Hector sent at least seven messengers for this
+young man, refusing to receive any of his other friends till he saw the
+substitute whom he destined to take his place in the grave. When George
+at length arrived, Hector, by advice of a notorious witch, called Marion
+MacIngarach, and of his own foster-mother, Christian Neil Dalyell,
+received him with peculiar coldness and restraint. He did not speak for
+the space of an hour, till his brother broke silence and asked, "How he
+did?" Hector replied, "That he was the better George had come to visit
+him," and relapsed into silence, which seemed singular when compared
+with the anxiety he had displayed to see his brother; but it was, it
+seems, a necessary part of the spell. After midnight the sorceress
+Marion MacIngarach, the chief priestess or Nicneven of the company, went
+forth with her accomplices, carrying spades with them. They then
+proceeded to dig a grave not far from the seaside, upon a piece of land
+which formed the boundary betwixt two proprietors. The grave was made as
+nearly as possible to the size of their patient Hector Munro, the earth
+dug out of the grave being laid aside for the time. After ascertaining
+that the operation of the charm on George Munro, the destined victim,
+should be suspended for a time, to avoid suspicion, the conspirators
+proceeded to work their spell in a singular, impressive, and, I believe,
+unique manner. The time being January, 1588, the patient, Hector Munro,
+was borne forth in a pair of blankets, accompanied with all who were
+entrusted with the secret, who were warned to be strictly silent till
+the chief sorceress should have received her information from the angel
+whom they served. Hector Munro was carried to his grave and laid
+therein, the earth being filled in on him, and the grave secured with
+stakes as at a real funeral. Marion MacIngarach, the Hecate of the
+night, then sat down by the grave, while Christian Neil Dalyell, the
+foster-mother, ran the breadth of about nine ridges distant, leading a
+boy in her hand, and, coming again to the grave where Hector Munro was
+interred alive, demanded of the witch which victim she would choose, who
+replied that she chose Hector to live and George to die in his stead.
+This form of incantation was thrice repeated ere Mr. Hector was removed
+from his chilling bed in a January grave and carried home, all remaining
+mute as before. The consequence of a process which seems ill-adapted to
+produce the former effect was that Hector Munro recovered, and after the
+intervention of twelve months George Munro, his brother, died. Hector
+took the principal witch into high favour, made her keeper of his sheep,
+and evaded, it is said, to present her to trial when charged at Aberdeen
+to produce her. Though one or two inferior persons suffered death on
+account of the sorceries practised in the house of Fowlis, the Lady
+Katharine and her stepson Hector had both the unusual good fortune to be
+found not guilty. Mr. Pitcairn remarks that the juries, being composed
+of subordinate persons not suitable to the rank or family of the person
+tried, has all the appearance of having been packed on purpose for
+acquittal. It might also, in some interval of good sense, creep into the
+heads of Hector Munro's assize that the enchantment being performed in
+January, 1588, and the deceased being only taken ill of his fatal
+disease in April, 1590, the distance between the events might seem too
+great to admit the former being regarded as the cause of the latter.[35]
+
+[Footnote 35: Pitcairn's "Trials," vol. i. pp. 191-201.]
+
+Another instance of the skill of a sorcerer being traced to the
+instructions of the elves is found in the confession of John Stewart,
+called a vagabond, but professing skill in palmistry and jugglery, and
+accused of having assisted Margaret Barclay, or Dein, to sink or cast
+away a vessel belonging to her own good brother. It being demanded of
+him by what means he professed himself to have knowledge of things to
+come, the said John confessed that the space of twenty-six years ago, he
+being travelling on All-Hallow Even night, between the towns of Monygoif
+(so spelled) and Clary, in Galway, he met with the King of the Fairies
+and his company, and that the King of the Fairies gave him a stroke with
+a white rod over the forehead, which took from him the power of speech
+and the use of one eye, which he wanted for the space of three years. He
+declared that the use of speech and eyesight was restored to him by the
+King of Fairies and his company, on an Hallowe'en night, at the town of
+Dublin, in Ireland, and that since that time he had joined these people
+every Saturday at seven o'clock, and remained with them all the night;
+also, that they met every Hallow-tide, sometimes on Lanark Hill
+(Tintock, perhaps), sometimes on Kilmaurs Hill, and that he was then
+taught by them. He pointed out the spot of his forehead on which, he
+said, the King of the Fairies struck him with a white rod, whereupon the
+prisoner, being blindfolded, they pricked the spot with a large pin,
+whereof he expressed no sense or feeling. He made the usual declaration,
+that he had seen many persons at the Court of Fairy, whose names he
+rehearsed particularly, and declared that all such persons as are taken
+away by sudden death go with the King of Elfland. With this man's
+evidence we have at present no more to do, though we may revert to the
+execrable proceedings which then took place against this miserable
+juggler and the poor women who were accused of the same crime. At
+present it is quoted as another instance of a fortune-teller referring
+to Elfland as the source of his knowledge.
+
+At Auldearne, a parish and burgh of barony in the county of Nairne, the
+epidemic terror of witches seems to have gone very far. The confession
+of a woman called Isobel Gowdie, of date April, 1662, implicates, as
+usual, the Court of Fairy, and blends the operations of witchcraft with
+the facilities afforded by the fairies. These need be the less insisted
+upon in this place, as the arch-fiend, and not the elves, had the
+immediate agency in the abominations which she narrates. Yet she had
+been, she said, in the Dounie Hills, and got meat there from the Queen
+of Fairies more than she could eat. She added, that the queen is bravely
+clothed in white linen and in white and brown cloth, that the King of
+Fairy is a brave man; and there were elf-bulls roaring and _skoilling_
+at the entrance of their palace, which frightened her much. On another
+occasion this frank penitent confesses her presence at a rendezvous of
+witches, Lammas, 1659, where, after they had rambled through the country
+in different shapes--of cats, hares, and the like--eating, drinking, and
+wasting the goods of their neighbours into whose houses they could
+penetrate, they at length came to the dounie Hills, where the mountain
+opened to receive them, and they entered a fair big room, as bright as
+day. At the entrance ramped and roared the large fairy bulls, which
+always alarmed Isobel Gowdie. These animals are probably the
+water-bulls, famous both in Scottish and Irish tradition, which are not
+supposed to be themselves altogether _canny_ or safe to have concern
+with. In their caverns the fairies manufactured those elf-arrow heads
+with which the witches and they wrought so much evil. The elves and the
+arch-fiend laboured jointly at this task, the former forming and
+sharpening the dart from the rough flint, and the latter perfecting and
+finishing (or, as it is called, _dighting_) it. Then came the sport of
+the meeting. The witches bestrode either corn-straws, bean-stalks, or
+rushes, and calling, "Horse and Hattock, in the Devil's name!" which is
+the elfin signal for mounting, they flew wherever they listed. If the
+little whirlwind which accompanies their transportation passed any
+mortal who neglected to bless himself, all such fell under the witches'
+power, and they acquired the right of shooting at him. The penitent
+prisoner gives the names of many whom she and her sisters had so slain,
+the death for which she was most sorry being that of William Brown, in
+the Milntown of Mains. A shaft was also aimed at the Reverend Harrie
+Forbes, a minister who was present at the examination of Isobel, the
+confessing party. The arrow fell short, and the witch would have taken
+aim again, but her master forbade her, saying the reverend gentleman's
+life was not subject to their power. To this strange and very particular
+confession we shall have occasion to recur when witchcraft is the more
+immediate subject. What is above narrated marks the manner in which the
+belief in that crime was blended with the fairy superstition.
+
+To proceed to more modern instances of persons supposed to have fallen
+under the power of the fairy race, we must not forget the Reverend
+Robert Kirke, minister of the Gospel, the first translator of the Psalms
+into Gaelic verse. He was, in the end of the seventeenth century,
+successively minister of the Highland parishes of Balquidder and
+Aberfoyle, lying in the most romantic district of Perthshire, and within
+the Highland line. These beautiful and wild regions, comprehending so
+many lakes, rocks, sequestered valleys, and dim copsewoods, are not even
+yet quite abandoned by the fairies, who have resolutely maintained
+secure footing in a region so well suited for their residence. Indeed,
+so much was this the case formerly, that Mr. Kirke, while in his latter
+charge of Aberfoyle, found materials for collecting and compiling his
+Essay on the "Subterranean and for the most part Invisible People
+heretofore going under the name of Elves, Fawnes, and Fairies, or the
+like."[36] In this discourse, the author, "with undoubting mind,"
+describes the fairy race as a sort of astral spirits, of a kind betwixt
+humanity and angels--says, that they have children, nurses, marriages,
+deaths, and burials, like mortals in appearance; that, in some respect,
+they represent mortal men, and that individual apparitions, or
+double-men, are found among them, corresponding with mortals existing on
+earth. Mr. Kirke accuses them of stealing the milk from the cows, and of
+carrying away, what is more material, the women in pregnancy, and
+new-born children from their nurses. The remedy is easy in both cases.
+The milk cannot be stolen if the mouth of the calf, before he is
+permitted to suck, be rubbed with a certain balsam, very easily come by;
+and the woman in travail is safe if a piece of cold iron is put into the
+bed. Mr. Kirke accounts for this by informing us that the great northern
+mines of iron, lying adjacent to the place of eternal punishment, have a
+savour odious to these "fascinating creatures." They have, says the
+reverend author, what one would not expect, many light toyish books
+(novels and plays, doubtless), others on Rosycrucian subjects, and of an
+abstruse mystical character; but they have no Bibles or works of
+devotion. The essayist fails not to mention the elf-arrow heads, which
+have something of the subtlety of thunderbolts, and can mortally wound
+the vital parts without breaking the skin. These wounds, he says, he has
+himself observed in beasts, and felt the fatal lacerations which he
+could not see.
+
+[Footnote 36: The title continues:--"Among the Low Country Scots, as
+they are described by those who have the second sight, and now, to
+occasion farther enquiry, collected and compared by a circumspect
+enquirer residing among the Scottish-Irish (_i.e._, the Gael, or
+Highlanders) in Scotland." It was printed with the author's name in
+1691, and reprinted, Edinburgh, 1815, for Longman & Co.]
+
+It was by no means to be supposed that the elves, so jealous and
+irritable a race as to be incensed against those who spoke of them under
+their proper names, should be less than mortally offended at the
+temerity of the reverend author, who had pryed so deeply into their
+mysteries, for the purpose of giving them to the public. Although,
+therefore, the learned divine's monument, with his name duly inscribed,
+is to be seen at the east end of the churchyard at Aberfoyle, yet those
+acquainted with his real history do not believe that he enjoys the
+natural repose of the tomb. His successor, the Rev. Dr. Grahame, has
+informed us of the general belief that, as Mr. Kirke was walking one
+evening in his night-gown upon a _Dun-shi,_ or fairy mount, in the
+vicinity of the manse or parsonage, behold! he sunk down in what seemed
+to be a fit of apoplexy, which the unenlightened took for death, while
+the more understanding knew it to be a swoon produced by the
+supernatural influence of the people whose precincts he had violated.
+After the ceremony of a seeming funeral, the form of the Rev. Robert
+Kirke appeared to a relation, and commanded him to go to Grahame of
+Duchray, ancestor of the present General Graham Stirling. "Say to
+Duchray, who is my cousin as well as your own, that I am not dead, but a
+captive in Fairyland, and only one chance remains for my liberation.
+When the posthumous child, of which my wife has been delivered since my
+disappearance, shall be brought to baptism, I will appear in the room,
+when, if Duchray shall throw over my head the knife or dirk which he
+holds in his hand, I may be restored to society; but if this opportunity
+is neglected, I am lost for ever." Duchray was apprised of what was to
+be done. The ceremony took place, and the apparition of Mr. Kirke was
+visibly seen while they were seated at table; but Grahame of Duchray, in
+his astonishment, failed to perform the ceremony enjoined, and it is to
+be feared that Mr. Kirke still "drees his weird in Fairyland," the Elfin
+state declaring to him, as the Ocean to poor Falconer, who perished at
+sea after having written his popular poem of "The Shipwreck"--
+
+"Thou hast proclaimed our power--be thou our prey!"
+
+Upon this subject the reader may consult a very entertaining little
+volume, called "Sketches of Perthshire,"[37] by the Rev. Dr. Grahame of
+Aberfoyle. The terrible visitation of fairy vengeance which has lighted
+upon Mr. Kirke has not intimidated his successor, an excellent man and
+good antiquary, from affording us some curious information on fairy
+superstition. He tells us that these capricious elves are chiefly
+dangerous on a Friday, when, as the day of the Crucifixion, evil spirits
+have most power, and mentions their displeasure at any one who assumes
+their accustomed livery of green, a colour fatal to several families in
+Scotland, to the whole race of the gallant Grahames in particular;
+insomuch that we have heard that in battle a Grahame is generally shot
+through the green check of his plaid; moreover, that a veteran sportsman
+of the name, having come by a bad fall, he thought it sufficient to
+account for it, that he had a piece of green whip-cord to complete the
+lash of his hunting-whip. I remember, also, that my late amiable friend,
+James Grahame, author of "The Sabbath," would not break through this
+ancient prejudice of his clan, but had his library table covered with
+blue or black cloth, rather than use the fated colour commonly employed
+on such occasions.
+
+[Footnote 37: Edinburgh, 1812.]
+
+To return from the Perthshire fairies, I may quote a story of a nature
+somewhat similar to that of Mas Robert Kirke. The life of the excellent
+person who told it was, for the benefit of her friends and the poor,
+protracted to an unusual duration; so I conceive that this adventure,
+which took place in her childhood, might happen before the middle of
+last century. She was residing with some relations near the small
+seaport town of North Berwick, when the place and its vicinity were
+alarmed by the following story:--
+
+An industrious man, a weaver in the little town, was married to a
+beautiful woman, who, after bearing two or three children, was so
+unfortunate as to die during the birth of a fourth child. The infant was
+saved, but the mother had expired in convulsions; and as she was much
+disfigured after death, it became an opinion among her gossips that,
+from some neglect of those who ought to have watched the sick woman, she
+must have been carried off by the elves, and this ghastly corpse
+substituted in the place of the body. The widower paid little attention
+to these rumours, and, after bitterly lamenting his wife for a year of
+mourning, began to think on the prudence of forming a new marriage,
+which, to a poor artisan with so young a family, and without the
+assistance of a housewife, was almost a matter of necessity. He readily
+found a neighbour with whose good looks he was satisfied, whilst her
+character for temper seemed to warrant her good usage of his children.
+He proposed himself and was accepted, and carried the names of the
+parties to the clergyman (called, I believe, Mr. Matthew Reid) for the
+due proclamation of banns. As the man had really loved his late partner,
+it is likely that this proposed decisive alteration of his condition
+brought back many reflections concerning the period of their union, and
+with these recalled the extraordinary rumours which were afloat at the
+time of her decease, so that the whole forced upon him the following
+lively dream:--As he lay in his bed, awake as he thought, he beheld, at
+the ghostly hour of midnight, the figure of a female dressed in white,
+who entered his hut, stood by the side of his bed, and appeared to him
+the very likeness of his late wife. He conjured her to speak, and with
+astonishment heard her say, like the minister of Aberfoyle, that she was
+not dead, but the unwilling captive of the Good Neighbours. Like Mr.
+Kirke, too, she told him that if all the love which he once had for her
+was not entirely gone, an opportunity still remained of recovering her,
+or _winning her back_, as it was usually termed, from the comfortless
+realms of Elfland. She charged him on a certain day of the ensuing week
+that he should convene the most respectable housekeepers in the town,
+with the clergyman at their head, and should disinter the coffin in
+which she was supposed to have been buried. "The clergyman is to recite
+certain prayers, upon which," said the apparition, "I will start from
+the coffin and fly with great speed round the church, and you must have
+the fleetest runner of the parish (naming a man famed for swiftness) to
+pursue me, and such a one, the smith, renowned for his strength, to hold
+me fast after I am overtaken; and in that case I shall, by the prayers
+of the church, and the efforts of my loving husband and neighbours,
+again recover my station in human society." In the morning the poor
+widower was distressed with the recollection of his dream, but, ashamed
+and puzzled, took no measures in consequence. A second night, as is not
+very surprising, the visitation was again repeated. On the third night
+she appeared with a sorrowful and displeased countenance, upbraided him
+with want of love and affection, and conjured him, for the last time, to
+attend to her instructions, which, if he now neglected, she would never
+have power to visit earth or communicate with him again. In order to
+convince him there was no delusion, he "saw in his dream" that she took
+up the nursling at whose birth she had died, and gave it suck; she
+spilled also a drop or two of her milk on the poor man's bed-clothes, as
+if to assure him of the reality of the vision.
+
+The next morning the terrified widower carried a statement of his
+perplexity to Mr. Matthew Reid, the clergyman. This reverend person,
+besides being an excellent divine in other respects, was at the same
+time a man of sagacity, who understood the human passions. He did not
+attempt to combat the reality of the vision which had thrown his
+parishioner into this tribulation, but he contended it could be only an
+illusion of the devil. He explained to the widower that no created being
+could have the right or power to imprison or detain the soul of a
+Christian--conjured him not to believe that his wife was otherwise
+disposed of than according to God's pleasure--assured him that
+Protestant doctrine utterly denies the existence of any middle state in
+the world to come--and explained to him that he, as a clergyman of the
+Church of Scotland, neither could nor dared authorize opening graves or
+using the intervention of prayer to sanction rites of a suspicious
+character. The poor man, confounded and perplexed by various feelings,
+asked his pastor what he should do. "I will give you my best advice,"
+said the clergyman. "Get your new bride's consent to be married
+to-morrow, or to-day, if you can; I will take it on me to dispense with
+the rest of the banns, or proclaim them three times in one day. You will
+have a new wife, and, if you think of the former, it will be only as of
+one from whom death has separated you, and for whom you may have
+thoughts of affection and sorrow, but as a saint in Heaven, and not as a
+prisoner in Elfland." The advice was taken, and the perplexed widower
+had no more visitations from his former spouse.
+
+An instance, perhaps the latest which has been made public, of
+communication with the Restless People--(a more proper epithet than that
+of _Daoine Shi_, or Men of Peace, as they are called in Gaelic)--came
+under Pennant's notice so late as during that observant traveller's tour
+in 1769. Being perhaps the latest news from the invisible commonwealth,
+we give the tourist's own words.
+
+"A poor visionary who had been working in his cabbage-garden (in
+Breadalbane) imagined that he was raised suddenly up into the air, and
+conveyed over a wall into an adjacent corn-field; that he found himself
+surrounded by a crowd of men and women, many of whom he knew to have
+been dead for some years, and who appeared to him skimming over the tops
+of the unbending corn, and mingling together like bees going to hive;
+that they spoke an unknown language, and with a hollow sound; that they
+very roughly pushed him to and fro, but on his uttering the name of God
+all vanished, but a female sprite, who, seizing him by the shoulder,
+obliged him to promise an assignation at that very hour that day
+seven-night; that he then found his hair was all tied in double knots
+(well known by the name of elf-locks), and that he had almost lost his
+speech; that he kept his word with the spectre, whom he soon saw
+floating through the air towards him; that he spoke to her, but she told
+him she was at that time in too much haste to attend to him, but bid him
+go away and no harm should befall him, and so the affair rested when I
+left the country. But it is incredible the mischief these _ægri somnia_
+did in the neighbourhood. The friends and neighbours of the deceased,
+whom the old dreamer had named, were in the utmost anxiety at finding
+them in such bad company in the other world; the almost extinct belief
+of the old idle tales began to gain ground, and the good minister will
+have many a weary discourse and exhortation before he can eradicate the
+absurd ideas this idle story has revived."[38]
+
+[Footnote 38: Pennant's "Tour in Scotland," vol. i. p. 110.]
+
+It is scarcely necessary to add that this comparatively recent tale is
+just the counterpart of the story of Bessie Dunlop, Alison Pearson, and
+of the Irish butler who was so nearly carried off, all of whom found in
+Elfland some friend, formerly of middle earth, who attached themselves
+to the child of humanity, and who endeavoured to protect a fellow-mortal
+against their less philanthropic companions.
+
+These instances may tend to show how the fairy superstition, which, in
+its general sense of worshipping the _Dii Campestres_, was much the
+older of the two, came to bear upon and have connexion with that horrid
+belief in witchcraft which cost so many innocent persons and crazy
+impostors their lives for the supposed commission of impossible crimes.
+In the next chapter I propose to trace how the general disbelief in the
+fairy creed began to take place, and gradually brought into discredit
+the supposed feats of witchcraft, which afforded pretext for such cruel
+practical consequences.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VI.
+
+    Immediate Effect of Christianity on Articles of Popular
+    Superstition--Chaucer's Account of the Roman Catholic Priests
+    banishing the Fairies--Bishop Corbett imputes the same Effect to the
+    Reformation--His Verses on that Subject--His Iter
+    Septentrionale--Robin Goodfellow and other Superstitions mentioned
+    by Reginald Scot--Character of the English Fairies--The Tradition
+    had become obsolete in that Author's Time--That of Witches remained
+    in vigour--But impugned by various Authors after the Reformation, as
+    Wierus, Naudæus, Scot, and others--Demonology defended by Bodinus,
+    Remigius, &c.--Their mutual Abuse of each other--Imperfection of
+    Physical Science at this Period, and the Predominance of Mysticism
+    in that Department.
+
+
+Although the influence of the Christian religion was not introduced to
+the nations of Europe with such radiance as to dispel at once those
+clouds of superstition which continued to obscure the understanding of
+hasty and ill-instructed converts, there can be no doubt that its
+immediate operation went to modify the erroneous and extravagant
+articles of credulity which lingered behind the old pagan faith, and
+which gave way before it, in proportion as its light became more pure
+and refined from the devices of men.
+
+The poet Chaucer, indeed, pays the Church of Rome, with its monks and
+preaching friars, the compliment of having, at an early period, expelled
+from the land all spirits of an inferior and less holy character. The
+verses are curious as well as picturesque, and may go some length to
+establish the existence of doubts concerning the general belief in
+fairies among the well-instructed in the time of Edward III.
+
+The fairies of whom the bard of Woodstock talks are, it will be
+observed, the ancient Celtic breed, and he seems to refer for the
+authorities of his tale to Bretagne, or Armorica, a genuine Celtic
+colony:--
+
+"In old time of the King Artour,
+Of which that Bretons speken great honour,
+All was this land fulfilled of faerie;
+The Elf queen, with her joly company,
+Danced full oft in many a grene mead.
+This was the old opinion, as I rede--
+I speake of many hundred years ago,
+But now can no man see no elves mo.
+For now the great charity and prayers
+Of limitours,[39] and other holy freres,
+That searchen every land and every stream,
+As thick as motes in the sunne-beam,
+Blessing halls, chambers, kitchenes, and boures,
+Cities and burghes, castles high and towers,
+Thropes and barnes, sheep-pens and dairies,
+This maketh that there ben no fairies.
+For there as wont to walken was an elf,
+There walketh now the limitour himself,
+In under nichtes and in morwenings,
+And saith his mattins and his holy things,
+As he goeth in his limitation.
+Women may now go safely up and doun;
+In every bush, and under every tree,
+There is no other incubus than he,
+And he ne will don them no dishonour."[40]
+
+[Footnote 39: Friars limited to beg within a certain district.]
+
+[Footnote 40: "Wife of Bath's Tale."]
+
+When we see the opinion which Chaucer has expressed of the regular
+clergy of his time, in some of his other tales, we are tempted to
+suspect some mixture of irony in the compliment which ascribes the exile
+of the fairies, with whih the land was "fulfilled" in King Arthur's
+time, to the warmth and zeal of the devotion of the limitary friars.
+Individual instances of scepticism there might exist among scholars, but
+a more modern poet, with a vein of humour not unworthy of Geoffrey
+himself, has with greater probability delayed the final banishment of
+the fairies from England, that is, from popular faith, till the reign of
+Queen Elizabeth, and has represented their expulsion as a consequence of
+the change of religion. Two or three verses of this lively satire may be
+very well worth the reader's notice, who must, at the same time, be
+informed that the author, Dr. Corbett, was nothing less than the Bishop
+of Oxford and Norwich in the beginning of the seventeenth century. The
+poem is named "A proper new Ballad, entitled the Fairies' Farewell, to
+be sung or whistled to the tune of the Meadow Brow by the learned; by
+the unlearned to the tune of Fortune:"--
+
+     "Farewell, rewards and fairies,
+       Good housewives now may say,
+     For now foul sluts in dairies
+       Do fare as well as they;
+     And though they sweep their hearths no less
+       Than maids were wont to do,
+     Yet who of late for cleanliness
+       Finds sixpence in her shoe?
+
+     "Lament, lament, old abbies,
+       The fairies' lost command;
+     They did but change priests' babies,
+       But some have changed your land;
+     And all your children sprung from hence
+       Are now grown Puritans,
+     Who live as changelings ever since
+       For love of your domains.
+
+     "At morning and at evening both,
+       You merry were and glad,
+     So little care of sleep and sloth
+       Those pretty ladies had.
+     When Tom came home from labour.
+       Or Cis to milking rose,
+     Then merrily, merrily went their tabor,
+       And merrily went their toes.
+
+     "Witness those rings and roundelays
+       Of theirs, which yet remain,
+     Were footed, in Queen Mary's days,
+       On many a grassy plain;
+     But since of late Elizabeth,
+       And later James came in,
+     They never danced on any heath
+       As when the time hath bin.
+
+     "By which we note, the fairies
+       Were of the old profession,
+     Their songs were Ave Maries,
+       Their dances were procession.
+     But now, alas! they all are dead,
+       Or gone beyond the seas;
+     Or farther for religion fled,
+       Or else they take their ease."
+
+The remaining part of the poem is dedicated to the praise and glory of
+old William Chourne of Staffordshire, who remained a true and stanch
+evidence in behalf of the departed elves, and kept, much it would seem
+to the amusement of the witty bishop, an inexhaustible record of their
+pranks and feats, whence the concluding verse--
+
+"To William all give audience,
+  And pray ye for his noddle,
+For all the fairies' evidence
+  Were lost if that were addle."[41]
+
+[Footnote 41: Corbett's Poems, edited by Octavuis Gilchrist, p. 213.]
+
+This William Chourne appears to have attended Dr. Corbett's party on the
+_iter septentrionale_, "two of which were, and two desired to be,
+doctors;" but whether William was guide, friend, or domestic seems
+uncertain. The travellers lose themselves in the mazes of Chorley Forest
+on their way to Bosworth, and their route becomes so confused that they
+return on their steps and labour--
+
+     "As in a conjuror's circle--William found
+     A mean for our deliverance,--'Turn your cloaks,'
+     Quoth he, 'for Puck is busy in these oaks;
+     If ever you at Bosworth would be found,
+     Then turn your cloaks, for this is fairy ground.'
+     But ere this witchcraft was performed, we meet
+     A very man who had no cloven feet.
+     Though William, still of little faith, has doubt,
+     'Tis Robin, or some sprite that walks about.
+     'Strike him,' quoth he, 'and it will turn to air--
+     Cross yourselves thrice and strike it.'--'Strike that dare,'
+     Thought I, 'for sure this massy forester,
+     In strokes will prove the better conjuror.'
+     But 'twas a gentle keeper, one that knew
+     Humanity and manners, where they grew,
+     And rode along so far, till he could say,
+     'See, yonder Bosworth stands, and this your way.'"[42]
+
+[Footnote 42: Corbett's Poems, p. 191.]
+
+In this passage the bishop plainly shows the fairies maintained their
+influence in William's imagination, since the courteous keeper was
+mistaken by their associate champion for Puck or Robin Goodfellow. The
+spells resorted to to get rid of his supposed delusions are
+alternatively that of turning the cloak--(recommended in visions of the
+second-sight or similar illusions as a means of obtaining a certainty
+concerning the being which is before imperfectly seen[43])--and that of
+exorcising the spirit with a cudgel; which last, Corbett prudently
+thinks, ought not to be resorted to unless under an absolute conviction
+that the exorcist is the stronger party. Chaucer, therefore, could not
+be serious in averring that the fairy superstitions were obsolete in his
+day, since they were found current three centuries afterwards.
+
+[Footnote 43: A common instance is that of a person haunted with a
+resemblance whose face he cannot see. If he turn his cloak or plaid, he
+will obtain the full sight which he desires, and may probably find it to
+be his own fetch, or wraith, or double-ganger.]
+
+It is not the less certain that, as knowledge and religion became more
+widely and brightly displayed over any country, the superstitious
+fancies of the people sunk gradually in esteem and influence; and in the
+time of Queen Elizabeth the unceasing labour of many and popular
+preachers, who declaimed against the "splendid miracles" of the Church
+of Rome, produced also its natural effect upon the other stock of
+superstitions. "Certainly," said Reginald Scot, talking of times before
+his own, "some one knave in a white sheet hath cozened and abused many
+thousands, specially when Robin Goodfellow kept such a coil in the
+country. In our childhood our mothers' maids have so terrified us with
+an ugly devil having horns on his head, fire in his mouth, and a tail at
+his breech; eyes like a basin, fangs like a dog, claws like a bear, a
+skin like a negro, and a voice roaring like a lion, whereby we start and
+are afraid when we hear one cry, Boh! and they have so frayd us with
+bull-beggars, spirits, witches, urchins, elves, hags, fairies, satyrs,
+Pans, faunes, sylvans, Kitt-with-the-candlestick, tritons, centaurs,
+dwarfs, giants, imps, calcars, conjurers, nymphs, changelings, incubus,
+Robin Goodfellow, the spoorn, the man-in-the-oak, the hellwain, the
+fire-drake, the puckle, Tom Thumb, Hobgoblin, Tom Tumbler, Boneless, and
+such other bugbears, that we are afraid of our own shadows, insomuch
+that some never fear the devil but on a dark night; and then a polled
+sheep is a perilous beast, and many times is taken for our father's
+soul, specially in a churchyard, where a right hardy man heretofore
+durst not to have passed by night but his hair would stand upright.
+Well, thanks be to God, this wretched and cowardly infidelity, since the
+preaching of the Gospel, is in part forgotten, and doubtless the rest of
+these illusions will in a short time, by God's grace, be detected and
+vanish away."[44]
+
+[Footnote 44: Reginald Scot's "Discovery of Witchcraft," book vii. chap.
+15.]
+
+It would require a better demonologist than I am to explain the various
+obsolete superstitions which Reginald Scot has introduced as articles of
+the old English faith, into the preceding passage. I might indeed say
+the Phuca is a Celtic superstition, from which the word Pook or Puckle
+was doubtless derived; and I might conjecture that the man-in-the-oak
+was the same with the Erl-König of the Germans; and that the hellwain
+were a kind of wandering spirits, the descendants of a champion named
+Hellequin, who are introduced into the romance of Richard sans Peur. But
+most antiquaries will be at fault concerning the spoorn,
+Kitt-with-the-candlestick, Boneless, and some others. The catalogue,
+however, serves to show what progress the English have made in two
+centuries, in forgetting the very names of objects which had been the
+sources of terror to their ancestors of the Elizabethan age.
+
+Before leaving the subject of fairy superstition in England we may
+remark that it was of a more playful and gentle, less wild and
+necromantic character, than that received among the sister people. The
+amusements of the southern fairies were light and sportive; their
+resentments were satisfied with pinching or scratching the objects of
+their displeasure; their peculiar sense of cleanliness rewarded the
+housewives with the silver token in the shoe; their nicety was extreme
+concerning any coarseness or negligence which could offend their
+delicacy; and I cannot discern, except, perhaps, from the insinuations
+of some scrupulous divines, that they were vassals to or in close
+alliance with the infernals, as there is too much reason to believe was
+the case with their North British sisterhood.[45] The common nursery
+story cannot be forgotten, how, shortly after the death of what is
+called a nice tidy housewife, the Elfin band was shocked to see that a
+person of different character, with whom the widower had filled his
+deserted arms, instead of the nicely arranged little loaf of the whitest
+bread, and a basin of sweet cream, duly placed for their refreshment by
+the deceased, had substituted a brown loaf and a cobb of herrings.
+Incensed at such a coarse regale, the elves dragged the peccant
+housewife out of bed, and pulled her down the wooden stairs by the
+heels, repeating, at the same time, in scorn of her churlish
+hospitality--
+
+"Brown bread and herring cobb!
+ Thy fat sides shall have many a bob!"
+
+But beyond such playful malice they had no desire to extend their
+resentment.
+
+[Footnote 45: Dr. Jackson, in his "Treatise on Unbelief," opines for the
+severe opinion. "Thus are the Fayries, from difference of events
+ascribed to them, divided into good and bad, when as it is but one and
+the same malignant fiend that meddles in both; seeking sometimes to be
+feared, otherwhiles to be loued as God, for the bodily harmes or good
+turnes supposed to be in his power."--Jackson on Unbelief, p. 178, edit.
+1625.]
+
+The constant attendant upon the English Fairy court was the celebrated
+Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, who to the elves acted in some measure as the
+jester or clown of the company--(a character then to be found in the
+establishment of every person of quality)--or to use a more modern
+comparison, resembled the Pierrot of the pantomime. His jests were of
+the most simple and at the same time the broadest comic character--to
+mislead a clown on his path homeward, to disguise himself like a stool,
+in order to induce an old gossip to commit the egregious mistake of
+sitting down on the floor when she expected to repose on a chair, were
+his special enjoyments. If he condescended to do some work for the
+sleeping family, in which he had some resemblance to the Scottish
+household spirit called a Brownie, the selfish Puck was far from
+practising this labour on the disinterested principle of the northern
+goblin, who, if raiment or food was left in his way and for his use,
+departed from the family in displeasure. Robin Goodfellow, on the
+contrary, must have both his food and his rest, as Milton informs us,
+amid his other notices of country superstitions, in the poem of
+L'Allegro. And it is to be noticed that he represents these tales of the
+fairies, told round the cottage hearth, as of a cheerful rather than a
+serious cast; which illustrates what I have said concerning the milder
+character of the southern superstitions, as compared with those of the
+same class in Scotland--the stories of which are for the most part of a
+frightful and not seldom of a disgusting quality.
+
+Poor Robin, however, between whom and King Oberon Shakespeare contrives
+to keep a degree of distinct subordination, which for a moment deceives
+us by its appearance of reality, notwithstanding his turn for wit and
+humour, had been obscured by oblivion even in the days of Queen Bess. We
+have already seen, in a passage quoted from Reginald Scot, that the
+belief was fallen into abeyance; that which follows from the same author
+affirms more positively that Robin's date was over:--
+
+"Know ye this, by the way, that heretofore Robin Goodfellow and
+Hobgoblin were as terrible, and also as credible, to the people as hags
+and witches be now; and in time to come a witch will be as much derided
+and condemned, and as clearly perceived, as the illusion and knavery of
+Robin Goodfellow, upon whom there have gone as many and as credible
+tales as witchcraft, saving that it hath not pleased the translators of
+the Bible to call spirits by the name of Robin Goodfellow, as they have
+diviners, soothsayers, poisoners, and cozeners by the name of
+witches."[46] In the same tone Reginald Scot addresses the reader in the
+preface:--"To make a solemn suit to you that are partial readers to set
+aside partiality, to take in good part my writings, and with indifferent
+eyes to look upon my book, were labour lost and time ill-employed; for I
+should no more prevail herein than if, a hundred years since, I should
+have entreated your predecessors to believe that Robin Goodfellow, that
+great and ancient bull-beggar, had been but a cozening merchant, and no
+devil indeed. But Robin Goodfellow ceaseth now to be much feared, and
+Popery is sufficiently discovered; nevertheless, witches' charms and
+conjurers' cozenage are yet effectual." This passage seems clearly to
+prove that the belief in Robin Goodfellow and his fairy companions was
+now out of date; while that as to witchcraft, as was afterwards but too
+well shown, kept its ground against argument and controversy, and
+survived "to shed more blood."
+
+[Footnote 46: Reginald Scot's "Discovery of Witchcraft," book vii. chap,
+ii.]
+
+We are then to take leave of this fascinating article of the popular
+creed, having in it so much of interest to the imagination that we
+almost envy the credulity of those who, in the gentle moonlight of a
+summer night in England, amid the tangled glades of a deep forest, or
+the turfy swell of her romantic commons, could fancy they saw the
+fairies tracing their sportive ring. But it is in vain to regret
+illusions which, however engaging, must of necessity yield their place
+before the increase of knowledge, like shadows at the advance of morn.
+These superstitions have already survived their best and most useful
+purpose, having been embalmed in the poetry of Milton and of
+Shakespeare, as well as writers only inferior to these great names. Of
+Spenser we must say nothing, because in his "Faery Queen" the title is
+the only circumstance which connects his splendid allegory with the
+popular superstition, and, as he uses it, means nothing more than an
+Utopia or nameless country.
+
+With the fairy popular creed fell, doubtless, many subordinate articles
+of credulity in England, but the belief in witches kept its ground. It
+was rooted in the minds of the common people, as well by the easy
+solution it afforded of much which they found otherwise hard to explain,
+as in reverence to the Holy Scriptures, in which the word _witch,_ being
+used in several places, conveyed to those who did not trouble themselves
+about the nicety of the translation from the Eastern tongues, the
+inference that the same species of witches were meant as those against
+whom modern legislation had, in most European nations, directed the
+punishment of death. These two circumstances furnished the numerous
+believers in witchcraft with arguments in divinity and law which they
+conceived irrefragable. They might say to the theologist, Will you not
+believe in witches? the Scriptures aver their existence;--to the
+jurisconsult, Will you dispute the existence of a crime against which
+our own statute-book, and the code of almost all civilized countries,
+have attested, by laws upon which hundreds and thousands have been
+convicted, many or even most of whom have, by their judicial
+confessions, acknowledged their guilt and the justice of their
+punishment? It is a strange scepticism, they might add, which rejects
+the evidence of Scripture, of human legislature, and of the accused
+persons themselves.
+
+Notwithstanding these specious reasons, the sixteenth and seventeenth
+centuries were periods when the revival of learning, the invention of
+printing, the fearless investigations of the Reformers into subjects
+thought formerly too sacred for consideration of any save the clergy,
+had introduced a system of doubt, enquiry, disregard of authority, when
+unsupported by argument, and unhesitating exercise of the private
+judgment, on subjects which had occupied the bulls of popes and decrees
+of councils. In short, the spirit of the age was little disposed to
+spare error, however venerable, or countenance imposture, however
+sanctioned by length of time and universal acquiescence. Learned writers
+arose in different countries to challenge the very existence of this
+imaginary crime, to rescue the reputation of the great men whose
+knowledge, superior to that of their age, had caused them to be
+suspected of magic, and to put a stop to the horrid superstition whose
+victims were the aged, ignorant, and defenceless, and which could only
+be compared to that which sent victims of old through the fire to
+Moloch.
+
+The courageous interposition of those philosophers who opposed science
+and experience to the prejudices of superstition and ignorance, and in
+doing so incurred much misrepresentation, and perhaps no little
+ill-will, in the cause of truth and humanity, claim for them some
+distinction in a work on Demonology. The pursuers of exact science to
+its coy retreats, were sure to be the first to discover that the most
+remarkable phenomena in Nature are regulated by certain fixed laws, and
+cannot rationally be referred to supernatural agency, the sufficing
+cause to which superstition attributes all that is beyond her own narrow
+power of explanation. Each advance in natural knowledge teaches us that
+it is the pleasure of the Creator to govern the world by the laws which
+he has imposed, and which are not in our times interrupted or suspended.
+
+The learned Wier, or Wierus, was a man of great research in physical
+science, and studied under the celebrated Cornelius Agrippa, against
+whom the charge of sorcery was repeatedly alleged by Paulus Jovius and
+other authors, while he suffered, on the other hand, from the
+persecution of the inquisitors of the Church, whose accusation against
+this celebrated man was, that he denied the existence of spirits, a
+charge very inconsistent with that of sorcery, which consists in
+corresponding with them. Wierus, after taking his degree as a doctor of
+medicine, became physician to the Duke of Cleves, at whose court he
+practised for thirty years with the highest reputation. This learned
+man, disregarding the scandal which, by so doing, he was likely to bring
+upon himself, was one of the first who attacked the vulgar belief, and
+boldly assailed, both by serious arguments and by ridicule, the vulgar
+credulity on the subject of wizards and witches.
