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diff --git a/36312-8.txt b/36312-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ffeabd --- /dev/null +++ b/36312-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13790 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Witchcraft of New England Explained by +Modern Spiritualism, by Allen Putnam + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism + +Author: Allen Putnam + +Release Date: June 3, 2011 [EBook #36312] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCHCRAFT OF NEW ENGLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + + + WITCHCRAFT OF NEW ENGLAND + EXPLAINED BY + MODERN SPIRITUALISM. + + + BY ALLEN PUTNAM, ESQ., + + AUTHOR OF "BIBLE MARVEL WORKERS," "NATTY, A SPIRIT," "MESMERISM, + SPIRITUALISM, WITCHCRAFT, AND MIRACLE," "AGASSIZ + AND SPIRITUALISM," ETC. + + + SECOND EDITION. + + BOSTON: + COLBY AND RICH, PUBLISHERS, + 9 MONTGOMERY PLACE. + 1881. + + + + + COPYRIGHT, + 1880, + BY ALLEN PUTNAM, ESQ. + + Stereotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, + No. 4 Pearl Street. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +Preface, page 9.--References, 14.--Explanatory Note--Definitions, 15. + +MATHER AND CALEF, 25.--Account of Margaret Rule, 26.--Definitions of +Witchcraft, 29.--Commission of the Devil, 30.--Margaret assaulted by +Specters, 31.--Offered a Book, and pinched, 33.--Fasted, and perceived a +Man liable to drown, 34.--Lifted, and saw a White Spirit, 35.--Rubbed by +Mather, 37.--Visited by Spies, 39.--Prayed with, and Brimstone was smelt, +40.--Fowler charges Delirium Tremens, 41.--Affidavit of Avis, 44.--Calef +baffled, 46.--Levitation of R. H. Squires, 46. + +COTTON MATHER, 52.--Haven's Account of Mercy Short, 71. + +ROBERT CALEF, 73. + +THOMAS HUTCHINSON, 76. + +C. W. UPHAM, 80. + +MARGARET JONES, 85.--Winthrop's Account of her, 87.--Hutchinson's and +Upham's, 88.--Our own, 89.--J. W. Crosby's Experience, 94.--Spirit of +Prophecy, 99.--Spirit Child, 100.--Materialization, 102.--Newburyport +Spirit Boy, 103.--Why Margaret was executed, 109.--Erroneous faith, +114.--Margaret's Case isolated, 119.--Epitaph, 121. + +ANN HIBBINS, 122.--Beach's Letter, 123.--Hutchinson's Account of Ann, +124.--Upham's, 126.--Her Will, 128.--Her Wit, 131.--Densmore's Inner +Hearing, 135.--Guessing, 138.--Her Social Position, 140.--Slandered, 130, +142.--Her Intuitive Powers, 143.--Her Illumination, 146. + +ANN COLE, 147.--Hutchinson's Account, 147.--Whiting's, 148.--The +Greensmiths, 153.--Representative Experiences, 154. + +ELIZABETH KNAP, 157.--How affected, 158.--Long accustomed to see Spirits, +160.--Accused Mr. Willard, 162.--A Case of Spiritualism. + +MORSE FAMILY, 167.--Physical Manifestations, 168.--The Sailor Boy, +169.--Caleb Powell, 170.--Hazzard's Account of Read, 172.--Mather's +Account of John Stiles, 175.--Mrs. Morse accused, 178.--Hale's Report, +182.--Morse's Testimony, 184.--2d do., 187.--His Character, 190.--Faults +of Historians, 193.--Marvels in Essex County, 197.--Eliakim Phelps, 198. + +GOODWIN FAMILY, 199.--Hutchinson's Account, 201.--Character of the +Children, 207.--Wild Irish Woman, 210.--Philip Smith's Case, 211.--Upham's +Account, 213.--Spirit Loss of Earth Language, 216.--Mather flattered, +217.--The Girl's Weight triplicated, 219.--Mather's Person shielded, +221.--Upham's Conclusion incredible, 223.--Hutchinson nonplused, +224.--Justice to the Devil, 227. Summary, 229. + +SALEM WITCHCRAFT, 231.--Occurred at Danvers, 231.--Circle of Girls, +233.--Their Lack of Education, 235.--Obstacles to their Meeting, +236.--Mediumistic Capabilities, 239.--Parsonage Kitchen, 240.--Fits +stopped by Whipping, 242.--Upham's Lack of Knowledge, 243.--Hare's +Demonstration, 245.--Upham's Lament and Warnings, 246.--Nothing +Supernatural, 249.--Varley's Position, 252.--The Afflicted knew their +Afflicters, 254.--Names of the Afflicted, 257.--Mr. Parris's Account of +Witchcraft Advent, 259.--What occurred, 260.--Lawson's Account, 261.--The +Bewitching Cake, 262.--John Indian and Tituba, 263.--Tituba Participator +and Witness, 267. + +TITUBA, 271.--Examination of her, 271-297.--Summary of her Statements, +298.--Discrepancies between Cheever and Corwin, 301.--Dates fixed by +Corwin, 303.--Tituba's Authority as Expounder, 308.--Calef's Notice of +her, 309.--Her Confession, 312.--Her Unhappy Fate, 313. + +SARAH GOOD, 313.--Why visible apparitionally, 314.--Her Examination, +315.--Mesmeric Force, 318.--Persons absent in Form afflict, 320.--Only +Clairvoyance sees Spirits, 323.--Its Fitfulness, 324.--A Witch because not +bewitchable, 325.--Her Invisibility, 325.--H. B. Storer's Account of Mrs. +Compton, 326.--Ann Putnam's Deposition, 331.--S. Good's Prophetic Glimpse, +335. + +DORCAS GOOD, 335.--Bites with Spirit Teeth, 336.--State of Opinion +admitting her Arrest, 338.--Upham's Presentation of Public Excitement, +339.--Lovely Witches now, 342. + +SARAH OSBURN, 342.--Was seen spectrally, 343.--Heard a Voice, 345. + +MARTHA COREY, 347.--Her Character.--Visited by Putnam and Cheever, +348.--Foresensed their Visit, 348.--Laughed when on Trial, 352.--Calef and +Upham's Account of her, 353.--Her Prayer, 354. + +GILES COREY, 354.--Refused to plead, 355.--Was pressed to Death, 356.--His +Heroism, 357. + +REBECCA NURSE, 358.--Was seen as an Apparition, 358.--Her Mother a Witch, +360.--Had Fits, 361.--Confusion at her Trial, 362.--The Power of Will, +363.--Elizabeth Parris, 364.--Agassiz, 365.--Not guilty, and then guilty, +367. + +MARY EASTY, 367.--Her Examination, 368.--The Character of her Trial, +370.--Her Petition, 371.--Last Hour, 373. + +SUSANNA MARTIN, 373.--Her Examination, 374.--The Devil took Samuel's +Shape, 374.--R. P.'s Position, 375.--Her Apparition gave Annoyance, 377. + +MARTHA CARRIER, 378.--Examination of, 378.--Her Children Witches, how they +afflicted, and their Confessions, 381. + +GEORGE BURROUGHS, 390.--Indictment of, 391.--Opinions concerning him, +392.--Apparitions of his Wives, 394.--His Liftings, 399.--The Devil an +Indian, 402.--Thought-reading, 405.--His Susceptibilities and Character, +406. + +SUMMARY, 408.--Number executed, 412.--Spirits proved to have been Enactors +of Witchcraft, 414. + +THE CONFESSORS, 415. + +THE ACCUSING GIRLS, 420.--Ann Putnam's Confession, 420. + +THE PROSECUTORS, 425. + +WITCHCRAFT'S AUTHOR, 428. + +THE MOTIVE, 432. + +LOCAL AND PERSONAL, 445. + +METHODS OF PROVIDENCE, 451. + +APPENDIX. + + CHRISTENDOM'S WITCHCRAFT DEVIL, 459. + LIMITATIONS OF HIS POWERS, 464. + COVENANT WITH HIM, 466. + HIS DEFENCE, 467. + DEMONOLOGY AND NECROMANCY, 468. + BIBLICAL WITCH AND WITCHCRAFT, 470. + CHRISTENDOM'S WITCH AND WITCHCRAFT, 471. + SPIRIT, SOUL, AND MENTAL POWERS, 472. + TWO SETS OF MENTAL POWERS--AGASSIZ, 476. + MARVEL AND SPIRITUALISM, 478. + INDIAN WORSHIP, 480. + + + + +PREFACE. + + "The nobler tendency of culture--and, above all, of scientific + culture--is to honor the dead without groveling before them; to profit + by the past without sacrificing it to the present."--EDWARD B. TYLOR, + _Primitive Culture_. + + +Most history of New England witchcraft written since 1760 has dishonored +the dead by lavish imputations of imposture, fraud, malice, credulity, and +infatuation; has been sacrificing past acts, motives, and character to +skepticism regarding the sagacity and manliness of the fathers, the +guilelessness of their daughters, and the truth of ancient records. +Transmitted accounts of certain phenomena have been disparaged, seemingly +because facts alleged therein baffle solution by to-day's prevalent +philosophy, which discards some agents and forces that were active of old. +The legitimate tendency of culture has been reversed; what it should have +availed itself of and honored, it has busied itself in hiding and +traducing. + +An exception among writers alluded to is the author of the following +extract, who, simply as an historian, and not as an advocate of any +particular theory for the solution of witchcraft, seems ready to let its +works be ascribed to competent agents. + +"So far as a presentation of facts is concerned, no account of the +dreadful tragedy has appeared which is more accurate and truthful than +Governor Hutchinson's narrative. His theory on the subject--that it was +wholly the result of fraud and deception on the part of the afflicted +children--will not be generally accepted at the present day, and his +reasoning on that point will not be deemed conclusive.... There is a +tendency to trace an analogy between the phenomena then exhibited and +modern spiritual manifestations."--W. F. POOLE, _Geneal. and Antiq. +Register, October, 1870._ + +While composing the following work, its writer was borne onward by the +tendency which Poole named. Survey of the field of marvels has been far +short of exhaustive--his purpose made no demand for very extended +researches. Selected cases, representative of the general manifestations +and subject treated of were enough. The aim has been to find in ancient +records, and thence adduce, statements and meanings long resting +unobserved beneath the gathered dust of more than a hundred years, and +therefore practically lost. + +The course of search led attention beyond overt acts, to inspection of +some natural germs and their legitimately resultant development into +creeds, which impelled good men on to the enactment of direful tragedy. + +Examination of the basement walls--the foundations--of prevalent popular +explanation of ancient wonders, forces conviction that they lack both the +breadth and the materials needful to stability. Modern builders of +witchcraft history have either failed to find, or have deemed unmanageable +by any appliances at their command, and therefore would not attempt to +handle, a vast amount of sound historic stones which are accessible and +can be used. Lacking them, these moderns have let fancy manufacture for +them, and they have builded upon blocks of her fragile stuff which are +fast disintegrating under the chemical action of the world's common sense. + +We proposed here an incipient step towards refutation of the sufficiency +and justness of a main theory, now long prevalent, for explaining +satisfactorily very many well-proved marvelous facts. Some such have been +presented on the pages of Hutchinson, Upham, and their followers; and yet +these have been either not at all, or vaguely or ludicrously, commented +upon, or reasoned from. Very many others, and the most important of all as +bases and aids to an acceptable and true solution of the whole, are not +visible where they ought to have conspicuous position. Presentation and +proper use of them might have caused public cognizance to topple over the +edifices which it has pleased modern builders to erect. + +It is not our purpose to write history, but to give new explanation of old +events. The long and widely tolerated theory that New England witchcraft +was exclusively but out-workings of mundane fraud, imposture, cunning, +trickery, malice, and the like, has never adequately met the reasonable +demand of common sense, which always asks that specified agents and forces +shall be probably competent to produce all such effects as are distinctly +ascribed to them. + +Persons who of old were afflicted in manner that was then called +bewitchment, and others through or from whom the afflictions were alleged +to proceed, are now extensively supposed to have possessed organizations, +temperaments, and properties which rendered them exceptionally pliant +under subtile forces, either magnetic, mesmeric, or psychological, and +who, consequently, at times, could be, and were, made ostensible utterers +of knowledge whose marvelousness indicated mysterious source, and +ostensible performers of acts deemed more than natural, and which, in +fact, were the productions of wills not native in the manifesting forms. +The special forces that produced bewitchment and are put in application +now, do not become sensibly operative upon any other mortals than peculiar +sensitives; and their action upon such is often most easily and +effectively manifested through aid obtained from other similar sensitives. +Selections of both subjects and instrumentalities were of old, and are +now, controlled by general law. Steel needles and iron-filings are not +selected by the magnet's free will when it forces them to leap up from +their resting-places and cleave to itself. Seeming levitation possesses +them, and an invisible force takes them whither gravitation, their usual +holder, would not let them go. It is upon steel, not lead--upon iron, not +stone--that the magnet can execute its marvelous liftings. Nature's +conditions fix selections. The organizations, temperaments, fluids, +solids, and all the various properties, are, to some extent, unlike in any +two human bodies whatsoever, and the range of the differings and +consequent susceptibilities is very wide. A psychological magnet in either +the seen or unseen may have power to draw certain human forms to contact +with itself, and to use them as its tools, and yet lack force to produce +sensible effects upon but few in the mass of living men. Where its action +is most efficient, it controls the movements of what it holds in its +embrace--takes a human form out from control by the spirit which usually +governs it, and through that form manifests its own powers and purposes. +Both the reputed bewitched and bewitching may severally have had but +little, if any, voluntary part in manifesting the remarkable phenomena +that were imputed to them. Where physical organs are used, the public is +prone to deem the performances intentional acts by those whose forms are +operated, while yet the wills of those whose forms are visibly concerned +in marvelous works may have been formerly, as they often now are, little +else than unwilling, and in many cases unconscious tools. + +The afflicted--in other words, the bewitched ones--may have actually +perceived,--they no doubt often did,--and also knew, that the annoyances +and tortures they endured were augmented, if not generated, by emanations +proceeding forth from the particular persons whom they named as being +their afflicters; and these afflicters may have been all unconscious that +their own auras were going forth and acting upon the sufferers. + +The chief non-intelligent instrumentality employed in producing +miraculous, spiritualistic, necromantic, and other kindred marvels, is now +generally called psychological force--force resident in and put forth from +and by the soul--from and by the will and emotional parts of a living +being; it is the force by which some men control with magic power not only +many animals in the lower orders, but some susceptible members of their +own species; it is a force deep-seated in our being, and may accompany man +when he leaves his outer body, and continue to be his in an existence +beyond the present. + +The usurping capabilities of this force were strikingly set forth by the +illustrious Agassiz in his carefully written account of his own sensations +and condition while in a mesmeric trance induced upon him by Rev. Chauncy +Hare Townshend. The great naturalist--the strong man both mentally and +physically--says that he lost all power to use his own limbs--all power to +even _will_ to move them, and that his body was forced against his own +strongest possible opposition to pace the room in obedience to the +mesmerizer's will. Since such force overcame the strongest possible +resistance of the gigantic Agassiz, it is surely credible that less robust +ones, in any and every age, may have been subdued and actuated by it.--See +page 385, in _Facts of Mesmerism, 2d Ed. London, 1844, by Rev. Chauncy +Hare Townshend_. + +Those who were accused of bewitching others were fountains from which +invisible intelligences sometimes drew forth properties which aided them +in gaining and keeping control of those whom they entranced or otherwise +used. Also from such there probably sometimes went forth unwilled +emanations that were naturally attracted to other sensitives, who +perceived their source, and pronounced it diabolical, because the influx +thence was annoying. Impersonal natural forces to some extent, and at +times, probably designated the victims who were immolated on witchcraft's +altar. + +Citations of evidences and proofs from early historic records, that other +agents and forces had chief part in producing New England witchcraft than +such as modern historians generally have recognized, together with +exposition of legitimate and forceful biases proceeding from articles in +old-time creeds, will exhibit our forefathers in much better aspects than +they wear in intervening history; will halo in innocence some of their +wives and daughters, around whom historians have cast hues appropriate +only to most villainous culprits; and also will manifest sadly misleading +oversights, short-comings, and sophistries by some whose writings have +done much in forming the world's existing erroneous and harsh views and +estimates. + +Certain operative, world-wide, and daily occurrences in the present age, +unaccounted for, and often sneered at, by adepts in prevalent sciences and +philosophies, seem to have fair claims for general, candid, and most rigid +scrutiny. Even if despised and contemned of men, they nevertheless are +widely and most efficiently working for the world's good or for its harm. +Testimony to their positive existence is vast in amount, and much of it +comes from witnesses whose words upon any ordinary matters would be +absolutely conclusive. + +Something more than twenty-five years ago, mysterious raps on cottage +walls and furniture were traced to cause which, while invisible and +impalpable, could count TEN. A trifle, was that? No; for its teachings and +influences have gone forth widely, and have worked efficiently. They have +broadened nature's domain as conceived of by man, have opened up to him +new fields of study, and have furnished him with a vast amount of new +views and speculations, which are permeating creeds, philosophies, +sciences, explanations of history, and most things appertaining to the +welfare of civilized society. Well may they have thus efficiently +operated, for they have claimed to be, and their potency indicates that +they have been, moved onward by forces greater than pertain to incarnate +men. + +Raps by invisible rappers; liftings of tables, pianos, &c., by invisible +lifters; music flowing forth from pianos, harmonicons, and other +instruments having no visible manipulators; pencils writing legibly, +instructively, eloquently, when no visible hand held and moved them; +levitations of tables and human forms; transfer of books and other +objects from one side of rooms to the opposite by invisible carriers; +hands of flesh grasping and holding live coals of fire with impunity; +raisings of human forms from floor to ceiling overhead, and holding them +there by invisible beings; impressions of recognized likenesses of +departed mortals upon the plates of photographists; presentation of moving +and palpable hands and arms where no body is present for their attachment; +materialization of entire forms of the departed, and the speaking and +moving of the re-clad ones so exactly as in life as to be distinctly and +unmistakably recognized by their surviving relatives and familiar +acquaintances;--these phenomena, and many others kindred to them, admit of +being, and we ask that they may be, viewed apart from any and all verbal +or written communications by spirits, and apart from the character, +standing, and habits of spiritualists. Such presentations as have just +been specified may be looked upon as a class by themselves, and as being +worthy the attention and closest scrutiny of devotees to the physical +sciences and all logical minds. Even though they have emerged into view +from a modern Nazareth, the obscurity of their place of issuance is not +conclusive against their virtue to enlighten man, and broaden the extent +of human knowledge. + +When, in days to come, some abler and more polished pen shall apply, in +the solution of witchcraft marvels, a theory that shall be based on the +classes of agents, forces, &c., which are now evolving modern marvels, its +fitness and adequacy will attract wide attention, and command general +acceptance. Our work, of course, will fall far short of such results, for +he who here writes possesses no commanding powers,--never had much taste +for historical and antiquarian researches,--has for many years last past +found himself much, very much, more prone to be seeking for mental and +moral wealth in oncoming than in receded times,--possesses only moderate +skill and less than moderate facility in literary composition,--has spent +the greater part of adult life in pursuits which debarred him not only +from much perusal of books either historical, literary, or scientific, but +also from much converse with well-cultured society. Therefore, +necessarily, his whitened locks and waning forces find him consciously +deficient in nearly every qualification for either a good historian or +good expounder and applier of any theory pertaining to profound and +intricate subjects involving occult agents and forces. + +Then why write? Perhaps vanity is strong among our motives. Nearly as far +back as memory can take us, we heard from a grandfather's lips accounts of +what his grandfather and others did and suffered when witchcraft raged in +our native parish, and threatened trouble to those occupying the house in +which we were born and reared. From boyhood onward the subject has never +been new to us. We received an early impression, and since have ever felt, +that works more than mortals could perform had transpired there. But who +the workers could have been was long a doleful mystery. Their doings made +them far from pleasant objects of contemplation. In common with most other +natives of the place, we formerly were very willing that the dark matter +should slumber in obscurity--were indisposed to draw attention to its +aspects and character. + +But not so in later years. Most people on the spot, however, now are +probably averse to its consideration. Less than three years ago, a parish +committee of arrangements were very solicitous that this dismal subject +should receive very little notice at their bi-centennial celebration. +Their wishes and ours differed widely. What courtesy withheld them from +forbidding, courtesy withheld us from doing extensively. We just opened +there; and now, in continuance, here say that we longed then, on the spot +where he was born, to wash off from their most notorious child much black +dye-stuff in which the world has dipped him, and let them look upon a +fairer complexioned and more estimable personage than they have deemed +that far-famed native. We are vain enough to hope, that, in this +continuance of our speech, we shall adduce facts and views which will +present Salem witchcraft in new and less dismal aspects, and dispel what +seems to dwellers where it transpired a "cloud of darkness." Aside from +vanity, we have been moved by definite desire to give both the people of +Danvers and many others, opportunity to learn facts and truths as yet +perceived by only a few, which give a character to the great witchcraft +scene, vastly less disreputable to those concerned in it than does such as +has been presented by prior expounders, and extensively accepted as +plausible by the public. Teachings of spiritualism have luminated the +places where witchcraft has been sent to slumber; and facts now come into +view which reveal beneficent results where none but baneful ones have been +apparent. Perhaps willingness to show that spiritualism has been an +illumining force to us, and may be so to others, has place among our +motives. + +Opportunities for studying spirit manifestations came in the writer's way +more than twenty years since, and have been recurring quite steadily down +to the present hour. Release, long ago, from cramping mill-horse rounds of +professional life and thought, and consequent freedom to live and move +relatively aloof from annoyances and fears which known or suspected +attention to unpopular and tabooed matters is apt to bring, permitted him +to be a more open, avowed, persistent, and studious observer of these +marvelous works than could most other persons _comfortably_, who had spent +early years in academic and collegiate halls. Unhampered by dread of +slurs, innuendoes, hints, or growls from either parishioners, patients, or +clients, he sought, found, and strove to use thoughtfully, critically, and +religiously, extensive and many varied and often very favorable +opportunities for estimating the force and value of alleged evidences and +proofs that we, all of us, are ever living in the midst of agents, forces, +conditions, faculties, powers, and susceptibilities, acting upon or +residing in ourselves and our neighbors, which common observation and +science have not generally recognized. Thus, as he judges, clews have been +acquired to such knowledge as promises, in days not distant, to furnish +not only a solution of ancient witchcraft that will stand the tests of +time and common sense, but cause human physical science to bring within +its embrace agents and forces which have heretofore escaped its +recognition. The varied phenomena of spiritualism, witchcraft, and miracle +are all _within_ nature. + +Modern spiritualism, fraught, and all alive, as it is, with evidences, and +some sensible _proofs positive_, of a future life, is to-day more +efficient in retaining faith among thinking men that a life beyond awaits +them, than any and all other forces in operation, or that man can apply. +Science--yes, an advanced _science_, based on observed, proved, and +provable facts of spiritualism, ancient and modern--is the only power we +see that can stay the hope-crushing inroads of the bald materialism which +is now dogging the advancing steps of physical science and liberal culture +throughout enlightened Christendom. + +Perception of strong indications, more than twenty years ago, that keen +intelligence wielding strange power was evolving before human senses, +raps, table-tippings, and the like,--which intelligence, if properly +invoked and treated, might become one's helpful teacher,--induced the +author to use as well as possible each occurring opportunity for +increasing his acquaintance with the strange visitants, not doubting that +in the end he should gain wherewith to instruct and benefit both himself +and his fellow-men, enough, and more than enough, to richly compensate for +whatever loss of caste, favor, or reputation his course might occasion. +During his well-meant, protracted, and reverential searchings along the +faintly twilighted borders of spirit-land, ever and anon he has been +catching glimpses of laws, forces, conditions, and agents, which +earth-born beings--the embodied and the disembodied--can, and limitedly +now do, conjointly use for reciprocal communings, and for mutual helps +toward improvement, elevation, and bliss--for social, intellectual, moral, +and religious growth. He means _mutual_; for those who have escaped from +the flesh are helped by intercommunings with mortals. The reward is ample. + +His immediate topic is only witchcraft; but light which he seeks to make +bear on that, penetrates below all perceptible phenomena, down to the +question which underlies all others pertaining to man's highest interest, +viz., Does _animism exist_? Or, in other words, is there in nature, or in +God, or anywhere, an animating principle, which, having had +individualizing connection with an organized material form, will retain +its consciousness and individuality after that connection shall have been +dissolved? Who but visible or audible spirits, proving themselves to be +such, can give decisive response to that momentous question? Who but they +can stop the advance of and effectually cripple that growing materialistic +faith which laughs at and tramples over everything save +_demonstration_,--demonstration either scientific or sensible,--but is at +once and permanently palsied when it encounters that? Man knows of none +else who can. + +The world as yet is little conscious of the real nature, power, and worth +of spiritualism, or of its own need of help obtainable from no other +perceptible source. Therein lies enfolded not only charity and justice for +our remoter fathers, and correction for later commentators upon them, +which may be brought forth and applied in the present work, but also +PROOFS of man's survival beyond the tomb. + +Threescore years and twelve are saying, Spend no more time in general +preparation for your labors, because dangers yearly thicken that your +perishing outer man must forever leave undone what it fails to accomplish +soon. Your future "footprints on the sands of time" will be but few; +therefore now start in right direction, and, as best you can, mark the +path you travel, and thus give some guidance to future wayfarers +journeying toward the goal at which you aim, but lack power to reach. + +ALLEN PUTNAM. + +BOSTON, 426 Dudley Street + + + + +REFERENCES. + + +The principal works quoted from and referred to in the following pages, +are-- + +SALEM WITCHCRAFT, edited by S. P. Fowler, of Danvers; H. P. Ives and A. A. +Smith, Salem, 1861. This furnished the citations from Calef, and most of +those from Cotton Mather. References are to this edition. + +HUTCHINSON'S HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS. Boston edition 1764 and 1767. + +UPHAM'S HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT AND SALEM VILLAGE. Boston, Wiggin & Lunt, +1867. + +WOODWARD'S HISTORICAL SERIES, embracing Annals of Witchcraft in New +England by Samuel G. Drake, furnished the citations from Drake. + +NEW ENGLAND GENEALOGICAL AND ANTIQUARIAN REGISTER, October, 1870, p. 381, +was the source of extracts from W. F. Poole. + + + + +EXPLANATORY NOTE. + + +A subject mysterious as ours will need for its ready comprehension some +general knowledge of the imputed attributes and doings of witchcraft's +special DEVIL, and of supposed aids and hindrances to his getting access +to the visible world; also of demonology and necromancy, of biblical witch +and witchcraft, of Protestant Christendom's witch and witchcraft, of +spirit, soul, and mental powers, of miracle, spiritualism, Indian worship, +and the like. Therefore we wrote out brief dissertations upon those +subjects, with a view to have them constitute an opening chapter. But they +are somewhat dry, and would, perhaps, keep many readers back from less +thought-taxing pages longer than their pleasure will permit. Therefore we +postpone presentation of what usually is placed in front, at the same time +advising each one who desires to read this work as advantageously as +possible, to turn first to our Appendix. + +In form of definitions, at the close of the dissertations, we placed a +summary of some past conceptions, designing thus to indicate, compactly, +special stand-points for explanation of witchcraft, on which some of our +predecessors have severally taken position. We insert it here. + + +DEFINITIONS. + +_Biblical._ + + DEVIL, or SATAN. Any opponent or antagonist, whether seen or unseen. + + WITCH. Employer of mysterious acquisitions in teaching _heresy_. + + WITCHCRAFT. Using mysterious acquisitions in teaching _heresy_. + +_By Cotton Mather._ + + DEVIL. Heaven-born, fallen, mighty, malignant; and yet _dependent on + human help_ to act upon physical man or anything material. + + WITCH. A _covenanter_ with the devil. + + WITCHCRAFT. Helping or employing the devil to do harm--either. + +_By Robert Calef._ + + DEVIL. Heaven-born, fallen, mighty, malignant; but _independent of + man_ in action upon this world. + + WITCH. Seducer of men from worship of God "_by any extraordinary + sign_." + + WITCHCRAFT. "Maligning and impugning the word, work, or worship of + God, and by any extraordinary sign seeking to seduce men from worship + of Him." + +_By Thomas Hutchinson._ + + DEVIL. (None, as witchcraft enactor.) + + WITCH. (_By inference._) A woman possessing "a malignant touch," or "a + crabbed temper," or being "a poor wretch" or "bed-ridden;" also, "a + cunning child." + + WITCHCRAFT. Producing "pains," "nausea," &c. Scolding, playing tricks. + +_By C. W. Upham._ + + DEVIL. (Not specially concerned in witchcraft.) + + WITCH. (_By inference._) Subject acted upon by a girl or woman trained + in a school for practice "in the wonders of necromancy, magic, and + spiritualism." + + WITCHCRAFT. Suffering from the tricks and malicious purposes of girls + schooled in magic. + +_By us._ + + DEVIL. (Not specially concerned.) + + WITCH. A medium or a human being whose body becomes at times the tool + of some finite, disembodied, intelligent being, or whose mind senses + knowledge in spirit land. + + WITCHCRAFT. The manifestation of supernal knowledge, force, and + purposes through a borrowed or usurped mortal form; or the giving + utterance to knowledge sensed in through one's spiritual organs of + sense. + +Our purpose is to adduce strong evidences from the primitive records of +American marvels, that lesser beings than the devil of Mather and Calef, +and more powerful ones than the operators designated by Hutchinson and +Upham, were actual performers of the principal manifestations that have +been known as witchcrafts. Those whom we shall present were earth-born, on +either this planet or some other, had previously passed out from +encasements of flesh, but obtained control of and actuated physical forms +belonging to embodied children, women, and men. Such beings, graduates +from earths, are as varied in character and purposes as the survivors on +their native planets, as varied as mortals are to-day. They may have +ranged in character from dark devils up to bright angels, and have come, +and gone, and operated by natural, though occult, forces and processes; +they being as free to use such as we are the forces and implements of +external nature. Many of our positions will be based upon psychological +powers and susceptibilities which are far from being generally known to +pertain to man; and we may fail to keep always within the bounds of things +credible to-day, but yet shall never consciously go further than observed +or credited facts will sustain us. If successful, we shall show that +benighted man formerly, in good conscience, made certain events fearful +curses, which, when rightly understood and used, may become gladdening and +rich boons to mortals. + + + + +WITCHCRAFT MARVEL-WORKERS. + + +Brief notice of several authors to whom the present age is indebted for +knowledge of most of the facts and beliefs which will be presented in the +following pages, may be appropriate here. Their competency, traits, and +circumstances, as inferred chiefly from their writings pertaining to +witchcraft, are all, or nearly all, which we propose to state. + +Two of these who lived in witchcraft times, a third in an intervening +century, and a fourth in our own age, viz., Cotton Mather, Robert Calef, +Thomas Hutchinson, and Charles W. Upham, will severally be noticed, +because their works have been specially instructive and suggestive, and +have had very much influence in shaping public opinions and conclusions in +reference to the mysterious matters under consideration. Each of the +above-named authors either lacked, or failed to use, some light which is +now available for disclosing contents in vailed recesses of nature--light +beginning to shine in where darkness long brooded, and to elicit thence +such knowledge as promises to show that the theories of most witchcraft +expounders have been such as now may be, and should be, superseded by more +broad, sound, and philosophical ones. + +The writings of the first two named above are eminently important, because +they disclose very distinctly many highly operative beliefs and methods +which were prevalent when marked witchcraft phenomena were actually +transpiring, but are obsolete now. We cannot, perhaps, do better than +forthwith present those two combatants, Mather and Calef, in actual +conflict over the last described case of seventeenth century obsession. +Out of this case came open conflict, in the very days when such marvels +were living occurrences. Further on we may notice these two men, _as men_, +more particularly. Here we take them as contestants about phenomena +attendant upon Margaret Rule in 1693; hers, the last of our cases to +occur, will come first under our inspection. Our quotations will be mostly +from the earlier pages of "SALEM WITCHCRAFT," edited by S. P. Fowler. + + + + +MATHER AND CALEF. + + +In 1693, Mather wrote an account of afflictions which Margaret Rule, of +Boston, then about seventeen years old, began to endure on the 10th of +September of that year. This production drew forth the first open shot at +the then prevalent definitions of witchcraft--at the assumed source of +power to produce it--at the adopted methods of proceedings against it, and +at treatment of persons on whom that crime was charged. + +Robert Calef, called a merchant of the town, either listened to statements +or received written ones, made by other persons who had been present with +Mather around this afflicted girl at her home during some scenes which the +latter had described, or he was himself a witness there. From data early +obtained he furnished a version of the case which disparaged the +minister's account, and questioned the propriety of some of his +proceedings. Calef's was in itself a rather meager production, not putting +forth the whole or even the main facts in the case, but indicating that in +this, that, and the other particular, Mather had misstated or overstated, +and that some of his own acts might be indelicate or improper. This +production so incensed Mather that he openly pronounced Calef "the worst +of liars," threatened him with prosecution for slander, and actually +commenced legal proceedings against him. + +In a subsequent letter, September 29, Calef respectfully asked Mather for +a personal interview in the presence of two witnesses, in order that they +might discuss and explain. Mather intimated willingness to comply with the +request, but dallied, till Calef, November 24, sent a second letter, in +which, rising at once above the comparatively trifling question whether +himself or Mather had furnished the more accurate and better report, he +grappled with fundamental questions pertaining to the devil, witchcrafts, +and possession, and set forth distinctly some points which, in his +judgment, needed discussion then; for on them he dissented from Mather, +and probably from a majority of the people amid whom he was living. In +much of that letter, Calef, or whoever composed it, manifested +discriminating intellect, clear perception of his points, firm will, +together with strong desire and purpose to labor earnestly for +acquisition of knowledge by which either to convince himself that his own +positions were unsound, or to better qualify himself to reform some +prevalent faiths and practices. The Bible was his magazine, and +implements, weapons, or stores from any other source he deemed it unlawful +to use for defining, detecting, or punishing witchcraft. Bowing to the +Scriptures in unquestioning submission, he took them as guide and +authority. In the outset, frankly and definitely stating his own belief, +he, in an apparently manly way, sought manly discussion. + +He believed, page 62, that "there are _witches, because the Scriptures +plainly provide for their punishment_." The only known definition of +_witchcraft_ that to him seemed based upon and fairly deduced from the +Scriptures, was "a maligning and oppugning the word, work, or worship of +God, and, _by any extraordinary sign_, seeking to seduce from it." He +believed "that there are possessions, and that the bodies of the possest +have hence been not only _afflicted_, but _strangely agitated_, if not +_their tongues improved_ to foretell futurities; and why not _to accuse +the innocent_ as bewitching them? having _pretense to divination_ ... this +being reasonable to be expected from _him who is the father of lies_." +This witchcraft assailant, therefore, was a protestant not against belief +that the father of lies sometimes _possessed, afflicted, and strangely +agitated human beings, and also controlled their tongues to prophesy, to +accuse the innocent, and to pretend divination_. His protest was against +unscriptural definition of witchcraft, and against those kinds of +evidence, rules, and methods used for its detection, proof, and +punishment which made his age pronounce guilty and execute many who could +not possibly be found guilty of that crime, where its scriptural +definition was adhered to. He was not a disbeliever in witchcraft of some +kind, nor of action upon men by some invisible intelligences in his own +day. He and Mather both were believers in witchcraft outwrought by +supernals, but differed as to what might or might not constitute it, and +therefore, also, as to the extent of the prevalence of the genuine +article. Calef seemingly believed in _possessions_,--that is, in control +by spirits of some quality,--but was unwilling to concede that such +control was _witchcraft_, as many people at that day did, though Mather +may not have been one among them _abidingly_. + +The pith of Calef's definition of witchcraft was, _seduction of men from +the worship of God by manifestation of extraordinary signs_; while Mather +said, _covenanting with the devil made one a witch_, and co-operative +action with _him_ in harming men constituted _witchcraft_. The former +demanded evidences of seduction of men away _from worship of God_, while +the other could rest on evidences of _visible harm to man_; therefore +Mather found cases of witchcraft much more abundant than Calef was +required to or would. + +Another practically important item on which they differed was the +immediate source of the devil's power to act upon visible man and matter. +Calef claimed that "it is _only the Almighty_ that ... can commissionate +him to hurt or destroy any;" while Mather said, "I am apt to think that +the devils are seldom able to hurt us in any of our exterior concerns +without a commission _from our fellow-worms_.... Permission from God for +the devil to come down and break in upon mankind must oftentimes be +accompanied with a commission from _some of mankind itself_." + +Both of them conceded a commission by God to the devil. But we doubt +whether his commission was ever more special than that which every created +being, in either material or spiritual abodes, constitutionally holds at +all times, to avail himself of whatever natural laws or forces his +inherent powers and attending circumstances enable him to control. Words +are often used which obscure proper, if not intended, meaning. Commission +from God means no more than constitutional capabilities to perform at +times certain specified things when conditions and circumstances favor +command of natural forces. That special powers are often conferred upon +mortals by some supernal beings whose recipients are prone to ascribe the +gifts to _omnipotence_ is obviously true; though their increased abilities +are only bestowments by finite invisibles. + +_What_ witchcraft was, and _who_ commissioned the devil, whether God alone +or God and man jointly, were the two most prominent questions about which +those contestants differed. They agreed that the devil enacted both +witchcraft and possession, but Calef's beliefs necessarily caused him to +regard vast many cases as only simple possession, which Mather could, if +he saw fit, regard as witchcrafts; and he sometimes seemingly did, when +called to act publicly in connection with them. Mather at home and Mather +abroad were not always in harmony. + +Without designing, either here or subsequently, to make full presentation +of the case of Margaret Rule, we shall freely adduce many parts of the +record of it as helps in exhibiting leading positions and traits +pertaining to the parties who crossed intellectual swords over them. + +Mather states, page 29, that "upon the Lord's day, September 10, 1693, +Margaret Rule, after some hours of previous disturbance in the public +assembly, fell into odd fits, which caused her friends to carry her home, +where her fits, in a few hours, grew into a figure that satisfied the +spectators of their being preternatural. A miserable woman who had been +formerly imprisoned on the suspicion of witchcraft, and who had frequently +cured very painful hurts, ... had, the evening before Margaret fell into +her calamities, _very bitterly treated her, and threatened her_." That +briefly antecedent treatment of her by a person who "had frequently cured +very painful hurts," and therefore, and for other acts perhaps, been +accused of witchcraft, is very important in its psychological indications, +and is worthy of being borne along in the reader's memory. The wonderful +_curing of painful hurts_--that is, her beneficence--had caused her +imprisonment. + +"The young woman," continues the reporter, "was assaulted by eight cruel +specters, whereof she imagined that she knew three or four." She was +careful, under charge from Mather, "to forbear blazing their names," but +privately told them to him; and he says, "they are a sort of wretches who +for these many years have gone under _as violent presumptions of +witchcraft_, as perhaps any creatures yet living on the earth." Specters +known by her might, in some connections, mean persons whom she had known +before their death, whose spirits now became visible; but since she gave +the names of living persons as being then seen, it is obvious that she did +not regard her tormentors _as bona fide spirits_, but only effigies +manufactured, presented, and vitalized by the devil. + +The psychologist will not overlook the fact that persons whose specters +were here presented were such as had in some way previously aroused +suspicion that they were witches. It was imprudent at that day to "blaze +names," because of very prevalent belief that the devil could present the +specters of none who had not made a covenant with him, and the bare fact +of annunciation by a witched person that she saw the specter of any +individual whatsoever, was then conclusive proof to many minds that the +said individual had made covenant with the evil one, and therefore was a +witch, and must be put to death. Mather cautioned the girl not to give +names to the crowd around her bed, "lest any good person should come to +suffer any blast of reputation." Neither Mather nor Calef denied the +devil's power to bring forth apparitions of the _innocent_; and neither +reposed full confidence in or justified the use of spectral testimony +generally, though very many people in those days did. The point we desire +to mark is this: that Mather's account is in harmony with modern +observation in giving indications that spirits, apparitions, or +appearances of highly mediumistic persons are more frequently seen than +those of unimpressible ones--if such are not, and we believe it is so--the +class generally thus presented:--such persons, that is, the mediumistic, +are more frequently than others seen by the inner or clairvoyant eye. This +fact begets at least conjecture, that it is probably psychological law, +and not the devil's or any one's else _choice_, which determines who shall +or may be seen as specters. Persons seen in this case had previously +manifested powers or acts which caused them to be regarded as witches. +Around most persons, who in the sequel of these pages shall be found +appearing as specters and as bewitching and tormenting others, will be +found signs that they were very like such as to-day are called mediums. + +"They presented a book and demanded of her that she should set her hand to +it, or touch it at least with her hand, as a sign of her becoming a +servant of the devil;" upon her refusal to do that, they confined "her to +her bed for just six weeks together." True answer to the question whether +an accused one had signed the devil's book or not, was eagerly sought for +in all trials for witchcraft, because if such signature had not been made +by the person on trial, he or she _might_ be innocent; while if it had +been, guilt was already consummated, and death was deserved. + +"Sometimes there looked in upon the young woman a short and a black man, +whom they (the specters) called their master. They all professed +themselves vassals of this devil, ... and in obedience to him, ... she was +cruelly pinched with invisible hands, ... and the black and blue marks of +the pinches became immediately visible unto the standers by.... She would +every now and then be miserably hurt with pins, which were found stuck +into her neck, back, and arms.... She would be strangely distorted in her +joints and thrown ... into convulsions." Such things are stated as facts, +and were not contested in the day of their occurrence--not even by Robert +Calef. + +"From the time that Margaret Rule first found herself to be formally +besieged by the specters, until the ninth day following, namely, from +September 10th to the 18th, she kept an entire fast, and yet she was unto +all appearance as fresh, as lively, as hearty at the nine days' end, as +before they began; during all this time ... if any refreshment were +brought unto her, her teeth would be set, and she would be thrown into +many miseries; indeed, once or twice or so in all this time, her +tormentors permitted her to swallow a mouthful of somewhat that might +increase her miseries, whereof a spoonful of rum was the most +considerable; but otherwise, as I said, her fast unto the ninth day was +very extreme and rigid." + +Protracted fastings without consequent exhaustion have been common with +the mediumistic in all ages. Moses, Elijah, Jesus, each fasted forty days; +many mediums in our midst are often sustained for long periods by +absorptions of nutriment in its elemental state into the inner or spirit +organism, from that invisible storehouse of food from which trees obtain +much sustenance, and whence once came loaves and fishes in Judea; from the +inner thus fed, the outer man receives supplies; at least, spirits state +such to be the process. + +"Margaret Rule once, in the middle of the night, lamented sadly that the +specters threatened the drowning of a young man in the neighborhood, whom +she named unto the company; well, it was afterward found that at that very +time this young man, having been prest on board a man-of-war then in the +harbor, was, out of some dissatisfaction, attempting to swim ashore; and +he had been drowned in the attempt if a boat had not seasonably taken him +up. It was by computation a minute or two after the young woman's +discourse of the drowning that the young man took to the water." This +account, if taken literally, reveals her prescience of a definite +approximating event, also knowledge of the person whom it threatened, the +place where it would act, while neither outward perceptions nor any +embodied mortals could help her to such knowledge. It is not stated that +either the outer or inner set of her perceptive organs directly sensed +danger tending towards the young man. The report of her words is that "the +specters threatened the drowning;" from this it seemingly follows that her +inner sense, either of hearing or of vision, learned either the intention +of spirit beings to purposely expose a particular man to danger, or they +saw the oncoming of danger to him, and spoke of it to her. + +This occurrence through the impressible girl was left unnoticed by Calef; +his silence approximates to concession that the main facts here stated +were not refutable in his day. + +"Once," continues the narrator, "her tormentors pulled her up to the +ceiling of the chamber, and held her there, before a very numerous company +of spectators, who found it as much as they could all do to pull her down +again." That statement is distinct and needs no comment here, but may +receive further notice when we shall adduce the attestation of other +personal witnesses to its actual truth. + +Again Mather says, "The enchanted people have talked much of a _white_ +spirit from whence they have received marvelous assistances, ... by such a +spirit was Margaret Rule now visited. She says she never could see his +face, but that she had a frequent view of his bright, shining, and +glorious garments; he stood by her bedside continually heartening and +comforting her, and counseling her to maintain her faith and hope in +God.... He told her that God had permitted her afflictions to befall her +for the everlasting and unspeakable good of her own soul, and for the good +of many others." Hers was very strange experience to outflow from +_delirium tremens_. It seems to us very much more like inflowings of +heavenly peace from vision of the blessed. Obviously at times there +flashed forth glorious brightness during witchcraft's dismal night. + +Mather stated these and some other very significant facts, which Calef +omitted to grapple with or to gainsay in his version of the scenes. +Omitting to extract more from Mather, we will now look at Calef's account. +He commences a letter to Mather in which, referring to his own previous +production, he says, "having written '_from the mouths of several +persons_,' who affirm they were present with Margaret Rule the 13th +instant, her answers, behavior, &c." Calef therefore probably was not +himself a witness of the scenes he described; but received his account +from the mouths of several other persons. One of them apparently wrote, +and Calef, adopting the statement, says, "I found her of a healthy +countenance, about seventeen years old, lying very still and speaking but +very little." Soon the Mathers (father and son, Increase and Cotton) came +in. The son shortly began to question Margaret and get replies. Their +colloquy was commonplace mostly, and need not be quoted; but some things +then _done_ we shall notice. + +Margaret went into a fit, and Cotton Mather "laid his hand upon her face +and nose, but, as he said, without perceiving any breath. Then he brushed +her on the face with his glove, and rubbed her stomach, and bid others do +so too, and said it eased her; then she revived." Shortly again she "was +in a fit," and was again rubbed. "Margaret Perd, an attendant, assisted +Mather in rubbing her. The afflicted spake angrily to her, saying, 'Don't +you meddle with me,' and hastily put away her hand. He then wrought his +fingers before her eyes." + +Such things, presumably, were stated correctly as matters of fact +observed. Were these doings by Mather foolish and useless? Different +persons will answer variously. In the eyes of most New England people +to-day, they may seem to be so. In part they appear to us ill judged and +harmful, though well meant and partially productive of the effect desired. +When Mather could perceive no breath, he naturally became solicitous to +set her lungs in motion, and by his rubbings probably soon accomplished +that. The observations of many moderns have taught them to welcome, at +times, stoppage of the external breathings of good mediums, deeming that +indicative of free, but imperceptible, breathing by the inner lungs, which +process sustains the person physically, while the spirit roams and +recreates in spirit-land. Yes, to _welcome_ it, as watchers by the +restless sick welcome the advent of sleep to the sufferers. Once we +probably should have acted, in like circumstances, much as Mather did; but +now we might often leave such a patient unacted upon for a time, even +though breathless to our external perception, because of belief that +action like Mather's might be as unwise as would the awakening of a sick +one immediately after the commencement of a nap. His motions of the +fingers around her eyes might tend to produce the same effect; that is, to +draw her out of a state of _rest_ and joy, provided the outer breathing +was imperceptible. Rubbings and motions of the hands, however, are often +very serviceable in removing influences which are distressing, whenever +the entranced one is conscious externally, as Margaret probably was in the +_second_ fit, but perhaps not in the first. For in the second she detected +difference between influences upon her from Mather and those from Miss +Perd; the former were agreeable and welcome, the latter annoying and +offensive. Systems sensitive enough to detect the qualities and influences +of magnetic emanations from all human beings, yes, all animals and most +minerals, that come in contact with themselves, are greatly soothed by +absorption of unconscious properties from some, and irritated by those +from others, though their esteem, respect, or affection for each class be +the same. Qualities of emanations are, to considerable extent, independent +of either intellectual, moral, or emotional states. A babe or simpleton +may be the best of anodynes, while the cultured saint may be an irritant +to a sensitive medium. + +"He put his hand on the clothes over her breast, and said he felt a living +thing." Perhaps he did. In our day we hear of such presentations as +semblances of small living animals around mediums; but personally, have +not seen or felt such. + +"Soon after they" (the ministers) "were gone, the afflicted desired the +_women_ to be gone, saying that the company of the _men_ was not +offensive to her." There is not general popular knowledge, that the +magnetisms of all animals are as distinctly male in one sex and female in +the other, as are any of their organs, nor that to very sensitive persons +there come times and states when their own magnetisms hunger for food from +magnetisms of opposite genders. Some sensitives feel the action of finer +laws and forces than men detect in their normal condition. + +"She learned that there were reports about town that she was not +afflicted. And some came to her as spies; but during the said time" (of +their visit) "she had no fit." Few anti-spiritualistic asseverations are +more frequently put forth than this; that manifestations rarely occur in +the presence of certain persons deemed specially competent to detect fraud +and imposture, and who visit mediums for the purpose of exposing them. +Unbelief was once a bar to manifestation of many marvels by Jesus of +Nazareth. Also it much obstructs their presentation to-day; and probably, +therefore, might have done so when emanating from spies and would-be +exposers around Margaret Rule. But "they can't," is perhaps often said of +spirits when "they won't," would more accurately describe the fact. As at +the Albion in 1857, they would manifest before press reporters, but not +before Harvard professors. They know the thoughts of each observer, and +are often pleased to bite the biter; the playfully roguish sometimes find +it fun to catch rogues. "She had no fit" when spies were present. + +"The attendants," September 19, "said that Mr. M. would not go to prayer +with her when people were in the room, as they" (he and his father) "did +that night he felt the _live creature_." Peter of old knew what was +conducive to effectual prayer when, at the side of Dorcas, then entranced +to seeming death, he "put the bystanders all forth and kneeled down and +prayed." Mather no doubt had acquired similar knowledge; world-wide +experience and observation teach that quiet and harmony are needful to the +utterance of satisfactory or very helpful prayer. + +"Margaret Perd and another said they smelt brimstone. I and others," said +Calef's informant, "_said_ we did not smell any." The wording leaves it +doubtful, perhaps, whether the reporter and his "others," though smelling +brimstone, quizzically said they did _not_, or whether they actually +failed to smell it. If they did not smell the article, their natural, +frank statement would have been, _we did not_. But the wording is, "_we +said_" we did not. Our quotation was not made, however, for the purpose of +making such criticism, but as a text to the following paragraph. + +Spirits sometimes have power to produce in the olfactory nerves of many +persons, precisely the sensations which many familiar odors produce. We +have personally been refreshed on several occasions by perception of the +fragrance of pinks, while we were reclining drowsily on a couch in our own +study, no visible person present with us, and no pinks in the vicinity, or +in our thoughts. This has occurred quite as often in dead of winter, as +when the garden was odorous with flowers. Probably such presentations may +be made to some members of a company, while others in the crowd will be +insensible to them. One's non-perception of spirit-born odor, whether +coming from above or below, whether pleasurable or offensive, does not +argue that mere fancy alone acts upon a neighbor who says he smells such. + +On the evening of the 13th some one present, seemingly unacquainted with +her habits, put either to a particular person or to the whole company, +this question. "What does she eat or drink?" And, from some unnamed +source, came this response: "She does not eat at all, but drinks _rum_." +Neither the question nor the answer is ascribed to Mather, nor to any one +in particular. + +We are surprised that S. P. Fowler, the intelligent, just, and charitable +editor of Salem Witchcraft, said in a foot note, page 57, that "the +affliction of Margaret Rule ... was nothing more than a bad case of +_delirium tremens_;" statements indicative of her good morals and habits +previous to her affliction were right before his editorial eyes on pages +just preceding his note, and nothing is found to her disparagement +excepting that annunciation by some unknown body that she drinks _rum_. +Statements in her favor, and absence of any against her in the original +records, convince us that Fowler's conclusion was rash and not well +founded. Mather says that "she was born of sober and honest parents;" also +that it "is affirmed that for about half a year before her visitation she +was observably _improved in the hopeful symptoms of a new creature_: she +was become seriously concerned for the everlasting salvation of her soul, +and _careful to avoid the snares of evil company_." Habits of that kind, +during six preceding months, were not probable antecedents to _delirium +tremens_; Calef's temptations to have charged bad character for +temperance, had there been facts to sustain him, were probably very +strong; but we have found no evidence that he did so. An informant of his, +when reporting conversation which took place around her, furnished the +question and response, viz.: "What does she eat or drink? Answer. She does +not eat at all, but drinks _rum_." A fact stated by Mather himself +naturally might tempt any wag, inclined to create mirth, to say playfully, +"She eats nothing, but drinks _rum_." He, Mather, informs us that "once, +twice, or so" her "controllers, for her annoyance or distress," allowed +her to take a _spoonful_ of rum. What more common than for attendants to +offer and urge upon a suffering and agonized person any stimulant or +cordial at hand? Nothing. We will allow that Margaret did take "once, +twice, or so" a spoonful of rum; but nothing else that we meet with in the +account of her, gives the shadow of foundation for the charge of _delirium +tremens_. If the charge is true, _delirium tremens_ in that case worked +wonders which it is not accustomed to perform; to tell correctly, when +lying on a bed on shore at night, that danger of drowning was then about +coming upon a particular young man away down the harbor, was an +extraordinary operation for that disease to perform; and still more +extraordinary was it, that such disease lifted the body on which it was +feeding, up in horizontal position to the ceiling overhead, held it there +for minutes, and so firmly that it took several men to pull it down. Do +such feats bespeak their origin in _delirium tremens_? No. Calling it a +case of _delirium tremens_ does nothing toward giving rational explanation +of the marvels attendant upon Margaret. _Rum_ is the name of a very +unsafe guide, and the name, not the thing, deluded the annotator to +inferences useless, entirely useless, as helps to explain such phenomena +as he was engaged in elucidating. + +Any weakness, sin, or crime which was not charged upon Margaret Rule by +her cotemporaries, it is uncharitable to allege unqualifiedly against her +now, on the sole basis that in her hours of suffering she drank a few +spoonfuls of rum; and is especially inapropos, when, as is the case here, +the charge gives no help toward accomplishing the very purpose for which +alone it should have been made, namely, as an elucidation of the cause of +such things as how she sensed the danger threatening the absent man, and +how or by whom she was lifted up and sustained. + +We shall quote no further from the statements of the two parties, Mather +and Calef, made prior to their coming into distinct conflict. Enough has +been presented to show that Mather stated several facts which, to the mass +of men, must seem astounding--such facts as bespeak performances beyond +what embodied men could enact. The wondrous facts, such as her prophecy of +danger about to wait upon the impressed sailor--her long fast without +pining--her being lifted by invisible force to the ceiling above her, &c., +constitute the important parts of Mather's narrative of what he personally +witnessed and knew. On the other side, Calef, adopting the account of +unnamed witnesses, omits any allusion to the important facts in the case, +and presents, in the main, different, and relatively, if not absolutely, +trifling accompaniments. Calef was complained of by Mather for +_omissions_. To this Calef replied, "My intelligence not giving me any +further, I could not insert that I knew not." The doings of the Mathers, +and especially of Cotton, much more than the manifestations through and +upon Margaret, were detailed to Calef, and caused him to put forth a very +meager and one-sided manuscript account of this case. The clergyman at +once perceived and felt this, and soon sent his opponent the following +affidavits:-- + + "I do testify that I have seen Margaret Rule in her afflictions from + the invisible world, lifted up from her bed, wholly by an invisible + force, a great way toward the top of the room where she lay. In her + being so lifted she had no assistance from any use of her own arms or + hands or any other part of her body, not so much as her heels touching + her bed, or resting on any support whatsoever. And I have seen her + thus lifted, when not only a strong person hath thrown his whole + weight across her to pull her down, but several other persons have + endeavored with all their might to hinder her from being so raised up; + which I suppose that several others will testify as well as myself + when called unto it. + + "Witness my hand, + "SAMUEL AVIS." + +To the substance of the above, Robert Earle, John Wilkins, and Daniel +Wilkins did subscribe that they could testify. Also Thomas Thornton and +William Hudson testified to having seen Margaret so lifted up "by an +invisible force ... as to touch the garret floor, while yet neither her +feet nor any other part of her body rested either on the bed or on any +other support, ... and all this for a considerable while; we judged it +several minutes."--p. 76. + +Before presenting the merchant's comments upon such statements of such +facts, we will name again the special reason why we draw protracted +attention to the two writers, Mather and Calef. They were intelligent and +alert cotemporaries, both in the vigor of manhood probably, for Mather was +about thirty years of age, and Calef lived more than twenty-five years +after the commencement of his controversy; both probably were cognizant of +the main facts pertaining to witchcraft; even during or very shortly after +their occurrence in the family of John Goodwin of Boston in 1688, in Salem +1692, and around both Mercy Short and Margaret Rule in Boston 1693. +Therefore the controversial writings of these two, both well acquainted +with the occurring witchcraft events of their day, but differing +distinctly on many points of belief and policy, become, when used in +connection, our best accessible source for learning what actually occurred +in many witchcraft scenes, what beliefs were prevalent then, what kinds of +evidence for convicting of witchcraft were admissible, and what rules +governed the courts. Because of their value as teachers upon witchcraft, +we desire to have these two men, with their agreements and differings, +clearly comprehended. + +The merchant sent to the clergyman the following comment upon the chief +point confirmed by the affidavits of five or six unimpeached witnesses, +viz., the lifting of the girl to the top of the room by invisible power:-- + +"I suppose you expect I should believe it, and if so, the only advantage +gained is, that what has so long been controverted between Protestants +and Papists, _whether miracles are ceast_, will hereby seem to be decided +for the latter; it being, for aught I can see, if so, as true a _miracle_ +as for iron to swim; and the devil can work such miracles." + +A statement either more aspersive of its author's own candor, or more +indicative of his thralldom to prejudice, has rarely been made. Either +Calef or some one for him, when treating of the departure of the community +from scriptural interpretation and treatment of witchcraft, when scanning +rules laid down by accredited authors for its detection, and, generally, +when handling creeds, broad principles, and prevalent usages, wielded a +clear, pointed, and forceful pen. But Mather's facts blunted its point and +baffled its powers. Look at their metamorphosis of the logician; he says, +essentially, to his opponent, "If your facts are true, Catholics have the +better of us in our controversy with them as to the continuance of +miracles down to the present day. Your facts, if facts, are miracles, and +we Protestants are wrong. Therefore I will not concede them: if true, they +are "as great a miracle as for iron to swim," and prove the Catholics +right. I won't grant them." + +What miracle did he concede that the devil can work? Was it causing iron +to swim? or was it such lifting of Margaret Rule as had been sworn to? +Perhaps we are mistaken, but we think he meant to say that the devil could +lift the girl as described; who, if he had done so, wrought as great a +miracle as God did when he caused the ax-head to swim where the prophet +cast a stick over it. Still such an operation in modern times must not be +avowed, because that would give the Catholic advantage over the +Protestant! Alas for the clear-headed man when facts force him to abandon +the methods of logic, and resort to those of prejudice! Mather's facts +completely stultified Calef in this case. + +We cannot doubt--and who will venture to?