+
+Gabriel Naudé, or Naudæus, as he termed himself, was a perfect scholar
+and man of letters, busied during his whole life with assembling books
+together, and enjoying the office of librarian to several persons of
+high rank, amongst others, to Queen Christina of Sweden. He was,
+besides, a beneficed clergyman, leading a most unblemished life, and so
+temperate as never to taste any liquor stronger than water; yet did he
+not escape the scandal which is usually flung by their prejudiced
+contemporaries upon those disputants whom it is found more easy to
+defame than to answer. He wrote an interesting work, entitled "Apologie
+pour les Grands Homines Accusés de Magie;" and as he exhibited a good
+deal of vivacity of talent, and an earnestness in pleading his cause,
+which did not always spare some of the superstitions of Rome herself, he
+was charged by his contemporaries as guilty of heresy and scepticism,
+when justice could only accuse him of an incautious eagerness to make
+good his argument.
+
+Among persons who, upon this subject, purged their eyes with rue and
+euphrasie, besides the Rev. Dr. Harsnet and many others (who wrote
+rather on special cases of Demonology than on the general question),
+Reginald Scot ought to be distinguished. Webster assures us that he was
+a "person of competent learning, pious, and of a good family." He seems
+to have been a zealous Protestant, and much of his book, as well as that
+of Harsnet, is designed to throw upon the Papists in particular those
+tricks in which, by confederacy and imposture, the popular ideas
+concerning witchcraft, possession, and other supernatural fancies, were
+maintained and kept in exercise; but he also writes on the general
+question with some force and talent, considering that his subject is
+incapable of being reduced into a regular form, and is of a nature
+particularly seductive to an excursive talent. He appears to have
+studied legerdemain for the purpose of showing how much that is
+apparently unaccountable can nevertheless be performed without the
+intervention of supernatural assistance, even when it is impossible to
+persuade the vulgar that the devil has not been consulted on the
+occasion. Scot also had intercourse with some of the celebrated
+fortune-tellers, or Philomaths, of the time; one of whom he brings
+forward to declare the vanity of the science which he himself had once
+professed.
+
+To defend the popular belief of witchcraft there arose a number of
+advocates, of whom Bodin and some others neither wanted knowledge nor
+powers of reasoning. They pressed the incredulous party with the charge
+that they denied the existence of a crime against which the law had
+denounced a capital punishment. As that law was understood to emanate
+from James himself, who was reigning monarch during the hottest part of
+the controversy, the English authors who defended the opposite side were
+obliged to entrench themselves under an evasion, to avoid maintaining an
+argument unpalatable to a degree to those in power, and which might
+perchance have proved unsafe to those who used it. With a certain degree
+of sophistry they answered that they did not doubt the possibility of
+witches, but only demurred to what is their nature, and how they came to
+be such--according to the scholastic jargon, that the question in
+respect to witches was not _de existentia_, but only _de modo
+existendi_.
+
+By resorting to so subtle an argument those who impugned the popular
+belief were obliged, with some inconsistency, to grant that witchcraft
+had existed, and might exist, only insisting that it was a species of
+witchcraft consisting of they knew not what, but certainly of something
+different from that which legislators, judges, and juries had hitherto
+considered the statute as designed to repress.
+
+In the meantime (the rather that the debate was on a subject
+particularly difficult of comprehension) the debating parties grew warm,
+and began to call names. Bodin, a lively Frenchman of an irritable
+habit, explained the zeal of Wierus to protect the tribe of sorcerers
+from punishment, by stating that he himself was a conjurer and the
+scholar of Cornelius Agrippa, and might therefore well desire to save
+the lives of those accused of the same league with Satan. Hence they
+threw on their antagonists the offensive names of witch-patrons and
+witch-advocates, as if it were impossible for any to hold the opinion of
+Naudæus, Wierus, Scot, &c., without patronizing the devil and the
+witches against their brethren of mortality. Assailed by such heavy
+charges, the philosophers themselves lost patience, and retorted abuse
+in their turn, calling Bodin, Delrio, and others who used their
+arguments, witch-advocates, and the like, as the affirming and defending
+the existence of the crime seemed to increase the number of witches, and
+assuredly augmented the list of executions. But for a certain time the
+preponderance of the argument lay on the side of the Demonologists, and
+we may briefly observe the causes which gave their opinions, for a
+period, greater influence than their opponents on the public mind.
+
+It is first to be observed that Wierus, for what reason cannot well be
+conjectured, except to show the extent of his cabalistical knowledge,
+had introduced into his work against witchcraft the whole Stenographia
+of Trithemius, which he had copied from the original in the library of
+Cornelius Agrippa; and which, suspicious from the place where he found
+it, and from the long catalogue of fiends which it contained, with the
+charms for raising and for binding them to the service of mortals, was
+considered by Bodin as containing proof that Wierus himself was a
+sorcerer; not one of the wisest, certainly, since he thus unnecessarily
+placed at the disposal of any who might buy the book the whole secrets
+which formed his stock-in-trade.
+
+Secondly, we may notice that, from the state of physical science at the
+period when Van Helmont, Paracelsus, and others began to penetrate into
+its recesses, it was an unknown, obscure, and ill-defined region, and
+did not permit those who laboured in it to give that precise and
+accurate account of their discoveries which the progress of reasoning
+experimentally and from analysis has enabled the late discoverers to do
+with success. Natural magic--a phrase used to express those phenomena
+which could be produced by a knowledge of the properties of matter--had
+so much in it that was apparently uncombined and uncertain, that the art
+of chemistry was accounted mystical, and an opinion prevailed that the
+results now known to be the consequence of laws of matter, could not be
+traced through their various combinations even by those who knew the
+effects themselves. Physical science, in a word, was cumbered by a
+number of fanciful and incorrect opinions, chiefly of a mystical
+character. If, for instance, it was observed that a flag and a fern
+never grew near each other, the circumstance was imputed to some
+antipathy between these vegetables; nor was it for some time resolved by
+the natural rule, that the flag has its nourishment in marshy ground,
+whereas the fern loves a deep dryish soil. The attributes of the
+divining-rod were fully credited; the discovery of the philosopher's
+stone was daily hoped for; and electricity, magnetism, and other
+remarkable and misconceived phenomena were appealed to as proof of the
+reasonableness of their expectations. Until such phenomena were traced
+to their sources, imaginary and often mystical causes were assigned to
+them, for the same reason that, in the wilds of a partially discovered
+country, according to the satirist,
+
+"Geographers on pathless downs
+ Place elephants for want of towns."
+
+This substitution of mystical fancies for experimental reasoning gave,
+in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a doubtful and twilight
+appearance to the various branches of physical philosophy. The learned
+and sensible Dr. Webster, for instance, writing in detection of supposed
+witchcraft, assumes, as a string of undeniable facts, opinions which our
+more experienced age would reject as frivolous fancies; "for example,
+the effects of healing by the weapon-salve, the sympathetic powder, the
+curing of various diseases by apprehensions, amulets, or by
+transplantation." All of which undoubted wonders he accuses the age of
+desiring to throw on the devil's back--an unnecessary load certainly,
+since such things do not exist, and it is therefore in vain to seek to
+account for them. It followed that, while the opposers of the ordinary
+theory might have struck the deepest blows at the witch hypothesis by an
+appeal to common sense, they were themselves hampered by articles of
+philosophical belief which they must have been sensible contained nearly
+as deep draughts upon human credulity as were made by the Demonologists,
+against whose doctrine they protested. This error had a doubly bad
+effect, both as degrading the immediate department in which it occurred,
+and as affording a protection for falsehood in other branches of
+science. The champions who, in their own province, were obliged by the
+imperfect knowledge of the times to admit much that was mystical and
+inexplicable--those who opined, with Bacon, that warts could be cured by
+sympathy--who thought, with Napier, that hidden treasures could be
+discovered by the mathematics--who salved the weapon instead of the
+wound, and detected murders as well as springs of water by the
+divining-rod, could not consistently use, to confute the believers in
+witches, an argument turning on the impossible or the incredible.
+
+Such were the obstacles arising from the vanity of philosophers and the
+imperfection of their science, which suspended the strength of their
+appeal to reason and common sense against the condemning of wretches to
+a cruel death on account of crimes which the nature of things rendered
+in modern times totally impossible. We cannot doubt that they suffered
+considerably in the contest, which was carried on with much anger and
+malevolence; but the good seed which they had sown remained uncorrupted
+in the soil, to bear fruit so soon as the circumstances should be
+altered which at first impeded its growth. In the next letter I shall
+take a view of the causes which helped to remove these impediments, in
+addition, it must always be remembered, to the general increase of
+knowledge and improvement of experimental philosophy.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VII.
+
+       Penal Laws unpopular when rigidly exercised--Prosecution of Witches
+    placed in the hand of Special Commissioners, _ad
+    inquirendum_--Prosecution for Witchcraft not frequent in the Elder
+    Period of the Roman Empire--Nor in the Middle Ages--Some Cases took
+    place, however--The Maid of Orleans--The Duchess of
+    Gloucester--Richard the Third's Charge against the Relations of the
+    Queen Dowager--But Prosecutions against Sorcerers became more common
+    in the end of the Fourteenth Century--Usually united with the Charge
+    of Heresy--Monstrelet's Account of the Persecution against the
+    Waldenses, under pretext of Witchcraft--Florimond's Testimony
+    concerning the Increase of Witches in his own Time--Bull of Pope
+    Innocent VIII.--Various Prosecutions in Foreign Countries under this
+    severe Law--Prosecutions in Labourt by the Inquisitor De Lancre and
+    his Colleague--Lycanthropy--Witches in Spain--In Sweden--and
+    particularly those Apprehended at Mohra.
+
+
+Penal laws, like those of the Middle Ages, denounced against witchcraft,
+may be at first hailed with unanimous acquiescence and approbation, but
+are uniformly found to disgust and offend at least the more sensible
+part of the public when the punishments become frequent and are
+relentlessly inflicted. Those against treason are no exception. Each
+reflecting government will do well to shorten that melancholy reign of
+terror which perhaps must necessarily follow on the discovery of a plot
+or the defeat of an insurrection. They ought not, either in humanity or
+policy, to wait till the voice of the nation calls to them, as Mecænas
+to Augustus, "_Surge tandem carnifex_!"
+
+It is accordingly remarkable, in different countries, how often at some
+particular period of their history there occurred an epidemic of terror
+of witches, which, as fear is always cruel and credulous, glutted the
+public with seas of innocent blood; and how uniformly men loathed the
+gore after having swallowed it, and by a reaction natural to the human
+mind desired, in prudence, to take away or restrict those laws which had
+been the source of carnage, in order that their posterity might neither
+have the will nor the means to enter into similar excesses.
+
+A short review of foreign countries, before we come to notice the
+British Islands and their Colonies, will prove the truth of this
+statement. In Catholic countries on the Continent, the various kingdoms
+adopted readily that part of the civil law, already mentioned, which
+denounces sorcerers and witches as rebels to God, and authors of
+sedition in the empire. But being considered as obnoxious equally to the
+canon and civil law, Commissions of Inquisition were especially
+empowered to weed out of the land the witches and those who had
+intercourse with familiar spirits, or in any other respect fell under
+the ban of the Church, as well as the heretics who promulgated or
+adhered to false doctrine. Special warrants were thus granted from time
+to time in behalf of such inquisitors, authorizing them to visit those
+provinces of Germany, France, or Italy where any report concerning
+witches or sorcery had alarmed the public mind; and those Commissioners,
+proud of the trust reposed in them, thought it becoming to use the
+utmost exertions on their part, that the subtlety of the examinations,
+and the severity of the tortures they inflicted, might wring the truth
+out of all suspected persons, until they rendered the province in which
+they exercised their jurisdiction a desert from which the inhabitants
+fled. It would be impossible to give credit to the extent of this
+delusion, had not some of the inquisitors themselves been reporters of
+their own judicial exploits: the same hand which subscribed the sentence
+has recorded the execution.
+
+In the earlier period of the Church of Rome witchcraft is frequently
+alluded to, and a capital punishment assigned to those who were supposed
+to have accomplished by sorcery the death of others, or to have
+attempted, by false prophecies or otherwise, under pretext of consulting
+with the spiritual world, to make innovation in the state. But no
+general denunciation against witchcraft itself, as a league with the
+Enemy of Man, or desertion of the Deity, and a crime _sui generis_,
+appears to have been so acted upon, until the later period of the
+sixteenth century, when the Papal system had attained its highest pitch
+of power and of corruption. The influence of the Churchmen was in early
+times secure, and they rather endeavoured, by the fabrication of false
+miracles, to prolong the blind veneration of the people, than to vex
+others and weary themselves by secret investigations into dubious and
+mystical trespasses, in which probably the higher and better instructed
+members of the clerical order put as little faith at that time as they
+do now. Did there remain a mineral fountain, respected for the cures
+which it had wrought, a huge oak-tree, or venerated mount, which beauty
+of situation had recommended to traditional respect, the fathers of the
+Roman Church were in policy reluctant to abandon such impressive spots,
+or to represent them as exclusively the rendezvous of witches or of evil
+spirits. On the contrary, by assigning the virtues of the spring or the
+beauty of the tree to the guardianship of some saint, they acquired, as
+it were, for the defence of their own doctrine, a frontier fortress
+which they wrested from the enemy, and which it was at least needless to
+dismantle, if it could be conveniently garrisoned and defended. Thus the
+Church secured possession of many beautiful pieces of scenery, as Mr.
+Whitfield is said to have grudged to the devil the monopoly of all the
+fine tunes.
+
+It is true that this policy was not uniformly observed. The story of the
+celebrated Jeanne d'Arc, called the Maid of Orleans, preserves the
+memory of such a custom, which was in that case turned to the prejudice
+of the poor woman who observed it.
+
+It is well known that this unfortunate female fell into the hands of the
+English, after having, by her courage and enthusiasm manifested on many
+important occasions, revived the drooping courage of the French, and
+inspired them with the hope of once more freeing their country. The
+English vulgar regarded her as a sorceress--the French as an inspired
+heroine; while the wise on both sides considered her as neither the one
+nor the other, but a tool used by the celebrated Dunois to play the part
+which he assigned her. The Duke of Bedford, when the ill-starred Jeanne
+fell into his hands, took away her life in order to stigmatize her
+memory with sorcery and to destroy the reputation she had acquired among
+the French. The mean recurrence to such a charge against such a person
+had no more success than it deserved, although Jeanne was condemned both
+by the Parliament of Bordeux and the University of Paris. Her indictment
+accused her of having frequented an ancient oak-tree, and a fountain
+arising under it, called the Fated or Fairy Oak of Bourlemont. Here she
+was stated to have repaired during the hours of divine service, dancing,
+skipping, and making gestures, around the tree and fountain, and hanging
+on the branches chaplets and garlands of flowers, gathered for the
+purpose, reviving, doubtless, the obsolete idolatry which in ancient
+times had been rendered on the same spot to the _Genius Loci_. The
+charmed sword and blessed banner, which she had represented as signs of
+her celestial mission, were in this hostile charge against her described
+as enchanted implements, designed by the fiends and fairies whom she
+worshipped to accomplish her temporary success. The death of the
+innocent, high-minded, and perhaps amiable enthusiast, was not, we are
+sorry to say, a sacrifice to a superstitious fear of witchcraft, but a
+cruel instance of wicked policy mingled with national jealousy and
+hatred.
+
+To the same cause, about the same period, we may impute the trial of the
+Duchess of Gloucester, wife of the good Duke Humphrey, accused of
+consulting witches concerning the mode of compassing the death of her
+husband's nephew, Henry VI. The Duchess was condemned to do penance, and
+thereafter banished to the Isle of Man, while several of her accomplices
+died in prison or were executed. But in this instance also the alleged
+witchcraft was only the ostensible cause of a procedure which had its
+real source in the deep hatred between the Duke of Gloucester and
+Cardinal Beaufort, his half-brother. The same pretext was used by
+Richard III. when he brought the charge of sorcery against the Queen
+Dowager, Jane Shore, and the queen's kinsmen; and yet again was by that
+unscrupulous prince directed against Morton, afterwards Archbishop of
+Canterbury, and other adherents of the Earl of Richmond. The accusation
+in both cases was only chosen as a charge easily made and difficult to
+be eluded or repelled.
+
+But in the meanwhile, as the accusation of witchcraft thus afforded to
+tyranny or policy the ready means of assailing persons whom it might not
+have been possible to convict of any other crime, the aspersion itself
+was gradually considered with increase of terror as spreading wider and
+becoming more contagious. So early as the year 1398 the University of
+Paris, in laying down rules for the judicial prosecuting of witches,
+express their regret that the crime was growing more frequent than in
+any former age. The more severe enquiries and frequent punishments by
+which the judges endeavoured to check the progress of this impious
+practice seem to have increased the disease, as indeed it has been
+always remarked that those morbid affections of mind which depend on the
+imagination are sure to become more common in proportion as public
+attention is fastened on stories connected with their display.
+
+In the same century schisms arising from different causes greatly
+alarmed the Church of Rome. The universal spirit of enquiry which was
+now afloat, taking a different direction in different countries, had in
+almost all of them stirred up a sceptical dissatisfaction with the
+dogmas of the Church--such views being rendered more credible to the
+poorer classes through the corruption of manners among the clergy, too
+many of whom wealth and ease had caused to neglect that course of
+morality which best recommends religious doctrine. In almost every
+nation in Europe there lurked in the crowded cities, or the wild
+solitude of the country, sects who agreed chiefly in their animosity to
+the supremacy of Rome and their desire to cast off her domination. The
+Waldenses and Albigenses were parties existing in great numbers through
+the south of France. The Romanists became extremely desirous to combine
+the doctrine of the heretics with witchcraft, which, according to their
+account, abounded especially where the Protestants were most numerous;
+and, the bitterness increasing, they scrupled not to throw the charge of
+sorcery, as a matter of course, upon those who dissented from the
+Catholic standard of faith. The Jesuit Delrio alleges several reasons
+for the affinity which he considers as existing between the Protestant
+and the sorcerer; he accuses the former of embracing the opinion of
+Wierus and other defenders of the devil (as he calls all who oppose his
+own opinions concerning witchcraft), thus fortifying the kingdom of
+Satan against that of the Church.[47]
+
+[Footnote 47: Delrio, "De Magia." See the Preface.]
+
+A remarkable passage in Monstrelet puts in a clear view the point aimed
+at by the Catholics in thus confusing and blending the doctrines of
+heresy and the practice of witchcraft, and how a meeting of inoffensive
+Protestants could be cunningly identified with a Sabbath of hags and
+fiends.
+
+"In this year (1459), in the town of Arras and county of Artois, arose,
+through a terrible and melancholy chance, an opinion called, I know not
+why, the Religion of Vaudoisie. This sect consisted, it is said, of
+certain persons, both men and women, who, under cloud of night, by the
+power of the devil, repaired to some solitary spot, amid woods and
+deserts, where the devil appeared before them in a human form--save that
+his visage is never perfectly visible to them--read to the assembly a
+book of his ordinances, informing them how he would be obeyed;
+distributed a very little money and a plentiful meal, which was
+concluded by a scene of general profligacy; after which each one of the
+party was conveyed home to her or his own habitation.
+
+"On accusations of access to such acts of madness," continues
+Monstrelet, "several creditable persons of the town of Arras were seized
+and imprisoned along with some foolish women and persons of little
+consequence. These were so horribly tortured that some of them admitted
+the truth of the whole accusations, and said, besides, that they had
+seen and recognised in their nocturnal assembly many persons of rank,
+prelates, seigneurs, and governors of bailliages and cities, being such
+names as the examinators had suggested to the persons examined, while
+they constrained them by torture to impeach the persons to whom they
+belonged. Several of those who had been thus informed against were
+arrested, thrown into prison, and tortured for so long a time that they
+also were obliged to confess what was charged against them. After this
+those of mean condition were executed and inhumanly burnt, while the
+richer and more powerful of the accused ransomed themselves by sums of
+money, to avoid the punishment and the shame attending it. Many even of
+those also confessed being persuaded to take that course by the
+interrogators, who promised them indemnity for life and fortune. Some
+there were, of a truth, who suffered with marvellous patience and
+constancy the torments inflicted on them, and would confess nothing
+imputed to their charge; but they, too, had to give large sums to the
+judges, who exacted that such of them as, notwithstanding their
+mishandling, were still able to move, should banish themselves from that
+part of the country." Monstrelet winds up this shocking narrative by
+informing us "that it ought not to be concealed that the whole
+accusation was a stratagem of wicked men for their own covetous
+purposes, and in order, by these false accusations and forced
+confessions, to destroy the life, fame, and fortune of wealthy persons."
+
+Delrio himself confesses that Franciscus Balduinus gives an account of
+the pretended punishment, but real persecution, of these Waldenses, in
+similar terms with Monstrelet, whose suspicions are distinctly spoken
+out, and adds that the Parliament of Paris, having heard the affair by
+appeal, had declared the sentence illegal and the judges iniquitous, by
+an arrét dated 20th May, 1491. The Jesuit Delrio quotes the passage, but
+adheres with lingering reluctance to the truth of the accusation. "The
+Waldenses (of whom the Albigenses are a species) were," he says, "never
+free from the most wretched excess of fascination;" and finally, though
+he allows the conduct of the judges to have been most odious, he cannot
+prevail on himself to acquit the parties charged by such interested
+accusers with horrors which should hardly have been found proved even
+upon the most distinct evidence. He appeals on this occasion to
+Florimond's work on Antichrist. The introduction of that work deserves
+to be quoted, as strongly illustrative of the condition to which the
+country was reduced, and calculated to make an impression the very
+reverse probably of that which the writer would have desired:--
+
+"All those who have afforded us some signs of the approach of Antichrist
+agree that the increase of sorcery and witchcraft is to distinguish the
+melancholy period of his advent; and was ever age so afflicted with them
+as ours? The seats destined for criminals before our judicatories are
+blackened with persons accused of this guilt. There are not judges
+enough to try them. Our dungeons are gorged with them. No day passes
+that we do not render our tribunals bloody by the dooms which we
+pronounce, or in which we do not return to our homes discountenanced and
+terrified at the horrible contents of the confessions which it has been
+our duty to hear. And the devil is accounted so good a master that we
+cannot commit so great a number of his slaves to the flames but what
+there shall arise from their ashes a number sufficient to supply their
+place."[48]
+
+[Footnote 48: Florimond, "Concerning the Antichrist," cap. 7, n. 5,
+quoted by Delrio, "De Magia," p. 820.]
+
+This last statement, by which it appears that the most active and
+unsparing inquisition was taking place, corresponds with the historical
+notices of repeated persecutions upon this dreadful charge of sorcery. A
+bull of Pope Innocent VIII. rang the tocsin against this formidable
+crime, and set forth in the most dismal colours the guilt, while it
+stimulated the inquisitors to the unsparing discharge of their duty in
+searching out and punishing the guilty. "It is come to our ears," says
+the bull, "that numbers of both sexes do not avoid to have intercourse
+with the infernal fiends, and that by their sorceries they afflict both
+man and beast; that they blight the marriage-bed, destroy the births of
+women, and the increase of cattle; they blast the corn on the ground,
+the grapes of the vineyard, the fruits of the trees, the grass and herbs
+of the field." For which reasons the inquisitors were armed with the
+apostolic power, and called upon to "convict, imprison, and punish," and
+so forth.
+
+Dreadful were the consequences of this bull all over the Continent,
+especially in Italy, Germany, and France,[49] About 1485 Cumanus burnt
+as witches forty-one poor women in one year in the county of Burlia. In
+the ensuing years he continued the prosecution with such unremitting
+zeal that many fled from the country.
+
+[Footnote 49: Dr. Hutchinson quotes "H. Institor," 105, 161.]
+
+Alciatus states that an inquisitor, about the same period, burnt an
+hundred sorcerers in Piedmont, and persevered in his inquiries till
+human patience was exhausted, and the people arose and drove him out of
+the country, after which the jurisdiction was deferred to the
+archbishop. That prelate consulted Alciatus himself, who had just then
+obtained his doctor's degree in civil law, to which he was afterwards an
+honour. A number of unfortunate wretches were brought for judgment,
+fitter, according to the civilian's opinion, for a course of hellebore
+than for the stake. Some were accused of having dishonoured the crucifix
+and denied their salvation; others of having absconded to keep the
+Devil's Sabbath, in spite of bolts and bars; others of having merely
+joined in the choral dances around the witches' tree of rendezvous.
+Several of their husbands and relatives swore that they were in bed and
+asleep during these pretended excursions. Alciatus recommended gentle
+and temperate measures; and the minds of the country became at length
+composed.[50]
+
+[Footnote 50: Alciat. "Parerg. Juris," lib. viii. chap. 22.]
+
+In 1488, the country four leagues around Constance was laid waste by
+lightning and tempest, and two women being, by fair means or foul, made
+to confess themselves guilty as the cause of the devastation, suffered
+death.
+
+About 1515, 500 persons were executed at Geneva, under the character of
+"Protestant witches," from which we may suppose many suffered for
+heresy. Forty-eight witches were burnt at Ravensburgh within four years,
+as Hutchison reports, on the authority of Mengho, the author of the
+"Malleus Malleficarum." In Lorraine the learned inquisitor, Remigius,
+boasts that he put to death 900 people in fifteen years. As many were
+banished from that country, so that whole towns were on the point of
+becoming desolate. In 1524, 1,000 persons were put to death in one year
+at Como, in Italy, and about 100 every year after for several years.[51]
+
+[Footnote 51: Bart. de Spina, de Strigilibus.]
+
+In the beginning of the next century the persecution of witches broke
+out in France with a fury which was hardly conceivable, and multitudes
+were burnt amid that gay and lively people. Some notion of the extreme
+prejudice of their judges may be drawn from the words of one of the
+inquisitors themselves. Pierre de Lancre, royal councillor in the
+Parliament of Bourdeaux, with whom the President Espaignel was joined in
+a commission to enquire into certain acts of sorcery, reported to have
+been committed in Labourt and its neighbourhood, at the foot of the
+Pyrenees, about the month of May, 1619. A few extracts from the preface
+will best evince the state of mind in which he proceeded to the
+discharge of his commission.
+
+His story assumes the form of a narrative of a direct war between Satan
+on the one side and the Royal Commissioners on the other, "because,"
+says Councillor de Lancre, with self-complaisance, "nothing is so
+calculated to strike terror into the fiend and his dominions as a
+commission with such plenary powers."
+
+At first, Satan endeavoured to supply his vassals who were brought
+before the judges with strength to support the examinations, so that if,
+by intermission of the torture, the wretches should fall into a doze,
+they declared, when they were recalled from it to the question, that the
+profound stupor "had something of Paradise in it, being gilded," said
+the judge, "with the immediate presence of the devil;" though, in all
+probability, it rather derived its charms from the natural comparison
+between the insensibility of exhaustion and the previous agony of acute
+torture. The judges took care that the fiend seldom obtained any
+advantage in the matter by refusing their victims, in most cases, any
+interval of rest or sleep. Satan then proceeded, in the way of direct
+defiance, to stop the mouth of the accused openly, and by mere force,
+with something like a visible obstruction in their throat.
+Notwithstanding this, to put the devil to shame, some of the accused
+found means, in spite of him, to confess and be hanged, or rather burnt.
+The fiend lost much credit by his failure on this occasion. Before the
+formidable Commissioners arrived, he had held his _cour plénière_ before
+the gates of Bourdeaux, and in the square of the palace of Galienne,
+whereas he was now insulted publicly by his own vassals, and in the
+midst of his festival of the Sabbath the children and relations of the
+witches who had suffered not sticking to say to him, "Out upon you! Your
+promise was that our mothers who were prisoners should not die; and look
+how you have kept your word with us! They have been burnt, and are a
+heap of ashes." To appease this mutiny Satan had two evasions. He
+produced illusory fires, and encouraged the mutinous to walk through
+them, assuring them that the judicial pile was as frigid and inoffensive
+as those which he exhibited to them. Again, taking his refuge in lies,
+of which he is well known to be the father, he stoutly affirmed that
+their parents, who seemed to have suffered, were safe in a foreign
+country, and that if their children would call on them they would
+receive an answer. They made the invocation accordingly, and Satan
+answered each of them in a tone which resembled the voice of the
+lamented parent almost as successfully as Monsieur Alexandra could have
+done.
+
+Proceeding to a yet more close attack, the Commissioners, on the eve of
+one of the Fiend's Sabbaths, placed the gibbet on which they executed
+their victims just on the spot where Satan's gilded chair was usually
+stationed. The devil was much offended at such an affront, and yet had
+so little power in the matter that he could only express his resentment
+by threats that he would hang Messieurs D'Amon and D'Urtubbe, gentlemen
+who had solicited and promoted the issuing of the Commission, and would
+also burn the Commissioners themselves in their own fire. We regret to
+say that Satan was unable to execute either of these laudable
+resolutions. Ashamed of his excuses, he abandoned for three or four
+sittings his attendance on the Sabbaths, sending as his representative
+an imp of subordinate account, and in whom no one reposed confidence.
+When he took courage again to face his parliament, the Arch-fiend
+covered his defection by assuring them that he had been engaged in a
+lawsuit with the Deity, which he had gained with costs, and that six
+score of infant children were to be delivered up to him in name of
+damages, and the witches were directed to procure such victims
+accordingly. After this grand fiction he confined himself to the petty
+vengeance of impeding the access of confessors to the condemned, which
+was the more easy as few of them could speak the Basque language. I have
+no time to detail the ingenious method by which the learned Councillor
+de Lancre explains why the district of Labourt should be particularly
+exposed to the pest of sorcery. The chief reason seems to be that it is
+a mountainous, a sterile, and a border country, where the men are all
+fishers and the women smoke tobacco and wear short petticoats.
+
+To a person who, in this presumptuous, trifling, and conceited spirit,
+has composed a quarto volume full of the greatest absurdities and
+grossest obscenities ever impressed on paper, it was the pleasure of the
+most Christian Monarch to consign the most absolute power which could be
+exercised on these poor people; and he might with as much prudence have
+turned a ravenous wolf upon an undefended flock, of whom the animal was
+the natural enemy, as they were his natural prey. The priest, as well as
+the ignorant peasant, fell under the suspicion of this fell Commission;
+and De Lancre writes, with much complacency, that the accused were
+brought to trial to the number of forty in one day--with what chance of
+escape, when the judges were blinded with prejudice, and could only hear
+the evidence and the defence through the medium of an interpreter, the
+understanding of the reader may easily anticipate.
+
+Among other gross transgressions of the most ordinary rules, it may be
+remarked that the accused, in what their judges called confessions,
+contradicted each other at every turn respecting the description of the
+Domdaniel in which they pretended to have been assembled, and the fiend
+who presided there. All spoke to a sort of gilded throne; but some saw a
+hideous wild he-goat seated there; some a man disfigured and twisted, as
+suffering torture; some, with better taste, beheld a huge indistinct
+form, resembling one of those mutilated trunks of trees found in ancient
+forests. But De Lancre was no "Daniel come to judgment," and the
+discrepancy of evidence, which saved the life and fame of Susannah, made
+no impression in favour of the sorcerers of Labourt.
+
+Instances occur in De Lancre's book of the trial and condemnation of
+persons accused of the crime of _lycanthropy_, a superstition which was
+chiefly current in France, but was known in other countries, and is the
+subject of great debate between Wier, Naudé, Scot, on the one hand, and
+their demonological adversaries on the other. The idea, said the one
+party, was that a human being had the power, by sorcery, of transforming
+himself into the shape of a wolf, and in that capacity, being seized
+with a species of fury, he rushed out and made havoc among the flocks,
+slaying and wasting, like the animal whom he represented, far more than
+he could devour. The more incredulous reasoners would not allow of a
+real transformation, whether with or without the enchanted hide of a
+wolf, which in some cases was supposed to aid the metamorphosis, and
+contended that lycanthropy only subsisted as a woful species of disease,
+a melancholy state of mind, broken with occasional fits of insanity, in
+which the patient imagined that he committed the ravages of which he was
+accused. Such a person, a mere youth, was tried at Besançon, who gave
+himself out for a servant, or yeoman pricker, of the Lord of the
+Forest--so he called his superior--who was judged to be the devil. He
+was, by his master's power, transformed into the likeness and performed
+the usual functions of a wolf, and was attended in his course by one
+larger, which he supposed the Lord of the Forest himself. These wolves,
+he said, ravaged the flocks, and throttled the dogs which stood in their
+defence. If either had not seen the other, he howled, after the manner
+of the animal, to call his comrade to his share of the prey; if he did
+not come upon this signal, he proceeded to bury it the best way he
+could.
+
+Such was the general persecution under Messieurs Espiagnel and De
+Lancre. Many similar scenes occurred in France, till the edict of Louis
+XIV. discharging all future prosecutions for witchcraft, after which the
+crime itself was heard of no more.[52]
+
+[Footnote 52: The reader may sup full on such wild horrors in the
+_causes célèbres_.]
+
+While the spirit of superstition was working such horrors in France, it
+was not, we may believe, more idle in other countries of Europe. In
+Spain, particularly, long the residence of the Moors, a people putting
+deep faith in all the day-dreams of witchcraft, good and evil genii,
+spells and talismans, the ardent and devotional temper of the old
+Christians dictated a severe research after sorcerers as well as
+heretics, and relapsed Jews or Mahommedans. In former times, during the
+subsistence of the Moorish kingdoms in Spain, a school was supposed to
+be kept open in Toboso for the study, it is said, of magic, but more
+likely of chemistry, algebra, and other sciences, which, altogether
+mistaken by the ignorant and vulgar, and imperfectly understood even by
+those who studied them, were supposed to be allied to necromancy, or at
+least to natural magic. It was, of course, the business of the
+Inquisition to purify whatever such pursuits had left of suspicious
+Catholicism, and their labours cost as much blood on accusations of
+witchcraft and magic as for heresy and relapse.
+
+Even the colder nations of Europe were subject to the same epidemic
+terror for witchcraft, and a specimen of it was exhibited in the sober
+and rational country of Sweden about the middle of last century, an
+account of which, being translated into English by a respectable
+clergyman, Doctor Horneck, excited general surprise how a whole people
+could be imposed upon to the degree of shedding much blood, and
+committing great cruelty and injustice, on account of the idle
+falsehoods propagated by a crew of lying children, who in this case were
+both actors and witnesses.
+
+The melancholy truth that "the human heart is deceitful above all
+things, and desperately wicked," is by nothing proved so strongly as by
+the imperfect sense displayed by children of the sanctity of moral
+truth. Both the gentlemen and the mass of the people, as they advance in
+years, learn to despise and avoid falsehood; the former out of pride,
+and from a remaining feeling, derived from the days of chivalry, that
+the character of a liar is a deadly stain on their honour; the other,
+from some general reflection upon the necessity of preserving a
+character for integrity in the course of life, and a sense of the truth
+of the common adage, that "honesty is the best policy." But these are
+acquired habits of thinking. The child has no natural love of truth, as
+is experienced by all who have the least acquaintance with early youth.
+If they are charged with a fault while they can hardly speak, the first
+words they stammer forth are a falsehood to excuse it. Nor is this all:
+the temptation of attracting attention, the pleasure of enjoying
+importance, the desire to escape from an unpleasing task, or accomplish
+a holiday, will at any time overcome the sentiment of truth, so weak is
+it within them. Hence thieves and housebreakers, from a surprisingly
+early period, find means of rendering children useful in their mystery;
+nor are such acolytes found to evade justice with less dexterity than
+the more advanced rogues. Where a number of them are concerned in the
+same mischief, there is something resembling virtue in the fidelity with
+which the common secret is preserved. Children, under the usual age of
+their being admitted to give evidence, were necessarily often examined
+in witch trials; and it is terrible to see how often the little
+impostors, from spite or in mere gaiety of spirit, have by their art and
+perseverance made shipwreck of men's lives. But it would be hard to
+discover a case which, supported exclusively by the evidence of children
+(the confessions under torture excepted), and obviously existing only in
+the young witnesses' own imagination, has been attended with such
+serious consequences, or given cause to so extensive and fatal a
+delusion, as that which occurred in Sweden.
+
+The scene was the Swedish village of Mohra, in the province of Elfland,
+which district had probably its name from some remnant of ancient
+superstition. The delusion had come to a great height ere it reached the
+ears of government, when, as was the general procedure, Royal
+Commissioners were sent down, men well fitted for the duty entrusted to
+them; that is, with ears open to receive the incredibilities with which
+they were to be crammed, and hearts hardened against every degree of
+compassion to the accused. The complaints of the common people, backed
+by some persons of better condition, were that a number of persons,
+renowned as witches, had drawn several hundred children of all classes
+under the devil's authority. They demanded, therefore, the punishment of
+these agents of hell, reminding the judges that the province had been
+clear of witches since the burning of some on a former occasion. The
+accused were numerous, so many as threescore and ten witches and
+sorcerers being seized in the village of Mohra; three-and-twenty
+confessed their crimes, and were sent to Faluna, where most of them were
+executed. Fifteen of the children were also led to death. Six-and-thirty
+of those who were young were forced to run the gauntlet, as it is
+called, and were, besides, lashed weekly at the church doors for a whole
+year. Twenty of the youngest were condemned to the same discipline for
+three days only.
+
+The process seems to have consisted in confronting the children with the
+witches, and hearing the extraordinary story which the former insisted
+upon maintaining. The children, to the number of three hundred, were
+found more or less perfect in a tale as full of impossible absurdities
+as ever was told around a nursery fire. Their confession ran thus:--
+
+They were taught by the witches to go to a cross way, and with certain
+ceremonies to invoke the devil by the name of Antecessor, begging him to
+carry them off to Blockula, meaning, perhaps, the Brockenberg, in the
+Hartz forest, a mountain infamous for being the common scene of witches'
+meetings, and to which Goethe represents the spirit Mephistopheles as
+conducting his pupil Faustus. The devil courteously appeared at the call
+of the children in various forms, but chiefly as a mad Merry-Andrew,
+with a grey coat, red and blue stockings, a red beard, a high-crowned
+hat, with linen of various colours wrapt round it, and garters of
+peculiar length. He set each child on some beast of his providing, and
+anointed them with a certain unguent composed of the scrapings of altars
+and the filings of church clocks. There is here a discrepancy of
+evidence which in another court would have cast the whole. Most of the
+children considered their journey to be corporeal and actual. Some
+supposed, however, that their strength or spirit only travelled with the
+fiend, and that their body remained behind. Very few adopted this last
+hypothesis, though the parents unanimously bore witness that the bodies
+of the children remained in bed, and could not be awakened out of a deep
+sleep, though they shook them for the purpose of awakening them. So
+strong was, nevertheless, the belief of nurses and mothers in their
+actual transportation, that a sensible clergyman, mentioned in the
+preface, who had resolved he would watch his son the whole night and see
+what hag or fiend would take him from his arms, had the utmost
+difficulty, notwithstanding, in convincing his mother that the child had
+not been transported to Blockula during the very night he held him in
+his embrace.
+
+The learned translator candidly allows, "out of so great a multitude as
+were accused, condemned, and executed, there might be some who suffered
+unjustly, and owed their death more to the malice of their enemies than
+to their skill in the black art, I will readily admit. Nor will I deny,"
+he continues, "but that when the news of these transactions and
+accounts, how the children bewitched fel into fits and strange unusual
+postures, spread abroad in the kingdom, some fearful and credulous
+people, if they saw their children any way disordered, might think they
+were bewitched or ready to be carried away by imps."[53] The learned
+gentleman here stops short in a train of reasoning, which, followed out,
+would have deprived the world of the benefit of his translation. For if
+it was possible that some of these unfortunate persons fell a sacrifice
+to the malice of their neighbours or the prejudices of witnesses, as he
+seems ready to grant, is it not more reasonable to believe that the
+whole of the accused were convicted on similar grounds, than to allow,
+as truth, the slightest part of the gross and vulgar impossibilities
+upon which alone their execution can be justified?
+
+[Footnote 53: Translator's preface to Horneck's "Account of what
+happened in the Kingdom of Sweden." See appendix to Glanville's work.]
+
+The Blockula, which was the object of their journey, was a house having
+a fine gate painted with divers colours, with a paddock, in which they
+turned the beasts to graze which had brought them to such scenes of
+revelry. If human beings had been employed they were left slumbering
+against the wall of the house. The plan of the devil's palace consisted
+of one large banqueting apartment and several withdrawing-rooms. Their
+food was homely enough, being broth made of coleworts and bacon, with
+bread and butter, and milk and cheese. The same acts of wickedness and
+profligacy were committed at Blockula which are usually supposed to take
+place upon the devil's Sabbath elsewhere; but there was this particular,
+that the witches had sons and daughters by the fiends, who were married
+together, and produced an offspring of toads and serpents.
+
+These confessions being delivered before the accused witches, they at
+first stoutly denied them. At last some of them burst into tears, and
+acquiesced in the horrors imputed to them. They said the practice of
+carrying off children had been enlarged very lately (which shows the
+whole rumours to have arisen recently); and the despairing wretches
+confirmed what the children said, with many other extravagant
+circumstances, as the mode of elongating a goat's back by means of a
+spit, on which we care not to be particular. It is worth mentioning that
+the devil, desirous of enjoying his own reputation among his subjects,
+pretended at one time to be dead, and was much lamented at Blockula--but
+he soon revived again.
+
+Some attempts these witches had made to harm individuals on middle
+earth, but with little success. One old sorceress, indeed, attempted to
+strike a nail, given her by the devil for that purpose, into the head of
+the minister of Elfland; but as the skull was of unusual solidity, the
+reverend gentleman only felt a headache from her efforts. They could not
+be persuaded to exhibit any of their tricks before the Commissioners,
+excusing themselves by alleging that their witchcraft had left them, and
+that the devil had amused them with the vision of a burning pit, having
+a hand thrust out of it.
+
+The total number who lost their lives on this singular occasion was
+fourscore and four persons, including fifteen children; and at this
+expense of blood was extinguished a flame that arose as suddenly, burned
+as fiercely, and decayed as rapidly, as any portent of the kind within
+the annals of superstition. The Commissioners returned to Court with the
+high approbation of all concerned; prayers were ordered through the
+churches weekly, that Heaven would be pleased to restrain the powers of
+the devil, and deliver the poor creatures who hitherto had groaned under
+it, as well as the innocent children, who were carried off by hundreds
+at once.
+
+If we could ever learn the true explanation of this story, we should
+probably find that the cry was led by some clever mischievous boy, who
+wished to apologise to his parents for lying an hour longer in the
+morning by alleging he had been at Blockula on the preceding night; and
+that the desire to be as much distinguished as their comrade had
+stimulated the bolder and more acute of his companions to the like
+falsehoods; whilst those of weaker minds assented, either from fear of
+punishment or the force of dreaming over at night the horrors which were
+dinned into their ears all day. Those who were ingenuous, as it was
+termed, in their confessions, received praise and encouragement; and
+those who denied or were silent, and, as it was considered, impenitent,
+were sure to bear the harder share of the punishment which was addressed
+to all. It is worth while also to observe, that the smarter children
+began to improve their evidence and add touches to the general picture
+of Blockula. "Some of the children talked much of a white angel, which
+used to forbid them what the devil bid them do, and told them that these
+doings should not last long. And (they added) this better being would
+place himself sometimes at the door betwixt the witches and the
+children, and when they came to Blockula he pulled the children back,
+but the witches went in."
+
+This additional evidence speaks for itself, and shows the whole tale to
+be the fiction of the children's imagination, which some of them wished
+to improve upon. The reader may consult "An Account of what happened in
+the Kingdom of Sweden in the years 1669 and 1670, and afterwards
+translated out of High Dutch into English by Dr. Antony Horneck,"
+attached to Glanville's "Sadducismus Triumphatus." The translator refers
+to the evidence of Baron Sparr, Ambassador from the Court of Sweden to
+the Court of England in 1672; and that of Baron Lyonberg, Envoy
+Extraordinary of the same power, both of whom attest the confession and
+execution of the witches. The King of Sweden himself answered the
+express inquiries of the Duke of Holstein with marked reserve. "His
+judges and commissioners," he said, "had caused divers men, women, and
+children, to be burnt and executed on such pregnant evidence as was
+brought before them. But whether the actions confessed and proved
+against them were real, or only the effects of strong imagination, he
+was not as yet able to determine"--a sufficient reason, perhaps, why
+punishment should have been at least deferred by the interposition of
+the royal authority.
+
+We must now turn our eyes to Britain, in which our knowledge as to such
+events is necessarily more extensive, and where it is in a high degree
+more interesting to our present purpose.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VIII.
+
+    The Effects of the Witch Superstition are to be traced in the Laws
+    of a Kingdom--Usually punished in England as a Crime connected with
+    Politics--Attempt at Murder for Witchcraft not in itself
+    Capital--Trials of Persons of Rank for Witchcraft, connected with
+    State Crimes--Statutes of Henry VIII--How Witchcraft was regarded by
+    the three Leading Sects of Religion in the Sixteenth Century; first,
+    by the Catholics; second, by the Calvinists; third, by the Church of
+    England and Lutherans--Impostures unwarily countenanced by
+    individual Catholic Priests, and also by some Puritanic
+    Clergymen--Statute of 1562, and some cases upon it--Case of
+    Dugdale--Case of the Witches of Warbois, and the execution of the
+    Family of Samuel--That of Jane Wenham, in which some Church of
+    England Clergymen insisted on the Prosecution--Hutchison's Rebuke to
+    them--James the First's Opinion of Witchcraft--His celebrated
+    Statute, 1 Jac. I.--Canon passed by the Convocation against
+    Possession--Case of Mr. Fairfax's Children--Lancashire Witches in
+    1613--Another Discovery in 1634--Webster's Account of the manner in
+    which the Imposture was managed--Superiority of the Calvinists is
+    followed by a severe Prosecution of Witches--Executions in Suffolk,
+    &c. to a dreadful extent--Hopkins, the pretended Witchfinder, the
+    cause of these Cruelties--His Brutal Practices--His
+    Letter--Execution of Mr. Lowis--Hopkins Punished--Restoration of
+    Charles--Trial of Coxe--Of Dunny and Callendar before Lord
+    Hales--Royal Society and Progress of Knowledge--Somersetshire
+    Witches--Opinions of the Populace--A Woman Swum for Witchcraft at
+    Oakly--- Murder at Tring--Act against Witchcraft abolished, and the
+    belief in the Crime becomes forgotten--Witch Trials in New
+    England--Dame Glover's Trial--Affliction of the Parvises, and
+    frightful Increase of the Prosecutions--Suddenly put a stop to--The
+    Penitence of those concerned in them.
+
+
+Our account of Demonology in England must naturally, as in every other
+country, depend chiefly on the instances which history contains of the
+laws and prosecutions against witchcraft. Other superstitions arose and
+decayed, were dreaded or despised, without greater embarrassment, in the
+provinces in which they have a temporary currency, than that cowards and
+children go out more seldom at night, while the reports of ghosts and
+fairies are peculiarly current. But when the alarm of witchcraft arises,
+Superstition dips her hand in the blood of the persons accused, and
+records in the annals of jurisprudence their trials and the causes
+alleged in vindication of their execution. Respecting other fantastic
+allegations, the proof is necessarily transient and doubtful, depending
+upon the inaccurate testimony of vague report and of doting tradition.
+But in cases of witchcraft we have before us the recorded evidence upon
+which judge and jury acted, and can form an opinion with some degree of
+certainty of the grounds, real or fanciful, on which they acquitted or
+condemned. It is, therefore, in tracing, this part of Demonology, with
+its accompanying circumstances, that we have the best chance of
+obtaining an accurate view of our subject.
+
+The existence of witchcraft was, no doubt, received and credited in
+England, as in the countries on the Continent, and originally punished
+accordingly. But after the fourteenth century the practices which fell
+under such a description were thought unworthy of any peculiar
+animadversion, unless they were connected with something which would
+have been of itself a capital crime, by whatever means it had been
+either essayed or accomplished. Thus the supposed paction between a
+witch and the demon was perhaps deemed in itself to have terrors enough
+to prevent its becoming an ordinary crime, and was not, therefore,
+visited with any statutory penalty. But to attempt or execute bodily
+harm to others through means of evil spirits, or, in a word, by the
+black art, was actionable at common law as much as if the party accused
+had done the same harm with an arrow or pistol-shot. The destruction or
+abstraction of goods by the like instruments, supposing the charge
+proved, would, in like manner, be punishable. _A fortiori_, the
+consulting soothsayers, familiar spirits, or the like, and the obtaining
+and circulating pretended prophecies to the unsettlement of the State
+and the endangering of the King's title, is yet a higher degree of
+guilt. And it may be remarked that the inquiry into the date of the
+King's life bears a close affinity with the desiring or compassing the
+death of the Sovereign, which is the essence of high treason. Upon such
+charges repeated trials took place in the courts of the English, and
+condemnations were pronounced, with sufficient justice, no doubt, where
+the connexion between the resort to sorcerers and the design to
+perpetrate a felony could be clearly proved. We would not, indeed, be
+disposed to go the length of so high an authority as Selden, who
+pronounces (in his "Table-Talk") that if a man heartily believed that he
+could take the life of another by waving his hat three times and crying
+Buzz! and should, under this fixed opinion, wave his hat and cry Buzz!
+accordingly, he ought to be executed as a murderer. But a false prophecy
+of the King's death is not to be dealt with exactly on the usual
+principle; because, however idle in itself, the promulgation of such a
+prediction has, in times such as we are speaking of, a strong tendency
+to work its completion.
+
+Many persons, and some of great celebrity, suffered for the charge of
+trafficking with witches, to the prejudice of those in authority. We
+have already mentioned the instance of the Duchess of Gloucester, in
+Henry the Sixth's reign, and that of the Queen Dowager's kinsmen, in the
+Protectorate of Richard, afterwards the Third. In 1521, the Duke of
+Buckingham was beheaded, owing much to his having listened to the
+predictions of one Friar Hopkins. In the same reign, the Maid of Kent,
+who had been esteemed a prophetess, was put to death as a cheat. She
+suffered with seven persons who had managed her fits for the support of
+the Catholic religion, and confessed her fraud upon the scaffold. About
+seven years after this, Lord Hungerford was beheaded for consulting
+certain soothsayers concerning the length of Henry the Eighth's life.
+But these cases rather relate to the purpose for which the sorcery was
+employed, than to the fact of using it.
+
+Two remarkable statutes were passed in the year 1541; one against false
+prophecies, the other against the act of conjuration, witchcraft, and
+sorcery, and at the same time against breaking and destroying crosses.
+The former enactment was certainly made to ease the suspicious and
+wayward fears of the tetchy King Henry. The prohibition against
+witchcraft might be also dictated by the king's jealous doubts of hazard
+to the succession. The enactment against breaking crosses was obviously
+designed to check the ravages of the Reformers, who in England as well
+as elsewhere desired to sweep away Popery with the besom of destruction.
+This latter statute was abrogated in the first year of Edward VI.,
+perhaps as placing an undue restraint on the zeal of good Protestants
+against idolatry.
+
+At length, in 1562, a formal statute against sorcery, as penal in
+itself, was actually passed; but as the penalty was limited to the
+pillory for the first transgression, the legislature probably regarded
+those who might be brought to trial as impostors rather than wizards.
+There are instances of individuals tried and convicted as impostors and
+cheats, and who acknowledged themselves such before the court and
+people; but in their articles of visitation the prelates directed
+enquiry to be made after those who should use enchantments, witchcraft,
+sorcery, or any like craft, _invented by the devil_.
+
+But it is here proper to make a pause for the purpose of enquiring in
+what manner the religious disputes which occupied all Europe about this
+time influenced the proceedings of the rival sects in relation to
+Demonology.
+
+The Papal Church had long reigned by the proud and absolute humour which
+she had assumed, of maintaining every doctrine which her rulers had
+adopted in dark ages; but this pertinacity at length made her citadel
+too large to be defended at every point by a garrison whom prudence
+would have required to abandon positions which had been taken in times
+of darkness, and were unsuited to the warfare of a more enlightened age.
+The sacred motto of the Vatican was, "_Vestigia nulla retrorsum_;" and
+this rendered it impossible to comply with the more wise and moderate of
+her own party, who would otherwise have desired to make liberal
+concessions to the Protestants, and thus prevent, in its commencement, a
+formidable schism in the Christian world.
+
+To the system of Rome the Calvinists offered the most determined
+opposition, affecting upon every occasion and on all points to observe
+an order of church-government, as well as of worship, expressly in the
+teeth of its enactments;--in a word, to be a good Protestant, they held
+it almost essential to be in all things diametrically opposite to the
+Catholic form and faith. As the foundation of this sect was laid in
+republican states, as its clerical discipline was settled on a
+democratic basis, and as the countries which adopted that form of
+government were chiefly poor, the preachers having lost the rank and
+opulence enjoyed by the Roman Church, were gradually thrown on the
+support of the people. Insensibly they became occupied with the ideas
+and tenets natural to the common people, which, if they have usually the
+merit of being honestly conceived and boldly expressed, are not the less
+often adopted with credulity and precipitation, and carried into effect
+with unhesitating harshness and severity.
+
+Betwixt these extremes the Churchmen of England endeavoured to steer a
+middle course, retaining a portion of the ritual and forms of Rome, as
+in themselves admirable, and at any rate too greatly venerated by the
+people to be changed merely for opposition's sake. Their comparatively
+undilapidated revenue, the connexion of their system with the state,
+with views of ambition as ample as the station of a churchman ought to
+command, rendered them independent of the necessity of courting their
+flocks by any means save regular discharge of their duty; and the
+excellent provisions made for their education afforded them learning to
+confute ignorance and enlighten prejudice.
+
+Such being the general character of the three Churches, their belief in
+and persecution of such crimes as witchcraft and sorcery were
+necessarily modelled upon the peculiar tenets which each system
+professed, and gave rise to various results in the countries where they
+were severally received.
+
+The Church of Rome, as we have seen, was unwilling, in her period of
+undisputed power, to call in the secular arm to punish men for
+witchcraft--a crime which fell especially under ecclesiastical
+cognizance, and could, according to her belief, be subdued by the
+spiritual arm alone. The learned men at the head of the establishment
+might safely despise the attempt at those hidden arts as impossible; or,
+even if they were of a more credulous disposition, they might be
+unwilling to make laws by which their own enquiries in the mathematics,
+algebra, chemistry, and other pursuits vulgarly supposed to approach the
+confines of magic art, might be inconveniently restricted. The more
+selfish part of the priesthood might think that a general belief in the
+existence of witches should be permitted to remain, as a source both of
+power and of revenue--that if there were no possessions, there could be
+no exorcism-fees--and, in short, that a wholesome faith in all the
+absurdities of the vulgar creed as to supernatural influences was
+necessary to maintain the influence of Diana of Ephesus. They suffered
+spells to be manufactured, since every friar had the power of reversing
+them; they permitted poison to be distilled, because every convent had
+the antidote, which was disposed of to all who chose to demand it. It
+was not till the universal progress of heresy, in the end of the
+fifteenth century, that the bull of Pope Innocent VIII., already quoted,
+called to convict, imprison, and condemn the sorcerers, chiefly because
+it was the object to transfer the odium of these crimes to the
+Waldenses, and excite and direct the public hatred against the new sect
+by confounding their doctrines with the influences of the devil and his
+fiends. The bull of Pope Innocent was afterwards, in the year 1523,
+enforced by Adrian VI. with a new one, in which excommunication was
+directed against _sorcerers and heretics_.
+
+While Rome thus positively declared herself against witches and
+sorcerers, the Calvinists, in whose numbers must be included the greater
+part of the English Puritans, who, though they had not finally severed
+from the communion of the Anglican Church, yet disapproved of her ritual
+and ceremonies as retaining too much of the Papal stamp, ranked
+themselves, in accordance with their usual policy, in diametrical
+opposition to the doctrine of the Mother Church. They assumed in the
+opposite sense whatever Rome pretended to as a proof of her omnipotent
+authority. The exorcisms, forms, and rites, by which good Catholics
+believed that incarnate fiends could be expelled and evil spirits of
+every kind rebuked--these, like the holy water, the robes of the priest,
+and the sign of the cross, the Calvinists considered either with scorn
+and contempt as the tools of deliberate quackery and imposture, or with
+horror and loathing, as the fit emblems and instruments of an idolatrous
+system.
+
+Such of them as did not absolutely deny the supernatural powers of which
+the Romanists made boast, regarded the success of the exorcising priest,
+to whatever extent they admitted it, as at best a casting out of devils
+by the power of Beelzebub, the King of the Devils. They saw also, and
+resented bitterly, the attempt to confound any dissent from the
+doctrines of Rome with the proneness to an encouragement of rites of
+sorcery. On the whole, the Calvinists, generally speaking, were of all
+the contending sects the most suspicious of sorcery, the most undoubting
+believers in its existence, and the most eager to follow it up with what
+they conceived to be the due punishment of the most fearful of crimes.
+
+The leading divines of the Church of England were, without doubt,
+fundamentally as much opposed to the doctrines of Rome as those who
+altogether disclaimed opinions and ceremonies merely because she had
+entertained them. But their position in society tended strongly to keep
+them from adopting, on such subjects as we are now discussing, either
+the eager credulity of the vulgar mind or the fanatic ferocity of their
+Calvinistic rivals. We have no purpose to discuss the matter in
+detail--enough has probably been said to show generally why the Romanist
+should have cried out a miracle respecting an incident which the
+Anglican would have contemptuously termed an imposture; while the
+Calvinist, inspired with a darker zeal, and, above all, with the
+unceasing desire of open controversy with the Catholics, would have
+styled the same event an operation of the devil.
+
+It followed that, while the divines of the Church of England possessed
+the upper hand in the kingdom, witchcraft, though trials and even
+condemnations for that offence occasionally occurred, did not create
+that epidemic terror which the very suspicion of the offence carried
+with it elsewhere; so that Reginald Scot and others alleged it was the
+vain pretences and empty forms of the Church of Rome, by the faith
+reposed in them, which had led to the belief of witchcraft or sorcery in
+general. Nor did prosecutions on account of such charges frequently
+involve a capital punishment, while learned judges were jealous of the
+imperfection of the evidence to support the charge, and entertained a
+strong and growing suspicion that legitimate grounds for such trials
+seldom actually existed. On the other hand, it usually happened that
+wherever the Calvinist interest became predominant in Britain, a general
+persecution of sorcerers and witches seemed to take place of
+consequence. Fearing and hating sorcery more than other Protestants,
+connecting its ceremonies and usages with those of the detested Catholic
+Church, the Calvinists were more eager than other sects in searching
+after the traces of this crime, and, of course, unusually successful, as
+they might suppose, in making discoveries of guilt, and pursuing it to
+the expiation of the fagot. In a word, a principle already referred to
+by Dr. Francis Hutchison will be found to rule the tide and the reflux
+of such cases in the different churches. The numbers of witches, and
+their supposed dealings with Satan, will increase or decrease according
+as such doings are accounted probable or impossible. Under the former
+supposition, charges and convictions will be found augmented in a
+terrific degree. When the accusations are disbelieved and dismissed as
+not worthy of attention, the crime becomes unfrequent, ceases to occupy
+the public mind, and affords little trouble to the judges.
+
+The passing of Elizabeth's statute against witchcraft in 1562 does not
+seem to have been intended to increase the number of trials, or cases of
+conviction at least; and the fact is, it did neither the one nor the
+other. Two children were tried in 1574 for counterfeiting possession,
+and stood in the pillory for impostors. Mildred Norrington, called the
+Maid of Westwell, furnished another instance of possession; but she also
+confessed her imposture, and publicly showed her fits and tricks of
+mimicry. The strong influence already possessed by the Puritans may
+probably be sufficient to account for the darker issue of certain cases,
+in which both juries and judges in Elizabeth's time must be admitted to
+have shown fearful severity.
+
+These cases of possession were in some respects sore snares to the
+priests of the Church of Rome, who, while they were too sagacious not to
+be aware that the pretended fits, contortions, strange sounds, and other
+extravagances, produced as evidence of the demon's influence on the
+possessed person, were nothing else than marks of imposture by some idle
+vagabond, were nevertheless often tempted to admit them as real, and
+take the credit of curing them. The period was one when the Catholic
+Church had much occasion to rally around her all the respect that
+remained to her in a schismatic and heretical kingdom; and when her
+fathers and doctors announced the existence of such a dreadful disease,
+and of the power of the church's prayers, relics, and ceremonies, to
+cure it, it was difficult for a priest, supposing him more tender of the
+interest of his order than that of truth, to avoid such a tempting
+opportunity as a supposed case of possession offered for displaying the
+high privilege in which his profession made him a partaker, or to
+abstain from conniving at the imposture, in order to obtain for his
+church the credit of expelling the demon. It was hardly to be wondered
+at, if the ecclesiastic was sometimes induced to aid the fraud of which
+such motives forbade him to be the detector. At this he might hesitate
+the less, as he was not obliged to adopt the suspected and degrading
+course of holding an immediate communication _in limine_ with the
+impostor, since a hint or two, dropped in the supposed sufferer's
+presence, might give him the necessary information what was the most
+exact mode of performing his part, and if the patient was possessed by a
+devil of any acuteness or dexterity, he wanted no further instruction
+how to play it. Such combinations were sometimes detected, and brought
+more discredit on the Church of Rome than was counterbalanced by any
+which might be more cunningly managed. On this subject the reader may
+turn to Dr. Harsnett's celebrated book on Popish Impostures, wherein he
+gives the history of several notorious cases of detected fraud, in which
+Roman ecclesiastics had not hesitated to mingle themselves. That of
+Grace Sowerbutts, instructed by a Catholic priest to impeach her
+grandmother of witchcraft, was a very gross fraud.
+
+Such cases were not, however, limited to the ecclesiastics of Rome. We
+have already stated that, as extremes usually approach each other, the
+Dissenters, in their violent opposition to the Papists, adopted some of
+their ideas respecting demoniacs; and we have now to add that they also
+claimed, by the vehemence of prayer and the authority of their own
+sacred commission, that power of expelling devils which the Church of
+Rome pretended to exercise by rites, ceremonies, and relics. The
+memorable case of Richard Dugdale, called the Surrey Impostor, was one
+of the most remarkable which the Dissenters brought forward. This youth
+was supposed to have sold his soul to the devil, on condition of being
+made the best dancer in Lancashire, and during his possession played a
+number of fantastic tricks, not much different from those exhibited by
+expert posture-masters of the present day. This person threw himself
+into the hands of the Dissenters, who, in their eagerness, caught at an
+opportunity to relieve an afflicted person, whose case the regular
+clergy appeared to have neglected. They fixed a committee of their
+number, who weekly attended the supposed sufferer, and exercised
+themselves in appointed days of humiliation and fasting during the
+course of a whole year. All respect for the demon seems to have
+abandoned the reverend gentlemen, after they had relieved guard in this
+manner for some little time, and they got so regardless of Satan as to
+taunt him with the mode in which he executed his promise to teach his
+vassal dancing. The following specimen of raillery is worth
+commemoration:--"What, Satan! is this the dancing that Richard gave
+himself to thee for? &c. Canst thou dance no better? &c. Ransack the old
+records of all past times and places in thy memory; canst thou not there
+find out some better way of trampling? Pump thine invention dry; cannot
+the universal seed-plot of subtile wiles and stratagems spring up one
+new method of cutting capers? Is this the top of skill and pride, to
+shuffle feet and brandish knees thus, and to trip like a doe and skip
+like a squirrel? And wherein differ thy leapings from the hoppings of a
+frog, or the bouncings of a goat, or friskings of a dog, or
+gesticulations of a monkey? And cannot a palsy shake such a loose leg as
+that? Dost thou not twirl like a calf that hath the turn, and twitch up
+thy houghs just like a springhault tit?"[54] One might almost conceive
+the demon replying to this raillery in the words of Dr. Johnson, "This
+merriment of parsons is extremely offensive."
+
+[Footnote 54: Hutchison on Witchcraft, p. 162.]
+
+The dissenters were probably too honest, however simple, to achieve a
+complete cure on Dugdale by an amicable understanding; so, after their
+year of vigil, they relinquished their task by degrees. Dugdale, weary
+of his illness, which now attracted little notice, attended a regular
+physician, and was cured of that part of his disease which was not
+affected in a regular way _par ordonnance du médecin_. But the reverend
+gentlemen who had taken his case in hand still assumed the credit of
+curing him, and if anything could have induced them to sing _Te Deum_,
+it would have been this occasion. They said that the effect of their
+public prayers had been for a time suspended, until seconded by the
+continued earnestness of their private devotions!
+
+The ministers of the Church of England, though, from education,
+intercourse with the world, and other advantages, they were less prone
+to prejudice than those of other sects, are yet far from being entirely
+free of the charge of encouraging in particular instances the witch
+superstition. Even while Dr. Hutchison pleads that the Church of England
+has the least to answer for in that matter, he is under the necessity of
+acknowledging that some regular country clergymen so far shared the
+rooted prejudices of congregations, and of the government which
+established laws against it, as to be active in the persecution of the
+suspected, and even in countenancing the superstitious signs by which in
+that period the vulgar thought it possible to ascertain the existence of
+the afflictions by witchcraft, and obtain the knowledge of the
+perpetrator. A singular case is mentioned of three women, called the
+Witches of Warbois. Indeed, their story is a matter of solemn enough
+record; for Sir Samuel Cromwell, having received the sum of forty pounds
+as lord of the manor, out of the estate of the poor persons who
+suffered, turned it into a rent-charge of forty shillings yearly, for
+the endowment of an annual lecture on the subject of witchcraft, to be
+preached by a doctor or bachelor of divinity of Queen's College,
+Cambridge. The accused, one Samuel and his wife, were old and very poor
+persons, and their daughter a young woman. The daughter of a Mr.
+Throgmorton, seeing the poor old woman in a black knitted cap, at a time
+when she was not very well, took a whim that she had bewitched her, and
+was ever after exclaiming against her. The other children of this
+fanciful family caught up the same cry, and the eldest of them at last
+got up a vastly pretty drama, in which she herself furnished all the
+scenes and played all the parts.
+
+Such imaginary scenes, or _make-believe_ stories, are the common
+amusement of lively children; and most readers may remember having had
+some Utopia of their own. But the nursery drama of Miss Throgmorton had
+a horrible conclusion. This young lady and her sisters were supposed to
+be haunted by nine spirits, dispatched by the wicked Mother Samuel for
+that purpose. The sapient parents heard one part of the dialogue, when
+the children in their fits returned answers, as was supposed, to the
+spirits who afflicted them; and when the patients from time to time
+recovered, they furnished the counterpart by telling what the spirits
+had said to them. The names of the spirits were Pluck, Hardname, Catch,
+Blue, and three Smacks, who were cousins. Mrs. Joan Throgmorton, the
+eldest (who, like other young women of her age, about fifteen, had some
+disease on her nerves, and whose fancy ran apparently on love and
+gallantry), supposed that one of the Smacks was her lover, did battle
+for her with the less friendly spirits, and promised to protect her
+against Mother Samuel herself; and the following curious extract will
+show on what a footing of familiarity the damsel stood with her
+spiritual gallant: "From whence come you, Mr. Smack?" says the afflicted
+young lady; "and what news do you bring?" Smack, nothing abashed,
+informed her he came from fighting with Pluck: the weapons, great
+cowl-staves; the scene, a ruinous bakehouse in Dame Samuel's yard. "And
+who got the mastery, I pray you?" said the damsel. Smack answered, he
+had broken Pluck's head. "I would," said the damsel, "he had broken your
+neck also." "Is that the thanks I am to have for my labour?" said the
+disappointed Smack. "Look you for thanks at my hand?" said the
+distressed maiden. "I would you were all hanged up against each other,
+with your dame for company, for you are all naught." On this repulse,
+exit Smack, and enter Pluck, Blue, and Catch, the first with his head
+broken, the other limping, and the third with his arm in a sling, all
+trophies of Smack's victory. They disappeared after having threatened
+vengeance upon the conquering Smack. However, he soon afterwards
+appeared with his laurels. He told her of his various conflicts. "I
+wonder," said Mrs. Joan, or Jane, "that you are able to beat them; you
+are little, and they very big." "He cared not for that," he replied; "he
+would beat the best two of them, and his cousins Smacks would beat the
+other two." This most pitiful mirth, for such it certainly is, was mixed
+with tragedy enough. Miss Throgmorton and her sisters railed against
+Darne Samuel; and when Mr. Throgmorton brought her to his house by
+force, the little fiends longed to draw blood of her, scratch her, and
+torture her, as the witch-creed of that period recommended; yet the poor
+woman incurred deeper suspicion when she expressed a wish to leave a
+house where she was so coarsely treated and lay under such odious
+suspicions.
+
+It was in vain that this unhappy creature endeavoured to avert their
+resentment by submitting to all the ill-usage they chose to put upon
+her; in vain that she underwent unresistingly the worst usage at the
+hand of Lady Cromwell, her landlady, who, abusing her with the worst
+epithets, tore her cap from her head, clipped out some of her hair, and
+gave it to Mrs. Throgmorton to burn it for a counter-charm. Nay, Mother
+Samuel's complaisance in the latter case only led to a new charge. It
+happened that the Lady Cromwell, on her return home, dreamed of her
+day's work, and especially of the old dame and her cat; and, as her
+ladyship died in a _year and quarter_ from that very day, it was
+sagaciously concluded that she must have fallen a victim to the
+witcheries of the terrible Dame Samuel. Mr. Throgmorton also compelled
+the old woman and her daughter to use expressions which put their lives
+in the power of these malignant children, who had carried on the farce
+so long that they could not well escape from their own web of deceit but
+by the death of these helpless creatures. For example, the prisoner,
+Dame Samuel, was induced to say to the supposed spirit, "As I am a
+witch, and a causer of Lady Cromwell's death, I charge thee to come out
+of the maiden." The girl lay still; and this was accounted a proof that
+the poor woman, who, only subdued and crushed by terror and tyranny, did
+as she was bidden, was a witch. One is ashamed of an English judge and
+jury when it must be repeated that the evidence of these enthusiastic
+and giddy-pated girls was deemed sufficient to the condemnation of three
+innocent persons. Goody Samuel, indeed, was at length worried into a
+confession of her guilt by the various vexations which were practised on
+her. But her husband and daughter continued to maintain their innocence.
+The last showed a high spirit and proud value for her character. She was
+advised by some, who pitied her youth, to gain at least a respite by
+pleading pregnancy; to which she answered disdainfully, "No, I will not
+be both held witch and strumpet!" The mother, to show her sanity of mind
+and the real value of her confession, caught at the advice recommended
+to her daughter. As her years put such a plea out of the question, there
+was a laugh among the unfeeling audience, in which the poor old victim
+joined loudly and heartily. Some there were who thought it no joking
+matter, and were inclined to think they had a Joanna Southcote before
+them, and that the devil must be the father. These unfortunate Samuels
+were condemned at Huntingdon, before Mr. Justice Fenner, 4th April,
+1593. It was a singular case to be commemorated by an annual lecture, as
+provided by Sir Samuel Cromwell, for the purposes of justice were never
+so perverted, nor her sword turned to a more flagrant murder.
+
+We may here mention, though mainly for the sake of contrast, the
+much-disputed case of Jane Wenham, the Witch of Walkerne, as she was
+termed, which was of a much later date. Some of the country clergy were
+carried away by the land-flood of superstition in this instance also and
+not only encouraged the charge, but gave their countenance to some of
+the ridiculous and indecent tricks resorted to as proofs of witchcraft
+by the lowest vulgar. But the good sense of the judge, seconded by that
+of other reflecting and sensible persons, saved the country from the
+ultimate disgrace attendant on too many of these unhallowed trials. The
+usual sort of evidence was brought against this poor woman, by pretences
+of bewitched persons vomiting fire--a trick very easy to those who chose
+to exhibit such a piece of jugglery amongst such as rather desire to be
+taken in by it than to detect the imposture. The witchfinder practised
+upon her the most vulgar and ridiculous tricks or charms; and out of a
+perverted examination they drew what they called a confession, though of
+a forced and mutilated character. Under such proof the jury brought her
+in guilty, and she was necessarily condemned to die. More fortunate,
+however, than many persons placed in the like circumstances, Jane Wenham
+was tried before a sensible and philosophic judge, who could not
+understand that the life of an Englishwoman, however mean, should be
+taken away by a set of barbarous tricks and experiments, the efficacy of
+which depended on popular credulity. He reprieved the witch before he
+left the assize-town. The rest of the history is equally a contrast to
+some we have told and others we shall have to recount. A humane and
+high-spirited gentleman, Colonel Plummer of Gilston, putting at defiance
+popular calumny, placed the poor old woman in a small house near his own
+and under his immediate protection. Here she lived and died, in honest
+and fair reputation, edifying her visitors by her accuracy and attention
+in repeating her devotions; and, removed from her brutal and malignant
+neighbours, never afterwards gave the slightest cause of suspicion or
+offence till her dying day. As this was one of the last cases of
+conviction in England, Dr Hutchison has been led to dilate upon it with
+some strength of eloquence as well as argument.
+
+He thus expostulates with some of the better class who were eager for
+the prosecution:--"(1) What single fact of sorcery did this Jane Wenham
+do? What charm did she use, or what act of witchcraft could you prove
+upon her? Laws are against evil actions that can be proved to be of the
+person's doing. What single fact that was against the statute could you
+fix upon her? I ask (2) Did she so much as speak an imprudent word, or
+do an immoral action, that you could put into the narrative of her case?
+When she was denied a few turnips, she laid them down very submissively;
+when she was called witch and bitch, she only took the proper means for
+the vindication of her good name; when she saw this storm coming upon
+her she locked herself in her own house and tried to keep herself out of
+your cruel hands; when her door was broken open, and you gave way to
+that barbarous usage that she met with, she protested her innocence,
+fell upon her knees, and begged she might not go to gaol, and, in her
+innocent simplicity, would have let you swim her; and at her trial she
+declared herself a clear woman. This was her behaviour. And what could
+any of us have done better, excepting in that case where she complied
+with you too much, and offered to let you swim her?
+
+"(3) When you used the meanest of paganish and popish
+superstitions--when you scratched and mangled and ran pins into her
+flesh, and used that ridiculous trial of the bottle, &c.--whom did you
+consult, and from whom did you expect your answers? Who was your father?
+and into whose hands did you put yourselves? and (if the true sense of
+the statute had been turned upon you) which way would you have defended
+yourselves? (4) Durst you have used her in this manner if she had been
+rich? and doth not her poverty increase rather than lessen your guilt in
+what you did?
+
+"And therefore, instead of closing your book with a _liberavimus animas
+nostras_, and reflecting upon the court, I ask you (5) Whether you have
+not more reason to give God thanks that you met with a wise judge, and a
+sensible gentleman, who kept you from shedding innocent blood, and
+reviving the meanest and cruelest of all superstitions amongst us?"[55]
+
+[Footnote 55: Hutchison's "Essay on Witchcraft," p. 166.]
+
+But although individuals of the English Church might on some occasions
+be justly accused of falling into lamentable errors on a subject where
+error was so general, it was not an usual point of their professional
+character; and it must be admitted that the most severe of the laws
+against witchcraft originated with a Scottish King of England, and that
+the only extensive persecution following that statute occurred during
+the time of the Civil Wars, when the Calvinists obtained for a short
+period a predominating influence in the councils of Parliament.
+
+James succeeded to Elizabeth amidst the highest expectations on the part
+of his new people, who, besides their general satisfaction at coming
+once more under the rule of a king, were also proud of his supposed
+abilities and real knowledge of books and languages, and were naturally,
+though imprudently, disposed to gratify him by deferring to his judgment
+in matters wherein his studies were supposed to have rendered him a
+special proficient. Unfortunately, besides the more harmless freak of
+becoming a prentice in the art of poetry, by which words and numbers
+were the only sufferers, the monarch had composed a deep work upon
+Demonology, embracing in their fullest extent the most absurd and gross
+of the popular errors on this subject. He considered his crown and life
+as habitually aimed at by the sworn slaves of Satan. Several had been
+executed for an attempt to poison him by magical arts; and the turbulent
+Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, whose repeated attempts on his person
+had long been James's terror, had begun his course of rebellion by a
+consultation with the weird sisters and soothsayers. Thus the king, who
+had proved with his pen the supposed sorcerers to be the direct enemies
+of the Deity, and who conceived he knew them from experience to be his
+own--who, moreover, had upon much lighter occasions (as in the case of
+Vorstius) showed no hesitation at throwing his royal authority into the
+scale to aid his arguments--very naturally used his influence, when it
+was at the highest, to extend and enforce the laws against a crime which
+he both hated and feared.
+
+The English statute against witchcraft, passed in the very first year of
+that reign, is therefore of a most special nature, describing witchcraft
+by all the various modes and ceremonies in which, according to King
+James's fancy, that crime could be perpetrated; each of which was
+declared felony, without benefit of clergy.
+
+This gave much wider scope to prosecution on the statute than had
+existed under the milder acts of Elizabeth. Men might now be punished
+for the practice of witchcraft, as itself a crime, without necessary
+reference to the ulterior objects of the perpetrator. It is remarkable
+that in the same year, when the legislature rather adopted the passions
+and fears of the king than expressed their own by this fatal enactment,
+the Convocation of the Church evinced a very different spirit; for,
+seeing the ridicule brought on their sacred profession by forward and
+presumptuous men, in the attempt to relieve demoniacs from a disease
+which was commonly occasioned by natural causes, if not the mere
+creature of imposture, they passed a canon, establishing that no
+minister or ministers should in future attempt to expel any devil or
+devils, without the license of his bishop; thereby virtually putting a
+stop to a fertile source of knavery among the people, and disgraceful
+folly among the inferior churchmen.
+
+The new statute of James does not, however, appear to have led at first
+to many prosecutions. One of the most remarkable was (_proh pudor!_)
+instigated by a gentleman, a scholar of classical taste, and a beautiful
+poet, being no other than Edward Fairfax of Fayston, in Knaresborough
+Forest, the translator of Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered." In allusion to
+his credulity on such subjects, Collins has introduced the following
+elegant lines:--
+
+"How have I sate while piped the pensive wind,
+  To hear thy harp, by British Fairfax strung;
+Prevailing poet, whose undoubting mind
+  Believed the magic wonders which he sung!"
+
+Like Mr. Throgmorton in the Warbois case, Mr. Fairfax accused six of his
+neighbours of tormenting his children by fits of an extraordinary kind,
+by imps, and by appearing before the afflicted in their own shape during
+the crisis of these operations. The admitting this last circumstance to
+be a legitimate mode of proof, gave a most cruel advantage against the
+accused, for it could not, according to the ideas of the demonologists,
+be confuted even by the most distinct _alibi_. To a defence of that sort
+it was replied that the afflicted person did not see the actual witch,
+whose corporeal presence must indeed have been obvious to every one in
+the room as well as to the afflicted, but that the evidence of the
+sufferers related to the appearance of their _spectre_, or apparition;
+and this was accounted a sure sign of guilt in those whose forms were so
+manifested during the fits of the afflicted, and who were complained of
+and cried out upon by the victim. The obvious tendency of this doctrine,
+as to visionary or spectral evidence, as it was called, was to place the
+life and fame of the accused in the power of any hypochondriac patient
+or malignant impostor, who might either seem to see, or aver she saw,
+the _spectrum_ of the accused old man or old woman, as if enjoying and
+urging on the afflictions which she complained of; and, strange to tell,
+the fatal sentence was to rest, not upon the truth of the witnesses'
+eyes, but that of their imagination. It happened fortunately for
+Fairfax's memory, that the objects of his prosecution were persons of
+good character, and that the judge was a man of sense, and made so wise
+and skilful a charge to the jury, that they brought in a verdict of not
+guilty.
+
+The celebrated case of "the Lancashire witches" (whose name was and will
+be long remembered, partly from Shadwell's play, but more from the
+ingenious and well-merited compliment to the beauty of the females of
+that province which it was held to contain), followed soon after.