--that he must have known the +characters for truth and veracity of Avis and his associate witnesses; +must have known the circumstances surrounding, and the state of the public +mind in regard to them; and yet we notice no indication that he attempted +to impeach any of them even in thought. He leaves them entirely unnoticed. +Yes, where even a very slight intimation or covert innuendo in some turn +of expression pointing at either credulity or mental weakness on their +part would have been an argument in favor of his views, nothing of the +kind appears in his writings. He leaves them without +characterization--leaves them unnamed. And since he who obviously must +have known them, and known too how they were generally esteemed, left +their veracity and competency entirely unimpeached, when impeachment would +have been his natural resort, if justifiable,--only blinding, rash, very +rash, prejudice will prompt any one at this day to doubt their fair claim +to be regarded as truthful and competent witnesses. Mather had said that +"once her tormentors pulled her up to the ceiling of the chamber, and held +her there before a numerous company of spectators, who found it as much as +they could all do to pull her down again." Such was the published +statement of a learned and able man, much respected by a large portion of +the inhabitants of Boston, and whose incredulity was not strong enough to +make him distrust the distinct testimony of his own senses. Therefore, +though backed by the testimony of six other witnesses, he is deemed so +credulous by many moderns that his word has little weight with them. +Calef's comments upon the case are jumbled, and not such that we can place +much confidence in the accuracy of our own perception of his meaning; but +he seems to have conceded that the devil possessed power enough to have +lifted the girl, and leaves us privileged to infer his belief in its +possible exercise upon her. That generally clear-headed man's illogical +and confused statement is not the least among marvels attendant upon +witchcraft. He murdered logic when attempting to parry the force of facts +sworn to. + +He did not impeach the witnesses. Omission to do that, under the +circumstances, argues more convincingly to us, in favor of the literal and +exact truth of the statement by Mather and six others, that the girl was +raised from her bed by invisible powers up to the ceiling at the top of +the room, than would Calef's own distinct assent to what they affirmed. He +was no _timid_ advocate, and since a man as strong and brave as he, +circumstanced as he was, omitted attempt to discredit either the character +or competency of Mather's backers, the presumption is, that Calef's own +sense of justice and the judgment of the town regarded them as +unimpeachable. The girl was lifted, as they affirmed. What they stated is +credible. + +We, personally, possess lack of incredulity rivalling that of Mather. For, +when our own senses testify to us calmly and deliberately, under +circumstances which exclude both illusion and delusion, we are accustomed +to repose very much confidence in the truth and accuracy of what they +say; and, in illustration of our lack of incredulity regarding what our +own senses witness, or, if one prefers different phraseology, in +illustration of our credulity, that is, of our ability and willingness to +believe what is thus learned, we give the following account of one of our +own interesting and instructive experiences:-- + +Several years ago, from fifteen to twenty, in a chamber of the residence +of Daniel Farrar, Esq., Hancock Street, Boston, to which he had invited us +and several others, we clasped the left hand of Rollin H. Squires in our +own right, took position with him in the center of a large room, several +feet distant from any other person or any article of furniture, when, +promptly upon shutting off the gas-light, his hand began to draw ours up, +gently and steadily, till our own right arm, its hand clasping his, was +extended to its full length above our head. Then we moved our left hand +across our chest, and it came in contact with the young man's boot at rest +by our side, and simultaneously we heard a scratch upon the ceiling above, +which was at least ten feet from the floor of the room. Soon he began to +descend as gently as he had ascended, and when he had reached the floor +and light had been let on, we saw a red chalk-mark at least three feet +long on the ceiling over the spot on which we had stood up together. The +mark was not there previous to the extinguishment of the light, for the +whole company present had been informed that he would have chalk in his +hand in order that he might give evidence to all present that he had been +lifted up. Consequently all of us carefully observed the overhead ceiling +up to the extinguishment of the light. + +No reluctance attends our publishing such a narrative; we are less +solicitous to win a skeptic's laurels, than to make distinct statement of +any facts pertaining to occult forces in nature, which we have +experimentally learned. O, credulity! Thou art a most beneficent helper to +knowledge of nature's finer laws and forces, especially of those +relatively occult ones which evolve mysteries and exert unrecognized +action upon man; laws and forces which it would benefit him to comprehend +and regard. + +Scarcely can history or experience furnish a more striking instance of the +stultifying and bewildering influence of marvelous _facts_ upon a bright, +resolute, philanthropic man, who was kept by his creeds and prejudices +from liberty and ability to let reason and logic have fair play, than was +witnessed in the case of Calef. Facts are man's masters; rebellion against +them, or disregard of their demands, is sure to bring humiliation upon +him. + +Calef, whether conscious of it or not, was in an humiliated mental +condition when his strong mind, without denying well-attested facts, +indicated an unwillingness to acknowledge belief of them, because doing so +would settle a long-controverted question adversely to the party which +included himself. Seemingly nonplused and bewildered by facts, he said, in +quasi-concession of their occurrence, "The devil can work such miracles." + +Both what Calef said, and what he omitted to say, tend forcibly to produce +conviction that Samuel Avis and his five associate witnesses stated +"truth, and nothing but the truth." Words or statements from men whose +characters were not impeached by a contesting cotemporary, ought to be +accepted as true by those who now can know nothing against the +truthfulness of lips from which they issued. + +Had Calef's mind embraced perception that those whom he and nearly all +others then deemed the great devil, and smaller ones,--heaven-born, but +fallen,--were in fact what all clairvoyants, then and in all subsequent +days, have said they resembled,--and what they claimed to be,--that is, +men and women originally earth-born, and then earth-emancipated spirits, +requiring no more special permission from the Omnipotent One than man does +for using the forces of external nature,--could he have perceived that +such beings might be the performers of all the marvelous works of +witchcraft, he would have become free to admit possible solidity in some +Catholic ground; free to have set at least one foot upon it, and having +done that, he could have dispensed with that heaven-born devil whom he +supposed God commissioned, but whom Mather believed man had to help God +commission before he could harass mankind; would have been free to do thus +because he then would have seen possibility that other, lesser, or less +formidable agents have power to work marvels, would have seen that such +could have lifted Margaret Rule, and thus made the words of those who +described their wonderful works credible, and exempted himself from attack +of Mather at points where the striker was greatest sufferer from the +blows. + +When attacking some barbarous beliefs and customs of Christendom, Calef +was very successful, and became a very great public benefactor; but he +failed, if such was ever his design, to refute the positive occurrence of +such marvelous facts as Mather's descriptions set forth. The general +accuracy of the clergyman's allegations was not made questionable by the +merchant's writings, even though he did present the man himself in some +ludicrous aspects, and often attempted that, when more knowledge of spirit +forces and agents than he possessed would have taught him that future time +might smile at the smiler and the would-be provoker of smiles. + + + + +COTTON MATHER. + + +The phases in which the writings of Cotton Mather present their author are +so varied, and the estimation in which he has been held by subsequent +writers is so diverse, that there is difficulty in characterizing him to +one's own satisfaction. He was neither wholly saint, nor wholly sinner; +was not unmingled wisdom, nor all folly. We do not very eagerly undertake +to outline his character. But since, apart from records of courts, his pen +furnished more valuable and more numerous facts pertaining to New England +witchcraft in the seventeenth century than have come down from any other +pen, there seems to be a call upon us to comment upon his competency and +trustworthiness as observer and as reporter or recorder of facts. + +In matured life he had become probably the first scholar and most learned +man in the province. His mind was bright, versatile, and active, and its +application to books, to the demands of his profession, and to the +educational, moral, religious, and political interests of the public, was +untiring. His attention was drawn to consideration of marvelous +occurrences while he was quite young, and his records of witchcraft were +nearly _all_ penned by the time he was thirty years old. In 1689, being +then only twenty-six, he published a small work entitled "Memorable +Providences relating to Witchcraft and Possessions." + +He was a personal witness and an alert observer, through several +successive months, of a rapid and prolonged stream of marvels, which were +manifested through the children of John Goodwin, of Boston, in 1688, a +long account of which he published quite soon after their occurrence. Four +years later came on the SALEM WITCHCRAFT, and portions of its tragic and +agonizing occurrences were witnessed by this Boston clergyman. He was +present in the crowd around the gallows when several of the wronged +victims to diabolism were executed. And he promptly furnished an extended +account of much which had just intensely agitated and frenzied not only +Salem and Essex County, but the whole province. The next year, 1693, +brought him opportunity to be much with and to observe carefully two +afflicted young, women in Boston, Mercy Short and Margaret Rule, whose +maladies were deemed bewitchments. He recorded his observations and doings +relating to these two persons, and his accounts are available to-day, +though there is evidence rendering it probable that he never prepared +either record for the press, and that both have become public without his +sanction. + +As has been learned from what precedes, Robert Calef, an opponent of some +then prevalent beliefs and practices concerning witchcraft, found means, +whether honorably or not is perhaps debatable, for putting Mather's +account of Margaret Rule before the world. This young woman was under +Mather's special watch for several weeks, while she was being acted upon +by occult agents and forces; and he promptly recorded for perusal by his +friends an account of what transpired around her. + +From the foregoing statements it is obvious that, both directly and +indirectly, very many facts and opinions, that will be adduced as our work +proceeds, will have been derived from Mather's records, and will rest, at +least in part, upon his authority. Consequently, his qualifications, as +observer, reporter, and recorder, are matters not only of interest, but of +some importance. + +Though young when attentive to witchcraft scenes, Mather was learned and +influential. Probably few other persons, if any, in the colonies were then +his equals in those respects. His duties as a clergyman and a citizen, and +his inclination also, led him to be an extensive observer of marvelous +manifestations; he obviously was a lover of such. And his records show +that he was either a closer observer of the minutiæ of transpiring events +of that nature, or a more willing and careful specifier of little things +pertaining to them, full of important meaning to some readers now, yet +probably meaningless to many others, than were most of his cotemporaries; +though Lawson, Hale, and Willard were good at specification, and were more +cautious commentators than Mather. An ignoring of any participation by +spirits in witchcraft scenes has blinded historians in both the eighteenth +and nineteenth centuries to some decided merits in the writings of +Mather. + +The assumption by later commentators that no occurrences whatsoever, which +required more than mortal agency for their production, ever actually +transpired in cases witnessed and described by Mather, has apparently +caused them, consciously or otherwise, to impute to his fancy, credulity, +or other untrustworthy attributes, many things which a moderate +acquaintance on their part with modern manipulations of occult forces by +invisible intelligences would have suggested to them that possibly, and +even probably, his statements of facts were based on positive observations +by his own physical senses, and by the external senses of other observers. +A class of agents are now at work whose cognition may some day turn the +laugh upon overweeningly wise laughers at Cotton Mather. This +circumscribed view as to the actual extent and variety of _natural_ +intelligent agents, and _natural_ laws and forces, has caused them to draw +inferences disparaging to Mather's accuracy in places where more knowledge +of the outworkings of laws and forces which spirits obey and use, would +have given them trust in the essential naturalness and consequent probable +occurrence of nearly or quite all the facts stated in his narrative of +personal observations and experiences--we do not say in the pervading +wisdom and value of his comments and inferences, but in the naturalness +and consequent credibility of his _facts_. + +Where forlorn and wretched old women, together with tricksy and roguish +girls, and a few low-lived, malicious mortals of both sexes are regarded +as the actual authors of all witchcraft phenomena, Mather's reports of +that class of occurrences are an offense--are a stumbling-block in the +pathway of satisfactory solution. So long as his statements are left +unimpeached, such agents as witchcraft has of late been imputed to are +incompetent to the work ascribed to them. That author, therefore, must +needs be discredited; consequently sneer, and slur, and ridicule have been +brought to bear against his accuracy and trustworthiness. Some modern +commentators have made _savage_ use of such weapons upon this original +describer of witchcraft scenes. He has been by innuendoes caricatured and +metamorphosed to an extent which seems distinctly reprehensible. Brightest +minds may sometimes lack knowledge of some existing agents and forces; +good men may be actual, though unintentional perpetrators of great wrong, +when they depict the characters of some predecessors whose words seem +extravagant to such as limit natural actors and forces to those which the +external senses and human science have long been familiar with. + +Our recent readings have led us to regard Mather as a man of more than +common efficiency in acquiring information, and more than common despatch +in putting his acquisitions before the public. We find evidences in his +works that, if he did not acquire, he put forth both more minute and more +extensive knowledge of the marvelous phenomena of his times, than any +other person then living in America of whom we have knowledge. Portions of +his creeds helped him to frankness in description of marvels. His faith +embraced many unseen intelligent agents, both good and bad, moving to and +fro among men, ever walking the earth and influencing its affairs both +"when we wake and when we sleep." Consequently he never had occasion to +inquire whether anything whatsoever was _possible_ which his senses or the +senses of other witnesses seemed to cognize. He doubted not that unseen +powers competent to anything whatsoever were around both him and all other +human beings. His only question was, did the thing occur? If it did, it +was proper to describe it as it appeared to its beholders. _How_ it could +occur was a question which he, as recorder, was not called upon to answer; +and he did not permit it to modify his record. This weakness(?) of his was +fraught with latent strength which becomes beneficent in our day by its +revealing to us the former mysterious irruption upon society of precisely +such _outré_ and seemingly unnatural antics and doings, not only of +animated human forms, but of lifeless household utensils and ornaments, as +we are witnessing. History by him repeats itself to-day, and to-day's +marvels give credibility to his statements. Mather furnished broader and +better bases for judging of the real sources, nature, character, and +extent of witchcraft facts, than we generally get from other persons of +his day. Over-cautious witnesses and reporters often mislead very widely +by failing to tell "the whole truth." + +Some of Mather's statements and doings which were slurred even by his +cotemporary Calef, and have been by later writers also, may deserve more +respectful consideration than has usually been accorded to them. We are +alluding to his manipulations of the afflicted, and other like acts. These +indicate that either his observances and care of bewitched persons, or his +intuitions, were giving him hints of the existence of natural laws and +special conditions which permit mortals to loose, what he conceived to +be,--or at least spoke of as being,--the devil's hold upon human +instruments. We apprehend that he had at least vague surmises that some +things which we now call mesmeric passes and psychological forces might be +so applied by himself as to thwart the purposes and powers of possessing +spirits. We are ready to grant that his use of dawning knowledge or of +inflowed suggestions, whichever of them it was that set his own hands in +motion over the obsessed, and prompted him to influence others to do the +like, produced movements so unskillful that they were seldom very +efficacious; yet we perceive that he moved in direction toward later +discoveries which at this day enable many mortals to exercise much power +toward both inducing and abolishing the control of human beings by +disembodied spirits. There hang about Mather slight indications that he +received some knowledge or some impulses, mediumistically, impressionally, +or intuitively. The fact that, though having much to do with both Mercy +Short and Margaret Rule during the months of their affliction in the year +immediately following the executions at Salem, he refrained from advising +or procuring their prosecution, or the prosecution of any whom they named +as their afflictors, the facts that prayers, fastings, manipulations, and +protracted and unflagging kindnesses and attentions, were his only +appliances, and that both the girls were brought back to their normal +condition, speak very distinctly in favor of Mather's sagacity and +philanthropy, in relation to the bewitched and the bewitchers, that year. + +Though we are disposed to credit this prominent man with all the merits to +which he has fair claim, we are far from regarding him as without foibles, +weaknesses, and traits fitted to mantle the reader's face with smiles. We +dissent from many of his notions, practices, and beliefs; we find him +often swayed by motives which we are not ready to commend. At the same +time we apprehend that many modern critics have paraded his weaknesses, +blemishes, and laughable traits out of all just proportion to the notices, +if any, which they have taken of his genuine merits. + +Mather obviously was vain, egotistical, proud of his descent, greedy of +the favor of great men both of the province and abroad, and was ambitious +of place and influence. But vanity and egotism are not necessarily +incompatible with very extensive learning, nor with great activity and +beneficence, nor with presentation of facts and truths both very fully and +without over-statement or distortion. He wrote hastily--much too hastily, +and loosely oftentimes. More care to verify information and statements +furnished him by other people, and more careful expressions pertaining to +his own observations, experiences, and opinions, would have rendered him a +much more valuable historian than he became. We concede that he was a +loose and immethodical writer; but we fail to find evidence that he often, +if ever, substituted fictions for facts, or made false statements or great +exaggerations. The world is indebted to him for preserving and +transmitting much valuable information. + +This man's estimation of himself and of his ancestry often reveals itself +in extent and manner which provoke smiles. Possibly his egotism was +competent to give him a latent notion that quite as much favor might be +vouchsafed by powers above to his two eminent grandfathers, Revs. Richard +Mather and John Cotton, to his father, Rev. Increase Mather, President of +Harvard College, and to himself, as Heaven had in store for any mortals; +and if any one of the four should be the special favorite of supernal +intelligence, why not himself, in whom the blood of the other three was +combined? If any quite honorable Public position was devoid of an +incumbent, or if important literary public service was needed, who was +more competent to fill the one, or to the performance of the other, than +himself? He wrote both for and of Sir William Phips, but was not chosen +President, of Harvard College. + +Even egregious egotism is not necessarily incongruous with truth, +kindness, charity, devotion, and great usefulness. With all his faults, we +regard Mather, when compared with most men, as having been very efficient, +well-intentioned, and useful to the community around him. Propensity to +magnify self and whatever self either puts forth or is closely allied to, +may be prevailingly bridled and controlled by other strong inclinations, +and kept within the boundaries of truth. Greed for approbation and +commendation by persons holding high official position, and by all others +whose characters, attainments, or possessions gave them influence in +society, was apparently very strong in Cotton Mather, and the influence of +that greed must generally have swayed him to make no important statements +which would fail to meet, with general credence by his friends and +fellow-townsmen. His account of the Goodwin family is as full of things +hard to be believed as any other portion of his writings; and yet, if he +therein permitted himself to make any other than such statements as would +receive ready credence by many physicians, clergymen, magistrates, and +other influential and truthful persons who had been his fellow-witnesses, +and knew exactly the bounds beyond which he could not go on a basis of +well-observed facts, he would diminish his fame and favor with the public; +and he well knew this. He was not the man to thus put his own reputation +at hazard. His very weaknesses render it probable that he has transmitted +little, if anything, more relating to that family than Boston, as a whole, +was at that time actually believing had just occurred in its midst. It is +not wise, not kind, not just to overlook such characteristics and +circumstances pertaining to a narrator as would naturally hold his speech +within the bounds of credibility. Mather's style and manner, sometimes +admirable, are very often laughable, and are generally loose and +unattractive. But these matters of taste and polish are distinct from his +facts and truthfulness. + +Bad manners, lack of tact, also speech, acts, and omissions unbecoming the +gentleman and the divine, mark portions of Mather's treatment of Calef. +Whether such were his general characteristics, we do not know; probably +they were not. Occupation of the pulpit, as we know by personal +experience, may make a preacher exceedingly sensitive to questionings of +his opinions on any important matters anywhere. His habit of speaking, +week after week, year after year, where none question or controvert, +induces extreme sensitiveness in the mental cuticle. If sick and +overworked, Mather may have been easily nettled into other than his usual +manners when Calef pricked him by opposing his beliefs, and by covert +sneers at some of his actions. In his account of Mercy Short he mentions +his impaired health and overworkings. + +Unfortunately, as we judge, for his posthumous reputation, Mather was +scribe of a convention of clergymen who met and deliberately put forth +advice to the courts and government pertaining to evidence and processes +which might properly be used at trials for the crime of witchcraft. As +scribe, Mather reduced the opinions of the convention to form for +publication, if he had not previously drawn up his own, and at the meeting +obtained their adoption. Since the advice of this convention has been +extensively regarded as disastrous in its results, Mather has been deemed +an efficient, if not the most efficient of all promoters of the executions +at Salem. We seriously question the justice of such imputation upon him, +and we doubt whether the advice of the convention incited to the special +course of action pursued by the courts, though it partially permitted it, +perhaps. That advice commended "a very critical and exquisite caution ... +_that there may be nothing used as a test for the trial of the suspected, +the lawfulness whereof may be doubted by the people of God_." So far, +good. This, to us at this day, looks like a caution to avoid the admission +of _spectral evidence_, as it was then called, and distinct statement is +made that such evidence alone was not enough to justify conviction; also +it looks like a caution against cruel methods of extorting pleas and +confessions. But the concluding paragraph of their advice, which is in the +following words, _may_ have greatly nullified the softening force of all +that preceded it. "We cannot but humbly recommend unto the government the +speedy and vigorous prosecution of such as have rendered themselves +obnoxious, according to the directions given in the laws of God and +wholesome statutes of the English nation, for the detection of +witchcraft." This advice came forth June 15, 1692, just when the flames of +witchcraft at Salem village had become alarming to the whole community; +when scores of people were under arrest there upon suspicion of +witchcraft, and when the courts were anxiously seeking to know how to +conduct their trials. The advice seems to us somewhat ambidexter, holding +forth in one hand exhortations to caution and leniency, and in the other +an exhortation to make vigorous and prompt application of English +witchcraft laws and usages which permitted and implied resort to most +barbarous processes, and admitted all imaginable sorts of evidence. The +general impression upon our mind, made by our recent readings, is, that +the clergy generally were opposed to much reliance upon spectral evidence, +and that their advice was meant to give that impression; while the civil +_magistrates_ at Salem held a different opinion, acted according to it, +and obtained convictions upon spectral evidence in cases where none other +was attainable. It was the civil magistrates, much more than the clergy, +whose opinions, when embodied in action, outwrought the horrors of +Gallows Hill. Therefore we attach less blame to the scribe of the +convention, and to the convention itself, than many others have done. + +Though the belief is wide-spread in the youthful mind of our day that +Cotton Mather was chief begetter of Salem witchcraft, we find no facts to +justify belief that any act of his ever had such intent. His chief acts +known to us which connect him at all with doings there, were his +authorship of the clerical advice just noticed, his presence at the +hanging when Proctor, Willard, Burroughs, and others were executed, when +he said aloud to the multitude which was being incited by a fervent and +touching address from the lips of the doomed Burroughs, "Even the devil +may be changed into an angel of light," and his offer to support five or +six of the afflicted at his own expense for weeks, provided he should be +allowed to treat them by his own preferred process--that of praying and +fasting, and keeping them mostly secluded from public observation. + +Unexplained, his presence at the execution may be supposed to argue that +it was one which had attractions for him--one which it was his pleasure to +be present at. But a very rational supposition of Poole places Mather +before us there in a different light. Proctor and others had been hardly +dealt with by the clergy in and near Salem, and, while confined in Boston +jail awaiting the day of execution, they received such attentions from +Mather, that they requested him to be present as their spiritual adviser +at the closing hour of their earthly lives. Statements by Mather, which +his cotemporaries never contradicted, are to the effect that he never +attended any trial for witchcraft, that no one was ever prosecuted for +that crime by him, or at his suggestion, or by his advice; that his voice +and intentional influence were ever against such proceedings. He also +informs us that he made an offer to support five or six of the Salem +sufferers for weeks at his own expense, if he could have them subjected to +his special charge, so that he could treat them by methods of his own. +Such facts surely indicate that an ardent and active man like him, ever +burning to take part in most popular movements, was not in sympathy with +originators of the violent and barbarous proceedings which were prosecuted +at Salem. Had he relished them he would have been present at the trials. +The facts give spontaneous birth to a presumption that some other motive +than curiosity to witness the executions took him to Salem at the time +when we find him there, and the supposition of Poole that he went there as +the comforter and friend of Proctor and Willard is reasonable, and +probably correct. If it be, the motive of his visit was not only +commendable, but was also in harmony with his general doings in witchcraft +cases that were more specially under his supervision, and is in distinct +antagonism with motives which have been extensively imputed to him. We +apprehend, however, that when others obtained convictions and sentences +for witchcraft, he favored the execution of what he deemed wholesome law. + +We regret that he rudely broke the spell which the hallowing speech and +prayer of the saintly Burroughs were bringing upon the witnessing crowd. +But we question whether the special reputed crime for which Burroughs was +about to die, caused Mather to allude to him as the _devil_. Burroughs, +though a preacher, had not been regularly ordained, or surely not in a way +that satisfied Mather; also he was too regardless of the ordinances of +religion, and too free a thinker, to suit the taste of the pastor of the +North Church in Boston. This was, we think, his great offense in Mather's +view; and this caused the latter to say in reference to one who may have +been more God-like and Christ-like in spirit than himself, "Even the devil +may be changed into an angel of light." That saying, under its +circumstances, is damaging to Mather; yet it does not bear against him in +matters pertaining to witchcraft, but to those of sectarianism or bigotry. + +Mather the _humane_ and Mather the _fame-seeker_ present very different +aspects in their connections with witchcraft. As we view him in cases +where he was leader and director, as those of Mercy Short and Margaret +Rule, matters were so managed that no one was brought to examination upon +suspicion of bewitching them, and Mather's words and acts were uniformly +designed to prevent any arraignment. Prayer, fastings, manipulations, and +all practicable privacy and quiet were his preferred appliances for +closing up the devil's avenues of access, and of barring him off from man. +This was Mather the _humane_, was Mather the _practical pastor_. But when +the courts and men of influence and high position had applied, as they +interpreted them, "the laws of God and the wholesome statutes of the +English nation for the detection of witchcraft," the thirster for public +approbation, not only refrained from protest against bloodshed, but lacked +modesty enough to hold him back from hinting that his own productions +might have helped on the beneficent work which had been accomplished; for +he carefully let the world know that Mr. _Mather, the younger_, drew up +the advice of the ministers to the court; and after having written out an +account of the trials at Salem, he said, "I shall rejoice that God is +glorified, if the publication of these trials may promote such a pious +thankfulness to God _for justice being so far executed among us_," as the +ministers piously expressed in their advice. This was Mather the +fame-seeker, the ecclesiastic, and the subject of their Majesties, William +and Mary. Mather was not a well-balanced man. Consistency all round was +not conspicuous in him, yet he was consistent in his own treatment and +management of all his special patients, and also in his efforts to make it +known that himself might deserve some meed of merit for the murderous +course pursued by the authorities for stopping the ravages of the evil +one. + +From early manhood to the close of his life, Mather was an unfaltering +believer in Protestant Christendom's great witchcraft devil, backed by +countless hosts of lesser ones, and he also believed in her special +witchcraft. He had full faith in a devil as ubiquitous, active, and +malignant as his own vigorous and expansive intellect could conjure up; +had faith that extra manifestations of afflictive might, of knowledge, or +of suffering in the outer world were produced by the devil, and faith also +that even that mighty evil one was unable to afflict men outwardly, +excepting either at the call or by the aid of some human servant who had +entered into a covenant with his Black Majesty. The woe-working points of +this man's faith were, that special covenantings with the devil were +entered into by human beings, in consequence of which the covenanting +mortals became witches--that is, they thence became able to command all +his powers, as well as he theirs; also that only through such covenanted +ones could he or his do harm to the bodies and external possessions of +men. Therefore, he reasoned, that, whenever extra and unaccountable +malignant action appeared, some covenanter with the devil must be in the +neighborhood of the malignant manifestation. + +And yet, practically, Mather was not disposed to let the public get +knowledge of the covenanter. His choice was, to keep secret the names of +bewitched actors, the afflictors of the suffering ones, and to strive by +prayers, fastings, manipulations, &c., to relieve the unhappy sufferers. +Had his policy been adopted by the public, had his example been widely +followed, there would have been no execution for witchcraft in his +generation. + +We can--and we are glad that we can--state that Mather's faith embraced +some other invisible beings than malicious ones, who had access to man. In +that respect he probably differed from, and was favored above, most of the +clergy and church members of his times; and perhaps his possession of +faith in the ministry of _good_ angels made him a more lenient handler and +more patient observer of the afflicted, than were most of his +cotemporaries. His prolonged attention to Martha Goodwin, to Mercy Short, +to Margaret Rule, and his offer to take care of five or six Salem ones if +he could be allowed the management of them, bespeak kindness in him above +what was common in his age toward those deemed to be under "an evil hand." +He once wrote thus:-- + +"In the present evil world it is no wonder that the evil angels are more +_sensible_ than those of the good ones. Nevertheless it is very certain +that the _good_ angels continually, without any defilement, fly about in +our defiled atmosphere _to minister_ for the good of them that are the +heirs of salvation.... Now, though the angelic ministration is usually +behind the curtain of more visible instruments and their actions, yet +sometimes it hath been with extraordinary circumstances made more obvious +to the sense of the faithful." + +He was not unmindful and did not omit to record the fact that "the +enchanted people talked much of a _white spirit_, from whence they +received marvelous assistances.... Margaret Rule had a frequent view of +his bright, shining, and glorious garments, ... and says he told her that +God had permitted her afflictions to befall her for the unspeakable and +everlasting good of her own soul, and for the good of many others; and for +his own immortal glory." + +When a being or beings of such glorious appearance present themselves, and +when their utterances and influences are elevating and blissful, it is not +wise to ignore them. The very laws which permit the advent of low and dark +spirits are natural, and can be availed of, on fitting occasions and +conditions, by elevated and bright ones; therefore wisdom invites man to +solicit and prepare the way for visits by the latter class. + +The courtesy of S. F. Haven, Esq., the accomplished librarian of the +American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass., recently permitted us to +see a long-lost and recently discovered manuscript, giving, in Cotton +Mather's handwriting, an account of Mercy Short. We judge from cursory +perusal of a modern manuscript copy of Mather's account, that the +librarian had ample grounds for reporting to the society that Mercy +Short's was "a case similar to that of Margaret Rule, but _of greater +interest and fuller details_." He further remarked in his report, that "it +will be remembered that the account of Margaret Rule was not published by +Mather himself, but by his enemy Calef, who by some means obtained +possession of it. The story of Mercy Short, from an indorsement upon it, +appears to have been privately circulated among his friends, but there is +nothing to show that Mather ever intended it for publication."--_S. F. +Haven's Report, April 29, 1874._ + +Common fairness requires all modern critics to remember and regard the +fact that Mather's accounts of Mercy Short and Margaret Rule were never +given to the public by himself; that they never received his revision and +correction for the press. Because of this they perhaps come to us more +alive with the spirit of frankness and sincerity, and with more detail of +little incidents. Unstudied records are generally honest and substantially +accurate, even if marred by looseness of style and expression, and by +statements of wonders. + +Our views would require us to refrain from calling Calef _Mather's_ +"enemy," as the librarian did. He was the enemy of _unscriptural_ +definitions of witchcraft, and of unjustifiable proceedings against those +accused of it; but not, as we read his purposes and feelings, the enemy of +Mather himself. He was the enemy of opinions of which Mather was a +conspicuous and outspoken representative, and whose writings furnished +provoking occasion for an attack upon disastrous errors. + +We trust the public may ere long see Mather's account of Mercy Short in +print. That, and the one of Margaret Rule, show us very authentically, and +we can almost say _beautifully_, the temper of Mather witch-ward, in the +spring and autumn of the year next following the memorable 1692. Nothing +then inclined him to ways that led to human slaughter. The conditions, +seeming acts, and surroundings of those two girls apparently gave him +opportunity and power to evoke a repetition of Salem's fearful scenes, in +which the modern world has been deluded to believe that his soul found +pleasure. If that soul loved blood, it could easily have set it flowing in +1693, and found wherewith to gratify its appetite; but _it did not_. + +One of the questions of great importance which received earnest discussion +in witchcraft times, perhaps the most important of all in practical +bearings, had Mather and Calef both on the same side, and consequently it +was not dwelt upon in their controversy. Our reference is to the +_validity_ of "_spectral evidence_,"--that is, of testimony given by those +who obviously perceived the facts they testified to while in an entranced, +clairvoyant, or other abnormal condition. Some--many--able and good men +then maintained that such testimony, unbacked by any other, might justify +conviction of witchcraft, while quite as many, equally able and good men, +including most of the clergy, maintained that such testimony alone was not +sufficient. + +Another disputed point was, whether Satan could assume the shape of an +innocent person, and in that shape do mischief to the bodies and estates +of mankind. The same question, partially, is up to-day--viz., Can any but +willing devotees to Satan be used in the processes of spirit +manifestations? Our two combatants were not at variance here--both had +faith that Satan, the then synonym of _Spirits_, whether good or bad, +could employ the innocent in prosecuting his purposes. + +On the question whether Satan was obliged to use some mortal in covenant +with himself whenever he harmed another mortal, they differed, as has been +already shown, Mather claiming that human co-operation was frequently, if +not always, needful to any manifestation of witchcraft. But in 1698 he put +this among what he conceived to be "mistaken principles." We do not recall +any other point on which he expressed change of view, nor do we find him +making confessions of personal wrong-doings in connection with witchcraft; +neither does he seem to have had cause for either confession or +repentance, if kindness, leniency, and good-will to man are not to be +confessed and repented of as crimes. + + + + +ROBERT CALEF. + + +Robert Calef, though probably not in advance of many others in detecting +and dissenting mentally from the public errors of faith and practice in +relation to witchcraft, was first to manifest nerve enough to speak out +boldly his own thoughts and those of many others. Backed and aided +probably by strong and learned men, he became to Christendom's witchcraft, +as Martin Luther had been to its Roman creeds and practices, a bold, +outspoken _protestant_. Each of them dared to brave strong currents of +popular beliefs and practices, even when the course was encompassed with +dangers. Each probably was moved and sustained by firm conviction that +truth, right, and justice were on his side; each had nerve enough to stand +firm and resolute in his self-chosen post of danger and philanthropy; and +each was, to great extent, successful. Luther challenged the pope and his +devotees to justify portions of their creed and practices, and Calef did +the same to Cotton Mather, as a leading annunciator and expounder of the +witchcraft creed. Luther and Calef each conceded that much in the creed of +those whom he contested was founded on Scripture, and so far was +impregnable; but they saw that many unauthorized and baneful appendages +had been put upon true scriptural faith and instructions, and each labored +to sever the true and good from the false and bad with which the currents +of opinions and events had long been investing them. Neither of them, +however, discerned all the errors and pernicious practices which have +since become visible. Luther, though he saw, or at least heard, and +scolded, and threw his ink-horn at Catholicism's devil, did not discard, +but retained, in his Protestant creed, both him and witchcraft as they +then existed in the Catholic belief. Calef conceded the positive existence +of Mather's great personal witchcraft devil of supernal origin, vast +power, and ever-burning malignity, but found him commissioned only by +God--never by human witches, as it was then generally believed he was and +must be, when he manifested his power through or upon man. + +We are much in doubt as to whether Calef was properly _author_ of a large +part of what he published relating to witchcraft. The articles he put +forth from time to time seem to us very varied in style and in merits as +to their scholarly and rhetorical airs. It is said, in vol. i. p. 288, +Mass. Hist. Soc. Records, that "Calef was furnished with materials for his +work by Mr. Brattle of Cambridge, and his brother of Boston, and other +gentlemen who were opposed to the Salem proceedings." He may have had--and +we conjecture that he had--much help in putting his materials into the +form in which they came before the public. We are able to learn very +little concerning the man himself. It is usual to style him a Boston +merchant, but Mather alludes to him as that "weaver," &c. + +Whatever may have been his culture, occupation, character, or social +position, he assumed the responsibility of what is imputed to him--and we +very willingly leave uncontested both his claims to have been author of +all that he subscribed to, and to be called a Boston _merchant_. + +Calef went into his work in deep earnest, and perhaps from a strong sense +of duty to God and man; he perceived that departure from teachings and +requirements of the Scriptures, and adoption of opinions, processes of +examination, and kinds of evidence which the Scriptures did not prescribe, +had occasioned the chief woes of witchcraft, and therefore devoted much +time to the work of producing great and needed change in public opinion. +He continued for some time to write clearly and forcibly to Mather; but, +failing there to get his fundamental questions squarely and satisfactorily +met, after months of trial, addressed a letter "to the ministers, whether +English, French, or Dutch," upon this subject; this general application, +however, failed to bring a response. Next he tried the Rev. Samuel Willard +individually, then "all the ministers in and near Boston;" afterward Rev. +Benjamin Wadsworth singly; but his success in eliciting replies was so +meager, that we apparently may apply to those from whom he sought +information the following words which he used in reference to some who had +defined rules by which to detect witchcraft,--viz., "Perhaps the force of +a prevailing opinion, together with an education thereto suited, might +overshadow their judgments." His dates show that his calls for either +refutation or assent to his positions were continued for two or three +years, and that he was not simply or mainly an opponent of Mather, but an +earnest seeker for light. In 1700, his collected correspondence, together +with much other matter from Mather's pen and other sources, was published +in London, and entitled "_More_ wonders of the Invisible World," Mather +having previously published "Wonders of the Invisible World." + +This clear-sighted, earnest, untiring spirit soon gained the public ear +extensively, began to enlighten the public mind, and turn it into new +channels of thought and inquiry. Though not a polished, he was an +intelligible, logical, and forceful writer in the main, and did much +toward accomplishing the reformation to which he devoted his energies. + +Calef was a moral hero, and bravely did noble work in bringing flood tides +of murderous fanaticism, error, and delusion to an ebb, and in barring +channels against their return. His appropriate stand in history's niches +may be at the head of Witchcraft Reformers--not repudiators, but +_Reformers_. + + + + +THOMAS HUTCHINSON. + + +During nearly one hundred years, from about the middle of the eighteenth +to that of the nineteenth century, the American public has been content to +leave unlifted concealing drapery which the historian Hutchinson threw +over witchcraft. His treatment of that subject is plausible and soothing +to cursory readers, but superficial and unsatisfactory to minds which test +the competency of agents to produce effects ascribed to them. His views +have been so widely adopted and so long prevalent, that we must regard him +as having been more influential than any other writer in hiding the +gigantic limbs, features, and operations of what was with reason a +veritable monster in the eyes of its beholders. In him some reprehensible +qualities were conjoined with many admirable ones. Appleton's New American +Cyclopædia states that "Thomas Hutchinson was born in Boston in 1711, and +died at Brampton, near London, 1780. He was graduated at Harvard College, +1727. He became Judge of Probate in 1752, was Councillor from 1749 to +1756, Lieutenant Governor from 1758 to 1771, and was appointed Chief +Justice in 1760, thus holding four high offices at one time. In the +disputes which led to the Revolution, he sided with the British +government.... He received his commission as Governor in 1771; and his +whole administration was characterized by duplicity and an avaricious love +of money, writing letters which he never sent, but which he showed as +evidence of his zeal for the liberties of the province, while he advised +the establishment of a citadel in Boston," &c. + +The History of Massachusetts by the pen of this man has sterling merits, +and is of great value. That work and the bestowal of so many high offices +upon him indicate that his abilities, acquisitions, and performances were +of high order. His comments upon subjects which he discussed, and facts +which he presented, were prevailingly fair, and very instructive. When he +perceived--and he generally did--the genuine significance of his facts, +reasoned from them _all_, and allowed to each its proper weight, he was a +spirited, lucid, and valuable interpreter and guide. But when he +encountered and adduced extraordinary facts, which baffled his power to +account for in harmony with his prejudgments and fixed conclusions as to +where natural agents and forces cease to act, he could very skillfully +keep in abeyance the most distinguishing and significant aspects of such +troublesome materials. That damaging moral weakness which let him write +letters which he never sent, for the purpose of exhibiting them as +evidence of his support of the popular cause, perhaps also let him be +other than manly and frank when he encountered a certain class of facts +which seemed to him "more than natural." The whole subject of witchcraft +was nettlesome to him. His pen very often indicated a testy, disturbed, +and sometimes a contemptuous mover when it characterized persons who had +been charged with that crime; and concerning such he recorded many hasty +and unsatisfactory opinions and conclusions. A glimpse at the probable and +almost necessary state of public opinion and knowledge concerning +spiritual forces and agents about the middle of the eighteenth century, +will detect serious difficulties besetting any witchcraft historian's path +at that time, and dispose us to look in clemency upon his hypotheses and +conclusions, even though they be far from satisfactory. + +The intense strain given to the prevalent monstrous creed concerning the +devil, when its requirements were vigorously enforced at Salem Village in +1692, ruptured that creed itself; and no substitute for it under which the +phenomena of witchcraft could be referred to competent authors and forces +had been obtained in 1767. The public formerly had believed that either +One Great Devil and his sympathetic imps, or embodied human beings who had +made a covenant with him, must be the authors of all mysterious malignant +action upon men, because no other unseen rational agents were recognized +as having access to man. All acts deemed witchcrafts, therefore, were the +devil's. But belief devil-ward had changed at Hutchinson's day. The Great +Devil's use of covenanted children, women, and men as his only available +instrumentalities, had ceased to be asserted; the fathering of all +mysterious works upon him and his had become an obsolete custom. Its +revival might not meet kindly reception by the public; it probably would +be distasteful to people whom tragic experience had not very long since +taught to distrust and disown his Black Majesty's sway over material +things, and were also chagrined that their fathers had held undoubting +faith in his powers and operations over and upon things temporal and +palpable. The devil had been credited with more than he performed or had +power to accomplish. Reflection had brought conviction that other +intermeddlers existed than purely Satanic ones. And yet the culture and +science of those times were incompetent to furnish an historian with any +satisfactory evidence that any intelligent actors excepting the devil and +human beings acted in and upon human society. Devil or man, one or the +other, according to the then existing belief, must have enacted +witchcraft. Whether the devil did, had been under consideration for more +than seventy years, and public judgment declared him not guilty. What, +therefore, was the historian's necessity? He was forced to make embodied +human beings its sole enactors. No wonder that the necessity made him +petulant when facts and circumstances forced from his pen intimations that +mere children and old women were competent and actual authors of some +manifestations which, to his own keen and philosophic intellect, seemed +"more than natural." "More than natural" in his sense they obviously +were. A distinct perception that the good _God's_ disembodied children, as +well as the devil's, can naturally traverse avenues earthward, and +manifest their powers among men, would have enabled him to account +philosophically for all the mysteries of those days. But "the fullness of +time" for that had not then come. + + + + +C. W. UPHAM. + + +In 1867, just, one century after Hutchinson, Hon. Charles W. Upham, of +Salem, Mass., published an elaborate, polished, interesting and +instructive "History of Witchcraft and Salem Village." The connection of +two such topics as a local history and a general survey of witchcraft in +one work, was very appropriate and judicious in this case, because Salem +Village, which embraced the present town of Danvers and parts of other +towns adjacent, was the site of the most extensive and awful conflict +which men ever waged in avowed and direct contest with the devil on this +continent, if not in the world. By his course he enabled the reader to +comprehend what kind or quality of men, women, and children they were, +among whom that combat raged. + +Upham's history of the _Village_ and its people is minute, exhaustive, +lucid, sprightly, and ornate. That work clearly shows that the people of +the Village possessed physical, mental, moral, and religious powers, +faculties, traits, trainings, and habits which must have given them +keenness of perception, logical acumen, both physical and moral stamina +and courage, and made them as difficult to delude or cow by novel +occurrences as any other people anywhere, either then, before that time, +or since. The same properties made them intelligent analyzers of their +creed, clear perceivers of its logical reaches, tenacious holders on to +what they believed, and fearless appliers of their faith. Holding, in +common with all Christendom, the deluded and deluding belief that +supermundane works required some human being "covenanted to the devil" for +their performance, this people was ready and able to apply that belief in +righteous fight. Such a people were not very likely to mistake the pranks +of their own children for things supermundane in origin. To suspect them +of such credulity or infatuation is to suspect and impeach the truth and +accuracy of the very history which makes them so clearly and fully known +to us. + +The same faculties and acquirements which furnished so sprightly a history +of the Village, of course made their impress upon the pages devoted to +"_Witchcraft_." And results might have been as pleasing there as in more +external history, had not omission to see and assign spirit causes where +spirit effects existed, forced the author to assume that heavy, effective +cannon balls came forth from pop-guns, because he had not himself seen +cannon in arsenals himself had not visited, and would take nobody's word +for it that such had been available. + +For his own sake we are prone to wish that our personal friend had +recognized that subsequent to the time of his early manhood, when he +delivered and published Lectures upon Witchcraft, and pondered upon its +producing agents and causes, phenomena, like the marvelous ones of former +days, had been transpiring in great abundance all over our land, and that +no less a man than Dr. Robert Hare, of Philadelphia, the correspondent and +peer of Faraday, Silliman, and others of that class, had, by rigid and +exact processes of physical science, actually _demonstrated_ that some +occult force, moved by an intelligence that could and did understand and +comply with verbal requests, repeatedly lifted and lowered the arms of +scale-beams, and made bodies weigh more or weigh less than their normal +weight, at his mental request. The same had been done by Dr. Luther V. +Bell and a band of press reporters in 1857. Such forces, if taken into +account by this historian, would have required a reconstruction and vast +modifications of his long-cherished theory of explanation, and have called +for an immense expenditure of labor and thought. + +Ease and retention of long-cherished notions are seductive to man. It was +easier for the historian to ignore the discovery that natural laws or +forces had always permitted unseen agents to come among us, whose workings +the human brain had long, but unsatisfactorily, been laboring to trace to +adequate causes,--easier to continue to assume that insufficient causes, +lackered in glowing rhetoric, might answer a while longer,--easier to +still hug the dream that little girls and young misses, mainly guileless +and docile in all their previous days, could and did, without professional +instruction and of a sudden, become proficients in the production of +complicated schemes and feats rivaling and even surpassing the most +astonishing ones of highest legerdemain, of jugglery, and of histrionic +art combined,--easier to fancy that these girls rebelled against and set +at defiance parental, medical, ministerial, and friendly authority, acted +like brutes and villains, turned all things upside down with a vengeance, +in the midst of a community clear headed and not easily befooled,--yes, it +was easier to retain all these _outré_ suppositions than to set aside a +pet theory and reconstruct history in conformity with requirements of +discoveries which _others_ had made in advance of this historian, and by +the use of which he could have furnished a truly philosophical and +satisfactory solution of all the marvels of ancient witchcraft. +Infatuation still lingers on the earth, blinding many bright eyes. + +We are hardly sorry that our friend ignored the actual and competent +authors--indeed, we are nearly glad that he did so; for his course +resulted in presentation of many important portions of New England +witchcraft in very lucid, intelligible, and attractive combination, helped +a vast many people to perception of the proximate nature and extent of +strange things done here of old, and enabled the common mind to make +pretty fair estimate of the nature of such forces as were needful to any +agents who should perform such wonders. + +We cheerfully acknowledge great personal indebtedness to that author for +such an exhibition of this subject as shows its mighty influence over +sagacious, strong, calm, good, and able men who were living witnesses and +actors in its scenes; and shows also that common sense will instinctively +feel that the acts imputed to a few illiterate girls and misses were +beyond the powers which nature by her usual and well-known processes ever +bestowed upon them. Philosophy, science, and common sense demand causes +adequate to produce whatever effects are ascribed to them. Histories of +witchcraft have not met these demands. Previous failure in that respect +prompts this effort to present agents whose powers may have been equal to +the works performed in witchcraft scenes. + +The work in hand will necessitate a close grappling with many of our +friend's opinions and processes. But our grip, however firm, will never be +made in unkindness toward or want of respect for him; the object will be +to disclose mistakes, to rescue our forefathers and their children in the +seventeenth century out from under damaging, groundless, needless, +gratuitous imputation of fatuity to the elders, and devilish ingenuity to +the younger ones, and to permit the present and future ages to look back +upon them with respect and sympathy. + +That author is still living, and long may he live in comfort and +usefulness. His biography is not written; a brief outline of him, solely +from this moment's recollections is here given. Not less that fifty years +ago, we knew him as a student at Harvard,--afterward, for many years, as a +respected and successful clergyman at Salem,--still later, in political +office, especially as member of Congress,--and for many of the more recent +years, as a student and author at home. He has commanded and retains our +high respect. + +The scholar, rhetorician, statistician, fictionist, and dramatist, all +blend harmoniously in him, give an uncommon charm to his "History of Salem +Village," and render it a work which bespeaks wide and abiding interest +with the public. It is no essential part of the philosopher's specific +labors to discover or test new agents, forces, or facts. His dealings +mostly are with facts known and admitted. Till one concedes the fact of +spirit action upon persons and things in earth life, he cannot +philosophically admit that spirit forces were ever employed in the +production of any phenomenon, but must regard all as purely material or +within the scope of ordinary human faculties. Therefore we can, perhaps, +with propriety regard our friend as also a philosopher; but must add, that +he either lacked knowledge of or ignored the agents and forces that +produced many witchcraft phenomena which he attempted to elucidate, and +many others of the same character which he failed to adduce from the +earlier records; which agents and forces must be allowed their actual and +full connection with their own effects before philosophy can furnish just, +clear, and satisfactory solutions of their source and nature. + + + + +MARGARET JONES. + + +The great endemic witchcraft at Salem Village in 1692 has been extensively +ascribed to the voluntary acts of a few girls and women, who are sometimes +credited with having derived much knowledge from books, traditions, weird +stories, and the like, and thus obtained hints and instructions whereby +they were enabled to devise, and, acting upon the credulity and +infatuation of their time, to enact, and did enact, that great and +thrilling performance, without supermundane aid. Was it so? An examination +of several sporadic cases which preceded that famous outburst of +mysterious operations, may indicate strong need to assign many witchcraft +manifestations to causes and forces lying off beyond the reach of man's +ordinary faculties, for we perceive in them the operation of powers which +he never acquired, nor can acquire, by reading, listening, or by any +training processes. + +Hutchinson says, "The great noise which the New England witchcraft made +throughout the English dominions proceeded more from the general panic +with which all sorts of persons were seized, and an expectation that the +contagion would spread to all parts of the country, than from the number +of persons who were executed; more having been put to death in a single +county in England in a short space of time, than have suffered in New +England from the first settlement until the present time. Fifteen years +had passed before we find any mention of witchcraft among the English +colonists.... The first suspicion of witchcraft among the English was +about the year 1645." + +We commence now an examination of several of the earlier cases, and begin +with MARGARET JONES. + +There is extant, in the handwriting of the judge before whom she was +tried, a summary of the evidence adduced against this woman, who, in 1648, +was tried, condemned, and executed in Boston for the crime of witchcraft; +and who thus became, so far as we now know, the first American victim in +Christendom's carnal warfare against the devil. Unconsciously to herself +surely, but yet in fact, she may have been, as we sometimes view her, +America's first martyr to _Spiritualism_. + +The chief knowledge of this case now attainable is furnished by the +Journal of Governor John Winthrop, who was both governor of the colony and +chief judge of its highest court in 1648, and presided at the trial of +Margaret Jones. His position on the bench gave him opportunity, and made +it his duty, to know precisely what was charged, what testified, and what +proved in the case. The character of that recorder is good voucher for an +honest and candid statement as far as it goes. His record states that,-- + +"In 1648, one Margaret Jones, of Charlestown, was indicted and found +guilty of witchcraft, and hanged for it. The evidence against her was, +that she was found to have such a malignant touch, as many persons, men, +women, and children, whom she stroked or touched with any affection or +displeasure, or, &c., were taken with deafness, or vomiting, or other +violent pains or sickness; that, practicing physic, and her medicines +being such things as, by her own confession, were harmless, as anise-seed, +liquors, &c., yet had extraordinary violent effects; that she used to tell +such as would not make use of her physic, that they would never be healed, +and accordingly their diseases and hurts continued, with relapses against +the ordinary course, and beyond the apprehension of all physicians and +surgeons; that things which she foretold came to pass accordingly; other +things she could tell of, as secret speeches, &c., which she had no +ordinary means to come to knowledge of; in the prison, in the clear +daylight, there was seen in her arms, she sitting on the floor, and her +clothes up, &c., a little child, which ran from her into another room, and +the officer following it, it was vanished. The like child was seen in two +other places to which she had relation; and one maid, that saw it, fell +sick upon it, and was cured by the said Margaret, who used means to be +employed to that end." + +Thus much was recorded by Winthrop in 1648. But the quantum of information +relative to Margaret Jones which historic selection deemed needful for the +public in 1764 had become very small, for at the latter date Hutchinson +says (vol. i. p. 150), "The first instance I find of any person executed +for witchcraft, was in June, 1648. Margaret Jones, of Charlestown, was +indicted for a witch, found guilty, and executed. She was charged with +having such a malignant touch that if she laid her hands upon man, woman, +or child in anger, they were seized presently with deafness, vomiting, or +other sickness, or some violent pains." + +Those few sharp lines comprise the whole of that historian's account of +this case. He gives no hint that the woman was accused of anything but _a +malignant touch_; therefore he falls long way short of fair presentation +of the facts. He leaves entirely unnoticed the chief grounds for just +inferences and conclusions. Whether that writer had access to Winthrop's +record we do not know. But the historian Upham had, and he states (vol. i. +p. 453), "The only real charge proved upon Margaret Jones was, that she +was a successful practitioner, using only simple remedies." _The only +charge proved!