+Whether the first notice of this sorcery sprung from the idle head of a
+mischievous boy, is uncertain; but there is no doubt that it was
+speedily caught up and fostered for the purpose of gain. The original
+story ran thus:--
+
+These Lancaster trials were at two periods, the one in 1613, before Sir
+James Altham and Sir Edward Bromley, Barons of Exchequer, when nineteen
+witches were tried at once at Lancaster, and another of the name of
+Preston at York. The report against these people is drawn up by Thomas
+Potts. An obliging correspondent sent me a sight of a copy of this
+curious and rare book. The chief personage in the drama is Elizabeth
+Southam, a witch redoubted under the name of Dembdike, an account of
+whom may be seen in Mr. Roby's "Antiquities of Lancaster," as well as a
+description of Maulkins' Tower, the witches' place of meeting. It
+appears that this remote county was full of Popish recusants, travelling
+priests, and so forth; and some of their spells are given in which the
+holy names and things alluded to form a strange contrast with the
+purpose to which they were applied, as to secure a good brewing of ale
+or the like. The public imputed to the accused parties a long train of
+murders, conspiracies, charms, mischances, hellish and damnable
+practices, "apparent," says the editor, "on their own examinations and
+confessions," and, to speak the truth, visible nowhere else. Mother
+Dembdike had the good luck to die before conviction. Among other tales,
+we have one of two _female_ devils, called Fancy and Tib. It is
+remarkable that some of the unfortunate women endeavoured to transfer
+the guilt from themselves to others with whom they had old quarrels,
+which confessions were held good evidence against those who made them,
+and against the alleged accomplice also. Several of the unhappy women
+were found not guilty, to the great displeasure of the ignorant people
+of the county. Such was the first edition of the Lancashire witches. In
+that which follows the accusation can be more clearly traced to the most
+villanous conspiracy.
+
+About 1634 a boy called Edmund Robinson, whose father, a very poor man,
+dwelt in Pendle Forest, the scene of the alleged witching, declared that
+while gathering _bullees_ (wild plums, perhaps) in one of the glades of
+the forest, he saw two greyhounds, which he imagined to belong to
+gentlemen in that neighbourhood. The boy reported that, seeing nobody
+following them, he proposed to have a course; but though a hare was
+started, the dogs refused to run. On this, young Robinson was about to
+punish them with a switch, when one Dame Dickenson, a neighbour's wife,
+started up instead of the one greyhound; a little boy instead of the
+other. The witness averred that Mother Dickenson offered him money to
+conceal what he had seen, which he refused, saying "Nay, thou art a
+witch." Apparently she was determined he should have full evidence of
+the truth of what he said, for, like the Magician Queen in the Arabian
+Tales, she pulled out of her pocket a bridle and shook it over the head
+of the boy who had so lately represented the other greyhound. He was
+directly changed into a horse; Mother Dickenson mounted, and took
+Robinson before her. They then rode to a large house or barn called
+Hourstoun, into which Edmund Robinson entered with others. He there saw
+six or seven persons pulling at halters, from which, as they pulled
+them, meat ready dressed came flying in quantities, together with lumps
+of butter, porringers of milk, and whatever else might, in the boy's
+fancy, complete a rustic feast. He declared that while engaged in the
+charm they made such ugly faces and looked so fiendish that he was
+frightened. There was more to the same purpose--as the boy's having seen
+one of these hags sitting half-way up his father's chimney, and some
+such goodly matter. But it ended in near a score of persons being
+committed to prison; and the consequence was that young Robinson was
+carried from church to church in the neighbourhood, that he might
+recognise the faces of any persons he had seen at the rendezvous of
+witches. Old Robinson, who had been an evidence against the former
+witches in 1613, went along with his son, and knew, doubtless, how to
+make his journey profitable; and his son probably took care to recognise
+none who might make a handsome consideration. "This boy," says Webster,
+"was brought into the church at Kildwick, a parish church, where I,
+being then curate there, was preaching at the time, to look about him,
+which made some little disturbance for the time." After prayers Mr.
+Webster sought and found the boy, and two very unlikely persons, who,
+says he, "did conduct him and manage the business: I did desire some
+discourse with the boy in private, but that they utterly denied. In the
+presence of a great many many people I took the boy near me and said,
+'Good boy, tell me truly and in earnest, didst thou hear and see such
+strange things of the motions of the witches as many do report that thou
+didst relate, or did not some person teach thee to say such things of
+thyself?' But the two men did pluck the boy from me, and said he had
+been examined by two able justices of peace, and they never asked him
+such a question. To whom I replied, 'The persons accused had the more
+wrong.'" The boy afterwards acknowledged, in his more advanced years,
+that he was instructed and suborned to swear these things against the
+accused persons by his father and others, and was heard often to confess
+that on the day which he pretended to see the said witches at the house
+or barn, he was gathering plums in a neighbour's orchard.[56]
+
+[Footnote 56: Webster on Witchcraft, edition 1677, p. 278.]
+
+There was now approaching a time when the law against witchcraft,
+sufficiently bloody in itself, was to be pushed to more violent
+extremities than the quiet scepticism of the Church of England clergy
+gave way to. The great Civil War had been preceded and anticipated by
+the fierce disputes of the ecclesiastical parties. The rash and
+ill-judged attempt to enforce upon the Scottish a compliance with the
+government and ceremonies of the High Church divines, and the severe
+prosecutions in the Star Chamber and Prerogative Courts, had given the
+Presbyterian system for a season a great degree of popularity in
+England; and as the King's party declined during the Civil War, and the
+state of church-government was altered, the influence of the Calvinistic
+divines increased. With much strict morality and pure practice of
+religion, it is to be regretted these were still marked by unhesitating
+belief in the existence of sorcery, and a keen desire to extend and
+enforce the legal penalties against it. Wier has considered the clergy
+of every sect as being too eager in this species of persecution: _Ad
+gravem hanc impietatem, connivent theologi plerique omnes_. But it is
+not to be denied that the Presbyterian ecclesiastics who, in Scotland,
+were often appointed by the Privy Council Commissioners for the trial of
+witchcraft, evinced a very extraordinary degree of credulity in such
+cases, and that the temporary superiority of the same sect in England
+was marked by enormous cruelties of this kind. To this general error we
+must impute the misfortune that good men, such as Calamy and Baxter,
+should have countenanced or defended such proceedings as those of the
+impudent and cruel wretch called Matthew Hopkins, who, in those
+unsettled times, when men did what seemed good in their own eyes,
+assumed the title of Witchfinder General, and, travelling through the
+counties of Essex, Sussex, Norfolk, and Huntingdon, pretended to
+discover witches, superintending their examination by the most
+unheard-of tortures, and compelling forlorn and miserable wretches to
+admit and confess matters equally absurd and impossible; the issue of
+which was the forfeiture of their lives. Before examining these cases
+more minutely, I will quote Baxter's own words; for no one can have less
+desire to wrong a devout and conscientious man, such as that divine most
+unquestionably was, though borne aside on this occasion by prejudice and
+credulity.
+
+"The hanging of a great number of witches in 1645 and 1646 is famously
+known. Mr. Calamy went along with the judges on the circuit to hear
+their confessions, and see there was no fraud or wrong done them. I
+spoke with many understanding, pious, learned, and credible persons that
+lived in the counties, and some that went to them in the prisons, and
+heard their sad confessions. Among the rest an old _reading parson_,
+named Lowis, not far from Framlingham, was one that was hanged, who
+confessed that he had two imps, and that one of them was always putting
+him upon doing mischief; and he, being near the sea, as he saw a ship
+under sail, it moved him to send it to sink the ship; and he consented,
+and saw the ship sink before them." Mr. Baxter passes on to another
+story of a mother who gave her child an imp like a mole, and told her to
+keep it in a can near the fire, and she would never want; and more such
+stuff as nursery-maids tell froward children to keep them quiet.
+
+It is remarkable that in this passage Baxter names the Witchfinder
+General rather slightly as "one Hopkins," and without doing him the
+justice due to one who had discovered more than one hundred witches, and
+brought them to confessions, which that good man received as
+indubitable. Perhaps the learned divine was one of those who believed
+that the Witchfinder General had cheated the devil out of a certain
+memorandum-book, in which Satan, for the benefit of his memory
+certainly, had entered all the witches' names in England, and that
+Hopkins availed himself of this record.[57]
+
+[Footnote 57: This reproach is noticed in a very rare tract, which was
+bought at Mr. Lort's sale, by the celebrated collector Mr. Bindley, and
+is now in the author's possession. Its full title is, "The Discovery of
+Witches, in Answer to several Queries lately delivered to the Judge of
+Assize for the County of Norfolk; and now published by Matthew Hopkins,
+Witchfinder, for the Benefit of the whole Kingdom. Printed for R.
+Royston, at the Angel, in Inn Lane. 1647."]
+
+It may be noticed that times of misrule and violence seem to create
+individuals fitted to take advantage from them, and having a character
+suited to the seasons which raise them into notice and action; just as a
+blight on any tree or vegetable calls to life a peculiar insect to feed
+upon and enjoy the decay which it has produced. A monster like Hopkins
+could only have existed during the confusion of civil dissension. He was
+perhaps a native of Manningtree, in Essex; at any rate, he resided there
+in the year 1644, when an epidemic outcry of witchcraft arose in that
+town. Upon this occasion he had made himself busy, and, affecting more
+zeal and knowledge than other men, learned his trade of a witchfinder,
+as he pretends, from experiment. He was afterwards permitted to perform
+it as a legal profession, and moved from one place to another, with an
+assistant named Sterne, and a female. In his defence against an
+accusation of fleecing the country, he declares his regular charge was
+twenty shillings a town, including charges of living and journeying
+thither and back again with his assistants. He also affirms that he went
+nowhere unless called and invited. His principal mode of discovery was
+to strip the accused persons naked, and thrust pins into various parts
+of their body, to discover the witch's mark, which was supposed to be
+inflicted by the devil as a sign of his sovereignty, and at which she
+was also said to suckle her imps. He also practised and stoutly defended
+the trial by swimming, when the suspected person was wrapped in a sheet,
+having the great toes and thumbs tied together, and so dragged through a
+pond or river. If she sank, it was received in favour of the accused;
+but if the body floated (which must have occurred ten times for once, if
+it was placed with care on the surface of the water), the accused was
+condemned, on the principle of King James, who, in treating of this mode
+of trial, lays down that, as witches have renounced their baptism, so it
+is just that the element through which the holy rite is enforced should
+reject them, which is a figure of speech, and no argument. It was
+Hopkins's custom to keep the poor wretches waking, in order to prevent
+them from having encouragement from the devil, and, doubiless, to put
+infirm, terrified, overwatched persons in the next state to absolute
+madness; and for the same purpose they were dragged about by their
+keepers till extreme weariness and the pain of blistered feet might form
+additional inducements to confession. Hopkins confesses these last
+practices of keeping the accused persons waking, and forcing them to
+walk for the same purpose, had been originally used by him. But as his
+tract is a professed answer to charges of cruelty and oppression, he
+affirms that both practices were then disused, and that they had not of
+late been resorted to.
+
+The boast of the English nation is a manly independence and
+common-sense, which will not long permit the license of tyranny or
+oppression on the meanest and most obscure sufferers. Many clergymen and
+gentlemen made head against the practices of this cruel oppressor of the
+defenceless, and it required courage to do so when such an unscrupulous
+villain had so much interest.
+
+Mr. Gaul, a clergyman, of Houghton, in Huntingdonshire, had the courage
+to appear in print on the weaker side; and Hopkins, in consequence,
+assumed the assurance to write to some functionaries of the place the
+following letter, which is an admirable medley of impudence, bullying,
+and cowardice:--
+
+"My service to your worship presented.--I have this day received a
+letter to come to a town called Great Houghton to search for
+evil-disposed persons called witches (though I hear your minister is far
+against us, through ignorance). I intend to come, God willing, the
+sooner to hear his singular judgment in the behalf of such parties. I
+have known a minister in Suffolk as much against this discovery in a
+pulpit, and forced to recant it by the Committee[58] in the same place.
+I much marvel such evil men should have any (much more any of the
+clergy, who should daily speak terror to convince such offenders) stand
+up to take their parts against such as are complainants for the king,
+and sufferers themselves, with their families and estates. I intend to
+give your town a visit suddenly. I will come to Kimbolton this week, and
+it will be ten to one but I will come to your town first; but I would
+certainly know before whether your town affords many sticklers for such
+cattle, or is willing to give and allow us good welcome and
+entertainment, as others where I have been, else I shall waive your
+shire (not as yet beginning in any part of it myself), and betake me to
+such places where I do and may punish (not only) without control, but
+with thanks and recompense. So I humbly take my leave, and rest your
+servant to be commanded,
+
+"MATTHEW HOPKINS."
+
+[Footnote 58: Of Parliament.]
+
+The sensible and courageous Mr. Gaul describes the tortures employed by
+this fellow as equal to any practised in the Inquisition. "Having taken
+the suspected witch, she is placed in the middle of a room, upon a stool
+or table, cross-legged, or in some other uneasy posture, to which, if
+she submits not, she is then bound with cords; there she is watched and
+kept without meat or sleep for four-and-twenty hours, for, they say,
+they shall within that time see her imp come and suck. A little hole is
+likewise made in the door for the imps to come in at; and lest they
+should come in some less discernible shape, they that watch are taught
+to be ever and anon sweeping the room, and if they see any spiders or
+flies, to kill them; and if they cannot kill them, they may be sure they
+are their imps."
+
+If torture of this kind was applied to the Reverend Mr. Lewis, whose
+death is too slightly announced by Mr. Baxter, we can conceive him, or
+any man, to have indeed become so weary of his life as to acknowledge
+that, by means of his imps, he sunk a vessel, without any purpose of
+gratification to be procured to himself by such iniquity. But in another
+cause a judge would have demanded some proof of the _corpus delecti_,
+some evidence of a vessel being lost at the period, whence coming and
+whither bound; in short, something to establish that the whole story was
+not the idle imagination of a man who might have been entirely deranged,
+and certainly was so at the time he made the admission. John Lewis was
+presented to the vicarage of Brandiston, near Framlington, in Suffolk,
+6th May, 1596, where he lived about fifty years, till executed as a
+wizard on such evidence as we have seen. Notwithstanding the story of
+his alleged confession, he defended himself courageously at his trial,
+and was probably condemned rather as a royalist and malignant than for
+any other cause. He showed at the execution considerable energy, and to
+secure that the funeral service of the church should be said over his
+body, he read it aloud for himself while on the road to the gibbet.
+
+We have seen that in 1647 Hopkins's tone became lowered, and he began to
+disavow some of the cruelties he had formerly practised. About the same
+time a miserable old woman had fallen into the cruel hands of this
+miscreant near Hoxne, a village in Suffolk, and had confessed all the
+usual enormities, after being without food or rest a sufficient time.
+"Her imp," she said, "was called Nan." A gentleman in the neighbourhood,
+whose widow survived to authenticate the story, was so indignant that he
+went to the house, took the woman out of such inhuman hands, dismissed
+the witchfinders, and after due food and rest the poor old woman could
+recollect nothing of the confession, but that she gave a favourite
+pullet the name of Nan. For this Dr. Hutchison may be referred to, who
+quotes a letter from the relict of the humane gentleman.
+
+In the year 1645 a Commission of Parliament was sent down, comprehending
+two clergymen in esteem with the leading party, one of whom, Mr.
+Fairclough of Kellar, preached before the rest on the subject of
+witchcraft; and after this appearance of enquiry the inquisitions and
+executions went on as before. But the popular indignation was so
+strongly excited against Hopkins, that some gentlemen seized on him, and
+put him to his own favourite experiment of swimming, on which, as he
+happened to float, he stood convicted of witchcraft, and so the country
+was rid of him. Whether he was drowned outright or not does not exactly
+appear, but he has had the honour to be commemorated by the author of
+Hudibras:--
+
+     "Hath not this present Parliament
+     A leiger to the devil sent,
+     Fully empower'd to treat about
+     Finding revolted witches out?
+     And has he not within a year
+     Hang'd threescore of them in one shire?
+     Some only for not being drown'd,
+     And some for sitting above ground
+     Whole days and nights upon their breeches,
+     And feeling pain, were hang'd for witches.
+     And some for putting knavish tricks
+     Upon green geese or turkey chicks;
+     Or pigs that suddenly deceased
+     Of griefs unnatural, as he guess'd,
+     Who proved himself at length a witch,
+     And made a rod for his own breech." [59]
+
+[Footnote 59: "Hudibras," part ii. canto 3.]
+
+The understanding reader will easily conceive that this alteration of
+the current in favour of those who disapproved of witch-prosecutions,
+must have received encouragement from some quarter of weight and
+influence; yet it may sound strangely enough that this spirit of lenity
+should have been the result of the peculiar principles of those
+sectarians of all denominations, classed in general as Independents,
+who, though they had originally courted the Presbyterians as the more
+numerous and prevailing party, had at length shaken themselves loose of
+that connexion, and finally combated with and overcome them. The
+Independents were distinguished by the wildest license in their
+religious tenets, mixed with much that was nonsensical and mystical.
+They disowned even the title of a regular clergy, and allowed the
+preaching of any one who could draw together a congregation that would
+support him, or who was willing, without recompense, to minister to the
+spiritual necessities of his hearers. Although such laxity of discipline
+afforded scope to the wildest enthusiasm, and room for all possible
+varieties of doctrine, it had, on the other hand, this inestimable
+recommendation, that it contributed to a degree of general toleration
+which was at that time unknown to any other Christian establishment. The
+very genius of a religion which admitted of the subdivision of sects _ad
+infinitum_, excluded a legal prosecution of any one of these for heresy
+or apostasy. If there had even existed a sect of Manichæans, who made it
+their practice to adore the Evil Principle, it may be doubted whether
+the other sectaries would have accounted them absolute outcasts from the
+pale of the church; and, fortunately, the same sentiment induced them to
+regard with horror the prosecutions against witchcraft. Thus the
+Independents, when, under Cromwell, they attained a supremacy over the
+Presbyterians, who to a certain point had been their allies, were
+disposed to counteract the violence of such proceedings under pretence
+of witchcraft, as had been driven forward by the wretched Hopkins, in
+Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, for three or four years previous to 1647.
+
+The return of Charles II. to his crown and kingdom, served in some
+measure to restrain the general and wholesale manner in which the laws
+against witchcraft had been administered during the warmth of the Civil
+War. The statute of the 1st of King James, nevertheless, yet subsisted;
+nor is it in the least likely, considering the character of the prince,
+that he, to save the lives of a few old men or women, would have run the
+risk of incurring the odium of encouraging or sparing a crime still held
+in horror by a great part of his subjects. The statute, however, was
+generally administered by wise and skilful judges, and the accused had
+such a chance of escape as the rigour of the absurd law permitted.
+
+Nonsense, it is too obvious, remained in some cases predominant. In the
+year 1663 an old dame, named Julian Coxe, was convicted chiefly on the
+evidence of a huntsman, who declared on his oath, that he laid his
+greyhounds on a hare, and coming up to the spot where he saw them mouth
+her, there he found, on the other side of a bush, Julian Coxe lying
+panting and breathless, in such a manner as to convince him that she had
+been the creature which afforded him the course. The unhappy woman was
+executed on this evidence.
+
+Two years afterwards (1664), it is with regret we must quote the
+venerable and devout Sir Matthew Hales, as presiding at a trial, in
+consequence of which Amy Dunny and Rose Callender were hanged at Saint
+Edmondsbury. But no man, unless very peculiarly circumstanced, can
+extricate himself from the prejudices of his nation and age. The
+evidence against the accused was laid, 1st, on the effect of spells used
+by ignorant persons to counteract the supposed witchcraft; the use of
+which was, under the statute of James I., as criminal as the act of
+sorcery which such counter-charms were meant to neutralize, 2ndly, The
+two old women, refused even the privilege of purchasing some herrings,
+having expressed themselves with angry impatience, a child of the
+herring-merchant fell ill in conseqence. 3rdly, A cart was driven
+against the miserable cottage of Amy Dunny. She scolded, of course; and
+shortly after the cart--(what a good driver will scarce
+comprehend)--stuck fast in a gate, where its wheels touched neither of
+the posts, and yet was moved easily forward on one of the posts (by
+which it was _not_ impeded) being cut down. 4thly, One of the afflicted
+girls being closely muffled, went suddenly into a fit upon being touched
+by one of the supposed witches. But upon another trial it was found that
+the person so blindfolded fell into the same rage at the touch of an
+unsuspected person. What perhaps sealed the fate of the accused was the
+evidence of the celebrated Sir Thomas Browne, "that the fits were
+natural, but heightened by the power of the devil co-operating with the
+malice of witches;"--a strange opinion, certainly, from the author of a
+treatise on "Vulgar Errors!"[60]
+
+[Footnote 60: See the account of Sir T. Browne in No. XIV. of the
+"Family Library" ("Lives of British Physicians"), p. 60.]
+
+But the torch of science was now fairly lighted, and gleamed in more
+than one kingdom of the world, shooting its rays on every side, and
+catching at all means which were calculated to increase the
+illumination. The Royal Society, which had taken its rise at Oxford from
+a private association who met in Dr. Wilkin's chambers about the year
+1652, was, the year after the Restoration, incorporated by royal
+charter, and began to publish their Transactions, and give a new and
+more rational character to the pursuits of philosophy.
+
+In France, where the mere will of the government could accomplish
+greater changes, the consequence of an enlarged spirit of scientific
+discovery was, that a decisive stop was put to the witch-prosecutions
+which had heretofore been as common in that kingdom as in England. About
+the year 1672 there was a general arrest of very many shepherds and
+others in Normandy, and the Parliament of Rouen prepared to proceed in
+the investigation with the usual severity. But an order, or _arret_,
+from the king (Louis XIV.), with advice of his council, commanding all
+these unfortunate persons to be set at liberty and protected, had the
+most salutary effects all over the kingdom. The French Academy of
+Sciences was also founded; and, in imitation, a society of learned
+Germans established a similar institution at Leipsic. Prejudices,
+however old, were overawed and controlled--much was accounted for on
+natural principles that had hitherto been imputed to spiritual
+agency--everything seemed to promise that farther access to the secrets
+of nature might be opened to those who should prosecute their studies
+experimentally and by analysis--and the mass of ancient opinions which
+overwhelmed the dark subject of which we treat began to be derided and
+rejected by men of sense and education.
+
+In many cases the prey was now snatched from the spoiler. A pragmatical
+justice of peace in Somersetshire commenced a course of enquiry after
+offenders against the statute of James I., and had he been allowed to
+proceed, Mr. Hunt might have gained a name as renowned for witch-finding
+as that of Mr. Hopkins; but his researches were stopped from higher
+authority--the lives of the poor people arrested (twelve in number) were
+saved, and the country remained at quiet, though the supposed witches
+were suffered to live. The examinations attest some curious particulars,
+which may be found in _Sadducismus Triumphatus_: for among the usual
+string of froward, fanciful, or, as they were called, afflicted
+children, brought forward to club their startings, starings, and
+screamings, there appeared also certain remarkable confessions of the
+accused, from which we learn that the Somerset Satan enlisted his
+witches, like a wily recruiting sergeant, with one shilling in hand and
+twelve in promises; that when the party of weird-sisters passed to the
+witch-meeting they used the magic words, _Thout, tout, throughout, and
+about_; and that when they departed they exclaimed, _Rentum, Tormentum_!
+We are further informed that his Infernal Highness, on his departure,
+leaves a smell, and that (in nursery-maid's phrase) not a pretty one,
+behind him. Concerning this fact we have a curious exposition by Mr.
+Glanville. "This,"--according to that respectable authority, "seems to
+imply the reality of the business, those ascititious particles which he
+held together in his sensible shape being loosened at the vanishing, and
+so offending the nostrils by their floating and diffusing themselves in
+the open air."[61] How much are we bound to regret that Mr. Justice
+Hunt's discovery "of this hellish kind of witches," in itself so clear
+and plain, and containing such valuable information, should have been
+smothered by meeting with opposition and discouragement from some then
+in authority!
+
+[Footnote 61: Glanville's "Collection of Relations."]
+
+Lord Keeper Guildford was also a stifler of the proceedings against
+witches. Indeed, we may generally remark, during the latter part of the
+seventeenth century, that where the judges were men of education and
+courage, sharing in the information of the times, they were careful to
+check the precipitate ignorance and prejudice of the juries, by giving
+them a more precise idea of the indifferent value of confessions by the
+accused themselves, and of testimony derived from the pretended visions
+of those supposed to be bewitched. Where, on the contrary, judges shared
+with the vulgar in their ideas of such fascination, or were contented to
+leave the evidence with the jury, fearful to withstand the general cry
+too common on such occasions, a verdict of guilty often followed.
+
+We are informed by Roger North that a case of this kind happened at the
+assizes in Exeter, where his brother, the Lord Chief Justice, did not
+interfere with the crown trials, and the other judge left for execution
+a poor old woman, condemned, as usual, on her own confession, and on the
+testimony of a neighbour, who deponed that he saw a cat jump into the
+accused person's cottage window at twilight, one evening, and that he
+verily believed the said cat to be the devil; on which precious
+testimony the poor wretch was accordingly hanged. On another occasion,
+about the same time, the passions of the great and little vulgar were so
+much excited by the aquittal of an aged village dame, whom the judge had
+taken some pains to rescue, that Sir John Long, a man of rank and
+fortune, came to the judge in the greatest perplexity, requesting that
+the hag might not be permitted to return to her miserable cottage on his
+estates, since all his tenants had in that case threatened to leave him.
+In compassion to a gentleman who apprehended ruin from a cause so
+whimsical, the dangerous old woman was appointed to be kept by the town
+where she was acquitted, at the rate of half-a-crown a week, paid by the
+parish to which she belonged. But behold! in the period betwixt the two
+assizes Sir John Long and his farmers had mustered courage enough to
+petition that this witch should be sent back to them in all her terrors,
+because they could support her among them at a shilling a week cheaper
+than they were obliged to pay to the town for her maintenance. In a
+subsequent trial before Lord Chief Justice North himself, that judge
+detected one of those practices which, it is to be feared, were too
+common at the time, when witnesses found their advantage in feigning
+themselves bewitched. A woman, supposed to be the victim of the male
+sorcerer at the bar, vomited pins in quantities, and those straight,
+differing from the crooked pins usually produced at such times, and less
+easily concealed in the mouth. The judge, however, discovered, by
+cross-examining a candid witness, that in counterfeiting her fits of
+convulsion the woman sunk her head on her breast, so as to take up with
+her lips the pins which she had placed ready in her stomacher. The man
+was acquitted, of course. A frightful old hag, who was present,
+distinguished herself so much by her benedictions on the judge, that he
+asked the cause of the peculiar interest which she took in the
+acquittal. "Twenty years ago," said the poor woman, "they would have
+hanged me for a witch, but could not; and now, but for your lordship,
+they would have murdered my innocent son."[62]
+
+[Footnote 62: Roger North's "Life of Lord-Keeper Guilford."]
+
+Such scenes happened frequently on the assizes, while country gentlemen,
+like the excellent Sir Roger de Coverley, retained a private share in
+the terror with which their tenants, servants, and retainers regarded
+some old Moll White, who put the hounds at fault and ravaged the fields
+with hail and hurricanes. Sir John Reresby, after an account of a poor
+woman tried for a witch at York in 1686 and acquitted, as he thought,
+very properly, proceeds to tell us that, notwithstanding, the sentinel
+upon the jail where she was confined avowed "that he saw a scroll of
+paper creep from under the prison-door, and then change itself first
+into a monkey and then into a turkey, which the under-keeper confirmed.
+This," says Sir John, "I have heard from the mouth of both, and now
+leave it to be believed or disbelieved as the reader may be
+inclined."[63] We may see that Reresby, a statesman and a soldier, had
+not as yet "plucked the old woman out of his heart." Even Addison
+himself ventured no farther in his incredulity respecting this crime
+than to contend that although witchcraft might and did exist, there was
+no such thing as a modern instance competently proved.
+
+[Footnote 63: "Memoirs of Sir John Reresby," p. 237.]
+
+As late as 1682 three unhappy women named Susan Edwards, Mary Trembles,
+and Temperance Lloyd were hanged at Exeter for witchcraft, and, as
+usual, on their own confession. This is believed to be the last
+execution of the kind in England under form of judicial sentence. But
+the ancient superstition, so interesting to vulgar credulity, like
+sediment clearing itself from water, sunk down in a deeper shade upon
+the ignorant and lowest classes of society in proportion as the higher
+regions were purified from its influence. The populace, including the
+ignorant of every class, were more enraged against witches when their
+passions were once excited in proportion to the lenity exercised towards
+the objects of their indignation by those who administered the laws.
+Several cases occurred in which the mob, impressed with a conviction of
+the guilt of some destitute old creatures, took the law into their own
+hands, and proceeding upon such evidence as Hopkins would have had
+recourse to, at once, in their own apprehension, ascertained their
+criminality and administered the deserved punishment.
+
+The following instance of such illegal and inhuman proceedings occurred
+at Oakly, near Bedford, on 12th July, 1707. There was one woman, upwards
+of sixty years of age, who, being under an imputation of witchcraft, was
+desirous to escape from so foul a suspicion, and to conciliate the
+good-will of her neighbours, by allowing them to duck her. The parish
+officers so far consented to their humane experiment as to promise the
+poor woman a guinea if she should clear herself by sinking. The
+unfortunate object was tied up in a wet sheet, her thumbs and great toes
+were bound together, her cap torn off, and all her apparel searched for
+pins; for there is an idea that a single pin spoils the operation of the
+charm. She was then dragged through the river Ouse by a rope tied round
+her middle. Unhappily for the poor woman, her body floated, though her
+head remained under water. The experiment was made three times with the
+same effect. The cry to hang or drown the witch then became general, and
+as she lay half-dead on the bank they loaded the wretch with reproaches,
+and hardly forbore blows. A single humane bystander took her part, and
+exposed himself to rough usage for doing so. Luckily one of the mob
+themselves at length suggested the additional experiment of weighing the
+witch against the church Bible. The friend of humanity caught at this
+means of escape, supporting the proposal by the staggering argument that
+the Scripture, being the work of God himself, must outweigh necessarily
+all the operations or vassals of the devil. The reasoning was received
+as conclusive, the more readily as it promised a new species of
+amusement. The woman was then weighed against a church Bible of twelve
+pounds jockey weight, and as she was considerably preponderant, was
+dismissed with honour. But many of the mob counted her acquittal
+irregular, and would have had the poor dame drowned or hanged on the
+result of her ducking, as the more authentic species of trial.
+
+At length a similar piece of inhumanity, which had a very different
+conclusion, led to the final abolition of the statute of James I. as
+affording countenance for such brutal proceedings. An aged pauper, named
+Osborne, and his wife, who resided near Tring, in Staffordshire, fell
+under the suspicion of the mob on account of supposed witchcraft. The
+overseers of the poor, understanding that the rabble entertained a
+purpose of swimming these infirm creatures, which indeed they had
+expressed in a sort of proclamation, endeavoured to oppose their purpose
+by securing the unhappy couple in the vestry-room, which they
+barricaded. They were unable, however, to protect them in the manner
+they intended. The mob forced the door, seized the accused, and, with
+ineffable brutality, continued dragging the wretches through a pool of
+water till the woman lost her life. A brute in human form, who had
+superintended the murder, went among the spectators, and requested money
+for the sport he had shown them! The life of the other victim was with
+great difficulty saved. Three men were tried for their share in this
+inhuman action. Only one of them, named Colley, was condemned and
+hanged. When he came to execution, the rabble, instead of crowding round
+the gallows as usual, stood at a distance, and abused those who were
+putting to death, they said, an honest fellow for ridding the parish of
+an accursed witch. This abominable murder was committed July 30, 1751.
+
+The repetitition of such horrors, the proneness of the people to so
+cruel and heart-searing a superstition, was traced by the legislature to
+its source, namely, the yet unabolished statute of James I. Accordingly,
+by the 9th George II. cap. 5, that odious law, so long the object of
+horror to all ancient and poverty-stricken females in the kingdom, was
+abrogated, and all criminal procedure on the subject of sorcery or
+witchcraft discharged in future throughout Great Britain; reserving for
+such as should pretend to the skill of fortune-tellers, discoverers of
+stolen goods, or the like, the punishment of the correction-house, as
+due to rogues and vagabonds. Since that period witchcraft has been
+little heard of in England, and although the belief in its existence has
+in remote places survived the law that recognised the evidence of the
+crime, and assigned its punishment--yet such faith is gradually becoming
+forgotten since the rabble have been deprived of all pretext to awaken
+it by their own riotous proceedings. Some rare instances have occurred
+of attempts similar to that for which Colley suffered; and I observe one
+is preserved in that curious register of knowledge, Mr. Hone's "Popular
+Amusements," from which it appears that as late as the end of last
+century this brutality was practised, though happily without loss of
+life.
+
+The Irish statute against witchcraft still exists, as it would seem.
+Nothing occurred in that kingdom which recommended its being formally
+annulled; but it is considered as obsolete, and should so wild a thing
+be attempted in the present day, no procedure, it is certain, would now
+be permitted to lie upon it.
+
+If anything were wanted to confirm the general proposition that the
+epidemic terror of witchcraft increases and becomes general in
+proportion to the increase of prosecutions against witches, it would be
+sufficient to quote certain extraordinary occurrences in New England.
+Only a brief account can be here given of the dreadful hallucination
+under which the colonists of that province were for a time deluded and
+oppressed by a strange contagious terror, and how suddenly and
+singularly it was cured, even by its own excess; but it is too strong
+evidence of the imaginary character of this hideous disorder to be
+altogether suppressed.
+
+New England, as is well known, was peopled mainly by emigrants who had
+been disgusted with the government of Charles I. in church and state,
+previous to the great Civil War. Many of the more wealthy settlers were
+Presbyterians and Calvinists; others, fewer in number and less
+influential from their fortune, were Quakers, Anabaptists, or members of
+the other sects who were included under the general name of
+Independents. The Calvinists brought with them the same zeal for
+religion and strict morality which everywhere distinguished them.
+Unfortunately, they were not wise according to their zeal, but
+entertained a proneness to believe in supernatural and direct personal
+intercourse between the devil and his vassals, an error to which, as we
+have endeavoured to show, their brethren in Europe had from the
+beginning been peculiarly subject. In a country imperfectly cultivated,
+and where the partially improved spots were embosomed in inaccessible
+forests, inhabited by numerous tribes of savages, it was natural that a
+disposition to superstition should rather gain than lose ground, and
+that to other dangers and horrors with which they were surrounded, the
+colonists should have added fears of the devil, not merely as the Evil
+Principle tempting human nature to sin, and thus endangering our
+salvation, but as combined with sorcerers and witches to inflict death
+and torture upon children and others.
+
+The first case which I observe was that of four children of a person
+called John Goodwin, a mason. The eldest, a girl, had quarrelled with
+the laundress of the family about some linen which was amissing. The
+mother of the laundress, an ignorant, testy, and choleric old
+Irishwoman, scolded the accuser; and shortly after, the elder Goodwin,
+her sister and two brothers, were seized with such strange diseases that
+all their neighbours concluded they were bewitched. They conducted
+themselves as those supposed to suffer under maladies created by such
+influence were accustomed to do. They stiffened their necks so hard at
+one time that the joints could not be moved; at another time their necks
+were so flexible and supple that it seemed the bone was dissolved. They
+had violent convulsions, in which their jaws snapped with the force of a
+spring-trap set for vermin. Their limbs were curiously contorted, and to
+those who had a taste for the marvellous, seemed entirely dislocated and
+displaced. Amid these distortions, they cried out against the poor old
+woman, whose name was Glover, alleging that she was in presence with
+them adding to their torments. The miserable Irishwoman, who hardly
+could speak the English language, repeated her Pater Noster and Ave
+Maria like a good Catholic; but there were some words which she had
+forgotten. She was therefore supposed to be unable to pronounce the
+whole consistently and correctly, and condemned and executed
+accordingly.
+
+But the children of Goodwin found the trade they were engaged in to be
+too profitable to be laid aside, and the eldest in particular continued
+all the external signs of witchcraft and possession. Some of these were
+excellently calculated to flatter the self-opinion and prejudices of the
+Calvinist ministers by whom she was attended, and accordingly bear in
+their very front the character of studied and voluntary imposture. The
+young woman, acting, as was supposed, under the influence of the devil,
+read a Quaker treatise with ease and apparent satisfaction; but a book
+written against the poor inoffensive Friends the devil would not allow
+his victim to touch, She could look on a Church of England Prayer-book,
+and read the portions of Scripture which it contains without difficulty
+or impediment; but the spirit which possessed her threw her into fits if
+she attempted to read the same Scriptures from the Bible, as if the awe
+which it is supposed the fiends entertain for Holy Writ depended, not on
+the meaning of the words, but the arrangement of the page, and the type
+in which they were printed. This singular species of flattery was
+designed to captivate the clergyman through his professional opinions;
+others were more strictly personal. The afflicted damsel seems to have
+been somewhat of the humour of the Inamorata of Messrs. Smack, Pluck,
+Catch, and Company, and had, like her, merry as well as melancholy fits.
+She often imagined that her attendant spirits brought her a handsome
+pony to ride off with them to their rendezvous. On such occasions she
+made a spring upwards, as if to mount her horse, and then, still seated
+on her chair, mimicked with dexterity and agility the motions of the
+animal pacing, trotting, and galloping, like a child on the nurse's
+knee; but when she cantered in this manner upstairs, she affected
+inability to enter the clergyman's study, and when she was pulled into
+it by force, used to become quite well, and stand up as a rational
+being. "Reasons were given for this," says the simple minister, "that
+seem more kind than true." Shortly after this, she appears to have
+treated the poor divine with a species of sweetness and attention, which
+gave him greater embarrassment than her former violence. She used to
+break in upon him at his studies to importune him to come downstairs,
+and thus advantaged doubtless the kingdom of Satan by the interruption
+of his pursuits. At length the Goodwins were, or appeared to be, cured.
+But the example had been given and caught, and the blood of poor Dame
+Glover, which had been the introduction to this tale of a hobby-horse,
+was to be the forerunner of new atrocities and fearfully more general
+follies.
+
+This scene opened by the illness of two girls, a daughter and niece of
+Mr. Parvis, the minister of Salem, who fell under an affliction similar
+to that of the Goodwins. Their mouths were stopped, their throats
+choked, their limbs racked, thorns were stuck into their flesh, and pins
+were ejected from their stomachs. An Indian and his wife, servants of
+the family, endeavouring, by some spell of their own, to discover by
+whom the fatal charm had been imposed on their master's children, drew
+themselves under suspicion, and were hanged. The judges and juries
+persevered, encouraged by the discovery of these poor Indians' guilt,
+and hoping they might thus expel from the colony the authors of such
+practices. They acted, says Mather, the historian, under a conscientious
+wish to do justly; but the cases of witchcraft and possession increased
+as if they were transmitted by contagion, and the same sort of spectral
+evidence being received which had occasioned the condemnation of the
+Indian woman Titu, became generally fatal. The afflicted persons failed
+not to see the spectres, as they were termed, of the persons by whom
+they were tormented. Against this species of evidence no _alibi_ could
+be offered, because it was admitted, as we have said elsewhere, that the
+real persons of the accused were not there present; and everything
+rested upon the assumption that the afflicted persons were telling the
+truth, since their evidence could not be redargued. These spectres were
+generally represented as offering their victims a book, on signing which
+they would be freed from their torments. Sometimes the devil appeared in
+person, and added his own eloquence to move the afflicted persons to
+consent.
+
+At first, as seems natural enough, the poor and miserable alone were
+involved; but presently, when such evidence was admitted as
+incontrovertible, the afflicted began to see the spectral appearances of
+persons of higher condition and of irreproachable lives, some of whom
+were arrested, some made their escape, while several were executed. The
+more that suffered the greater became the number of afflicted persons,
+and the wider and the more numerous were the denunciations against
+supposed witches. The accused were of all ages. A child of five years
+old was indicted by some of the afflicted, who imagined they saw this
+juvenile wizard active in tormenting them, and appealed to the mark of
+little teeth on their bodies, where they stated it had bitten them. A
+poor dog was also hanged as having been alleged to be busy in this
+infernal persecution. These gross insults on common reason occasioned a
+revulsion in public feeling, but not till many lives had been
+sacrificed. By this means nineteen men and women were executed, besides
+a stouthearted man named Cory, who refused to plead, and was accordingly
+pressed to death according to the old law. On this horrible occasion a
+circumstance took place disgusting to humanity, which must yet be told,
+to show how superstition can steel the heart of a man against the misery
+of his fellow-creature. The dying man, in the mortal agony, thrust out
+his tongue, which the sheriff crammed with his cane back again into his
+mouth. Eight persons were condemned besides those who had actually
+suffered, and no less than two hundred were in prison and under
+examination.
+
+Men began then to ask whether the devil might not artfully deceive the
+afflicted into the accusation of good and innocent persons by presenting
+witches and fiends in the resemblance of blameless persons, as engaged
+in the tormenting of their diseased country-folk. This argument was by
+no means inconsistent with the belief in witchcraft, and was the more
+readily listened to on that account. Besides, men found that no rank or
+condition could save them from the danger of this horrible accusation if
+they continued to encourage the witnesses in such an unlimited course as
+had hitherto been granted to them. Influenced by these reflections, the
+settlers awoke as from a dream, and the voice of the public, which had
+so lately demanded vengeance on all who were suspected of sorcery, began
+now, on the other hand, to lament the effusion of blood, under the
+strong suspicion that part of it at least had been innocently and
+unjustly sacrificed. In Mather's own language, which we use as that of a
+man deeply convinced of the reality of the crime, "experience showed
+that the more were apprehended the more were still afflicted by Satan,
+and the number of confessions increasing did but increase the number of
+the accused, and the execution of some made way to the apprehension of
+others. For still the afflicted complained of being tormented by new
+objects as the former were removed, so that some of those that were
+concerned grew amazed at the number and condition of those that were
+accused, and feared that Satan, by his wiles, had enwrapped innocent
+persons under the imputation of that crime; and at last, as was
+evidently seen, there must be a stop put, or the generation of the
+kingdom of God would fall under condemnation."[64]
+
+[Footnote 64: Mather's "Magnalia," book vi. chap. lxxxii. The zealous
+author, however, regrets the general gaol delivery on the score of
+sorcery and thinks, had the times been calm, the case might have
+required a farther investigation, and that, on the whole, the matter was
+ended too abruptly But, the temper of the times considered, he admits
+candidly that it is better to act moderately in matters capital, and to
+let the guilty escape, than run the risk of destroying the innocent.]
+
+The prosecutions were therefore suddenly stopped, the prisoners
+dismissed, the condemned pardoned, and even those who had confessed, the
+number of whom was very extraordinary, were pardoned amongst others; and
+the author we have just quoted thus records the result:--"When this
+prosecution ceased, the Lord so chained up Satan that the afflicted grew
+presently well. The accused were generally quiet, and for five years
+there was no such molestation among us."
+
+To this it must be added that the congregation of Salem compelled Mr.
+Parvis, in whose family the disturbance had begun, and who, they
+alleged, was the person by whom it was most fiercely driven on in the
+commencement, to leave his settlement amongst them. Such of the accused
+as had confessed the acts of witchcraft imputed to them generally denied
+and retracted their confessions, asserting them to have been made under
+fear of torture, influence of persuasion, or other circumstances
+exclusive of their free will. Several of the judges and jurors concerned
+in the sentence of those who were executed published their penitence for
+their rashness in convicting these unfortunate persons; and one of the
+judges, a man of the most importance in the colony, observed, during the
+rest of his life, the anniversary of the first execution as a day of
+solemn fast and humiliation for his own share in the transaction. Even
+the barbarous Indians were struck with wonder at the infatuation of the
+English colonists on this occasion, and drew disadvantageous comparisons
+between them and the French, among whom, as they remarked, "the Great
+Spirit sends no witches."
+
+The system of witchcraft, as believed in Scotland, must next claim our
+attention, as it is different in some respects from that of England, and
+subsisted to a later period, and was prosecuted with much more severity.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IX.
+
+    Scottish Trials--Earl of Mar--Lady Glammis--William Barton--Witches
+    of Auldearne--Their Rites and Charms--Their Transformation into
+    Hares--Satan's Severity towards them--Their Crimes--Sir George
+    Mackenzie's Opinion of Witchcraft--Instances of Confessions made by
+    the Accused, in despair, and to avoid future annoyance and
+    persecution--Examination by Pricking--The Mode of Judicial Procedure
+    against Witches, and nature of the Evidence admissible, opened a
+    door to Accusers, and left the Accused no chance of escape--The
+    Superstition of the Scottish Clergy in King James VI.'s time led
+    them, like their Sovereign, to encourage Witch-Prosecutions--Case of
+    Bessie Graham--Supposed Conspiracy to Shipwreck James in his Voyage
+    to Denmark--Meetings of the Witches, and Rites performed to
+    accomplish their purpose--Trial of Margaret Barclay in 1618--Case of
+    Major Weir--Sir John Clerk among the first who declined acting as
+    Commissioner on the Trial of a Witch--Paisley and Pittenweem
+    Witches--A Prosecution in Caithness prevented by the Interference of
+    the King's Advocate in 1718--The Last Sentence of Death for
+    Witchcraft pronounced in Scotland in 1722--Remains of the Witch
+    Superstition--Case of supposed Witchcraft, related from the Author's
+    own knowledge, which took place so late as 1800.
+
+
+For many years the Scottish nation had been remarkable for a credulous
+belief in witchcraft, and repeated examples were supplied by the annals
+of sanguinary executions on this sad accusation. Our acquaintance with
+the slender foundation on which Boetius and Buchanan reared the early
+part of their histories may greatly incline us to doubt whether a king
+named Duffus ever reigned in Scotland, and, still more, whether he died
+by the agency of a gang of witches, who inflicted torments upon an image
+made in his name, for the sake of compassing his death. In the tale of
+Macbeth, which is another early instance of Demonology in Scottish
+history, the weird-sisters, who were the original prophetesses, appeared
+to the usurper in a dream, and are described as _volæ_, or sibyls,
+rather than as witches, though Shakspeare has stamped the latter
+character indelibly upon them.
+
+One of the earliest real cases of importance founded upon witchcraft
+was, like those of the Duchess of Gloucester and others in the sister
+country, mingled with an accusation of a political nature, which, rather
+than the sorcery, brought the culprits to their fate. The Earl of Mar,
+brother of James III. of Scotland, fell under the king's suspicion for
+consulting with witches and sorcerers how to shorten the king's days. On
+such a charge, very inexplicitly stated, the unhappy Mar was bled to
+death in his own lodgings without either trial or conviction;
+immediately after which catastrophe twelve women of obscure rank and
+three or four wizards, or warlocks, as they were termed, were burnt at
+Edinburgh, to give a colour to the Earl's guilt.
+
+In the year 1537 a noble matron fell a victim to a similar charge. This
+was Janet Douglas, Lady Glammis, who, with her son, her second husband,
+and several others, stood accused of attempting James's life by poison,
+with a view to the restoration of the Douglas family, of which Lady
+Glammis's brother, the Earl of Angus, was the head. She died much pitied
+by the people, who seem to have thought the articles against her forged
+for the purpose of taking her life, her kindred and very name being so
+obnoxious to the King.
+
+Previous to this lady's execution there would appear to have been but
+few prosecuted to death on the score of witchcraft, although the want of
+the justiciary records of that period leaves us in uncertainty. But in
+the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries, when
+such charges grew general over Europe, cases of the kind occurred very
+often in Scotland, and, as we have already noticed, were sometimes of a
+peculiar character. There is, indeed, a certain monotony in most tales
+of the kind. The vassals are usually induced to sell themselves at a
+small price to the Author of Ill, who, having commonly to do with women,
+drives a very hard bargain. On the contrary, when he was pleased to
+enact the female on a similar occasion, he brought his gallant, one
+William Barton, a fortune of no less than fifteen pounds, which, even
+supposing it to have been the Scottish denomination of coin, was a very
+liberal endowment compared with his niggardly conduct towards the fair
+sex on such an occasion. Neither did he pass false coin on this
+occasion, but, on the contrary, generously gave Burton a merk, to keep
+the fifteen pounds whole. In observing on Satan's conduct in this
+matter, Master George Sinclair observes that it is fortunate the Enemy
+is but seldom permitted to bribe so high (as £15 Scots); for were this
+the case, he might find few men or women capable of resisting his
+munificence. I look upon this as one of the most severe reflections on
+our forefathers' poverty which is extant.
+
+In many of the Scottish witches' trials, as to the description of
+Satan's Domdaniel, and the Sabbath which he there celebrates, the
+northern superstition agrees with that of England. But some of the
+confessions depart from the monotony of repetition, and add some more
+fanciful circumstances than occur in the general case. Isobel Gowdie's
+confession, already mentioned, is extremely minute, and some part of it
+at least may be quoted, as there are other passages not very edifying.
+The witches of Auldearne, according to this penitent, were so numerous,
+that they were told off into squads, or _covines_, as they were termed,
+to each of which were appointed two officers. One of these was called
+the Maiden of the Covine, and was usually, like Tam o' Shanter's Nannie,
+a girl of personal attractions, whom Satan placed beside himself, and
+treated with particular attention, which greatly provoked the spite of
+the old hags, who felt themselves insulted by the preference.[65] When
+assembled, they dug up graves, and possessed themselves of the carcases
+(of unchristened infants in particular), whose joints and members they
+used in their magic unguents and salves. When they desired to secure for
+their own use the crop of some neighbour, they made a pretence of
+ploughing it with a yoke of paddocks. These foul creatures drew the
+plough, which was held by the devil himself. The plough-harness and
+soams were of quicken grass, the sock and coulter were made out of a
+riglen's horn, and the covine attended on the operation, praying the
+devil to transfer to them the fruit of the ground so traversed, and
+leave the proprietors nothing but thistles and briars. The witches'
+sports, with their elfin archery, I have already noticed (page 136).
+They entered the house of the Earl of Murray himself, and such other
+mansions as were not fenced against them by vigil and prayer, and
+feasted on the provisions they found there.
+
+[Footnote 65: This word Covine seems to signify a subdivision or squad.
+The tree near the front of an ancient castle was called the _Covine
+tree_, probably because the lord received his company there.
+
+"He is lord of the hunting horn,
+  And king of the Covine tree;
+He's well loo'd in the western waters,
+  But best of his ain minnie."]
+
+As these witches were the countrywomen of the weird sisters in Macbeth,
+the reader may be desirous to hear some of their spells, and of the
+poetry by which they were accompanied and enforced. They used to hash
+the flesh of an unchristened child, mixed with that of dogs and sheep,
+and place it in the house of those whom they devoted to destruction in
+body or goods, saying or singing--
+
+"We put this intill this hame,
+In our lord the Devil's name;
+The first hands that handle thee,
+Burn'd and scalded may they be!
+We will destroy houses and hald,
+With the sheep and nolt into the fauld;
+And little sall come to the fore,
+Of all the rest of the little store!"
+
+Metamorphoses were, according to Isobel, very common among them, and the
+forms of crows, cats, hares, and other animals, were on such occasions
+assumed. In the hare shape Isobel herself had a bad adventure. She had
+been sent by the devil to Auldearne in that favourite disguise, with
+some message to her neighbours, but had the misfortune to meet Peter
+Papley of Killhill's servants going to labour, having his hounds with
+them. The hounds sprung on the disguised witch, "and I," says Isobel,
+"run a very long time, but being hard pressed, was forced to take to my
+own house, the door being open, and there took refuge behind a chest."
+But the hounds came in and took the other side of the chest, so that
+Isobel only escaped by getting into another house, and gaining time to
+say the disenchanting rhyme:--
+
+"Hare, hare, God send thee care!
+I am in a hare's likeness now;
+But I shall be a woman even now--
+Hare, hare, God send thee care!"
+
+Such accidents, she said, were not uncommon, and the witches were
+sometimes bitten by the dogs, of which the marks remained after their
+restoration to human shape. But none had been killed on such occasions.
+
+The ceremonial of the Sabbath meetings was very strict. The Foul Fiend
+was very rigid in exacting the most ceremonious attention from his
+votaries, and the title of Lord when addressed by them. Sometimes,
+however, the weird sisters, when whispering amongst themselves,
+irreverently spoke of their sovereign by the name of Black John; upon
+such occasions the Fiend rushed on them like a schoolmaster who
+surprises his pupils in delict, and beat and buffeted them without mercy
+or discretion, saying, "I ken weel eneugh what you are saying of me."
+Then might be seen the various tempers of those whom he commanded.
+Alexander Elder, in Earlseat, often fell under his lord's displeasure
+for neglect of duty, and, being weak and simple, could never defend
+himself save with tears, cries, and entreaties for mercy; but some of
+the women, according to Isobel Gowdie's confession, had more of the
+spirit which animated the old dame of Kellyburn Braes. Margaret Wilson,
+in Auldearne, would "defend herself finely," and make her hands save her
+head, after the old Scottish manner. Bessie Wilson could also speak very
+crustily with her tongue, and "belled the cat" with the devil stoutly.
+The others chiefly took refuge in crying "Pity! mercy!" and such like,
+while Satan kept beating them with wool cards and other sharp scourges,
+without attending to their entreaties or complaints. There were
+attendant devils and imps, who served the witches. They were usually
+distinguished by their liveries, which were sad-dun, grass-green,
+sea-green, and yellow. The witches were taught to call these imps by
+names, some of which might belong to humanity, while others had a
+diabolical sound. These were Robert the Jakis, Saunders the Red Reaver,
+Thomas the Feary, Swein, an old Scandinavian Duerg probably; the Roaring
+Lion, Thief of Hell, Wait-upon-Herself, MacKeeler, Robert the Rule,
+Hendrie Craig, and Rorie. These names, odd and uncouth enough, are
+better imagined at least than those which Hopkins contrived for the imps
+which he discovered--such as Pyewacket, Peck-in-the-Crown,
+Sack-and-Sugar, News, Vinegar-Tom, and Grizell Greedigut, the broad
+vulgarity of which epithets shows what a flat imagination he brought to
+support his impudent fictions.
+
+The devil, who commanded the fair sisterhood, being fond of mimicking
+the forms of the Christian church, used to rebaptize the witches with
+their blood, and in his own great name. The proud-stomached Margaret
+Wilson, who scorned to take a blow unrepaid, even from Satan himself,
+was called Pickle-nearest-the-Wind; her compeer, Bessie Wilson, was
+Throw-the-Cornyard; Elspet Nishe's was Bessie Bald; Bessie Hay's
+nickname was Able-and-Stout; and Jane Mairten, the Maiden of the Covine,
+was called Ower-the-Dike-with-it.
+
+Isobel took upon herself, and imputed to her sisters, as already
+mentioned, the death of sundry persons shot with elf-arrows, because
+they had omitted to bless themselves as the aerial flight of the hags
+swept past them.[66] She had herself the temerity to shoot at the Laird
+of Park as he was riding through a ford, but missed him through the
+influence of the running stream, perhaps, for which she thanks God in
+her confession; and adds, that at the time she received a great cuff
+from Bessie Hay for her awkwardness. They devoted the male children of
+this gentleman (of the well-known family of Gordon of Park, I presume)
+to wasting illness, by the following lines, placing at the same time in
+the fire figures composed of clay mixed with paste, to represent the
+object:--
+
+"We put this water amongst this meal,
+For long dwining[67] and ill heal;
+We put it in into the fire,
+To burn them up stook and stour.[68]
+That they be burned with our will,
+Like any stikkle[69] in a kiln."
+
+[Footnote 66: See p. 136.]
+
+[Footnote 67: Pining.]
+
+[Footnote 68: We should read perhaps, "limb and lire."]
+
+[Footnote 69: Stubble.]
+
+Such was the singular confession of Isobel Gowdie, made voluntarily, it
+would seem, and without compulsion of any kind, judicially authenticated
+by the subscription of the notary, clergymen, and gentlemen present;
+adhered to after their separate _diets_, as they are called, of
+examination, and containing no variety or contradiction in its details.
+Whatever might be her state of mind in other respects, she seems to have
+been perfectly conscious of the perilous consequence of her disclosures
+to her own person. "I do not deserve," says she, "to be seated here at
+ease and unharmed, but rather to be stretched on an iron rack: nor can
+my crimes be atoned for, were I to be drawn asunder by wild horses."
+
+It only remains to suppose that this wretched creature was under the
+dominion of some peculiar species of lunacy, to which a full perusal of
+her confession might perhaps guide a medical person of judgment and
+experience. Her case is interesting, as throwing upon the rites and
+ceremonies of the Scottish witches a light which we seek in vain
+elsewhere.
+
+Other unfortunate persons were betrayed to their own reproof by other
+means than the derangement of mind which seems to have operated on
+Isobel Gowdie. Some, as we have seen, endeavoured to escape from the
+charge of witchcraft by admitting an intercourse with the fairy people;
+an excuse which was never admitted as relevant. Others were subjected to
+cruel tortures, by which our ancestors thought the guilty might be
+brought to confession, but which far more frequently compelled the
+innocent to bear evidence against themselves. On this subject the
+celebrated Sir George Mackenzie, "that noble wit of Scotland," as he is
+termed by Dryden, has some most judicious reflections, which we shall
+endeavour to abstract as the result of the experience of one who, in his
+capacity of Lord Advocate, had often occasion to conduct witch-trials,
+and who, not doubting the existence of the crime, was of opinion that,
+on account of its very horror, it required the clearest and most strict
+probation.
+
+He first insists on the great improbability of the fiend, without riches
+to bestow, and avowedly subjected to a higher power, being able to
+enlist such numbers of recruits, and the little advantage which he
+himself would gain by doing so. But, 2dly, says Mackenzie, "the persons
+ordinarily accused of this crime are poor ignorant men, or else women,
+who understand not the nature of what they are accused of; and many
+mistake their own fears and apprehensions for witchcraft, of which I
+shall give two instances. One, of a poor weaver who, after he had
+confessed witchcraft, being asked how he saw the devil, made answer,
+'Like flies dancing about the candle.' Another, of a woman, who asked
+seriously, when she was accused, if a woman might be a witch and not
+know it? And it is dangerous that persons, of all others the most
+simple, should be tried for a crime of all others the most mysterious.
+3rdly, These poor creatures, when they are defamed, become so confounded
+with fear and the close prison in which they are kept, and so starved
+for want of meat and drink, either of which wants is enough to disarm
+the strongest reason, that hardly wiser and more serious people than
+they would escape distraction; and when men are confounded with fear and
+apprehension, they will imagine things the most ridiculous and absurd"
+of which instances are given. 4thly, "Most of these poor creatures are
+tortured by their keepers, who, being persuaded they do God good
+service, think it their duty to vex and torment poor prisoners delivered
+up to them as rebels to heaven and enemies to men; and I know"
+(continues Sir George), "_ex certissima scientia_, that most of all that
+ever were taken were tormented in this manner, and this usage was the
+ground of all their confession; and albeit the poor miscreants cannot
+prove this usage, the actors being the only witnesses, yet the judge
+should be jealous of it, as that which did at first elicit the
+confession, and for fear of which they dare not retract it." 5thly, This
+learned author gives us an instance how these unfortunate creatures
+might be reduced to confession by the very infamy which the accusation
+cast upon them, and which was sure to follow, condemning them for life
+to a state of necessity, misery, and suspicion, such as any person of
+reputation would willingly exchange for a short death, however painful.
+
+"I went when I was a justice-deput to examine some women who had
+confessed judicially, and one of them, who was a silly creature, told me
+under secresie, that she had not confest because she was guilty, but
+being a poor creature who wrought for her meat, and being defamed for a
+witch, she knew she would starve, for no person thereafter would either
+give her meat or lodging, and that all men would beat her and hound dogs
+at her, and that therefore she desired to be out of the world; whereupon
+she wept most bitterly, and upon her knees called God to witness to what
+she said. Another told me that she was afraid the devil would challenge
+a right to her, after she was said to be his servant, and would haunt
+her, as the minister said, when he was desiring her to confess, and
+therefore she desired to die. And really ministers are oft times
+indiscreet in their zeal to have poor creatures to confess in this; and
+I recommend to judges that the wisest ministers should be sent to them,
+and those who are sent should be cautious in this particular."[70]
+
+[Footnote 70: Mackenzie's "Criminal Law," p. 45.]
+
+As a corollary to this affecting story, I may quote the case of a woman
+in Lauder jail, who lay there with other females on a charge of
+witchcraft. Her companions in prison were adjudged to die, and she too
+had, by a confession as full as theirs, given herself up as guilty. She
+therefore sent for the minister of the town, and entreated to be put to
+death with the others who had been appointed to suffer upon the next
+Monday. The clergyman, however, as well as others, had adopted a strong
+persuasion that this confession was made up in the pride of her heart,
+for the destruction of her own life, and had no foundation in truth. We
+give the result in the minister's words:--
+
+"Therefore much pains was taken on her by ministers and others on
+Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning, that she might resile from that
+confession which was suspected to be but a temptation of the devil, to
+destroy both her soul and body; yea, it was charged home upon her by the
+ministers, that there was just ground of jealousy that her confession
+was not sincere, and she was charged before the Lord to declare the
+truth, and not to take her blood upon her own head. Yet she stiffly
+adhered to what she had said, and cried always to be put away with the
+rest. Whereupon, on Monday morning, being called before the judges, and
+confessing before them what she had said, she was found guilty and
+condemned to die with the rest that same day. Being carried forth to the
+place of execution, she remained silent during the first, second, and
+third prayer, and then perceiving that there remained no more but to
+rise and go to the stake, she lifted up her body, and with a loud voice
+cried out, 'Now all you that see me this day, know that I am now to die
+as a witch by my own confession, and I free all men, especially the
+ministers and magistrates, of the guilt of my blood. I take it wholly
+upon myself--my blood be upon my own head; and as I must make answer to
+the God of Heaven presently, I declare I am as free of witchcraft as any
+child; but being delated by a malicious woman, and put in prison under
+the name of a witch, disowned by my husband and friends, and seeing no
+ground of hope of my coming out of prison, or ever coming in credit
+again, through the temptation of the devil I made up that confession on
+purpose to destroy my own life, being weary of it, and choosing rather
+to die than live;'--and so died. Which lamentable story, as it did then
+astonish all the spectators, none of which could restrain themselves
+from tears; so it may be to all a demonstration of Satan's subtlety,
+whose design is still to destroy all, partly by tempting many to
+presumption, and some others to despair. These things to be of truth,
+are attested by an eye and ear witness who is yet alive, a faithful
+minister of the gospel."[71] It is strange the inference does not seem
+to have been deduced, that as one woman out of very despair renounced
+her own life, the same might have been the case in many other instances,
+wherein the confessions of the accused constituted the principal if not
+sole evidence of the guilt.
+
+[Footnote 71: Sinclair's "Satan's Invisible World Discovered," p. 43.]
+
+One celebrated mode of detecting witches and torturing them at the same
+time, to draw forth confession, was by running pins into their body, on
+pretence of discovering the devil's stigma, or mark, which was said to
+be inflicted by him upon all his vassals, and to be insensible to pain.
+This species of search, the practice of the infamous Hopkins, was in
+Scotland reduced to a trade; and the young witchfinder was allowed to
+torture the accused party, as if in exercise of a lawful calling,
+although Sir George Mackenzie stigmatises it as a horrid imposture. I
+observe in the Collections of Mr. Pitcairn, that at the trial of Janet
+Peaston of Dalkeith the magistrates and ministers of that market town
+caused John Kincaid of Tranent, the common pricker, to exercise his
+craft upon her, "who found two marks of what he called the devil's
+making, and which appeared indeed to be so, for she could not feel the
+pin when it was put into either of the said marks, nor did they (the
+marks) bleed when they were taken out again; and when she was asked
+where she thought the pins were put in, she pointed to a part of her
+body distant from the real place. They were pins of three inches in
+length."
+
+Besides the fact that the persons of old people especially sometimes
+contain spots void of sensibility, there is also room to believe that
+the professed prickers used a pin the point or lower part of which was,
+on being pressed down, sheathed in the upper, which was hollow for the
+purpose, and that which appeared to enter the body did not pierce it at
+all. But, were it worth while to dwell on a subject so ridiculous, we
+might recollect that in so terrible an agony of shame as is likely to
+convulse a human being under such a trial, and such personal insults,
+the blood is apt to return to the heart, and a slight wound, as with a
+pin, may be inflicted without being followed by blood. In the latter end
+of the seventeenth century this childish, indecent, and brutal practice
+began to be called by its right name. Fountainhall has recorded that in
+1678 the Privy Council received the complaint of a poor woman who had
+been abused by a country magistrate and one of those impostors called
+prickers. They expressed high displeasure against the presumption of the
+parties complained against, and treated the pricker as a common
+cheat.[72]
+
+[Footnote 72: Fountainhall's "Decisions," vol. i. p. 15.]
+
+From this and other instances it appears that the predominance of the
+superstition of witchcraft, and the proneness to persecute those accused
+of such practices in Scotland, were increased by the too great readiness
+of subordinate judges to interfere in matters which were, in fact,
+beyond their jurisdiction. The Supreme Court of Justiciary was that in
+which the cause properly and exclusively ought to have been tried. But,
+in practice, each inferior judge in the country, the pettiest bailie in
+the most trifling burgh, the smallest and most ignorant baron of a rude
+territory, took it on him to arrest, imprison, and examine, in which
+examinations, as we have already seen, the accused suffered the grossest
+injustice. The copies of these examinations, made up of extorted
+confessions, or the evidence of inhabile witnesses, were all that were
+transmitted to the Privy Council, who were to direct the future mode of
+procedure. Thus no creature was secure against the malice or folly of
+some defamatory accusation, if there was a timid or superstitious judge,
+though of the meanest denomination, to be found within the district.
+
+But, secondly, it was the course of the Privy Council to appoint
+commissions of the gentlemen of the country, and particularly of the
+clergymen, though not likely, from their education, to be freed from
+general prejudice, and peculiarly liable to be affected by the clamour
+of the neighbourhood againt the delinquent. Now, as it is well known
+that such a commission could not be granted in a case of murder in the
+county where the crime was charged, there seems no good reason why the
+trial of witches, so liable to excite the passions, should not have been
+uniformly tried by a court whose rank and condition secured them from
+the suspicion of partiality. But our ancestors arranged it otherwise,
+and it was the consequence that such commissioners very seldom, by
+acquitting the persons brought before them, lost an opportunity of
+destroying a witch.
+
+Neither must it be forgotten that the proof led in support of the
+prosecution was of a kind very unusual in jurisprudence. The lawyers
+admitted as evidence what they called _damnum minatum, et malum
+secutum_--some mischief, that is to say, following close upon a threat,
+or wish of revenge, uttered by the supposed witch, which, though it
+might be attributed to the most natural course of events, was supposed
+necessarily to be in consequence of the menaces of the accused.
+
+Sometimes this vague species of evidence was still more loosely adduced,
+and allegations of danger threatened and mischief ensuing were admitted,
+though the menaces had not come from the accused party herself. On 10th
+June, 1661, as John Stewart, one of a party of stout burghers of
+Dalkeith appointed to guard an old woman called Christian Wilson from
+that town to Niddrie, was cleaning his gun, he was slyly questioned by
+Janet Cocke, another confessing witch, who probably saw his courage was
+not entirely constant, "What would you think if the devil raise a
+whirlwind, and take her from you on the road to-morrow?" Sure enough, on
+their journey to Niddrie the party actually were assailed by a sudden
+gust of wind (not a very uncommon event in that climate), which scarce
+permitted the valiant guard to keep their feet, while the miserable
+prisoner was blown into a pool of water, and with difficulty raised
+again. There is some ground to hope that this extraordinary evidence was
+not admitted upon the trial.
+
+There is a story told of an old wizard, whose real name was Alexander
+Hunter, though he was more generally known by the nickname of
+Hatteraick, which it had pleased the devil to confer upon him. The man
+had for some time adopted the credit of being a conjurer, and curing the
+diseases of man and beast by spells and charms. One summer's day, on a
+green hill-side, the devil appeared to him in shape of a grave
+"Mediciner," addressing him thus roundly, "Sandie, you have too long
+followed my trade without acknowledging me for a master. You must now
+enlist with me and become my servant, and I will teach you your trade
+better." Hatteraick consented to the proposal, and we shall let the Rev.
+Mr. George Sinclair tell the rest of the tale.
+
+"After this he grew very famous through the country for his charming and
+curing of diseases in men and beasts, and turned a vagrant fellow like a
+jockie,[73] gaining meal, and flesh, and money by his charms, such was
+the ignorance of many at that time. Whatever house he came to none durst
+refuse Hatteraick an alms, rather for his ill than his good. One day he
+came to the yait (gate) of Samuelston, when some friends after dinner
+were going to horse. A young gentleman, brother to the lady, seeing him,
+switcht him about the ears, saying--'You warlock carle, what have you to
+do here?' Whereupon the fellow goes away grumbling, and was overheard to
+say, 'You shall dear buy this ere it be long.' This was _damnum
+minatum_. The young gentleman conveyed his friends a far way off, and
+came home that way again, where he supped. After supper, taking his
+horse and crossing Tyne water to go home, he rides through a shady piece
+of a haugh, commonly called Allers, and the evening being somewhat dark,
+he met with some persons there that begat a dreadful consternation in
+him, which for the most part he would never reveal. This was _malum
+secutum_. When he came home the servants observed terror and fear in his
+countenance. The next day he became distracted, and was bound for
+several days. His sister, the Lady Samuelston, hearing of it, was heard
+say, 'Surely that knave Hatteraick is the cause of his trouble; call for
+him in all haste.' When he had come to her, 'Sandie,' says she, 'what is
+this you have done to my brother William?' 'I told him,' says he, 'I
+should make him repent of his striking me at the yait lately.' She,
+giving the rogue fair words, and promising him his pockful of meal, with
+beef and cheese, persuaded the fellow to cure him again. He undertook
+the business. 'But I must first,' says he, 'have one of his sarks'
+(shirts), which was soon gotten. What pranks he played with it cannot be
+known, but within a short while the gentleman recovered his health. When
+Hatteraick came to receive his wages he told the lady, 'Your brother
+William shall quickly go off the country, but shall never return,' She,
+knowing the fellow's prophecies to hold true, caused the brother to make
+a disposition to her of all his patrimony, to the defrauding of his
+younger brother, George. After that this warlock had abused the country
+for a long time, he was at last apprehended at Dunbar, and brought into
+Edinburgh, and burnt upon the Castlehill."[74]
+
+[Footnote 73: Or Scottish wandering beggar.]
+
+[Footnote 74: Sinclair's "Satan's Invisible World Discovered," p. 98.]
+
+Now, if Hatteraick was really put to death on such evidence, it is worth
+while to consider what was its real amount. A hot-tempered swaggering
+young gentleman horsewhips a beggar of ill fame for loitering about the
+gate of his sister's house. The beggar grumbles, as any man would. The
+young man, riding in the night, and probably in liquor, through a dark
+shady place, is frightened by, he would not, and probably could not,
+tell what, and has a fever fit. His sister employs the wizard to take
+off the spell according to his profession; and here is _damnum minatum,
+et malum secutum_, and all legal cause for burning a man to ashes! The
+vagrant Hatteraick probably knew something of the wild young man which
+might soon oblige him to leave the country; and the selfish Lady
+Samuelston, learning the probability of his departure, committed a fraud
+which ought to have rendered her evidence inadmissible.
+
+Besides these particular disadvantages, to which the parties accused of
+this crime in Scotland were necessarily exposed, both in relation to the
+judicature by which they were tried and the evidence upon which they
+were convicted, their situation was rendered intolerable by the
+detestation in which they were held by all ranks. The gentry hated them
+because the diseases and death of their relations and children were
+often imputed to them; the grossly superstitious vulgar abhorred them
+with still more perfect dread and loathing. And amongst those natural
+feelings, others of a less pardonable description found means to shelter
+themselves. In one case, we are informed by Mackenzie, a poor girl was
+to die for witchcraft, of whom the real crime was that she had attracted
+too great a share, in the lady's opinion, of the attention of the laird.
+
+Having thus given some reasons why the prosecutions for witchcraft in
+Scotland were so numerous and fatal, we return to the general history of
+the trials recorded from the reign of James V. to the union of the
+kingdoms. Through the reign of Queen Mary these trials for sorcery
+became numerous, and the crime was subjected to heavier punishment by
+the 73rd Act of her 9th Parliament. But when James VI. approached to
+years of discretion, the extreme anxiety which he displayed to penetrate
+more deeply into mysteries which others had regarded as a very millstone
+of obscurity, drew still larger attention to the subject. The sovereign
+had exhausted his talents of investigation on the subject of witchcraft,
+and credit was given to all who acted in defence of the opinions of the
+reigning prince. This natural tendency to comply with the opinions of
+the sovereign was much augmented by the disposition of the Kirk to the
+same sentiments. We have already said that these venerable persons
+entertained, with good faith, the general erroneous belief respecting
+witchcraft--regarding it indeed as a crime which affected their own
+order more nearly than others in the state, since, especially called to
+the service of heaven, they were peculiarly bound to oppose the
+incursions of Satan. The works which remain behind them show, among
+better things, an unhesitating belief in what were called by them
+"special providences;" and this was equalled, at least, by their
+credulity as to the actual interference of evil spirits in the affairs
+of this world. They applied these principles of belief to the meanest
+causes. A horse falling lame was a snare of the devil to keep the good
+clergyman from preaching; the arrival of a skilful farrier was accounted
+a special providence to defeat the purpose of Satan. This was,
+doubtless, in a general sense true, since nothing can happen without the
+foreknowledge and will of Heaven; but we are authorized to believe that
+the period of supernatural interference has long passed away, and that
+the great Creator is content to execute his purposes by the operation of
+those laws which influence the general course of nature. Our ancient
+Scottish divines thought otherwise. Surrounded, as they conceived
+themselves, by the snares and temptations of hell, and relying on the
+aid of Heaven, they entered into war with the kingdom of Satan, as the
+crusaders of old invaded the land of Palestine, with the same confidence
+in the justice of their cause and similar indifference concerning the
+feelings of those whom they accounted the enemies of God and man. We
+have already seen that even the conviction that a woman was innocent of
+the crime of witchcraft did not induce a worthy clergyman to use any
+effort to withdraw her from the stake; and in the same collection[75]
+there occur some observable passages of God's providence to a godly
+minister in giving him "full clearness" concerning Bessie Grahame,
+suspected of witchcraft. The whole detail is a curious illustration of
+the spirit of credulity which well-disposed men brought with them to
+such investigations, and how easily the gravest doubts were removed
+rather than a witch should be left undetected.
+
+[Footnote 75: "Satan's Invisible World," by Mr. George Sinclair. The
+author was Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow,
+and afterwards minister of Eastwood, in Renfrewshire.]
+
+Bessie Grahame had been committed, it would seem, under suspicions of no
+great weight, since the minister, after various conferences, found her
+defence so successful, that he actually pitied her hard usage, and
+wished for her delivery from prison, especially as he doubted whether a
+civil court would send her to an assize, or whether an assize would be
+disposed to convict her. While the minister was in this doubt, a fellow
+named Begg was employed as a skilful pricker; by whose authority it is
+not said, he thrust a great brass pin up to the head in a wart on the
+woman's back, which he affirmed to be the devil's mark. A commission was
+granted for trial; but still the chief gentlemen in the county refused
+to act, and the clergyman's own doubts were far from being removed. This
+put the worthy man upon a solemn prayer to God, "that if he would find
+out a way for giving the minister full clearness of her guilt, he would
+acknowledge it as a singular favour and mercy." This, according to his
+idea, was accomplished in the following manner, which he regarded as an
+answer to his prayer. One evening the clergyman, with Alexander Simpson,
+the kirk-officer, and his own servant, had visited Bessie in her cell,
+to urge her to confession, but in vain. As they stood on the stair-head
+behind the door, they heard the prisoner, whom they had left alone in
+her place of confinement, discoursing with another person, who used a
+low and ghostly tone, which the minister instantly recognised as the
+Foul Fiend's voice. But for this discovery we should have been of
+opinion that Bessie Grahame talked to herself, as melancholy and
+despairing wretches are in the habit of doing. But as Alexander Simpson
+pretended to understand the sense of what was said within the cell, and
+the minister himself was pretty sure he heard two voices at the same
+time, he regarded the overhearing this conversation as the answer of the
+Deity to his petition, and thenceforth was troubled with no doubts
+either as to the reasonableness and propriety of his prayer, or the
+guilt of Bessie Grahame, though she died obstinate, and would not
+confess; nay, made a most decent and Christian end, acquitting her
+judges and jury of her blood, in respect of the strong delusion under
+which they laboured.
+
+Although the ministers, whose opinions were but two strongly on this
+head in correspondence with the prevailing superstitions of the people,
+nourished in the early system of church government a considerable desire
+to secure their own immunities and privileges as a national church,
+which failed not at last to be brought into contact with the king's
+prerogative; yet in the earlier part of his reign, James, when freed
+from the influence of such a favourite as the profligate Stuart, Earl of
+Arran, was in his personal qualities rather acceptable to the clergy of
+his kingdom and period. At his departing from Scotland on his romantic
+expedition to bring home a consort from Denmark, he very politically
+recommended to the clergy to contribute all that lay in their power to
+assist the civil magistrates, and preserve the public peace of the
+kingdom. The king after his return acknowledged with many thanks the
+care which the clergy had bestowed in this particular. Nor were they
+slack in assuming the merit to themselves, for they often reminded him
+in their future discords that his kingdom had never been so quiet as
+during his voyage to Denmark, when the clergy were in a great measure
+intrusted with the charge of the public government.
+
+During the halcyon period of union between kirk and king their hearty
+agreement on the subject of witchcraft failed not to heat the fires
+against the persons suspected of such iniquity. The clergy considered
+that the Roman Catholics, their principal enemies, were equally devoted
+to the devil, the mass, and the witches, which in their opinion were
+mutually associated together, and natural allies in the great cause of
+mischief. On the other hand, the pedantic sovereign having exercised his
+learning and ingenuity in the Demonologia, considered the execution of
+every witch who was burnt as a necessary conclusion of his own royal
+syllogisms. The juries were also afraid of the consequences of acquittal
+to themselves, being liable to suffer under an assize of error should
+they be thought to have been unjustly merciful; and as the witches tried
+were personally as insignificant as the charge itself was odious, there
+was no restraint whatever upon those in whose hands their fate lay, and
+there seldom wanted some such confession as we have often mentioned, or
+such evidence as that collected by the minister who overheard the
+dialogue between the witch and her master, to salve their consciences
+and reconcile them to bring in a verdict of guilty.
+
+The execution of witches became for these reasons very common in
+Scotland, where the king seemed in some measure to have made himself a
+party in the cause, and the clergy esteemed themselves such from the
+very nature of their profession. But the general spite of Satan and his
+adherents was supposed to be especially directed against James, on
+account of his match with Anne of Denmark--the union of a Protestant
+princess with a Protestant prince, the King of Scotland and heir of
+England being, it could not be doubted, an event which struck the whole
+kingdom of darkness with alarm. James was self-gratified by the unusual
+spirit which he had displayed on his voyage in quest of his bride, and
+well disposed to fancy that he had performed it in positive opposition,
+not only to the indirect policy of Elizabeth, but to the malevolent
+purpose of hell itself. His fleet had been tempest-tost, and he very
+naturally believed that the prince of the power of the air had been
+personally active on the occasion.
+
+The principal person implicated in these heretical and treasonable
+undertakings was one Agnes Simpson, or Samson, called the Wise Wife of
+Keith, and described by Archbishop Spottiswood, not as one of the base
+or ignorant class of ordinary witches, but a grave matron, composed and
+deliberate in her answers, which were all to some purpose. This grave
+dame, from the terms of her indictment, seems to have been a kind of
+white witch, affecting to cure diseases by words and charms, a dangerous
+profession considering the times in which she lived. Neither did she
+always keep the right and sheltered side of the law in such delicate
+operations. One article of her indictment proves this, and at the same
+time establishes that the Wise Woman of Keith knew how to turn her
+profession to account; for, being consulted in the illness of Isobel
+Hamilton, she gave her opinion that nothing could amend her unless the
+devil was raised; and the sick woman's husband, startling at the
+proposal, and being indifferent perhaps about the issue, would not
+bestow the necessary expenses, whereupon the Wise Wife refused to raise
+the devil, and the patient died. This woman was principally engaged in
+an extensive conspiracy to destroy the fleet of the queen by raising a
+tempest; and to take the king's life by anointing his linen with
+poisonous materials, and by constructing figures of clay, to be wasted
+and tormented after the usual fashion of necromancy.