_ What can that mean? There surely were several other and +much more marvelous and significant things just as clearly charged and +"proved upon" her as was her successful use of simple remedies. The only +thing _proved_! If that thing was proved, then the same document which +teaches this, also teaches with equal distinctness that five or six other +things were proved upon her; and the greater part of these others were +difficult of solution by the philosophies of both the historians named +above. Turn back to Winthrop's account, and see what was charged. + +1. When she manipulated either man, woman, or child, some nausea, pain, or +disease was forthwith engendered in the subject of her operations. + +2. Her very simple medicines, viz., anise-seed and liquors produced +extraordinary violent effects. + +3. She told such as would not take her physic that they would never be +healed; and accordingly their diseases and hurts continued, with relapses +against the ordinary course. + +4. Things which she foretold came to pass accordingly. + +5. She could tell of secret speeches which she had no ordinary means to +come to knowledge of. + +6. While in prison, in the clear daylight, there was seen in her arms ... +a little child ... which at the officer's approach ran and vanished. + +7. The maid that fell sick at sight of that child "was cured by the said +Margaret, who used means to be employed to that end." + +The _only_ charge _proved_? If it was proved that "she was a successful +practitioner, using only simple remedies," then each one of the other six +is just as clearly proved as her successful practice, and by the same +document, too. But some of them are more difficult to account for on +sadducean grounds, and were left unnoticed. Even the admitted marvel is +put forth in distorted form, being so draped as to teach that the woman +was a _successful_ medical practitioner, while the original record reads +that her simples produced extraordinary _violent_ effects. No doubt she +was in an important sense "a successful practitioner, using only simple +remedies." But that is not what the testimony specially stated. The +historic evidence is, that her simples produced "_violent effects_." Her +fate teaches that the action of her simples was deemed diabolical. Is that +idea conveyed in calling her a successful practitioner? No. + +The case of this woman is vastly more instructive than it has been deemed +by former expounders; and since, in its varied features and aspects, it +presents many interesting points, we shall dwell upon it at considerable +length. + +Nothing has been met with in her history which conflicts with supposition +that she and her husband, perhaps in or below the middle ranks of society, +were laboring for a livelihood amid a clear-headed, sagacious, hardy, +industrious community, which had resided twenty years around the mouth of +the Charles without any startling witchcraft among them, or any teachers +of that art, (?) or skillful co-operators in its practice. Something +induced her to lay hands upon and administer simple medicines to the +pained, the sick, or the wounded. Whence the impulse? We can hardly +suppose that she had studied medicine. A nurse she may have been--very +likely had been--and perhaps had become conscious of ability to relieve +sufferings and disease, and may have been known by her neighbors to be +willing to practice the healing art. Obviously they became accustomed to +submit themselves to her manipulations and medical treatment quite +extensively, and at length were astonished at the extreme efficacy of her +hands, and the sometimes _violent_ action of her simple medicines. + +So extraordinary were the effects of her labors that the neighborhood +became suspicious that an obnoxious _one from below_ was her helper, and +therefore she was arrested on suspicion of witchcraft. + +What persons would be summoned into court to testify concerning her when +such was the charge? Her patients promiscuously? No. Only such among them +as had, or as would swear that they had, received suffering or annoyance +under her treatment. Search would be made for harm only, and not for any +good which she had done. More moral courage and strength than are common +would be needed to induce those not summoned, and who had nothing but good +which they could say of her operations, to try to get upon the witness +stand where witchcraft was the alleged offense. All the testimony, either +sought, or given, was, no doubt, intended to bear against her; and yet it +comes to our view that the sickened maid "was cured by the said Margaret, +who used means to be employed to that end." Beneficence as well as "murder +will out" sometimes. + +The various powers manifested through her are worthy of separate +examination. + +1. _When she manipulated either man, woman, or child, some nausea, pain, +or disease was forthwith engendered in the subject of her operations._ +That is the only crime which Hutchinson seems to have found laid to her +charge; it is the only one he puts to the credit of her persecutors, and +thus he leaves them heavily indebted on humanity's ledger. If the +testimony were not mainly sheer fabrication, some extraordinary efficacy +went forth from her imposed hands, and apparently on many different +occasions, too; for the account stating that effects were similar upon +men, women, and children, indicates that she was an extensive operator. + +Mesmer had not then made his discoveries. But the powers always resided in +living forms which he detected and measurably learned to educe and +control. Margaret Jones's system may have been a very powerful magnetic +battery, controlled sometimes by her own will, sometimes moved by and +giving passage-way to impersonal magnetic forces, and sometimes also used +by that intelligence outside of man which Agassiz and Brown-Séquard say +(see Appendix) can operate through his organism. Both intensification and +mitigation of pains, diseases, and the forces of medicines are credible +results from her manipulations. + +As said before, only those portions of the primitive document which relate +to the efficacy of her hands and her simples, drew forth comments from the +historians; they also failed to set forth a tithe of the significance +which was involved in the little they did attempt to unfold. Such action +of hands and very simple medicines upon the systems of men, women, and +children is not satisfactorily accounted for either by ascribing it, as +one did, to the anger of the operating woman, nor, as the other did, to +the simple medicines acting normally. Such causes could never have +produced effects competent to so startle an intelligent and firm-nerved +community as to make them charge this practitioner with diabolism, and +seek her execution. The implied infatuation and credulity of a generation +which could be roused to such barbarity by such insignificant causes is a +most defamatory impeachment of the sagacity, manhood, and humaneness of +our forefathers. Our witchcraft expounders, we apprehend, have allowed +themselves to sacrifice very much that was bright and noble in the past, +on the altar of false assumption that modern scientists, or at least that +their own wise historic intellects, have explored all the recesses of +broad nature, and positively determined that no forces can anywhere exist +by which supermundane acts can legitimately be brought to the cognizance +of man. The merits of the fathers are darkened, that the arrogance of the +children may be labeled Wisdom. + +Many men of no mean intellects have admitted that a spirit once came forth +from a man "and leaped" on the seven exorcist sons of one Sceva, "and +overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that +house naked and wounded." The mind which believes that record ought to be +in condition to admit that possibly spirits could throw forth power +through the hands of such as Margaret Jones which would produce pains, +nausea, and disease in those whom the mediums touched, provided the +spirits desired such results. It was no unprecedented event in kind, if, +through her, some unseen force tortured the bodies of any who, as spies, +enemies, mimickers, or rivals, sought an imposition of her hands; not new +that torturing sensations should be produced when the magnetisms of the +operator and subject were as alkali and acid to each other; nor new that +her own spirit of resentment for wrongs either received or foresensed, +thus operated. But favor too might often induce either her or a spirit +through her to produce _violent effects_ at first, unless our doctors +prescribe emetics and cathartics in unkindness or malice. + +Read the following statement, which I have just written down from the lips +of a neighbor whom I have known well for nearly or quite ten years, and +whose truthfulness is as complete as that of any other one whatsoever in +the whole circle of my acquaintances:-- + + "In the autumn of 1869, a woman in South Boston who knew me, advised + one of her neighbors who was sick of fever to send for me and receive + treatment by my hands. The patient's husband, a robust mechanic, had + little faith in helpful efficacy from 'laying on of hands.' Still, + curiosity or some other motive induced him and three other men to + observe my processes and their effects. They witnessed very marked + contractions of the sick woman's muscles, and many spasmodic movements + of her limbs. When I ceased working upon my patient, her husband said, + 'Do you suppose you can affect _me_ in the same way?' My reply was, 'I + don't know--probably not; but if you desire me to try, I will.' 'Yes,' + said he, 'try.' 'Sit down, then, sir, in the chair where your wife + sat.' He did so, and I operated for a short time without perceptible + effect, but was soon impressed to say to him, 'Strike me on the small + of the back,'--simultaneously placing my back so that he could give it + a fair, hard blow, which he was by no means unwilling to inflict. + After his first stroke I called out, 'Harder!' After the second, + '_Harder!_' After the third, he was instantly cramped up, his arms + were hugged in upon and across his chest, the muscles on them were + much enlarged, intensely hardened, and not obedient to his will, and + he lustily begged, 'Let me down! let me down! let me down!' while the + other men, the sick wife, and myself laughed till we were exhausted. I + had no will in producing, nor any design to effect any such results. + + "J. W. CROSBY. + + "BOSTON, April 30, 1874." + +2. The testimony indicates that her _very simple medicines, such as +anise-seed and liquors, produced extraordinary violent effects_. This is +credible. Extraordinary effects were produced by magnetized handkerchiefs +in the days of Paul, and to-day, even pure water, placed beneath the hands +of some peculiar mediums, or beneath the tips of their fingers, sometimes +absorbs or is made to manifest the medicinal properties of wine, ipecac, +or of other substances desired; and such mediums are often very +"successful practitioners using only simple remedies." The action of what +they administer need not be psychological in any proper sense of that +term: that is, the patient need not be informed, nor have suspicion, that +the water is medicated thus; though any persons upon whom the action is +very perceptible, probably, must be constitutionally mediumistic. By +personal observation we have learned that water may be so medicated by +unseen infusion from unseen source, as to taste like, and operate like, +either ipecac or wine, according to the properties which some unseen +intelligence to whom needs are transparent, and who can sicken or refresh +at pleasure, has gathered from the atmosphere or elsewhere and infused +into that water. When public vigilance had been roused to suspicion around +this woman, it is not improbable that many persons, belligerent +devil-ward, sought a test of her powers, and that some of them +(susceptible ones) felt or drank in what caused "deafness, or vomiting, or +other pains or sickness"--not improbable that on some of them her simples +had "_violent_ effects." Persons thus affected would make up nearly the +whole class from whom witnesses at her trial would be selected. If she had +been generally a producer of only pains and sickness, her practice would +soon have dwindled to nothing, and she would have lived on without +molestation. "A successful practitioner," simply as such, would never have +been arraigned. + +Upham detected the significant fact in the case, that her simple remedies +were so efficacious as to make her a successful practitioner; yes;--but +was simply successful medical practice the chief reason why her neighbors +charged diabolism? What amount of success in alleviating the sufferings +that flesh is heir to would invoke public vengeance? How much beneficence +did one then need to perform before public sentiment, would reprobate its +author? Could such faculties and agents alone as are normally and +ordinarily used, enable a woman to achieve such success in curing +diseases, healing wounds, and alleviating pains, as to arouse an +intelligent and religious community to arrest and try her for a capital +offense against the well-being of society? Never. Did the historian notice +his own back-handed imputation of atrocious diabolism upon the population +of Charlestown when he led his readers to infer that they persecuted one +of their number unto an ignominious death, solely because "she was a +successful practitioner using only simple remedies"? Whether he saw it or +not, his explanation made her neighbors take the life of this woman +because of the good works she had done among them. Some theory of +explanation which will exempt us from the necessity of assenting to +gratuitous aspersions of the sagacity and sentiments of justice pertaining +to our ancestry in the mass, is very desirable. Margaret Jones was a very +successful _healing medium_, and therefore her works were mysteries. + +Having noticed the only two allegations in this case which the historians +have deemed worthy of specification or had courage to adduce, and having +seen that Hutchinson ascribed her persecution to her own anger flowing out +through her hands, while Upham ascribed it to her great success as a +healer, we will just note the fact that the former historian generally +indicated an abiding apprehension that those who _were persecuted_ for the +crime in question, were the parties most to be blamed; while the latter, +oftener than otherwise, throws the chief blame upon the _persecutors_. In +this instance the earlier historian makes her anger,--a trait which is +blamable,--while the latter makes her beneficence,--a commendable +characteristic,--the chief exciting cause to her condemnation and +execution. + +We proceed to examine other original charges more difficult to solve +plausibly on the hypotheses of Hutchinson and Upham than were anger and +successful medical practice; charges not amenable to any philosophy +entertained by those expounders. + +3. "_She used to tell such as would not make use of her physic that they +would never be healed; and, accordingly, their diseases and hurts +continued; with relapses against the ordinary course_," &c. It is very +common in our day for clairvoyance to see, or--more broadly and +instructively--it is common for mediumistic faculties to _sense_ and feel +sure, that the existing tendency of a patient's disease will soon +terminate in death, if not checked by some peculiar medicinal agent, often +a spiritual one, or one medicated by spirits, which ordinary physicians +are ignorant of, will not prescribe, and cannot obtain. The evidence which +Judge Winthrop reports, shows that "the diseases and hurts" of recusants +to take her prescriptions, not only continued to remain unhealed, but +underwent such changes and relapses as physicians and surgeons could not +understand. Since such things occurred in accordance with her predictions, +we here perceive strong evidence that the woman possessed uncommon +susceptibilities for _sensing_ coming results. _It is just as clearly +proved_ that she foretold specific events, as it is that her touch was +malignant, and her practice successful. Her marvelous prescience, which +was one of her conspicuous powers, the historians failed to set forth. +Their philosophy, founded only on such materials as are recognized in +man's physical sciences, was too narrow to embrace occult natural agents +and forces by which such prescient powers could be drawn or put forth +through some human organisms and produce marvelous results. Therefore +those expounders let such facts remain undisturbed in the rarely visited +closets where they have long reposed. + +4. _Things which she foretold came to pass accordingly._ That is, events +verified her predictions, and thus proved her exercise of marvelously +prophetic powers. Should one assume that her verified predictions were +only skillful or lucky guesses, would such assumption be fair and just +toward the people who, as living witnesses on the spot, could know what +the things were which she foretold, and know also with what accuracy they +were fulfilled, and yet deemed them genuine prophecies? Her accusers could +know the facts, while we, in the main, must be ignorant of them. We cannot +reasonably deny that the direct observers actually discerned the exercise +of genuinely prophetic powers by her. Some mortals at times can prophesy; +for both in ancient prophetic and apostolic times, and in our own age, +many people have been and are known to do it. Eternal laws or forces lead +some mortals to sure knowledge of coming events. History and returning +spirits both so teach. + +"The spirit of prophecy has its source in infinite truth, and is as much a +part of infinite law as any other manifestation of life; therefore it has +a wise and powerful protection; and they who avail themselves of this +spirit of prophecy, _by virtue of the way and manner in which they are +physically and spiritually compounded_, if they are fortunate enough to +place themselves in harmonious relations to the law, fail not in +prophesying. But if, as is often the case, they unfortunately place +themselves in inharmonious relations to the law, they must, of necessity, +fail in part, if not entirely. It is a truthful saying, that 'coming +events cast their shadows before.' _These shadows_ (?) _are, in reality, +portions of the events_; these shadows take precedence of the material +birth of all events as they are understood by mortals; they are the basis +of that which you receive, and outlast that which you receive; they are +the infinite part. Now, then, there are some persons _so constituted_ that +they perceive these shadows (?) and can judge as accurately concerning +what they predict, as the learned astronomer can concerning an +eclipse."--_Spirit_, _Prof. Alexander M. Fisher, of Yale._ BANNER OF +LIGHT, Jan. 30, 1875. + +5. "_She could tell of secret speeches which she had no ordinary means to +come to knowledge of._" At times, then, she was clairaudient, or was one +of those sensitives whose spiritual organs of sensation are at times so +disentangled from their material ones, that she experienced a practical +annihilation of space and gross matter, which let her, as all unclogged +spirits may, be practically present with and listeners to any person +anywhere, to whom she was for any reason attracted, and with whom she came +into rapport. Conditions admitting cognizance of the thoughts and words of +the absent in body are now of daily occurrence with men, women, and +children not a few, and therefore were possible with Margaret Jones in +1648 and years preceding. A letter from Captain Densmore, on a future page +of this work, will show recent possession of power to bear the voices of +living persons whose bodies were very far distant from the hearer. + +6. "_While in the prison in the clear daylight there was seen in her arms +... a little child ... which, at the officer's approach, ran and +vanished._" _Vanished_; that word intimates that it was a spectral or +spirit child--perhaps her own departed one. By whom was it seen? By an +officer of the prison, and therefore by one not likely to be her +confederate in attempt at imposture. Not by him only; for a chambermaid +also saw the little one, and was made sick by the sight; which effect +argues against her having had any complicity in a trick. That testimony to +such occurrences was given in court, is vouched for by Winthrop, and must +have been, or surely should have been, read by subsequent historians. +Their adroitness at leaving certain classes of facts in undisturbed +obscurity, nearly rivals the cunning of agents to whom they impute the +origin and production of witchcraft manifestations. + +The visible presence of that evanescent child shows very clearly that Mrs. +Jones was endowed with some of the rarer and exceptional properties of +mediumship--that she possessed those special elements in the midst of +which spirits could be robed in such materialized encasements, that +material eyes could discern them. Angels looking and acting like men (Gen. +xviii.) were seen by Abraham and Lot. One was seen (Judg. xiii.) by Manoah +and his wife. Another by Tobias, son of Tobit (Apoc.); another by +disciples who were walking toward Emmaus (John xx.); others also by +thousands of individuals in various ages and nations, sporadically. +To-day, distinct perception of materialized spirits in the presence of +Mrs. Andrews at Moravia, N. Y., around Dr. Slade of New York city, and +many others are reported almost weekly, and are well attested. In these +modern instances, generally, some special, though simple, pre-arrangements +are made to facilitate such manifestations; but we may very reasonably +doubt whether anything of the kind was resorted to by Mrs. Jones, because, +being in prison charged with the awful crime of witchcraft, the +presumption is imperative that she must have lacked both means and +opportunity to command tangible apparatus either for helping on a genuine +spirit manifestation, or producing an optical illusion upon her keepers. + +_Mortal._ "How do spirits materialize?" + +_Spirit._ "You must know the atmosphere is full of particles of matter. +Everything that is in the human body is also in the atmosphere in fine +particles. Darkness renders these particles more quiescent, and hence more +easily managed by spirits. The spirit has a will point or center which is +a spark of the Divine Nature. When the condition of the atmosphere, of the +medium, and of the circle is proper, the spirit exerts that will power, +and, in accordance with natural law, _attracts to its spirit form_ the +floating particles in the air, and they condense upon and interpenetrate +the spirit form or body so as to materialize it, making bone, muscle, +skin, hair--every part, and making the spirit body, for the time being, a +solid, palpable one. The air contains an immense amount of matter which +can be used by spirits for materializing. We do not, however, usually +materialize the blood.... We have to draw a portion of the substance for +materialization from the medium, he being a kind of reservoir where we +concentrate our supplies, and it is much more difficult to draw from him +when at a distance, therefore we keep near him."--_Spirit. Disc., as +reported by H A. Buddington._ BANNER OF LIGHT, Feb. 6, 1875. + +A case of much interest and significance was reported to the Boston Post, +a daily newspaper, by a correspondent under date of Newburyport, Jan. 13, +1873. Therein is furnished an account of a spirit boy showing himself in +broad daylight, several times, on different occasions, at a window between +an entry and a school-room, to a band of children and their teacher; also +of his making a disturbing racket in an unfinished attic over them +occasionally for many successive months. Miss Perkins, the teacher, says, +"He is a little fellow, about eleven years old, with a pale face, and the +saddest, sweetest mouth that she ever saw in her life, looking fearlessly +up into her face out of a pair of blue eyes. He retreated into a corner. +She followed him, and just as she was about to lay her hand upon him he +vanished. No door had been opened, and yet he was gone." The account +states that Miss Perkins, "though no spiritualist, is convinced that it" +(the racket) "is all produced by supernatural agency, and believes that +the apparition she saw was a veritable ghost." + +The editor of the Springfield Republican probably consulted the teacher of +that school, Miss Lucy A. Perkins, as to the correctness of the foregoing, +and perhaps other accounts, which had become public, for she wrote to him, +and he published as follows:-- + +"The account you sent me is true, with a few exceptions. When I first saw +the boy, he was neatly attired in a _brown_ suit of clothes, trimmed with +braid and buttons of the same color. When I reached forward to grasp him, +he seemed not like the boy, but vapory, or, as I can only describe it, +like a thin cloud scudding across the room; still he seemed to have the +boy form. Reports from some of the Boston papers say I fainted; such is +not the case. I knew where I was and what I was about just as well as I +know I am writing. + +"One day I sent a boy out to hang up the brushes, &c.... He was out about +five minutes. After he had taken his seat, three raps came on the door of +the room where the brushes were hung. He said, 'Miss Perkins, can I go out +and see who's there?' I told him, 'Yes, and leave the school-room door +open.' He did so, and when he opened the brush-room door (I sat where I +could see all) every one of the brushes, both long and short handled, came +falling off the nails where they were hung; some struck him on the +shoulders, and the broom directly on the top of his head. The dust-pan, +hanging on a nail at some distance above the brushes, came tumbling to the +floor with a vengeance. It then stood on its handle, then on the bottom +edge, and continued on so till it entered the school-room, and then it was +placed as nicely against the partition as if I had done it myself. Just as +soon as I'd raise the ventilator, a black ball, like a cannon ball, would +begin to roll around the attic, and make such a noise I would be obliged +to lower the ventilator. One day the room was quiet as it possibly could +be, and all at once some one in the attic called out, 'Dadie Pike!' Dadie +thought I spoke, and said, 'What'm?' I said to him, 'Can you say your +lesson?' + +"Since the boy affair took place, the attic has been fastened up; locks +and keys are of no use, however, for there is as much walking up stairs, +and sometimes the hammering and nailing. Once in a while, sounds as of +some one walking will come down the attic way, go across the entry, and +open the outside door, and be gone perhaps ten minutes; after it is quiet +again, the door will open, and he, she, or it will go up stairs.... I am +not a spiritualist; never attended a sitting, in fact, never had anything +to do with a person of that belief, and never saw any manifestations. Why +anything of the sort should take place where I am, is more than I can +account for." + +This case, wherein a teacher and her two score pupils simultaneously saw a +spirit in broad daylight, day after day and week after week, argues very +forcibly that "the nature of things" permits admission that the testimony +relating to the spirit child in the jail may be literally true. Laws and +forces are now frequently indicating their existence, which permit the +observable presence of spirits. + +Intense yearnings for comfortings, sympathy, and support in her dark and +trying hour, as well as other causes, may have drawn an angel child--her +own or some other--to the arms of Margaret Jones, whose history reveals +her possession of peculiar susceptibilities and mediumistic properties; +and with her as a reservoir, materialization of the spirit may have been +accomplished. + +7. The sickened maid "was cured by the said Margaret, who used means to be +employed to that end." Kindness and skill successfully put forth to heal +the sick, even while the public was keeping her in a felon's cell, hang as +a luminous cloud over her head, and betoken something good in her--betoken +the possible source of something different from a malignant touch--yes, of +"genuinely successful medical practice." + +We know little of her character; there is no impeachment of it in the +recorded testimony. Her peculiar powers resulted, no doubt, from peculiar +innate formations of and connections between her outer and inner +organisms, and had little dependence upon intellectual or moral qualities. +Not her own holiness, nor any other common power of hers, enabled her to +either intensify or abate painful sensations. Whether sinner or saint was +the more prominent in her character, our course and views have no occasion +to inquire. + +Winthrop's comments say that "her behavior at her trial was very +intemperate; lying notoriously and railing upon the jury and witnesses;... +in the like distemper she died." He gives no particulars, and therefore +furnishes no grounds on which we may judge whether any of her statements +which seemed to him false, might not seem to us, at our different +stand-point of observation, to have been true. Very many perfectly true +utterances made by mediums to-day relative to their involuntary and even +unconscious putting forth of acts and words imputed to them, would be +deemed lies by all common interpreters who are ignorant of the part often +performed by or through that higher set of mental powers which our leading +scientists have lately discovered are at the service of intellect not our +own. Perhaps she lied; perhaps, too, she was truthful, but misunderstood. +Intemperance in her behavior, no doubt, was manifest. But that might +spring from various motives. Any spirited person, consciously innocent of +a charged offense, and possessing only moderate power of self-control and +moderate intellectual stamina, would be very likely to pour forth warm +language, and flat and forceful denials of allegations of wrong-doing. +Persecuted innocence was only a very little less likely--if at all +less--than ill temper or "distemper," to call forth what might seem to be +"railing upon the jury and witnesses." Neither severe language nor +"intemperate behavior" is necessarily derogatory to any one's prevailing +temper or character, when rushing forth from the lips and limbs of one +whose deeds are being so misinterpreted that beneficence is looked upon as +diabolism, and whose beneficent works are being made to draw down upon +their author an ignominious death. + +Possibly words from her lips, and behavior seemingly prompted by her +emotions, were manifestations of the thoughts and impulses of some other +intelligence than herself. If so, most scathing rebukes for her +persecution, and for thirstings for her blood, might fall thick and heavy +upon the ears of benighted jurors and blinded witnesses. Observation has +often noticed most terrific outflowings of denunciations upon blind +guides, through organs of speech not controlled by their reputed owner. +Felix is not the last person who has trembled under the lashings of +inspiration. An acting out through her form, by another intelligence, a +deep sense of wrong she had received, may have made her seem as mad in the +eyes of Winthrop, as the learning and forceful utterances of Paul did him +in those of Festus. + +Evidence produced at her trial shows that Margaret Jones correctly +foretold the course of diseases in the systems of those who declined her +prescriptions--that she foretold other "things which came to pass +accordingly"--that she learned the purport of conversations by the absent +or secluded--that a spirit child became visible in her auras--and that +the sickened maid was cured by her appliances. Each and all of these very +marvelous manifestations were just as distinctly and authentically +recorded on paper still extant, as were those less rare ones which have +been put forth as fair indices of the case. Such blinking out of sight the +most important things pertaining to the person who, as far as is now +known, was first on this side the Atlantic to be executed for witchcraft, +is unjust to culture and philosophy, which should be furnished with all +known facts; is unjust to the fathers, whose full basis for her +prosecution and execution should be set forth ere just judgment of their +doings can be formed; and is unjust to her whose transcendent powers and +effective labors for healing the sick may have been the main cause why +minds deluded by a false and frenzying creed devil-ward, were impelled on +to barbarously destroy one who had been and might have continued to be +their benefactress. + +She was a natural conduit from the inner to the outer world, through which +perhaps impersonal force at times might cause supernal knowledge and power +to come into her outer being; through which again, her own will might +suction such, while at other times unseen persons might inject them +through from their abodes, and even come themselves to aid her in their +application. Nothing harmful was charged against her, excepting what +seemed to be, and were believed to be, superhuman abilities. + +The power that formed her originally, implanted and developed within her +organism unusual capabilities for curing physical disease, for reading +the future, and hearing the distant. There is neither evidence nor +foundation for a conjecture that she was ever pupil of teachers of medical +science, or of jugglery, nor that she belonged to any mesmerically +developing circle. Her acts cannot well have been mere imitations of what +she had seen others do, or had read or heard of having been done. She had +no teachers, no confederates that were visible and tangible. Indeed, who +among men could possibly have taught or helped her to prophesy correctly, +to hear the far distant, or to embody a spirit child? Not one--not one. +Such performances were only natural evolutions from her inborn faculties, +when acted upon by spirit forces or agents, or both. The reader is asked +how these manifestations, through our first martyr to it, can _possibly_ +be explained on the hypothesis that witchcraft was nothing else than the +histrionic tricks of sprightly and cunning children, either singly or in +combination with the ingenuities and malignities of old women. Such +agents, unaided from out the unseen, were most clearly incompetent to +project into human view some phenomena which attended upon this +consternating seer, hearer, healer, and holder of properties for +materializing a spirit form so as to render it visible. + +What possible facts or considerations could have induced the humane, +intelligent, virtuous, and religious community in which she lived, to seek +the life of such a woman, moving, probably, in humble sphere, but, in the +main, a doer of good works? The question brings up a complex and difficult +problem, viz., How can the seeming stupidity and inhumanity of our fathers +be reconciled with their obvious intelligence and humaneness? + +Assuming the record of testimony given in court to be correct--and why +should we not?--the manifestations through and around Margaret Jones +clearly indicated the outworking there of some abilities which the bodies +and ordinary mental powers of embodied human beings do not possess. What +then? Some unseen power must have helped her. What unseen power? Yes, +_what_ unseen power? Experience as then interpreted--religious creeds as +then understood--science and philosophy as they then existed--all +conspired to give one and the same answer, viz., _The Devil_. That +conclusion from the witnessed facts was then inevitable. The devil helped +her. What next? The devil could help no one who had not previously entered +into a covenant with him, and he surely helped this woman. Therefore she +had made a covenant with him, and in making that she became a _witch_. The +law of God which binds Christians says, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to +live." Thus our forefathers saw and reasoned. Steps from facts to the +conclusion were few, short, and plain. Feeble intellects _could_ take +them, and strong ones _must_ do so, or reject their life-long creeds. Then +a crucial hour was upon them. To distrust and disregard their credal faith +or stifle their humanity, one or the other, was the hard alternative +presented to strong, good men. Their cherished creed or Margaret Jones, +one or the other, must be sacrificed. Which? Clear heads and life-long +affections grasped the creed firmly, and resolved to save it. They let +Logic draw her rigid conclusions, and put them forth as rules for +individual and public action. Sympathy went down before dominant faith, +and man stifled every rebellious emotion. God's call and law, Christian +men then felt, were paramount to sympathy. In submission to what they +deemed Heaven's will and call they said, "Down, humaneness--down! Up, +God-derived Faith--up, in your majesty and might! Heart must follow +whither you lead." Their awful and cramping _Creed devil-ward_ was the +chief fountain of bewildering and brutalizing force that dragged +intelligent and kind men on to redden our soil with innocent blood, and +that too "in all good conscience." + +Look closely at their position. The faith of all ages and nations had held +that occurrences which seemed to result from supermundane force were +produced by disembodied intelligences. Protestant Christendom was +extensively holding that no invisible beings, excepting their Great +Monstrous Monk-made Devil (see Appendix) and his obedient servants, could +by any possibility work upon the bodies and possessions of men. And none +such could work upon the external world in any other way than through, or +by the aid of, such mortals as had voluntarily made a covenant with him. +Such covenant once formed, the person making it would be an open door +through which his fearful Majesty, or any imp of his, could freely enter +the outer world and vent his malignity upon all the region far and wide +around his entrance-place. Her works proved to the intellect of that day +that this Margaret had covenanted to let him enter and co-operate with +her. What, therefore, must be done? It was manifest to the people of +Charlestown that through her the great invisible cloven-foot had found +entrance, and was prowling among them. What was their duty? They must bar +his entrance promptly. To do it, they arrested, tried, condemned, and +executed the Christian traitor who had furnished their great enemy +entrance to the Christian fortress. Could firm, true men, holding then +prevalent beliefs, have done less? + +That prisoner was put to trial before judge, jury, and a public who each +and all held the then common creed throughout all Protestant Christendom +which is set forth in our Appendix. Witnesses swore that she accurately +foretold the effects of medical treatment and other events; that she heard +speeches by persons far remote from her; that a spectral child was seen in +her presence; that her hands and simples wrought marvels,--therefore, how +could jurors avoid conviction that the devil helped her? There was no +spectral testimony in this case; outer senses of many persons had learned +her supermundane powers. The nature of the testimony was unexceptionable, +and its purport distinct and conclusive. The prevalent faith imperatively +demanded that the verdict should be--_guilty_. The clear, strong faith of +that day, in whomsoever it conjoined with good conscience and courage, put +forth mighty power to persuade the good citizen and good man that high +duty was calling upon him to gird on heavenly armor and fight for the +destruction of this minion and colleague of the devil, even at the +smothering of kindlier sentiments in his heart. She was _witch_, and +therefore must die. Was that a _deluded_ court, representative of a +_deluded_ people, which condemned Margaret Jones to "hang high on the +gallows-tree"? No doubt it was. Delusion led not only our fathers here, +but all Christendom, on to deeds of shameful bloodshed. Witchcraft itself, +as a whole, is now by most people deemed a "_dark delusion_." But which, +among the human faculties, did that delusion spell-bind, stultify, and +make sanguinary? + +Were the external senses of a whole community so disordered that the +character and dimensions of sensible acts were grossly misapprehended? No. +The circumstances amid which the early colonists lived, were certainly as +well fitted to sharpen, discipline, and give reliability to the external +senses as those which wait upon their descendants in the present century. +Whatever eyes saw, ears heard, or touch felt in 1648, was reported to the +mind then as accurately as the same senses can report to-day. Witchcraft +phenomena were not the fictions of deluded _senses_. + +Did that delusion dominate those mental faculties which clothe in words +and report what the senses had learned, and derange them so effectually +that they would put forth even under oath distorting and exaggerated +accounts of facts which the senses had witnessed? We think not. Distrust +of the truthfulness and discrimination of ancient unknown witnesses, +founded mainly upon the marvelousness of facts they swore to knowledge of, +is not a basis that either candor or justice can deem sufficient to +sustain a charge that their testimony was misleading. Wherein lurks +anything which indicates that the witnesses in this case stated anything +that was not substantially true? If anywhere, it is probably in modern +incredulity that spirits ever colabor with or act upon men. If the time +shall come--and there now exist signs that it is near--when the cultured +world shall learn that _science_ has been unwittingly _generating +delusion_ by failing to detect and regard the existence of certain occult +agents and forces which play important parts in scenes of nature and human +society, then a greatly modified opinion concerning the truth of testimony +evoked in witchcraft times may prevail throughout the enlightened world. +The signs of to-day make it prudent, kind, and just to conceive that +ancient _witnesses_ were quite as truthful and discriminating as modern +elucidators of remote transactions have generally been. + +Were the faculties of jurors and judges for comprehending the accuracy, +force, and tendency of testimony, and for logically deducing conclusions +from proved facts, so deluded as that the whole court, without a +misgiving, convicted either on false testimony or illogically? Candor must +hesitate to say yes--especially in a case where such a man as Governor +Winthrop sat upon the bench. He and his associates in the court may have +been as free from any delusion that impaired or perverted their powers of +discrimination, or for logical inferences from facts, as any court that +has adjudicated since their day. The absolute cruelty and injustice of +their verdict and sentence, however, do indicate delusion of some +faculties; but not of the senses; not of the capacities to speak truth, +and "nothing but the truth;" not of the capacities to sift evidence and to +reason logically--not of these. + +Their faculties for receiving, containing, holding on to, and obeying an +inherited FAITH were the _deluded_ ones. In common with all Christendom +the convictors of witches had been deluded into adoption, or at least +retention, of a woful creed concerning the devil. At that time public +sentiment in most countries on the continent of Europe, and also in both +Old and New England, demanded rigid enforcement of all laws which that +false, mischief-working creed had engendered and recorded in +statute-books. Such laws were plain and imperative; both jurors and +judges, suppressing sentiment, must yield to logic--must convict and +sentence. By no other course could they be true to their convictions of +duty toward society around them, or toward God on high. Yes; an imported +monastic-born FAITH, unnatural, erroneous, and more than barbarous, +deluded kind and good men to feel that they must suppress sympathy, ignore +their tender impulses, benumb their hearts, and, whither God's voice was +believed to call, go forward in stern, agonizing resolve to thrust a +devil-helped worker, however good and estimable in outward seeming, to +where the wicked one could do them and theirs no mischief through that +mortal ally. Such was the logical and stern demand of the old deluding and +heart-curbing creed. + +Do we wonder in our day how such monstrous faith could ever have obtained +and kept both an abiding hold and controlling authority in any clear head +that was joined to a kindly heart? Seeds of faith get lodgment in the +human brain while it is yet too young to understand or even try to test +the nature and quality of what falls upon it. Whatever the church and +public believe, and have believed through a long past, is ever dropping +its own seed into opening minds, which forthwith germinates therein. This +sends its roots deep into virgin soil, grows with vigor there, and becomes +fruitful of the same old faith during that very early portion of life in +which the infantile questioning, analyzing, and reasoning faculties are +scarce able to doubt the soundness or excellence of what thence has grown +and matured in close alliance with themselves. Faith's right and fitness +to define duty, and the child's obligation to execute its requirements, +are usually conceded by all the other faculties. The truer and better the +man, the more surely will he carry out his faith to its logical demands, +even though, Abraham like, he have to lay his dearest on the altar of +sacrifice, to lift the knife, and nerve himself to plunge it into his own +child's heart, unless some voice from on high, more potent than previous +faith, shall bid him hold. Few other than strong men and true, conscious +of being soldiers in heaven's army, would march resolutely to the Devil's +living and shotted guns, purposing to destroy them; for their destruction +was instinct with, and inseparable from, anguish to Christian neighbors +and friends. Extremists alone would do that. None midway between vile +demons and men of high faith in God would voluntarily meet that ordeal. + +We do not regard _all_ the active prosecutors and convictors of witches as +having been actuated by well-defined faiths and high principles. When +popular furor sets strongly in any direction, the thoughtless, the +unprincipled, the cruel, the malicious, join in the rush, and some such +often become conspicuous and heartless agents in confounding confusion and +in executing public decrees. Still, nearly all eminent men of both Europe +and America--the leading divines, jurists, and civilians, the men of +culture and of influence--believed that witchcraft and the witchcraft +devil existed, and that witches should be detected and punished by the +processes and laws then deemed applicable in such cases. Therefore, the +mass of the people, however ignorant, thoughtless, or rash, when detecting +and punishing witches, were only hastening to effect by rough processes +and expeditiously, no more than the learned, more orderly, and patient +would have felt constrained to accomplish, in the end, from a firm +conviction of duty. Good faith and conscientious regard for the public +weal actuated and sustained all those "solid men of Boston" and its +vicinity, who were the real bones, sinews, and muscles which brought the +devil's seeming helper to the gallows. + +Whether this impressible and unfolded woman was literally aided in any of +her marvelous operations by invisible _intelligences_ may be debatable. It +is possible that forces subject to no will but her own, and not even to +that at all times, may have passed from her into other persons, which +relieved some and agonized others extensively. Medication of her simples +may have been mainly their natural absorption of elements residing in her +system, or which were naturally attracted into and through that peculiar +system. Her correct perceptions of the future action of remedies +prescribed by either herself or others, and of the future course and +result of diseases, may have been obtained by her own inner faculties when +partially and transiently disentangled from her outer ones, and sensing in +knowledge from the hidden realm of causes. So too she may have been at +times so nearly a freed spirit, that she could by her own perceptives +accurately sense coming events, and hear the words of far distant +speakers. We refrain from denying the possibility that such auras resided +in, emanated from, and surrounded her body, that a spirit child coming +within them was by natural impersonal forces there rendered visible to +external optics. It is possible there was no phenomenon in this case that +must be called _spiritual_, excepting the mere _advent_ of the child--not +its visibility, but its _advent_. If the child was there, then a spirit +was there, and it was a case of Spiritualism. All this is possible; but we +ask whether it is probable that all works seeming to be hers were produced +by blind natural forces and her own will and powers solely? To this our +own answer is an emphatic NO. The presence of the child gives force to +that response. If one spirit came to her, others could have come. + +The old records are nearly or quite devoid of information relating to the +intelligence, character, and social position of Margaret Jones. She was +wife of Thomas Jones, who, soon after her execution, took passage on board +a vessel for Barbadoes. We have met with no indication that they had +children--with nothing which alludes to his age, occupation, or standing +in society. We find her a practicer of the healing art; but at what age, +or amid what worldly circumstances, is all unknown. + +Bunker Hill and its circumjacent slopes and lowlands have close connection +with the earlier stages of two American conflicts for freedom. There +lived, and from thence was taken to prison and the gallows, the first +American martyr in a war whose end, obtained forty-four years later at +Salem Village, was Christendom's mental emancipation from deluding and +dwarfing bondage to a more than savage creed. True, the aggressive +hosts--the prosecutors for witchcraft--were ignorant and unsuspicious of +the far-reaching purposes of the divinity that shaped their ends, that +beheld and ruled over their blind violence, and made them, all +unconsciously and undesignedly, mortally rend a monster-creed whose +demands they were slavishly and blindly complying with, and thus, without +knowledge of it on their part, procuring for themselves, their children, +and all future Christians, new freedom and new incentives for independent +speculations and conclusions regarding all matters both demonological and +theological. A nightmare of centuries was thrown off from disturbed and +horrified Christendom at Salem, and each cramped sufferer could +thenceforth draw breath more freely, and commence processes of +recuperation and expansion. + +The case of Margaret Jones is isolated. It has no traceable connection +with any kindred one which either preceded or followed it. Still its +origin was in the abiding-place of forces and operators acting invisibly +upon the external world, and amidst which all genuine witchcraft, miracle, +and Spiritualism have been born. + +Her case must be catalogued among the marvelous, though the proving of the +nature and character of her offense, erroneously so called, was unattended +by the absurdities and cruelties which attach to many cases where spectral +evidence was admitted, and barbarous processes were resorted to for +extorting a plea to an indictment. As a witchcraft trial, hers was +exceptionally inoffensive to modern views of propriety. The testimony +throughout was based on experiences and observations by external senses, +and would be admissible in any court and any age. The extra-common powers +or susceptibilities of the accused were clearly proved. Therefore the +monstrous creed which then blinded and tyrannized over all minds took her +life legitimately. Good men, humane men, could do no less than pronounce +her guilty before the law and before that creed which engendered the law. +Before we denounce or even disparage those who condemned her, let us pause +for reflection. + +"A creed sometimes remains outside of the mind, incrusting and petrifying +it against all other influences addressed to the higher parts of our +nature, manifesting its power by not suffering any fresh and living +conviction to get in."--_John Stuart Mill._ + +We requote as follows:-- + +"The nobler tendency of culture, and above all of scientific culture, is +to honor the dead without groveling before them--to profit by the past +without sacrificing it to the present." + +The early colonists of the old Bay State deserve to be held in high esteem +and admiration; all noble sentiments conspire to honor them. Culture and +enlightenment will be derelict to their high calling if they traduce that +people before they turn thought backward through two centuries, scan the +imported creeds then prevalent here, observe circumstances then existing, +and enter into feelings and views then bearing resistless sway. Having +done that, let them calmly determine whither duty led true-hearted, +clear-headed, strong, courageous, and devout men in relation to witchcraft +matters. Many old beliefs may be discarded; many mistakes and errors of +the past be shunned. We are not called to grovel before our ancestors; but +shame, shame be to us if we brand them with egregious "credulity and +infatuation," solely or mainly because their senses perceived and they +described events which we cannot explain if we grant to them clear, +sagacious, and well-balanced intellects for reporting facts which they +observed. They were our peers in most good qualities and powers, and +deserve our admiration. + +Did we know the spot where the dust of Charlestown's gifted physician +reposes, we might desire to see a modest monument there bearing the +following inscription:-- + + TO THE MEMORY + OF + MARGARET JONES, + America's first Martyr to Spiritualism: + Who was hanged in Boston, + June 15, 1648, + Because God had given her such Organization and Receptivities + that beneficent occult Powers, using her successfully + as an Instrument in curing + Human Ills, + So excited the Consternation of a Devil-fearing People, + That, knowing not what they did, + They cried, + CRUCIFY HER! CRUCIFY HER! + + + + +ANN HIBBINS. + + +We lead attention next to one who moved in the highest circle of Boston +society--to an elderly lady of wit, culture, high connections socially, +and of friendship with many of the most prominent and virtuous people of +her day. So far as known, hers is meager as a case of witchcraft, attended +by a less variety and extent of startling phenomena than most others; but +it well reveals the force of the witchcraft creed, and the shifts of +historians for explaining its only marvelous phenomenon which history +hints at. + +Hutchinson says, "The most remarkable occurrence in the colony in the year +1655 [1656 ?] was the trial and condemnation of Mrs. Ann Hibbins for +witchcraft. Her husband, who died in the year 1654, was an agent for the +colony in England, several years one of the assistants, and a merchant of +note in the town of Boston; but losses in the latter part of his life had +reduced his estate, and increased the natural crabbedness of his wife's +temper, which made her turbulent and quarrelsome, and brought her under +church censures, and at length rendered her so odious to her neighbors as +to cause some of them to accuse her of witchcraft. The jury brought her in +guilty, but the magistrates refused to accept the verdict; so the cause +came to the general court, where the popular clamor prevailed against her, +and the miserable old woman was condemned and executed. Search was made +upon her body for teats, and her chests and boxes for puppets, images, +&c.; but there is no record of anything of that sort being found. Mr. +Beach, a minister in Jamaica, in a letter to Dr. Increase Mather in the +year 1684, says, 'You may remember what I have sometimes told; your famous +Mr. Norton once said at his own table before Mr. Wilson the pastor, elder +Penn, and myself and wife, &c., who had the honor to be his guests, that +one of your magistrates' wives, as I remember, was hanged for a witch only +for having more wit than her neighbors. It was his very expression; she +having, as he explained it, unhappily guessed that two of her persecutors, +whom she saw talking in the street, were talking of her, which, proving +true, cost her her life, notwithstanding all he could do to the contrary, +as he himself told us.' + +"It fared with her as it did with Joan of Arc in France. Some counted her +a saint and some a witch, and some observed solemn marks of Providence set +upon those who were very forward to condemn her, and to brand others upon +the like ground with the like reproach." + +The author of the above was born fifty-five years after the execution of +Mrs. Hibbins, and his account of her was not published till 1764, that is, +one hundred and eight years after her decease. In his youth he may have +conversed with aged people who were living at the time of the trial and +execution of this woman, and may have received from them their notions +concerning her temper and character. But if he did, his informers, during +more than half a century before he was old enough to be an intelligent +listener, had been living in the midst of people who were ashamed of the +treatment which they and their fathers had bestowed upon reputed witches. +Thus ashamed and yielding to an almost universal propensity in men to make +their own imputed errors and crimes seem slight, trivial, and excusable as +possible, nothing would be more natural than a general propensity to +vilify the sufferers, under a mistaken, though common, notion that the +vileness of the persecuted excuses the wrong of the persecutors. + +Whether Hutchinson, in his youth, received from any source special mental +biases which inclined him to regard all who suffered for witchcraft as +quarrelsome and vicious, cannot now be ascertained; but it is obvious from +his epithets that his disposition let him very readily apply to such +persons terms of very decided disparagement. He spoke of one Mary Oliver +as "a poor wretch;" also of Mrs. Hibbins as "the miserable old woman," and +specified the "natural crabbedness of her temper which made her turbulent +and quarrelsome." He implies that such traits were both the grounds and +the sum of the charge and proofs of her witchcraft, and does all this +without adducing a particle of evidence that she possessed such a temper, +or was either _turbulent_ or _quarrelsome_. His allegations seem like the +offspring of either blinding contempt or of deluded fancy,--yes, +_deluded_,--for surely clear-eyed fancy must have foreseen that after ages +could never believe that the highest court in the colony found natural +crabbedness of temper, and consequent turbulence, satisfactory proof of an +explicit compact with the devil, and therefore punishable by death. The +insufficiency and probable inaccuracy of his reasons for the arraignment +and condemnation of this person, will be more clearly exhibited further +on, and mainly in extracts from a later historian. + +Mr. Beach's letter, quoted by Hutchinson, gives distinct indication that +Mrs. Hibbins was endowed with faculties which were vastly more likely to +out-work what her age deemed witchcraft, than was any amount of bad temper +and crabbedness. She had "more wit than her neighbors;" she "unhappily +guessed that two of her persecutors, whom she saw talking in the street, +were talking of her, which, proving true, cost her her life." Here is +indication of probability that this lady, as did Margaret Jones, possessed +ability to comprehend the conversation of far distant parties, or to sense +in the thoughts of some absent people with whom she came in rapport. +Similar abilities are possessed and exercised by many persons in these +days, who have constitutional endowments of a kind which were formerly +believed to be diabolical acquisitions, and were then deemed proofs of +witchcraft--proofs of compact with Satan. + +"It fared with her," says Hutchinson, "as it did with Joan of Arc in +France. Some counted her a saint and some a witch." In these words the +historian himself furnishes cause for distrusting the justice of ascribing +to her a crabbed temper and habitual quarrelsomeness. For who, in any +community, would ever count one _a saint_ who manifested such offensive +qualities to any great extent as he ascribed to her? Surely no one would. +And yet he states that very many persons did so count Mrs. Hibbins. +Doubtless among her advocates was "your famous Mr. Norton," a very +eminent, sagacious, and able minister in Boston. There was enough about +her to draw out from Hutchinson the concession that the public here was +divided in judgment concerning her character, as it formerly was in +France concerning Joan of Arc, that Maid of Orleans, who heard and obeyed +voices from out the unseen. + +Crabbedness of temper and quarrelsomeness were not grounds on which any +portion of the people would count her a _saint_. The historian refutes his +own position. A more recent searcher for causes of her fate perceived, and +very clearly pointed out, the inaccuracy and obvious insufficiency of +Hutchinson's grounds and reasons why Mrs. Hibbins was arraigned and +convicted, but proceeded to assign others which are scarcely less +inadequate and improbable. He writes as follows, vol. i. p. 422, _Hist. of +Witchcraft_:-- + +"While it is hardly worthy of being considered a sufficient explanation of +the matter,--it being beyond belief, that, even at that time, a person +could be condemned and executed merely on account of a 'crabbed +temper,'--it is not consistent with the facts as made known to us from the +record-offices. She could not have been so reduced in circumstances as to +produce such extraordinary effects upon her character, for she left a good +estate.... The only clew we have to the kind of evidence bearing upon the +charge of witchcraft that brought this recently bereaved widow to so cruel +and shameful a death, is in a letter written by a clergyman in Jamaica to +Increase Mather" (as quoted above). "Nothing," Upham adds, "was more +natural than for her to suppose, knowing the parties, witnessing their +manner, considering their active co-operation in getting up the excitement +against her, which was then the all-engrossing topic, that they were +talking about her. But, in the blind infatuation of the time, it was +considered proof positive of her being possessed, _by the aid of the +devil_, of supernatural insight--precisely as, forty years afterward, such +evidence was brought to bear with telling effect against George +Burroughs.... The truth is, that the tongue of slander was let loose upon +her, and the calumnies circulated by reckless gossip became so magnified +and exaggerated, and assumed such proportions, as enabled her vilifiers to +bring her under the censure of the church, and that emboldened them to cry +out against her as a witch." + +Some of our quotations are introduced quite as much for the purpose of +exhibiting the animus, short-comings, and over-doings of the historians +themselves, as for elucidating the general subject of witchcraft. We learn +from the pages of the work from which the above extract was taken, that +Mrs. Hibbins was sister of Richard Bellingham, deputy-governor of the +province at the very time of her trial, and that her highly-esteemed +husband had left her an estate which placed her far above poverty. It may +fairly be presumed that both her social and pecuniary conditions were very +respectable. Upham perceives and forcibly comments upon the inadequacy of +the grounds upon which Hutchinson attempted to account for her conviction +and execution. That earlier historian evinced, on very many of his pages, +his persuasion, or at least a purpose to persuade his readers, that all +the peculiar and disturbing phenomena of witchcraft were of exclusively +mundane origin, and that temper, trick, imposture, deception, and the +like, produced them all. This persuasion made him somewhat impatient of +the whole matter, uncareful to scan all the facts before him, or keep his +inferences in fair and broad harmony with them. It made him rashly severe. +Without indicating a shadow of reason why he does so, he calls this widow +of one of Boston's most esteemed merchants and public men--this sister of +the deputy-governor of the province--this woman of more wit than her +neighbors--this woman befriended by the eminent minister John Norton--this +woman not in poverty--this woman whom he ought to have known, did, in her +lowest condition, even when a convict in prison and doomed to the +gallows--did, in this dire extremity, bespeak and obtain the friendly +offices of six or eight of the leading men of the city, and therefore +presumably had their respect--such a one, Hutchinson gratuitously calls a +"miserable old woman;" and in doing it reveals the careless and heartless +historian of those who had come under ban for witchcraft. + +Upham, going to the probate records and finding the will of Mrs. Hibbins, +which was made a few days after her sentence of death, is able to present +her in a different aspect. His comments upon her, as she is revealed by +the will and its codicils, are as follows, vol. i. p. 425:-- + +"The whole tone and manner of these instruments give evidence that she had +a mind capable of rising above the power of wrong, suffering, and death +itself. They show a spirit calm and serene. The disposition of her +property indicates good sense, good feeling, and business faculties +suitable to the occasion. In the body of the will, there is not a word, a +syllable, or a turn of expression, that refers to or is in the slightest +degree colored by her peculiar situation. In the codicil there is this +sentence: 'My desire is that all my overseers would be pleased to show so +much respect unto my dead corpse, as to cause it to be decently interred, +and, if it may be, near my late husband." + +Perusal and study of her will and its appendages induced the later +historian to speak of Ann Hibbins as "this recently bereaved widow"--a +phrase much more agreeable, and seemingly vastly more just in application +to her, than "miserable old woman." In that will she names as overseers +and administrators of her estate, Captain Thomas Clarke, Lieutenant Edward +Hutchinson, Lieutenant William Hudson, Ensign Joshua Scottow, and Cornet +Peter Oliver; also in a codicil, she says, "I do earnestly desire my +loving friends, Captain Johnson and Edward Rawson, to be added to the rest +of the gentlemen mentioned as overseers of my will." Upham, having stated +the above, says, "It can hardly be doubted that these persons--and they +were all leading citizens--were known by her to be among her friends." +Yes, the presumption is very fair, amounting to almost positive proof, +that many of the prominent and best people of the town were her friends. +The appearance is, that her social walk was wide away from the purlieus of +common mundane diabolism and billingsgate. The vulgar would see her +standing off beyond their reach, and waste no breath upon her. Only the +respectable and influential could touch her to her essential harm. + +We commend and thank the later historian for bringing this persecuted +woman out into such light as shows that she may have been equal in all +good qualities to the best of her persecutors. But his reasons for her +persecution and condemnation are scarcely more adequate or credible than +those of Hutchinson. We ascribed to him the faculties of a fictionist, and +he used them when he said, "The truth is, that the tongue of slander was +let loose upon her." The former historian imputed certain offensive acts +or traits to both Margaret Jones and Ann Hibbins severally, which he +assumed to be the provoking causes of public vengeance. He deemed the +sufferers themselves doers of the intolerable wrongs. But his successor +makes her beneficence the crime for which Mrs. Jones suffered; and the +origination and utterance of slander _by the public_, the cause of death +to Mrs. Hibbins. The earlier writer was lenient toward the public and +severe upon the accused women. The later was kind toward the women, but, +by necessary implication, intensely aspersory upon the great body of the +people; for he makes the public hang one because of her successful medical +practice by the use of only simple remedies, and another because of +slanders which itself had poured out upon her. + +His charge of slander is fictitious. He adduces no evidence that the lady +was slandered, and we have met with none anywhere. And were it true, it is +quite as much "beyond belief that even at that time a person could be +condemned and executed merely on account of being" _slandered_, as it is +that one could have then been thus treated on account of a "crabbed +temper" solely. + +A much more probable cause of the persecution of Mrs. Hibbins than either +of the historians drew forth and rested upon, lurks in that language of +"famous Mr. Norton," which says that she "having more wit than her +neighbors, unhappily guessed that two of her persecutors, whom she saw +talking in the street, were talking of her, which proving true, cost her +her life." Upham, commenting upon that, says, "Nothing was more natural +than for her to suppose, knowing the parties, witnessing their manner, +considering their active co-operation in getting up the excitement against +her, which was then the all-engrossing topic, that they were talking about +her." Whence and how did the accomplished rhetorician learn that those two +persecutors were active co-operators, or that they were in any degree +concerned "in _getting up_" the excitement against her? How _know_ that +their manner was expressive of any particular topic of conversation? How +_know_ that she or her case was the then all-engrossing topic? He put +forth assumptions as though they were historic facts. No ancient record is +credited with them; none contains them that we have met with. He could not +well know them to be true. They are fairly reasonable fictions; but we +must doubt whether they are either known or knowable as _facts_. They +would be agreeable amplifications if they did not tend to mislead and +blind; they would be beauties, and not blemishes, if the soundness and +sufficiency of their underlying theory or assumption were conceded. But it +is not. Common sense cannot concede it. Boston was neither doltish enough +nor wicked enough to generate and sustain _slander_ of such quantity and +quality as would force one of her ladies of wit and high connections to +die ignominiously on the gallows--never, never. Neither the temper of the +woman herself, nor any combined baseness and malice that ever existed in +the orderly and religious town of Boston, is admissible as the chief +cause of that woman's execution. Her own _wit_ was the historic, and, when +defined and illustrated, may appear to be the real cause. + +Whether Mrs. Hibbins received on that occasion, and might have been +accustomed to get, knowledge by other than man's ordinary processes, and +to such extent and of such kind as implied her possession of some +faculties above or distinct from great powers at guessing, can best be +inferred by looking at the views of her utterances which were taken by +those who heard them. Their persecution of her unto death tells what those +views were. Have historians made fair and full use of the very small +historic basis extant, for accounting for the state and nature of public +feeling among the neighbors of this woman? We think not. Her _wit_, the +true corner-stone, has not been their basis of explanation. + +When she saw two known persecutors talking, the circumstances may or may +not have been helpful to a correct guess at the topic of their +conversation _then_. But--but these men, Upham assumes, were _already_ +known to her as her persecutors. Therefore something must have occurred +before that time which had aroused persecution of her. These men are +called "two of her persecutors," which intimates that she already may have +had more than two, and admits the supposition that she may have had very +many such, both prior to and at the very time when she made the particular +_guess_ whose accuracy has been so plausibly commented upon. Something, +antecedent to that guess, had set some minds against her. Yes, if we may +trust the conjecture of Upham, something had already created an +"excitement against her which was then the all-engrossing topic." The +cause of antecedent and existing excitement, at the time she made _that_ +guess, was seemingly unsought for by either Hutchinson or Upham. Or, if +they sought for this, _the most important thing connected with the case, +and essential to its satisfactory elucidation_, they found nothing which +they ventured to publish. Omission to bring out the cause of public +excitement, _prior to the guess_, makes previous history very +unsatisfactory. There is some light shining now which may enable the +searcher in dark closets of the past to discover meanings there which +former explorers failed to find. No new, positive, distinct historical +statements explanatory of this case have been seen. We are confined to the +same very narrow premises on which previous reasoners stood, but we find +different import of the same facts from any which prior expounders +disclosed. + +We join with Upham in saying that "_the only clew_ we have to the kind of +evidence bearing upon _the charge of witchcraft_ that brought this +recently bereaved widow to so cruel and shameful a death, is in a letter +written by a clergyman in Jamaica to Increase Mather in 1684." That +letter, already quoted, imputes to her more _wit_ than others; wit, or +penetration, by which she sensed correctly the conversation going on +between two of her persecutors. That is the full sum of the direct +historical evidence. And what is involved in that? Is crabbed temper +there? No. Is slander there? No; but _wit_ is. Standing alone and +unexplained, this wit amounts, perhaps, to but little; and yet when +interpreted by her sad fate it may amount to very much. It suggests +forcibly the probability, bordering close upon certainty, that she was +endowed with some faculties which the sagacious Mr. Norton called +"wit"--but yet were such as could obtain accurate knowledge so +surprisingly as to suggest that it was obtained by process as occult as +that by which Jesus perceived the private reasonings of scribes and +pharisees--entrappers and persecutors of himself. + +To-day,--when observation is almost daily meeting with operations of +faculties, in limited classes of men and women, which enable them to read, +at times, the secret thoughts and hear the secret and hushed utterances of +some afar off,--that Jamaica letter intimates enough to generate +presumption that Mrs. Hibbins might have possessed like faculties, and +that her exercise of such startled, alarmed, and almost frenzied a +community in which such powers were deemed proof positive that their +possessor had made a covenant with the Evil One, and received her +surprising knowledge from him. Amid a people holding such faith concerning +the devil as the colonists here entertained in 1656, the exercise of such +powers called upon all God-fearing and true men to rid the world of such a +devil-minion as the knowledge possessed by Mrs. Hibbins proved her to be. + +A sample of light which is now available shines forth from the following +letter, and its rays are blended in those from the lamp that guides our +feet while we move onward in tracing out the probable meaning reachable by +following up the only historic clew to those powers of Mrs. Hibbins, her +possession and exercise of which constituted a capital crime:-- + + "NO. 1085 WASHINGTON ST., BOSTON, + "September 23, 1873. + + "ALLEN PUTNAM, ESQ., ROXBURY. + + "Dear Friend: You solicit information in regard to hearing, from the + _inner_ ear, men and women speaking when miles away. I have always + possessed that faculty in a remarkable degree. At one time, when + building a steamboat in Southern Illinois, under peculiar + circumstances, I would often hear men say, 'That man has no money to + build a boat with; he's a fraud; and I pity those poor fellows who are + working for him.' This was soon after I commenced her construction; + and although I did not want to hear it, and tried ever so hard not to, + still I could hear them seemingly more distinct than though they were + close to me. One day in particular, and at a time when I could see no + way out of my difficulty, I heard a Mr. Cutting, who was building some + miles up river, say to his foreman, 'I wonder if Mr. Kimball realizes + that his timber will be lost.' (Mr. Kimball was the man who furnished + my timber and plank.) After the tide turned in my favor, and it was + known about town that I paid my men regularly, I heard the remark, + 'That man is the most reticent man I ever heard of,' &c." + +The author of the letter does not state distinctly that in those two cases +the speakers were very much too far away for his external ears to hear +their voices, yet such was his statement when he gave me, previously, a +verbal account of the facts; and such was his meaning, therefore, in the +letter--the remainder of which here follows:-- + + "At one time, in Cincinnati, although three miles away, I heard my + landlady say to her daughter, after I had been boarding with them a + week, 'I don't like that man--he is _not_ all right;' and went on to + tell her impressions, what she thought I was, which it is not + necessary to repeat. At first I felt indignant, forgetting, for the + moment, I was three miles away. I finally concluded to say nothing + about it when I went home at night, as I thought at first of doing, + else they might think I was wrong in some way, as they were both + members of the M. E. Church. But, when I got home, having a good + opportunity, I told the daughter word for word what her mother had + said about me, and also her response to her mother after she (the + mother) had got through berating me--which was, 'What do you mean?' + and the mother's answer to her exclamation, 'I mean just as I say.' I + requested the daughter not to say anything to the mother, as it would + do no good. But in the course of the following day the mother got + speaking of me again in much the same strain, when the daughter could + not resist the temptation, and told her to be careful what she said; + and then told her what I had said. The mother was thunderstruck, and + after a moment said, 'He is a devil.' I happened to be in a condition + such that I heard the mother's response. This I told to the daughter + that evening. Now, if I had had a thought that the mother entertained + such feelings toward me, I might have attributed it to the workings of + my own mind. But as I thought they had diametrically the opposite + opinion, I concluded that it was another case of the inner hearing. + + "Now, if you can make use of this, or a part of it, you are welcome + to do so. Should you desire any other cases, I can furnish many. + + "With high considerations I remain, + "D. C. DENSMORE." + +The writer of the above, when in conversation with me in my own study, +incidentally dropped a word which intimated that his inner ear was +sometimes receptive of utterances put forth by embodied men and women, +who, at the time, were far away from him. In response to my expressed wish +to know whether such was the fact, he detailed a number of cases in which +he had had such experience; I then asked him to give me one or two of +them, briefly, on paper. That request shortly drew forth the foregoing +letter. + +Much more of the emphatically educational period of Captain Densmore's +life was spent in forecastles and cabins of whaleships than in school on +shore, and he perhaps expected me to reconstruct his sentences, in part at +least, before presenting them in print. But such facts as his experience +has encountered ought to be accompanied by the spirit of conscious +knowledge and truth pervading his own vocabulary. His language is +sufficiently perspicuous to convey his meaning, and possesses force which +any considerable change would impair. That spirit makes rhetoric and +grammar of secondary consequence in the narration of facts and experiences +which show that there exist capacities in some embodied human beings for +receiving intelligence-fraught impressions, in ways and under +circumstances which the schoolmen and teachers of the world lack knowledge +of, but ought to know and get instruction from. Therefore the reader has +been permitted to see in his own words the statement of one who has at +times heard with his inner or spiritual senses the exact words of speakers +who were miles away from him, and thus shown that Mrs. Hibbins, through +the possession of natural faculties, though of a kind but rarely +developed, might have been something very different from a mere skillful +guesser. An assumption that she was helped by spirits is not needful to a +satisfactory explanation of a mode in which she might have learned +directly and instantly what far absent ones were uttering. Her own +faculties, independently of special spirit help or teaching, may have +permitted her to hear with perfect distinctness what would have been +utterly inaudible by mortals in their ordinary condition. Measuring the +marvelousness of her knowledge by the frenzy it produced in the community, +and the awful doom it drew upon herself, we look upon her manifestations +of "wit" as an outflow of knowledge gained through her own inner or +spiritual organs of perception--either with or without the aid of spirits. + +When commenting upon what he assumed to be fact, viz., that Mrs. Hibbins +made a correct guess, and only a _guess_, Upham says, that "in the blind +infatuation of the time, it was considered proof positive of her being +possessed, _by aid of the devil_, of supernatural insight." Thus he +assumed that the mass of people in Boston were under such an infatuation +as could and did cause them to believe that very successful _guessing_ +required the devil's help! They may have been infatuated, but their +infatuation did not act in that direction. Their senses and judgments for +determining the forces needful to produce either material or mental +effects, may, for aught that history states, have been as keen as any +people ever possessed, and their general wisdom and thrift indicate that +they did. Why, therefore, hastily brand them with the imbecility of being +unequal to a fair, common-sense estimate of the adequacy of causes to +produce observed effects? To do so is ungenerous, unjust, and uncalled for +by their action. It may have been, and probably was, their freedom from +infatuation; it may have been the very keenness and accuracy of their +perceptions of the quantity and quality of cause needful to acquirement of +knowledge which her utterances revealed, that generated and sustained the +hostility against Mrs. Hibbins. Her accuracy in reading facts, secret and +transpiring at a distance, was possibly, on many occasions, so far beyond +what common experience or science was able to impute to either luck or +skill at guessing, that few, if any, could avoid the conclusion that she +was receiving supernal aid. + +Anything supernal was then deemed devilish. After public excitement had +been aroused against her, a very successful guess might possibly be +evidence that the devil was its author, but not till the excitement had +acquired and exercised bewildering force. Some extraordinary sayings or +doings of this lady obviously must have antedated the public furore, else +it would never have raged. The nature and circumstances of the case +indicate an almost certainty that minds around her, while in their +ordinary calmness, must have witnessed sayings or doings by her which +"seemed to them more than natural"--which were startling--were out of the +usual course, and readily distinguishable from GUESSINGS: because without +something of this kind the excitement itself could never have commenced. +What first started the public terror of her is the most important question +in the case. The excitement did not spring up uncaused. A successful guess +was no great novelty and no marvel in times of calmness. It could not then +be regarded as diabolical. The bewilderings of antecedent causes were +needful to make a correct _guess_ terrific. Excitement might metamorphose +a guess into devil-imputed knowledge, but a guess could not beget, though +it might intensify, blood-seeking excitement. Whence the excitement +itself--such excitement as could regard an accurate guess as necessarily +the offspring of diabolical insight? + +Mrs. Hibbins lived among the _élite_ of a province, whose people were +decidedly sagacious in matters of both private and public business, and +were also probably possessed of as high moral and religious principles, as +prevailed in any other community on the globe. As before stated, Richard +Bellingham, one of the very eminent men of the country, and at that time +deputy-governor of the province, was her brother; she was widow of one who +had been among the most esteemed citizens of the town, and she is credited +with having possessed more wit than her neighbors. Therefore we are +hunting for a cause adequate to excite public indignation against a woman +of bright intellect, of high position in society, and standing under the +shelter of near kinship with those in authority. The cause must have been +some strange one. _Skill at guessing_ was too common and natural, and does +not meet the requirements. + +We all unite in calling the people of 1656 infatuated in relation to +witchcraft. But did their infatuation so affect them as to bring +obtuseness upon their external senses and their intellectual ability for +discerning the nature, character, and force of testimony and evidence? or, +on the other hand, did it not show itself almost exclusively in their +reception and tenacious retention of monstrous items in their witchcraft +creed? Which? Admit an affirmative to the first part of the inquiry--admit +that senses and intellects were befooled by external manifestations--and +you make those noble forefathers but a band of dolts, heartless and +bloodthirsty, taking life because they had not wit enough to read clearly +the significance of observed external facts or to see the bearings and +force of evidence. Admit the second, viz., that their creed was father of +their infatuation, and you may look upon them as a band possessing clear +perception of the exact meaning and logical results of all Christendom's +fixed creed upon diabolism, and of unflinching purpose to fight for God +and Christ against the devil. Demonologically they were infatuated, in +common with the enlightened world; while yet for keen observance of +outward facts, for just estimate of the adequacy of a cause to produce an +observed effect, for determining the just significance of any +well-observed fact, for discriminating application of evidence under the +rules of their creeds both God-ward and devil-ward, no reason appears why +they were not equal to any other community anywhere. Their infatuation was +not first on the practical, but on the theoretical side. It was +devil-ward, not man-ward _directly_, though through the creed it became +man-ward. + +Though perceiving the meagerness and improbability of Hutchinson's +solution, Upham, ignoring what he avowed to be the only historical "clew +we have" to a correct one, which led directly to the woman's own wit, was +pleased to find the exciting cause of her persecution not in _her_, but in +other people, and dogmatically said, "The _truth_ is, the tongue of +slander was let loose against her." Such assumption--and it is bold +assumption, even if it be in accordance with facts--fails--entirely +fails--to meet the fair demands of our common-sense requirements. What +started, and extended, and intensified that tongue if it did wag? If its +utterances were _slanderous_, they were a mixture of _falsehood_ and +_malice_. What _lies_ were or could be fabricated against such a woman, +the nature of which the common sagacity of society there and then would +not detect? What _lies_ which the truthfulness of society there and then +would not decline to repeat against her? What malice against that lady of +high connections could so pervade society there as to generate a public +sentiment that demanded and obtained her life? The people of Boston were +not wicked enough to let falsehood and malice triumph in their highest +court of justice. Something different from _slander_ was needed to awaken +and sustain the popular clamor against this woman, and to cause the court +to pass sentence of death upon her. We granted to Upham the faculties of a +fictionist, and he used them when he declared that "the truth is, the +tongue of slander was let loose upon her." "The truth is," neither he nor +any other one among us at this day, knows whether that woman was slandered +or not. She may have been, but it is only matter of conjecture, and +should not be put forth as _truth_. Something more than slander in its +utmost expandings and accretions was needful to the tragic results which +ensued. + +We recur again to the only historical cause of excitement against this +lady, viz., Norton's hint that she possessed such marvelous wit for +guessing, as Upham supposes the people around her considered "proof +positive of her being possessed, _by the aid of the devil_, of +supernatural insight." That hint unlocks a door behind which may be found +a more adequate and philosophical cause of her arraignment and +condemnation than has hitherto been assigned. Since many persons now +possess, she too may have possessed constitutional faculties, which, at +times, enabled her to _sense_, comprehend, and enunciate facts and truths +which it was impossible for her to learn by man's ordinary processes. +Admit simply that she may have possessed intuitive faculties which read +the thoughts of others or sensed afar the spirit of sounds, and solution +of all mysteries about her is made. Wide awake, keen-sighted, good people +may have seen in her the exercise of such powers as were clearly, +distinctly, and beyond all question, extraordinary,--yes, supermundane. +What then? Why, by all fair logic from Christendom's faith at that time, +the devil must be her teacher, and she must be his covenanted servant. +Such a helper of Satan, however high in character or station, must be +deprived of power to work for him. Very wonderful revelations, such as +disclosures of the secret thoughts and private conversations of other and +distant persons, being a few times repeated by her, what could people, +true to their God and their creed, do less than demand her execution? +Nothing--nothing less. Their infatuated but sincere belief about the devil +plainly and with mighty force called for her blood. And this not because +of any crabbedness in her--not because of any lies about her--not because +of malice toward her--not because of the tongue of slander--but because of +facts, unquestionable facts, outwrought through her, which the tongue of +truth might dutifully publish and republish throughout the town. The +trouble, the murderous impulses, sprang from the _creed_, and especially +from those parts of it which made any and all mysterious and disturbing +outworkings devilish in their source, and which taught that the devil +could act through no human beings but such as had made a voluntary compact +to serve him. Those who had covenanted with him must die. Mrs. Hibbins was +born with mediumistic faculties, and because of her legitimate use of +these, the faith of her times conscientiously took her life. + +It gladdens the heart to find a view which legitimately permits Mrs. +Hibbins to have been a bright, refined, high-toned, and most estimable +lady; and at the same time lessens the blackness of the cloud which has +long hung over her judges and executioners. They were not so weak and +wicked as to doom one to die because of temper, nor so villainous as to +slander away a lady's life. Stern religious adherence and application of +an honest, though deluded _faith_, made them executioners of all such as +had exhibited powers which in the dim light of their philosophy and +science seemed supernatural. Their weakness consisted of such strong faith +as could, and in emergencies must, put in abeyance the kindlier +sentiments of their hearts. Their great infirmity, which was then a +general one throughout Christendom, was solely infatuation _devil-ward_. + +We charge our ancestors with _infatuation_. People in all ages and nations +have, no doubt, been subject to its influence. Perhaps every individual +man and woman is more or less swayed by it. Each one in respect to some +things may act without his usual good judgment, and contrary to the +dictates of reason. The people of Boston were obviously debarred, by their +infatuation devil-ward, from perceiving that Mrs. Hibbins might have +received extraordinary gifts from some other giver than the great evil +devil. And is it _impossible_ that infatuation influenced her recent +historian first to reject the historic wit, and substitute for it fancied +slander, as cause for the excitement against her, and then put his +substitution forth as the _truth_; though both common sense and sound +philosophy see at a glance, first, that it is only a conjecture, and +secondly, that it is entirely inadequate to produce the effects which it +was fabricated to account for? In doing this _he_ seemingly acted without +_his_ usual good judgment, and contrary to the appropriate dictates of his +enlightened reason--was infatuated. + +Both of the two historians above quoted, virtually assumed that there +never occurred here any phenomena, either mental or physical, which were +not wrought out by agents, forces, and faculties purely mundane. Therefore +the facts of history necessarily pushed them up to make implied, and often +explicit, allegation that whole communities of resolute, wide-awake, +energetic people, were possessors of external senses which were pitifully +and superlatively deludible--possessors of enormous general credulity--of +perceptions and judgments woefully warped and benighted in matters +generally, excepting only a few of their girls and old women, who +manifested cunning and deviltry supreme in making high sport out of the +weaknesses of their elders and betters. Having driven stakes beyond which +nature and natural forces must not go under forfeiture of historic +recognition, anything not explainable by forces recognized within those +stakes, is accounted for by the sage exclamation, "But that was a time of +great credulity;" or "in the blind infatuation of the time," things were +thus and so. We are willing to grant the existence of much credulity and +infatuation both of old and now, but are not willing to allow that the +facts of seeing what some other persons have not seen, and knowing the +existence and partial operations of some forces in nature which some +people have not paid attention to, are proof of either "great credulity" +or "blind infatuation." Had the later historian been free from all +infatuation, he could have learned from passing developments that Mrs. +Hibbins probably, at times, was essentially a liberated spirit, hearing +what Swedenborg calls "cogitatio loquens"--speaking thought--and that her +repetition of what she thus learned took her life. + +Hers was not a case of necessary spirit co-operation, was perhaps only one +of uncommon liberation of the internal perceptive faculties. Because +highly illumined, her brilliancy was judged to be diabolical, and +therefore must be extinguished. + + + + +ANN COLE. + + +Manifestations differing widely from any noticed in the preceding cases, +were observed in the presence of a Connecticut girl named Ann Cole. +American witchcraft history has transmitted no distinct account of the use +of human organs of speech by intellect that was foreign to the legitimate +owner of the vocals used, prior to the instance described by Hutchinson in +the following extract. The history of Ann Cole involves all that we know +of the Greensmiths, husband and wife, mentioned therein, and who were +executed for witchcraft. + +"In 1662, at Hartford, Conn., one Ann Cole, a young woman who lived next +door to a Dutch family, and, no doubt, had learned something of the +language, was supposed to be possessed with demons, who sometimes spoke +Dutch, and sometimes English, and sometimes a language which nobody +understood, and who held a conference with one another. Several ministers, +who were present, took down the conference in writing, and the names of +several persons mentioned in the course of the conference as actors or +bearing parts in it; particularly a woman, then in prison upon suspicion +of witchcraft, one Greensmith, who, upon examination, confessed, and +appeared to be surprised at the discovery. She owned that she and the +others named had been familiar with a demon, who had carnal knowledge of +her; and although she had not made a formal covenant, yet she had promised +to be ready at his call, and was to have had a high frolic at Christmas, +when an agreement was to have been signed. Upon this confession she was +executed, and two more of the company were condemned at the same time." +Hutchinson also credits to Goffe's diary the statement that "after one of +the witches was hanged, the maid was well." + +Another account of this Ann's case, furnished by an eye-witness and +personal hearer when she was in her trances, has been transmitted. The +writer of it promptly made, but afterward lost, minutes of what he heard +from her lips, and about twenty years afterward wrote his remembrances of +the manifestations, and forwarded the following account to Increase +Mather:-- + +"Anno 1662. This Ann Cole (living in her father's family) was taken with +strange fits wherein she (or rather the devil, as 'tis judged, making use +of her lips) held a discourse for a considerable time. The general +substance of it was to this purport, that a company of familiars of the +evil one (who were named in the discourse that passed from her) were +contriving how to carry on their mischievous designs against some, and +especially against her; mentioning sundry ways they would take to that +end, as that they would afflict her body, spoil her name, hinder her +marriage, &c.... The conclusion was, 'Let us confound her language; she +may tell no more tales.'... The discourse passed into a Dutch tone, ... +and therein was given an account of some afflictions that had befallen +divers, among the rest a young Dutch woman ... that could speak but very +little, had met with great sorrow, as pinchings of her arms in the dark, +&c.... Judicious Mr. Stone being by, when the latter discourse passed, +declared it, in his thoughts, impossible that one not familiarly +acquainted with the Dutch (which Ann Cole had not at all been) should so +exactly imitate the Dutch tone in the pronunciation of English.... +Extremely violent bodily motions she many times had, even to the hazard of +her life, ... and very often great disturbance was given in the public +worship of God by her and two other women who had also strange fits.... +The consequence was, that one of the persons presented as active in the +forementioned discourse (a lewd, ignorant, considerably aged woman), being +a prisoner upon suspicion of witchcraft, the court sent for Mr. Haynes and +myself to read what we had written.... She forthwith and freely confessed +these things to be true: (that she and other persons named in the +discourse) had familiarity with the devil. Being asked whether she had +made an express covenant with him, she answered, she had not, only as she +promised to go with him when he called (which she had accordingly done +sundry times).... Amongst other things, she owned that the devil had +frequent use of her body with much seeming (but indeed horrible, hellish) +delight to her. This, with the concurrent evidence, brought the woman and +her husband to their death as the devil's familiars.... After this +execution ... the good woman had abatement of her sorrows, which had +continued sundry years, and she yet remains maintaining her integrity. + +"Ann Cole was daughter of John Cole, a godly man among us. She hath been a +person esteemed pious, behaving herself with a pleasant mixture of +humility and faith under very heavy sufferings, professing (as she did +sundry times) that _she knew nothing_ of those things that were spoken by +her, but that her tongue was improved to express what never was in her +mind."--_John Whiting to Increase Mather. Feb. 1682._ + +The source of Hutchinson's information is not known. Rev. Mr. Whiting, of +Hartford, was an eye and ear witness to what he relates, and therefore is +the better authority. Some great discrepancies are obvious in the two +accounts. One hundred years after her day the historian said Ann no doubt +had learned something of the Dutch language. But the better authority, +because it is that of one who both saw and beard the young woman when +under control, and continued to obtain knowledge of her for twenty years +subsequently, says she "had not at all been acquainted with" that +language. The former says "the supposed demons" spoke through her +sometimes in English and sometimes in Dutch; while the latter "judged" +that the devil alone was speaker, and implies that the language always was +English, though the tones sometimes were very exactly Dutch. The devil was +"judged" to be there divulging the malicious purposes of "a company of his +familiars" toward certain human beings. Here is manifested a propensity, +common to all describers of witchcraft scenes, to impute to the great +devil himself whatever was projected forth from the realm of mysteries. + +A careful reading of the two accounts excites conjecture that Hutchinson +may have drawn his facts mainly from Whiting's letter, and yet failed to +regard and adhere to opinions therein presented as to the actual speaker +through Ann Cole's lips. Whiting says, that "she, or rather the _devil_, +as 'tis judged, making use of her lips, held a discourse" in which sundry +living persons were named as being familiars of the Evil One, and plotters +of mischief against some of their neighbors, and especially against this +Ann herself. This personal observer says, that "_she, or rather the +devil_," described Mrs. Greensmith and her associates, and disclosed their +evil purposes toward Ann and some other mortals. But the historian greatly +metamorphosed the matter; he writes, that she "was supposed to be +possessed with demons, who sometimes spoke Dutch and sometimes English," +and that the persons who took notes (Mr. Whiting, Mr. Haynes, and Mr. +Stone) mentioned the names of several persons "_as being actors or bearing +parts in the conference, ... particularly one Greensmith_." +Wrong--entirely wrong: these mortals were the subjects of a discourse; +were not speakers, but persons spoken of. Thus Hutchinson converted +certain low-lived mortals into such demons as took possession of a human +form, and through it, in varying languages, held a dialogue in which they +openly told to mortal ears their own malicious purposes, and what mortals +they were intending to injure. Stupid. Whiting makes the devil, in varied +tones and assumed characters, speak out the names of the embodied +culprits, and tell of harms they had done, and more that they intended to +do. Sensible. The devil or his alias often acts well the part of a +detective and informer; in this case he managed to bring Mrs. Greensmith +to confession. + +_Possibly_, and only possibly, that devil was only an influx of auras +which found entrance to Ann's inner perceptives, put in abeyance her outer +consciousness and outer senses, and let her inner ones sense and give +expression to the thoughts and purposes of some low-lived and lewd +mediumistic persons in her neighborhood, whose inner selves, she, as a +relatively freed spirit, could thoroughly read. Occult intelligences +sometimes actuate the physical organs, while yet the mortal's +consciousness fails to perceive either the action or the will that prompts +it. + +The account of her life makes it apparent that Ann, as a woman, had no +affinity with the base and lewd, but, being mediumistic, was caused, +either by design or by the out-workings of unconscious natural forces, to +disclose the baseness and lewdness of others. She apparently experienced +entrancement to absolute unconsciousness, so that she became, for the time +being, literally a tool--no more self-acting, and therefore no more +responsible, than a pen, a pencil, or a speaking-trumpet. Condition like +hers in that respect is experienced by many persons at the present day. + +Some utterances made by her lips when she was entranced were successfully +used in court, either as proofs, or as helps for obtaining proof, that +certain other persons in her neighborhood were in league with Satan--were +the devil's familiars. Presentation in court of accusations that had come +forth from her vocal organs brought a woman, then on trial for witchcraft, +to prompt confession that the allegations were true, and both she and her +husband were condemned and executed. + +Similar resorts for obtaining clews by which to trace crimes to their +authors are extensively resorted to now, and frequently with success; but +the statements of the entranced and the clairvoyant are not adduced in +court, nor should they be, because our world has not yet attained to +reliable skill for testing their accuracy; nor are high-minded and +trustworthy spirits often willing to expose any guilty mortals to +punishment by this world's tribunals and executioners. + +How far the novel annunciation of their names and some of their practices +contributed to the condemnation of the Greensmiths, husband and wife, or +whether it did at all, is only matter for conjecture. But that either some +influences went out from them and acted upon Ann, or that some went forth +from Ann and acted upon them, or that there was reciprocal action back and +forth, is only a fair inference from what is stated above, taken in +connection with that foot-note of Hutchinson, which is credited to "Goffe +the Regicide's Diary," and reads thus: "After one of the witches was +hanged, the maid was well." No mention has been met with of any sickness +about Ann, excepting the strangely induced _fits_ in which she was used as +the mouthpiece of the strange occupant or occupants of her form. Her +becoming _well_ may mean no more than a cessation of her fits, or +obsessions. That these should cease after the execution of a person or +persons with whom she had been in distressing and uncongenial rapport, was +perhaps only a natural result from the action of universal laws. Drafts +may have been made from her system by forces not her own, which helped +invisible beings to act upon the condemned Greensmiths for good or for +harm. Occasion for such use of her elements or properties may have ceased +as soon as the gallows had finished its work. The fits ceased, perhaps, +solely because drafts of special properties from her were discontinued. +"After one of the witches was hanged, the maid was well." The execution of +one person and the restoration of health to another were viewed by Goffe +as cause and effect. + +The Greensmith woman's confession of the use of her form by her +familiar--revolting as the isolated fact would be to us, and will be to +the reader--was the controlling reason which influenced us to adduce the +case of Ann Cole. We get from the old woman Greensmith an ancient +indication, which is paralleled by many unproclaimed modern ones, that +astounding possibilities reside within the scope and sway of forces +interacting between the realms of matter and of spirit, which possibly and +probably may be availed of for elevation as well as for debasement of the +human race. Many whispered facts of human experience are to-day indicating +that the old woman may have made true statement of her personal +experiences. If degradation and fatuity permit the leaking out of some +momentous facts of human experience which conscious vessels of fair +soundness and delicacy will retain within themselves, and hide from a +profaning world's knowledge, that world, nevertheless, may be entitled to +hints at the existence of occult, though only rarely perceptibly operative +forces and permissions of nature, through the only channels which have let +them flow forth for the world's free observation. The Greensmith woman's +fact may be regarded as representative of very many others of a like +nature. + +I know a man who once visited a married couple, both of whom are +intelligent and refined, both estimable in character, the husband being a +highly respected member of one of the learned professions. This couple, +at their own dining-table, where they and the visitor were the only +occupants of the room, united in stating that once, when they had just +finished taking their midday meal, and were sitting at the table opposite +to each other, the lady's chair, with herself sitting in it, was moved +back by some invisible power, and forthwith she, by palpable but invisible +arms, was taken from her seat, laid upon the carpet, and there made to +experience all the sensations of actual and pleasurable nuptial coition. +While such were her positions and sensations, her husband remained on the +other side of the table, and they two were the only flesh-clad persons in +the room. One accomplished and truthful lady had such experience while her +consciousness and all her mental faculties were fully alert. Nature +enfolds astounding possibilities. The human race, in coming times, may +possibly be improved rapidly and extensively, by designed infusions of +supernal elements into fetal germs. + +No evidence has come to us, and no apprehension is entertained, that such +experiences ever eventuate in physical conception; yet there are seen, now +and then, glimmerings of evidence that supernal beings can and do inflow +some of their own properties into the very marrow of some susceptible +mortals of either gender, or of both simultaneously and conjointly, so as +to modify physical systems in such manner and to such extent, that their +offspring receive, at the very moment of conception, such properties as +will ever afterward render them either better or worse because of +injections through the parents by intelligences whose presence and +operations elude perception by our external senses. Possibly both the most +beneficent and the most malignant of our race--both those whose moral +hues most illumine, and those whose shades most blacken the pages of +history--were conceived while supernal beings held the parents either +under strong psychological control or in deep unconscious trance. + +The mother of the rough, lustful, and murderous Samson was visited by a +spirit being "very terrible." + +The mother of Jesus was visited by the bright and glorious Gabriel, and +enwrapped in an abnormally sound, helpful, or holy aura. + +Far away from Charlestown and Boston, where the two women noticed in the +preceding pages had their homes and met their fate, Ann Cole was the +_unconscious_ mouthpiece through which invisible beings carried on +dialogues, partly in languages, or, at least, in tones, which she had +never learned. The manifestations through her were no imitations of +anything before known on this continent, so far as history shows. Her +reputed doings were unlike any for which Massachusetts had hanged two of +her daughters. + +From whom came the tones, if not the words, of languages which this +possessed girl had never learned? From whom came the things put forth +through her which "she knew nothing of"? And especially who "improved her +tongue to express what was never in her mind"? Any satisfactory +explanation of witchcraft must point out distinctly, and must admit the +action of some force competent to all such performances; a force +controllable and controlled by intelligence. The facts in the case were +set forth by a personal witness of many of them, who wrote at a time when +he was not under any excitement or hallucination which their novelty might +at first produce, but twenty years subsequent to their occurrence, when +their recorder should have been, and no doubt was, calm and cautious, and +when, too, the girl's own good character had been confirmed by good +Christian deportment through twenty years succeeding the marvels +manifested through her organs. If any history is worth reading, Ann Cole's +lips were used by intelligences not her own "to express what never was in +her mind." Either embodied intelligences--the Greensmiths and their +associates whose bodies were not present with her--used her vocal organs, +as Hutchinson's account implies that they did, or demons--spirits, as +Whiting supposed--spoke through her form. + + + + +ELIZABETH KNAP. + + +At Groton, Mass., in 1671, Elizabeth Knap was more singularly beset than +most others of that century who were deemed bewitched. The authority +transmitting an account of her is exceptionally good, having been written +by Rev. Samuel Willard, minister then at Groton, in the prime and vigor of +life. He had graduated at Harvard College twelve years before, afterward +became minister at the Old South Church in Boston, and was for several +years at the head of Harvard College. The girl in question was his pupil, +residing in his family during the earlier portion of her affliction, and +was under his watch till its close. His opportunities for observing the +case in its rise and progress were certainly very good, and he made a +journalistic account of its phases and progress under many specific dates +from October 30, 1671, to January 15, 1672, a space of eleven weeks or +more. He was an attentive observer and close questioner of the girl, and +also a cautious and intelligent chronicler. + +She was at first subjected to extraordinary mental moods and violent +physical actions, which came on rather gradually, showing themselves in +marked singularities of conduct, for which she, when questioned, would +give little if any account. Strange, sudden shrieks, strange changes of +countenance, appeared first. These were soon followed by the exclamations, +"O, my leg!" which she would rub; "O, my breast!" and she would rub that, +it seeming to be in pain. Her breath would be stopped. She saw a strange +person in the cellar, when her companions there were unable to see any +such. She cried out to him, "What cheer, old man?" Afterward came fits, in +which she would cry out sometimes, "Money, money!" offered her as +inducements to yield obedience; and sometimes, "Sin and misery!" as +threats of punishment for refusal to obey the wishes of her strange +visitant. She said the devil appeared to her, and that she had seen him at +times for three years. He often talked with her, and urged her to make a +covenant with him, which she refused to do. November 26, six persons could +hardly hold her. The physician, who for about four weeks had considered +and treated the malady as a natural one, now pronounced it diabolical. +She barked like a dog, bleated like a calf, and seemed at times to be +strangled. At length distinct utterances came out. "A grum, low, audible +voice" said to Mr. Willard himself, "You are a great rogue--a great +rogue;" and yet "her vocal organs did not move." The voice was replied to +as being that of Satan himself, and its author responded, "I am not Satan; +I am a pretty black boy; this is my pretty girl; I have been here a great +while." "When he said to me" (Mr. Willard), "O, you black rogue, I do not +love you," I replied, "Through God's grace I hate thee." He rejoined, "You +had better love me." The strength shown through the girl, the writer and +witness says, "is beyond the force of dissimulation, and the actings of +convulsions are quite contrary to these actings." Through all her +sufferings "she did not waste in body or strength." Speech came from her +without motion of the organs of speech. Also "we observed, when the voice +spoke, her throat was swelled formidably, at least as big as one's fist." +She said she "saw more devils than any one there ever saw men in the +world." + +No attendant sacrifice of life gave intensification of interest to this +Groton case, and it failed to become prominently conspicuous among +witchcraft events. Still it is more instructive on some points than almost +any other one of them. Here first have we found in colonial history any +statement that an intelligence speaking through a borrowed or usurped form +disclosed _who_ he was. + +Mr. Willard, to whose care this girl was intrusted, and in whose family +she had been a resident, was convinced that some other being than the girl +herself was giving utterance through her lips, and in harmony with a +necessary inference from the general faith of his times, addressed the +unknown one under supposition that he was veritably _The Devil_. The being +thus accosted promptly said, "I am not _Satan_; I am a pretty black boy." + +The girl said she had been accustomed to see her visitant, at times, +during three preceding years, and that she saw more devils than any one +there ever saw men in the world. Her notions in reference to the proper +application of words were obviously just as loose as the prevalent ones in +community then, which deemed any spirit visitant whatsoever a devil, or +the devil. An observer of such beings as she saw would to-day call them +spirits. When she perceived and called out to some personage invisible to +her companions, saying, "What cheer, old man?" she plainly indicated that +the being thus hailed was apparently neither more nor less than an old +man, and he, judged by her address to him, was by no means austere or +repulsive; and yet he doubtless was one of those whom she, or whom the +reporter of her utterances, was accustomed to call _devils_. There is no +indication that she ever saw one specially huge, malformed, malignant +personality, or that she ever intended to indicate perception of such a +one. + +The purposes and moods of Mr. Willard's interlocutor seem to have been +playful and kindly, rather than morose and satanic. Temporarily +reincarnated spirits are often prone to smile at the long-faced and +cringing thoughts which their advent evokes in persons not accustomed to +interviews with them. "You are a great rogue--a great rogue," and "you had +better love me," can hardly be deemed ill-timed or inappropriate +expressions from a lively boy, whatever his hue, who, on being mistaken +for the devil, would naturally banter the sedate clergyman whose creed +forced him to regard such a visitant as the Prince of Evil. He said truly, +and in better spirit than the minister's, it would be better for you to +love than to "hate" me. + +Common fairness asks all men to regard any speaker's account of himself as +true, until some reason appears for distrusting him. No word or deed +ascribed to this pretty black boy, who said he was not Satan, renders the +accuracy of his statement doubtful. Distrust of him, if it spring up, will +probably be the offspring of prejudices, combined with ignorance of spirit +methods of opening ways to reach man's cognizance, and win him to seek +communings with his preceding kindred who possess more experience and +consequent greater wisdom than pertains to any dwellers in mortal forms. +Our incrustations of ignorance and prejudice withstand every gentle +appliance, and yield only to sledge-hammer blows. + +Sensations, conditions, and various powers attendant on Elizabeth Knap +were emphatically extraordinary. Detailed journalistic account of them +having come down from a sagacious, cautious, truthful, and cultured +man--from one of the eminently trustworthy men of his generation--demands +credence. He says the strength of her body was "beyond the force of +dissimulation;" that "six persons could hardly hold her;" and that "the +actings were contrary to those of convulsions." + +Another point is, that through the eleven weeks of such rough exploits, +"she did not waste in body or strength." Cotton Mather speaks of some who +were so preserved through similarly tortured states, that, "at the end of +one month's wretchedness, they were as able still to undergo another." +Similar preservation of flesh and strength, amid fastings and most +excessive activity, are frequent experiences to-day with the highly +mediumistic, especially in the earlier stages of their dominations by +invisibles. + +Speech came from her without motion of her vocal organs. That much may +pertain to simple ventriloquence; but Mr. Willard says also that "we +observed, when the voice spoke, her throat was swelled formidably, at +least as big as one's fist." Ventriloquence has not usually such an +adjunct as that. Moreover, the minister was convinced that the utterings +were prompted by other will than hers. + +This girl's experience abounds in evidences that her spirit faculties of +perception were so freed from hamperings by the outer body, that she could +consciously see, hear, and converse with spirits, and that her physical +system was subject to control by them for speech in varied forms and +modes, and for strange and violent action by her limbs. + +In parts of the narrative which we have not copied, it appears that +accusation came from her lips that Mr. Willard himself and some other +godly ones in his parish were her tormentors. This was saying to Samuel in +most startling manner, as one of old did to David, "_Thou art the man_;" +for at that day faith was common that the devil had not power to accuse a +godly person, could not indeed accuse any others than guilty ones of being +contributors to outworkings of witchcraft. If the announcement was true, +Mr. Willard and other good ones, according to the faith of some at that +day, were covenanters with the devil. It was a fearful moment when such +accusation of the good clergyman fell upon his ears from the lips of his +tortured pupil. His resort, and that of another accused one, was to +prayer; and we can readily fancy that petitions heavenward then rose up +from the lowest depths of true and earnest souls, and went forth, in the +girl's presence, with such psychologizing power as loosened the hold of +any spirit possessing her form, and allowed her to regain full possession +and control of all her normal powers. + +This subject of spirit control retained consciousness during her +entrancements, or during the times when her body was subject to a will not +her own, as many mediums do at this day. Consequently she would possess +more or less knowledge of whatever was said or done by her organs and +limbs, whoever controlled them. Being young, she could scarcely be +competent to make, and keep in remembrance, the broad severance of her +individual responsibility for what was done by others and what by herself, +through use of her own physical faculties. It was natural--almost +necessary--that she should become self-condemnatory for having had done +through her what gave distress and anguish to her friends, even though she +had lent no voluntary aid to the deeds, nor had power to prevent their +being enacted. + +We presume her statement was true that Mr. Willard and the others then +accused were, though unconsciously, made to be contributors of aid to the +controllers of his pupil; true that she felt the workings of emanations +from them. Twenty years afterward an "afflicted" one in Salem Village +began to cry out upon this same man as being one of her afflicters. And +why? Because, probably, of constitutional properties in him which spirits +could avail themselves of as helps for entrancing or controlling +mediumistic persons. The laws which governed detection of tormentors of +the bewitched will come under more extended consideration in subsequent +parts of our work. Results indicate that Samuel Willard's system possessed +either material or psychic properties, or both, which exposed him to +accusation of bewitching some sensitives, whose perceptive powers could +trace back to their source any mesmerizing forces that entered into and +acted efficiently upon their own systems. + +In his usual temper and judgment witchward, Hutchinson pronounced the +sufferings of Elizabeth Knap "fraud, imposture, and ventriloquism"! Shade +of Samuel Willard! How look you now, and how shall we mortals look upon +the man, who, ninety years after your day, casting a glance backward into +the darkened chambers of the long past, perceived yourself to have been a +credulous dolt and simpleton, unable, by eleven weeks' close study and +vigilant watch, to determine that the source of marvelous phenomena +manifested in your own domicile, before your own attentive eyes, was +exclusively mundane? From looking at the occurrences, as they lay dormant +and half buried under the dust which ninety full years had been throwing +over them, Hutchinson saw at a glance that they were nothing but frauds, +impostures, and ventriloquism. You, Rev. Sir, at first doubted their +supermundane source, but study of and deliberate reflection upon them for +weeks satisfied you that your doubts were untenable; you obviously was +devoid of such credulity as enabled Hutchinson to very promptly obtain +conviction that your Elizabeth was but an actor of fraud and imposture. +Alas for your sagacity, Samuel Willard! + +Upham makes no account of either Ann Cole or Elizabeth Knap, though these +were decidedly the best American prototypes of the magic-taught girls in +Salem Village, whose schemings and exploits he dwells upon at great +length. He claims that the witchcraft generators and enactors there +studied, schemed, and practiced in concert at "a circle," and thus learned +how, and by what means, to originate and perform it. All known +circumstances conspire to indicate that neither Ann Cole nor Elizabeth +Knap had either visible teachers or co-operators in their marvelous +operations. Therefore, had the historian adduced those two cases--these +good exemplars of the performers at Salem--perhaps he would have been +asked who trained the isolated performers twenty and thirty years before a +necromantic seminary had been founded, at which the arts of magic, +necromancy, and Spiritualism could be taught and learned. Was there +anywhere a prior institution of that kind? If not, then we ask, was any +circle kindred to that at Salem an essential--a _sine qua non_--to +acquiring competency for skillful practice of witchcraft? or of acts +called witchcraft of old? May not natural endowments sometimes be ample +qualification for admitting the evolvement through one's form of very +great marvels? If not, the sporadic performances at Hartford and Groton +are troublesome to account for. + +The advent of one spirit to Elizabeth Knap, and his use of her organs of +speech in carrying on a dialogue with the Rev. Samuel Willard, is +distinctly stated by that trustworthy chronicler. Also, according to him, +the girl saw vast hosts of similar beings--yes, more in number than any +one present had ever seen men in their lives. Here, surely, is very strong +testimony to the general fact that spirit action took sensible effect upon +and among human beings away back in 1671-2, in the quiet inland town of +Groton. + +What is fit treatment of such facts and testimony from such a source? +Should they be left unadduced and unalluded to, as they were by one +elaborate historian? Should they be called outgrowths from "fraud and +imposture," as they were by another? Or should writers upon the subject, +in manly way, both let the facts come forth and speak for themselves, and +leave the sagacity and veracity of their exemplary chronicler above +suspicion, till by facts, and fair deductions from them, they render it +probable that Samuel Willard was the slave of such delusion as +disqualified him for reasoning with common accuracy upon what his external +senses perceived day after day and week after week? Shrinking, by an +historian of New England's witchcraft, from distinct notice of Willard's +deliberate and carefully drawn conclusions from facts transpiring in his +presence, is not only a keeping back of important information, but +possibly is an implication either that Willard himself was an unreliable +witness, or a witness on the other side of the question, whose testimony +would be troublesome. Generous blood boils with rebuke when boasted +enlightenment either ignores or traduces the most competent and +trustworthy transmitters of marvelous facts, where so doing facilitates +command of room for setting up modern fancies in niches where ancient +facts have rightful foothold. + +On the good authority of Samuel Willard we find that Elizabeth Knap saw +hosts of spirits, was roughly handled and spoken through by some of them, +and by one who said he was _not Satan_, but a pretty black boy. This was a +case of spirit manifestation. + + + + +THE MORSE FAMILY. + + +Late in the year 1679, in the part of old Newbury, Mass., which is now +Newburyport, very many startling pranks occurred, of a kind which to-day +are called physical manifestations. These clustered mostly in and around +the dwelling-place of William Morse, an aged man, who with his wife, then +sixty-five years old, and their little grandson, John Stiles, constituted +the whole family. + +Perusal of the records of this case has rendered it probable to us that +Mrs. Morse, the little boy John, and a young mariner, Caleb Powell, who +was frequently in at Morse's house, were all distinctly mediumistic, and +that their systems either supplied, or were used for holding, instrumental +elements and forces which spirits used in imparting seeming vitality, +will, self-guiding and motive powers to andirons, pots, kettles, trays, +bedsteads, and many other implements and articles. + +Beauty and attractiveness seldom drape the foundations of even very +elegant and useful structures. Laborers digging trenches for foundations, +and others placing stones therein, are frequently rough beings, in homely +garbs, from whom the refined and sensitive often turn away as soon as +politeness and civility permit. Yet, though rough, coarse, and unsightly +materials go into foundations, and equally rough workmen lay them, the +nature and quality of materials there used, and of work there performed, +deserve inspection by any one whose duty, interest, or pleasure induces +him to estimate with approximate accuracy the value and prospective +utility of the structure which shall rest thereon. + +Palpable, audible, visible pranks, seeming to be the willed actions of +lifeless wood and iron, possibly occurred in the seventeenth, because they +are common in the nineteenth century. Such pranks are foundations of +arguments which prove a life after death. A table, a chair, or an andiron, +manifesting all the usual signs of indwelling vitality, consciousness, +intelligence, self-willed action, and of possessing animal senses and +capacities, testifies to its being operated upon by some unseen +intelligence more convincingly than can the lips of the wisest and truest +man the world contains testify to any fact whatsoever which seems +supernatural. Vitalized wood or iron speaks "as never man spake;" yes, as +man, unless specially aided from outside of the visible world, can never +speak; it addresses men's external senses directly; it confides its +teachings to the most trusted and most trustworthy conveyances of facts +and truths to the mind within. The oft ridiculed, slurred, contemned +antics of household furniture are signs put forth to human view by occult +operators, whose stand-point, of vision and powers of comprehension enable +them to use some natural laws and forces for affecting man and his +interests, which human scientists have never clearly cognized, which +schoolmen do not embrace in their philosophies, and therefore the cultured +world generally has failed to put forth rational and satisfactory +explanations of many marvels which the ocean of mystery is often buoying +up on to its surface, where they become perceptible by human senses. + +Modern mind has very extensively measured the credibility of witnesses to +witchcraft facts much as the good woman did that of her "sailor boy." On +his return home from a voyage around the Hope, he soon began to describe +what he had seen, and gave an account of flying fish. "Stop, stop, my +son," said the mother; "don't talk like that; people can't believe that, +because fishes haven't got no wings, and can't fly." "Well, mother," +replied Jack, "I'll pass by the fish, and tell what happened in the Red +Sea. When we weighed anchor there, we drew up on its flukes some spokes +and felloes of Pharaoh's chariot wheels." "That, now," rejoined the +mother, "will do to tell; we can believe that, because _that is in the +Bible_." + +In similar manner many people are prone to measure the credibility of +witnesses by the reconcilability of the things testified to, with the +general previous knowledge, observations, and experiences of the world. +Such a course is usually very well. But the rule it involves is not +applicable in all cases. Veritable flying fish exist, notwithstanding the +mother conceived them to be nothing but the fictions of her wild boy's +lively fancy. The facts of witchcraft may have been veritable; many +witnesses who testified to them may have been both truthful and accurate +describers, notwithstanding the incredulity of some historians whose +philosophies are too narrow to enwrap many facts which exist. + +The strange manifestations at Morse's house, we have said before, were +nearly all such as to-day are denominated _physical_ ones; that is, such +as are manifested either upon, or through use of, matter that is +uncontrolled by any mortal's mind. Few if any intelligible utterances or +communications imputed to invisible intelligences contributed to the +consternation which was then excited in Newbury. This case differs very +widely from either of those previously noticed both as to the objects +directly acted upon mysteriously, and as to the human organs employed. It +invites to extended and careful attention. We must transfer to our pages +numerous, and some long, extracts from the old records; else we shall fail +to manifest with desirable clearness and authority the multiplicity and +character of those marvelous works, and their probable sources and +authors. + +Mr. Morse himself, for aught that appears, escaped all suspicion of +complicity with, or connivance at, the strange doings. He seemingly came +forth from the furnace with no sulphurous smell about him. Caleb Powell, a +young seaman, mate of some vessel, but then on shore, was the first person +to be legally accused in this case. He was arraigned at the instance, and +on the testimony, of Mr. Morse himself. Some peculiar characteristics and +habits ascribed to Powell were such as would naturally cause him to be +watched, if strange doings appeared where he was present. In "Annals of +Witchcraft, Woodward's Historical Series," No. VIII. p. 142, it is stated +that Powell "pretended to a knowledge in the occult sciences, and that by +means of this knowledge he could detect the witchcraft then going on at +Mr. Morse's.... The dancing of pots and kettles, the bowing of chairs, +&c., was resumed with more vigor than ever when Powell came there 'to +detect the witchcraft.'" + +Upham, vol. i. p. 440, says Powell "determined to see what it all meant, +and to put a stop to it, if he could, went to the house, and soon became +satisfied that a roguish grandchild was the cause of all the trouble.... +It is not unlikely, that, in foreign ports, he had witnessed exhibitions +of necromancy and mesmerism, which, in various forms and under different +names, have always been practiced. Possibly he may have _boasted to be a +medium himself_, a scholar and adept in the mystic art, able to read and +divine 'the workings of spirits.' At any rate, when it became known that, +at a glance, he attributed to the boy the cause of the mischief, and that +it ceased on his taking him away from the house, the opinion became +settled that he was a wizard.... His astronomy, astrology, and +_Spiritualism_ brought him in peril of his life." + +It is no unusual thing for even wise men to write much more wisely than +they know. If Powell correctly "_at a glance_ ... found the boy to be the +cause of the mischief," it becomes probably a _fact_, and not simply a +_boast_, that he was "a medium himself," that he was "a wizard," or +knowing one, and that his "Spiritualism," more _accurately_ his +mediumistic capabilities, "brought him in peril of his life." One +authority says the play "was resumed with more vigor than ever" when he +came into the house. For some reason he was very soon arraigned and tried +for witchcraft, but not convicted. + +We have little doubt that his optics saw the boy performing tricks, and +therefore can believe that he accused John in good faith; just as the +clairvoyant soon to be noticed accused the medium Read. Powell probably +saw the boy perpetrating the mischief. But with what eyes? The outer or +the inner--his material or his spiritual ones? And which boy did he see? +The external or the internal one--the boy material or the boy spiritual? +In evidence both that our explanations of Powell's doings will be neither +sheer novelty nor mere fancy, and for the purpose of disseminating +knowledge of highly important facts, the following extracts are taken from +an instructive and interesting pamphlet upon "Mediums and Mediumship," by +Thomas R. Hazard: Wm. White & Co., Boston, 1873. + +"I once saw Read" (a well-known medium for physical manifestations) +"affected by the abrupt introduction of light at one of his circles in +Boston, at which he was, as usual, securely tied by a committee chosen by +the audience, and fastened securely to his chair. The manifestations were +after the common order, and went on harmoniously until an Indian war-song +and dance were inaugurated. The exhibition was very exciting, and both the +song and the dance became so uproarious and violent that, although we were +in a three-story back room, I was apprehensive that not only the temporary +platform might give way, but that the attention of the police might be +attracted to the spot by the noise. Near by me sat Miss F., an excellent +clairvoyant medium, who was earnestly describing to some of her friends +the scene that was being enacted on the platform. She stated that two +powerful Indians stood by Read, and that it was he who performed the +wonderful dance.... Thus one of the best 'dark-circle mediums in the +United States' was not only proved to be an 'impostor,' but taken in the +very act of his trickery.... From all that was occurring before us, it was +too evident that Read was an impostor; for 'Miss F. clairvoyantly saw him +perform tricks which he palmed off on the public as spiritual.'... But +now, ... mark the sequel, and observe how easy it is for those who suffer +their zeal to outrun their knowledge to be mistaken; and how true it is +that as spiritual things can only be discerned by the spiritual eye, and +material things only by the material eye, so the spiritual eye can (under +ordinary circumstances) discern only spiritual things, as the material eye +can discern only material things. + +"It seems that a self-lighting burner had been adjusted near the platform, +at which an experienced man from the gas-works was stationed, with the +gas-cock in his hand, ready at a moment's notice to turn on the light. +This man was within hearing distance of Miss F., and must have heard her +remarks;... he gave the cock a sudden turn, and in an instant all was +light, and of course the medium was--_exposed_--sitting fast bound in his +chair, with every knot as perfect as when first tied, but in a dying +condition from the effect of the tremendous shock his nervous system +underwent by the sudden return of the unusual volume of elements that had +been extracted from his physical body to furnish material clothing for +his own _double_, or some other spiritual creation, that was performing +the exhausting war-song and dance on the platform; nor is it probable that +Miss F. ever saw the _material_ body of Read during the whole time she +_clairvoyantly_ saw him.... Suffice it to say, that the suffering medium +was released from his bonds as soon as practicable, but not until after +three or four minutes had expired, ... after which, by the application of +restoratives, Read was gradually revived, and restored to his right mind +and condition." + +Such statement of direct personal observations--coming from the pen of an +aged, but still vigorous, gentleman of ample pecuniary means, of more than +average culture, of acute perceptions, of careful and critical +observations, who has spent many years in "trying the spirits" and +contesting the strength and quality of testimony in their favor at every +step,--who hates, with a righteous and outspoken hatred, falsehood, fraud, +imposture, oppression, or hypocrisy, wherever or in whatever cause they +manifest themselves--is entitled to credence, and gives important inklings +of some occasional methods of spirit operations upon and around mediums. +From such a witness we learn that while a medium's limbs were bound fast, +and he claiming to be, and known, a few minutes before, to have been, +sitting bound hand and foot on a stage in a room just made dark, a lady +clairvoyant there present saw him loose, and moving about most vigorously +over the stage, doing "things, as to jump up and down," as Powell saw the +Morse boy acting. The clairvoyant's inner vision saw Read dancing--saw +either a perfect semblance of him, formed by use of special properties +drawn forth from his system, or else saw the veritable Read himself +practically then a disembodied and unroped spirit. She no doubt actually +saw thus, and saw the essential man Read loosed, and dancing most +vigorously. A flash of light, however, let suddenly on at the time, +enabled all external eyes to see the external form of Read sitting all +fast bound upon the chair. + +That case teaches that properties drawn forth from the little boy John +Stiles, and molded into that boy's form, may have, by Powell's interior +vision, been seen playing tricks with pots and kettles, while neither the +boy's consciousness, will, or physical muscles had the slightest +connection with the antic articles. Facts showing such susceptibilities in +human organisms as were manifested in the case of Read, are too +significant and important for any scientist, philosopher, or historian to +ignore, so long as he claims to be, or, in fact, can be, a wise and +helpful expounder of very many records of ancient marvels. + +At page 392, vol. ii., of Mather's "Magnalia," New Haven ed., 1820, +account is given of this case wherein it is stated that,-- + +"A little boy belonging to the family was a principal sufferer in these +molestations; for he was flung about at such a rate that they feared his +brains would have been beaten out: nor _did they find it possible to hold +him_.... The man took him to keep him in a chair; but the chair fell a +dancing, and both of them were very near being thrown into the fire. + +"These and a thousand such vexations befalling the boy at home, they +carried him to live abroad at a doctor's. There he was quiet; but +returning home, he suddenly cried out he was pricked on the back, where +they found strangely sticking a _three-tined fork_, which belonged unto +the doctor, and had been seen at his house after the boy's _departure_. +Afterward his troublers found him out _at the doctor's also_; where, +crying out again he was pricked on the back, they found an _iron spindle_ +stuck into him. + +"He was taken out of his bed, and thrown under it; and all the knives +belonging to the house were one after another stuck into his back, which +the spectators pulled out; only one of them seemed to the spectators to +come out of his mouth. The poor boy was divers times thrown into the fire, +and preserved from scorching there with much ado. For a long while he +barked like a dog, clucked like an hen, and could not speak rationally. +His tongue would be pulled out of his mouth; but when he could recover it +so far as to speak, he complained that _a man called P----l appeared unto +him as the cause of all_. + +"The man and his wife taking the boy to bed with them ... they were +severely pinched and pulled out of bed.... But before the _devil_ was +chained up, the invisible hand which did all these things began to put on +an astonishing _visibility_. They often thought they felt the hand that +scratched them, while yet they saw it not; but when they thought they had +hold of it, it would give them the slip. + +"Once the _fist_ beating the man was discernible, but they could not catch +hold of it. At length an apparition of a _Blackamoor child_ showed itself +plainly to them.... A voice sang _revenge! revenge! sweet is revenge_. At +this the people, being terrified, called upon God; whereupon there +followed a mournful note, several times uttering these expressions--_Alas! +alas! we knock no more, we knock no more!