+
+Amongst her associates was an unhappy lady of much higher degree. This
+was Dame Euphane MacCalzean, the widow of a Senator of the College of
+Justice, and a person infinitely above the rank of the obscure witches
+with whom she was joined in her crime. Mr. Pitcairn supposes that this
+connexion may have arisen from her devotion to the Catholic faith and
+her friendship for the Earl of Bothwell.
+
+The third person in this singular league of sorcerers was Doctor John
+Fian, otherwise Cunninghame, who was schoolmaster at Tranent, and
+enjoyed much hazardous reputation as a warlock. This man was made the
+hero of the whole tale of necromancy, in an account of it published at
+London, and entitled, "News from Scotland," which has been lately
+reprinted by the Roxburghe Club. It is remarkable that the Scottish
+witchcrafts were not thought sufficiently horrible by the editor of this
+tract, without adding to them the story of a philtre being applied to a
+cow's hair instead of that of the young woman for whom it was designed,
+and telling how the animal came lowing after the sorcerer to his
+schoolroom door, like a second Pasiphaë, the original of which charm
+occurs in the story of Apuleius.[76]
+
+[Footnote 76: "Lucii Apuleii Metamorphoses," lib. iii.]
+
+Besides these persons, there was one Barbara Napier, alias Douglas, a
+person of some rank; Geillis Duncan, a very active witch; and about
+thirty other poor creatures of the lowest condition--among the rest, and
+doorkeeper to the conclave, a silly old ploughman, called as his
+nickname Graymeal, who was cuffed by the devil for saying simply, "God
+bless the king!"
+
+When the monarch of Scotland sprung this strong covey of his favourite
+game, they afforded the Privy Council and him sport for the greatest
+part of the remaining winter. He attended on the examinations himself,
+and by one means or or other, they were indifferently well dressed to
+his palate.
+
+Agnes Sampson, the grave matron before mentioned, after being an hour
+tortured by the twisting of a cord around her head, according to the
+custom of the Buccaneers, confessed that she had consulted with one
+Richard Grahame concerning the probable length of the king's life, and
+the means of shortening it. But Satan, to whom they at length resorted
+for advice, told them in French respecting King James, _Il est un homme
+de Dieu_. The poor woman also acknowledged that she had held a meeting
+with those of her sisterhood, who had charmed a cat by certain spells,
+having four joints of men knit to its feet, which they threw into the
+sea to excite a tempest. Another frolic they had when, like the weird
+sisters in Macbeth, they embarked in sieves with much mirth and jollity,
+the Fiend rolling himself before them upon the waves, dimly seen, and
+resembling a huge haystack in size and appearance. They went on board of
+a foreign ship richly laded with wines, where, invisible to the crew,
+they feasted till the sport grew tiresome, and then Satan sunk the
+vessel and all on board.
+
+Fian, or Cunninghame, was also visited by the sharpest tortures,
+ordinary and extraordinary. The nails were torn from his fingers with
+smith's pincers; pins were driven into the places which the nails
+usually defended; his knees were crushed in _the boots_, his finger
+bones were splintered in the pilniewinks. At length his constancy,
+hitherto sustained, as the bystanders supposed, by the help of the
+devil, was fairly overcome, and he gave an account of a great
+witch-meeting at North Berwick, where they paced round the church
+_withershinns_, that is, in reverse of the motion of the sun. Fian then
+blew into the lock of the church-door, whereupon the bolts gave way, the
+unhallowed crew entered, and their master the devil appeared to his
+servants in the shape of a black man occupying the pulpit. He was
+saluted with an "Hail, Master!" but the company were dissatisfied with
+his not having brought a picture of the king, repeatedly promised, which
+was to place his majesty at the mercy of this infernal crew. The devil
+was particularly upbraided on this subject by divers respectable-looking
+females--no question, Euphane MacCalzean, Barbara Napier, Agnes Sampson,
+and some other amateur witch above those of the ordinary profession. The
+devil on this memorable occasion forgot himself, and called Fian by his
+own name, instead of the demoniacal _sobriquet_ of Rob the Rowar, which
+had been assigned to him as Master of the Rows or Rolls. This was
+considered as bad taste, and the rule is still observed at every
+rendezvous of forgers, smugglers, or the like, where it is accounted
+very indifferent manners to name an individual by his own name, in case
+of affording ground of evidence which may upon a day of trial be brought
+against him. Satan, something disconcerted, concluded the evening with a
+divertisement and a dance after his own manner. The former consisted in
+disinterring a new-buried corpse, and dividing it in fragments among the
+company, and the ball was maintained by well-nigh two hundred persons,
+who danced a ring dance, singing this chant--
+
+"Cummer, gang ye before; Cummer gang ye.
+Gif ye will not gang before, Cummers, let me."
+
+After this choral exhibition, the music seems to have been rather
+imperfect, the number of dancers considered. Geillis Duncan was the only
+instrumental performer, and she played on a Jew's harp, called in
+Scotland a _trump_. Dr. Fian, muffled, led the ring, and was highly
+honoured, generally acting as clerk or recorder, as above mentioned.
+
+King James was deeply interested in those mysterious meetings, and took
+great delight to be present at the examinations of the accused. He sent
+for Geillis Duncan, and caused her to play before him the same tune to
+which Satan and his companions led the brawl in North Berwick
+churchyard.[77] His ears were gratified in another way, for at this
+meeting it was said the witches demanded of the devil why he did bear
+such enmity against the king? who returned the flattering answer that
+the king was the greatest enemy whom he had in the world.
+
+[Footnote 77: The music of this witch tune is unhappily lost. But that
+of another, believed to have been popular on such occasions, is
+preserved.
+
+"The silly bit chicken, gar cast her a pickle,
+ And she will grow mickle,
+         And she will do good."]
+
+Almost all these poor wretches were executed, nor did Euphane
+MacCalzean's station in life save her from the common doom, which was
+strangling to death, and burning to ashes thereafter. The majority of
+the jury which tried Barbara Napier having acquitted her of attendance
+at the North Berwick meeting, were themselves threatened with a trial
+for wilful error upon an assize, and could only escape from severe
+censure and punishment by pleading guilty, and submitting themselves to
+the king's pleasure. This rigorous and iniquitous conduct shows a
+sufficient reason why there should be so few acquittals from a charge of
+witchcraft where the juries were so much at the mercy of the crown.
+
+It would be disgusting to follow the numerous cases in which the same
+uniform credulity, the same extorted confessions, the same prejudiced
+and exaggerated evidence, concluded in the same tragedy at the stake and
+the pile. The alterations and trenching which lately took place for the
+purpose of improving the Castlehill of Edinburgh displayed the ashes of
+the numbers who had perished in this manner, of whom a large proportion
+must have been executed between 1590, when the great discovery was made
+concerning Euphane MacCalzean and the Wise Wife of Keith and their
+accomplices, and the union of the crowns.
+
+Nor did King James's removal to England soften this horrible
+persecution. In Sir Thomas Hamilton's Minutes of Proceedings in the
+Privy Council, there occurs a singular entry, evincing plainly that the
+Earl of Mar, and others of James's Council, were becoming fully sensible
+of the desperate iniquity and inhumanity of these proceedings. I have
+modernized the spelling that this appalling record may be legible to all
+my readers.
+
+"1608, December 1. The Earl of Mar declared to the Council that some
+women were taken in Broughton as witches, and being put to an assize and
+convicted, albeit they persevered constant in their denial to the end,
+yet they were burned quick [_alive_] after such a cruel manner that some
+of them died in despair, renouncing and blaspheming [God]; and others,
+half burned, brak out of the fire,[78] and were cast quick in it again,
+till they were burned to the death."
+
+[Footnote 78: I am obliged to the kindness of Mr. Pitcairn for this
+singular extract. The southern reader must be informed that the
+jurisdiction or regality of Broughton embraced Holyrood, Canongate,
+Leith, and other suburban parts of Edinburgh, and bore the same relation
+to that city as the borough of Southwark to London.]
+
+This singular document shows that even in the reign of James, so soon as
+his own august person was removed from Edinburgh, his dutiful Privy
+Council began to think that they had supt full with horrors, and were
+satiated with the excess of cruelty which dashed half-consumed wretches
+back into the flames from which they were striving to escape.
+
+But the picture, however much it may have been disgusting and terrifying
+to the Council at the time, and though the intention of the entry upon
+the records was obviously for the purpose of preventing such horrid
+cruelties in future, had no lasting effect on the course of justice, as
+the severities against witches were most unhappily still considered
+necessary. Through the whole of the sixteenth, and the greater part of
+the seventeenth century, little abatement in the persecution of this
+metaphysical crime of witchcraft can be traced in the kingdom. Even
+while the Independents held the reins of government, Cromwell himself,
+and his major-generals and substitutes, were obliged to please the
+common people of Scotland by abandoning the victims accused of
+witchcraft to the power of the law, though the journals of the time
+express the horror and disgust with which the English sectarians beheld
+a practice so inconsistent with their own humane principle of universal
+toleration.
+
+Instead of plunging into a history of these events which, generally
+speaking, are in detail as monotonous as they are melancholy, it may
+amuse the reader to confine the narrative to a single trial, having in
+the course of it some peculiar and romantic events. It is the tale of a
+sailor's wife, more tragic in its event than that of the
+chestnut-muncher in Macbeth.[79]
+
+[Footnote 79: A copy of the record of the trial, which took place in
+Ayrshire, was sent to me by a friend who withheld his name, so that I
+can only thank him in this general acknowledgment.]
+
+Margaret Barclay, wife of Archibald Dein, burgess of Irvine, had been
+slandered by her sister-in-law, Janet Lyal, the spouse of John Dein,
+brother of Archibald, and by John Dein himself, as guilty of some act of
+theft. Upon this provocation Margaret Barclay raised an action of
+slander before the church court, which prosecution, after some
+procedure, the kirk-session discharged by directing a reconciliation
+between the parties. Nevertheless, although the two women shook hands
+before the court, yet the said Margaret Barclay declared that she gave
+her hand only in obedience to the kirk-session, but that she still
+retained her hatred and ill-will against John Dein and his wife, Janet
+Lyal. About this time the bark of John Dein was about to sail for
+France, and Andrew Train, or Tran, provost of the burgh of Irvine, who
+was an owner of the vessel, went with him to superintend the commercial
+part of the voyage. Two other merchants of some consequence went in the
+same vessel, with a sufficient number of mariners. Margaret Barclay, the
+revengeful person already mentioned, was heard to imprecate curses upon
+the provost's argosy, praying to God that sea nor salt-water might never
+bear the ship, and that _partans_ (crabs) might eat the crew at the
+bottom of the sea.
+
+When, under these auspices, the ship was absent on her voyage, a
+vagabond fellow, named John Stewart, pretending to have knowledge of
+jugglery, and to possess the power of a spaeman, came to the residence
+of Tran, the provost, and dropped explicit hints that the ship was lost,
+and that the good woman of the house was a widow. The sad truth was
+afterwards learned on more certain information. Two of the seamen, after
+a space of doubt and anxiety, arrived, with the melancholy tidings that
+the bark, of which John Dein was skipper and Provost Tran part owner,
+had been wrecked on the coast of England, near Padstow, when all on
+board had been lost, except the two sailors who brought the notice.
+Suspicion of sorcery, in those days easily awakened, was fixed on
+Margaret Barclay, who had imprecated curses on the ship, and on John
+Stewart, the juggler, who had seemed to know of the evil fate of the
+voyage before he could have become acquainted with it by natural means.
+
+Stewart, who was first apprehended, acknowledged that Margaret Barclay,
+the other suspected person, had applied to him to teach her some magic
+arts, "in order that she might get gear, kye's milk, love of man, her
+heart's desire on such persons as had done her wrong, and, finally, that
+she might obtain the fruit of sea and land." Stewart declared that he
+denied to Margaret that he possessed the said arts himself, or had the
+power of communicating them. So far was well; but, true or false, he
+added a string of circumstances, whether voluntarily declared or
+extracted by torture, which tended to fix the cause of the loss of the
+bark on Margaret Barclay. He had come, he said, to this woman's house in
+Irvine, shortly after the ship set sail from harbour. He went to
+Margaret's house by night, and found her engaged, with other two women,
+in making clay figures; one of the figures was made handsome, with fair
+hair, supposed to represent Provost Tran. They then proceeded to mould a
+figure of a ship in clay, and during this labour the devil appeared to
+the company in the shape of a handsome black lap-dog, such as ladies use
+to keep.[80] He added that the whole party left the house together, and
+went into an empty waste-house nearer the seaport, which house he
+pointed out to the city magistrates. From this house they went to the
+sea-side, followed by the black lap-dog aforesaid, and cast in the
+figures of clay representing the ship and the men; after which the sea
+raged, roared, and became red like the juice of madder in a dyer's
+cauldron.
+
+[Footnote 80: This may remind the reader of Cazotte's "Diable
+Amoureux."]
+
+This confession having been extorted from the unfortunate juggler, the
+female acquaintances of Margaret Barclay were next convened, that he
+might point out her associates in forming the charm, when he pitched
+upon a woman called Isobel Insh, or Taylor, who resolutely denied having
+ever seen him before. She was imprisoned, however, in the belfry of the
+church. An addition to the evidence against the poor old woman Insh was
+then procured from her own daughter, Margaret Tailzeour, _a child of
+eight years old_, who lived as servant with Margaret Barclay, the person
+principally accused. This child, who was keeper of a baby belonging to
+Margaret Barclay, either from terror or the innate love of falsehood
+which we have observed as proper to childhood, declared that she was
+present when the fatal models of clay were formed, and that, in plunging
+them in the sea, Margaret Barclay her mistress, and her mother Isobel
+Insh, were assisted by another woman, and a girl of fourteen years old,
+who dwelt at the town-head. Legally considered, the evidence of this
+child was contradictory and inconsistent with the confession of the
+juggler, for it assigned other particulars and _dramatis personæ_ in
+many respects different. But all was accounted sufficiently regular,
+especially since the girl failed not to swear to the presence of the
+black dog, to whose appearance she also added the additional terrors of
+that of a black man. The dog also, according to her account, emitted
+flashes from its jaws and nostrils to illuminate the witches during the
+performance of the spell. The child maintained this story even to her
+mother's face, only alleging that Isobel Insh remained behind in the
+waste-house, and was not present when the images were put into the sea.
+For her own countenance and presence on the occasion, and to ensure her
+secrecy, her mistress promised her a pair of new shoes.
+
+John Stewart, being re-examined and confronted with the child, was
+easily compelled to allow that the "little smatchet" was there, and to
+give that marvellous account of his correspondence with Elfland which we
+have noticed elsewhere.
+
+The conspiracy thus far, as they conceived, disclosed, the magistrates
+and ministers wrought hard with Isobel Insh to prevail upon her to tell
+the truth; and she at length acknowledged her presence at the time when
+the models of the ship and mariners were destroyed, but endeavoured so
+to modify her declaration as to deny all personal accession to the
+guilt. This poor creature almost admitted the supernatural powers
+imputed to her, promising Bailie Dunlop (also a mariner), by whom she
+was imprisoned, that, if he would dismiss her, he should never make a
+bad voyage, but have success in all his dealings by sea and land. She
+was finally brought to promise that she would fully confess the whole
+that she knew of the affair on the morrow.
+
+But finding herself in so hard a strait, the unfortunate woman made use
+of the darkness to attempt an escape. With this view she got out by a
+back window of the belfry, although, says the report, there were "iron
+bolts, locks, and fetters on her," and attained the roof of the church,
+where, losing her footing, she sustained a severe fall and was greatly
+bruised. Being apprehended, Bailie Dunlop again urged her to confess;
+but the poor woman was determined to appeal to a more merciful tribunal,
+and maintained her innocence to the last minute of her life, denying all
+that she had formerly admitted, and dying five days after her fall from
+the roof of the church. The inhabitants of Irvine attributed her death
+to poison.
+
+The scene began to thicken, for a commission was granted for the trial
+of the two remaining persons accused, namely, Stewart, the juggler, and
+Margaret Barclay. The day of trial being arrived, the following singular
+events took place, which we give as stated in the record:--
+
+"My Lord and Earl of Eglintoune (who dwells within the space of one mile
+to the said burgh) having come to the said burgh at the earnest request
+of the said justices, for giving to them of his lordship's countenance,
+concurrence and assistance, in trying of the foresaid devilish
+practices, conform to the tenor of the foresaid commission, the said
+John Stewart, for his better preserving to the day of the assize, was
+put in a sure lockfast booth, where no manner of person might have
+access to him till the downsitting of the Justice Court, and for
+avoiding of putting violent hands on himself, he was very strictly
+guarded and fettered by the arms, as use is. And upon that same day of
+the assize, about half an hour before the downsitting of the Justice
+Court, Mr. David Dickson, minister at Irvine, and Mr. George Dunbar,
+minister of Air, having gone to him to exhort him to call on his God for
+mercy for his bygone wicked and evil life, and that God would of his
+infinite mercy loose him out of the bonds of the devil, whom he had
+served these many years bygone, he acquiesced in their prayer and godly
+exhortation, and uttered these words:--"I am so straitly guarded that it
+lies not in my power to get my hand to take off my bonnet, nor to get
+bread to my mouth." And immediately after the departing of the two
+ministers from him, the juggler being sent for at the desire of my Lord
+of Eglintoune, to be confronted with a woman of the burgh of Air, called
+Janet Bous, who was apprehended by the magistrates of the burgh of Air
+for witchcraft, and sent to the burgh of Irvine purposely for that
+affair, he was found by the burgh officers who went about him, strangled
+and hanged by the cruik of the door, with a _tait_ of hemp, or a string
+made of hemp, supposed to have been his garter, or string of his bonnet,
+not above the length of two span long, his knees not being from the
+ground half a span, and was brought out of the house, his life not being
+totally expelled. But notwithstanding of whatsoever means used in the
+contrary for remeid of his life, he revived not, but so ended his life
+miserably, by the help of the devil his master.
+
+"And because there was then only in life the said Margaret Barclay, and
+that the persons summoned to pass upon her assize and upon the assize of
+the juggler who, by the help of the devil his master, had put violent
+hands on himself, were all present within the said burgh; therefore, and
+for eschewing of the like in the person of the said Margaret, our
+sovereign lord's justices in that part particularly above-named,
+constituted by commission after solemn deliberation and advice of the
+said noble lord, whose concurrence and advice was chiefly required and
+taken in this matter, concluded with all possible diligence before the
+downsitting of the Justice Court to put the said Margaret in torture; in
+respect the devil, by God's permission, had made her associates who were
+the lights of the cause, to be their own _burrioes_ (slayers). They used
+the torture underwritten as being most safe and gentle (as the said
+noble lord assured the said justices), by putting of her two bare legs
+in a pair of stocks, and thereafter by onlaying of certain iron gauds
+(bars) severally one by one, and then eiking and augmenting the weight
+by laying on more gauds, and in easing of her by offtaking of the iron
+gauds one or more as occasion offered, which iron gauds were but little
+short gauds, and broke not the skin of her legs, &c.
+
+"After using of the which kind of _gentle torture_, the said Margaret
+began, according to the increase of the pain, to cry and crave for God's
+cause to take off her shins the foresaid irons, and she should declare
+truly the whole matter. Which being removed, she began at her former
+denial; and being of new essayed in torture as of befoir, she then
+uttered these words: 'Take off, take off, and before God I shall show
+you the whole form!'
+
+"And the said irons being of new, upon her faithfull promise, removed,
+she then desired my Lord of Eglintoune, the said four justices, and the
+said Mr. David Dickson, minister of the burgh, Mr. George Dunbar,
+minister of Ayr, and Mr. Mitchell Wallace, minister of Kilmarnock, and
+Mr. John Cunninghame, minister of Dalry, and Hugh Kennedy, provost of
+Ayr, to come by themselves and to remove all others, and she should
+declare truly, as she should answer to God the whole matter. Whose
+desire in that being fulfilled she made her confession in this manner,
+but (_i.e.,_ without) any kind of demand, freely, without interrogation;
+God's name by earnest prayer being called upon for opening of her lips,
+and easing of her heart, that she, by rendering of the truth, might
+glorify and magnify his holy name, and disappoint the enemy of her
+salvation."--_Trial of Margaret Barclay, &c_., 1618.
+
+Margaret Barclay, who was a young and lively person, had hitherto
+conducted herself like a passionate and high-tempered woman innocently
+accused, and the only appearance of conviction obtained against her was,
+that she carried about her rowan-tree and coloured thread, to make, as
+she said, her cow give milk, when it began to fail. But the _gentle
+torture_--a strange junction of words--recommended as an anodyne by the
+good Lord Eglinton--the placing, namely, her legs in the stocks, and
+loading her bare shins with bars of iron, overcame her resolution; when,
+at her screams and declarations that she was willing to tell all, the
+weights were removed. She then told a story of destroying the ship of
+John Dein, affirming that it was with the purpose of killing only her
+brother-in-law and Provost Tran, and saving the rest of the crew. She at
+the same time involved in the guilt Isobel Crawford. This poor woman was
+also apprehended, and in great terror confessed the imputed crime,
+retorting the principal blame on Margaret Barclay herself. The trial was
+then appointed to proceed, when Alexander Dein, the husband of Margaret
+Barclay, appeared in court with a lawyer to act in his wife's behalf.
+Apparently, the sight of her husband awakened some hope and desire of
+life, for when the prisoner was asked by the lawyer whether she wished
+to be defended? she answered, "As you please But all I have confest was
+in agony of torture; and, before God, all I have spoken is false and
+untrue." To which she pathetically added, "Ye have been too long in
+coming."
+
+The jury, unmoved by these affecting circumstances, proceeded upon the
+principle that the confession of the accused could not be considered as
+made under the influence of torture, since the bars were not actually
+upon her limbs at the time it was delivered, although they were placed
+at her elbow ready to be again laid on her bare shins, if she was less
+explicit in her declaration than her auditors wished. On this nice
+distinction they in one voice found Margaret Barclay guilty. It is
+singular that she should have again returned to her confession after
+sentence, and died affirming it; the explanation of which, however,
+might be either that she had really in her ignorance and folly tampered
+with some idle spells, or that an apparent penitence for her offence,
+however imaginary, was the only mode in which she could obtain any share
+of public sympathy at her death, or a portion of the prayers of the
+clergy and congregation, which, in her circumstances, she might be
+willing to purchase, even by confession of what all believed respecting
+her. It is remarkable that she earnestly entreated the magistrates that
+no harm should be done to Isobel Crawford, the woman whom she had
+herself accused. This unfortunate young creature was strangled at the
+stake, and her body burnt to ashes, having died with many expressions of
+religion and penitence.
+
+It was one fatal consequence of these cruel persecutions, that one pile
+was usually lighted at the embers of another. Accordingly in the present
+case, three victims having already perished by this accusation, the
+magistrates, incensed at the nature of the crime, so perilous as it
+seemed to men of a maritime life, and at the loss of several friends of
+their own, one of "whom had been their principal magistrate, did not
+forbear to insist against Isobel Crawford, inculpated by Margaret
+Barclay's confession. A new commission was granted for her trial, and
+after the assistant minister of Irvine, Mr. David Dickson, had made
+earnest prayers to God for opening her obdurate and closed heart, she
+was subjected to the torture of iron bars laid upon her bare shins, her
+feet being in the stocks, as in the case of Margaret Barclay.
+
+She endured this torture with incredible firmness, since she did
+"admirably, without any kind of din or exclamation, suffer above thirty
+stone of iron to be laid on her legs, never shrinking thereat in any
+sort, but remaining, as it were, steady." But in shifting the situation
+of the iron bars, and removing them to another part of her shins, her
+constancy gave way; she broke out into horrible cries (though not more
+than three bars were then actually on her person) of--"Tak aff--tak
+aff!" On being relieved from the torture, she made the usual confession
+of all that she was charged with, and of a connexion with the devil
+which had subsisted for several years. Sentence was given against her
+accordingly. After this had been denounced, she openly denied all her
+former confessions, and died without any sign of repentance, offering
+repeated interruption to the minister in his prayer, and absolutely
+refusing to pardon the executioner.
+
+This tragedy happened in the year 1613, and recorded, as it is, very
+particularly and at considerable length, forms the most detailed
+specimen I have met with of a Scottish trial for
+witchcraft--illustrating, in particular, how poor wretches, abandoned,
+as they conceived, by God and the world, deprived of all human sympathy,
+and exposed to personal tortures of an acute description, became
+disposed to throw away the lives that were rendered bitter to them by a
+voluntary confession of guilt, rather than struggle hopelessly against
+so many evils. Four persons here lost their lives, merely because the
+throwing some clay models into the sea, a fact told differently by the
+witnesses who spoke of it, corresponded with the season, for no day was
+fixed in which a particular vessel was lost. It is scarce possible that,
+after reading such a story, a man of sense can listen for an instant to
+the evidence founded on confessions thus obtained, which has been almost
+the sole reason by which a few individuals, even in modern times, have
+endeavoured to justify a belief in the existence of witchcraft.
+
+The result of the judicial examination of a criminal, when extorted by
+such means, is the most suspicious of all evidence, and even when
+voluntarily given, is scarce admissible without the corroboration of
+other testimony.
+
+We might here take leave of our Scottish history of witchcraft by barely
+mentioning that many hundreds, nay perhaps thousands, lost their lives
+during two centuries on such charges and such evidence as proved the
+death of those persons in the trial of the Irvine witches. One case,
+however, is so much distinguished by fame among the numerous instances
+which occurred in Scottish history, that we are under the necessity of
+bestowing a few words upon those celebrated persons, Major Weir and his
+sister.
+
+The case of this notorious wizard was remarkable chiefly from his being
+a man of some condition (the son of a gentleman, and his mother a lady
+of family in Clydesdale), which was seldom the case with those that fell
+under similar accusations. It was also remarkable in his case that he
+had been a Covenanter, and peculiarly attached to that cause. In the
+years of the Commonwealth this man was trusted and employed by those who
+were then at the head of affairs, and was in 1649 commander of the
+City-Guard of Edinburgh, which procured him his title of Major. In this
+capacity he was understood, as was indeed implied in the duties of that
+officer at the period, to be very strict in executing severity upon such
+Royalists as fell under his military charge. It appears that the Major,
+with a maiden sister who had kept his house, was subject to fits of
+melancholic lunacy, an infirmity easily reconcilable with the formal
+pretences which he made to a high show of religious zeal. He was
+peculiar in his gift of prayer, and, as was the custom of the period,
+was often called to exercise his talent by the bedside of sick persons,
+until it came to be observed that, by some association, which it is more
+easy to conceive than to explain, he could not pray with the same warmth
+and fluency of expression unless when he had in his hand a stick of
+peculiar shape and appearance, which he generally walked with. It was
+noticed, in short, that when this stick was taken from him, his wit and
+talent appeared to forsake him. This Major Weir was seized by the
+magistrates on a strange whisper that became current respecting vile
+practices, which he seems to have admitted without either shame or
+contrition. The disgusting profligacies which he confessed were of such
+a character that it may be charitably hoped most of them were the fruits
+of a depraved imagination, though he appears to have been in many
+respects a wicked and criminal hypocrite. When he had completed his
+confession, he avowed solemnly that he had not confessed the hundredth
+part of the crimes which he had committed. From this time he would
+answer no interrogatory, nor would he have recourse to prayer, arguing
+that, as he had no hope whatever of escaping Satan, there was no need of
+incensing him by vain efforts at repentance. His witchcraft seems to
+have been taken for granted on his own confession, as his indictment was
+chiefly founded on the same document, in which he alleged he had never
+seen the devil, but any feeling he had of him was in the dark. He
+received sentence of death, which he suffered 12th April, 1670, at the
+Gallow-hill, between Leith and Edinburgh. He died so stupidly sullen and
+impenitent as to justify the opinion that he was oppressed with a kind
+of melancholy frenzy, the consequence perhaps of remorse, but such as
+urged him not to repent, but to despair. It seems probable that he was
+burnt alive. His sister, with whom he was supposed to have had an
+incestuous connexion, was condemned also to death, leaving a stronger
+and more explicit testimony of their mutual sins than could be extracted
+from the Major. She gave, as usual, some account of her connexion with
+the queen of the fairies, and acknowledged the assistance she received
+from that sovereign in spinning an unusual quantity of yam. Of her
+brother she said that one day a friend called upon them at noonday with
+a fiery chariot, and invited them to visit a friend at Dalkeith, and
+that while there her brother received information of the event of the
+battle of Worcester. No one saw the style of their equipage except
+themselves. On the scaffold this woman, determining, as she said, to die
+"with the greatest shame possible," was with difficulty prevented from
+throwing off her clothes before the people, and with scarce less trouble
+was she flung from the ladder by the executioner. Her last words were in
+the tone of the sect to which her brother had so long affected to
+belong: "Many," she said, "weep and lament for a poor old wretch like
+me; but alas! few are weeping for a broken Covenant."
+
+The Scottish prelatists, upon whom the Covenanters used to throw many
+aspersions respecting their receiving proof against shot from the devil,
+and other infernal practices, rejoiced to have an opportunity, in their
+turn, to retort on their adversaries the charge of sorcery. Dr. Hickes,
+the author of "Thesaurus Septentrionalis," published on the subject of
+Major Weir, and the case of Mitchell, who fired at the Archbishop of St.
+Andrews his book called "Ravaillac Redivivus," written with the unjust
+purpose of attaching to the religious sect to which the wizard and
+assassin belonged the charge of having fostered and encouraged the
+crimes they committed or attempted.
+
+It is certain that no story of witchcraft or necromancy, so many of
+which occurred near and in Edinburgh, made such a lasting impression on
+the public mind as that of Major Weir. The remains of the house in which
+he and his sister lived are still shown at the head of the West Bow,
+which has a gloomy aspect, well suited for a necromancer. It was at
+different times a brazier's shop and a magazine for lint, and in my
+younger days was employed for the latter use; but no family would
+inhabit the haunted walls as a residence; and bold was the urchin from
+the High School who dared approach the gloomy ruin at the risk of seeing
+the Major's enchanted staff parading through the old apartments, or
+hearing the hum of the necromantic wheel, which procured for his sister
+such a character as a spinner. At the time I am writing this last
+fortress of superstitious renown is in the course of being destroyed, in
+order to the modern improvements now carrying on in a quarter long
+thought unimprovable.
+
+As knowledge and learning began to increase, the gentlemen and clergy of
+Scotland became ashamed of the credulity of their ancestors, and witch
+trials, although not discontinued, more seldom disgrace our records of
+criminal jurisprudence.
+
+Sir John Clerk, a scholar and an antiquary, the grandfather of the late
+celebrated John Clerk of Eldin, had the honour to be amongst the first
+to decline acting as a commissioner on the trial of a witch, to which he
+was appointed so early as 1678,[81] alleging, drily, that he did not
+feel himself warlock (that is, conjurer) sufficient to be a judge upon
+such an inquisition. Allan Ramsay, his friend, and who must be supposed
+to speak the sense of his many respectable patrons, had delivered his
+opinion on the subject in the "Gentle Shepherd," where Mause's imaginary
+witchcraft constitutes the machinery of the poem.
+
+[Footnote 81: See Fountainhall's "Decisions," vol. i. p. 15.]
+
+Yet these dawnings of sense and humanity were obscured by the clouds of
+the ancient superstition on more than one distinguished occasion. In
+1676, Sir George Maxwell, of Pollock, apparently a man of melancholic
+and valetudinary habits, believed himself bewitched to death by six
+witches, one man and five women, who were leagued for the purpose of
+tormenting a clay image in his likeness. The chief evidence on the
+subject was a vagabond girl, pretending to be deaf and dumb. But as her
+imposture was afterwards discovered and herself punished, it is
+reasonably to be concluded that she had herself formed the picture or
+image of Sir George, and had hid it where it was afterwards found in
+consequence of her own information. In the meantime, five of the accused
+were executed, and the sixth only escaped on account of extreme youth.
+
+A still more remarkable case occurred at Paisley in 1697, where a young
+girl, about eleven years of age, daughter of John Shaw, of Bargarran,
+was the principal evidence. This unlucky damsel, beginning her practices
+out of a quarrel with a maid-servant, continued to imitate a case of
+possession so accurately that no less than twenty persons were condemned
+upon her evidence, of whom five were executed, besides one John Reed,
+who hanged himself in prison, or, as was charitably said, was strangled
+by the devil in person, lest he should make disclosures to the detriment
+of the service. But even those who believed in witchcraft were now
+beginning to open their eyes to the dangers in the present mode of
+prosecution. "I own," says the Rev. Mr. Bell in his MS. "Treatise on
+Witchcraft," "there has been much harm done to worthy and innocent
+persons in the common way of finding out witches, and in the means made
+use of for promoting the discovery of such wretches and bringing them to
+justice; so that oftentimes old age, poverty, features, and ill-fame,
+with such like grounds not worthy to be represented to a magistrate,
+have yet moved many to suspect and defame their neighbours, to the
+unspeakable prejudice of Christian charity; a late instance whereof we
+had in the west, in the business of the sorceries exercised upon the
+Laird of Bargarran's daughter, anno 1697--a time when persons of more
+goodness and esteem than most of their calumniators were defamed for
+witches, and which was occasioned mostly by the forwardness and absurd
+credulity of diverse otherwise worthy ministers of the gospel, and some
+topping professors in and about the city of Glasgow."[82]
+
+[Footnote 82: Law's "Memorialls," edited by C.K. Sliarpe, Esq.:
+Prefatory Notice, p. 93.]
+
+Those who doubted of the sense of the law or reasonableness of the
+practice in such cases, began to take courage and state their objections
+boldly. In the year 1704 a frightful instance of popular bigotry
+occurred at Pittenweem. A strolling vagabond, who affected fits, laid an
+accusation of witchcraft against two women, who were accordingly seized
+on, and imprisoned with the usual severities. One of the unhappy
+creatures, Janet Cornfoot by name, escaped from prison, but was
+unhappily caught, and brought back to Pittenweem, where she fell into
+the hands of a ferocious mob, consisting of rude seamen and fishers. The
+magistrates made no attempts for her rescue, and the crowd exercised
+their brutal pleasure on the poor old woman, pelted her with stones,
+swung her suspended on a rope betwixt a ship and the shore, and finally
+ended her miserable existence by throwing a door over her as she lay
+exhausted on the beach, and heaping stones upon it till she was pressed
+to death. As even the existing laws against witchcraft were transgressed
+by this brutal riot, a warm attack was made upon the magistrates and
+ministers of the town by those who were shocked at a tragedy of such a
+horrible cast, There were answers published, in which the parties
+assailed were zealously defended. The superior authorities were expected
+to take up the affair, but it so happened; during the general
+distraction of the country concerning the Union, that the murder went
+without the investigation which a crime so horrid demanded. Still,
+however, it was something gained that the cruelty was exposed to the
+public. The voice of general opinion was now appealed to, and in the
+long run the sentiments which it advocates are commonly those of good
+sense and humanity.
+
+The officers in the higher branches of the law dared now assert their
+official authority and reserve for their own decision cases of supposed
+witchcraft which the fear of public clamour had induced them formerly to
+leave in the hands of inferior judges, operated upon by all the
+prejudices of the country and the populace.
+
+In 1718, the celebrated lawyer, Robert Dundas of Arniston, then King's
+Advocate, wrote a severe letter of censure to the Sheriff-depute of
+Caithness, in the first place, as having neglected to communicate
+officially certain precognitions which he had led respecting some recent
+practices of witchcraft in his county. The Advocate reminded this local
+judge that the duty of inferior magistrates, in such cases, was to
+advise with the King's Counsel, first, whether they should be made
+subject of a trial or not; and if so, before what court, and in what
+manner, it should take place. He also called the magistrate's attention
+to a report, that he, the Sheriff-depute, intended to judge in the case
+himself; "a thing of too great difficulty to be tried without very
+deliberate advice, and beyond the jurisdiction of an inferior court."
+The Sheriff-depute sends, with his apology, the _precognition_[83] of
+the affair, which is one of the most nonsensical in this nonsensical
+department of the law. A certain carpenter, named William Montgomery,
+was so infested with cats, which, as his servant-maid reported, "spoke
+among themselves," that he fell in a rage upon a party of these animals
+which had assembled in his house at irregular hours, and betwixt his
+Highland arms of knife, dirk, and broadsword, and his professional
+weapon of an axe, he made such a dispersion that they were quiet for the
+night. In consequence of his blows, two witches were said to have died.
+The case of a third, named Nin-Gilbert, was still more remarkable. Her
+leg being broken, the injured limb withered, pined, and finally fell
+off; on which the hag was enclosed in prison, where she also died; and
+the question which remained was, whether any process should be directed
+against persons whom, in her compelled confession, she had, as usual,
+informed against. The Lord Advocate, as may be supposed, quashed all
+further procedure.
+
+[Footnote 83: The _precognition_ is the record of the preliminary
+evidence on which the public officers charged in Scotland with duties
+entrusted to a grand jury in England, incur the responsibility of
+sending an accused person to trial.]
+
+In 1720, an unlucky boy, the third son of James, Lord Torphichen, took
+it into his head, under instructions, it is said, from a knavish
+governor, to play the possessed and bewitched person, laying the cause
+of his distress on certain old witches in Calder, near to which village
+his father had his mansion. The women were imprisoned, and one or two of
+them died; but the Crown counsel would not proceed to trial. The noble
+family also began to see through the cheat. The boy was sent to sea, and
+though he is said at one time to have been disposed to try his fits
+while on board, when the discipline of the navy proved too severe for
+his cunning, in process of time he became a good sailor, assisted
+gallantly in defence of the vessel against the pirates of Angria, and
+finally was drowned in a storm.
+
+In the year 1722, a Sheriff-depute of Sutherland, Captain David Ross of
+Littledean, took it upon him, in flagrant violation of the then
+established rules of jurisdiction, to pronounce the last sentence of
+death for witchcraft which was ever passed in Scotland. The victim was
+an insane old woman belonging to the parish of Loth, who had so little
+idea of her situation as to rejoice at the sight of the fire which was
+destined to consume her. She had a daughter lame both of hands and feet,
+a circumstance attributed to the witch's having been used to transform
+her into a pony, and get her shod by the devil. It does not appear that
+any punishment was inflicted for this cruel abuse of the law on the
+person of a creature so helpless; but the son of the lame daughter, he
+himself distinguished by the same misfortune, was living so lately as to
+receive the charity of the present Marchioness of Stafford, Countess of
+Sutherland in her own right, to whom the poor of her extensive country
+are as well known as those of the higher order.
+
+Since this deplorable action there has been no judicial interference in
+Scotland on account of witchcraft, unless to prevent explosions of
+popular enmity against people suspected of such a crime, of which some
+instances could be produced. The remains of the superstition sometimes
+occur; there can be no doubt that the vulgar are still addicted to the
+custom of scoring above the breath[84] (as it is termed), and other
+counter-spells, evincing that the belief in witchcraft is only asleep,
+and might in remote corners be again awakened to deeds of blood. An
+instance or two may be quoted chiefly as facts known to the author
+himself.
+
+[Footnote 84: Drawing blood, that is, by two cuts in the form of a cross
+on the witch's forehead, confided in all throughout Scotland as the most
+powerful counter charm.]
+
+In a remote part of the Highlands, an ignorant and malignant woman seems
+really to have meditated the destruction of her neighbour's property, by
+placing in a cow-house, or byre as we call it, a pot of baked clay
+containing locks of hair, parings of nails, and other trumpery. This
+precious spell was discovered, the design conjectured, and the witch
+would have been torn to pieces had not a high-spirited and excellent
+lady in the neighbourhood gathered some of her people (though these were
+not very fond of the service), and by main force taken the unfortunate
+creature out of the hands of the populace. The formidable spell is now
+in my possession.
+
+About two years since, as they were taking down the walls of a building
+formerly used as a feeding-house for cattle, in the town of Dalkeith,
+there was found below the threshold-stone the withered heart of some
+animal stuck full of many scores of pins--a counter-charm, according to
+tradition, against the operations of witchcraft on the cattle which are
+kept within. Among the almost innumerable droves of bullocks which come
+down every year from the Highlands for the south, there is scarce one
+but has a curious knot upon his tail, which is also a precaution lest an
+evil eye or an evil spell may do the animal harm.
+
+The last Scottish story with which I will trouble you happened in or
+shortly after the year 1800, and the whole circumstances are well known
+to me. The dearth of the years in the end of the eighteenth and
+beginning of this century was inconvenient to all, but distressing to
+the poor. A solitary old woman, in a wild and lonely district, subsisted
+chiefly by rearing chickens, an operation requiring so much care and
+attention that the gentry, and even the farmers' wives, often find it
+better to buy poultry at a certain age than to undertake the trouble of
+bringing them up. As the old woman in the present instance fought her
+way through life better than her neighbours, envy stigmatized her as
+having some unlawful mode of increasing the gains of her little trade,
+and apparently she did not take much alarm at the accusation. But she
+felt, like others, the dearth of the years alluded to, and chiefly
+because the farmers were unwilling to sell grain in the very moderate
+quantities which she was able to purchase, and without which her little
+stock of poultry must have been inevitably starved. In distress on this
+account, the dame went to a neighbouring farmer, a very good-natured,
+sensible, honest man, and requested him as a favour to sell her a peck
+of oats at any price. "Good neighbour," he said, "I am sorry to be
+obliged to refuse you, but my corn is measured out for Dalkeith market;
+my carts are loaded to set out, and to open these sacks again, and for
+so small a quantity, would cast my accounts loose, and create much
+trouble and disadvantage; I dare say you will get all you want at such a
+place, or such a place." On receiving this answer, the old woman's
+temper gave way. She scolded the wealthy farmer, and wished evil to his
+property, which was just setting off for the market. They parted, after
+some angry language on both sides; and sure enough, as the carts crossed
+the ford of the river beneath the farm-house, off came the wheel from
+one of them, and five or six sacks of corn were damaged by the water.
+The good farmer hardly knew what to think of this; there were the two
+circumstances deemed of old essential and sufficient to the crime of
+witchcraft--_Damnum minatum, et malum secutum_. Scarce knowing what to
+believe, he hastened to consult the sheriff of the county, as a friend
+rather than a magistrate, upon a case so extraordinary. The official
+person showed him that the laws against witchcraft were abrogated, and
+had little difficulty to bring him to regard the matter in its true
+light of an accident.
+
+It is strange, but true, that the accused herself was not to be
+reconciled to the sheriffs doctrine so easily. He reminded her that, if
+she used her tongue with so much license, she must expose herself to
+suspicions, and that should coincidences happen to irritate her
+neighbours, she, might suffer harm at a time when there was no one to
+protect her. He therefore requested her to be more cautious in her
+language for her own sake, professing, at the same time, his belief that
+her words and intentions were perfectly harmless, and that he had no
+apprehension of being hurt by her, let her wish her worst to him. She
+was rather more angry than pleased at the well-meaning sheriffs
+scepticism. "I would be laith to wish ony ill either to you or yours,
+sir," she said; "for I kenna how it is, but something aye comes after my
+words when I am ill-guided and speak ower fast." In short, she was
+obstinate in claiming an influence over the destiny of others by words
+and wishes, which might have in other times conveyed her to the stake,
+for which her expressions, their consequences, and her disposition to
+insist upon their efficacy, would certainly of old have made her a fit
+victim. At present the story is scarcely worth mentioning, but as it
+contains material resembling those out of which many tragic incidents
+have arisen.
+
+So low, in short, is now the belief in witchcraft, that perhaps it is
+only received by those half-crazy individuals who feel a species of
+consequence derived from accidental coincidences, which, were they
+received by the community in general, would go near, as on former
+occasions, to cost the lives of those who make their boast of them. At
+least one hypochondriac patient is known to the author, who believes
+himself the victim of a gang of witches, and ascribes his illness to
+their charms, so that he wants nothing but an indulgent judge to awake
+again the old ideas of sorcery.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER X.
+
+    Other Mystic Arts independent of Witchcraft--Astrology--Its
+    Influence during the 16th and 17th Centuries--Base Ignorance of
+    those who practised it--Lilly's History of his Life and
+    Times--Astrologer's Society--Dr. Lamb--Dr. Forman--Establishment of
+    the Royal Society--Partridge--Connexion of Astrologers with
+    Elementary Spirits--Dr. Dun--Irish Superstition of the
+    Banshie--Similar Superstition in the
+    Highlands--Brownie--Ghosts--Belief of Ancient Philosophers on that
+    Subject--Inquiry into the respect due to such Tales in Modern
+    Times--Evidence of a Ghost against a Murderer--Ghost of Sir George
+    Villiers--Story of Earl St. Vincent--Of a British General
+    Officer--Of an Apparition in France--Of the Second Lord
+    Lyttelton--Of Bill Jones--Of Jarvis Matcham--Trial of two
+    Highlanders for the Murder of Sergeant Davis, discovered by a
+    Ghost--Disturbances at Woodstock, anno 1649--Imposture called the
+    Stockwell Ghost--Similar Case in Scotland--Ghost appearing to an
+    Exciseman--Story of a Disturbed House discovered by the firmness of
+    the Proprietor--Apparition at Plymouth--A Club of
+    Philosophers--Ghost Adventure of a Farmer--Trick upon a Veteran
+    Soldier--Ghost Stories recommended by the Skill of the Authors who
+    compose them--Mrs. Veal's Ghost--Dunton's Apparition
+    Evidence--Effect of Appropriate Scenery to Encourage a Tendency to
+    Superstition--Differs at distant Periods of Life--Night at Glammis
+    Castle about 1791--Visit to Dunvegan in 1814.
+
+
+While the vulgar endeavoured to obtain a glance into the darkness of
+futurity by consulting the witch or fortune-teller, the great were
+supposed to have a royal path of their own, commanding a view from a
+loftier quarter of the same _terra incognita_. This was represented as
+accessible by several routes. Physiognomy, chiromancy, and other
+fantastic arts of prediction afforded each its mystical assistance and
+guidance. But the road most flattering to human vanity, while it was at
+the same time most seductive to human credulity, was that of astrology,
+the queen of mystic sciences, who flattered those who confided in her
+that the planets and stars in their spheres figure forth and influence
+the fate of the creatures of mortality, and that a sage acquainted with
+her lore could predict, with some approach to certainty, the events of
+any man's career, his chance of success in life or in marriage, his
+advance in favour of the great, or answer any other horary questions, as
+they were termed, which he might be anxious to propound, provided always
+he could supply the exact moment of his birth. This, in the sixteenth
+and greater part of the seventeenth centuries, was all that was
+necessary to enable the astrologer to erect a scheme of the position of
+the heavenly bodies, which should disclose the life of the interrogator,
+or Native, as he was called, with all its changes, past, present, and to
+come.
+
+Imagination was dazzled by a prospect so splendid; and we find that in
+the sixteenth century the cultivation of this fantastic science was the
+serious object of men whose understandings and acquirements admit of no
+question. Bacon himself allowed the truth which might be found in a
+well-regulated astrology, making thus a distinction betwixt the art as
+commonly practised and the manner in which it might, as he conceived, be
+made a proper use of. But a grave or sober use of this science, if even
+Bacon could have taught such moderation, would not have suited the
+temper of those who, inflamed by hopes of temporal aggrandizement,
+pretended to understand and explain to others the language of the stars.
+Almost all the other paths of mystic knowledge led to poverty; even the
+alchemist, though talking loud and high of the endless treasures his art
+was to produce, lived from day to day and from year to year upon hopes
+as unsubstantial as the smoke of his furnace. But the pursuits of the
+astrologer were such as called for instant remuneration. He became rich
+by the eager hopes and fond credulity of those who consulted him, and
+that artist lived by duping others, instead of starving, like others, by
+duping himself. The wisest men have been cheated by the idea that some
+supernatural influence upheld and guided them; and from the time of
+Wallenstein to that of Buonaparte, ambition and success have placed
+confidence in the species of fatalism inspired by a belief of the
+influence of their own star. Such being the case, the science was little
+pursued by those who, faithful in their remarks and reports, must soon
+have discovered its delusive vanity through the splendour of its
+professions; and the place of such calm and disinterested pursuers of
+truth was occupied by a set of men sometimes ingenious, always forward
+and assuming, whose knowledge was imposition, whose responses were, like
+the oracles of yore, grounded on the desire of deceit, and who, if
+sometimes they were elevated into rank and fortune, were more frequently
+found classed with rogues and vagabonds. This was the more apt to be the
+case that a sufficient stock of impudence, and some knowledge by rote of
+the terms of art, were all the store of information necessary for
+establishing a conjurer. The natural consequence of the degraded
+character of the professors was the degradation of the art itself.
+Lilly, who wrote the history of his own life and times, notices in that
+curious volume the most distinguished persons of his day, who made
+pretensions to astrology, and almost without exception describes them as
+profligate, worthless, sharking cheats, abandoned to vice, and imposing,
+by the grossest frauds, upon the silly fools who consulted them. From
+what we learn of his own history, Lilly himself, a low-born ignorant
+man, with some gloomy shades of fanaticism in his temperament, was
+sufficiently fitted to dupe others, and perhaps cheated himself merely
+by perusing, at an advanced period of life, some of the astrological
+tracts devised by men of less cunning, though perhaps more pretence to
+science, than he himself might boast. Yet the public still continue to
+swallow these gross impositions, though coming from such unworthy
+authority. The astrologers embraced different sides of the Civil War,
+and the king on one side, with the Parliamentary leaders on the other,
+were both equally curious to know, and eager to believe, what Lilly,
+Wharton, or Gadbury had discovered from the heavens touching the fortune
+of the strife. Lilly was a prudent person, contriving with some address
+to shift the sails of his prophetic bark so as to suit the current of
+the time, and the gale of fortune. No person could better discover from
+various omens the course of Charles's misfortunes, so soon as they had
+come to pass. In the time of the Commonwealth he foresaw the perpetual
+destruction of the monarchy, and in 1660 this did not prevent his
+foreseeing the restoration of Charles II. He maintained some credit even
+among the better classes, for Aubrey and Ashmole both called themselves
+his friends, being persons extremely credulous, doubtless, respecting
+the mystic arts. Once a year, too, the astrologers had a public dinner
+or feast, where the knaves were patronised by the company of such fools
+as claimed the title of Philomaths--that is, lovers of the mathematics,
+by which name were still distinguished those who encouraged the pursuit
+of mystical prescience, the most opposite possible to exact science.
+Elias Ashmole, the "most honourable Esquire," to whom Lilly's life is
+dedicated, seldom failed to attend; nay, several men of sense and
+knowledge honoured this rendezvous. Congreve's picture of a man like
+Foresight, the dupe of astrology and its sister arts, was then common in
+society. But the astrologers of the 17th century did not confine
+themselves to the stars. There was no province of fraud which they did
+not practise; they were scandalous as panders, and as quacks sold
+potions for the most unworthy purposes. For such reasons the common
+people detested the astrologers of the great as cordially as they did
+the more vulgar witches of their own sphere.
+
+Dr. Lamb, patronised by the Duke of Buckingham, who, like other
+overgrown favourites, was inclined to cherish astrology, was in 1640
+pulled to pieces in the city of London by the enraged populace, and his
+maid-servant, thirteen years afterwards, hanged as a witch at Salisbury.
+In the villanous transaction of the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, in
+King James's time, much mention was made of the art and skill of Dr.
+Forman, another professor of the same sort with Lamb, who was consulted
+by the Countess of Essex on the best mode of conducting her guilty
+intrigue with the Earl of Somerset. He was dead before the affair broke
+out, which might otherwise have cost him the gibbet, as it did all
+others concerned, with the exception only of the principal parties, the
+atrocious authors of the crime. When the cause was tried, some little
+puppets were produced in court, which were viewed by one party with
+horror, as representing the most horrid spells. It was even said that
+the devil was about to pull down the court-house on their being
+discovered. Others of the audience only saw in them the baby figures on
+which the dressmakers then, as now, were accustomed to expose new
+fashions.
+
+The erection of the Royal Society, dedicated to far different purposes
+than the pursuits of astrology, had a natural operation in bringing the
+latter into discredit; and although the credulity of the ignorant and
+uninformed continued to support some pretenders to that science, the
+name of Philomath, assumed by these persons and their clients, began to
+sink under ridicule and contempt. When Sir Richard Steele set up the
+paper called the _Guardian_, he chose, under the title of Nestor
+Ironside, to assume the character of an astrologer, and issued
+predictions accordingly, one of which, announcing the death of a person
+called Partridge, once a shoemaker, but at the time the conductor of an
+Astrological Almanack, led to a controversy, which was supported with
+great humour by Swift and other wags. I believe you will find that this,
+with Swift's Elegy on the same person, is one of the last occasions in
+which astrology has afforded even a jest to the good people of England.
+
+This dishonoured science has some right to be mentioned in a "Treatise
+on Demonology," because the earlier astrologers, though denying the use
+of all necromancy--that is, unlawful or black magic--pretended always to
+a correspondence with the various spirits of the elements, on the
+principles of the Rosicrucian philosophy. They affirmed they could bind
+to their service, and imprison in a ring, a mirror, or a stone, some
+fairy, sylph, or salamander, and compel it to appear when called, and
+render answers to such questions as the viewer should propose. It is
+remarkable that the sage himself did not pretend to see the spirit; but
+the task of viewer, or reader, was entrusted to a third party, a boy or
+girl usually under the years of puberty. Dr. Dee, an excellent
+mathematician, had a stone of this kind, and is said to have been
+imposed upon concerning the spirits attached to it, their actions and
+answers, by the report of one Kelly who acted as his viewer. The
+unfortunate Dee was ruined by his associates both in fortune and
+reputation. His show-stone or mirror is still preserved among other
+curiosities in the British Museum. Some superstition of the same kind
+was introduced by the celebrated Count Cagliostro, during the course of
+the intrigue respecting the diamond necklace in which the late Marie
+Antoinette was so unfortunately implicated.
+
+Dismissing this general class of impostors, who are now seldom heard of,
+we come now briefly to mention some leading superstitions once, perhaps,
+common to all the countries of Europe, but now restricted to those which
+continue to be inhabited by an undisturbed and native race. Of these,
+one of the most beautiful is the Irish fiction which assigns to certain
+families of ancient descent and distinguished rank the privilege of a
+Banshie, as she is called, or household fairy, whose office it is to
+appear, seemingly mourning, while she announces the approaching death of
+some one of the destined race. The subject has been so lately and
+beautifully investigated and illustrated by Mr. Crofton Croker and
+others, that I may dispense with being very particular regarding it. If
+I am rightly informed, the distinction of a banshie is only allowed to
+families of the pure Milesian stock, and is never ascribed to any
+descendant of the proudest Norman or boldest Saxon who followed the
+banner of Earl Strongbow, much less to adventurers of later date who
+have obtained settlements in the Green Isle.
+
+Several families of the Highlands of Scotland anciently laid claim to
+the distinction of an attendant spirit who performed the office of the
+Irish banshie. Amongst them, however, the functions of this attendant
+genius, whose form and appearance differed in different cases, were not
+limited to announcing the dissolution of those whose days were numbered.
+The Highlanders contrived to exact from them other points of service,
+sometimes as warding off dangers of battle; at others, as guarding and
+protecting the infant heir through the dangers of childhood; and
+sometimes as condescending to interfere even in the sports of the
+chieftain, and point out the fittest move to be made at chess, or the
+best card to be played at any other game. Among those spirits who have
+deigned to vouch their existence by appearance of late years, is that of
+an ancestor of the family of MacLean of Lochbuy. Before the death of any
+of his race the phantom-chief gallops along the sea-beach near to the
+castle, announcing the event by cries and lamentations. The spectre is
+said to have rode his rounds and uttered his death-cries within these
+few years, in consequence of which the family and clan, though much
+shocked, were in no way surprised to hear by next accounts that their
+gallant chief was dead at Lisbon, where he served under Lord Wellington.
+
+Of a meaner origin and occupation was the Scottish Brownie, already
+mentioned as somewhat resembling Robin Goodfellow in the frolicsome days
+of Old England. This spirit was easily banished, or, as it was styled,
+hired away, by the offer of clothes or food; but many of the simple
+inhabitants could little see the prudence of parting with such a useful
+domestic drudge, who served faithfully, without fee and reward, food or
+raiment. Neither was it all times safe to reject Brownie's assistance.
+Thus, we are informed by Brand, that a young man in the Orkneys "used to
+brew, and sometimes read upon his Bible; to whom an old woman in the
+house said, that Brownie was displeased with that book he read upon,
+which, if he continued to do, they would get no more service of Brownie;
+but he, being better instructed from that book, which was Brownie's
+eyesore and the object of his wrath, when he brewed, would not suffer
+any sacrifice to be given to Brownie; whereupon the first and second
+brewings were spoilt, and for no use; for though the wort wrought well,
+yet in a little time it left off working, and grew cold; but of the
+third broust, or brewing, he had ale very good, though he would not give
+any sacrifice to Brownie, with whom afterwards they were no more
+troubled." Another story of the same kind is told of a lady in Uist, who
+refused, on religious grounds, the usual sacrifice to this domestic
+spirit. The first and second brewings failed, but the third succeeded;
+and thus, when Brownie lost the perquisite to which he had been so long
+accustomed, he abandoned the inhospitable house, where his services had
+so long been faithfully rendered. The last place in the south of
+Scotland supposed to have been honoured, or benefited, by the residence
+of a Brownie, was Bodsbeck in Moffatdale, which has been the subject of
+an entertaining tale by Mr. James Hogg, the self-instructed genius of
+Ettrick Forest.
+
+These particular superstitions, however, are too limited, and too much
+obliterated from recollection, to call for special discussion. The
+general faith in fairies has already undergone our consideration; but
+something remains to be said upon another species of superstition, so
+general that it may be called proper to mankind in every climate; so
+deeply rooted also in human belief, that it is found to survive in
+states of society during which all other fictions of the same order are
+entirely dismissed from influence. Mr. Crabbe, with his usual felicity,
+has called the belief in ghosts "the last lingering fiction of the
+brain."
+
+Nothing appears more simple at the first view of the subject, than that
+human memory should recall and bring back to the eye of the imagination,
+in perfect similitude, even the very form and features of a person with
+whom we have been long conversant, or which have been imprinted in our
+minds with indelible strength by some striking circumstances touching
+our meeting in life. The son does not easily forget the aspect of an
+affectionate father; and, for reasons opposite but equally powerful, the
+countenance of a murdered person is engraved upon the recollection of
+his slayer. A thousand additional circumstances, far too obvious to
+require recapitulation, render the supposed apparition of the dead the
+most ordinary spectral phenomenon which is ever believed to occur among
+the living. All that we have formerly said respecting supernatural
+appearances in general, applies with peculiar force to the belief of
+ghosts; for whether the cause of delusion exists in an excited
+imagination or a disordered organic system, it is in this way that it
+commonly exhibits itself. Hence Lucretius himself, the most absolute of
+sceptics, considers the existence of ghosts, and their frequent
+apparition, as facts so undeniable that he endeavours to account for
+them at the expense of assenting to a class of phenomena very
+irreconcilable to his general system. As he will not allow of the
+existence of the human soul, and at the same time cannot venture to
+question the phenomena supposed to haunt the repositories of the dead,
+he is obliged to adopt the belief that the body consists of several
+coats like those of an onion, and that the outmost and thinnest, being
+detached by death, continues to wander near the place of sepulture, in
+the exact resemblance of the person while alive.
+
+We have said there are many ghost stories which we do not feel at
+liberty to challenge as impostures, because we are confident that those
+who relate them on their own authority actually believe what they
+assert, and may have good reason for doing so, though there is no real
+phantom after all. We are far, therefore, from averring that such tales
+are necessarily false. It is easy to suppose the visionary has been
+imposed upon by a lively dream, a waking reverie, the excitation of a
+powerful imagination, or the misrepresentation of a diseased organ of
+sight; and in one or other of these causes, to say nothing of a system
+of deception which may in many instances be probable, we apprehend a
+solution will be found for all cases of what are called real ghost
+stories.
+
+In truth, the evidence with respect to such apparitions is very seldom
+accurately or distinctly questioned. A supernatural tale is in most
+cases received as an agreeable mode of amusing society, and he would be
+rather accounted a sturdy moralist than an entertaining companion who
+should employ himself in assailing its credibility. It would indeed be a
+solecism in manners, something like that of impeaching the genuine value
+of the antiquities exhibited by a good-natured collector for the
+gratification of his guests. This difficulty will appear greater should
+a company have the rare good fortune to meet the person who himself
+witnessed the wonders which he tells; a well-bred or prudent man will,
+under such circumstances, abstain from using the rules of
+cross-examination practised in a court of justice; and if in any case he
+presumes to do so, he is in danger of receiving answers, even from the
+most candid and honourable persons, which are rather fitted to support
+the credit of the story which they stand committed to maintain, than to
+the pure service of unadorned truth. The narrator is asked, for example,
+some unimportant question with respect to the apparition; he answers it
+on the hasty suggestion of his own imagination, tinged as it is with
+belief of the general fact, and by doing so often gives a feature of
+minute evidence which was before wanting, and this with perfect
+unconsciousness on his own part. It is a rare occurrence, indeed, to
+find an opportunity of dealing with an actual ghost-seer; such
+instances, however, I have certainly myself met with, and that in the
+case of able, wise, candid, and resolute persons, of whose veracity I
+had every reason to be confident. But in such instances shades of mental
+aberration have afterwards occurred, which sufficiently accounted for
+the supposed apparitions, and will incline me always to feel alarmed in
+behalf of the continued health of a friend who should conceive himself
+to have witnessed such a visitation.
+
+The nearest approximation which can be generally made to exact evidence
+in this case, is the word of some individual who has had the story, it
+may be, from the person to whom it has happened, but most likely from
+his family, or some friend of the family. Far more commonly the narrator
+possesses no better means of knowledge than that of dwelling in the
+country where the thing happened, or being well acquainted with the
+outside of the mansion in the inside of which the ghost appeared.
+
+In every point the evidence of such a second-hand retailer of the mystic
+story must fall under the adjudged case in an English court. The judge
+stopped a witness who was about to give an account of the murder upon
+trial, as it was narrated to him by the ghost of the murdered person.
+"Hold, sir," said his lordship; "the ghost is an excellent witness, and
+his evidence the best possible; but he cannot be heard by proxy in this
+court. Summon him hither, and I'll hear him in person; but your
+communication is mere hearsay, which my office compels me to reject."
+Yet it is upon the credit of one man, who pledges it upon that of three
+or four persons, who have told it successively to each other, that we
+are often expected to believe an incident inconsistent with the laws of
+Nature, however agreeable to our love of the wonderful and the horrible.
+
+In estimating the truth or falsehood of such stories it is evident we
+can derive no proofs from that period of society when men affirmed
+boldly, and believed stoutly, all the wonders which could be coined or
+fancied. That such stories are believed and told by grave historians,
+only shows that the wisest men cannot rise in all things above the
+general ignorance of their age. Upon the evidence of such historians we
+might as well believe the portents of ancient or the miracles of modern
+Rome. For example, we read in Clarendon of the apparition of the ghost
+of Sir George Villiers to an ancient dependant. This is no doubt a story
+told by a grave author, at a time when such stories were believed by all
+the world; but does it follow that our reason must acquiesce in a
+statement so positively contradicted by the voice of Nature through all
+her works? The miracle of raising a dead man was positively refused by
+our Saviour to the Jews, who demanded it as a proof of his mission,
+because they had already sufficient grounds of conviction; and, as they
+believed them not, it was irresistibly argued by the Divine Person whom
+they tempted, that neither would they believe if one arose from the
+dead. Shall we suppose that a miracle refused for the conversion of
+God's chosen people was sent on a vain errand to save the life of a
+profligate spendthrift? I lay aside, you observe, entirely the not
+unreasonable supposition that Towers, or whatever was the ghost-seer's
+name, desirous to make an impression upon Buckingham, as an old servant
+of his house, might be tempted to give him his advice, of which we are
+not told the import, in the character of his father's spirit, and
+authenticate the tale by the mention of some token known to him as a
+former retainer of the family. The Duke was superstitious, and the ready
+dupe of astrologers and soothsayers. The manner in which he had provoked
+the fury of the people must have warned every reflecting person of his
+approaching fate; and, the age considered, it was not unnatural that a
+faithful friend should take this mode of calling his attention to his
+perilous situation. Or, if we suppose that the incident was not a mere
+pretext to obtain access to the Duke's ear, the messenger may have been
+impressed upon by an idle dream--in a word, numberless conjectures might
+be formed for accounting for the event in a natural way, the most
+extravagant of which is more probable than that the laws of Nature were
+broken through in order to give a vain and fruitless warning to an
+ambitious minion.
+
+It is the same with all those that are called accredited ghost stories
+usually told at the fireside. They want evidence. It is true that the
+general wish to believe, rather than power of believing, has given some
+such stories a certain currency in society. I may mention, as one of the
+class of tales I mean, that of the late Earl St. Vincent, who watched,
+with a friend, it is said, a whole night, in order to detect the cause
+of certain nocturnal disturbances which took place in a certain mansion.
+The house was under lease to Mrs. Ricketts, his sister. The result of
+his lordship's vigil is said to have been that he heard the noises
+without being able to detect the causes, and insisted on his sister
+giving up the house. This is told as a real story, with a thousand
+different circumstances. But who has heard or seen an authentic account
+from Earl St. Vincent, or from his "companion of the watch," or from his
+lordship's sister? And as in any other case such sure species of direct
+evidence would be necessary to prove the facts, it seems unreasonable to
+believe such a story on slighter terms. When the particulars are
+precisely fixed and known, it might be time to enquire whether Lord St.
+Vincent, amid the other eminent qualities of a first-rate seaman, might
+not be in some degree tinged with their tendency to superstition; and
+still farther, whether, having ascertained the existence of disturbances
+not immediately or easily detected, his lordship might not advise his
+sister rather to remove than to remain in a house so haunted, though he
+might believe that poachers or smugglers were the worst ghosts by whom
+it was disturbed.
+
+The story of two highly respectable officers in the British army, who
+are supposed to have seen the spectre of the brother of one of them in a
+hut, or barrack, in America, is also one of those accredited ghost
+tales, which attain a sort of brevet rank as true, from the mention of
+respectable names as the parties who witnessed the vision. But we are
+left without a glimpse when, how, and in what terms, this story obtained
+its currency; as also by whom, and in what manner, it was first
+circulated; and among the numbers by whom it has been quoted, although
+all agree in the general event, scarcely two, even of those who pretend
+to the best information, tell the story in the same way.
+
+Another such story, in which the name of a lady of condition is made use
+of as having seen an apparition in a country-seat in France, is so far
+better borne out than those I have mentioned, that I have seen a
+narrative of the circumstances attested by the party principally
+concerned. That the house was disturbed seems to be certain, but the
+circumstances (though very remarkable) did not, in my mind, by any means
+exclude the probability that the disturbance and appearances were
+occasioned by the dexterous management of some mischievously-disposed
+persons.
+
+The remarkable circumstance of Thomas, the second Lord Lyttelton,
+prophesying his own death within a few minutes, upon the information of
+an apparition, has been always quoted as a true story. But of late it
+has been said and published, that the unfortunate nobleman had
+previously determined to take poison, and of course had it in his own
+power to ascertain the execution of the prediction. It was no doubt
+singular that a man, who meditated his exit from the world, should have
+chosen to play such a trick on his friends. But it is still more
+credible that a whimsical man should do so wild a thing, than that a
+messenger should be sent from the dead to tell a libertine at what
+precise hour he should expire.
+
+To this list other stories of the same class might be added. But it is
+sufficient to show that such stories as these, having gained a certain
+degree of currency in the world, and bearing creditable names on their
+front, walk through society unchallenged, like bills through a bank when
+they bear respectable indorsations, although, it may be, the signatures
+are forged after all. There is, indeed, an unwillingness very closely to
+examine such subjects, for the secret fund of superstition in every
+man's bosom is gratified by believing them to be true, or at least
+induces him to abstain from challenging them as false. And no doubt it
+must happen that the transpiring of incidents, in which men have
+actually seen, or conceived that they saw, apparitions which were
+invisible to others, contributes to the increase of such stories--which
+do accordingly sometimes meet us in a shape of veracity difficult to
+question.
+
+The following story was narrated to me by my friend, Mr. William Clerk,
+chief clerk to the Jury Court, Edinburgh, when he first learned it, now
+nearly thirty years ago, from a passenger in the mail-coach. With Mr.
+Clerk's consent, I gave the story at that time to poor Mat Lewis, who
+published it with a ghost-ballad which he adjusted on the same theme.
+From the minuteness of the original detail, however, the narrative is
+better calculated for prose than verse; and more especially as the
+friend to whom it was originally communicated is one of the most
+accurate, intelligent, and acute persons whom I have known in the course
+of my life, I am willing to preserve the precise story in this place.
+
+It was about the eventful year 1800, when the Emperor Paul laid his
+ill-judged embargo on British trade, that my friend Mr. William Clerk,
+on a journey to London, found himself in company, in the mail-coach,
+with a seafaring man of middle age and respectable appearance, who
+announced himself as master of a vessel in the Baltic trade, and a
+sufferer by the embargo. In the course of the desultory conversation
+which takes place on such occasions the seaman observed, in compliance
+with a common superstition, "I wish we may have good luck on our
+journey--there is a magpie." "And why should that be unlucky?" said my
+friend. "I cannot tell you that," replied the sailor; "but all the world
+agrees that one magpie bodes bad luck--two are not so bad, but three are
+the devil. I never saw three magpies but twice, and once I had near lost
+my vessel, and the second I fell from a horse, and was hurt." This
+conversation led Mr. Clerk to observe that he supposed he believed also
+in ghosts, since he credited such auguries. "And if I do," said the
+sailor, "I may have my own reasons for doing so;" and he spoke this in a
+deep and serious manner, implying that he felt deeply what he was
+saying. On being further urged, he confessed that, if he could believe
+his own eyes, there was one ghost at least which he had seen repeatedly.
+He then told his story as I now relate it.
+
+Our mariner had in his youth gone mate of a slave vessel from Liverpool,
+of which town he seemed to be a native. The captain of the vessel was a
+man of a variable temper, sometimes kind and courteous to his men, but
+subject to fits of humour, dislike, and passion, during which he was
+very violent, tyrannical, and cruel. He took a particular dislike at one
+sailor aboard, an elderly man, called Bill Jones, or some such name. He
+seldom spoke to this person without threats and abuse, which the old
+man, with the license which sailors take on merchant vessels, was very
+apt to return. On one occasion Bill Jones appeared slow in getting out
+on the yard to hand a sail. The captain, according to custom, abused the
+seaman as a lubberly rascal, who got fat by leaving his duty to other
+people. The man made a saucy answer, almost amounting to mutiny, on
+which, in a towering passion, the captain ran down to his cabin, and
+returned with a blunderbuss loaded with slugs, with which he took
+deliberate aim at the supposed mutineer, fired, and mortally wounded
+him. The man was handed down from the yard, and stretched on the deck,
+evidently dying. He fixed his eyes on the captain, and said, "Sir, you
+have done for me, but _I will never leave you_" The captain, in return,
+swore at him for a fat lubber, and said he would have him thrown into
+the slave-kettle, where they made food for the negroes, and see how much
+fat he had got. The man died. His body was actually thrown into the
+slave-kettle, and the narrator observed, with a _naïveté_ which
+confirmed the extent of his own belief in the truth of what he told,
+"There was not much fat about him after all."
+
+The captain told the crew they must keep absolute silence on the subject
+of what had passed; and as the mate was not willing to give an explicit
+and absolute promise, he ordered him to be confined below. After a day
+or two he came to the mate, and demanded if he had an intention to
+deliver him up for trial when the vessel got home. The mate, who was
+tired of close confinement in that sultry climate, spoke his commander
+fair, and obtained his liberty. When he mingled among the crew once more
+he found them impressed with the idea, not unnatural in their situation,
+that the ghost of the dead man appeared among them when they had a spell
+of duty, especially if a sail was to be handed, on which occasion the
+spectre was sure to be out upon the yard before any of the crew. The
+narrator had seen this apparition himself repeatedly--he believed the
+captain saw it also, but he took no notice of it for some time, and the
+crew, terrified at the violent temper of the man, dared not call his
+attention to it. Thus they held on their course homeward with great fear
+and anxiety.
+
+At length, the captain invited the mate, who was now in a sort of
+favour, to go down to the cabin and take a glass of grog with him. In
+this interview he assumed a very grave and anxious aspect. "I need not
+tell you, Jack," he said, "what sort of hand we have got on board with
+us. He told me he would never leave me, and he has kept his word. You
+only see him now and then, but he is always by my side, and never out of
+my sight. At this very moment I see him--I am determined to bear it no
+longer, and I have resolved to leave you."
+
+The mate replied that his leaving the vessel while out of the sight of
+any land was impossible. He advised, that if the captain apprehended any
+bad consequences from what had happened, he should run for the west of
+France or Ireland, and there go ashore, and leave him, the mate, to
+carry the vessel into Liverpool. The captain only shook his head
+gloomily, and reiterated his determination to leave the ship. At this
+moment the mate was called to the deck for some purpose or other, and
+the instant he got up the companion-ladder he heard a splash in the
+water, and looking over the ship's side, saw that the captain had thrown
+himself into the sea from the quarter-gallery, and was running astern at
+the rate of six knots an hour. When just about to sink he seemed to make
+a last exertion, sprung half out of the water, and clasped his hands
+towards the mate, calling, "By----, Bill is with me now!" and then sunk,
+to be seen no more.
+
+After hearing this singular story Mr. Clerk asked some questions about
+the captain, and whether his companion considered him as at all times
+rational. The sailor seemed struck with the question, and answered,
+after a moment's delay, that in general _he conversationed well enough_.
+
+It would have been desirable to have been able to ascertain how far this
+extraordinary tale was founded on fact; but want of time and other
+circumstances prevented Mr. Clerk from learning the names and dates,
+that might to a certain degree have verified the events. Granting the
+murder to have taken place, and the tale to have been truly told, there
+was nothing more likely to arise among the ship's company than the
+belief in the apparition; as the captain was a man of a passionate and
+irritable disposition, it was nowise improbable that he, the victim of
+remorse, should participate in the horrible visions of those less
+concerned, especially as he was compelled to avoid communicating his
+sentiments with any one else; and the catastrophe would in such a case
+be but the natural consequence of that superstitious remorse which has
+conducted so many criminals to suicide or the gallows. If the
+fellow-traveller of Mr. Clerk be not allowed this degree of credit, he
+must at least be admitted to have displayed a singular talent for the
+composition of the horrible in fiction. The tale, properly detailed,
+might have made the fortune of a romancer.
+
+I cannot forbear giving you, as congenial to this story, another
+instance of a guilt-formed phantom, which made considerable noise about
+twenty years ago or more. I am, I think, tolerably correct in the
+details, though I have lost the account of the trial. Jarvis
+Matcham--such, if I am not mistaken, was the name of my hero--was
+pay-sergeant in a regiment, where he was so highly esteemed as a steady
+and accurate man that he was permitted opportunity to embezzle a
+considerable part of the money lodged in his hands for pay of soldiers,
+bounty of recruits (then a large sum), and other charges which fell
+within his duty. He was summoned to join his regiment from a town where
+he had been on the recruiting service, and this perhaps under some shade
+of suspicion. Matcham perceived discovery was at hand, and would have
+deserted had it not been for the presence of a little drummer lad, who
+was the only one of his party appointed to attend him. In the
+desperation of his crime he resolved to murder the poor boy, and avail
+himself of some balance of money to make his escape. He meditated this
+wickedness the more readily that the drummer, he thought, had been put
+as a spy on him. He perpetrated his crime, and changing his dress after
+the deed was done, made a long walk across the country to an inn on the
+Portsmouth road, where he halted and went to bed, desiring to be called
+when the first Portsmouth coach came. The waiter summoned him
+accordingly, but long after remembered that, when he shook the guest by
+the shoulder, his first words as he awoke were: "My God! I did not kill
+him."
+
+Matcham went to the seaport by the coach, and instantly entered as an
+able-bodied landsman or marine, I know not which. His sobriety and
+attention to duty gained him the same good opinion of the officers in
+his new service which he had enjoyed in the army. He was afloat for
+several years, and behaved remarkably well in some actions. At length
+the vessel came into Plymouth, was paid off, and some of the crew,
+amongst whom was Jarvis Matcham, were dismissed as too old for service.
+He and another seaman resolved to walk to town, and took the route by
+Salisbury. It was when within two or three miles of this celebrated city
+that they were overtaken by a tempest so sudden, and accompanied with
+such vivid lightning and thunder so dreadfully loud, that the obdurate
+conscience of the old sinner began to be awakened. He expressed more
+terror than seemed natural for one who was familiar with the war of
+elements, and began to look and talk so wildly that his companion became
+aware that something more than usual was the matter. At length Matcham
+complained to his companion that the stones rose from the road and flew
+after him. He desired the man to walk on the other side of the highway
+to see if they would follow him when he was alone. The sailor complied,
+and Jarvis Matcham complained that the stones still flew after him and
+did not pursue the other. "But what is worse," he added, coming up to
+his companion, and whispering, with a tone of mystery and fear, "who is
+that little drummer-boy, and what business has he to follow us so
+closely?" "I can see no one," answered the seaman, infected by the
+superstition of his associate. "What! not see that little boy with the
+bloody pantaloons!" exclaimed the secret murderer, so much to the terror
+of his comrade that he conjured him, if he had anything on his mind, to
+make a clear conscience as far as confession could do it. The criminal
+fetched a deep groan, and declared that he was unable longer to endure
+the life which he had led for years. He then confessed the murder of the
+drummer, and added that, as a considerable reward had been offered, he
+wished his comrade to deliver him up to the magistrates of Salisbury, as
+he would desire a shipmate to profit by his fate, which he was now
+convinced was inevitable. Having overcome his friend's objections to
+this mode of proceeding, Jarvis Matcham was surrendered to justice
+accordingly, and made a full confession of his guilt But before the
+trial the love of life returned. The prisoner denied his confession, and
+pleaded Not Guilty. By this time, however, full evidence had been
+procured from other quarters. Witnesses appeared from his former
+regiment to prove his identity with the murderer and deserter, and the
+waiter remembered the ominous words which he had spoken when he awoke
+him to join the Portsmouth coach. Jarvis Matcham was found guilty and
+executed. When his last chance of life was over he returned to his
+confession, and with his dying breath averred, and truly, as he thought,
+the truth of the vision on Salisbury Plain. Similar stories might be
+produced, showing plainly that, under the direction of Heaven, the
+influence of superstitious fear may be the appointed means of bringing
+the criminal to repentance for his own sake, and to punishment for the
+advantage of society.
+
+Cases of this kind are numerous and easily imagined, so I shall dwell on
+them no further; but rather advert to at least an equally abundant class
+of ghost stories, in which the apparition is pleased not to torment the
+actual murderer, but proceeds in a very circuitous manner, acquainting
+some stranger or ignorant old woman with the particulars of his fate,
+who, though perhaps unacquainted with all the parties, is directed by a
+phantom to lay the facts before a magistrate. In this respect we must
+certainly allow that ghosts have, as we are informed by the facetious
+Captain Grose, forms and customs peculiar to themselves.
+
+There would be no edification and little amusement in treating of clumsy
+deceptions of this kind, where the grossness of the imposture detects
+itself. But occasionally cases occur like the following, with respect to
+which it is more difficult, to use James Boswell's phrase, "to know what
+to think."