_ and there was an end of all." + +In no other remembered account is that little boy credited with saying +anything whatsoever. Mather reports that upon coming out of one of his +scenes of torture so far as to recover power of speech, "he complained +that a man called P----l appeared unto him as the cause of all." That +statement discloses a fact worth observing. There was tit for tat between +little John and Powell. Each found the other a focus of issuing force that +caused the witchery. The sensitive boy probably saw and felt, by his +interior faculties, that properties and forces from Powell were applied to +the strangely moving objects, and also in producing his own sufferings. +Powell, too, through his inner perceptives, could learn the same in +relation to the boy. Both were probably right in their perceptions, and in +their allegations. Mr. Morse suspected and complained of Powell. That is +something in favor of deeming John the lesser focus of force in this case. + +The mauling "fist" was once seen, but eluded grasping, as spirit limbs +generally do. At last, a "Blackamoor child," perhaps brother to Elizabeth +Knap's "pretty black boy," was visible--and not only that, but audible +also. If it was the spirit of either an Indian or African child, +sympathizing with his own race, and who had been taught to look upon all +whites as oppressors, _revenge_ would naturally be _sweet_ to such a one, +or to a band of such. Earnest, heartfelt prayer might psychologically +break their hold, and induce them to say, "we knock no more." + +Though Powell, when tried, escaped conviction, yet, said the court, "he +hath given such grounds of suspicion of working by the devil, that we +cannot acquit him;" therefore the judges charged him with the costs +attending the prosecution of _himself_. Such was equity practice in those +days. + +Having failed to prove conclusively that the harum-scarum sailor boy was +the devil's conduit for the startling occurrences among them, the good +people of Newbury naturally proceeded to inquire what other person was the +channel through which his sable majesty was pouring out malignity. Who, +next to Powell, among those present at the manifestations, was most likely +to have made a covenant with the Evil One? All eyes would turn +instinctively to the spot where the deviltries transpired, and to persons +who were generally near by when and where the performances came off. The +inmates of the house of exhibition, Mr. Morse, Mrs. Morse, and their +grandson, John Stiles, would naturally be very keenly watched and +thoroughly scrutinized. Their traits, habits, and antecedents would be +fully discussed; it was almost certain that one of the three must be +guilty; and which of them was most likely to be the devil's tool? Result +shows that Mrs. Morse was pitched upon. But why she? Her character was +good--she was religious and beneficent. _But--but--_ + +Mrs. Jane Sewall--Woodward's "Hist. Series," No. VIII. p. 281--testified +and said, "Wm. Morse, being at my house, ... some years since, ... begun +of his own accord to say that his wife was accounted a _witch_; but he did +wonder that she should be both a healing and a destroying witch, and gave +this instance. The wife of Thomas Wells, being come to the time of her +delivery, was not willing (by motion of his sister in whose house she was) +to send for Goodwife Morse, though she were the next neighbor, and +continued a long season in strong labor and could not be delivered; but +when they saw the woman in such a condition, and without any hopeful +appearance of delivery, determined to send for the said G. Morse, and so +Tho. Wells went to her and desired her to come; who, at first, made a +difficulty of it, as being unwilling, not being sent for sooner. Tho. +Wells said he would have come sooner, but sister would not let him; so, at +last she went, and quickly after her coming the woman was delivered." + +Therefore, some years before the time of Mrs. Morse's trial, Mr. Morse, in +Mrs. Sewall's own house, volunteered "to say that his wife was accounted a +_witch_;" at which he wondered because of her beneficence, and then he +instanced her doings in the case of Mrs. Wells as evidence of her +goodness. The accounts pertaining to her render it probable that Mrs. +Morse sometimes acted as midwife, and show clearly that some people had +previously called her a witch. Such reports being in circulation, it is +not surprising that some women should object to admitting her into their +houses, fearing the introduction of brimstone; while others, who had +previously found her help very efficient, would seek her assistance in +hours of pain or sickness. The point of most significance is, that Mrs. +Morse had, some years previous to the disturbances at her house, _been +suspected of witchcraft_. Why? We do not know with any certainty. But the +appearance that she was a midwife, whose labors involved more or less of +general medical practice, suggests the possibility that her "simple +remedies," or her hands, had sometimes produced such extraordinary +effects, as led people to surmise that the devil must be her helper; just +as, for the same reasons, more than thirty years before, he was believed +to be co-operator with Margaret Jones. The conjecture naturally follows +that she was highly mediumistic, and that her intuitions and magnetism, if +nothing more, enabled and caused her to be a worker of marvelous cures. It +was at the abode of such a woman, and in apartments saturated with her +emanations, that the unseen ones frequently held high, rude, and +consternating frolic, during many weeks; it was at the home of one +_previously_ reputed a _witch_. + +An indication that, even before the wonders occurred at her home, she had +been suspected of exercising also perceptive faculties that were more than +human; had been suspected of manifesting "wit" of the special kind which +cost Ann Hibbins her life, is given in the following deposition by +Margaret Mirack, who testified thus, Woodward's "Hist. Series," No. VIII. +p. 287:-- + +"A letter came from Pispataqua by Mr. Tho. Wiggens. We got Mr. Wiggens to +read the letter, and he went his way; and I promised to conceal the letter +after it was read to my husband and myself, and we both did conceal it; +nevertheless, in a few days after, Goode Morse met me, and clapt me on the +back, and said, 'I commend you for sending such an answer to the letter.' +I presently asked her, what letter? Why, said she, hadst not thee such a +letter from such a man at such a time? I came home presently and examined +my husband about it. My husband presently said, What? Is she a witch or a +cunning woman? Whereupon we examined our family, and they said they knew +nothing of the letter." + +Mrs. Morse's possession of their secret was so unaccountable that the +husband in astonishment asked, "Is she a witch or a cunning woman?" The +question implies that it seemed so extraordinary to the man that she +should have knowledge of the letter and its answer, that any process by +which she could obtain it was seemingly beyond the power of mortals to +apply. Either witchcraft or supernal cunning must have helped her. When +asked by the same Mrs. Mirack afterward "_how_ she came to know it," the +witness says, Mrs. Morse "told me she could not tell." This indicates a +mind so conditioned, as many mediumistic ones now are, that knowledge is +inflowed to them, they know not whence or how, and, literally, they +_cannot_ tell whence it has come. This gives presumption that she +possessed mediumistic receptivities, and the outworkings from such +faculties would suggest that she received supernal aid. The only imagined +source of such aid at that day was the devil. Obviously she "felt +knowledge in her bones," as the acute negress did in Mrs. Stowe's +"Minister's Wooing." + +Though Mrs. Morse was tried and condemned for witchcraft, the sentence was +never put in execution. When on her way from Ipswich jail to Boston for +trial, she said, among other things, that "she was accused about +witchcraft, but that she was as clear of it as God in heaven." When saying +this she probably spoke no more than exact truth. + +She appears to have been a good woman. The candid and generally cautious +Rev. Mr. Hale, of Beverly, wrote that "her husband, who was esteemed a +sincere and understanding Christian by those that knew him, desired some +neighbor ministers, of whom I was one, to discourse with his wife, which +we did; and her discourse _was very Christian_, and still pleaded her +innocence as to that which was laid to her charge." This examination +occurred after her discharge from prison. The aged couple came out from +their severe ordeal with characters bright enough to claim the confidence +and respect of good men in their own day, and may claim as much from after +ages. + +There is no indication that the boy of the house, John Stiles, whom Powell +accused as the great mischief-maker, was suspected of being such by any +other one of the many witnesses of the strange transactions. Those +witnesses were much better judges as to what persons the wonders +apparently proceeded from, than any person can be to-day; and one whom +they left unblamed, it is distinct injustice, as well as folly, for +expounders of the case in our times to put forth and traduce as having +been the contriver and performer of all that so agitated, distressed, and +exposed the lives of those who sheltered, fed, and kindly cared for him. +Modern historians, however, have been guilty of this great wrong. + +It has recently been stated (Woodward's "Hist. Series," No. VIII. p. 141), +that, "what instigated him to undertake the tormenting of his +grand-parents, there is no mention as yet discovered." This begs the +primal question, viz., _Did_ he undertake to torment them? To this +inquiry it can truly be said, there is no mention in the primitive +records, as yet discovered, that he did. There is no evidence that any one +but Caleb Powell (that swift witness) suspected him of undertaking any +such thing. Where the records are so extensive and full as in this case, +their omission to mention any other accusers of the boy is strong evidence +that there was no apparent contriving or executing pranks and outrages by +him. The writer above quoted says also, "How long the young scamp carried +on his annoyances ... does not appear." Neither does it appear that he +ever began or was consciously concerned in any such. Only in appearance, +and that only to Caleb Powell the clairvoyant, and to the eyes of modern +commentators, was that boy in fault. + +Upham, following the witchy Powell's lead, ignorantly regards what was +done by mystical use of the boy's properties as being the boy's voluntary +performances. And regarding the boy as a great rogue, and as author of all +the great mischief, he says (vol. i. p. 448), "His audacious operations +were persisted in to the last." We look upon that allegation as an +"audacious" defamation of an innocent youth. + +In this Morse case we chose to present ostensible and reputed actors, +prior to presenting descriptions of the special scenes in which history +makes them prominent, because considerable knowledge of the age, +character, and abilities pertaining to the chief supposed performers in +the great Newbury tragedy, or semi-tragedy, will be helpful, if not +essential, to any well-based conclusion as to whether any one of them was +the leading intelligence that brought it upon the stage, and supervised +and managed its apparent actors--and, if either was, then which one among +them? If neither of them, then somebody else was manager there. Our +instructive citation from Hazzard discloses the occasional action of +agents and forces that are not recognized even to-day by the community at +large, and therefore we wished it to be read in advance of facts which it +greatly helps to explain. Way is now opened for introducing to those +readers whose patience has sustained them through this long prologue, the +facts of the case as stated by William Morse himself, and sworn to by both +him and his wife. + +"THE TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM MORSE: which saith, together with his wife, aged +both about sixty-five years: that, Thursday night, being the +twenty-seventh day of November, we heard a great noise without, round the +house, of knocking of the boards of the house, and, as we conceived, +throwing of stones against the house. Whereupon myself and wife looked out +and saw nobody, and the boy all this time with us; but we had stones and +sticks thrown at us, that we were forced to retire into the house again. +Afterward we went to bed, and the boy with us; and then the like noise was +upon the roof of the house. + +"2. The same night, about midnight, the door being locked when we went to +bed, we heard a great hog in the house grunt and make a noise, as we +thought willing to get out; and that we might not be disturbed in our +sleep, I rose to let him out, and I found a hog in the house and the door +unlocked: the door was firmly locked when we went to bed. + +"3. The next morning, a stick of links hanging in the chimney, they were +thrown out of their place, and we hanged them up again, and they were +thrown down again, and some into the fire. + +"4. The night following, I had a great awl lying in the window, the which +awl we saw fall down out of the chimney into the ashes by the fire. + +"5. After this, I bid the boy put the same awl into the cupboard, which we +saw done, and the door shut to: this same awl came presently down the +chimney again in our sight, and I took it up myself. Again, the same +night, we saw a little Indian basket, that was in the loft before, come +down the chimney again. And I took the same basket, and put a piece of +brick into it, and the basket with the brick was gone, and came down again +the third time with the brick in it, and went up again the fourth time, +and came down again without the brick; and the brick came down again a +little after. + +"6. The next day, being Saturday, stones, sticks, and pieces of bricks +came down so that we could not quietly dress our breakfast; and sticks of +fire also came down at the same time. + +"7. That day, in the afternoon, my thread four times taken away, and came +down the chimney; again my awl and gimlet wanting; again my leather taken +away, came down the chimney; again my nails, being in the cover of a +firkin, taken away, came down the chimney. Again, the same night, the door +being locked, a little before day, hearing a hog in the house, I rose and +saw the hog to be mine. I let him out. + +"8. The next day, being Sabbath day, many stones, and sticks, and pieces +of bricks came down the chimney: on the Monday, Mr. Richardson and my +brother being there, the frame of my cowhouse they saw very firm. I sent +my boy out to scare the fowls from my hog's meat: he went to the cow-house +and it fell down, my boy crying with the hurt of the fall. In the +afternoon, the pots hanging over the fire did dash so vehemently one +against the other, we set down one, that they might not dash to pieces. I +saw the andiron leap into the pot, and dance and leap out; and again leap +in and dance, and leap out again, and leap on a table and there abide; and +my wife saw the andiron on the table: also I saw the pot turn itself over, +and throw down all the water. Again we saw a tray with wool leap up and +down, and throw the wool out, and so many times, and saw nobody meddle +with it. Again, a tub his hoop fly off of itself, and the tub turn over, +and nobody near it. Again, the woollen wheel turned upside down, and stood +up on its end, and a spade set on it: Step. Greenleafe saw it, and myself +and my wife. Again, my rope-tools fell down upon the ground before my boy +could take them, being sent for them; and the same thing of nails tumbled +down from the loft into the ground, and nobody near. Again, my wife and +the boy making the bed, the chest did open and shut; the bed-clothes could +not be made to lie on the bed, but fly off again." + +The disturbances commenced Thursday night, November 27; on December 3, six +days only from the commencement of the troubles (see Upham, vol. i. p. +439), Powell was complained of before a magistrate, by William Morse, "for +suspicion of working with the devil." Powell appeared for a hearing five +days later, on the 8th, and the testimony quoted above was, either then or +at the time of the complaint on the 3d, submitted before Jo. Woodbridge, +_commissioner_. Therefore the facts were of such recent occurrence as to +be fresh in the memory of the deponent; and his prompt suspicion of Powell +gives probability to the correctness of the statement in Woodward's +Series, that when Powell came to the house, pots, kettles, and chairs +"resumed" their action "with more vigor than ever." Powell's presence was +helpful to the performance. But the whole of Morse's testimony is not +embraced in the preceding. There is extant + +"A FURTHER TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM MORSE AND HIS WIFE," as follows:-- + +"We saw a keeler of bread turn over against me, and struck me, not any +being near it, and so overturned. I saw a chair standing in the house, and +not anybody near. It did often bow toward me, and rise up again. My wife +also being in the chamber, the chamber door did violently fly together, +not anybody being near it. My wife going to make a bed, it did move to and +fro, not anybody being near it. I also saw an iron wedge and spade was +flying out of the chamber on my wife, and _did not strike her_. My wife +going into the cellar, a drum, standing in the house, did roll over the +door of the cellar; and being taken up again, the door did violently fly +down again. My barn-doors four times unpinned, I know not how. I, going to +shut my barn-door, looking for the pin--the boy being with me--as I did +judge, the pin, coming down out of the air, did fall down near to me. + +"Again: Caleb Powell came in as aforesaid, and seeing our spirits very low +by the sense of our great affliction, began to bemoan our condition, and +said that he was troubled for our afflictions, and said that he had eyed +this boy, and drawed near to us with great compassion: 'Poor old man, poor +old woman! This boy is the occasion of your grief; for he hath done these +things, and hath caused his good old grandmother to be counted a witch.' +'Then,' said I, 'how can all these things be done by him?' Said he, +'Although he may not have done all, yet most of them; for this boy is a +young rogue, a vile rogue. I have watched him and see him do things as to +come up and down.' Caleb Powell also said he had understanding in +Astrology and Astronomy, and knew the working of spirits, some in one +country and some in another; and, looking on the boy, said, 'You young +rogue to begin so soon. Goodman Morse, if you be willing to let me have +this boy, I will undertake you shall be free from any trouble of this kind +while he is with me.' I was very unwilling at the first, and my wife; but, +by often urging me, till he told me wither and what employment and company +he should go, I did consent to it, and this was before Jo. Badger came; +and we have been freed from any trouble of this kind ever since that +promise, made on Monday night last, to this time being Friday in the +afternoon. Then we heard a great noise in the other room, oftentimes, but, +looking after it, could not see anything; but, afterward looking into the +room, we saw a board hanged to the press. Then we, being by the fire, +sitting in a chair, my chair often would not stand still, but ready to +throw me backward oftentimes. Afterward, my cap almost taken off my head +three times. Again, a great blow on my poll, and my cat did leap from me +into the chimney-corner. Presently after, this cat was thrown at my wife. +We saw the cat to be ours; we put her out of the house, and shut the door. +Presently the cat was throwed into the house. We went to go to bed. +Suddenly--my wife being with me in bed, the lamp-light by our side--my cat +again throwed at us five times, jumping away presently into the floor; and +one of those times, a red waistcoat throwed on the bed, and the cat +wrapped up in it. Again, the lamp standing by us on the chest, we said it +should stand and burn out; but presently was beaten down, and all the oil +shed, and we left in the dark. Again--a great voice, a great while very +dreadful. Again--in the morning, a great stone, being six-pound weight, +did move from place to place; we saw it. Two spoons throwed off the table, +and presently the table throwed down. And, being minded to write, my +ink-horn was hid from me, which I found covered with a rag, and my pen +quite gone. I made a new pen; and while I was writing, one ear of corn hit +me in the face, and fire, sticks, and stones throwed at me, and my pen +brought to me. While I was writing with my new pen, my ink-horn taken +away; and not knowing how to write any more, we looked under the table and +there found him; and so I was able to write again. Again--my wife her hat +taken from her head, sitting by the fire by me, the table almost thrown +down. Again--my spectacles thrown from the table, and thrown almost into +the fire by me, and my wife, and the boy. Again--my book of all my +accounts thrown into the fire, and had been burnt presently, if I had not +taken it up. Again--boards taken off a tub, and set upright by themselves; +and my paper, do what I could, hardly keep it while I was writing this +relation, and things thrown at me while a-writing. Presently, before I +could dry my writing, a Mormouth hat rubbed along it; but I held so fast +that it did blot but some of it. My wife and I, being much afraid that I +should not preserve it for public use, did think best to lay it in the +Bible, and it lay safe that night. Again--the next day I would lay it +there again; but in the morning, it was not there to be found, the bag +hanged down empty; but after was found in a box alone. Again--while I was +writing this morning, I was forced to forbear writing any more, I was so +disturbed with so many things constantly thrown at me." + +Such is the account given by an eye and ear witness, who had as good +opportunities to receive sensible demonstration of acts performed as can +well be imagined. Did he see, hear, and feel all that he testifies to? Has +he left record of a series of facts, or only of fictions which he set +forth as facts? Was he a faithful and true witness, or not? Who and what +was he? An aged shoemaker, who ran the gantlet of a fierce witchcraft +ordeal and came out with character sound and untarnished; a man who "was +esteemed a sincere and understanding Christian by those that knew him." +The strong words in his favor, which came from such a trustworthy scribe +as the Rev. Mr. Hale, on an occasion when circumstances would influence +him to be careful and exact in expression, are clearly indicative that +Morse's testimony was probably true and discriminative. "A sincere and +_understanding_ Christian." What qualities give better _a priori_ promise +of correct testimony than do sincerity and a sound understanding? Where +these combine, their utterances imperatively claim very respectful hearing +by any one who is in pursuit of positive facts pertaining to human +experience. The history of him and his family, during those ten or eleven +days and nights through which they were enveloped in the waters of +mystery, trouble, and consternation, gives no indication that Mr. Morse's +reason ever yielded its normal and just sway over his actions or his +words--no indication of his being blinded by any excessive or bewildering +excitement or enthusiasm. The fact that he himself wrote out with his own +hand, and in the very midst of the startling and hair-lifting phenomena, a +narrative of events which gives dates, occurrences, and experiences +clearly, in perspicuous and often terse language, accompanied by +appropriate specifications of circumstances which elucidate the character +of the whole scene, bespeaks a straightforward, truthful, unexaggerating +mind, self-controlled, and moving straight forward in an honest statement +of events actually witnessed. Our ancient records contain few testimonies +that exhibit clearer or stronger internal evidences of exactitude and +reliability than that of William Morse. The form, language, and tone of +his account are all in favor of his intelligence, discrimination, and +credibility; so much so, that, taken in connection with his whole +character, we can conceive of no objection to crediting his narration, +excepting what shall be wrung out from the nature and kind of facts he +swore to. But neither their nature nor source was concern of his, _as a +witness_; and his own sound _understanding_ perceiving this, kept him +back from expressing any surmises or innuendoes as to who were the actual +authors of his great annoyances. The man understood his position as a +witness, kept his reason at the helm throughout the fearful storm, and +suspected and accused, not the little boy, but Powell. Obviously his own +senses, unbeclouded by the mists of unreasoning excitement, had witnessed +the facts he stated, and he knew that they had occurred. His testimony is +true. + +How can the occurrence of such facts be explained, or rather _who_ +produced them? Historians say that the little boy, John, did. How could +he? Had history-weaving heads, when at work in the quiet study, been as +clear and as free from the blinding action of foregone conclusions, as was +that of Mr. Morse amid the flying missiles about his head while he was +writing, their reason, as his did, would have asked their witness Powell, +"How _could_ all these things be done by him," the boy? And the cowed +witness would have replied to them in the nineteenth century as he did to +Morse in the seventeenth, "Although he may not have done _all_, yet, most +of them." He would have backed down before the historians as he did before +the better "understanding" of Mr. Morse. Obviously to common sense, the +boy was incompetent to perform a tithe of what was ascribed to him. No one +but Powell accused him. The age of that boy is not given. He is not known +to have been called upon as a witness, and Powell says to him, "You young +rogue, to begin so soon." These facts, together with the absence of any +words spoken by him to any one, excepting on a single occasion, lead +naturally to the inference that he was quite young, and perhaps also that +he was apparently inactive. At no age in boyhood, nor yet in manhood, +could a single performer, or a host of men, have accomplished by +unobservable processes and forces all that is distinctly stated to have +been performed in and around the house of William Morse. + +Any designation of its source which avows the mischief to have come +primarily from the mind of little John Stiles, by necessary implication +impeaches Mr. Morse's powers of perception and observation, and the worth +of his testimony. It indirectly, at least, accuses him of a great blunder +when he suspected Powell rather than little John. On the hypothesis of +modern historians, the sedate old man--the "understanding Christian"--was +but making much ado about nothing, or next to that; for the little boy was +not competent to much. So little could he do alone, that, were he the +chief deviser and performer, Mr. Morse was incompetent to distinguish with +common acuteness between the ordinary and the marvelous, or else he was an +egregious fictionist and impostor. Far, far better would it be both for +himself and his readers if the historic instructor recognized, and based +his inferences upon, facts well attested, and sought for agents and forces +adequate to manifest such results as were evolved. Vastly better would be +history when founded upon broad comprehension of existing agents and +forces, and a firm basis in the nature of things spreading out wide enough +to underlie each and all of the ancient marvels, and admitting an +imputation of them to authors whose inherent powers could bring them out +to distinct cognition by human senses, than it can be when it ruthlessly +pares down the dimensions of facts, dwarfs their fair import, and +impeaches the trustworthiness of those who solemnly attested to the truth +of descriptions which have come down from former generations! Better, much +better would it be to honor the fathers by omitting to undermine and +topple over their strong powers and good traits of character, and +perversely bring their positive knowledge, gained through the senses, down +to the lower level on which modern speculation obtains convictions! +Descent to free and reiterated insinuations and allegations that the best +individuals and communities of old were infatuated, credulous, deluded, +stultified, because some of their statements and actions are unexplainable +by our theories and philosophies, is unbecoming any generous and +philanthropic spirit. Fair play calls for frank admission that giant facts +occurred of old,--facts so huge that they cannot be stretched at full +length upon the beds of modern science and philosophy, nor be wrapped up +in the narrow blankets now in fashion,--facts so huge that they cannot +squeeze themselves through, nor be forced through, the narrow entrance +doors of some modern mental chambers. Does the hugeness which debars them +from entering contracted domiciles to-day prove their existence to be but +fabulous? Surely not. The sagacity and truthfulness of our predecessors +were sound and good. They recorded facts. Shame be to those who are +ashamed to admit that their equals in mental acuteness and accuracy of +statement may, of old, actually have witnessed genuine phenomena which +justified their descriptions. To brand the events as being the products of +fraud, credulity, and infatuation, because only modern limitations to +nature's permissions and powers render them unexplainable as facts, is +shameful. + +Newbury, in 1679-80, was obviously visited and disturbed by giants. To +deem that the biggest of these were children of little John Stiles, is not +only farcical in the extreme, but it necessarily, however indirectly, +asperses good William Morse, that "sincere and understanding Christian," +and also his equally good wife, who passed through the severe ordeals of +witchcraft scenes and persecutions, and came forth untarnished,--asperses +them by an imputation of incompetency to observe and describe with average +clearness and accuracy events that passed before their eyes,--incompetency +to give a truthful and unexaggerated account of what they saw. + +Every sentiment of justice begs for a tongue with which to rebuke the +sneers that overweeningly wise witchcraft historians have cast upon the +senses and the mental and moral states of the observers and describers of +the great marvels of former days. The foul broods of harpy adjectives +which history has sent forth to prey upon the vitals of good characters +for truthfulness and discrimination, should be forced to unloose their +talons, and hie themselves back to roost where they were hatched. + +Assuming, as the histories of all nations in all ages and lands indicate, +and as many tested modern workers demonstrate, that some disembodied, +unseen intelligences can at times either banish from the human body, or +put in abeyance, or irresistibly control, the mental, affectional, and +moral powers of some impressible human beings, and also use their whole +physical structures and nerve elements as instruments; assuming, further, +both that such unseen workers may have been the actual authors of many +startling phenomena which the preceding pages have brought up before the +reader's mind, and that Mrs. Morse, Caleb Powell, and the boy were each of +them mediumistical, contributing to the performance of the +wonders--assuming this, the proximity of those several persons to the +spots where the marvels appeared, would subject them all to rigid +scrutiny, and their movements or their positions would probably, at times, +indicate to external senses that they were somehow actors in the _mêlée_. +They were obviously unconscious reservoirs of the forces there used, and +as such were all involved in the production of the great mischief. It is +credible, yes, quite probable, that the little boy was actually seen by +Powell enacting a prominent part; but that Powell, who then saw, was +practically a spirit, beholding a spirit form like in all things to the +boy, but moved, energized, and controlled, all imperceptibly to external +vision, by disembodied spirits. At the very time when all merely external +beholders saw the external boy standing about the room in quiet and +repose, or sitting still in the corner, spirit vision might have seen his +semblance being used for infiltrating seeming life, motive powers, and +longings for a lively jig and a merry time generally into the whole group +of household utensils and supplies. When dead wood and iron, when leather +and wool, when sausages and bread, when an iron wedge and a spade, find +legs, and arms, and wings,--when such become things of seeming life, of +forceful life, too, and of self-guiding actions,--they preach with power +which no mere human tongue can command. No eloquence from its common +sources can equal theirs in forcing conviction. They say "unseen +intelligences move us"--"unseen intelligences move us," and every +self-possessed and logical hearer responds, Amen. + +All things have their use. This case of seemingly low as well as rough +manifestations, where spirits exhibited the effects of their force mainly +upon gross, lifeless matter and brute animals, shows more forcibly and +convincingly, if possible, the fact of supermundane agents, than did the +effective hands, and simples, and clear visions of Margaret Jones; the +"wit" or clairaudience of Ann Hibbins; the Dutch tones and unconscious +utterances of Ann Cole, or the contortions of Elizabeth Knap, and the +words of the pretty black boy. Life and self-action in dead wood and iron +are phenomena too striking and pregnant with meaning to be wisely slurred +or ignored. + +Essex County has been the theater of several exhibitions of astounding +marvels. The performances detailed in this chapter beyond question excited +fears and disturbed peace throughout Newbury and its surrounding towns. +Also an apparitional boy has recently shown himself to a teacher and her +pupils in Newburyport, to the no small disturbance of that place. During +the first decade of the present century, famous Moll Pitcher, who, as +Upham says, "_derived her mysterious gifts by inheritance_, her +grandfather having practiced them before in Marblehead," practiced +fortune-telling and kindred arts at the base of High Rock, in Lynn, where +"she read the future, and traced what to mere mortals were the mysteries +of the present or the past...." so successfully, or at least so +notoriously, that "her name has everywhere become the generic title of +fortune-tellers." In that county, too, the mysteries and horrors of Salem +witchcraft were encountered. But scarcely any other event in that +territory seems more highly charged with the elements of incredibility +than the Salem historian's perception that little John Stiles was the +_bona fide_ author of the pranks played at William Morse's house. No +cotemporary of the boy, excepting impressible, wayward Powell, seems ever +to have suspected the little one as being the giant rogue. How blind, +therefore, were the eyes of all others of that generation! For now an +historic eye, looking back through the darkening mists of eight score +years and twenty miles north, absolutely sees _audacity_ and action, which +all living eyes, alert and vigilant on the spot and at the time, were +incompetent to detect. The world progresses; new clairvoyance has been +developed--clairvoyance which sees what never existed--to wit, little John +Stiles as the designing and conscious enactor of superhuman works. + + * * * * * + +Very many modern scenes rival this ancient one at Newbury in the +roughnesses of manifestations and the difficulty of fathoming the purposes +and characters of the performers. Perhaps no other one of them is more +worthy of attention or more instructive than the prolonged one which +occurred at the residence of Rev. Eliakim Phelps, D. D., at Stratford, +Conn., 1850. In "Modern Spiritualism, its Facts and Fanaticisms," by E. +W. CAPRON (Bela Marsh, Boston, 1855), page 132, commences a very lucid and +authentic account of this case, covering nearly forty pages. The character +and position of Dr. Phelps, who furnished Capron with his facts, and whose +permission was obtained for their publication, make the account referred +to well worthy of careful perusal. On several different occasions, years +ago, it was our privilege to hold familiar conversations with Dr. Phelps +upon the subject of Spiritualism, and his details of spirit performances +in his presence prepared is to view him as having transmitted to his +offspring properties which were very helpful in setting THE GATES AJAR. + + + + +THE GOODWIN FAMILY. + + +In the family of John Goodwin, of Boston, in 1688, four children, all +young, were simultaneously either sorely afflicted or set themselves to +playing pranks and tricks with diabolical furore. Which? An elaborate +account of what was either imposed upon them by other beings, or of what +themselves devised and enacted, was promptly written out by Cotton Mather, +who was an observer of many of the marvels while they were transpiring. + +Poole, in "Genealogical and Antiquarian Register," October, 1870, says +those children were "Martha, aged 13; John, 11; Mercy, 7; Benjamin 5." +Drake, in "Annals of Witchcraft," says they were "Nathaniel, born 1672; +Martha, 1674; John, 1677; and Mercy, 1681." According to him, their ages +in 1688 were about 16, 14, 11, and 7, respectively. The two statements +agree as to Martha, John, and Mercy; but one makes the fourth, a boy of 5, +named Benjamin, while the other's fourth is a boy of 16, named Nathaniel. +We have not sought for data on which to either confirm or correct the +statement of either author. To show that they were young, is all that our +present purpose requires. + +More than seventy years subsequent to the occurrences in the Goodwin +family and to the manifestations at Salem, Hutchinson said, "It seems at +this day with some people, perhaps but few, to be the question whether the +_accused_ or the _afflicted_ were under a preternatural or diabolical +possession, rather than whether the afflicted were under bodily +distempers, or altogether guilty of fraud and imposture." Poole, having +quoted the above, makes the following sensible query and comment. "Why +make an alternative? Both accusers and accused were generally possessors +of NOT _bodily distemper_, but of _peculiar susceptibilities growing +naturally from their special organisms and temperaments_, and were +probably as free from and as much addicted to fraud and imposture, as the +average of the community in which they lived." + +If we read Hutchinson aright, he stated that a few people, even at his +day, were believers that there had formerly been some "preternatural or +diabolical" inflictions, but were in doubt whether such inflictions came +upon the accusers or upon the accused; while, in his opinion, all ought to +drop belief in anything preternatural or diabolical in the case, and seek +only to determine whether the strange phenomena resulted partly from +_bodily distempers_, or were exclusively frauds and impostures. We think +he made no alternative himself between accusers and accused, but exempted +both classes from supermundane influences, and queried only whether +witchcraft resulted partly from ill health or wholly from fraud. Be it so +or not, Poole's comment is appropriate, instructive, and valuable. It is +in harmony with the view which the present work is specially designed to +illustrate. We repeat and adopt his words, and say that "both accusers and +accused were generally possessors of _not_ bodily distemper, but of +peculiar susceptibilities growing naturally from their organisms and +temperaments," and in general character were on a par with their +neighbors. + +Hutchinson's account of the family now under consideration is as +follows:-- + +"In 1687 or 1688 began a more alarming instance than any which preceded +it. Four children of John Goodwin, a grave man, a good liver, at the north +part of Boston, were generally believed to be bewitched. I have often +heard persons who were of the neighborhood speak of the great +consternation it occasioned. The children were all remarkable for +ingenuity of temper, had been religiously educated, and were thought to be +without guile. The eldest was a girl of thirteen or fourteen years. She +had charged a laundress with taking away some of the family linen. The +mother of the laundress was one of the wild Irish, of bad character, and +gave the girl harsh language; soon after which she fell into fits, which +were said to have something diabolical in them. One of her sisters and two +brothers followed her example, and it is said were tormented in the same +parts of their bodies at the same time, although kept in separate +apartments and ignorant of one another's complaints. One or two things +were said to be very remarkable: all their complaints were in the daytime, +and they slept comfortably all night: they were struck dead at the sight +of the Assembly's Catechism, Cotton's Milk for Babes, and some other good +books, but could read in Oxford's Jests, Popish and Quaker books, and the +Common Prayer without any difficulty. Is it possible that the mind of man +should be capable of such strong prejudices as that a suspicion of fraud +should not immediately arise? But attachments to modes and forms in +religion had such force that some of these circumstances seem rather to +have confirmed the credit of the children. Sometimes they would be deaf, +then dumb, then blind; and sometimes all these disorders together would +come upon them. Their tongues would be drawn down their throats, then +pulled out upon their chins. Their jaws, necks, shoulders, elbows, and all +their joints would appear to be dislocated, and they would make most +piteous outcries of burnings, of being cut with knives, beat, &c., and the +marks of wounds were afterward to be seen. The ministers of Boston and +Charlestown kept a day of fasting and prayer at the troubled house; after +which the youngest child made no more complaints. The others persevered, +and the magistrates then interposed, and the old woman was apprehended; +but upon examination would neither confess nor deny, and appeared to be +disordered in her senses. Upon the report of physicians that she was +_compos mentis_ she was executed, declaring at her death the children +should not be relieved. The eldest, after this, was taken into a +minister's family, where at first she behaved orderly, but after a time +suddenly fell into her fits. The account of her affliction is in print; +some things are mentioned as extraordinary which tumblers are every day +taught to perform, others seem more than natural; but it was a time of +great credulity. The children returned to their ordinary behavior, lived +to adult age, made profession of religion, and the affliction they had +been under they publicly declared to be one motive to it. One of them I +knew many years after. She had the character of a very virtuous woman, and +never made any acknowledgment of fraud in the transaction." + +This historian was born more than twenty years after the "great +consternation" which the Goodwin case occasioned, and therefore those must +have been elderly people who gave him accounts of personal remembrance of +it, and rehearsed to him their mellowed recollections of the past. From +such people he had probably heard many particulars, and received general +impressions which were one source from whence he drew materials for his +history, at least for his comments; also opinions then prevalent around +him were aids to his judgment when reading Mather's account. He omitted to +express directly any doubt as to the occurrence of such facts as the +records presented, but innuendoed, all through his account, that fraud, +acting upon credulity, begat and brought forth that entire brood of +marvels. He left us the facts, and stated that the children were "all +remarkable for ingenuity of temper." Probably his meaning is, that they +were remarkably bright or quick-witted. The historian adds, that they "had +been religiously educated, and were thought to be _without guile_." These +are points of interest both as items on which public judgment concerning +the facts was based at the time of their occurrence, and also as things to +be regarded by moderns when attempting to determine the probability +whether such marvels were produced voluntarily by embodied actors alone, +or by force exerted upon and through mortal forms by wills putting forth +power from imperceptible sources. + +What do the quoted statements indicate as to the constitutional endowments +and acquired skill of those children for purposely acting out the feats +ascribed to them? Ready wit, sprightliness, or whatever is meant by +"ingenuity of temper," was a very good basis for any kind of performances; +but the character of the doings likely to proceed from that basis in a +given case, will be indicated by other possessions. Religious education +and freedom from guile are not very probable prompters of either egregious +trickery, or prolonged and mischievous imposture. Hutchinson's remark that +"some things are mentioned as extraordinary which tumblers are every day +taught to perform," is doubtless true; but he adds that "others seem more +than natural." Yes, they do. And it is these especially that the world +desires to see traced to competent performers. How did the historian +account for such--for those seeming "more than natural"? Solely by the +dogmatic remark that "it was a time of great credulity." What if it was? +Could credulity in the public mind enable untrained children to outact +jugglers, tumblers, and most efficient dissemblers and tricksters of +various kinds in their special vocations? What did the historian mean by +alleging _credulity_ in way of accounting for facts which he adduced, and +left without direct controversion, or any attempt at such? Was he +intimating that belief of the actual occurrence of such facts, though +witnessed through many months by the physical senses of multitudes, argued +credulity? If so, he put upon the word _credulity_ an inadmissible +meaning. + +Did he intend to say that credulity caused the senses of our fathers to +see, hear, and feel erroneously, so that they would testify less +accurately than those of the generation in which he was living? Perhaps he +did; and yet on what rational grounds could he? None that we perceive. Was +the former generation less truthful than his own? Probably not. Had it +less sagacity than his own? We can think of no evidence that it had. Were +its senses less reliable? Probably not. Was its belief in the testimony of +its own senses a proof of its _credulity_? No. Was clear statement of what +its senses had witnessed evidence of its credulity? It seems to have been +so to the historian, but is not to us. The fathers told of witnessing +things, which, if they occurred, were seemingly "more than natural." What +then? Does that prove that the things they described did not occur, and +thus prove a generation of the fathers to have been, as a whole, either +dolts or liars? No. The appearance is, that the historian was obliged to +admit that valid testimony to occurrence of facts around the Goodwin +children, which seemed more than natural, must be conceded; and yet he +could not account for the facts; he was mentally baffled, non-plussed, and +could only say, "It was a time of great credulity." That explains nothing, +while it tempts us to suspect its author of such credulity in his own +penetration, that he apprehended that a whole line of ancestry through +successive generations had been fatuous and exaggerative, since it +continuously described and swore to occurrences which conflicted with his +own theoretical limits to things credible. A credulity which caused him to +regard himself a better knower and judge of what actually transpired in +preceding ages, than were the very persons who lived in that past, and +were eye and ear witnesses of what then occurred, impelled the pen of this +witchcraft historian to ascribe the marvels of other days to causes or to +conditions absolutely incompetent to produce them. + +We can extend much leniency to Hutchinson, because he lived and wrote when +the pendulum of belief, recently wrenched from the disturbing grasp of +witchcraft, and allowed to swing back toward extreme Sadduceeism, had not +acquired its legitimate movements under the action of mesmerism, +Spiritualism, psychology, and other regulating forces. Witchcraft's +unnatural devil had died from the blow he received at Salem Village in +1692, and for a long time afterward there was seeming non-intercourse +between men and dwellers in spirit realms; partially man was forgetting +that there are spirits, and doubting whether they had ever acted overtly +among men. Probably Hutchinson's thoughts were never led to inquire +whether the forces and realms of nature may not extend far above, below, +and around the confines of palpable matter,--extend beyond where man's +external senses take cognizance,--or where his natural science has +penetrated. His thoughts, perhaps, were never led to inquire whether there +exists natural provision for mesmeric and varied psychological operations, +nor to inquire whether, under possible fitting conditions, unseen +intelligences could possess and control certain peculiar physical human +forms. Lacking not only knowledge, but also circumstances which would +naturally generate any conjecture that both good spirits and bad alike +might sometimes come to earth in freedom, and work wonders on its external +surface and among its living inhabitants, Hutchinson, cornered and baffled +in search for an adequate cause for facts which he felt called upon to +state, could only credulously say, in _quasi_ explanation of them, "_It +was a time of great credulity_"! + +His implied position that all the works were nothing more than natural +acts and sufferings of children, magnified and made formidable by popular +credulity, fails to yield satisfactory revealment of the nature and origin +of such facts as he himself presents and leaves uncontroverted. + +What was the character of the Goodwin children themselves? They were +bright, religiously educated, and free from guile. The account shows that +four _such_ children, of a sudden, without previous training for it, all +join at first, and three of them long unitedly continue, in a course of +most distressing imposition upon their own family, upon physicians, +clergymen, magistrates, and the neighborhood; also that the imposition is +manifested by astounding physical feats, and simultaneous, identical signs +and complaints of suffering, even though the sufferers are in separate +apartments. If, possibly, by their own wills and powers they could perform +the tricks, how incongruous it would be with their alleged traits and +ages! How inconceivable that four such children, from the boy of sixteen +down to the girl of seven, or from the girl of thirteen down to the boy of +five, should conspire, and three of them co-operate thoroughly, +effectively, and long, in voluntarily and purposely producing such +mischief and misery as were there experienced! _Suspicion_ of fraud no +doubt arose. But the appearance is, that facts soon put the case beyond +any powers of fraud which such children, or any embodied human beings, +could put forth. Without previous practice and training in concert, a +successful attempt by themselves at what was done through and upon them is +incredible. No hint is given that they ever practiced in preparation. Had +they have done so, seemingly their father, the "grave man and good liver," +must have known it, and would have been governed by his knowledge of it in +judging and treating his children. Who doubts that it would be shameful to +charge or suspect that man, and his friends and physicians, with such +credulity, _at the first coming on of the fits_, that they could not judge +fairly and sensibly of what nature of cause the actions and sufferings +indicated? + + "O, star-eyed" Fancy, "hast thou wandered there, + To waft us back the message of"--_credulity_? + +Look still more closely at the circumstances of this case. The bright girl +of "great ingenuity of temper, of religious education, and without +guile," _was just out from under the infuriated lashings of a wild Irish +tongue_, when she commenced her--what? her frolic? her course of fraud and +imposture? Was that a _playful_ moment? Was that the time for a general +mood which would start a whole family of guileless little children to +unite spontaneously and instantly for a guileful and distressing +imposition upon relatives and friends? When she fell in fits, _from such a +cause_, was it a credible time for her bright brother to recklessly +increase the family excitement by imitating the sufferer's movements and +tones of distress? Was that a condition of things in which the younger two +would join the elder in sly additions to the distress around them? No; +most surely, No. + +"Is it possible," asks the historian, "that the mind of man should be +capable of such strong prejudices as that suspicion of fraud should not +immediately arise?" We answer for him and say, No; emphatically, No. Such +suspicion must have been felt. And we ask in turn, is it possible that an +historian's mind can be capable of such strong prejudices as that +suspicion that such a family as he described, circumstanced as he made it, +was absolutely incapable of practicing fraud and imposition competent to +the results which he indicates were wrought out? Yes, his mind failed to +receive such a suspicion, and therefore reveals its own blinding +prejudices. Skepticism in one direction generated credulity in another +with him, as it does with many to-day. + +Four children of the "grave man" were simultaneously and excruciatingly +racked and tortured precisely alike, and in the same parts of their +bodies, although being, some of them, in separate apartments, and +ignorant of one another's complaints. Such are the alleged and uncontested +facts. The citizens of Boston, two or three years ago, were permitted to +see, and we saw, even more than four, yes, eight or ten boys, strangers to +the operator, and mostly to each other, volunteer to go upon a stage, +where, in a few minutes, after two or three out of a dozen had been +requested to leave the stage, all the others were made to move, and act, +and suffer precisely and simultaneously alike, many of them standing often +back to back, and no one among them perceptibly looking at any other. This +was all occasioned by the mental, magnetic or psychological force of +Professor Cadwell. + +If we presume (and why may we not?) that the wild Irish woman possessed +strong psychological powers; that Martha Goodwin was easily subjectible to +psychological control; that her brothers and sister were so too, and that +they were all naturally sympathetic, then we can see that nothing more +occurred, even if the whole that is told be literally true, than falls +within the scope of such psychological forces as have in recent years been +manifested by embodied, and, we may add, by disembodied minds. If in her +anger the old woman forced or found rapport between her own sphere or aura +and that of Martha Goodwin, way was opened for injection of germs of +suffering to the girl's system, and the systems of others in rapport with +her. Way was opened through which the tormentor could, though absent, send +upon the child ugly wishes that would keep torturing her so long as the +old woman kept the wishes active; as perhaps she did in many of her waking +hours. The account says, "One or two things were _very remarkable_. All +their complaints were _in the daytime_, and they slept comfortably _all +night_." When the old woman was asleep, and her resentful feelings were +dormant, the children also slept. + +A passage-way so opened as to admit the entrance of one, usually admits +others of the same kind to follow. Where the old woman's subduing +will-force had entered and gained sway, that of her sympathetic, and many +other spirits, might do the same; and could make the children's outer +forms either accept or reject, at the controller's pleasure, any books or +class of literature which should be offered for perusal. Catholic spirits, +or any spirit, liking a little fun, might keenly relish the work of +astonishing Cotton Mather and his ilk, by showing preferences antagonistic +to his own righteous ones. + +The case of Philip Smith, a very intelligent, efficient, and highly +respected citizen of Hadley, Mass., exhibits analogous phenomena. We shall +not go into that case in detail. It occurred 1685, and is very +instructive. Being sick, sensitive, clairvoyant, and pining away, "he +uttered a hard suspicion" that one old Mrs. Webster, _who had once been +tried for witchcraft_, and also had taken offense at some of Smith's +official acts, "had made impressions with enchantments upon him." His +"suspicion" and sufferings fired the minds of young men in the town to go +"three or four times" and give that old woman disturbance. Drake, in +Woodward's "Hist. Series," No. VIII. p. 179, presents the following +account: "It is said by a reliable historian that the young miscreants +went to her house, dragged her out, and hung her up till she was almost +dead. They then cut her down, rolled her some time in the snow, and then +buried her up in it, leaving her, as they supposed, for dead. But by a +miracle, as it were, she survived this barbarity. Still more miraculous it +was, that the sick man was greatly relieved during the time the helpless +old woman was being so beastly abused." Mather, in his account (ib. p. +177) says, "All the while they were disturbing her, he was at ease, and +slept as a weary man." This is all possible, and not improbable. The man +was obviously very susceptible to psychological influences, and could +trace felt malignant forces to their source. She, no doubt, was a +turbulent and odd old woman, for she had been tried for witchcraft, and +was probably a natural psychologist. As long as rough handling caused her +to call in, and keep at home, and concentrate all her thoughts and forces +for self-defence and protection, no emanations from her went out to the +sick man, who then consequently dropped into quiet sleep. + +One of these Goodwins, says Hutchinson, "I knew many years after. She had +the character of a very sober, virtuous woman, and never made any +acknowledgment of fraud in the transaction." Probably, therefore, there +was no fraud. This sober, virtuous woman, a party concerned, years +subsequently made profession of religion, continued long to live a useful +and respected life, and never made acknowledgment of fraud. The +probability is near to certainty that she never acted any. + +And how was it with the others? "They returned to their ordinary behavior, +lived to adult age, and made profession of religion." Look at the case. +Four guileless, bright little sisters and brothers, residing together +under their father's watch, in the twinkling of an eye, flash upon the +gaze of the town in which they lived, seemingly as adroit and proficient +tricksters as were ever known, and all of them alike competent to their +several parts. They remain the town's wonder for months, and then all +return to their former behavior, grow up and live Christian lives among +the witnesses of their strange doings, and never make confession of fraud. +Was there any _fraud_? Only the over-credulous in self-powers of +divination backward will believe that there was. + +In the process of watching these children, and the annoyances and +sufferings they endured, it was discovered that when absent from home they +were in great measure exempt from the special evils; therefore +arrangements were made for their abode elsewhere; and probably not for all +of them together in any one family. We find that the girl Martha became a +resident in Cotton Mather's family not many weeks after the commencement +of the great consternation. And it is stated that for a time none of her +extraordinary demeanor was manifested there; yet subsequently the fits and +antics revealed themselves abundantly, even under the roof of the +devil-fighting clergyman. Some sayings and doings while she was residing +there, manifested more frolicsome and quizzical motives than prompted the +manifestations described by Hutchinson. + +Turning to a much later historian, we quote from Upham as follows:-- + +"One of the children seems to have had a genius scarcely inferior to that +of Master Burke himself; there was no part nor passion she could not +enact. She would complain that the old Irish woman had tied an invisible +noose round her neck, and was choking her; and her complexion and features +would instantly assume the various hues and violent distortions natural to +a person in such a predicament. She would declare that an invisible chain +was fastened to one of her limbs, and would limp about precisely as though +it were really the case. She would say that she was in an oven; the +perspiration would drop from her face, and she would produce every +appearance of being roasted; then she would cry out that cold water was +being thrown upon her, and her whole frame would shiver and shake. She +pretended that the evil spirit came to her in the shape of an invisible +horse; and she would canter, gallop, trot, and amble round the rooms and +entries in such admirable imitation, that an observer could hardly believe +that a horse was not beneath her, and bearing her about. She would go up +stairs with exactly such a toss and bound as a person on horseback would +exhibit." + +Such is a general summary of her feats as presented by this historian. +Does he believe that such things were actually performed either by or +through her? Does he believe that such were the literal facts even in +appearance? He nowhere, so far as we notice, till he sums up the case, +_distinctly_ charges fraud on the one side, or such credulity on the +other, as made witnesses falsify as to appearances. He seems to admit the +facts as _appearances_, and charge them all to the girl's extra cunning +and skillful acting. "She _pretended_ that the evil [?] spirit came to +her." Was it only her _pretense_? Who knows? Why say _pretended_? Was she +so generous as to give credit to another, and that other an "evil +spirit," for help which she did not receive? Are expert tricksters +accustomed to disown their own powers to astonish? Especially do they ever +spontaneously avow that the devil or any _evil spirit_ is helping them? We +think not. And yet it is stated that Martha Goodwin's own lips declared +that some invisible spirit was acting through her, or was helping her +perform her marvelous feats. Why call that a _pretense_, and make her a +liar? Why not put some confidence in the words of this religiously +educated girl? + +The historian says that while she was residing with Mather, "the cunning +and ingenious child"--please mark the adjectives of the modern expounder, +applied by him to one whom the earlier records put among those who "had +been religiously educated and thought _to be without guile_"--"the cunning +and ingenious child," he says, "seems to have taken great delight in +perplexing and playing off her tricks upon the learned man. Once he wished +to say something in her presence to a third person, which he did not +intend she should understand. She had penetration enough to _conjecture_" +(why say _conjecture_?) "what he had said. He was amazed. He then tried +Greek; she was equally successful. He next spoke in Hebrew; she instantly +detected his meaning. He resorted to the Indian language, and that she +pretended not to know." Such are facts as deduced from Mather's account by +Upham and put forth by the latter, and which he attempts to account for by +supposition that the girl's own _conjectures_ enabled her to get at the +meaning of sentences put forth in languages of which she had no knowledge. +No doubt she was bright, but not competent to all that. Fancy and +imagination ply their wings needlessly when they rise from the ground of +fact and fly off to the lands of conjecture and pretense, thinking to +bring thence true solution of such a marvel. The girl avowed the presence +of a spirit with herself, and that he helped her. That explains the whole +transaction. Upon full separation from the body, each human mind loses all +knowledge of earth language, having no further use for it, because the +mind then enters conditions in which the thoughts of any other spirit, +whatsoever its native language, may be read at a glance. Whatever language +Mather might have spoken in, he would have been intelligible by any +disembodied spirit. For not words, but the thought, irrespective of its +dress, could be read. The Indian language she _pretended_ not to know. +Perhaps so; but probably that was no _pretense_. It is not probable that +the girl herself, as such, had much acquaintance with any other language +than English; any departed spirit who controlled her would have no +knowledge of any earth language whatsoever, nor need he have, for +unclothed thought was perceptible by him. A roguish mind behind the +scenes--and such a one may have played many a trick at the +parsonage--would be likely, at his own pleasure, to bother, astonish, or +confound the Rev. Polyglot by seeming either to comprehend or not, just +according to his own whims or varying moods as the play went on from step +to step. Mather's attempt to conceal his meaning from the girl might very +naturally be amusing to the thought-reading intellect then lurking in and +controlling the girl's organs, and quite as naturally would incite him to +play the wag a while. Martha neither _conjectured_ nor _pretended_ at all; +she was then quiescent, while other eyes looked through hers and saw what +was inside the mill-stone. + +We have stated essentially that each mortal upon departing from this life +enters into conditions where human language is not only not needed, but is +unusable; therefore we may be asked how returning spirits can possibly +speak to us in our language, which is no longer at their command. They +measurably rechange or change back their conditions when they reconnect +themselves with a mortal form; they then come back to where earth language +is needful, and where fitting instrumentality for revival of knowledge and +use of such language exist. They, however, do not reconnect themselves +with their own former forms, nor often with forms which they can use as +well as they formerly did their own; in many, very many instances, those +who, in their own forms, were eminent for polished diction and fervid +eloquence, either get such slight control or get hold of such rickety or +such rigid vocal apparatus, that they can make no perceptible +approximation to their former productions. The reincarnated spirit is a +somewhat mystical being, half spirit, half man, and as a spirit can read +the thoughts of man, and as man can use human language. + +Flattery was sometimes poured over the minister through the lips of +Martha, with a lavishness indicative of its flowing from some ensconsed +waggish spirit, amusing himself by tickling the vanity of the egotistical +black coat, much more than from a guileless miss speaking to her +consequential minister. + +A special scene is thus described by Mather:-- + +"There stood open the study of one belonging to the family, into which +entering, she stood immediately on her feet, and cried out, 'They are +gone! They are gone! They say they cannot. God won't let 'em come here!' +adding a reason for it which the owner of the study thought more kind than +true; and she presently and perfectly came to herself, so that her whole +discourse and carriage was altered into the greatest measure of sobriety." + +Very likely Mather was then egregiously cajoled by _some_ one. +Observation, together with information otherwise obtained, renders it +obvious that one essential condition of psychological control is, that the +magnetisms or auras of the controlling mind shall, at the time, be, in the +mass of its operative qualities and powers, stronger than, or positive to, +any other person's spheres, auras, or emanations amid which the control is +either to be taken or held on to. Suppose, then, what would be necessary +under the circumstances, that the atmosphere, walls, and furniture of that +study were highly charged with emanations from the vigorous minded Mather, +who was then present, and consequently his own halo was radiating there +and keeping his surroundings fully charged with himself. Physical and also +external mental and emotional effluvia from him might then be so repulsive +to magnetisms pertaining to spirits of any moral quality whatsoever, that +no visitant from unseen realms would try to withstand the repulsion. If +such was the condition of things, the parting exclamation of the last to +remain, might well be, "They are gone; God won't let 'em come here!" Such +statement would be in full harmony with the most common use of language +to-day by spirits, for they are accustomed to say that God won't let them +do this or that, when, according to their own oft-repeated explanation, +they mean only that the forces of nature oppose or control them. God and +natural forces with them generally mean one and the same all-dominating +power--God's forces as well as himself are called by his name by visitants +who read his operations with more than mortal accuracy. + +"She presently and perfectly came to herself, so that her whole discourse +and carriage was altered into the greatest measure of sobriety." Yes, +naturally so; for Martha Goodwin herself resumed control of her own body, +and re-exhibited the religiously educated and guileless girl which she in +fact was, just as soon as usurping visitants vacated her legitimate +premises. So long as her form was dominated by another's mind, her +existence was either a blank to herself, or, if conscious, she was +powerless. + +Upham teaches that once, according to Mather, when people attempted to +drag this girl up stairs, "the demons would pull her out of the people's +hands, and _make her heavier_ than perhaps three times herself." Did the +historian