+
+Upon the 10th of June, 1754, Duncan Terig, _alias_ Clark, and Alexander
+Bain MacDonald, two Highlanders, were tried before the Court of
+Justiciary, Edinburgh, for the murder of Arthur Davis, sergeant in
+Guise's regiment, on the 28th September, 1749. The accident happened not
+long after the civil war, the embers of which were still reeking, so
+there existed too many reasons on account of which an English soldier,
+straggling far from assistance, might be privately cut off by the
+inhabitants of these wilds. It appears that Sergeant Davis was missing
+for years, without any certainty as to his fate. At length, an account
+of the murder appeared from the evidence of one Alexander MacPherson (a
+Highlander, speaking no language but Gaelic, and sworn by an
+interpreter), who gave the following extraordinary account of his cause
+of knowledge:--He was, he said, in bed in his cottage, when an
+apparition came to his bedside and commanded him to rise and follow him
+out of doors. Believing his visitor to be one Farquharson, a neighbour
+and friend, the witness did as he was bid; and when they were without
+the cottage, the appearance told the witness he was the ghost of
+Sergeant Davis, and requested him to go and bury his mortal remains,
+which lay concealed in a place he pointed out in a moorland tract called
+the Hill of Christie. He desired him to take Farquharson with him as an
+assistant. Next day the witness went to the place specified, and there
+found the bones of a human body much decayed. The witness did not at
+that time bury the bones so found, in consequence of which negligence
+the sergeant's ghost again appeared to him, upbraiding him with his
+breach of promise. On this occasion the witness asked the ghost who were
+the murderers, and received for answer that he had been slain by the
+prisoners at the bar. The witness, after this second visitation, called
+the assistance of Farquharson, and buried the body.
+
+Farquharson was brought in evidence to prove that the preceding witness,
+MacPherson, had called him to the burial of the bones, and told him the
+same story which he repeated in court. Isabel MacHardie, a person who
+slept in one of the beds which run along the wall in an ordinary
+Highland hut, declared that upon the night when MacPherson said he saw
+the ghost, she saw a naked man enter the house and go towards
+MacPherson's bed.
+
+Yet though the supernatural incident was thus fortified, and although
+there were other strong presumptions against the prisoners, the story of
+the apparition threw an air of ridicule on the whole evidence for the
+prosecution. It was followed up by the counsel for the prisoners asking,
+in the cross-examination of MacPherson, "What language did the ghost
+speak in?" The witness, who was himself ignorant of English, replied,
+"As good Gaelic as I ever heard in Lochaber." "Pretty well for the ghost
+of an English sergeant," answered the counsel. The inference was rather
+smart and plausible than sound, for, the apparition of the ghost being
+admitted, we know too little of the other world to judge whether all
+languages may not be alike familiar to those who belonged to it. It
+imposed, however, on the jury, who found the accused parties not guilty,
+although their counsel and solicitor and most of the court were
+satisfied of their having committed the murder. In this case the
+interference of the ghost seems to have rather impeded the vengeance
+which it was doubtless the murdered sergeant's desire to obtain. Yet
+there may be various modes of explaining this mysterious story, of which
+the following conjecture may pass for one.
+
+The reader may suppose that MacPherson was privy to the fact of the
+murder, perhaps as an accomplice or otherwise, and may also suppose
+that, from motives of remorse for the action, or of enmity to those who
+had committed it, he entertained a wish to bring them to justice. But
+through the whole Highlands there is no character more detestable than
+that of an informer, or one who takes what is called Tascal-money, or
+reward for discovery of crimes. To have informed against Terig and
+MacDonald might have cost MacPherson his life; and it is far from being
+impossible that he had recourse to the story of the ghost, knowing well
+that his superstitious countrymen would pardon his communicating the
+commission entrusted to him by a being from the other world, although he
+might probably have been murdered if his delation of the crime had been
+supposed voluntary. This explanation, in exact conformity with the
+sentiments of the Highlanders on such subjects, would reduce the whole
+story to a stroke of address on the part of the witness.
+
+It is therefore of the last consequence, in considering the truth of
+stories of ghosts and apparitions, to consider the possibility of wilful
+deception, whether on the part of those who are agents in the supposed
+disturbances, or the author of the legend. We shall separately notice an
+instance or two of either kind.
+
+The most celebrated instance in which human agency was used to copy the
+disturbances imputed to supernatural beings refers to the ancient palace
+of Woodstock, when the Commissioners of the Long Parliament came down to
+dispark what had been lately a royal residence. The Commissioners
+arrived at Woodstock, 13th October, 1649, determined to wipe away the
+memory of all that connected itself with the recollection of monarchy in
+England. But in the course of their progress they were encountered by
+obstacles which apparently came from the next world. Their bed-chambers
+were infested with visits of a thing resembling a dog, but which came
+and passed as mere earthly dogs cannot do. Logs of wood, the remains of
+a very large tree called the King's Oak, which they had splintered into
+billets for burning, were tossed through the house, and the chairs
+displaced and shuffled about. While they were in bed the feet of their
+couches were lifted higher than their heads, and then dropped with
+violence. Trenchers "without a wish" flew at their heads of free will.
+Thunder and lightning came next, which were set down to the same cause.
+Spectres made their appearance, as they thought, in different shapes,
+and one of the party saw the apparition of a hoof, which kicked a
+candlestick and lighted candle into the middle of the room, and then
+politely scratched on the red snuff to extinguish it. Other and worse
+tricks were practised on the astonished Commissioners who, considering
+that all the fiends of hell were let loose upon them, retreated from
+Woodstock without completing an errand which was, in their opinion,
+impeded by infernal powers, though the opposition offered was rather of
+a playful and malicious than of a dangerous cast.
+
+The whole matter was, after the Restoration, discovered to be the trick
+of one of their own party, who had attended the Commissioners as a
+clerk, under the name of Giles Sharp. This man, whose real name was
+Joseph Collins of Oxford, called _Funny Joe_, was a concealed loyalist,
+and well acquainted with the old mansion of Woodstock, where he had been
+brought up before the Civil War. Being a bold, active spirited man, Joe
+availed himself of his local knowledge of trap-doors and private
+passages so as to favour the tricks which he played off upon his masters
+by aid of his fellow-domestics. The Commissioners' personal reliance on
+him made his task the more easy, and it was all along remarked that
+trusty Giles Sharp saw the most extraordinary sights and visions among
+the whole party. The unearthly terrors experienced by the Commissioners
+are detailed with due gravity by Sinclair, and also, I think, by Dr.
+Plott. But although the detection or explanation of the real history of
+the Woodstock demons has also been published, and I have myself seen it,
+I have at this time forgotten whether it exists in a separate
+collection, or where it is to be looked for.
+
+Similar disturbances have been often experienced while it was the custom
+to believe in and dread such frolics of the invisible world, and under
+circumstances which induce us to wonder, both at the extreme trouble
+taken by the agents in these impostures, and the slight motives from
+which they have been induced to do much wanton mischief. Still greater
+is our modern surprise at the apparently simple means by which terror
+has been excited to so general an extent, that even the wisest and most
+prudent have not escaped its contagious influence.
+
+On the first point I am afraid there can be no better reason assigned
+than the conscious pride of superiority, which induces the human being
+in all cases to enjoy and practise every means of employing an influence
+over his fellow-mortals; to which we may safely add that general love of
+tormenting, as common to our race as to that noble mimick of humanity,
+the monkey. To this is owing the delight with which every school-boy
+anticipates the effects of throwing a stone into a glass shop; and to
+this we must also ascribe the otherwise unaccountable pleasure which
+individuals have taken in practising the tricksy pranks of a goblin, and
+filling a household or neighbourhood with anxiety and dismay, with
+little gratification to themselves besides the consciousness of
+dexterity if they remain undiscovered, and with the risk of loss of
+character and punishment should the imposture be found out.
+
+In the year 1772, a train of transactions, commencing upon Twelfth Day,
+threw the utmost consternation into the village of Stockwell, near
+London, and impressed upon some of its inhabitants the inevitable belief
+that they were produced by invisible agents. The plates, dishes, china,
+and glass-ware and small movables of every kind, contained in the house
+of Mrs. Golding, an elderly lady, seemed suddenly to become animated,
+shifted their places, flew through the room, and were broken to pieces.
+The particulars of this commotion were as curious as the loss and damage
+occasioned in this extraordinary manner were alarming and intolerable.
+Amidst this combustion, a young woman, Mrs. Golding's maid, named Anne
+Robinson, was walking backwards and forwards, nor could she be prevailed
+on to sit down for a moment excepting while the family were at prayers,
+during which time no disturbance happened. This Anne Robinson had been
+but a few days in the old lady's service, and it was remarkable that she
+endured with great composure the extraordinary display which others
+beheld with terror, and coolly advised her mistress not to be alarmed or
+uneasy, as these things could not be helped. This excited an idea that
+she had some reason for being so composed, not inconsistent with a
+degree of connexion with what was going forward. The afflicted Mrs.
+Golding, as she might be well termed, considering such a commotion and
+demolition among her goods and chattels, invited neighbours to stay in
+her house, but they soon became unable to bear the sight of these
+supernatural proceedings, which went so far that not above two cups and
+saucers remained out of a valuable set of china. She next abandoned her
+dwelling, and took refuge with a neighbour, but, finding his movables
+were seized with the same sort of St. Vitus's dance, her landlord
+reluctantly refused to shelter any longer a woman who seemed to be
+persecuted by so strange a subject of vexation. Mrs. Golding's
+suspicions against Anne Robinson now gaining ground, she dismissed her
+maid, and the hubbub among her movables ceased at once and for ever.
+
+This circumstance of itself indicates that Anne Robinson was the cause
+of these extraordinary disturbances, as has been since more completely
+ascertained by a Mr. Brayfield, who persuaded Anne, long after the
+events had happened, to make him her confidant. There was a love story
+connected with the case, in which the only magic was the dexterity of
+Anne Robinson and the simplicity of the spectators. She had fixed long
+horse hairs to some of the crockery, and placed wires under others, by
+which she could throw them down without touching them. Other things she
+dexterously threw about, which the spectators, who did not watch her
+motions, imputed to invisible agency. At times, when the family were
+absent, she loosened the hold of the strings by which the hams, bacon,
+and similar articles were suspended, so that they fell on the slightest
+motion. She employed some simple chemical secrets, and, delighted with
+the success of her pranks, pushed them farther than she at first
+intended. Such was the solution of the whole mystery, which, known by
+the name of the Stockwell ghost, terrified many well-meaning persons,
+and had been nearly as famous as that of Cock Lane, which may be hinted
+at as another imposture of the same kind. So many and wonderful are the
+appearances described, that when I first met with the original
+publication I was strongly impressed with the belief that the narrative
+was like some of Swift's advertisements, a jocular experiment upon the
+credulity of the public. But it was certainly published _bona fide_, and
+Mr. Hone, on the authority of Mr. Brayfield, has since fully explained
+the wonder.[85]
+
+[Footnote 85: See Hone's "Every-Day Book," p. 62.]
+
+Many such impositions have been detected, and many others have been
+successfully concealed; but to know what has been discovered in many
+instances gives us the assurance of the ruling cause in all. I remember
+a scene of the kind attempted to be got up near Edinburgh, but detected
+at once by a sheriff's officer, a sort of persons whose habits of
+incredulity and suspicious observation render them very dangerous
+spectators on such occasions. The late excellent Mr. Walker, minister at
+Dunottar, in the Mearns, gave me a curious account of an imposture of
+this kind, practised by a young country girl, who was surprisingly quick
+at throwing stones, turf, and other missiles, with such dexterity that
+it was for a long time impossible to ascertain her agency in the
+disturbances of which she was the sole cause.
+
+The belief of the spectators that such scenes of disturbance arise from
+invisible beings will appear less surprising if we consider the common
+feats of jugglers, or professors of legerdemain, and recollect that it
+is only the frequent exhibition of such powers which reconciles us to
+them as matters of course, although they are wonders at which in our
+fathers' time men would have cried out either sorcery or miracles. The
+spectator also, who has been himself duped, makes no very respectable
+appearance when convicted of his error; and thence, if too candid to add
+to the evidence of supernatural agency, is yet unwilling to stand
+convicted by cross-examination, of having been imposed on, and
+unconsciously becomes disposed rather to colour more highly than the
+truth, than acquiesce in an explanation resting on his having been too
+hasty a believer. Very often, too, the detection depends upon the
+combination of certain circumstances, which, apprehended, necessarily
+explain the whole story.
+
+For example, I once heard a sensible and intelligent friend in company
+express himself convinced of the truth of a wonderful story, told him by
+an intelligent and bold man, about an apparition. The scene lay in an
+ancient castle on the coast of Morven or the Isle of Mull, where the
+ghost-seer chanced to be resident. He was given to understand by the
+family, when betaking himself to rest, that the chamber in which he
+slept was occasionally disquieted by supernatural appearances. Being at
+that time no believer in such stories, he attended little to this hint,
+until the witching hour of night, when he was awakened from a dead sleep
+by the pressure of a human hand on his body. He looked up at the figure
+of a tall Highlander, in the antique and picturesque dress of his
+country, only that his brows were bound with a bloody bandage. Struck
+with sudden and extreme fear, he was willing to have sprung from bed,
+but the spectre stood before him in the bright moonlight, its one arm
+extended so as to master him if he attempted to rise; the other hand
+held up in a warning and grave posture, as menacing the Lowlander if he
+should attempt to quit his recumbent position. Thus he lay in mortal
+agony for more than an hour, after which it pleased the spectre of
+ancient days to leave him to more sound repose. So singular a story had
+on its side the usual number of votes from the company, till, upon
+cross-examination, it was explained that the principal person concerned
+was an exciseman. After which _eclaircissement_ the same explanation
+struck all present, viz., the Highlanders of the mansion had chosen to
+detain the exciseman by the apparition of an ancient heroic ghost, in
+order to disguise from his vigilance the removal of certain modern
+enough spirits, which his duty might have called upon him to seize. Here
+a single circumstance explained the whole ghost story.
+
+At other times it happens that the meanness and trifling nature of a
+cause not very obvious to observation has occasioned it to be entirely
+overlooked, even on account of that very meanness, since no one is
+willing to acknowledge that he has been alarmed by a cause of little
+consequence, and which he would be ashamed of mentioning. An incident of
+this sort happened to a gentleman of birth and distinction, who is well
+known in the political world, and was detected by the precision of his
+observation. Shortly after he succeeded to his estate and title, there
+was a rumour among his servants concerning a strange noise heard in the
+family mansion at night, the cause of which they had found it impossible
+to trace. The gentleman resolved to watch himself, with a domestic who
+had grown old in the family, and who had begun to murmur strange things
+concerning the knocking having followed so close upon the death of his
+old master. They watched until the noise was heard, which they listened
+to with that strange uncertainty attending midnight sounds which
+prevents the hearers from immediately tracing them to the spot where
+they arise, while the silence of the night generally occasions the
+imputing to them more than the due importance which they would receive
+if mingled with the usual noises of daylight. At length the gentleman
+and his servant traced the sounds which they had repeatedly heard to a
+small store-room used as a place for keeping provisions of various kinds
+for the family, of which the old butler had the key. They entered this
+place, and remained there for some time without hearing the noises which
+they had traced thither; at length the sound was heard, but much lower
+than it had formerly seemed to be, while acted upon at a distance by the
+imagination of the hearers. The cause was immediately discovered. A rat
+caught in an old-fashioned trap had occasioned this tumult by its
+efforts to escape, in which it was able to raise the trap-door of its
+prison to a certain height, but was then obliged to drop it. The noise
+of the fall, resounding through the house, had occasioned the
+disturbance which, but for the cool investigation of the proprietor,
+might easily have established an accredited ghost story. The
+circumstance was told me by the gentleman to whom it happened.
+
+There are other occasions in which the ghost story is rendered credible
+by some remarkable combination of circumstances very unlikely to have
+happened, and which no one could have supposed unless some particular
+fortune occasioned a discovery.
+
+An apparition which took place at Plymouth is well known, but it has
+been differently related; and having some reason to think the following
+edition correct, it is an incident so much to my purpose that you must
+pardon its insertion.
+
+A club of persons connected with science and literature was formed at
+the great sea-town I have named. During the summer months the society
+met in a cave by the sea-shore; during those of autumn and winter they
+convened within the premises of a tavern, but, for the sake of privacy,
+had their meetings in a summer-house situated in the garden, at a
+distance from the main building. Some of the members to whom the
+position of their own dwellings rendered this convenient, had a pass-key
+to the garden-door, by which they could enter the garden and reach the
+summer-house without the publicity or trouble of passing through the
+open tavern. It was the rule of this club that its members presided
+alternately. On one occasion, in the winter, the president of the
+evening chanced to be very ill; indeed, was reported to be on his
+death-bed. The club met as usual, and, from a sentiment of respect, left
+vacant the chair which ought to have been occupied by him if in his
+usual health; for the same reason, the conversation turned upon the
+absent gentleman's talents, and the loss expected to the society by his
+death. While they were upon this melancholy theme, the door suddenly
+opened, and the appearance of the president entered the room. He wore a
+white wrapper, a nightcap round his brow, the appearance of which was
+that of death itself. He stalked into the room with unusual gravity,
+took the vacant place of ceremony, lifted the empty glass which stood
+before him, bowed around, and put it to his lips; then replaced it on
+the table, and stalked out of the room as silent as he had entered it.
+The company remained deeply appalled; at length, after many observations
+on the strangeness of what they had seen, they resolved to dispatch two
+of their number as ambassadors, to see how it fared with the president,
+who had thus strangely appeared among them. They went, and returned with
+the frightful intelligence that the friend after whom they had enquired
+was that evening deceased.
+
+The astonished party then resolved that they would remain absolutely
+silent respecting the wonderful sight which they had seen. Their habits
+were too philosophical to permit them to believe that they had actually
+seen the ghost of their deceased brother, and at the same time they were
+too wise men to wish to confirm the superstition of the vulgar by what
+might seem indubitable evidence of a ghost. The affair was therefore
+kept a strict secret, although, as usual, some dubious rumours of the
+tale found their way to the public. Several years afterwards, an old
+woman who had long filled the place of a sick-nurse, was taken very ill,
+and on her death-bed was attended by a medical member of the
+philosophical club. To him, with many expressions of regret, she
+acknowledged that she had long before attended Mr.----, naming the
+president whose appearance had surprised the club so strangely, and that
+she felt distress of conscience on account of the manner in which he
+died. She said that as his malady was attended by light-headedness, she
+had been directed to keep a close watch upon him during his illness.
+Unhappily she slept, and during her sleep the patient had awaked and
+left the apartment. When, on her own awaking, she found the bed empty
+and the patient gone, she forthwith hurried out of the house to seek
+him, and met him in the act of returning. She got him, she said,
+replaced in bed, but it was only to die there. She added, to convince
+her hearer of the truth of what she said, that immediately after the
+poor gentleman expired, a deputation of two members from the club came
+to enquire after their president's health, and received for answer that
+he was already dead. This confession explained the whole matter. The
+delirious patient had very naturally taken the road to the club, from
+some recollections of his duty of the night. In approaching and retiring
+from the apartment he had used one of the pass-keys already mentioned,
+which made his way shorter. On the other hand, the gentlemen sent to
+enquire after his health had reached his lodging by a more circuitous
+road; and thus there had been time for him to return to what proved his
+death-bed, long before they reached his chamber. The philosophical
+witnesses of this strange scene were now as anxious to spread the story
+as they had formerly been to conceal it, since it showed in what a
+remarkable manner men's eyes might turn traitors to them, and impress
+them with ideas far different from the truth.
+
+Another occurrence of the same kind, although scarcely so striking in
+its circumstances, was yet one which, had it remained unexplained, might
+have passed as an indubitable instance of a supernatural apparition.
+
+A Teviotdale farmer was riding from a fair, at which he had indulged
+himself with John Barleycorn, but not to that extent of defying goblins
+which it inspired into the gallant Tam o'Shanter. He was pondering with
+some anxiety upon the dangers of travelling alone on a solitary road
+which passed the corner of a churchyard, now near at hand, when he saw
+before him in the moonlight a pale female form standing upon the very
+wall which surrounded the cemetery. The road was very narrow, with no
+opportunity of giving the apparent phantom what seamen call a wide
+berth. It was, however, the only path which led to the rider's home, who
+therefore resolved, at all risks, to pass the apparition. He accordingly
+approached, as slowly as possible, the spot where the spectre stood,
+while the figure remained, now perfectly still and silent, now
+brandishing its arms and gibbering to the moon. When the farmer came
+close to the spot he dashed in the spurs and set the horse off upon a
+gallop; but the spectre did not miss its opportunity. As he passed the
+corner where she was perched, she contrived to drop behind the horseman
+and seize him round the waist, a manoeuvre which greatly increased the
+speed of the horse and the terror of the rider; for the hand of her who
+sat behind him, when pressed upon his, felt as cold as that of a corpse.
+At his own house at length he arrived, and bid the servants who came to
+attend him, "Tak aff the ghaist!" They took off accordingly a female in
+white, and the poor farmer himself was conveyed to bed, where he lay
+struggling for weeks with a strong nervous fever. The female was found
+to be a maniac, who had been left a widow very suddenly by an
+affectionate husband, and the nature and cause of her malady induced
+her, when she could make her escape, to wander to the churchyard, where
+she sometimes wildly wept over his grave, and sometimes, standing on the
+corner of the churchyard wall, looked out, and mistook every stranger on
+horseback for the husband she had lost. If this woman, which was very
+possible, had dropt from the horse unobserved by him whom she had made
+her involuntary companion, it would have been very hard to have
+convinced the honest farmer that he had not actually performed part of
+his journey with a ghost behind him.
+
+There is also a large class of stories of this sort, where various
+secrets of chemistry, of acoustics, ventriloquism, or other arts, have
+been either employed to dupe the spectators, or have tended to do so
+through mere accident and coincidence. Of these it is scarce necessary
+to quote instances; but the following may be told as a tale recounted by
+a foreign nobleman known to me nearly thirty years ago, whose life, lost
+in the service of his sovereign, proved too short for his friends and
+his native land.
+
+At a certain old castle on the confines of Hungary, the lord to whom it
+belonged had determined upon giving an entertainment worthy of his own
+rank and of the magnificence of the antique mansion which he inhabited.
+The guests of course were numerous, and among them was a veteran officer
+of hussars, remarkable for his bravery. When the arrangements for the
+night were made this officer was informed that there would be difficulty
+in accommodating the company in the castle, large as was, unless some
+one would take the risk of sleeping in a room supposed to be haunted,
+and that, as he was known to be above such prejudices, the apartment was
+in the first place proposed for his occupation, as the person least
+likely to suffer a bad night's rest from such a cause. The major
+thankfully accepted the preference, and having shared the festivity of
+the evening, retired after midnight, having denounced vengeance against
+any one who should presume by any trick to disturb his repose; a threat
+which his habits would, it was supposed, render him sufficiently ready
+to execute. Somewhat contrary to the custom in these cases, the major
+went to bed, having left his candle burning and laid his trusty pistols,
+carefully loaded, on the table by his bedside.
+
+He had not slept an hour when he was awakened by a solemn strain of
+music. He looked out. Three ladies, fantastically dressed in green, were
+seen in the lower end of the apartment, who sung a solemn requiem. The
+major listened for some time with delight; at length he tired. "Ladies,"
+he said, "this is very well, but somewhat monotonous--will you be so
+kind as to change the tune?" The ladies continued singing; he
+expostulated, but the music was not interrupted. The major began to grow
+angry: "Ladies," he said, "I must consider this as a trick for the
+purpose of terrifying me, and as I regard it as an impertinence, I shall
+take a rough mode of stopping it." With that he began to handle his
+pistols. The ladies sung on. He then get seriously angry: "I will but
+wait five minutes," he said, "and then fire without hesitation." The
+song was uninterrupted--the five minutes were expired. "I still give you
+law, ladies," he said, "while I count twenty." This produced as little
+effect as his former threats. He counted one, two, three accordingly;
+but on approaching the end of the number, and repeating more than once
+his determination to fire, the last numbers,
+seventeen--eighteen--nineteen, were pronounced with considerable pauses
+between, and an assurance that the pistols were cocked. The ladies sung
+on. As he pronounced the word twenty he fired both pistols against the
+musical damsels--but the ladies sung on! The major was overcome by the
+unexpected inefficacy of his violence, and had an illness which lasted
+more than three weeks. The trick put upon him may be shortly described
+by the fact that the female choristers were placed in an adjoining room,
+and that he only fired at their reflection thrown forward into that in
+which he slept by the effect of a concave mirror.
+
+Other stories of the same kind are numerous and well known. The
+apparition of the Brocken mountain, after having occasioned great
+admiration and some fear, is now ascertained by philosophers to be a
+gigantic reflection, which makes the traveller's shadow, represented
+upon the misty clouds, appear a colossal figure of almost immeasurable
+size. By a similar deception men have been induced, in Westmoreland and
+other mountainous countries, to imagine they saw troops of horse and
+armies marching and countermarching, which were in fact only the
+reflection of horses pasturing upon an opposite height, or of the forms
+of peaceful travellers.
+
+A very curious case of this kind was communicated to me by the son of
+the lady principally concerned, and tends to show out of what mean
+materials a venerable apparition may be sometimes formed. In youth this
+lady resided with her father, a man of sense and resolution. Their house
+was situated in the principal street of a town of some size. The back
+part of the house ran at right angles to an Anabaptist chapel, divided
+from it by a small cabbage-garden. The young lady used sometimes to
+indulge the romantic love of solitude by sitting in her own apartment in
+the evening till twilight, and even darkness, was approaching. One
+evening, while she was thus placed, she was surprised to see a gleamy
+figure, as of some aerial being, hovering, as it were, against the
+arched window in the end of the Anabaptist chapel. Its head was
+surrounded by that halo which painters give to the Catholic saints; and
+while the young lady's attention was fixed on an object so
+extraordinary, the figure bent gracefully towards her more than once, as
+if intimating a sense of her presence, and then disappeared. The seer of
+this striking vision descended to her family, so much discomposed as to
+call her father's attention. He obtained an account of the cause of her
+disturbance, and expressed his intention to watch in the apartment next
+night. He sat accordingly in his daughter's chamber, where she also
+attended him. Twilight came, and nothing appeared; but as the gray light
+faded into darkness, the same female figure was seen hovering on the
+window; the same shadowy form, the same pale light-around the head, the
+same inclinations, as the evening before. "What do you think of this?"
+said the daughter to the astonished father. "Anything, my dear," said
+the father, "rather than allow that we look upon what is supernatural."
+A strict research established a natural cause for the appearance on the
+window. It was the custom of an old woman, to whom the garden beneath
+was rented, to go out at night to gather cabbages. The lantern she
+carried in her hand threw up the refracted reflection of her form on the
+chapel window. As she stooped to gather her cabbages the reflection
+appeared to bend forward; and that was the whole matter.
+
+Another species of deception, affecting the credit of such supernatural
+communications, arises from the dexterity and skill of the authors who
+have made it their business to present such stories in the shape most
+likely to attract belief. Defoe--whose power in rendering credible that
+which was in itself very much the reverse was so peculiarly
+distinguished--has not failed to show his superiority in this species of
+composition. A bookseller of his acquaintance had, in the trade phrase,
+rather overprinted an edition of "Drelincourt on Death," and complained
+to Defoe of the loss which was likely to ensue. The experienced
+bookmaker, with the purpose of recommending the edition, advised his
+friend to prefix the celebrated narrative of Mrs. Veal's ghost, which he
+wrote for the occasion, with such an air of truth, that although in fact
+it does not afford a single tittle of evidence properly so called, it
+nevertheless was swallowed so eagerly by the people that Drelincourt's
+work on death, which the supposed spirit recommended to the perusal of
+her friend Mrs. Bargrave, instead of sleeping on the editor's shelf,
+moved off by thousands at once; the story, incredible in itself, and
+unsupported as it was by evidence or enquiry, was received as true,
+merely from the cunning of the narrator, and the addition of a number of
+adventitious circumstances, which no man alive could have conceived as
+having occurred to the mind of a person composing a fiction.
+
+It did not require the talents of Defoe, though in that species of
+composition he must stand unrivalled, to fix the public attention on a
+ghost story. John Dunton, a man of scribbling celebrity at the time,
+succeeded to a great degree in imposing upon the public a tale which he
+calls the Apparition Evidence. The beginning of it, at least (for it is
+of great length), has something in it a little new. At Mynehead, in
+Somersetshire, lived an ancient gentlewoman named Mrs. Leckie, whose
+only son and daughter resided in family with her. The son traded to
+Ireland, and was supposed to be worth eight or ten thousand pounds. They
+had a child about five or six years old. This family was generally
+respected in Mynehead; and especially Mrs. Leckie, the old lady, was so
+pleasant in society, that her friends used to say to her, and to each
+other, that it was a thousand pities such an excellent, good-humoured
+gentlewoman must, from her age, be soon lost to her friends. To which
+Mrs. Leckie often made the somewhat startling reply: "Forasmuch as you
+now seem to like me, I am afraid you will but little care to see or
+speak with me after my death, though I believe you may have that
+satisfaction." Die, however, she did, and after her funeral was
+repeatedly seen in her personal likeness, at home and abroad, by night
+and by noonday.
+
+One story is told of a doctor of physic walking into the fields, who in
+his return met with this spectre, whom he at first accosted civilly, and
+paid her the courtesy of handing her over a stile. Observing, however,
+that she did not move her lips in speaking, or her eyes in looking
+round, he became suspicious of the condition of his companion, and
+showed some desire to be rid of her society. Offended at this, the hag
+at next stile planted herself upon it, and obstructed his passage. He
+got through at length with some difficulty, and not without a sound
+kick, and an admonition to pay more attention to the next aged
+gentlewoman whom he met. "But this," says John Dunton, "was a petty and
+inconsiderable prank to what she played in her son's house and
+elsewhere. She would at noonday appear upon the quay of Mynehead, and
+cry, 'A boat, a boat, ho! a boat, a boat, ho!' If any boatmen or seamen
+were in sight, and did not come, they were sure to be cast away; and if
+they did come, 'twas all one, they were cast away. It was equally
+dangerous to please and displease her. Her son had several ships sailing
+between Ireland and England; no sooner did they make land, and come in
+sight of England, but this ghost would appear in the same garb and
+likeness as when she was alive, and, standing at the mainmast, would
+blow with a whistle, and though it were never so great a calm, yet
+immediately there would arise a most dreadful storm, that would break,
+wreck, and drown the ship and goods; only the seamen would escape with
+their lives--the devil had no permission from God to take them away. Yet
+at this rate, by her frequent apparitions and disturbances, she had made
+a poor merchant of her son, for his fair estate was all buried in the
+sea, and he that was once worth thousands was reduced to a very poor and
+low condition in the world; for whether the ship were his own or hired,
+or he had but goods on board it to the value of twenty shillings, this
+troublesome ghost would come as before, whistle in a calm at the
+mainmast at noonday, when they had descried land, and then ship and
+goods went all out of hand to wreck; insomuch that he could at last get
+no ships wherein to stow his goods, nor any mariner to sail in them; for
+knowing what an uncomfortable, fatal, and losing voyage they should make
+of it, they did all decline his service. In her son's house she hath her
+constant haunts by day and night; but whether he did not, or would not
+own if he did, see her, he always professed he never saw her. Sometimes
+when in bed with his wife, she would cry out, 'Husband, look, there's
+your mother!' And when he would turn to the right side, then was she
+gone to the left; and when to the left side of the bed, then was she
+gone to the right; only one evening their only child, a girl of about
+five or six years old, lying in a ruckle-bed under them, cries out, 'Oh,
+help me, father! help me, mother! for grandmother will choke me!' and
+before they could get to their child's assistance she had murdered it;
+they finding the poor girl dead, her throat having been pinched by two
+fingers, which stopped her breath and strangled her. This was the sorest
+of all their afflictions; their estate is gone, and now their child is
+gone also; you may guess at their grief and great sorrow. One morning
+after the child's funeral, her husband being abroad, about eleven in the
+forenoon, Mrs. Leckie the younger goes up into her chamber to dress her
+head, and as she was looking into the glass she spies her mother-in-law,
+the old beldam, looking over her shoulder. This cast her into a great
+horror; but recollecting her affrighted spirits, and recovering the
+exercise of her reason, faith, and hope, having cast up a short and
+silent prayer to God, she turns about, and bespeaks her: 'In the name of
+God, mother, why do you trouble me?' 'Peace,' says the spectrum; 'I will
+do thee no hurt.' 'What will you have of me?' says the daughter,"
+&c.[86] Dunton, the narrator and probably the contriver of the story,
+proceeds to inform us at length of a commission which the wife of Mr.
+Leckie receives from the ghost to deliver to Atherton, Bishop of
+Waterford, a guilty and unfortunate man, who afterwards died by the
+hands of the executioner; but that part of the subject is too
+disagreeable and tedious to enter upon.
+
+[Footnote 86: "Apparition Evidence."]
+
+So deep was the impression made by the story on the inhabitants of
+Mynehead, that it is said the tradition of Mrs. Leckie still remains in
+that port, and that mariners belonging to it often, amid tempestuous
+weather, conceive they hear the whistle-call of the implacable hag who
+was the source of so much mischief to her own family. However, already
+too desultory and too long, it would become intolerably tedious were I
+to insist farther on the peculiar sort of genius by which stories of
+this kind may be embodied and prolonged.
+
+I may, however, add, that the charm of the tale depends much upon the
+age of the person to whom it is addressed; and that the vivacity of
+fancy which engages us in youth to pass over much that is absurd, in
+order to enjoy some single trait of imagination, dies within us when we
+obtain the age of manhood, and the sadder and graver regions which lie
+beyond it. I am the more conscious of this, because I have been myself
+at two periods of my life, distant from each other, engaged in scenes
+favourable to that degree of superstitious awe which my countrymen
+expressively call being _eerie_.
+
+On the first of these occasions I was only ninteeen or twenty years old,
+when I happened to pass a night in the magnificent old baronial castle
+of Glammis, the hereditary seat of the Earls of Strathmore. The hoary
+pile contains much in its appearance, and in the traditions connected
+with it, impressive to the imagination. It was the scene of the murder
+of a Scottish king of great antiquity; not indeed the gracious Duncan,
+with whom the name naturally associates itself, but Malcolm the Second.
+It contains also a curious monument of the peril of feudal times, being
+a secret chamber, the entrance of which, by the law or custom of the
+family, must only be known to three persons at once, viz., the Earl of
+Strathmore, his heir apparent, and any third person whom they may take
+into their confidence. The extreme antiquity of the building is vouched
+by the immense thickness of the walls, and the wild and straggling
+arrangement of the accommodation within doors. As the late Earl of
+Strathmore seldom resided in that ancient mansion, it was, when I was
+there, but half-furnished, and that with movables of great antiquity,
+which, with the pieces of chivalric armour hanging upon the walls,
+greatly contributed to the general effect of the whole. After a very
+hospitable reception from the late Peter Proctor, Esq., then seneschal
+of the castle, in Lord Strathmore's absence, I was conducted to my
+apartment in a distant corner of the building. I must own, that as I
+heard door after door shut, after my conductor had retired, I began to
+consider myself too far from the living and somewhat too near the dead.
+We had passed through what is called "The King's Room," a vaulted
+apartment, garnished with stags' antlers and similar trophies of the
+chase, and said by tradition to be the spot of Malcolm's murder, and I
+had an idea of the vicinity of the castle chapel.
+
+In spite of the truth of history, the whole night-scene in Macbeth's
+castle rushed at once upon my mind, and struck my imagination more
+forcibly than even when I have seen its terrors represented by the late
+John Kemble and his inimitable sister. In a word, I experienced
+sensations which, though not remarkable either for timidity or
+superstition, did not fail to affect me to the point of being
+disagreeable, while they were mingled at the same time with a strange
+and indescribable kind of pleasure, the recollection of which affords me
+gratification at this moment.
+
+In the year 1814 accident placed me, then past middle life, in a
+situation somewhat similar to that which I have described.
+
+I had been on a pleasure voyage with some friends around the north coast
+of Scotland, and in that course had arrived in the salt-water lake under
+the castle of Dunvegan, whose turrets, situated upon a frowning rock,
+rise immediately above the waves of the loch. As most of the party, and
+I myself in particular, chanced to be well known to the Laird of
+Macleod, we were welcomed to the castle with Highland hospitality, and
+glad to find ourselves in polished society, after a cruise of some
+duration. The most modern part of the castle was founded in the days of
+James VI.; the more ancient is referred to a period "whose birth
+tradition notes not." Until the present Macleod connected by a
+drawbridge the site of the castle with the mainland of Skye, the access
+must have been extremely difficult. Indeed, so much greater was the
+regard paid to security than to convenience, that in former times the
+only access to the mansion arose through a vaulted cavern in a rock, up
+which a staircase ascended from the sea-shore, like the buildings we
+read of in the romances of Mrs. Radcliffe.
+
+Such a castle, in the extremity of the Highlands, was of course
+furnished with many a tale of tradition, and many a superstitious
+legend, to fill occasional intervals in the music and song, as proper to
+the halls of Dunvegan as when Johnson commemorated them. We reviewed the
+arms and ancient valuables of this distinguished family--saw the dirk
+and broadsword of Rorie Mhor, and his horn, which would drench three
+chiefs of these degenerate days. The solemn drinking-cup of the Kings of
+Man must not be forgotten, nor the fairy banner given to Macleod by the
+Queen of Fairies; that magic flag which has been victorious in two
+pitched fields, and will still float in the third, the bloodiest and the
+last, when the Elfin Sovereign shall, after the fight is ended, recall
+her banner, and carry off the standard-bearer.
+
+Amid such tales of ancient tradition I had from Macleod and his lady the
+courteous offer of the haunted apartment of the castle, about which, as
+a stranger, I might be supposed interested. Accordingly, I took
+possession of it about the witching hour. Except perhaps some tapestry
+hangings, and the extreme thickness of the walls, which argued great
+antiquity, nothing could have been more comfortable than the interior of
+the apartment; but if you looked from the windows the view was such as
+to correspond with the highest tone of superstition. An autumnal blast,
+sometimes driving mist before it, swept along the troubled billows of
+the lake, which it occasionally concealed, and by fits disclosed. The
+waves rushed in wild disorder on the shore, and covered with foam the
+steep piles of rock, which, rising from the sea in forms something
+resembling the human figure, have obtained the name of Macleod's
+Maidens, and in such a night seemed no bad representatives of the
+Norwegian goddesses called Choosers of the Slain, or Riders of the
+Storm. There was something of the dignity of danger in the scene; for on
+a platform beneath the windows lay an ancient battery of cannon, which
+had sometimes been used against privateers even of late years. The
+distant scene was a view of that part of the Quillan mountains which are
+called, from their form, Macleod's Dining-Tables. The voice of an angry
+cascade, termed the Nurse of Rorie Mhor, because that chief slept best
+'in its vicinity, was heard from time to time mingling its notes with
+those of wind and wave. Such was the haunted room at Dunvegan, and as
+such it well deserved a less sleepy inhabitant. In the language of Dr.
+Johnson, who has stamped his memory on this remote place, "I looked
+around me, and wondered that I was not more affected; but the mind is
+not at all times equally ready to be moved." In a word, it is necessary
+to confess that, of all I heard or saw, the most engaging spectacle was
+the comfortable bed, in which I hoped to make amends for some rough
+nights on ship-board, and where I slept accordingly without thinking of
+ghost or goblin till I was called by my servant in the morning.
+
+From this I am taught to infer that tales of ghosts and demonology are
+out of date at forty years and upwards; that it is only in the morning
+of life that this feeling of superstition "comes o'er us like a summer
+cloud," affecting us with fear which is solemn and awful rather than
+painful; and I am tempted to think that, if I were to write on the
+subject at all, it should have been during a period of life when I could
+have treated it with more interesting vivacity, and might have been at
+least amusing if I could not be instructive. Even the present fashion of
+the world seems to be ill suited for studies of this fantastic nature;
+and the most ordinary mechanic has learning sufficient to laugh at the
+figments which in former times were believed by persons far advanced in
+the deepest knowledge of the age.
+
+I cannot, however, in conscience carry my opinion of my countrymen's
+good sense so far as to exculpate them entirely from the charge of
+credulity. Those who are disposed to look for them may, without much
+trouble, see such manifest signs, both of superstition and the
+disposition to believe in its doctrines, as may render it no useless
+occupation to compare the follies of our fathers with our own. The
+sailors have a proverb that every man in his lifetime must eat a peck of
+impurity; and it seems yet more clear that every generation of the human
+race must swallow a certain measure of nonsense. There remains hope,
+however, that the grosser faults of our ancestors are now out of date;
+and that whatever follies the present race may be guilty of, the sense
+of humanity is too universally spread to permit them to think of
+tormenting wretches till they confess what is impossible, and then
+burning them for their pains.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. LONDON AND EDINBURGH.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters On Demonology And Witchcraft
+by Sir Walter Scott
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14461 ***