himself who quoted those words and let them appear to be +accurately descriptive of facts, believe that they were such? Did he +believe that _demons_ acted within her, held her back, and made her +something like three times heavier than she normally was? Such things were +adduced by him as being _facts_, and it would be pleasant to know whether +he believed that the girl herself was those demons, and by her own action +made her own body three times heavier than common gravitation would make +it. Did such observable effects occur as Mather described? Probably they +did, and the historian's process of accounting for them implies that by +her own cunning, ingenuity, and histrionic skill, the child made herself +three times heavier than she actually was. If the allegations were not in +his estimation facts, why did he let them stand unaccounted for in his +summary of things accomplished by his "cunning and ingenious child"? +Perhaps he presumed that readers to-day are generally as ignorant as +himself of the vast many cases in which the present generation has tested +and proved by the best of Fairbanks's scales, that spirits augment or +diminish the weight of material substances at pleasure, and to as great +and sometimes greater extent than either demons or Martha Goodwin are +alleged to have done in the case above cited. He perhaps presumed that the +reading world at large was as ignorant and prejudiced as himself on this +subject, and that the world's clearing and opening eyes will continue to +see, as his glamoured ones did, only fibs in Mather's facts. This was a +sad oversight. Light from Spiritualism (see Dr. Hare, Dr. Luther V. Bell, +William Crookes, Alfred R. Wallace, and many others) has already +substantiated facts which prove that nature infolds forces by which agents +unseen can at their pleasure produce either levitation or increase of the +weight of material objects. Therefore such action may have been put forth +upon the body of Martha Goodwin. Yes, we now may _rationally_ believe that +there existed too much sagacity and truth among the men of witchcraft +times, and too little deviltry among the guileless children of that day, +to permit that fictions and rhetoric shall long be suffered to malign our +forefathers because they recorded true accounts of what transpired among +them. + +Mather states that this girl, at times, by whistling, yelling, and in +other ways, disturbed him when at family prayers. Upham says, "She would +strike him," Mather, "with her fist and try to kick him"--probably +meaning, try both to strike and kick him, for he adds, "her hand or foot +would always recoil when within an inch or two of his body; thus giving +the idea that there was an invisible coat of mail, of heavenly temper, and +proof against the assaults of the devil around his sacred person." That +"_idea_" looks much more like a child born within the historian's own mind +than a gift to him by Mather. A statement by the latter that her hand or +foot would always recoil when within an inch or two of his body, hardly +justifies the slurring innuendo which seems to be appended to it. But +ignorance of many operating laws, forces, and agents pertaining to the +subject discussed by the modern historian, let him sometimes become as +tempting a target for the shafts of ridicule as he found Mather to be. +Without presuming that Mather perceived that natural laws generated +repulsion between matter animated and moved by a disembodied spirit and +matter in its normal conditions, we can state that extensive observation +has generated the conclusion that unless there exists rapport with, or at +least an absence of repulsion between, the sphere of the spirit using the +borrowed hand or foot, and the sphere of the normal person aimed at, +natural law forbids their contact. William Morse made such observation as +caused him to say in his deposition that "the wedge and spade flying on +his wife _did not touch her_." Forceful and rapid approximations of hands +and feet under control of invisibles, toward the bodies of surrounding +witnesses, and marvelous arrestings of those moving limbs so that no +contact ensues, are of very frequent occurrence. Very many parlor +ornaments and household utensils, hard and soft, light and heavy, are, by +spirits, not unfrequently set in rapid motion back and forth, and +crosswise, promiscuously over and amid a crowd of people in a room, and +yet but few persons are ever hit, and the few sensitives in rapport with +the performers, and contributors to their apparatus, if hit, are never +hurt. The temper of Mather's shielding coat of mail was just as heavenly +as that of each other human being's coat which the Master Armorer in +nature's boundless shop forges and furnishes for the protection of each +human child who is sent forth to fight the battles of life in gross flesh +and bones. Not his own holiness, but either nature's antipathies or spirit +forbearance saved Mather from the blows, and the historian wronged him +perhaps when he intimated that the divine thought otherwise; for that man, +halting as his steps were, and small as his advance was, made nearer +approach toward a fair comprehension and exposition of our witchcraft than +any other American who wrote upon that subject, till since the publication +of "History of Witchcraft." + +Many other pranks, not less marvelous than the ones already presented, are +ascribed to this girl; but notice of them may be omitted here, because the +general character of the operations around her are all that this work +proposes to exhibit. We must, however, give the reader opportunity to +peruse the historian's concluding comments upon this case. He says,-- + +"There is nothing in the annals of the histrionic art more illustrative of +the infinite versatility of the human faculties, both physical and mental, +and of the amazing extent to which cunning, ingenuity, contrivance, +quickness of invention, and presence of mind can be cultivated, even in +very young persons, than such cases as just related. It seems, at first, +incredible that a mere child could carry on such a complex piece of fraud +and imposture as that enacted by the little girl whose achievements have +been immortalized by the famous author of the 'Magnalia.'" + +We are glad to note the author's frank and distinct confession that his +own solution seems _at first_ incredible. Why he put in the phrase "at +first" needs explanation, which he fails to furnish. He makes no attempt +to show why the _first_ seeming should not be the permanent one. It is +permanent. It will continue permanent to the end of time. It is and +forever will be _incredible_ that the Goodwin girl herself performed all +the feats which the evidence proves were performed through her organism. +If her body was the organ of all the performances which are distinctly +ascribed to her, she was not the author of them all, but only a channel +for the occurrence of many of them. Can reflection find her competent to +all that was ascribed to her? Incredible. Incredible not only _at first_, +but also on and on to the latest last. + +Ingenious fancy, while weaving over this case a dazzling web of rhetoric, +may have deluded the eyes that overlooked the loom, and caused them to +discern other seemings than the first ones; but such delusion will never +become epidemic. + +Hutchinson, usually a scornful handler of aught that emitted any odor of +witchcraft, we now requote where he said, concerning the family which +included this Martha, that "they all had been religiously educated, and +were thought to be without guile;... they returned to their ordinary +behavior, lived to adult age, made profession of religion.... One of them +I knew many years after. She had the character of a very sober, virtuous +woman, and never made any acknowledgment of fraud in this transaction." +Such is the testimony of one whose views and feelings obviously inclined +him, as far as possible, to consider all witchcraft works the products of +imposture and fraud; and who, therefore, was not likely to assign to this +family any good qualities which they were not widely and well known to +possess. He spoke of them as above, and refrained from any direct +imputation of fraud to them. He hinted at fraud, it is true, but probably +both lacked any historical or traditionary evidence of it, and was +conscious that if fraud were alleged, and even proved, it would fail to +meet the case in all its parts--in those especially that "seemed more than +natural." Nonplussed in the way of solution, he could only say "it was a +time of great credulity"! In one important respect he had better +facilities for judging this case correctly than can be obtained to-day. He +had listened to conversations of many persons who were living at the time +of its occurrence, and yet refrained from direct charge of fraud or +imposture. Also he intimated that such causes, even if alleged, would be +inadequate, because some of the transactions "seemed more than natural." + +The later historian, unhampered by need to move in harmony with the +knowledge and beliefs of any cotemporaries of those Goodwins, and +abandoning historic grounds which furnish supermundane agencies for +solving the occurrence of acts which filled the town and colony with +consternation, delved into the composition of man, and fancied that he +found therein enormous capabilities for credulity, fraud, imposture, +infatuation, spontaneous out-flashings of highest, and more than highest, +feats of histrionic art, for self-generated triplication of personal +weight, for aviarial flittings, for equine antics, for self-induced +roastings, self-induced showerings, for comprehension of languages never +learned, &c.; fancied that he had found how one little girl, "religiously +educated, and thought to be without guile," could execute to admiration +each of those many things "seeming to be more than natural," and could +mimic with admirable exactness most astounding feats, and such as always +before had been supposed to require the powers of disembodied +intelligences. That was an astounding discovery. But the present are times +of great credulity, and in the infatuation of these days mental optics +have been molded, which, looking back nearly two hundred years, see the +brightest, most vigorous, and keen-sighted men of Boston--the "solid men +of Boston"--see them stolid and gullible, and see, too, among the people +there three or four little children, bright and religiously educated, and +yet malignant and agile as the very devil. What a contrast between the old +and the young then! Was there ever a day when Boston's wisest adults were +prevailingly blockheads easily befooled, and when those of her children +who had "great ingenuity of temper" metamorphosed themselves into +devil-like incendiaries, and set the town ablaze with sulphurous fires? +Alas! one modern eye has penetration enough to convince its owner that +such a day once was. That eye, "by the aid of"--something, seems "gifted +with supernatural insight;" certainly with very uncommon back-sight. + +Grant to the Goodwin children all the natural human endowments which +imagination can conjure up and embody, also grant to them skillful +training and long-continued practice, which there is no probability they +had, and even then it was impossible for them, when in separate rooms, to +have voluntarily and designedly acted, and seemingly suffered, precisely +and simultaneously alike, as they are alleged to have done, and as they +would have naturally been made to do if all of them were under and +controlled by the psychologic influence of the single mind of the +resentful wild Irish woman, because then the same mental impulses would +move them all like machines, and simultaneously. + +After their separation, the girl at Mr. Mather's house could never have +accomplished single-handed what is ascribed to her. The internal evidence +of the narrative of events which transpired there combines with common +sense in pronouncing it farcical--distinctly _farcical_--to regard that +young girl as the contriver and performer of all the works and pranks +which history says transpired through her physical organism, and, +therefore, to external eyes, seemed to be products of her own volitions. +The nature, quality, and extent of those performances bespeak producing +powers both different from and greater than such a girl possessed; bespeak +just such powers as departed spirits are now putting forth all around us +through living human forms. + +It is not only at first, but _permanently_ incredible, "that a mere child +could carry on such a complex piece of fraud and imposture as that +enacted" through "the little girl whose achievements have been +immortalized by the famous author of the Magnalia;" and therefore the +world demands, and will yet obtain, a simpler, more rational, and more +satisfactory solution of this and kindred cases; solution that will admit +all the amazing feats of witchcraft to be embraced within the scope of +forces that finite human beings, the seen and the unseen in conjunction, +could in the past and can now so apply as to execute all the world's +marvels without aid from either the One Great Devil, from fraud, or from +imposture. Neither of these need ever have any connection whatever with, +or complicity in, such matters. The records teach, and man's recent +experience divines, that other, more befitting, and more competent actors +than mere children were on hand and at work in Cotton Mather's presence. + +Though justice would have us assign to any Great Dull his honest dues, it +also permits us to pull off from his sable brows any unearned wreaths +which Cotton Mather and others credulously placed upon them. It also and +especially requires us to tear off from the fair head of guileless Martha +Goodwin that badge labeled _Fraud and Imposture_--that emblem of +deviltry--which _modern delusion_ has most cruelly, and yet most +artistically, wreathed around temples that seem worthy of a pure _martyr's +honoring crown_. + + +RETROSPECTION. + +From among the works of witchcraft that occurred from 1648 to 1688, we +have now presented six cases, which bring into view some phenomena that +are very like many which are now called spirit manifestations. The +efficient touch of Margaret Jones, of Charlestown, the extraordinary +efficacy of her hands and simple medicines, her prophetic powers, the +keenness of her hearing, and the materialization of a spirit-child in her +arms, brought her to the gallows in 1648. Ann Hibbins, of Boston, +seemingly because of the wit-sharpening acuteness of her hearing, was +hanged in 1656. Ann Cole, of Hartford, Conn., in 1662, had her vocal +organs "improved" by some intelligence not her own for the utterance of +thoughts which were never in her mind, and some of the utterances through +her contributed to the conviction and consequent execution of the two +Greensmiths, husband and wife. At Groton, a spirit controlling the form of +Elizabeth Knap, in 1671, made avowal that he was "a pretty black boy, and +not Satan." At Newbury, in 1679, the wild dance of pots, kettles, +andirons, and things in general, came off on the premises of William +Morse. And at Boston, in 1688, inflictions upon the Goodwin children led +to the execution of Mrs. Glover, "one of the wild Irish." + +Cases thus scattered in both time and space, half of them limited each to +a single actor or sufferer, and each differing widely from any other in +many of its prominent features, cannot satisfactorily be ascribed to +acquired skill in legerdemain, histrionic art, magic, or necromancy, +unattended by help from the living dead. + +The name of the wild Irish woman, whose harsh language was speedily +followed by the distortions and sufferings of the Goodwin children, was +Glover. Calef calls her "a despised, crazy, ill-conditioned old woman--an +Irish Roman Catholic." The public believed that she put forth criminal +action upon that family, arrested her therefor, received at her trial some +indications that she had dealings with invisible beings, pronounced her +guilty of witchcraft, and hanged her. She doubtless forsensed retention of +power to act either directly or through others upon the objects of her +resentment, even after the gallows should have done its utmost work upon +herself. For it is stated that "at her execution she said the children +would not be relieved by her death ... and ... the three children +continued in their furnace as before, and it grew rather seven times +hotter than it was, and their calamities went on till they barked at one +another like dogs, and then purred like so many cats; would complain that +they were in a red-hot oven, and sweat and pant as if they had been really +so. Anon they would say cold water was thrown on them, at which they would +shiver very much. They would complain of being roasted on an invisible +spit; and then that their heads were nailed to the floor, and it was +beyond an ordinary strength to pull them from it."--_Annals of +Witchcraft_, p. 185. + +Such facts were gathered from Cotton Mather's account; they come to us +from one whose influences and writings are alleged to have been most +strongly provocative of executions for witchcraft. Perhaps some of them +became so. But his presentation of both the momentous fact and its +confirmation by observed experiences, that the spirit of an executed +psychologist could act back from beyond the gallows, involved a crushing +argument against the wisdom of suspending her or any one else with a view +to stop bewitchment. The liberation of one's spirit increases its powers +for action upon surviving mortals. Mather's facts argued that. + + + + +SALEM WITCHCRAFT. + + +The world-renowned and momentous display of extraordinary manifestations, +known the world over as _Salem Witchcraft_, originated and was mainly +manifested in what was then called Salem Village--territory distinct from +Salem _proper_--embracing the present town of Danvers, together with parts +of Beverly, Wenham, Topsfield, and Middleton, in the County of Essex and +State of Massachusetts. + +There, in the family of the Rev. Samuel Parris, minister at the Village, +on the 29th of February, 1692, mysterious causes had wrought strange +maladies upon two young girls during the six preceding weeks, which +excited great public alarm, and produced such mental agitation that the +civil authorities were called upon to give the matter official attention. + +The true origin and the actual authors and enactors of that tragedy are +among the prime objects of our present researches. It is not our purpose +to furnish a _full_ history, but to scrutinize and test the hypotheses of +other writers; and give a solution of the origin and specification of the +actors and effects of that tragedy different--widely different--from the +prevalent modern ones. Upham, Drake, and Fowler all agree in fundamentals. +All of them have assumed that the agents and forces which evolved those +marvelous operations were scarcely, if anything, other than ten or twelve +respectable girls, from nine to twenty years of age, together with a few +married women and a few men, voluntarily exercising and manifesting only +their own wayward constitutional faculties and forces, in the performance +of tricks, impositions, and malignancies; and with none other than +lamentable results. Their positions we deem open to deserved attack, and +we expect to overthrow much that has been reared upon them, by using facts +abounding in the primitive records of testimony given in at trials for +witchcraft as our chief instrumentalities. The three expounders just named +have rested much upon allegations that the girls and women alluded to +above had, just previous to the strange outburst of terrors at the +Village, been accustomed to meet as _a circle_, and at their meetings put +themselves in training for the efficient and successful performance of +what soon after transpired through them. Our readings of the records +pertaining to Salem witchcraft have, as we know and freely confess, fallen +short of complete exhaustion; and yet we have read much, and also have +failed to find any remembered allusion to such a circle prior to its +mention in the present century. + +Upham states (vol. ii. pp. 2 and 386) that "for a period embracing about +two months they" (certain girls and women) "had been in the habit of +meeting together, and spending the long winter evenings, _at Mr. Parris's +house_, practicing the arts of fortune-telling, jugglery, and magic." + +Drake says ("Annals of Witchcraft," p. 189) that "these females instituted +frequent meetings, or got up, as it would now be styled, a club, which was +called a circle. _How frequent they had these meetings is not stated_; +but it was soon ascertained that they met to try projects, or to do or +produce superhuman acts." + +Fowler remarks, in Woodward's Series (vol. iii. pp. 204 and 205), that +"Mary Warren, one of the most violent of the accusing girls, lived with +John Proctor," who, "out of patience with the meetings of the girls +composing this circle," &c. "It is at the meeting of this circle of eight +girls, _for the purpose of practicing palmistry and fortune-telling_, that +we discover the germ or the first origin of the delusion." + +The position of each of these writers substantially is, that the accusing +girls, at circle meetings which they held, qualified themselves for the +parts they subsequently performed, wherein, Fowler says, "their whole +course, as seen by their depositions, discloses much malignancy." + +Upham has told us that these meetings were held "at Mr. Parris's house," +and that they occurred within the space of "about two months ... during +the winter of 1691 and 1692." Drake found no statement as to "how frequent +they had these meetings," and Fowler finds in them "the germ ... of the +delusion." We have found no mention at all of this circle in the more +ancient records and accounts, and not one of the authors named makes +mention of the source of his information. Those men, two of whom are our +personal acquaintances and friends, would not state anything which they +did not believe to be true. We therefore shall not gainsay their +allegations. Still, we feel privileged to doubt whether their uncertain +number of meetings during the short space of two winter months, held _at +the minister's own house_, and under an eye as vigilant as that of Mr. +Parris, could have furnished those girls with opportunity to learn very +much in any arts whose practice would not receive the approbation of the +Rev. Master of the house--not much could they there of themselves learn, +at their few meetings in two months, of the anti-Christian arts of +"palmistry ... and fortune-telling;" not much could they then and there +accomplish in the way "of becoming," by their voluntary efforts, "experts +in the wonders of necromancy, magic, and Spiritualism." + +The general purpose of any stated meetings "at Mr. Parris's house," +naturally and almost necessarily had his approbation; and the presumption +from his general character is, that he was neither the good-natured +indolent man who let others take their own course, however wayward, nor +the absent-minded one whom children or even bright adults could easily and +repeatedly deceive and hoodwink. The probability seems excessively small +that such a one as he would permit repeated gatherings under his own roof +for the special purpose of acquiring knowledge of and skill in practicing +tabooed arts. Whatever their authority for it, the writers referred to +imply that the members of a circle of girls and misses, meeting statedly +"_at Mr. Parris's house_," there very expeditiously qualified themselves +to become not only most efficient actors of long-continued dissimulation, +imposture, cunning, devilish trickery, and fiendish malice, but also to be +_bona fide_ concoctors and successful executors of vastly complicated, +deep, and broad schemes of hellish outrages upon parents, neighbors, and +the country. + +Wiser heads and greater powers than those girls possessed were manifested +by the acts they _seemed_ to perform. In a literary sense they were +uncultured; but they, doubtless, had been subject to as good domestic, +social, moral, and religious teachings and example as existed in any +community. The literary deficiencies of the girls are indicated in the +following extracts:-- + +Drake says, "They were generally very ignorant, for out of the eight but +two could write their names. Such were the characters which set in motion +that stupendous tragedy which ended in blood and ruin." In vol. i. p. 486, +Upham says, "How those young country girls, some of them mere children, +most of them wholly illiterate, could have become familiar with such +fancies to such an extent, is truly surprising.... In the Salem witchcraft +proceedings, the superstition of the middle ages was embodied in real +action. All its extravagances, absurdities, and monstrosities appear in +their application to human experience." + +Such, according to their own concessions, was the feebleness of the agents +whom the historians credited with performances which seem superhuman, and +required for their production intellect and forces above what any +community has often witnessed. Notwithstanding the inherent and +insuperable incompetency of such persons to voluntarily devise and perform +what has been ascribed to them, those females have been earnestly set +forth as the actual and almost impromptu devisers and enactors of as +intricate and effective a scheme for inflicting tortures and misery upon a +vast multitude of human beings as has rarely been found in the annals of +the race. If it be admitted that they, through frequent meetings at the +parsonage, became fitted to conjure up and control the devastating monster +that had his lair and foraging-grounds at Salem Village, the presumption +amounts closely to certainty that those gatherings were ostensibly held +for some laudable object. Meetings for some purpose may possibly have been +held when and where the historians assume them to have occurred. But if +so, it is our privilege to assume the possibility that the meetings were +availed of by unseen intelligences of some grade, for developing into +facile mediums such members of the circle as were constitutionally +impressible and controllable by spirits; and, if so, the meetings may have +become productive of results widely different from any contemplated by +either the members themselves or the master of the house in which they +met. + +In his general history of Salem Village, introductory to that of its +witchcraft, Upham, giving us the geographical positions of their several +residences, and also their relations and positions in domestic life, +furnishes ample grounds for very strong presumption that frequent +attendance upon sportive meetings at the parsonage must have been so +inconvenient and onerous to several of those girls, that they would not +have been present many times in the short space of two months. Ann Putnam, +a sensitive girl only twelve years old, and Mercy Lewis, a servant girl, +or "the maid," in the family of Ann's father, two of the most efficient +pupils in that necromantic school, resided together in a home situated not +less than two and a half miles distant, in a north-westerly direction +from the specified place of the meetings. Elizabeth Hubbard, an important +member, lived about the same distance off, on a different road at the +east. On a still different road, and equally as far away at the +south-east, resided Sarah Churchill; and quite as remote, at the south, +was the home of Mary Warren; and the last two must take divergent roads +when they had gone only a little more than half way home. Each one of +these five was very conspicuous amid the ostensible accusers, and the +genuinely "afflicted ones." Excepting Ann Putnam, each was old enough to +be an efficient helper in household labors, and each, unless we except +Elizabeth Hubbard,--and such exception is hardly needful, because, though +a niece of his wife, she is mentioned as Dr. Griggs's "maid," which +probably implies that she was compensated for services she +rendered,--excepting Ann Putnam, each of them was "out at service." + +What, therefore, is the probability that these five girls, with any great +frequency or regularity, went to and returned home from avowedly sportive +or necromantic meetings _at the parsonage_? Each of them would have to +travel, in going and returning, not less than five or six miles, mostly +along separate routes, in winter's shortest days, by lonely and crooked +roads, through miles of dark forests, over winter's snows, and amid its +freezing airs. What is the probability that such persons, so +circumstanced, would either desire to go, or be permitted by parents and +employers to go, frequently and regularly to such meetings? Slight--very +slight--because both natural and domestic obstacles must have been great. +Were horses, vehicles, and drivers, or were even saddle-horses, regularly +at the command of such girls for conveyance to and from such meetings? +Would such persons, if physically strong and courageous enough to go on +foot, be often spared by their employers to spend long winter evenings, +and two hours more for travel, in practicing "fortune-telling, necromancy, +and magic"? Such questions of themselves put forth a negative answer. +Frequent attendance by such members of the circle was next to an +impossibility. If they learned much upon any subject at the very few +meetings which circumstances would permit them to attend in the short +space of two months, they were very apt pupils indeed. That they became +very considerably modified and unfolded in certain directions in +consequence of meeting together occasionally is very credible. + +We should concede its probable correctness, were an historian to make the +supposition that the two Indian slaves in Mr. Parris's kitchen, John +Indian and his wife Tituba, often amused themselves and any young folks or +other visitors, who there basked in genial light and warmth from blazing +logs in a huge New England fireplace on a cold winter's evening, by +rehearsing ghost stories and magic lore, and performing any such feats in +fortune-telling or other mystical doings as they might be able to exhibit, +or as might transpire through them. That the little girls, Elizabeth, +daughter of Mr. Parris, and Abigail Williams, his niece, were accustomed +to spend many cold winter evenings in the warm kitchen of their own home +is very credible. Mary Walcut and Susanna Sheldon, who lived in the near +neighborhood, perhaps dropped in frequently. But the majority of those +whose astonishing proficiency in performing what Drake said the circle met +for, viz., "to do or produce superhuman acts," and for _learning_, as +Upham would say, how to manifest "the superstition of the middle ages ... +embodied in real action,"--the _majority_ of those girls obviously must +have had only very restricted opportunities for study and practice at the +parsonage. It is not at all improbable that each of them was present in +that kitchen occasionally during two months of that winter; nor that each +of them was impregnated by the auras of that place and of its occupants +both visible and invisible; nor that the physical and psychic soils in +each were there mellowed, and also sown with some seed which produced +unlooked-for fruits during the following spring and summer. + +Mediumistic capabilities are innate peculiarities, measurably hereditary, +and nearly always amenable to special conditions and surroundings for +conspicuous development. King Saul became a prophet, i. e., a medium, only +when he met, mingled with, and imbibed emanations from prophets or +mediums. Messengers whom he sent to the prophets succumbed to new and +developing influences upon arriving at their destination, and became +suddenly prophets themselves. Latent germs of spiritualistic capabilities, +if permeated by quickening auras, which often emanate from positive +mediums, frequently unfold into mediumship, as naturally as specific +elements, reaching latent germs in many human systems, expand those germs +into measles, or into whooping-cough; or as naturally as listening to +soul-stirring music energizes latent capabilities in many who are acted +upon by its strains, and helps such to become themselves better musicians +than before. + +The parsonage kitchen--that nestling-place of John Indian and his wife +Tituba--may have been that winter a little Delphos, or a little Mount +Horeb, that is, a spot where developing nourishments of mediumistic germs +were collected in unusual abundance, and were unwontedly operative. We are +not only ready to admit, but deem it probable, that any susceptible +persons who came into the presence of John and Tituba, in their special +room, may have there imbibed properties unsought and unperceived which +fostered the development of such visitors into tools or instruments, by +the use of which the genuine authors of Salem witchcraft brought out their +work upon a public stage, and prosecuted its terrific enactment. +Smothering our serious doubts whether any regular meetings at stated times +were arranged for or held, we are entirely ready to let the supposition +stand that gatherings, more or less extensive, occasionally occurred, at +which fortune-telling, necromancy, magic, or Spiritualism, was made the +subject of either sportive or serious attention, and we will let results +indicate who managed the visible performers during the exercises or +entertainments there. + +Upham's beautifully rhetorical and eloquent efforts to show that because +they, as he states, held a number of meetings for learning and practicing +mystic arts, those rustic, illiterate girls thereby and thereat qualified +themselves to concoct and accomplish of their own accord, and by their +histrionic and malicious capabilities, all that mighty scheme or plan +which his predecessor and himself lay to their charge, fail, entirely +fail, to meet the fair demands of that common sense which rigidly requires +forces and agents adequate in their nature and conditions to produce all +effects which are ascribed to them. + +Fowler seems to have inferred from some statements ascribed to Proctor, +that the latter threatened to go and force Mary Warren to leave the +_circle_. We do not so read the account. + +The morning of March 25,--that is, the next morning after the examination +of Rebecca Nurse,--John Proctor said "he was going to fetch home his jade" +(Mary Warren); "he left her there" (at the village) "last night, and had +rather given 40c than let her come up." That is, apparently, he had rather +have given that sum than to have had her be present at the examination of +Mrs. Nurse; for, continued he, "if they were let alone, Sr., we should all +be devils and witches quickly; they should rather be had to the whipping +post; but he would fetch his jade home and thrust the devil out of her, +... crying, hang them--hang them. And also added, that when she was first +taken with fits he kept her close to the wheel, and threatened to thrash +her, and then she had no more fits till the next day" (when) "he was gone +forth, and then she must have her fits again forsooth," &c.--_Woodward's +Series_, vol. i. p. 63. + +It is obvious from the above that Proctor's objection was to his jade's +attendance upon the examination of the accused--to her attendance at +court--and not at the circle, which, according to Upham, should have +closed its meetings a month at least before the 25th of March. And yet S. +P. Fowler says (Woodward's Series, vol. iii. p. 204), that "Proctor, out +of all patience with the _meetings of the girls composing this circle_, +one day said he was going to the village to bring Mary Warren, the jade, +home." Most readers will infer from such a statement that Proctor proposed +to take the girl away from the "circle;" but the statement from which the +annotator drew his information, when taken in connection with its date, +clearly shows that the threats to bring home the jade and thrash her were +subsequent to the assemblages of the circle, and were made at a time when +the girls were being used as witnesses before the examining magistrates. +That which tried the resolute man's patience, was not the meetings of the +_circle_, but the testimony of the girls in court, which threatened to +make all the people "devils and witches quickly." + +Proctor's stopping the _fits_, by threats to thrash the girl, intimates +that the fits were measurably controllable by the will of some one. That +much may be true in relation to almost all diseases and maladies of the +body, but probably not as much so in most other kinds as in those which +are imposed by a will that has no natural alliance with the agitated body. +Under the influence of threats, the girl would naturally struggle to get +full possession of all her own powers and faculties, and the effort would +put her own elements in such commotion that for a time no foreign will +could get control over her form. Threats, medicines of certain kinds, and +many other applications, may temporally render almost any medium's system +uncontrollable by spirits. Calmness, both of mind and body, and darkness, +too, which is less positive and disintegrating than light, in action upon +instruments made and used by spirits, are very helpful to control of +borrowed forms. + +In some of his comments (vol. ii. p. 434) Upham wrote more wisely than +himself seems to have known. Words from his pen state that "one of the +sources of the delusion of 1692, was ignorance of many natural laws that +have been revealed by modern science. A vast amount of knowledge on these +subjects has been attained since that time." True, true indeed. And had +the author of that statement been familiar with important portions of that +"vast amount of" new "knowledge," he himself, as readily as those who are +better versed in a certain class of modern revealments, would have seen +and felt the perfect childishness of his attempt to make those rustic +girls the conscious contrivers and perverse and malignant actors of the +whole of the vast, complicated, and terrific tragedy of Salem witchcraft. + +He might have known when he wrote, he ought to have known then, that Dr. +Robert Hare, of Philadelphia, who was eminent, distinctly and broadly +eminent, as a scientist, had in 1855 published to the world a rigidly +scientific _demonstration_ that some unseen agent, intelligent enough to +understand and comply with verbal requests, repeatedly moved the arms of +scale-beams contrary to the normal action of gravitation. Science, there +and then, revealed the existence of some natural law or laws which permit +unseen and impalpable intelligences, under some conditions, to put forth +action upon matter, with force and to extent, which man can measure in +pounds avoirdupois. That single achievement of modern science teaches the +wisdom of exempting seemingly diabolized and mischievous children from +charge of being devils incarnate, until we have determined whether some +beings of greater powers and different dispositions may not have usurped +control of youthful and pliant human forms, and through them manifested +schemes and pranks that originated in supernal brains, and were enacted by +use of such forces as can be manipulated by none below disembodied +intelligences. + +Obviously he who was cognizant that science had made recent discoveries, +suffered himself to remain in ignorance of what to him, as witchcraft +historian, were the most pertinent and important parts of the knowledge +recently gained; ignorant of those parts which were most closely connected +with philosophical solution of the mysteries which pervaded the history he +was elaborating. His blindness to what science--yes, to what exact +physical science--by her rigid processes of weighing and measuring had +positively _demonstrated_, bespeaks his short-comings, and would bespeak +the unphilosophical stand-point of any historian of, or critic upon, the +world's marvels, who, since the day of Hare, ignores the light radiating +from his demonstration, and continues to grope on in darkness which use of +that light would dispel. Take into the catalogue of natural agents and +forces all those whose existence and action, science, as applied by Dr. +Hare twenty years ago, and again by Mr. Crookes and others in England more +recently, backed, too, by the observations and tests of thousands less +erudite, has _demonstrated_, and then all occasion to look upon our +fathers as numskulls, and their daughters as proficient devils, at once +disappears. New England soil, two centuries ago, was not populated mainly +by jack-asses; and even had it been, their offspring would have been +neither monkeys nor hyenas. + +Since the work by Dr. Hare, entitled "Spiritualism Scientifically +Demonstrated," may not be readily accessible by many readers, his +description of one demonstrative process is quoted from page 49, as +follows:-- + +"A board, being about four feet in length, is supported by a rod, as a +fulcrum, at about one foot from one end, and, of course, three feet from +the other, which is suspended on a spring balance. A glass vase, about +nine inches in diameter and five inches in hight, having a knob to hold it +by, when inverted had this knob inserted in a hole made in the board six +inches, nearly, from the fulcrum. Thus the vase rested on the board mouth +upward. A wire-gauze cage, such as is used to keep flies from sugar, was +so arranged by a well-known means as to slide up or down on two iron rods, +one on each side of the trestle supporting the fulcrum. By these +arrangements it was so adjusted as to descend into the vase until within +an inch and a half of the bottom, while the inferiority of its dimensions +prevented it from coming elsewhere within an inch of the parietes of the +vase. Water was poured into the vase so as to rise into the cage till +within about an inch and an half of the brim. A well-known medium (Gordon) +was induced to plunge his hands, clasped together, to the bottom of the +cage, holding them perfectly still. As soon as those conditions were +attained, the apparatus being untouched by any one excepting the medium as +described, I invoked the aid of my spirit friends. A downward force was +repeatedly exerted upon the end of the board appended to the balance, +equal to three pounds' weight nearly;... the distance of the hook of the +balance from the fulcrum on which the board turned was six times as great +as the cage in which the hands were situated. Consequently a force of +3×6=18 pounds must have been exerted." + +The above experiment was performed in Dr. Hare's own laboratory, in the +presence and under the watchful scrutiny of John M. Kennedy, Esq., and was +made with extraordinary care, because Professor Henry had just treated a +similar result formerly obtained as incredible. Plate III. in the book +furnishes a diagram illustrating Dr. Hare's apparatus. This experimenter, +whom Alfred R. Wallace calls America's foremost chemist, had spent very +many years in both constructing and in using, as a scientist, varied kinds +of apparatus for testing the presence and action of subtile forces in +nature, and he was competent to know, and did know as well as any other +man whatsoever in the world's great body of scientists, when results were +obtained to positive certainty. He _proved_ that some invisible and +intelligent power moved his scale-beam contrary to the action of +gravitation. The above demonstration, accompanied by many other evidences +of spirit-action upon matter through mediums, had been published twelve +years when Upham put forth his work. Therefore he was either ignorant of +or he ignored late discoveries of science which had revolutionizing +applicability to the very theories which he was putting forth. + +After having eloquently depicted the sad results of witchcraft, that +author says (vol. ii. p. 427), "Let those results for ever stand +conspicuous, beacon-monuments, warning us and coming generations against +superstition in every form, and all credulous and vain attempts to +penetrate beyond the legitimate boundaries of human knowledge." If there +ever was "a _credulous and vain attempt_ to penetrate beyond the +legitimate boundaries of human knowledge," one was made by him who sought +to find that the keen-eyed, energetic, common-sense, virtuous, religious +men of Massachusetts in the seventeenth century lacked common sagacity, +and that their little girls rivaled Satan himself in malignity. Most +seriously we ask whether forces which can be and have been measured by +palpable scales, are "beyond the legitimate boundaries of human +knowledge?" We ask whether, anywhere in the universe, there exist +boundaries beyond which it is, or can be, illegitimate for man to go in +search after agents and forces which either habitually or occasionally act +legitimately upon him in this mortal life? + +Another question is suggested by the foregoing quotation. Would not +positive knowledge that there are unseen agents and forces within the +realms of nature that can legitimately exhibit the phenomena once deemed +witchcrafts, transfer such phenomena from the domain of either +superstition or crime into that of science or that of beneficence? Surely +it would. And, therefore, how can one possibly work more efficiently for +depopulating the domain of superstition, than by bringing its inhabitants +forth and colonizing them on the lands of knowledge and science? Shall we +comply with the historian's advice, and still continue to leave what +ignorance denominates hobgoblins and ghosts to remain shrouded in +appalling mists, and thus aid them to continue to be to coming generations +the same awful beings they were to the generations past? Or shall we, on +the other hand, now, while experience and science are showing that such +work is practicable, push discovery onward till we both find laws and +learn conditions which permit closer access of disembodied beings to us, +and which also permit most beneficent reciprocal action between them and +us, just as soon as familiarity, confidence, calmness, and mutual trust +make their access easy? Which shall we do? Which is most scientific? Which +is most dutiful to God and friendly to man? Which? Is ignorance of, or is +knowledge of, nature's forces and inhabitants the greater blessing? Which? +Away with ignorance where knowledge is attainable. + +We choose to learn as much concerning the universe and its inhabitants as +God gives us power and opportunities to acquire; not fearing his censure, +but trusting to win his approbation, by so doing. When one learns that +issuers from the vailed realms of spirit-land are only earth's emancipated +children revisiting their former homes, the cry that devils are coming +lacks any startling power. Faith, and even knowledge, sometimes says, "It +is my friends and loved ones and those who love me, who are in the +circumambient hosts, and I will do what I may to facilitate their more +sensible approach; will extend toward them a friendly and helping hand." + +Only superstition and ignorance quail and skulk before visitants that come +from unseen realms; knowledge stands fast and meets them with welcome and +joy. + +The "legitimate boundaries of knowledge"! Where are they? Surely not +within any domain where knowledge can supersede ignorance and its +consequent superstitions. + +Perhaps only few persons who give credence to the substantial accuracy of +the transmitted statements of witchcraft facts, will dissent from +Hutchinson's obvious meaning when he said that "some of them seem to be +more than natural;" that is, as we suppose him to have meant, they seem to +have required for their production something beyond the recognized powers +of embodied human beings. He, however, in spite of such seeming, sought to +lead other minds to fancy that fraud and malice acting upon credulity--in +other words, that cunning and malicious embodied human beings, and none +other--were concerned in their manifestation. Upham and Drake have not +only followed Hutchinson's lead in excluding invisible agents, but have +omitted to admit that some of the facts _seem_ to be more than natural. +They blindly fancy that they find resident in human minds and hearts of +seeming brilliancy and goodness, capabilities of artfulness, malice, and +might which wrest from Satan's brow all laurels which the world has meeded +to him for his imputed prowess on witchcraft's battlefields. As one of the +human race, we protest against such slander of our kindred humans while +embodied, none of whom, while dwellers here below, were ever smelted in +fires hot enough to elicit from their own interiors some forces which were +put in action through their forms--forces which, in common parlance, +though not in absolute fact, were "more than natural." Events fearfully +mysterious have long been, and now often are, spoken of as the productions +of beings, or at least of One Special being, lurking somewhere away off +beyond the outmost limits of nature. But each and every hiding-place of +even Old Nick is somewhere within those limits, and even he can never and +nowhere act otherwise than in obedience to nature's laws. How far up, +down, around, do natural forces and agents extend and operate? If there be +a fixed limit to nature's domain, where is it? When life departs from +man's body, are the forces which continue to act upon his invisible +spirit, whether that continues to be or ceases to be a conscious +individuality,--are the forces which then act upon it and which bear it to +its appropriate position in spirit spheres, _natural_ forces, or are they +other? + +When man escapes from his gross and sluggish encasement, and becomes--as +the reappearance of many of the race teaches that he does--a freed spirit, +he does not escape from within the realm of nature, nor pass to where +natural substances and forces cease to sustain and act upon him. The word +"supernatural" as well as its equivalent phrase, "more than natural," is +often misleading; it tends to generate supposition that nature +_terminates_ where man's external senses cease to take cognizance. +Absolutely, however, as we believe, all beings, including even God, and +all things whatsoever, are parts of nature; so that the word +"supernatural" can scarcely find place for rigid, unqualified application. +No objection to its usual application is here intended, provided it is not +used to convey the idea that things to which it is applied are the work of +intelligence above and beyond the control and restrictions of universal +laws or forces; provided it does not intimate that the works are what +theology has called miracles, i. e., acts "contrary to the established +course of things." Such works probably never did and never can occur. +Higher and unrecognized laws are availed of whenever known laws are +thwarted in their results, as when the magnet takes the steel upward in +spite of gravitation: gravitation works on with as much steadiness and +force as over, while the magnet overpoweringly pulls against it. The +overbalancing magnetic force does not act "contrary to the established +course of things," but simply performs its own functions in full harmony +with that course; so of all mysterious events in the vast universe. All +move on in obedience to law; all events are outworkings of universal +forces, none of which are ever broken or suspended, though sometimes some +of them are restrained by other and counteracting forces from manifesting +their usual results. + +All the marvelous works of both ancient and modern Spiritualism may have +occurred, and yet none of them have been, in fact, "more than natural," +however much so some minds may be accustomed to deem them. Take psychic +forces as natural instrumentalities, take both embodied and disembodied +intelligences who had skill and power for the control of such forces, and +with these take also others who had special susceptibilities for yielding +to psychic action, and you will then have in your conceptions ample +natural means for the production of each and every marvel that was ever +described in human history, and all such may have been produced without +any more help or hindrance in kind from either God or the devil, than we +all receive in the ordinary acts of daily life. Bring in what is meant by +either magnetism, or mesmerism, or psychology, or psychism, or by any +other term expressive of that action upon and within a human being, which +lets either his own spirit-senses or the forces of some outside +intelligence get play therein independent of and superior to the owner's +outer or physical senses, and we then may have fitting and adequate +instrumentality through which finite intelligence can legitimately produce +all the marvels that human eyes have ever witnessed. Professor Cromwell F. +Varley, one of England's most eminent electricians, said, when addressing +a committee of the London Dialectical Society, "I believe the mesmeric +trance and the spiritual trance are produced by similar means, and I +believe the mesmeric and the spiritual forces are the same. They are both +the action of a spirit, and the difference between the spiritual trance +and the mesmeric trance I believe is this: in the mesmeric trance, the +will that overpowers or entrances the patient is in a human body; in the +spiritual trance, that will which overpowers the patient is not in a human +body." + +The position taken by Mr. Varley, whose observations were made mostly +within his own domestic circle, and whose professional pursuits led him to +be a constant and careful observer of the nature, properties, and actions +of delicate forces, is worthy of much regard. His view is probably in +harmony with the conclusion of most minds which have studied carefully the +outworkings of mesmerism and Spiritualism. The two isms, in some views of +them, are essentially one in nature, the latter being the butterfly or +moth that came from out the former. The grub and its moth are the same +being in different stages of development. Multitudes of human beings +raised, and to be raised, from lower to higher development have their +habitats along the line where the material and spiritual interblend, and +some are measurably amphibious there--can move and act in either of two +auras. The younger, or less advanced, flesh-clad mesmerists, prevailingly +abide in the material, while spirits have their most congenial residence +generally beyond where the palpably material extends; but either class can +at times bring under their control the physical systems of many human +beings. + +By means of this psychism, or this outworking of soul power, there may be +kept up reciprocal action or intercommunion between what are usually +called the material and spiritual worlds, both of which absolutely are +natural, and are pervaded by interacting natural forces which are at the +service of peculiarly endowed, or constituted, or unfolded persons, who +are, or may become, competent and disposed to use them. A disembodied +spirit no more needs special permission or aid from Omnipotence for acting +upon men and matter, than the diver needs such for deep descents beneath +the water's surface. Natural permission for spirits to reincase themselves +in, or to act upon, palpable matter, is as free and full as man's is to +put on submarine armor. + +This much we have said for the purpose of disclosing our stand-points of +observations and reasonings pertaining to Salem witchcraft, and now come +to more direct consideration of that special topic. + +At Salem Village about a dozen people, mostly the girls previously named, +were strangely and grievously tormented, at short intervals, during +several months. They often endured contortions, convulsions, and very +acute sufferings. At times many of them became deaf, dumb, blind, &c. +Seemingly to beholders they personally performed most strange and +incredible feats of strength and simulations, and made astounding +utterances. Because of these doings and sufferings they were, after some +weeks of observation, deemed to be "under an evil hand"--were pronounced +_bewitched_, and were termed, in the parlance of that day, "the +afflicted." + +According to the faith of those times, no person could be bewitched in any +other way than through some other embodied person who had entered into a +covenant with the _Devil_, and voluntarily become his instrument or his +agent. It was then assumed, also, that the afflicted ones could perceive +who the person or persons were through whom the devil tormented them. +Consequently the sufferers were teased, coaxed, or driven to name some one +or more who was causing their sufferings. Those named by the sufferers as +producers of their maladies were called the accused, or were said to be +"cried out upon." + +Belief in the ability of the afflicted to designate accurately their +afflicters, was then prevalent; but though probably born of facts in human +experience, and in itself fundamentally correct, it was indiscreetly and +harmfully applied. The mediumistic or psychologized condition often +renders its subjects practically independent of time, space, and gross +matter, and makes them possessors of ability to feel, or rather to +_sense_, contact with the properties of some peculiarly constituted +mortals, even though such persons at the time be physically many miles +away. The persons from whom such agitating emanations would proceed would +generally themselves be highly mediumistic. + +If the inner or spiritual perceptive organs of Mr. Parris, Dr. Griggs, +Thomas Putnam, and their consulting associates, of whom we shall speak +hereafter, were inextricably interblended with their outer bodies, so that +they were, par excellence, non-mediumistic, their presence near the bodies +of persons infilled with abnormal properties by spirits might be +imperceptible by the entranced, while either the poor, "melancholy, +distracted" (?) Sarah Good, or "bed-rid" Mrs. Osburn (who will come into +notice on a future page), if highly mediumistic, might, though being then +in their distant homes bodily, be present as spirits, and their emanations +might be distinctly felt by the suffering girls, and be by them visibly +traced to their sources. Mediumistic states or entrancements, however +induced, often bring their subjects into rapport with other mediumistic +persons afar off, while they as often shut off sensibility to the presence +of the physically imprisoned or very slightly impressible ones who are +near by. The saying that "birds of a feather flock together" apparently +has more constant application outside of gravitation's dominating reach +than within it--more among relatively freed spirits than among rigidly +body-hampered ones. + +That there exist special occult forces, whose action frequently enables +mediumistic persons, while under spirit manipulations, to know assuredly +that emanations from special human organisms act upon them to either +their pleasure or their annoyance is very clearly indicated by the +experiences of some modern mediums; for these are often heard to speak of +influences coming to their help or their harm from particular persons, +who, at the time, are known to be miles away. Mediumistic intuitions often +very accurately trace influences to some definite mundane source; that +source frequently is where the disembodied operating spirit gets such an +equivalent to a nervous fluid as is needful to give him or her contact +with and control over matter. Some mediumistic systems may at times +contain enough of such quasi nerve-producing elements to meet all the +needs of the controlling spirit, while others usually lack them to such +extent that drafts to supply the deficiency are made from the systems of +others more or less remote from the point of application. If the harassed +and tortured children in the family of Mr. Parris were acted upon by +spirits, they might be, at times, able to _sense_ the fact that forceful +action upon them came perceptibly forth from the bodily forms of +particular living persons. Broad human observation and experience through +the ages had generated conclusion that bewitched persons could designate +those from whom their inflictions came. Therefore our fathers would with +conscious propriety ask any one whom they supposed to be under "an evil +hand," "Who hurts you?" They would look for an answer, and, if one came, +would deem it correct. It was, then, logically necessary for them to +confide in the accuracy of any responses which might issue from the lips +of the sufferers, so long as their creed was made chief premise. Sneers at +belief that psychologized persons know from whom the force comes which +generates their condition, may argue less knowledge in the sneerer's +brain, of forces and agents that sometimes act upon men, than in the heads +of those who in former days sought to learn from bewitched girls what +particular persons afflicted them. The world, while learning much, may +have been forgetting some important knowledge. + +The belief held by many of our forefathers, that the afflicted would +generally know that afflicting forces came to them from the persons whom +they named, though measurably correct in itself, was rendered most +woefully disastrous in its application, because of its concomitant +erroneous belief that such afflicting forces could go forth from none but +such as were in covenant with witchcraft's awful devil. The fact of one's +being a channel through which occult wonder-working forces could flow, +was, in those days, proof positive that he or she had tendered allegiance +to and made a compact with the Evil One. That was the specially great and +disastrous error which engendered witchcraft. Susceptibilities which were +in fact only nature's boons, were looked upon as acquisitions obtained +through a diabolical compact. Some laws of psychology partially revealed +and comprehended now, were then not dreamed of; and deductions from false +premises or from an erroneous belief, being then applied by clear-headed +and good men for noble ends, yes, for God's glory and man's protection, +caused out-workings of unspeakable woes. + +The persons most _afflicted_ at Salem Village were Elizabeth, daughter of +Mr. Parris, nine years old; Abigail Williams, his niece, eleven; Ann +Putnam, twelve; Mercy Lewis, seventeen; Mary Walcut, seventeen; Elizabeth +Hubbard, seventeen; Elizabeth Booth, eighteen; Sarah Churchill, twenty; +Mary Warren, twenty: to these girls may be added Mrs. Ann Putnam, mother +of the girl of the same name; also a Mrs. Pope and a Mrs. Bibber. Nearly +all of these occupied very good social positions, and many of them were +surrounded and cared for by as intelligent, moral, and religious people as +that or any other parish in the neighborhood contained. Yes, from amidst +the very breath of prayer, the light of intelligence, the sway of strong +authority, and the restraining influences of religion, these reputable, +and no doubt generally amiable, conscientious, and kind-hearted girls and +women during all their previous years, suddenly became utterers of what +were then regarded most damning accusations against their neighbors and +acquaintances first, and subsequently against strangers living remote from +them; against the low and the high, the vicious and the virtuous, the +feeble-minded and the strong in intellect alike. And in their strange and +desolating work these people, of exemplary deportment previously, moved on +harmoniously, encouraging and strengthening each other, and without +manifesting the slightest regret. A marked and startling specimen this of +what mortal tongues may be used to accomplish! And yet those tongues +generally may have only described what senses perceived. + +History has said--no, not history--but invalid supposition has said that +sportiveness, malice, love of notoriety, and the like, inherent in the +minds and hearts of those young girls and women, were the chief incentives +to and producers of the woeful, the murderous accusations and statements +which came forth from their youthful lips. It was not so. One may as well +call a pencil or a pen a malicious accuser when it is made to record +malicious accusations, as to call those girls the contrivers and enactors +of many scenes which were presented by use of their bodies. + +We quote as follows from church records, penned by the Rev. Mr. Parris +himself, in whose house the great and awful commotion originated:-- + +"It is altogether undeniable that our Great and Blessed God, for wise and +holy ends, hath suffered many persons in several families of this little +Village to be grievously vexed and tortured in body, and to be deeply +tempted to the endangering of the destruction of their souls, and all +these amazing feats (well known to many of us) to be done by witchcraft +and diabolical operations. + +"It is well known that when these calamities first began, which was in my +own family, the affliction was" (had existed) "_several weeks_, before +such hellish operations as witchcraft was suspected; Nay, it never broke +forth to any considerable light, until diabolical means was used, by the +making of a cake by my Indian _man_, who had his directions from our +sister Mary Sibly. Since which time apparitions have been plenty, and +exceeding much mischief hath followed. But by this means (it seems) the +devil hath been raised amongst us, and his rage is vehement and terrible, +and when he shall be silenced, the Lord only knows." + +The statements just presented have come down from one whose position and +whose mental powers qualified him to be as important a witness as any +other person whatsoever could be; they come from one of keen intellect +and ready perceptions, who saw the scenes of _Salem_ witchcraft in their +first externally observable stages of development, and also throughout +most of their subsequent unfoldments and disastrous workings. These +statements were semi-private; were made in the _church_ and not the parish +records; were made to be read by those who should come after him, rather +than by those of his own times. And in such records he states that +"amazing feats" were performed "_by witchcraft and diabolical +operations_." What were those feats? It has been said generally concerning +the whole Salem circle of proficients in "necromancy, magic, and +Spiritualism," that "they would creep into holes, and under benches and +chairs, put themselves into odd and unnatural postures, make wild and +antic gestures, and utter incoherent and unintelligible sounds. They would +be seized with spasms, drop insensible to the floor, or writhe in agony, +suffering dreadful tortures, and uttering loud and fearful +cries."--_History of Witchcraft and Salem Village_, vol. ii. p. 6. + +An acute observer, who was also a definite and methodical describer of a +portion of the actions referred to, says the sufferers were "in vain" +treated medicinally; that "they were oftentimes very stupid in their fits, +and could neither hear nor understand, in the apprehension of the +standers-by;" that "when they were discoursed with about God or Christ ... +they were presently afflicted at a dreadful rate;" that "they sometimes +told at a considerable distance, yea, several miles off, that such and +such persons were afflicted, which hath been found to be done according to +the time and manner they related it; and they said the specters of the +suspected persons told them of it;" that "they affirmed that they saw the +ghosts of several departed persons;" that "one, in time of examination of +a suspected person, had a pin run through both her lower and her upper lip +when she was called to speak, yet no apparent festering followed thereupon +after it was taken out;" that "some of the afflicted ... in open court ... +had their wrists bound fast together with a real cord by invisible means;" +that "some afflicted ones have been drawn under tables and beds by +undiscerned force;" that "when they were most grievously afflicted, if +they were brought to the accused, and the suspected person's hand laid +upon them, they were immediately relieved out of their tortures;" that +"sometimes, in their fits, they have had their tongues drawn out of their +mouths to a fearful length, ... and had their arms and legs ... wrested as +if they were quite dislocated, and the blood hath gushed plentifully out +of their mouths for a considerable time together; I saw several violently +strained and bleeding, ... certainly all considerate persons who beheld +those things must needs be convinced that their motions in their fits were +preternatural and involuntary, ... they were much beyond the ordinary +force of the same persons when they were in their right minds;" that +"their eyes were, for the most part, fast closed in their trance-fits, and +when they were asked a question, they could give no answer; and I do +verily believe they did not hear at that time; yet did they discourse with +the specters as with real persons."--_Deodat Lawson._ + +They affirmed that "_they saw the ghosts of several departed persons_," +and they did "_discourse with the specters as with real persons_." This +looks like Spiritualism. + +The above extracts describe a part only of the amazing feats. + +Mr. Parris apprehended that this extensive diabolism was inaugurated +through the making of a peculiar cake by his Indian man John. Either a +sneer or a smile will probably drape the reader's face when he perceives +that a clergyman in a former age deemed it probable that a compound +offensive to refined taste (a cake made of meal mixed with urine from the +suffering children) was so appetizing to the devil that it drew him from +his wonted distance into close affinity with mortal forms, and increased +his power to afflict them. Perhaps that clergyman had read what the reader +may peruse by turning to the concluding portion of chap. iv. of Ezekiel, +where preparation of food was prescribed for that prophet's use while he +was in process of being trained for pliancy under manipulations by some +unseen intelligence--such preparation of food as was not less offensive +than such a cake as John Indian furnished. + +We do not find a great producing cause of the _amazing feats_ where Mr. +Parris did, and are not prepared to regard Mary Sibley's prescription as +having been very efficacious. Still we might admit the possibility that +the real author of the feats was present when John kneaded that cake, +leavened it with supermundane yeast, and made use of it as an +instrumentality for coming into closer contact than before with the human +bodies from which part of the ingredients of the cake had been derived. + +Both spirits and unfolded mediums often either prescribe or apply--as +Jesus did when he treated a blind patient by application of a plaster +composed of his own spittle and street dust--things which mankind at large +would regard as either offensive or inert. Human mediums may be, and the +observations of thousands now living indicate that they often are, made to +prepare strange compounds, and prescribe them for the sick, the suffering, +and for unpliant mediums. + +Who was "my Indian man"? Yes; who that baker whose cake raised the devil, +and caused apparitions to become exceeding plenty? Mr. Parris, prior to +being a minister of the gospel, had been a merchant in Barbadoes, and at +the commencement of the strange feats alluded to, had in his family some +servants, whom he called Indians; but they probably were natives either of +some one of the West India islands or of the neighboring coast of South +America, whom he had brought thence, and who were, doubtless, by nature +less firm and self-reliant than our northern Indians usually are. Two of +these servants, or slaves, viz., John Indian, the cake-baker, and his +wife, Tituba, were among the first, if they were not the very first, +persons there to succumb, and yield subjection to the peculiar influences +which developed the terrible events we are considering. Those two humble, +ignorant, weak-minded slaves may have been, and we regard them as having +been, though unintentionally and unconscious of it, very efficient aids in +the outward manifestation of what their master properly termed "amazing +feats." + +John seems, so far as records depict him, to have been only about as much +of a medium as King Saul was; that is, one that could be made to tumble +down and roll about in unseemly ways. There may, and there may not, have +been properties in his composition which were very helpful to spirits in +gaining control over other persons. However that may have been, he was not +perceptibly much of a medium, and had but little connection with the +events which so harassed his master and neighbors, as far as can now be +shown. But his wife, Tituba, deserves extended notice and careful study. +Before the observable works were commenced, she was clairvoyant and +clairaudient, and her aid in the amazing feats which transpired was +solicited in advance by a nocturnal visitant needing no opened door for +entrance. She entered behind the scene,--behind the vail of flesh,--and +her spirit eyes saw the chief manager. She is the great eye-witness in the +case. She was a medium easy of control, and, Agassiz-like, retained her +consciousness and her memory of experiences while her form was subjected +to control by another's will. Obviously, also, she was an uncommonly good +developing medium, or, in other words, her constitutional properties were +such as greatly aided spirits to develop the mediumistic susceptibilities +of other persons. + +This humble, illiterate slave, besides being apparently the chief focus or +reservoir of supermundane forces that evolved the Salem wonders, was one +among the first three persons who were arrested and brought before the +civil tribunals under charges of practicing witchcraft. Her statements at +her examination were recorded very fully by one of the two magistrates who +conducted the proceedings. And the transmitted words of this simple-minded +creature, whose intellect was incompetent to foresee the consequences of +her answers and statements, throw more light upon the origin and growth, +and upon the nature and true character, of Salem witchcraft, than does all +that came from other lips, or any pens of her cotemporaries, or than has +come from subsequent historians. Her mediumistic susceptibilities gave her +admittance where she was an actual observer of the real author of and +actors in that memorable drama. Her knowledge was derived directly through +one set of her own senses, and therefore she was able to speak of, and +apparently did speak simply and truthfully of, persons and scenes which +her inner organs of sense had cognized. She _knew_ more than did all her +prosecutors and judges combined concerning the matters under investigation +at her trial; and could those who then presided have been nobly humble +enough to learn from such a witness, and single-eyed enough to admit into +their own minds the literal import of her simple statements, the horrors +which were subsequently experienced would never have transpired. But the +faith of those times forbade such elevation. + +Tituba's general, if not uniform frankness, and the extreme simplicity of +her answers, tend strongly to beget confidence in the intentional and +substantial truthfulness of her statements. We deem it unjust to doubt her +truthfulness. And the general accuracy of her testimony is now rendered +credible by its harmony with a mass of facts pertaining to Spiritualism. +If the truth and accuracy of her words be conceded,--and they ought to +be,--we learn distinctly that during the "several weeks" through which Mr. +Parris's afflicted daughter and niece were treated by their physician and +cared for by the family and friends without suspicion of witchcraft, +Tituba was positively _knowing_ that something like a man, invisible to +outward sense, visited herself, and sought and sometimes forced her +co-operation in pinching the two little girls and in producing their +seeming sicknesses. Her experience proved to her that the sufferings of +the children were purposely inflicted by an intelligent being something +like a man. Her statements prove the same to us. + +Such testimony as hers, by such a lowly person as she was, when given +before a tribunal whose members were firm believers in such a devil and in +such a creed as have been described in our Appendix, even if fairly +comprehended by them, would cause her judges to believe that she was +virtually confessing that she had made a covenant with the Evil One. From +their premises they could not logically draw any other conclusion. +Perhaps, unfortunately for her, but not for us at this day, her intellect +was too feeble to perceive the inferences which would be drawn from her +words. Fearing not consequences, she could frankly tell her experiences +and observations; she let out the exact facts of the case, and furnished +for us a sound historic basis for the assertion that the strange maladies +which came upon the little girls in Mr. Parris's house were designedly and +deliberately imposed by a disembodied spirit or a band of spirits. + +The mouths of not only babes and sucklings, but of adults of feeble +intellect, present facts, sometimes, better than those whose intellects +are swayed by fears of dreaded consequences which might ensue from frank +and full avowal of their knowledge. From Tituba came statements of facts +to which we must give prolonged attention. A perusal of the fullest +minutes of her testimony may be wearisome, but her account of what she +saw, heard, and was made to do, is so instructive that we shall present it +without abridgment, because it was first printed in full only a few years +ago, was probably never seen or known to exist by Hutchinson, was not +availed of by Upham, and not very carefully analyzed by Drake. Only a very +limited portion of the reading public has ever had opportunity to learn +more than a small fraction of the disclosures made by this important +witness. + +Upham, though he had perused the minutes of testimony to which we allude, +elected to use a briefer report of Tituba's statements, which was made by +Ezekiel Cheever. The more extended one he noticed thus: "Another report of +Tituba's examination has been preserved in the second volume" (we find it +in vol. iii., appendix, p. 185) "of the collection edited by Samuel G. +Drake, entitled the 'Witchcraft Delusion in New England.' It is in the +handwriting of Jonathan Corwin, very full and minute." It is "full, +minute," and abounding in facts which the faithful historian should adduce +and comment upon. It was written out by one of the magistrates before whom +Tituba was examined, and therefore its authority is good. It surprises us +that the historian who noticed it as above failed to use much important +matter contained in it which was lacking in the report that he preferred +to this. + +Drake, under whose supervision this ampler report was first printed, says, +in Woodward's "Historical Series," No. I. Vol. III. Appendix p. 186, that +"it is valuable on several accounts, the chief of which is the light it +throws on the commencement of the delusion.... This examination, more, +perhaps, than any of the rest, exhibits the atrocious method employed by +the examinant of causing the poor ignorant accused to own and acknowledge +things put into their mouths by a manner of questioning as much to be +condemned as perjury itself, inasmuch as it was sure to produce that +crime. In this case the examined was taken from jail and placed upon the +stand, and was soon so confused that she could scarcely know what to say. +While it is evident that all her answers were at first true, because +direct, straightforward, and reasonable. The strangeness of the questions +and the long persistence of the questioners could lead to no other result +but confounding what little understanding the accused was at best +possessed of.... The examination was before Messrs. Hathorne and Corwin. +The former took down the result, which is all in his peculiar +chirography." Upham, it will be noticed, says the report was written by +Corwin, while Drake here ascribes it to Hathorne. But since those two men +were both present as joint holders of the examining court, the authority +of either gives great value to the document; we regard the record as +having been made by Corwin. + +While Drake says this record of "the examination is valuable" for "the +light it throws on the commencement of the delusion," he also calls it a +"record of incoherent nonsense." The public very narrowly escaped loss of +opportunity to get at the important and luminous facts contained in this +document. Drake, in 1866, says, "The original (now for the first time +printed) came into the editor's hands some five and twenty years since," +at which time, "on a first and cursory perusal of the examination of the +Indian woman belonging to Mr. Parris's family, it was concluded not to +print it, and only refer to it; that is, only refer to the _extract_ from +it contained in the HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF BOSTON. But when editorial +labors upon these volumes were nearly completed, a re-perusal of that +examination was made, and the result determined the editor to give it a +place in this Appendix." We are constrained to doubt whether this editor +attained to anything like either fair comprehension of the value of this +document even upon its re-perusal, or that he perceived one half the +import which facts fairly give to the following words from his pen: "The +record of this examination _throws light on the commencement of the +delusion_." Yes, light upon the time, place, source, and nature of that +commencement, and which also discloses who was the originating, and +probably the guiding agent of all that witchcraft's subsequent process up +to its culmination--light which, to great extent, exculpates both the +fathers and their children--light which reveals the true actors and +exonerates their _unconscious_ instruments. That document, read, as it now +can be, with help from modern revealments, proves that some spirit, or a +band of spirits, was witchcraft's generator and enactor at Salem, and +indicates that simple Tituba comprehended the genuine source of the +disturbance more clearly than did any other known person of that +generation. She furnished for transmission a key that now unlocks the door +of the chamber of mystery, in which she and her associates were made to +enact thrilling and bloody scenes one hundred and eighty years ago. + +That such as desire to do so may be enabled to peruse the whole of her +testimony, which probably can now be found printed only in Woodward's very +valuable Series of original documents pertaining to witchcraft,--a work +too voluminous and costly to obtain general circulation,--we shall do what +we can to further public accessibility to Tituba's statement, ungarbled +and unabridged. Still, to both relieve and enlighten the reader, we shall +break up its continuity by interjecting comments upon many parts as we go +on, but do this in such form, that, if the reader chooses to peruse the +whole unbiased by comment, he can; for this will require only an +observance of our quotation marks. By skipping our comments he can read in +their original collocations all parts of what Drake calls "incoherent +nonsense," but which to us, notwithstanding some perplexing incoherence of +both questions and answers, is rich in instructive _facts_. + +Prior to March 1, the malady seems to have spread out beyond the parsonage +and seized upon other persons, for on that day several afflicted ones were +convened as witnesses, or accusers, or both, at the place where the +magistrates then appeared for attending to the cases of three women who +had been accused of witchcraft, arrested, and held for examination. Here +was the commencement of reputed folly and barbarity so exercised as soon +to redden that region with the blood of the innocent, the manly, the +virtuous, and the devout. + +Sarah Good, Sarah Osburn, and Tituba were brought into the meeting-house +as suspected witches and as producers of the sufferings of the several +afflicted ones, to be examined in the presence of their accusers and the +public. What course the magistrates either elected or were constrained to +pursue in order to educe such facts as would sustain a charge for +witchcraft, will reveal itself as we proceed, through the questions which +they put to the accused, and the kinds of evidence which they admitted. + + + + +TITUBA. + + +"_Tituba, the Indian woman, examined March 1, 1692._ + +"_Q._ Why do you hurt these poor children? What harm have they done unto +you? + +"_A._ They do no harm to me. I no hurt them at all." + +The first question by the magistrates implies the presence there of the +afflicted children, and of their then seeming to be invisibly hurt. It +also implies the magistrate's assumption that Tituba was hurting them. Her +denial that either they had harmed her or that she was hurting them was +distinct. But the magistrate seemingly doubted its truth or its +sufficiency, for he next asked,-- + +"_Q._ Why have you done it? + +"_A._ I have done nothing. I can't tell when the devil works. + +"_Q._ What? Doth the devil tell you that he hurts them? + +"_A._ No. He tells me nothing." + +She conceded here that the _Devil_ might be, and probably was, at work +upon the children; but _his_ doings were beyond the reach of her +perceptive faculties. _He_ made no communication to her. Thus early her +words indicate that her knowledge of spiritual matters caused her to draw +and adhere to a distinction between _The Devil_ and either _a Spirit_, or +bands of spirits, which distinction she and other mediumistic ones of her +times adhered to, while the public lacked knowledge that facts required +it, and ignorantly called all visitants from spirit realms _The Devil_. + +When glancing at Cotton Mather's unpublished account of Mercy Short, we +copied from it the following statement: "As the bewitched in other parts +of the world have commonly had no other style for their tormentors but +only THEY and THEM, so had Mercy Short." Clairvoyants and all who obtained +knowledge of spirits through perceptions by their own interior organs +seldom, if ever, have seriously spoken of either seeing, hearing, or +feeling the _Devil_. Possibly, at times, some may have done so by way of +accommodation to the unillumined world's modes of speech. But, as Mather +says, they have, the world over, _generally_ called the personages +perceived, "_They_" and "_Them_." Such a fact demands regard. The personal +observers of spiritual beings have never been accustomed to designate them +by bad names. Fair inference from this is, that such beings have not +generally worn forbidding aspects. It has been the reporters, and not the +utterers, of descriptive accounts of spiritual beings who have made use of +the terms "devil," "satan," and the like. Mather perceived the common +"style" of the bewitched, and yet the warping habit of Christendom made +him preserve continuance of inaccurate reporting; for he, like most +others in his day, persistently wrote "devil," where that name was not +announced, and ought not to have been foisted in. Tituba saw no one whom +she ever called _The Devil_, though history has taught that she did. + +"_Q._ Do you never see something appear in some shape? _A._ No. Never see +anything." + +This answer is not true if construed literally in connection with its +question. She did, as will soon appear, sometimes see many things +clairvoyantly, but never _The Devil_, who had just before been mentioned. + +"_Q._ What familiarity have you with the devil, or what is it that you +converse withal? Tell the truth, who it is that hurts them. _A._ The +devil, for aught I know." + +She persistently admits that the devil _may_ be then and there at work, +but asserts that she does not know anything about _him_. + +"_Q._ What appearance, or how doth he appear when he hurts them?" + +She makes no reply when asked how the _Devil_ hurts. She ignores _him_. + +"_Q._ With what shape, or what is _he_ like that hurts them? _A._ Like a +man, I think. Yesterday, I being in the lean-to chamber, I saw a thing +_like a man_, that told me serve him. I told him no, I would not do such +thing." + +_Devil_ had now been dropped from the question, and _he_ substituted. What +is _he_ like? Then she promptly mentioned an apparition not only visible, +but audible, who, if carefully scanned, may prove to have been chief +author and enactor of Salem witchcraft. She who saw and heard him says he +was "like a man, I think,"--was "a thing like a man." According to her +perceptions he was not the devil. She did not know the devil. Others at +that time and ever since have called her visitant the devil. But Tituba, +who saw, heard, and thus knew him, did not and would not. + +Next comes in, parenthetically, a summary of her sayings and doings, as +follows:-- + +("She charges Goody Osburn and Sarah Good, as those that hurt them +children, and would have had her done it; she saith she hath seen four, +two which she knew not; she saw them last night as she was washing the +room. They told me hurt the children, and would have had me gone to +Boston. There was five of them with the man. They told me if I would not +go and hurt them, they would do so to me. At first I did agree with them, +but afterward, I told them I would do so no more.") + +According to this summary, apparitions multiplied; for, besides the man, +she saw four women around herself: that company threatened to hurt her if +she would not unite with them in hurting the children. Two of these were +apparitions of her living neighbors, Good and Osburn, then under arrest; +the other three were strangers. We shall soon see that she believed, what +is probably true, that apparitions of particular persons can be not only +presented by occult intelligences to the inner vision, but put into +apparent vigorous action, while the genuine persons thus presented in +counterfeit have no consciousness either of being present at the +exhibition, or of performing, either then or at any other time, the acts +which they seem to put forth. + +The conceptions which this simple mind held concerning the nature, powers, +and purposes of those who came to her in manner strange to most mortals, +are pretty clearly indicated. By her likening them to men and women, and +by her protests against their forcing her to act cruelly, she justifies +the inference that she failed to see in or about them anything very +forbidding, awful, or satanic. She admitted the possibility that the devil +might have hurt the children, but also asserted that, if so, _his_ action +was unbeknown to her. The "something like a man," together with these +women and herself under compulsion, were the afflicting ones, so far as +her vision or other senses could determine. _She_ nowhere applies the term +"devil" to her male apparition. No hoofs, horns, or tail, no sable hues or +frightful form, are brought to view by this clairvoyant's description of +her occult companions. They wore, in her sight, the semblances of a man +and of women--not of devils. + +How different would have been results had her simple words and instructive +facts been credited and made the basis of judicial decisions! Could she +have been calmly and rationally listened to by minds freed from a blinding +and irritating faith that Christendom's witchcraft devil was her companion +and prompter, her plain and definite exposition of the actors who +generated troubles which were profound mysteries to her superiors in +external knowledge and penetration, would have brought all the marvels of +that day within the domain of natural things, and warded off the horrors +which ensued. + +"_Q._ Would they have had you hurt the children last night? _A._ Yes, but +I was sorry, and I said I would do so no more, but told I would fear God. +_Q._ But why did not you do so before? _A._ Why, they tell me I had done +so before, and therefore I must go on. (These were the four women and the +man, but she knew none but Osburn and Good only; the others were of +Boston.") + +If we get at what Tituba meant by the words just quoted, it was +substantially this: "They wanted me, and forced me against my will, to +join with them in hurting the children last night. I was sorry that I was +forced to act cruelly, and told them that I would not be forced to it +again, but would serve God. I did not take that stand before, because they +told me I had already worked with them, and therefore must go on. + +"_Q._ At first beginning with them, what then appeared to you? What was it +like that got you to do it? _A._ One like a man, just as I was going to +sleep, came to me. This was when the children was first hurt. He said he +would kill the children and she would never be well; and he said if I +would not serve him he would do so to me." + +The witness was here apparently brought to describe her _first_ interview +with the author of Salem witchcraft. We see her now standing at the +fountainhead of the devastating torrent which soon deluged the region far +around with terror, anguish, and blood. Who first appeared to her? Who was +the prime mover? And when was he first seen? Subsequent statements are +soon to show that on Friday, January 15, 1692, six weeks and four days +before the time when she gave in this testimony, _one like a man, just as +she was going to sleep_, came to her and demanded her aid in hurting the +children. The fact is clearly stated that five days before the Wednesday +evening when the children were first hurt by spirit appliances, and +supposed to be taken sick, "_one like a man_," when Tituba was about going +to sleep, came to her and avowed his purpose, in advance, to torture and +even kill the children. From that time forth she knew the source of the +strange operations in her master's family. + +"_Q._ Is that the same man that appeared before to you, that appeared last +night and told you this? _A._ Yes." + +Her visitor was the same person on these two different occasions, which +were more than six weeks apart, and in her various clairvoyant excursions +and feats he was frequently, if not always, her attendant. + +"_Q._ What other likenesses besides a man hath appeared unto you? _A._ +Sometimes like a hog--sometimes like a great black dog--four times." + +"The man" probably assumed or presented those brutish forms. A frequent +teaching of spirit visitants is, that they "can assume any _form_ which +the occasion requires;" they also have often given the impression that +they cannot assume _hues_ brighter than inherently pertain to their own +intellectual and moral conditions, but of this we have yet no conclusive +information. + +"_Q._ But what did they say unto you? _A._ They told me serve him, and +that was a good way. That was the black dog. I told him I was afraid. He +told me he would be worse then to me." + +Her dog could talk. She and the court obviously understood the dog to be +the same being, essentially, as the "one like a man." For,-- + +"_Q._ What did you say to him, then, after that? _A._ I answer I will +serve you no longer. He told me he would do me hurt then." + +Can any one doubt that she conceived herself to be speaking to the same +being, though in dog form, that she had yielded to before in form like a +man? There is no indication that she had _previously_ served a dog, and +yet she says to this one, I will serve you _no longer_. + +"_Q._ What other creatures have you seen? _A._ A bird. _Q._ What bird? +_A._ A little yellow bird. _Q._ Where does it keep? _A._ With the man, who +hath pretty things more besides. _Q._ What other pretty things? _A._ He +hath not showed them unto me, but he said he would show them to me +to-morrow, and told me if I would serve him, I should have the bird. _Q._ +What other creatures did you see? _A._ I saw two cats, one red, another +black, as big as a little dog. _Q._ What did these cats do? _A._ I don't +know. I have seen them two times. _Q._ What did they say? _A._ They say +serve them. _Q._ When did you see them? _A._ I saw them last night. _Q._ +Did they do any hurt to you or threaten you? _A._ They did scratch me. +_Q._ When? _A._ After prayer; and scratched me because I would not serve +her. And when they went away _I could not see_, but they stood by the +fire. _Q._ What service do they expect from you? _A._ They say more hurt +to the children. _Q._ How did you pinch them when you hurt them? _A._ The +other pull me and haul me to pinch the child, and I am very sorry for it." + +The cats also as well as the dog spoke and commanded her obedience. She +saw these the night before her examination. "When they went away," she +says, "I could not see." Those words may admit of two distinct and +different meanings. First, that the cats disappeared without her being +able to notice their exit; or, second, that before they went she became +spiritually blind--"could not longer see" clairvoyantly. In a subsequent +statement she pleads a sudden obscuration of her internal vision. All +clairvoyants are subject to sudden interruptions of their spiritual power +to see. + +She was pulled and hauled by "the other" with a view to force her to +"pinch the child." Here again her obvious conviction was that the "other" +was essentially more than mere brute. She did not think a cat pulled and +hauled her, but meant that when the cats visited her, the "something like +a man"--"the other"--was also present, and urged her on to mischief. + +"_Q._ What made you hold your arm when you were searched? What had you +there? _A._ I had nothing. _Q._ Do not those cats suck you? _A._ No, never +yet. I would not let them. But they had almost thrust me into the fire. +_Q._ How do you hurt those that you pinch? Do you get those cats, or other +things, to do it for you? Tell us how it is done. _A._ _The man sends the +cats to me, and bids me pinch them_; and I think I went once to Mr. +Griggs's, and have pinched her this day in the morning. The man brought +Mr. Griggs's maid to me, and made me pinch her." + +By "the man" she obviously meant her frequent spirit visitor. He it was +who brought the cats to her, and made her pinch them, and by so doing +pinch the "maid," who physically was miles distant. Such is her +statement. An inference from it is, that properties from Elizabeth +Hubbard,--the maid in question,--who was among the afflicted ones, and was +a member of _the circle_, were drawn out from her by "the man," and made +component parts of apparitional cats formed by the man's thought and will +powers, which seeming cats, being pinched by Tituba's spirit fingers, the +Hubbard girl, some of whose properties were used for constructing those +apparitional cats, felt the pinchings, first in her spirit, and thence in +her flesh, though her body was two or three miles distant from the +pincher. In that mode "the man" commanded the use of some properties in +Tituba, by which he produced torture in a mediumistic physical organism +then being far away. Another mode of spirit operation is indicated. Tituba +confessed to a dim consciousness that once, by some process, her +spirit-self had been got over to Dr. Griggs's, and pinched the maid at her +home. Again, she believed that the same maid had been brought to her +(Tituba's) abode and pinched there. Also it will be seen a little further +on, that, Tituba being charged with having been over at the maid's home on +a specified day, denied having been there at that particular time, but +admitted that her apparition might, unconsciously to herself, have been +seen there then, for she says, "may be send something like me." + +We enter a distinct protest against stigmatizing such testimony as +"incoherent nonsense." In response to a command to tell _how_ the +mysterious inflictions were brought about, this untaught, ignorant woman, +calmly and with much distinctness, indicated four or five modes by which +psychologic forces were brought to bear upon mediumistic subjects. She +had seen the processes, and, in her simple way, told what she had learned +by personal observation and experience; and thus she helps us, at this +day, to fathom and expound the mysteries of witchcraft more effectually +than do all her cotemporaries. Notwithstanding her limited command of +language, her statements were about as distinct and instructive as any one +then could have made upon such a topic; but the devil-warped public mind +of that day was unable to see the literal import of her testimony, or to +turn her knowledge to good account. + +Two other women, Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn, names previously mentioned, +were, on the same March 1, 1692, under examination as co-operators with +Tituba in practicing witchcraft. + +"_Q._ Did you ever go with these women? _A._ They are very strong, and +pull me, and make me go with them. _Q._ Where did you go? _A._ Up to Mr. +Putnam's, and make me hurt the child. _Q._ Who did make you go? _A._ A man +that is very strong, and these two women, Good and Osburn; but I am sorry. +_Q._ How did you go? What do you ride upon? _A._ I ride upon a stick or +pole, and Good and Osburn behind me; we ride taking hold of one another; +don't know _how_ we go, for I saw no trees nor path, but was presently +there when we were up." + +The child above referred to was Ann Putnam, daughter, twelve years old, of +Thomas and Ann Putnam, who resided from two to three miles north-west from +the parsonage. This girl, Ann, was one of the excessively bewitched; that +is, was one of the most impressible and mediumistic members of _The +Circle_. Tituba and her two fellow-prisoners had, either all as spirits, +or she as a conscious spirit and the other two as apparitions, visited +that child at her home; and, according to her own apprehension, the three +women all mounted one pole, rose up into the air, and were forthwith at +Mr. Putnam's, having noticed neither path nor trees on the way. No reader +will apprehend that Tituba's physical body then left the house of Mr. +Parris and went off two miles or more, on a winter's night, to Mr. +(Thomas) Putnam's house. She says that they were "presently [instantly] +there." It was only her spirit form--_thought_ form--that went riding upon +a pole above all woods and paths. But why to Thomas Putnam's? Probably +because his wife and his daughter, as subsequent events showed, were both +intensely mediumistic or susceptible to influence by _thought_ beings; +they were persons upon whom such beings could work efficiently; and that +was the special reason, probably, for a visit to them. "The man" may well +be presumed to have possessed perceptive powers that could determine with +much accuracy what persons in all the region round about possessed the +constitutional properties and the surroundings which would permit them to +become pliable and serviceable implements in executing any scheme he had +devised. Subsequent events proved that he selected and used such as +enabled him, through intense human agony and bloodshed, to break in pieces +and abolish a most cramping and enslaving creed devil-ward, which, like a +horrid and disabling nightmare, had for centuries been depressing and +agonizing all Christendom. Whatever was his design, his selection of +instrumentalities facilitated the out-working of a broad and happy +emancipation from vast mental evil. It abolished prosecutions for +witchcraft throughout both America and Europe. + +The ostensible object of that mental journey was to hurt the child. Such +was the man's apparent intention. That man was "very strong," and he +accomplished his purpose. Ann was hurt. His will-power was such, that, +having once got hold of the elements of three susceptible and ignorant +women, they were completely under his control. Tituba, who seems to have +been always a _conscious_ medium, yielded perforce to him. Her own +selfhood fought against his cruelties, and she felt sorry for what she was +forced to do. When under examination she made free confession of her +involuntary participation in the tormenting invasions upon innocent girls, +thus unwittingly jeopardizing her own life. She seems to have been frank +and truthful. + +"_Q._ How long since you began to pinch Mr. Parris's children? _A._ I did +not pinch them at first, but they made me afterward. _Q._ Have you seen +Good and Osburn ride upon a pole? _A._ Yes; and have held fast by me; I +was not at Mr. Griggs's but once; but it may be send something like me; +neither would I have gone, but they tell me they will hurt me." + +Her statement that "it may be send something like me," shows her belief, +and probably her knowledge, that her "very strong" "something like a man" +was able to produce the apparition of a mediumistic person even where such +person had no consciousness of being present. Spirits, in modern times, +often produce such effects, and show thereby that Tituba's comprehension +of the case may have been in harmony with the nature of things, and +strictly correct. She repeats again that her participation in the affairs +was forced--that others made her pinch. + +"_Tituba._ Last night they tell me I must kill somebody with a knife. _Q._ +Who were they that told you so? _A._ Sarah Good and Osburn, and they would +have had me kill Thomas Putnam's child last night. (The child also +affirmed that at the same time they would have had her cut off her own +head; for if she would not, they told her Tituba would cut it off. And +then she complained at the same time of a knife cutting her. When her +master hath asked her (Tituba?) about these things, she saith they will +not let her tell, but tell her if she tells, her head shall be cut off.) +_Q._ Who tells you so? _A._ The man, Good, and Osburn's wife. (Goody Good +came to her last night when her master was at prayer, and would not let +her hear, and she could not hear a good while.) Good hath one of those +birds, the yellow-bird, and would have given me it, but I would not have +it. And in prayer-time she stopped my ears, and would not let me hear. +_Q._ What should you have done with it? _A._ Give it to the children, +which yellow-bird hath been several times seen by the children. I saw +Sarah Good have it on her hand when she came to her when Mr. Parris was at +prayer. I saw the bird suck Good between the fore-finger and long-finger +upon the right hand." + +Those statements relating to the use of the knife, apparently +_volunteered_ by Tituba and confirmed by the child, are quite suggestive. +Assuming that there was present with them some powerful male spirit bent +upon forceful action, and who, through Tituba and other impressibles, had +obtained some palpable hold upon certain human forms and the affairs of +external life, it was in his power to excite in the minds of any and all +who had then been brought into rapport with himself, such ideas as those +relating to the knife, and also to make the psychologized girl experience +the sensation of being actually cut by it. Such would now be deemed an +easy feat by any fair psychologist, either in the gross form or out of it, +provided he had a favorable subject on whom to operate. + +The same spirit, too, drawing elements from Mrs. Good, and using them, +could make Tituba feel as though Mrs. Good was by her side and making her +suddenly deaf in prayer-time, even though it was the male spirit himself +who then closed her ears. + +Evidences of mediumistic capabilities in either the afflicted or the +afflicters are worthy of distinct observation, and therefore we draw +attention to the statement that the yellow-bird "hath been several times +seen _by the children_." Therefore the sufferers were clairvoyants, as +well as the accused. + +"_Q._ Did you never practice witchcraft in your own country? _A._ No; +never before now." + +That answer renders it probable that previous to the winter then passing +she had never been conscious of the presence of spirits, or of +conversations with or subjection to them. She, perhaps, reveals a lurking +suspicion that her experiences of late might be witchcrafts. But her +notions as to what constituted that might well, if not necessarily, be +very different from those existing in the more unfolded and logical minds +of her master and her examiners, who made the chief essence of it consist +in a compact made with a Majestic and Malignant Devil--such a devil as +would differ very widely in appearance from Tituba's "_man_." She freely +described the unsought presence of a spirit-man with her on sundry +occasions; also her talks with him, and forced service under him. This +essentially was only disclosure of the fact that her own organism and +temperaments were such and so conditioned that disembodied intelligences +could sometimes be seen and heard by her, and could force her to be their +tool. Her witchcraft was devoid of voluntary compact to serve an evil one; +devoid of evil intent in its practice. If she confessed herself to be a +witch, it was only a kindly and loving one, desiring to be truthful and +good, and inflicting hurt only when forced to it. She confessed only to +clairvoyance, clairaudience, and weakness of her own will-powers. + +"_Q._ Did you see them do it now while you are examining (being examined)? +_A._ No, I did not see them. But I saw them hurt at other times. I saw +Good have a cat beside the yellow-bird which was with her." + +Obviously some contortions, antics, or sufferings which the afflicted +girls, who were present at the examination, had just experienced or were +then manifesting, led to the question, "Did you see them do it now?" Here +again appears the assumption of the court that Tituba might be gifted with +powers or faculties which would enable her to discern animate and +designing workers who were invisible by external optics. Her inner sight +was closed then, but at some other times had been open. + +"_Q._ What hath Osburn got to go with her? _A._ A thing; I don't know what +it is. I can't name it. I don't know how it looks. She hath two of them. +One of them hath wings, and two legs, and a head like a woman. The +children saw the same but yesterday, which afterward turned into a woman. +_Q._ What is the other thing that Goody Osburn hath? _A._ A thing all over +hairy; all the face hairy, and a long nose, and I don't know how to tell +how the face looks; with two legs; it goeth upright, and is about two or +three foot high, and goeth upright like a man; and last night it stood +before the fire, in Mr. Parris's hall." + +The obscurity of this description is fully paralleled by the prophet +Ezekiel, who, in presenting the beings seen in the first of his "visions +of God," uses the following language, in chap. i.: "They had the likeness +of a man, and every one had four faces, and every one had four wings; and +their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the +sole of a calf's foot; and they sparkled like the color of burnished +brass. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four +sides; and they four had their faces and their wings; and their wings were +joined one to another; and they turned not when they went; they went every +one straight forward; as for the likeness of their faces, they four had +the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side; and they +four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face +of an eagle." This quotation from the Bible hints with much distinctness +that inherent difficulties may beset any clairvoyant who undertakes to set +forth in our language, which was formed for description of material +objects, some things which are occasionally perceived by the spiritual +senses. Where the prophet was so vague and mystical we may pardon the +ignorant slave if she failed to be very lucid, and if one suspects her of +attempting to put forth nothing but fiction, because she was so obscure, +how can he consistently withhold similar suspicions in relation to the +prophet? + +We will pass to the children's credit the fact that they also saw Osburn's +ungainly and hairy attendant. + +"_Q._ Who was that appeared to Hubbard as she was going from Proctor's? +_A._ It was Sarah Good, and I saw her send the wolf to her." + +Facts are transpiring in the present age which indicate with much +distinctness that a spirit can present the semblance of a spirit-beast or +other spirit-object to the vision of many clairvoyants at the same time, +and also that he can, if he so elect, psychologize simultaneously all +clairvoyants with whom he is in rapport, and cause them all to believe +that they see any beast or object which his mind merely conceives of with +distinctness. Therefore sight of a wolf by the mediumistic Hubbard girl, +and Tituba's perception of the same proceeding from mediumistic Sarah +Good, could all be produced by the mere volition of that "something like a +man," provided only that he was then in rapport with all of those three +sensitive ones. + +"_Q._ What clothes doth the man appear unto you in? _A._ Black clothes +sometimes; sometimes serge coat of other color; a tall man with white +hair, I think. _Q._ What apparel do the women wear? _A._ I don't know what +color. _Q._ What kind of clothes hath she? _A._ Black silk hood with white +silk hood under it, with top-knots; which woman I know not, but have seen +her in Boston when I lived there. _Q._ What clothes the little woman? _A._ +Serge coat, with a white cap, as I think. (The children having fits at +this very time, she was asked who hurt them. She answers, Goody Good; and +the children affirmed the same. But Hubbard being taken in an extreme fit, +after [ward] she (Tituba) was asked who hurt her (Hubbard), and she said +she could not tell, but said they blinded her and would not let her see; +and after that was once or twice taken dumb herself.") + +That account of the clothes described the usual costumes of the time. We +are glad to hear her say, "A tall man, with white hair, I think." That is +her description of the "something like a man," and "the man" who has been +so demonstrative. A tall man with white hair, need not be a very frightful +object, and we can readily conceive that such a mind as Tituba's might be +perfectly calm and self-possessed in his presence, and never imagine that +abler minds might confound such a one with the devil. She never calls him +the devil. The fact that she was made dumb two or three times, gives her +case some resemblance to those of Ezekiel and Zacharias. Her ears, as +before stated, had been stopped by Good, as she supposed, one evening +during prayer-time. Thus we find her organs of sense subject to just such +control as invisible intelligent operators exercised over prophetic or +mediumistic ones of old, and such as spirits exercise over many mortal +forms to-day. Her clairvoyance was obscured, perhaps, by "the man" when +she was asked who was hurting the Hubbard girl, and replied that they +blinded her now. + + +_Second Examination, March 2, 1692._ + +"_Q._ What covenant did you make with that man that came to you? What did +he tell you?" + +The first of those two questions was the crucial one at a trial for +witchcraft. Had she made a _covenant_ with the devil, or any devotee of +his? That was the main point to be determined. If she had, she was a +witch, according to the prevalent creed; if she had not, she might be +innocent of witchcraft. But seemingly the court could not wait for an +answer, because, in the same breath, it asked, What did your visitant tell +you? + +"_A._ He tell me he God, and I must believe him and serve him six years, +and he would give me many fine things. _Q._ How long ago was this? _A._ +About six weeks and a little more; Friday night before Abigail was ill." + +That last answer is very instructive. It fixes the exact time when one of +the children in Mr. Parris's family was first attacked. For this second +day's examination was held on Wednesday, March 2. It will appear from the +above and future answers that the specters first attacked the children on +a Wednesday evening, just six weeks before this 2d of March. The man +appeared to and talked with Tituba on the Friday evening before that +Wednesday in January. + +The testimony, therefore, takes us back to January 20th as the +commencement of overt manifestation of spirit infliction of sufferings +there. Five days further back, i. e., the evening of January 15, is +apparently the date of "the man's" first recognized appearance. +Therefore, until better information is obtained, we shall regard that as +the date of the primal advent of the genuine author of witchcraft at Salem +Village, whom we deem to have been also its regulator through its +heart-rending unfoldings. + +"_Q._ What did he say you must do more? Did he say you must write +anything? Did he offer you any paper? _A._ Yes, the next time he come to +me; and showed me some fine things, something like creatures, a little +bird something like green and white. _Q._ Did you promise him this when he +first spake to you? Then what did you answer him? _A._ I then said this: I +told him I could not believe him God. I told him I ask my master, and +would have gone up, but he stopt me and would not let me. _Q._ What did +you promise him? _A._ The first time I believe him God, and then he was +glad. _Q._ What did he say to you then? What did he say you must do? _A._ +Then he tell me they must meet together." + +There is some obscurity in this quotation, which raises the question +whether the witness contradicts herself by stating that at her first +interview she believed that her visitant was God himself (as John the +Revelator did that a prophet returning from the spirit spheres and +appearing to him was God), and her stating again that at the first +interview she told him she could not believe that he was God, and proposed +to go up and ask her master, Mr. Parris, what he thought about it, but was +held back by her spirit-attendants from doing so. There is, we say, +obscurity as to whether the account makes her apply both of these opposing +statements to her conceptions of her visitor at the first interview with +him, or whether it was not till a subsequent meeting that she doubted his +Godship. As reported, her examiners are made quite as hard to understand +and track as she is in her answers. But, upon a careful reading, we judge +it fair and proper to conclude that her doubts concerning the character of +her acquaintance were expressed as late as at the meeting on Wednesday, +January 20, and not on the previous Friday. + +"_Q._ When did he say you must meet together? _A._ He tell me Wednesday +next, at my master's house; and then we all [did] meet together, and that +night I saw them all stand in the corner--all four of them--and the man +stand behind me, and take hold of me, and make me stand still in the +hall." + +We now must relinquish doubt as to the meetings at the parsonage, for here +we have distinct historical mention of a _circle_, which met "at Mr. +Parris's house" for the purpose of practically manifesting the skill and +powers, not of learners, but of an expert in the wonders of "necromancy, +magic, and especially of _Spiritualism_." This circle met, at five days' +notice, on the evening of January 20, 1692. A man, or "something like a +man," was at the head of it, and five females, three of them at least +embodied ones, were his assistants, or rather were reservoirs from whence +he drew forces with which to experiment upon two little mediumistic girls. +If a club of women and girls sometimes met for such purposes as are +alleged in foregoing citations,--and perhaps it did in a loose, irregular +way,--we fancy that Tituba's tutor was ever among them taking notes, +scrutinizing their several properties, capabilities, and circumstances, +and planning when and how to use them for most efficient accomplishment of +his purposes. The fact that he was present as author and master spirit +when the first act of the Salem Village tragedy was visibly manifested +through the twitchings and contortions of two little girls, is distinctly +shown by Tituba's testimony. Therefore henceforth there can be neither +historical nor philanthropic justice in imputing to the brains and wills +of the little girls what a present and conscious clairvoyant witness +imputes distinctly to one who looked "something like a man." Give to +him--whoever he was--give to him his just dues; also bestow upon the girls +neither censure nor praise for the help which their organisms and +temperaments necessarily afforded him. This meeting of apparitions, be it +noted and remembered, took place immediately _before_ the sickness of the +children came on, and during its session, the children were pinched, and +thus first became "afflicted ones." On that Wednesday night "Abigail first +became ill." + +"_Q._ Where was your master then? _A._ In _the other room_. _Q._ What time +of night? _A._ A little before prayer-time. _Q._ What did this man say to +you when he took hold of you? _A._ He say, Go into _the other room_ and +see the children, and do hurt to them and pinch them. And then I went in +and would not hurt them a good while; I would not hurt Betty; I loved +Betty; but they haul me, and make me pinch Betty, and the next Abigail; +and then quickly went away altogether a[fter] I had pinch them. _Q._ Did +you go into that room in your own person, and all the rest? _A._ Yes; and +my master did not see us, for they would not let my master see." + +Mr. Parris and the children seem from the above to have been in the same +apartment that evening, for Tituba states that he was "in the other room," +and her dictator said to her, "Go into the other room," and hurt the +children. That the master of the house was present with his daughter and +niece then, may be indicated also in the statement that "they would not +let my master see;" for this implies that they were in his presence, +though invisible. If she went to the room in her physical form--which is +not stated, and is not probable--though she did go there in her "own +_person_," the others went only as spirits or as apparitions; and they did +not so enrobe or materialize themselves as to be visible by outward eyes, +and therefore did not become visible to Mr. Parris--they "would not let" +him see. The first infliction upon the children, therefore, was made in +his very presence, but by invisible hands--spirit hands or apparitional +hands--touching the spirit forms of the mediumistic little girls, and +through their own inner forms reaching, paining, and convulsing their +physical bodies. It is interesting to note that because Tituba "loved +Betty," she was able to resist the pressure upon her "a good while;" but +her feeble powers were incompetent to oppose unyielding and effectual +resistance to the strong will of the producer of painful experiences. + +"_Q._ Did you go with the company? _A._ No. I staid, and the man staid +with me. _Q._ What did he then to you? _A._ He tell me my master go to +prayer, and he read in book, and he ask me what I remember: but don't you +remember anything." + +This account fails to furnish any very conclusive evidence that either of +the four other women was on that occasion consciously present with Tituba +and the man; it need only indicate the probability that he drew properties +from each of them, wherever located, whether in the Village, in Boston, or +elsewhere, which enabled him to present their apparitions to Tituba as +helpers, and to effect rapport with and get power over the children. When +his immediate purpose had been accomplished, no one but the man could be +seen by her. He perhaps left the female apparitions to dissolve when his +further need of their properties ceased. There is no evidence that Good +and Osburn were conscious of being present where Tituba saw them, and +therefore the other two female forms may have been purely +apparitional--mental fabrics of "the man." But important points are clear. +The man's controlling will, and subjugated Tituba's conscious self, were +there. + +"_Q._ Did he ask you no more but the first time to serve him? Or the +second time? _A._ Yes, he ask me again if I serve him six years; and he +come the next time and show me a book. _Q._ And when would he come then? +_A._ The next Friday, and showed me a book in the daytime, betimes in the +morning. _Q._ And what book did he bring, a great or little book? _A._ He +did not show it me, nor would not, but had it in his pocket. _Q._ Did he +not make you write your name? _A._ No, not yet, for my mistress called me +into the other room. _Q._ What did he say you must do in that book? _A._ +He said write and put my name to it. _Q._ Did you write? _A._ Yes, once, I +made a mark in the book, and made it with red like blood. _Q._ Did he get +it out of your body? _A._ He said he must get it out. The next time he +come again, he gave me a pin tied in a stick to do it with; but he no let +me blood with it as yet, but intended another time when he came again. +_Q._ Did you see any other marks in his book? _A._ Yes, a great many; some +marks red, some yellow; he opened his book, and a great many marks in it. +_Q._ Did he tell you the names of them? _A._ Yes, of two; no more: Good +and Osburn; and he say they made them marks in that book, and he showed +them me. _Q._ How many marks do you think there was? _A._ Nine. _Q._ Did +they write their names? _A._ They made marks. Goody Good said she made her +mark, but Goody Osburn would not tell. She was cross to me. _Q._ When did +Good tell you she set her hand to the book? _A._ The same day I came +hither to prison. _Q._ Did you see the man that morning? _A._ Yes, a +little in the morning, and he tell me the magistrates come up to examine +me. _Q._ What did he say you must say? _A._ He tell me tell nothing; if I +did, he would cut my head off." + +The questions relating to the book and signatures were based on, and made +important by, then prevalent belief that one's signature in the devil's +book proved the signing of a covenant to be henceforth his servant. +Tituba's statement that she had seen therein Sarah Good's signature in her +own blood, well might be then deemed strong evidence that Mrs. Good was a +witch, and was guilty of witchcraft. But we doubt whether the witness had +any conception of the fatal import of her statement. Her testimony that +Goody Osburn was cross to her, while amusing, is also suggestive of the +deep question whether even an apparition, produced by use of unconscious +elements drawn from a human system, could or would be so permeated with +the existing mental and emotional moods of the person from whom they were +drawn as to cause those moods to be perceived and felt by those who might +see, and receive influences from, the apparition. "The man" told her that +the magistrates had come or were coming to examine her. She might have +known this already, and might not. Be that as it may, on the morning of +her examination A SPIRIT spoke to her. His counsel was, that she should +say nothing. This advice seems wise. But it was not very "cunning" in her +to repeat it, and make known its source "in presence of Authority." +Willing or not she was there constrained to speak out. Robert Calef, in +"More Wonders of the Invisible World," reports her as saying, "that her +master did beat her and otherwise abuse her to make her confess and accuse +(such as he called) her sister witches, and that whatsoever she said by +way of confessing, or accusing others, was the effect of such usage." + +"_Q._ Tell us true; how many women do you use to come when you ride +abroad? _A._ Four of them; these two, Osburn and Good, and those two +strangers. _Q._ You say there was nine. Did he tell you who they were? +_A._ No, he no let me see, but he tell me I should see them the next time. +_Q._ What sights did you see? _A._ I see a man, a dog, a hog, and two +cats, a black and red, and the strange monster was Osburn's that I +mentioned before; this was the hairy imp. The man would give it to me, but +I would not have it. _Q._ Did he show you in the book which was Osburn's +and which was Good's mark? _A._ Yes, I see their marks. _Q._ But did he +tell you the names of the other? _A._ No, sir. _Q._ And what did he say to +you when you made your mark? _A._ He said, Serve me; and always serve me. +The man with the two women came from Boston. _Q._ How many times did you +go to Boston? _A._ I was going and then came back again. I never was at +Boston. _Q._ Who came back with you again? _A._ The man came back with me, +and the women go away; I was not willing to go. _Q._ How far did you +go--to what town? _A._ I never went to any town. I see no trees, no town. +_Q._ Did he tell you where the nine lived? _A._ Yes; some in Boston and +some here in this town, but he would not tell me who they were." + +We have now presented the full text of Tituba's testimony as recorded by +Corwin and printed by Drake. Severed from the leading and jumbled +questions which drew it forth, and reduced to a simple narrative, her +statement would in substance be nearly as follows:-- + +Something like a man came to me just as I was going to sleep the Friday +night before Abigail was taken ill, six weeks and a little more ago, who +then told me that he was God, that I must believe him, and that if I would +serve him six years he would give me many fine things. He said there must +be a meeting at my master's house the next Wednesday, and on the evening +of that day he and four women came there. Then I told him I could not +believe that he was God, and proposed to go and ask Mr. Parris what he +thought on that point; but the man held me back. They forced me against my +will and my love for Betty to pinch the children; we did pinch them. That +was the first night that Abigail was sick. Sometimes I saw the +appearances of dogs, cats, birds, hogs, wolves, and a nondescript animal, +some of whom spoke to me, and talked like the man. Yesterday, when I was +in the lean-to chamber, I saw a thing like a man,--the same that I had +seen before,--who asked me to serve him; and last night, when I was +washing the room, the man and the four women all came again, and wanted me +to hurt the children; and we all went up to Mr. Thomas Putnam's, and hurt +Ann, and cut her with a knife. I went to the Hubbard girl once, and +pinched her, and once the man brought her over to me, and I pinched her; +but I was not there when they say I was, though it may be that the man +sent my apparition over there then without my knowing it. I once saw what +looked like a wolf go out from Mrs. Good and run to the Hubbard girl. How +we travel I don't know; we go up in the air, and we are instantly at the +place we intend to go to; we see no trees, no roads. The man brings cats +or other things to me, and I pinch them; and by doing so the girls are +pinched. Sometimes I can see these things for a while, and then instantly +become blind to them. This morning the man came and told me the +magistrates had come to examine me. + +Such are the principal points in Tituba's account of the origin and author +of the disturbance or "amazing feats" at Mr. Parris's house. In the main, +they are plain, direct, and seemingly true. They teach as clearly as words +ever taught anything, that "something like a man"--"a tall man with white +hair," dressed in "serge coat"--came and forced Tituba to pinch the +children at the very time when one of them was first taken sick. They +teach also that the same man appeared to Tituba several times, and was +with her on the day of her examination. The spiritual source of the first +physical manifestations which generated the great troubles at Salem +Village is thus set forth with such clearness as will command credence in +future ages, even if it shall fail to do so in this Sadducean generation. + +As before stated, another record of Tituba's testimony was made by Ezekiel +Cheever, which is much less ample and particular than the one above +presented. It omits entirely several very instructive and important +parts--especially those which make known Tituba's earlier interviews with +"the man;" those which fix the exact time when he first came to her; the +exact time when Abigail was taken ill; and, more important still, those +parts which describe the assemblage of spirits at Mr. Parris's house, and +their deliberate inflictions of pains upon the children at the very time +when their disordered conditions came upon them. + +Upham, by using Cheever's instead of the other account, failed to adduce +several vastly important historic facts; the special facts which are +essential to a fair presentation of the origin and nature of _Salem_ +witchcraft. He nowhere recognizes the probably acute intellect, strong +powers, persistent action, and inspiring presence of the _tall man with +white hair and in serge coat_. Omitting these, he has but given us Hamlet +with Hamlet left out. And this, too, not in ignorance, for he had seen +Corwin's manuscript, which made clearly manifest the presence and doings +of one spirit-personage especially, and taught many other facts that were +not reconcilable with his theory. + +The tall man with white hair who visited Tituba on the evening of January +15, 1692, has such obvious and important connection with, and influence +over, all the ostensible actors in the scenes which former witchcraft +historians have depicted, as may revolutionize their theories, and teach +the world that those expounders never traced their subject down to its +genuine base; that they built, partly at least, upon the sands of either +ignorance or misconception of the nature and actual source of what they +discussed. + +There are some important differences in the two records of Tituba's +testimony, even where the words and facts must have been the same. The +following parallel passages present quite differing reports of what she +said concerning her own knowledge of the devil:-- + + _Cheever._ _Corwin._ + + "Why do you hurt these "Why do you hurt these + children?" "I do not hurt poor children? what harm + them." "Who is it then?" have they done unto you?" + "The devil, for aught I "They do no harm to me. + know." "Did you ever I no hurt them at all." + see the devil?" "The "Why have you done it?" + devil come to me, and bid "I have done nothing. I + me serve him." can't tell when the devil + works." "What! Doth + the devil tell you that he + hurts them?" "No, he + tells me nothing." + +Thus Cheever makes her say that "_the devil_" came to her and bade her +serve him, while Corwin, reporting the same part of the examination makes +her say that "_the devil_" never told her anything. Further on, Corwin +makes her say, "A thing like a man told me serve him." Cheever says the +_devil_ told her thus. Tituba herself, and all the clairvoyants of that +age, preserved a distinction between the devil and the personages they +saw, heard, and talked with. But the recorders of their testimony, failing +to observe this distinction, often perverted the evidence. A comparison of +the two records throughout suggests the probability that Corwin, who is +most minute, gives the questions and answers in their original order and +sequences much more nearly than does Cheever, whose record, when compared +with the other, appears in some parts to be summings-up of several +minutes' talks into a brief sentence or two, and also gives evidence of +his taking it as obvious fact, that Tituba's "thing like a man" was the +veritable devil. This is probable, because his minutes make her say "_the +devil_ come to me, and bid me serve him," at a point in the examination +where, according to Corwin, she said _the devil_ "tells me nothing." Thus +the appearance is, that Cheever carried back in time words which _she_ +subsequently applied to her "thing like a man," and on his own +authority--not hers--applied them to "the devil." In Corwin's account, her +conception of the separate individualities of "the devil" and her "thing +like a man" reveals itself clearly, and is nowhere contravened. But +Cheever, almost at the commencement of his record, and at a point where +she, according to Corwin, said the devil told her _nothing_, reports her +as then applying to _the devil_ what she a few minutes or hours afterward +applied to her "thing like a man." According to the more full and the more +trustworthy record, she at no time confessed to any interview with "_The +Devil_," though she did freely to many conversations with "the man." These +facts are important, very interesting, and instructive. As we interpret +them now, they indicate that Tituba never confessed to any intercommunings +with the devil, never charged Mrs. Good, Mrs. Osburn, or any one else with +being familiar with his Sable Majesty, but only with "a tall man, with +white hair," wearing a "serge coat." + +The court before whom she was questioned, and the people around, +generally, no doubt, deemed her "thing like a man" to be the veritable +devil, as Cheever did. But the more exact recorder of her words furnishes +good grounds for belief that Tituba herself conceived otherwise. She who +was gifted with faculties which let her see, hear, and feel the actors, +apprehended that one of them at least was a disembodied human spirit; +while the spiritually blind, but physically and logically keen-eyed ones +around her, wrongfully inferred the presence of their Malignant and Mighty +Devil with her. + +Some dates fixed by this witness in Corwin's account, and entirely omitted +in Cheever's, are interesting and somewhat important. We learn what, so +far as we know, escaped the notice of all former searchers, that it was on +Friday, January 15, just as she was going to sleep, that "one like a man" +came to her and appointed a meeting there at Mr. Parris's house, to take +place on the next Wednesday evening. Accordingly, on Wednesday evening, +January 20, "the man" and four women came, and then designedly and +deliberately pushed Tituba on, and made her pinch the daughter and niece +of Mr. Parris; and _on that very evening_, Abigail, at least, if not +Betty also, "_was first taken ill_." Here is an important and significant +coincidence. Just at the time when the illness was developed, spirits, in +compliance with a previous arrangement, were there present at work seeking +to produce just such a result as was manifested. Did they, or did other +agencies, produce the mysterious disorders which seemed to devil-dreading +beholders like diabolical obsessions? In view of all the facts, it is +plain that a spirit or spirits caused the children to suffer. + +By failing to present the above points, which, though lacking in the +account that he copied and followed, yet came under his eye, Upham clearly +failed to use some very important historic facts which are essential to a +fair presentation of both the time at which, and the agents through whom, +Salem witchcraft had its origin, and consequently to a fair presentation +of its nature. But those facts strenuously conflict with his theory that +embodied girls and women were the designers and perpetrators of that great +and terrific manifestation of destructive forces. How strong the chains of +a pet theory! How blinding the cataracts of long-cherished conclusions! + +If there exists in the world's annals more distinct testimony that a +particular individual was the deliberate and intentional producer of acts +which generated suffering, than Tituba gave that the "thing like a man," +which came to her once "when she was about going to sleep," once "in the +lean-to chamber," once "when she was washing the room," and who, on Friday +night, appointed a place for meeting the next Wednesday night, and, with +assistants, kept his appointment, and then and there, as he had +previously announced his purpose to do, severely "hurt the children"--if +there ever was recorded testimony which more distinctly designated a +particular being as the principal in planning and enacting any scheme than +is this from Tituba, by which she designates over and over again "a tall +man with white hair," wearing "black clothes sometimes, and sometimes +serge coat of other color," as the chief executor of the strange and +momentous development of illnesses in the family of Mr. Parris, I know not +where that clearer testimony is recorded. He who ignored several very +significant parts of what Tituba said, rejected corner-stones which are +essential to the foundation of a genuinely philosophical disclosure of the +source and consequent nature of the mysteries he attempted to explain. +Tituba has been described by Upham as "indicating, in most respects, a +mind at the lowest level of general intelligence," so that any one must be +more rash than prudent who will impute to her ability to fabricate a +series of facts, all of which seem to be natural and probable in the +province of psychology. + +Mr. Parris informs us that the strange sicknesses existed in his family +during several weeks before he or others had any suspicion that they might +be of diabolical origin. Tituba dates their commencement on the evening of +January 20, just six weeks before her examination. Therefore Mr. Parris's +"several weeks" may have been five at least, during which he and his wife +and their physician and friends probably studied symptoms, administered +and watched the action of medicines, and cared for the children in every +way, with as much freedom from delusion or bewildering excitement, as they +could have done in any other equal portion of their lives. Such medical +skill as then existed there, obviously had and used a very considerable +period of time, not less than four or five weeks, in which to do its best, +and yet was baffled. Its best was unavailing. We to-day perceive +sufficient cause of its failure. It was contending against a special +spirit infliction, the authors of which could either counteract, +intensify, or nullify at their pleasure, the normal action of any common +medicines or nursings. Parents, physician, and nurses no doubt witnessed +from day to day such anomalous and changeful manifestations, sequent upon +the administration of "physic," as confounded their judgments, and made +them at last suspect "an evil hand." Tituba knew the cause of the +illnesses, but probably lacked power to see and appreciate the continuous +connection of that cause with the long series of its effects. Had she +divulged her knowledge, what heed would have been given to the word of the +ignorant slave? What beatings might she not well fear if she confessed to +any dealings with invisible beings? No wonder that she kept her knowledge +to herself, till fear of her master's cane influenced her to disclose the +facts to the magistrates. + +Small as Tituba's mental capacities were, she had some unusual +susceptibilities, which permitted, or rather obliged, her to possess more +knowledge of the origin and progress, and also of the nature and of the +active producer, of the distressing ailments and "amazing feats" in her +master's family, than did master, mistress, physician, and magistrates +combined. They saw--if it can be said that they saw at all--they saw only +through thick, coarse, and blurred glasses, very dimly; while she, at +times, clearly saw living actors face to face. From her we get the +testimony of a witness who learned directly through her own senses what +she stated; her testimony gives forth the ring of unflawed truth, and +lifts a vail off from long-hidden mysteries. + +Hutchinson, Upham, and Drake each sought to make it apparent that mundane +roguishness, trickery, and malice, operating amid public credulity and +infatuation, prompted and enabled frail girls and women to produce the +"amazing feats," marvelous convulsions, and all the many other woeful +outworkings of witchcraft. Having been either unobservant of, or having +ignored, the plain historic fact seen over and over again in Tituba's +testimony, that certain other intelligences than girls, that minds which +were freed more or less fully and permanently from the hamperings of +flesh, actually started the first display of witchcraft pinchings, fits, +and convulsions at Salem Village, those historians wrongfully charged +girls and women, whose bodies were then the subjects and tools of other +intelligences, with being the feigners of maladies and the producers of +acts which an eye-witness and reluctant participator distinctly declares +were manifested in obedience to a will or wills not their own. Such +oversight, or such discarding of facts, whichever it may have been, caused +those writers to so restrict their stores of intelligent agents having +more or less access to and power over man, as to put outside of their own +reach and vision the actual producers of witchcraft phenomena. This +self-imposed or self-retained restriction forced upon them necessity for +efforts to show that mere children possessed gigantic physical and mental +powers and brains which concocted and executed schemes that shook to their +very foundations the strong fabrics of church and state--yes, forced them +to ascribe mighty public agitations to insignificant operators. + +Tituba, on the other hand, by a simple statement of what her own interior +self saw, heard, felt, and did,--by a statement of what she actually +_knew_,--designated the genuine and the obviously competent authors of +witchcraft marvels, and explained their advent rationally. She, therefore, +by far--very far--outranks each and all of those historians as a competent +and authoritative expounder of the authorship, origin, and nature of Salem +Witchcraft. Her "something like a man"--her _tall white-haired man in +serge coat_--was its author. That man was a spirit, and his works were +Spiritualism of some quality. Opposition revealed his possession of mighty +force. And, whatever his motive, the result of his scheme was the death of +witchcraft throughout Christendom, and consequent wide emancipation from +mental slavery. + +Some statements made and published by Robert Calef not long subsequent to +1692, wear on their surface the semblance of impeachments, or at least of +questionings of the value of Tituba's testimony. He says, "The first +complained of was the said Indian woman named Tituba; she confessed _the +devil_ urged her to sign a book, which he presented to her, and also to +work mischief to the children," &c. We fail to find in Corwin's report +anything like a _confession_ of any such things; she there states +distinctly that _The Devil tells her nothing_, and also that the book was +offered to her, and that the urgings to hurt the children were made to her +by "something like a man"--by "_the man_." She had no idea that the devil +was her visitant, and never confessed that he tempted her. + +Calef goes on and says, "She was afterward committed to prison, and lay +there till sold for her fees. The account she since gives of it is, that +her master did beat her and otherwise abuse her to make her confess and +accuse (such as he called) her sister witches; and that whatsoever she +said by way of confessing, or accusing others, was the effect of such +usage." This is credible, and is probably true. Such proceedings on the +part of Mr. Parris are not inconsistent with the character which he bears. +Tituba's other master, the white-haired man, had charged her "to say +nothing;" she perhaps, therefore, was in fact induced to utter "whatsoever +she said by way of confessing or accusing others," by beatings she +received from her visible master. But what did she say by way of +confessing or accusing? Nothing, really. She merely stated facts known to +her; and such statement should not be misnamed either confession or +accusation. + +Corwin's record of that slave's testimony excites an apprehension--yes, +generates belief--that Calef unconsciously made misleading statement when +he wrote that "she _confessed_ the _devil_ urged her to sign a book." We +have met with no indication that she ever made what should be called +_confession_. We repeat, that she quite fully narrated that she had seen, +held conversation with, and been forced to obey, a white-haired _man_, and +also that the women Good and Osburn were at times her companion operators +when the Man was present. That frank statement of facts constituted her +only confession, so far as we perceive. Had this been made by an +intelligent witness who comprehended how the public mind would interpret +it, there might be plausible reason for saying that she or he +"_confessed_." But with Tituba it was a simple statement of the truth. + +We suspect that Calef, under the prevalent habit of his day, unwittingly +wrote _devil_ where Tituba, according to Corwin, said "the man." If he +followed Cheever's report of the trial, he seemed to have authority for +doing so. That Tituba regarded the devil and "the tall man" as two +distinct individuals is very obvious. When questioned, she admitted that +the devil _might_ hurt the children for aught she knew, but she had never +seen _him_, nor had _he_ ever told her anything. She had no acquaintance +with that personage. While the questions related to _his_ doings she could +give no information; but as soon as opportunity was given her to introduce +her "tall man" she was ready to speak of him freely and instructively. The +people around her, not interiorly illumined, applied the name _devil_ to +any disembodied intelligence that acted upon, or whose power became +manifest to, their external senses; not so did either Tituba or any of her +clairvoyant sister sufferers or sister _accusers_ either. Throughout the +whole of her two days' rigid examination she persistently called her +strange visitant "the man." And it is a significant fact that all the +mediumistic ones then, both accusers and accused, escaped ever falling +into the prevalent habit of accusing THE DEVIL. Other agents met their +vision. + +Fear of Mr. Parris may have forced Tituba to tell her true tale, which but +for him she might have withheld. But is there probability either that he +dictated any part of her testimony, or that she fabricated anything? We +see none. The fair and just presumption is, that though forced to speak, +she simply described what she had seen, and narrated what she had +experienced. The apparent promptness, directness, and general consistency +of her answers, strongly favor that presumption. In her judgment, as in +ours, what she said was no confession of familiarity with the devil, for +she disclaimed any knowledge of him; and therefore she made no confession +of witchcraft as then defined, and no accusation of it against the other +women. + +Calef imputes to her a subsequent position which may be so construed as to +indicate that she declined to stand by her previous statements. He says, +"her master refused to pay her" jail "fees," and thus liberate her from +prison, "unless she would stand to what she had said." In that quotation +is involved all that we find in the older records which wears even a +semblance of impeaching her testimony, or suggests any reason why we +should distrust its intentional accuracy in any particular. The master did +not pay the fees. She "lay in jail thirteen months, and was then sold to +pay her prison charges." (Drake. Annals, 190.) But what did her master +require her to "stand to"? Calef says he beat her "to make her confess, +and accuse [such as he called] her sister witches; and that whatsoever +she did by way of _confessing_ or _accusing_ others, was the effect of +such usage." What she may have confessed to having done, or what she may +have accused others of doing, at other times than when she was under +examination, we do not know. Her statements then, as she then meant, and +as we now understand them, fell far short of confessing familiarity with +the devil, or of laying that crime to any others; therefore she neither +made herself nor her companions _witches_. Still her master, no doubt, as +did the recorder Ezekiel Cheever and the court, understood her as meaning +_devil_ when she said "the man," though she herself did not so mean. Even +Corwin, apparently, as judge, put the prevalent construction upon her +words, though his fidelity as a recorder caused him to write "the man" +when she said "the man." This general habit of understanding _devil_, when +some other personage was both named and meant, enables us to see that +there may have been subsequent dispute between her and her master as to +her real meaning, and that he made it a condition for her liberation that +she should put his construction upon what she had said, rather than her +own. It is an open question whether she ever refused to stand by her own +meaning, or the true meaning of her own words. Perhaps she did refuse to +stand by construction which the faith and habit of the day led most minds +to put upon her words unjustifiably; but we doubt whether she refused to +stand by the literal and intended meaning of what she had said. + +Poor Tituba! Because of your forced connection with a scheme and works +which entirely baffled your comprehension, because of your forced +disclosure of things you had witnessed and experienced behind the vail of +flesh, your own body was imprisoned thirteen months, and two innocent +women were doomed to death. Guileless and innocent, so far as connected +with witchcraft, you was borne on by mighty forces to seem to act +voluntarily, though in fact unwillingly and perforce, a prominent part in +one of the most fearful scenes in human history. Man's ignorance of +spiritual agents and forces in your day, together with the prevalent +hallucination devil-ward, made you a humble and pitiable martyr to simple +truth-telling. Some seeds in your simple story now gathered from out the +chaff that has covered them for nine-score years, may soon be scattered +over New England soil, from which, we trust, you above, and men below, may +gather wholesome fruits of justice and truth. + + + + +SARAH GOOD. + + +Tituba's sister witch, as that slave's master called Sarah Good, may not +have been regarded in her generation as possessor of any large amount of +such qualities as her name is commonly used to designate. Still her +neighbors doomed her to lasting fame by selecting her as the first person +to be put under examination on suspicion of being a producer of Salem +witchcraft. As a facile tool in supernal hands she may have been, and +probably was, good in quality as well as name. + +Indications that her spirit-form was susceptible of either easy +elimination or wide radiations from its material counterpart, are +contained in the facts that on January 20, 1692, the inner eye of Tituba +saw this Sarah; on February 25, Ann Putnam, and on the 28th, Elizabeth +Hubbard saw her apparition, or her spirit-form. + +Man's "natural" or physical optics do not discern a spirit. Spirit, when +not materialized, is discernible only by our inner or spirit-eyes; spirit +is "spiritually discerned." The spirit forms, however, of embodied, living +men and women, are not all equally discernible by clairvoyants. Generally, +only such among flesh-clad spirits are readily seen by inner optics as are +able to slip, or are liable to be drawn, or to radiate out, from one's +ordinary integuments of flesh, or, at least, those only whose integuments +are transparent of spirit-light. Only few, relatively, can either see or +be seen readily and frequently by spiritual eyes. Eagles exist as well as +owls and bats. And clear perception of objects by the former amid light +that blinds the latter, is no proof either that the vision of eagles is +perverted, or that the objects they behold are but creatures of fancy. + +Mediumistic Sarah Good, because she was highly mediumistic, would +naturally be a brilliant and attractive object in the field of vision +which the inner eyes of other mediumistic ones might be able and attracted +to survey. Distance is of little or no account in connection with vision +by the inner eye. Persons and objects, scores and hundreds of miles away, +are practically near to the inner optics. Spirit-forms are, perhaps, +thought-forms, and, like thought, can traverse oceans and continents in +the twinkling of an eye. + +It is not our purpose to multiply pages by largely quoting minute accounts +of what transpired at the examinations and trials of those who were +suspected of witchcraft; and yet it may be well to present rather fully +one sample of the proceedings of the courts. This first case which the +civil authorities gave attention to may serve that purpose as well as any +other. + +The arrest of Sarah Good was made February 29, and on the next day, +Tuesday, March 1, 1692, her examination was commenced, and was continued, +in connection with that of Sarah Osburn and Tituba, through the remainder +of that week. On Monday, the 7th, these three were sent to jail in Boston. +On the 30th of June Mrs. Good was put upon trial, which resulted in her +conviction, and on the 19th of July she, together with others, was +executed. + +We copy first Ezekiel Cheever's account of her examination. Cheever was +temporary clerk or scribe employed by the examining magistrates to take +minutes of the testimony. + +"'Sarah Good, what evil spirit have you familiarity with?' _Ans._ 'None.' +'Have you made no contract with the devil?' Good answered, 'No.' 'Why do +you hurt these children?' _Ans._ 'I do not hurt them. I scorn it.' 'Who do +you employ, then, to do it?' _Ans._ 'I employ nobody.'" + +This question was doubtless based on belief then held, that one who was in +covenant with the devil had, by the terms of the covenant, received power +to command the devil and his imps to execute any desired mischief. + +"'What _creature_ do you employ, then?' _Ans._ 'No creature, but I am +falsely accused.'" + +Her statement that she employed _nobody_, seems not to have covered all +classes of possible servants in such business. Therefore she was asked +what _creature_ she employed. This question suggests the probable +supposition by the magistrate that such dogs, cats, birds, and hairy +nondescripts as Tituba saw, might be subservient to the commands of a +witch. + +"'Why did you go away muttering from Mr. Parris's house?' _Ans._ 'I did +not mutter; but I thanked him for what he gave my child.' 'Have you made +no contract with the devil?' _Ans._ 'No.'" + +The magistrate then "desired the children, all of them, to look upon her +and see if this were the person that had hurt them; and so they all did +look upon her, and said that this was one of the persons that did torment +them. Presently they were all tormented." + +"'Sarah Good, do you not see now what you have done? Why do you not tell +us the truth? Why do you thus torment these poor children?' _Ans._ 'I do +not torment them.' 'Who do you employ, then?' _Ans._ 'I employ nobody. I +scorn it.' 'How came they thus tormented?' _Ans._ 'What do I know? You +bring others here, and now you charge me with it.' 'Why, who was it?' +_Ans._ 'I do not know but it was some you brought into the meeting-house +with you.' _Response._ 'We brought you into the meeting-house.' _Reply._ +'But you brought in two more.' 'Who was it, then, that tormented the +children?' _Ans._ 'It was Osburn.' 'What is it you say when you go +muttering away from persons' houses?' _Ans._ 'If I must tell, I will +tell.' 'Do tell us then.' _Reply._ 'If I must tell, I will tell. It is the +commandments. I may say my commandments, I hope.' 'What commandment is +it?' _Ans._ 'If I must tell, I will. It is a psalm.' 'What psalm?' +_Statement by reporter._ 'After a long time she muttered over some part of +a psalm.' 'Who do you serve?' _Ans._ 'I serve God.' 'What God do you +serve?' _Ans._ 'The God that made heaven and earth.'" + +_Comments by the reporter._ "She was not willing to mention the word God. +Her answers were in a very wicked, spiteful manner, reflecting and +retorting against the authority with base and abusing words, and many lies +she was taken in. It was here said that her husband had said that he was +afraid that she either was a witch or would be one very quickly. The +worshipful Mr. Hathorne asked him his reason why he said so of her; +whether he had seen anything _by_ her. He answered, no, _not in this +nature_; but it was her bad carriage to him; and indeed, said he, I may +say with tears that she is an enemy to all good." + +Reason for asking the children to look upon the accused, Cheever says, +was, that they might "see if this was the person that hurt them." That +statement fails to cover the whole ground. According to Cotton Mather, +belief then prevailed that "when the party suspected looks on the parties +supposed to be bewitched, and they are thereupon struck down into a fit +... it is a proof that the accused is a witch in covenant with the devil." + +In many subsequent examinations and trials, these magistrates required the +accused to look upon the afflicted ones, and special note was taken of the +apparent action of the supposed evil eye upon the sensitive children. +Belief was held and acted upon by these examiners, that, if the accused +were guilty, the guilt might be revealed by observable effects of +emanations from the witch's eye upon those whom she had been bent upon +tormenting. Possibly human experience and observation had gained knowledge +of facts which furnished substantial foundation for such belief. The eye +of the powerful mesmerist is very potent in action upon those whom he has +been accustomed to subdue to his will. If the children quailed and +suffered under the gaze of the accused, inference might be drawn that they +had previously been brought into servitude by imperceptible forces +proceeding from that person. Forces of that nature probably go forth more +profusely from the eye than any other part of man, though that is not +their only point of egress. Any part of the body may let them out. This +fact, no doubt, was assumed of old by would-be witch detectors, for they +often required the accused to touch their accusers, or the reverse. And +generally the contact was attended by convulsions, spasms, pains, or other +distress, or by cessation of annoyances. Such results are moderate +evidence that forces pertaining to departed spirits were then operating +upon the disturbed ones; for emanations from such source are frequently +more agitating and agonizing, or more calming and pleasurable, than any +that come forth from the simple mesmerizer. One reason for this augmented +effect, as given through mediumistic lips, is, that the greater remove of +properties of freed spirits from homogeneousness with those of flesh-robed +ones, than exists between the properties of any two mortals, naturally +causes either greater commotion or greater calmness when the disembodied +ones effect contact with those robed in flesh, than ever occurs upon the +confluence of streams exclusively mundane. It should be remembered that +spirits, when in rapport with mortal forms, have power not only to will +agonies and motions therein, but also to command and efficiently use +appliances needful to produce them. Where Tituba's tall man with white +hair was controller of performances, all such sufferings and antics as +history describes may have occurred at trials for witchcraft, and yet few +of them may have been willed to come forth by any mortal. Vailed from +external perceptions, that powerful operator shaped the speech, the +actions, and the sufferings of all the impressible ones, whether accused +or accusers, at his sole pleasure. What his object and his motives were +are not matters for consideration at this stage of our investigations. + +The examining magistrates, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, subscribed +to the following account of this examination. + +"Sarah Good upon examination denieth the matter of fact, viz., that she +ever used any witchcraft, or hurt the above-said children, or any of them. + +"The above-named children, being all present, positively accused her of +hurting them sundry times within this two months, and also this morning. + +"Sarah Good denied that she had been at their houses in the said time, or +near them, or had done them any hurt. All the above-said children then +present accused her face to face, upon which they were all tortured and +tormented for a short space of time; and the afflictions and tortures +being over, they charged said Sarah Good again that she had so tortured +them, and _came to them_ and did it; although _she was then kept at a +considerable distance from them_. + +"Sarah Good being then asked, if that _she_ did not hurt them, who did it? +And the children being again tortured, she looked upon them and said that +it was one of them we brought into the house with us. We asked her who it +was. She then answered and said it was Sarah Osburn; and _Sarah Osburn was +then under custody, and not in the house_. And the children, being quickly +after recovered out of their fits, said that it was Sarah Good and also +Sarah Osburn that then did hurt and torment or afflict them, although +_both of them at the same time at a distance or remote from them +personally_." + +The Italicized lines show that the magistrates attached importance to the +children's statement that the two women had access to them and hurt them, +even while the outer forms of the women were remote from the girls. +Precisely how Hathorne and Corwin viewed such facts we do not know. +Perhaps they deemed them strong evidence that the women were helped by the +devil. The fact, if it be a fact,--and it probably is,--that those girls +actually received painful sensations from forces coming to them from out +the forms of those two women whose bodies were at the time distant from +their own, was marvelous when it occurred, and remains so now to all such +as are unacquainted with some instructive things which modern Spiritualism +has been bringing into view. To entranced persons, to the spiritually +illumined, to the clairvoyant, distance and material objects become nearly +obliterated. Between such, also between spirits and such, when their +inner powers are in the ascendant, mind acts directly upon mind, without +aid from external senses and organs, and whatever then is done to the mind +or spirit of the incarnated, whether it be painful or pleasing, reaches +and affects the body of the earth-clad one from within, and thence works +outwardly. All sensation pertains to the mind or spirit. The body, when +life leaves it, at once becomes absolutely insensible. All hurts of the +body, come whence and as they may, are felt by the spirit only--never by +the body. Therefore when the spirit from within is pinched by a spirit +directly, the hurt, though the physical body has not been touched from +without, is felt precisely as it would be if fingers had nipped the flesh. +One's bruised spirit acting outwardly may discolor portions of the body +precisely as would an external pinch, grip, or blow. The accusing girls +may have actually perceived and positively _known_ that pain-producing +forces issuing from the forms of the accused women, were distorting and +convulsing their own bodies and the bodies of other sensitive ones, while +yet the women's wills may not have sent the forces forth; those accused +ones may have been but the wearers of bodies, or possessors of +God-bestowed organisms and temperaments through which either Tituba's tall +man or some other spirit, or even some impersonal natural force, gained +access to the spirits of the girls, and, through their spirits, caused +their bodies to manifest signs of intense sufferings. Spiritualism is +inviting physiologists and psychologists into new and interesting fields +for exploration. + +The foregoing facts and views invite to very lenient judgments, whether +pertaining to the accused women or to their youthful accusers. + +Many things during the examination of Sarah Good were culled from Tituba's +statements, and used with design to show that Sarah Good was a witch. +Tituba charged that woman with hurting the children, and of being one of +five who urged her to do the same. Good rode on a pole with the latter to +Mr. Putnam's, and then told the slave that she must kill somebody. She +came and made Tituba deaf at prayers. She had a yellow bird which sucked +her between her fingers; also she had a cat, and she appeared like a wolf +to Hubbard. Tituba saw Good's name in the book, and the devil (no, the +tall man), "told Good made her mark." Even her own little daughter, +Dorothy Good, testified that her mother "had three birds, one black, one +yellow, and that these birds hurt the children and afflicted persons." + +Deliverance Hobbs saw Good at the witch's sacrament. + +Abigail Hobbs was in company with, and made deaf by her, and knew her to +be a witch. + +Mary Warren had the _book_ brought to her by Sarah Good. + +Elizabeth Hubbard, Mary Walcott, Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, Sarah Vibber, +and Abigail Williams (all of them members of the necromantic _circle_), +were afflicted by Sarah Good, and _saw her shape_. + +Richard Patch, William Allen, John Hughes, had her appear to them +apparitionally. + +This long array of names of impressibles existing in the Village at so +early a time as the very first attempt to find a witchcraft-worker there, +indicates that Tituba's visitant had been an expert selector of a spot for +operation. He began his work in the midst of abundant and fit materials +with which to carry out a purpose to obtain close approach to, and to put +forth startling action upon and among embodied mortals. It may be learned +in the hereafter that he was suggester of the visible as well as of the +invisible CIRCLE which met at the parsonage; and learned, also, that his +forces magnetized the members of each. That so many mediumistic ones, a +large proportion of them wonderfully facile and plastic, were hunted up in +"the short space of two months," among the five hundred scattered +inhabitants of that Village, is surprising. Only keen eyes and active +search could have found thus many in so short a time. Germs of prophets +must have been abundant there, and must have developed rapidly under the +culture of the supernal gardener who discovered their abundance and +quality, and took them under his special watch and care. + +While under examination, Sarah Good said, "None here see the witches but +the afflicted and themselves;" that is, none but the afflicted and the +accused; none but the clairvoyant. By witches she meant spirits and +semblances of mortals and spirits; and she said in substance none others +but we who behold with our internal eyes see the hovering and operating +intelligences and forms. This unschooled woman then announced a great and +instructive truth. She taught that the two classes--the tortured accusers +and the accused both--possessed powers of vision which other people did +not; that they possessed such clairvoyance and other fitful capabilities +and susceptibilities as pertained to only a quite limited number of +persons, and that these physical peculiarities were the source of the +existing mysteries. + +It should be ever borne in mind that the powers which Mrs. Good had +reference to are generally very fitful in their operations. Those who +sometimes see spirits and spirit scenes are seldom able to do it at will, +or with any very long continuance without interruption. The most of them +might, every few minutes, say with Tituba, "I am blind now, I cannot see." + +Having stated that the accusers and accused, and only they and others +constituted like them, could see the hidden persons and forces which were +there acting, acted upon, or being employed in putting forth mysterious +inflictions upon the distressed girls, Sarah Good forthwith charged her +fellow-prisoner, Sarah Osburn, with then "hurting the children." The fair +inference is, that she saw the spirit or the apparition of her companion +then seemingly at work upon the sufferers; and Mrs. Good may only have +described what her inner optics were then beholding. Virtually she was +confessing that she was herself clairvoyant, and consequently very near +kin to a witch, if not actually one in that dreaded sisterhood. But +clairvoyance pertained to the accusers also, and both sets of clear seers, +if their powers were a crime, deserved like treatment. + +"Looking upon them" (the afflicted children) "at the same time and not +being afflicted, must consequently be a witch." The above is from the +records of her examination. Apparently she was looking upon the children +while alleging that the then absent Sarah Osburn was there present and was +occasioning their sufferings, while yet Mrs. Good was not herself +afflicted; this was deemed proof that she was a witch. What unstated +premises led to that conclusion we do not know. Our fathers had many +notions pertaining to witchcraft that are now buried in oblivion, and it +is often very difficult to find the reasons for their inferences. We are +baffled here, and can say only that indication is furnished that under +some circumstances a woman's failure to become bewitched was proof that +she was herself a witch--because she did not catch a special disease, she +must already be having it. + +Constable Braybrook, who had charge of her during the night between the +first two days of her examination, deposed that he set three men as a +guard to watch her at his own house; and that in the morning the guard +informed him that "during the night Sarah Good was gone some time from +them, both barefoot and barelegged." From another source he learned that +on "that same night, Elizabeth Hubbard, one of the afflicted persons, +complained that Sarah Good came and afflicted her, being barefoot and +barelegged, and Samuel Sibley, that was one that was attending (courting) +of Elizabeth Hubbard, struck Sarah Good on the arm, as Elizabeth Hubbard +said."--_Woodward's Historical Series_, No. I, p. 27. + +Braybrook's statement presents a side incident at a time when none of the +performers who had been trained in the historian's famous high school for +girls were present--an incident which rivals in marvelousness anything in +the main tragedy they are charged with enacting. When the tricksy girls +were all absent, when men alone stood guard over and were with this +prisoner, she became invisible by them. No one of the magic-working band +of girls and women was then at hand. Testimony that she disappeared is +distinct; the guards reported in the morning that "she was gone some time +from them." The constable so stated, and the statement was supported by +two assistant guards, Michael Dunnell, and Jonathan Baker. We shall not +stop to ask them how they knew that she was "barefoot and barelegged" when +she was invisible. They perhaps saw her stockings and shoes when she was +not to be seen. Also she was without such garments when seen that night by +Elizabeth Hubbard and her lover in that girl's distant home. + +An intelligent, sagacious, and reliable man, Dr. H. B. Storer, of Boston, +whom we know and have long known personally, and whom we respect as being +distinctly high-minded, honorable, and adherent to facts and truths, gave, +in the Banner of Light, January 9, 1875, an instructive account of his +recent observations at the residence of Mrs. Compton, a medium, at Havana, +N. Y. We extract the following from his statements. He says that on Monday +morning, December 28, 1874,-- + +"By my request, Mrs. Compton acquiescing without a murmur, my lady +friends, entering her bedroom, saw her completely divested of clothing, +with the exception of two under garments, and then had her draw on a pair +of her husband's pantaloons. The basque of her alpaca dress, without the +skirt, was then put on, after careful search to render it certain that no +extra clothing could be secreted. Then, in my presence, the basque was +sewed by its points on each side to the pantaloons, and a ribbon, which I +tied with two knots closely around her neck, was sewed through the knots, +and each end of the ribbon sewed to the collar of the basque. So she had +on a closely-fitting coat and pantaloons sewed together, and so attached +by a ribbon around the neck that the clothing could not be drawn up or +down. A pair of black gloves were then drawn upon the hands and sewed +tightly around the wrists. I then put around her waist a piece of cotton +twine, tying it in two hard knots behind, and the same piece of twine was +tied by double knots to the back of the chair in which she sat." + +On Saturday Dr. Storer had seen come forth from the cabinet, as Dr. F. L. +H. Willis also had on a former occasion, "a weird phantom, bearing the +semblance of a woman, and clothed in a flowing costume of white. Over her +head was thrown a vail of delicate texture, and in one hand she carried a +handkerchief that looked like a bit of a fleecy cloud. Her dress was +exceedingly white and lustrous, without a wrinkle or a fold in it." That +description by Willis is called by Storer "perfect," and is adopted by +him. This "weird" personage was called Katie. Dr. Storer, after fixing the +medium in the cabinet on Monday, as above described, says,-- + +"Very slowly the door [of the cabinet] opened, and soon her [Katie's] +entire form was seen dressed exactly as before--trailing skirts, vail, and +mantle, but with a belt which she gathered in her hands and rubbed +together that we might hear its silken rustle. Standing by the door, she +addressed me, saying that when she had walked entirely away from the +cabinet, she wished me to go in quickly, and, without moving the chair, +feel after the medium, and all about the cabinet, and see if I could find +her. She stepped out about five feet into the room, and at once I sprang +into the cabinet, felt in the chair, swept the floor and walls thoroughly +with my hands--but--not _a vestige of medium_ or _anything_ remained." + +The italicizing is ours. We design to imitate the doctor in both frankness +and wisdom--to restate and accept his facts--but make no attempt at +explanation of them. We adduce the case because it parallels in +marvelousness the statements of Braybrook. What happens now may have had +its like before to-day. The modern case out-marvels, perhaps, the ancient +one; for we know not whether the guards felt for their prisoner or only +failed to see her. How they ascertained that she was gone is not told. Dr. +Storer felt the chair into which he had bound Mrs. Compton, felt the floor +and the ceiling all over, and could find nobody in the little cabinet, +which was but a triangle partitioned off at the corner of the room, whose +inner sides were only five feet each in length, so that a man, without +changing his position, might touch any part of it, unless the ceiling +overhead was above the man's reach. Shortly afterward, says Dr. Storer, +"the cabinet door was opened, and in the chair, tied as we had left her, +without the breaking of a thread, or the apparent movement of her person, +or in any respect differing from her appearance when last seen, sat the +medium, in that fearfully lifeless trance, from which nearly a half hour +was required to arouse her. I will not give any speculations of my own +upon this most marvelous exhibition. I submit the facts and vouch for +their entire accuracy." + +Were Braybrook's statements true as to the main fact? They may have been. +If they were, we do not apprehend that the physical body of Sarah Good was +either removed from the vicinity of her guards, or seen by Elizabeth +Hubbard that night. Invisibility may have been wrapped around her body, +and yet not around her shoes and stockings; perhaps her spirit-form was +the only one seen by the distant observer. We hesitate to fix limits to +possibilities. Spirits to-day frequently manage, as they say, and as +results indicate, to render particular material objects lying within the +embrace of auras or emanations of some mediums, invisible temporarily by +the keenest of keen external eyes, even when such eyes are surrounded by +light sufficient for seeing other objects in the vicinity with +distinctness. That which is done now may have been done formerly. And +since such phenomena now seldom occur excepting in the near vicinity of +persons susceptible to spirit influences, the fair conclusion is, that +Sarah Good was a medium. Elizabeth Hubbard saw the spirit-form of Sarah +Good; which fact argues that Elizabeth was a clairvoyant, unless Sarah +Good's spirit was then materialized. Each and every one of the afflicted +girls is so repeatedly reported to have described perception of what +external sight could not see, external ear hear, nor external touch feel, +that the mediumistic susceptibilities of each and all of them are +manifest. + +The susceptibilities and endowments of both accusers and accused were +exceptional and yet alike in kind. The spiritual perceptive faculties and +the receptive capabilities of both classes could be brought into such +action as would out-work results perceptible by the external senses of +common people. Also, and especially, each class could be made to serve as +_mere tools_ of invisible beings. As such they were handled, their users +employing them severally as afflictor or as afflicted, at their pleasure, +within the permissions of psychological laws. + +The choice, which selected certain ones to be implements by which to +afflict, and others to be the subjects of afflictions, was made by +dwellers in spirit spheres, familiar with psychological laws, and +competent to determine in which capacity each impressible one could be +most serviceable in advancing the ends of the supernal operators. Such a +view, when its correctness shall have been confirmed, will work out vast +amelioration in the world's judgment of that band of girls and women in +Salem Village who have long borne its scorn and detestation, and will +thrill every kindly heart with joy. When it shall become apparent that +some inborn physical peculiarities involved the controlling reasons why +certain persons rather than others were charged with being Satan's +devotees, then none can fail to see that it was not roguery, not artifice, +not malice, not grudges, not family or neighborhood or parochial quarrels, +not disputes about property, nor any social, moral, or religious eminence +or debasement,--no, not any one of those base motives of the normal +intellect and heart which lively fancy has pleased itself with conjuring +up and imputing,--no, it was not any one of those reprehensible and +damning motives, but was innate susceptibility of being easily controlled +by psychological forces; especially it was a constitutional liability to +be more readily seen, heard, and felt by persons similarly endowed than +was the great mass of people around them. + +Ann Putnam, Jr., the keen-sighted pioneer of the clairvoyant +witch-detectors, saw the apparition, and felt the distressing influences +of Sarah Good, on the 25th of February. Her depositions were numerous; +there were but few of the accused whose apparitions had not met her +vision, but few who had not harmed her in ways and by forces unperceived +by external senses. The character and general purport of her testimony, +and also of most of the testimony from members of THE CIRCLE, is well +presented by the first deposition we find on record; which is as +follows:-- + + "The deposition of Ann Putnam, Jr., who testifieth and saith, that on + the 25th of February, 1691-92, I saw the apparition of Sarah Good, + which did torture me most grievously; but I did not know her name till + the 27th of February, and then she told me her name was Sarah Good. + And then she did pinch me most grievously; and also since; several + times urging me vehemently to write in her book. And also on the 1st + of March, being the day of her examination, Sarah Good did most + grievously torture me; and also several times since. And also on the + first day of March, 1692, I saw the apparition of Sarah Good go and + afflict and torture the bodies of Elizabeth Parris, Abigail Williams, + and Elizabeth Hubbard. Also I have seen the apparition of Sarah Good + afflicting the body of Sarah Vibber. + + mark + "ANN PUTNAM." + + + +That deposition furnishes a fair specimen of the kind of evidence sought +for, admitted, and applied to prove probable compact with the devil. All +of the above pertains to the first examination made at Salem, and it +reveals the opinions then prevalent relating to covenantings with the Evil +One, to powers and dispositions thence derived, and to then existing legal +methods for proving such compacts. There is little indication that +experiences at Salem, during the spring and summer of 1692, gave either +the examining magistrates, or the court, much, if any, new light or any +increase of wisdom or humaneness. Whatever modification of processes of +procedure subsequently took place, and whatever change of decisions as to +the value and admissibility of spectral evidence occurred, was for the +worse rather than the better. The creeds and laws conformed to then were +not formed and adopted for that occasion, but had prior existence, and +were here applied with strenuous vigor by firm hearts and clear heads. +Amid all the excitement, frenzy, infatuation, delusion, and credulity then +abounding, logic retained its power and guidance, and held courts and +juries to the requirements of the wholesome statutes of the English +Parliament, pertaining to witchcraft and to Christendom's witchcraft +creed. Old laws and faiths were here tested by strong men. They held for a +time, and wrought woeful effects, but finally were broken. + +Sarah Good was wife of an inefficient husband, "William Good, laborer." +The family was very poor, having at times no home excepting such as +charity granted them temporarily. She is spoken of by Calef as having +"long been accounted a melancholy or distracted woman." Upham says that +"she was a forlorn, friendless, and forsaken creature, broken down by +wretchedness of condition and ill repute." We find no reason for +dissenting from that writer's statement when he says elsewhere, that "she +was an unfortunate and miserable woman _in her circumstances and +condition_;" but we doubt the fitness of calling her "forlorn" and "broken +down." She may have been so; but the spirit and energy generally +manifested by her words and acts indicate the probability that she was +rather a heedless, bold woman, free and harsh in the use of her tongue, +and not very sensitive to or regardful of public opinion, but yet strong +and not despondent. That she may have long been deemed, as Calef says she +was, a "distracted" woman, is very probable, for many simply mediumistic +persons, and even more of us who at this day solely because we believe in +the advent of spirits, both good and less good, have long been accounted +_crazy_. + +We have met with no indication that she was physically weak or mentally +despondent. She seems to have borne up well under long, tedious horseback +rides daily to and from Ipswich jail, nine or ten miles distant, whither +she was nightly sent ever after the time of her becoming invisible to her +guards. Her keeper on the way says, "she leaped off her horse three times, +railed at the magistrates, and endeavored to kill herself." That attempt, +if she made one, to take her own life, was scarcely less likely to spring +from the angry mental mood then prompting her to rail against the +magistrates, than from despondency or forlornness. + +When under examination, her answers were about as direct, explicit, and to +the point, as most other suspected ones were able to give to the +perplexing questions which were put; and some of hers have more snap than +we usually find in words from lips of the "forlorn and broken down." + +It is not probable that her previous life had won much public favor; yet +no evidence has been met with that her neighbors generally cherished +hostile feelings towards her, or possessed sentiments which would prompt +them to rejoice at her prosecution. We, as has already been made apparent, +ascribe her arrest to other causes than the lowness of her character and +condition. That was not the primal incentive to her being "cried out +upon." Her organization, and the then existing condition of her faculties, +made her either a convenient channel through which to transmit, or a +fountain from which to draw, forces into the systems of certain other +sensitives, which forces might act therein for either the annoyance and +suffering, or the pleasure and relief of the recipients, according to +either inherent properties of the forces themselves, or to the purpose of +some intelligence who should inflow and manipulate them. The sensitive +girls might, and, if well unfolded mediumistically, would unerringly trace +back such forces as acted upon themselves to their mundane point of +emanation, and in good conscience and good faith accuse the person from +whom the forces issued of being their tormentor; if clairvoyant they could +see, if clairaudient could hear, and, if not specially unfolded for seeing +with the inner eye and hearing with the inner ear, could _sense_ the +person from whom the foreign and disturbing influences came forth. + +A bold spirit and prophetic glance pertained to this woman at the close of +her mortal life. When near the gallows, and about to be executed, Mr. +Noyes, the clergyman at Salem proper, told her "she was a witch, and she +knew that she was a witch." She promptly retorted, "You are a liar. I am +no more a witch than you are a wizard; and if you take away my life, God +will give you blood to drink." Subsequently that man "died of an internal +hemorage, bleading profusely at the mouth." (_Hist. of Witchcraft_, vol. +ii. p. 270.) Gleamings of what will be often meet internal or mediumistic +eyes; and such probably did those of Sarah Good at that instant, and +authorized her prophetic utterance. + + + + +DORCAS GOOD + + +has already been presented in the reports of evidence against her mother; +but in those she was called Dorothy, and was reported as testifying that +her mother "had three birds, one black, one yellow, and that these birds +hurt the children, and afflicted persons." Such testimony, of course, +supported the side of the accusers. The little one's words were damaging +to her mother, and helpful to the mother's oppressors. But, from some +cause, she soon fell under suspicion of belonging to the class of +bewitchers. As early as March 3, Ann Putnam saw the apparition of this +child; and on the 21st of March, Mary Walcott did the same. This, of +course, was regarded as evidence that she was a witch; and on or near +March 23d she was arrested, examined, and soon after sent to jail. + +Yes, little Dorcas, daughter of mediumistic Sarah Good, not five years +old, "looking well and hale as other children," was definitely, in legal +form, accused of witchcraft; was arrested, and brought before the civil +magistrates for examination. In presence of the magistrates the exhibiting +graduates from the school of "necromancy, magic, and spiritualism"--the +afflicted girls--accused the little child of biting them then and there, +and "also of pricking them with pins, with pinching and almost choking +them." In proof of all this they exhibited marks upon their flesh, just +such in size and form as matched her little teeth Also pins were found +under their clothing precisely where they asserted that she pricked them. + +Such facts as imprints upon the arms of the girls, corresponding precisely +with such as the child's teeth might make, and the invisible pinchings, +prickings, &c., are not outside of nature's permissions, and therefore +were not impossible. Those girls, at their circle meetings, _or +elsewhere_, had obviously become very facile instruments in spiritualism, +had become usable by spirits as subjects for impressions, and +psychologically induced sensations. From the mediumistic little daughter +of a mediumistic mother, forms and forces could be made to emanate which +might act upon the plastic mediumistic sufferers in exact accordance with +such experiences, and producing such results as the girls described or +others witnessed. The senses of the annoyed ones could distinctly perceive +that the agonizing forces issued from that little girl. The accusers +probably stated only facts which they knew as well as any witness ever +knew his facts when describing what his own senses had brought him +knowledge of. Whether things seen and felt by the spirit senses be deemed +objective or only subjective, they are alike real to the consciousness of +the person that takes cognizance of them. The statements of the girls were +probably true. The possibilities in heaven and earth, and along where +their border-lines come in contact, are not recognized by some historians. +There are some persons at this day who hold even as contracting and +misleading philosophies, as Cotton Mather and the men of his generation +did. Modern wisdom (?) prompts some to discredit any actual occurrence of +any extra-marvelous facts--any facts _seeming_ more than natural--and to +impeach the accuracy or the truthfulness of any and all who attest to +such, rather than admit that the bases of their own philosophies can be +improved by expansion. Such persons, when attempting to account for many +facts in human history, are, though it may be unconsciously to themselves, +like mill-horses tethered to an unchanging center, and made to move within +a fixed circumference. Habit soon brings loss of desire, if not of +courage, to turn the eyes outward and look upon facts whose producers work +from outside the beaten rounds in which some theorists travel. This makes +it bad for many facts, such facts as are popping into view through avenues +deemed anomalous. There are writers who do their best to enforce upon such +facts the Mosaic command, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." But +facts are immortal; buried ones often reappear, and demonstrate their own +former occurrence. + +Two centuries ago, the claim of great marvels to be objective facts was +generally conceded. But at that time the hidden workers of wonders were +woefully slandered as to parentage: men deemed them _all_ to be both imps +of the malignant ruler of the darkest regions of realms unseen, and his +emissaries from pandemonium to the abodes of man. + +Faith in the genuineness of witchcraft facts, though in Dorcas Good's day +it hid a multitude of sins, failed to make the arresting of a mere infant +witch a desirable operation. For some reason the officious marshal, +Herrick, sent forth constable Braybrook to encounter and capture man's +great enemy when that wily one had ensconced himself in an infant's form. +But the deputy scavengered up and sub-deputized somebody else to fight +that battle for God and Christ. His menial went the needful two or three +miles north through the woods to Benjamin Putnam's house, and executed the +daring feat of bringing on his back, or in some other way, a "hale and +well-looking" girl of less than five years into court, a culprit because +of co-laboring with and being a covenanted servant of witchcraft's devil! +The darkness of delusion which such an arrest failed to illumine must have +been thick indeed! But the creed of the day, devil-ward, the creed of the +fathers, the creed of Christendom, so deluded the public judgment that it +demanded the blood of a witch even though she were an infant. + +The condition of the public mind only a very short time subsequent to the +irrational, unkindly, barbarous arrest of that child has been depicted by +Upham, vol. ii. p. 112, in sentences more graphic, spirited, and eloquent +than our own powers could possibly put forth, and differing considerably +from what we would essay to give were our rhetorical abilities equal to +his. He states that-- + +"The proceedings of the 11th and 12th of April produced a great effect in +driving on the general infatuation.... 'Twas awful to see how the +afflicted persons were agitated.... Those girls, by long practice in 'the +circle,' and day by day before the astonished and wondering neighbors +gathered to witness their distresses, and especially on the more public +occasions of the examinations, had acquired consummate boldness and tact. +In simulations of passions, sufferings, and physical affections; in +sleight of hand, and the management of voice and feature and attitude, no +necromancers have surpassed them. There has seldom been better acting in a +theater than they displayed in the presence of the astonished and +horror-stricken rulers, magistrates, ministers, judges, jurors, +spectators, and prisoners. No one seems to have dreamed that their actings +and sufferings could have been the result of cunning or imposture. Deodat +Lawson was a man of talents, had seen much of the world, and was by no +means a simpleton, recluse, or novice; but he was totally deluded by them. +The prisoners, although conscious of their own innocence, were utterly +confounded by the acting of the girls. The austere principles of that +generation forbade with the utmost severity all theatrical shows and +performances; but at Salem village and the old town, in the respective +meeting-houses, and at Deacon Nathaniel Ingersoll's, some of the best +playing ever got up in this country was practiced, and patronized for +weeks and months at the very centre and heart of Puritanism, by 'the most +straitest sect' of that solemn order of men. Pastors, deacons, +church-members, doctors of divinity, college professors, officers of +state, crowded, day after day, to behold feats which have never been +surpassed on the boards of any theater; which rivaled the most memorable +achievements of pantomimists, thaumaturgists, and stage-players, and made +considerable approaches toward the best performances of ancient sorcerers +and magicians, or modern jugglers and mesmerizers." + +The brilliancy, fervor, and literary finish of that description of the +public enthusiasm and bewilderment are truly worthy of admiration, while +the picture is not, and probably could not be, overwrought. Still we must +doubt the competency of the alleged authors of the excitement to perform +the bewildering and frenzying acts ascribed to them. + +We have heard from of old, and could quasi believe, that mountains in +labor brought forth mice. But it is only rarely one has earnestly and +fervently sought and striven to entice the reading public to admit +conviction that a dozen _enceinte_ mice could enwomb and give birth to a +vast and terrific volcano. + +One must needs look in wondering astonishment upon that keenness of vision +which, at the middle of the nineteenth century, penetrating through mold +and debris which have, through a century and three fourths, been gathering +over momentous events, sees clearly that they were the genuine offspring +of youthful "cunning and imposture," even while the owner of such vision +himself perceived that neither the learned, talented, and keen Deodat +Lawson, nor any other one of all the many able and sagacious men who were +lookers-on at the amazing feats while they were transpiring, _dreamed_ +that the actings and sufferings could have been the results of cunning and +imposture. The day of Lawson and his companion observers was too near the +facts for any dreams about them. It required a peculiarly plastic modern +brain, and the intervening lapse of eightscore years, for the generation +and birth of such a _dream_. The reason of its non-appearance in 1692 is +very plain. Known facts then left no vacancy in the brains of that day for +storage of the fictions of dreamland. + +We return to little Dorcas Good. The creed devil-ward had hoodwinked all +eyes. All things were in a terrific and bewildering whirl. Calm reflection +and deliberate reasoning upon anything new were impossible. If perchance a +mind asked itself whether an infant was competent to bargain with the +devil and thence become a witch, it had no time to respond to its own +inquiry. In open court, mysterious bitings were perpetrated by the teeth +of this little girl, because the marks fitted her set and none other. The +marks were made by the accused girl's teeth. Ocular demonstration, +therefore, was proving her to be the devil's instrument; for otherwise she +could not invisibly bite, nor could her teeth be made to bite, those who +were off beyond her reach. + +Standing upon what we said in the last chapter relating to the passing of +hurts through the spirit to its outer body, we hold that spirits may have +so applied the spirit teeth of little Dorcas to the spirit limbs of the +afflicted girls, as to have left the marks of her teeth upon their flesh. + +Woefully did the creed of that time not only permit, but call for the +arrest of that infantile girl, solely because, under the operation of +natural laws of generation, she inherited properties or capabilities which +rendered her, from the time when she was conceived, ever onward, very +susceptible to psychological influences. The judges, observing what were +but legitimate and necessary outworkings of her inborn properties, being +ignorant of their true source and nature, deemed them such a crime that +the court sent her to Boston jail a prisoner, there to keep company with +the mother from whom her peculiar properties had been derived, by whose +milk they had been nourished, and in whose magnetisms they had unfolded. +The present century is learning facts which teach that inborn properties +and susceptibilities, and not compacts with the devil, constitute +_witches_--some of whom are very lovely. An infantile witch is no great +marvel now. Such can be found in many a family, "through whose lips angels +speak" to-day, as they did through Emanuel Swedenborg's when but a child, +and who, born in January, 1688, was precisely a contemporary of Dorcas +Good. + + + + +SARAH OSBURN + + +was companion prisoner of Sarah Good and Tituba on the memorable first +week in March, 1692. Thirty years before, she had been married to Thomas +Prince, and at the time of her arrest was wife of Alexander Osburn; +consequently she was well advanced in years. She also had long been an +invalid, confined during long periods to her bed. Her worldly +circumstances were comfortable--she and her family were neither poor nor +rich--were neither very low nor very high on the social scale. _But she +had heard words coming forth from unseen lips._ And on February 25, her +apparition appeared to and annoyed Ann Putnam. Nothing has been noticed in +the records which indicates that Ann ever spoke of any perceptions by her +inner senses prior to that date, or that any member of the circle, +excepting Tituba, preceded Ann in having opened vision. The latter saw +"the tall man, with white hair and serge coat," as early as January 15. +But Tituba's voice, had she have spoken, would have been powerless. Ann's +position in society was high; she belonged to a family of wealth, culture, +influence, and high respectability. Her mystical words were potent. In +four days subsequent to her first reported vision of apparitions, three +women were under arrest for witchcraft, and Ann's father was one of the +very efficient advocates of prosecutions for that crime. Feeble, +"bed-ridden" Sarah Osburn, of whom Upham speaks as one whose "broken and +disordered mind was essentially truthful and innocent," and whose +residence was at least a mile and a half north from Mr. Parris's home, and +quite distant east from Ann's, on a road not likely to be often traveled +by her, was among the marked and blasted three. Why? None now, perhaps, +can tell with certainty. Probabilities alone can be adduced. Our +supposition is, that at the moment when Ann's keen and far-sweeping inner +sight was opened, and spirit substance, instead of material light, became +her medium of vision, the most brilliant objects to meet her gaze, in all +the region far around, would be one or more of the mediumistically +unfolded persons dwelling there. From those among that class whose +systems were fountains of emanations which at the time impinged upon her +sensibilities, and did not harmoniously coalesce with her elements, and +therefore acted as quasi acids upon her alkalies, or as alkalies upon her +acids, produced painful effervescences which might ensue naturally, apart +from the aid of any manipulating intelligence; or, if some intelligent +being were observant of the currents and conditions of spirit magnetisms +or forces then, and disposed to either intensify, abate, or modify their +natural action, he might do so, and also could manipulate them to +furtherance of his own ends, whether beneficent or malignant. Then and +there, even high benevolence in one whose vision swept the far future, +might take such primal steps as short-sighted mortals must look upon as +necessarily altogether harmful in both immediate and remote results. + +Such natural laws as reign supreme in spirit-realms may have led to the +selection of secluded, inoffensive, "essentially truthful, and innocent" +Sarah Osburn, as one of the tormentors of the girls, who were either +schooled in magic by their own elected study and practice of it, or were +constitutionally fitted for fitful enfranchisement of their inner +perceptive organs while yet dwellers in their mortal forms, and whose +bodies could become tools for other minds to use. If she was simply the +voluntary actor out of her own "cunning or imposture," little Ann Putnam, +twelve years old, brightest among the bright, and member of one of the +most intelligent and religious families of the Village, she also must have +been herself a _devil_, and so devilishly a devil, that even Cloven-foot +might feel it a duty to pass his scepter into her hands. But grant that +she was a medium through whose form other minds and wills could act, as +she in fact was, and then we can regard her physical form as simply an +instrument through which an intelligence other than herself manifested +action to human senses; and thus we can deem _her_ guiltless, whatever +shall be our judgment of the intruding performer upon her "harp of a +thousand strings." + +Parts of the testimony in the case of Mrs. Osburn reveal her possession of +mediumistic susceptibilities. As with Joan of Arc and many others, so with +this woman; the inner ear could hear voices from some source impalpable by +external senses. + +"(It was said by some in the meeting-house that she had said that she +would never be tied to that lying spirit any more.) + +"_Q._ 'What lying spirit is this? Hath the devil ever deceived you and +been false to you?' + +"_A._ 'I do not know the _devil_. I never did see him.' + +"_Q._ 'What lying spirit was it, then?' + +"_A._ 'It was a _voice_ that I thought I heard.' + +"_Q._ 'What did it propound to you?' + +"_A_. 'That I should go no more to meeting. But I said I would; and did go +the next Sabbath day.'"--_Woodward's Hist. Series_, No. I. p. 37. + +Although the timid prisoner said only that she _thought_ she heard a +voice, the reader will notice that she made no denial that she had +previously said "that she would never be tied to that _lying spirit_ any +more;" therefore by fair implication she conceded that she had once, if +not many times, heard a voice which she had openly spoken of as having +been that of a _lying spirit_; and also that she had more or less been +instructed by and followed his, her, or its advice. The fact that she was +enjoined not to go to meeting any more, argues nothing either against the +spiritual source of the advice, or the good intent of whoever gave it. She +had long been a sickly, bed-ridden woman; therefore such advice might have +been given by any wise Christian physician. We are not concerned with +either the moral or religious states of invisible actors and speakers, but +are looking specially for some of the more distinct evidences that +invisible intelligences of some quality enacted Salem witchcraft, and, +therefore, looking for the peculiar properties of both the embodied +persons through and those upon whom they directly acted. + +Sarah Osburn, though a secluded, respectable, inoffensive woman well +advanced in years, was an early victim before the sweeping blast that +rushed over the Village. Too feeble to endure the hardship of prison life, +she died in jail before the day for her trial. She who heard voices from +out the realm of silence, possessed inner faculties in fit condition to +permit effluxes that reached and annoyed the mediumistic children, who +traced them back to her, and made statements which brought her under +suspicion of being a covenanter with the devil. Such capabilities +constituted her crime--her witchcraft--and incited a devil-fighting people +to persecution which hastened her exit to the realm from which the +advisory voices had come upon her ears. + + + + +MARTHA COREY. + + +Soon after the commencement of prosecutions, suspicion alighted on one of +more refinement, intelligence, efficiency, godliness, and respectability +than the females first arrested. Martha, wife of Giles Corey,--aged, +prayerful, but bright; disbelieving in any witchcraft; doubting the +existence of any witches; discountenancing searches for any,--said that +the eyes of the magistrates were blinded, and that she could open them. +She possessed spiritual and theological knowledge uncommon in her day and +vicinity, and must have held beliefs and convictions derived from other +sources than those at which her neighbors obtained their supplies. She was +aloof from the prevalent delusion devil-ward. + +Though a church member, a woman of prayer, of reputed, and doubtless of +genuine, piety, Martha Corey was very early _sensed_ by the Anns Putnam, +mother and daughter, as the source of emanations which tortured them. +Therefore she must be a witch. Grounds for such conclusion were not +necessarily fanciful and fallacious. When and where natural outworkings +from mediumistic properties and conditions were mistaken for symptoms of +witchcraft, Martha Corey might easily be convicted of diabolism. We credit +the allegation of Ann Putnam the younger that she was annoyed and +afflicted by Mrs. Corey even while the two were miles apart. But we +decline to admit that Mrs. Corey necessarily or probably had any voluntary +connection with the girl's sufferings. Either unintelligent natural forces +attracted the woman's effluvia to Ann, or else Tituba's "tall man," or +some other hidden intelligent being, formed connections and applied +processes which brought elements of these two persons into conjunction, +and thus produced in the girl intense physical disturbances and +sufferings, and attendant liberation of her inner perceptive faculties. + +Ann's uncle, Edward Putnam, together with Ezekiel Cheever, because of the +girl's repeated outcries upon Mrs. Corey, only just one week after the +sending of Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osburn to jail, concluded to make +a call upon sister Corey, who was "in church covenant" with them, and +learn from her own lips what she would say relative to the suspicions that +had been raised concerning her. + +These just and considerate men,--for they were such,--probably seeing the +possibility that the child might be mistaken as to the person who was +causing her to suffer, very properly called upon Ann when they were about +to start on their way to the woman's residence, and asked the suffering +girl to describe the dress Mrs. Corey was then wearing. Their obvious +design was to test the accuracy of the child's perceptions. But that +purpose was not accomplished. The child pleaded inability to see, and +stated that blindness was put upon her just then _by the accused woman +herself_. The sequel indicates that Mrs. Corey foresensed the visit she +was about to receive, imbibed knowledge of the intended test, and of +action to thwart its success. Though dwelling and being miles apart as +physical persons, those two females may have then been practically +together as spirits, and have mutually sensed the thoughts, acts, and +conditions of each other as far as each avoided intentional concealment. +All of Ann's statements may have been in strict accordance with facts +actually witnessed and experienced by her inner self. There is no need to +assume that she feigned or falsified at all, even if no invisible personal +operators were concerned in what then transpired; and certainly not, if +Tituba's "tall man" and his associates were then present and acting, as +they may have been. Perhaps invisible actors, holding both of these +impressible subjects under psychological control, either imparted to, or +withheld from either of them, just such knowledge and perceptions as would +further the purposes of the operators--which may have been either simply a +manifestation of their own powers, or an intimation to the adroit men that +they were undertaking to deal with something which it would not be easy to +outwit or thwart. Also other and very different purposes may have actuated +them. + +Some spirits, at some times, have ability, through some mortal lips, to +express their thoughts to the embodied, and to wreathe their own emotions +over faces they borrow, even while the spirit, the selfhood, of the mortal +form usurped is conscious of what is being done through it. Remember that +the form of the conscious Agassiz was, against his own will, made to obey +Townshend's mind. Perhaps Madam Corey's expressions of thoughts and +emotions were sometimes prompted, and at other times modified by an unseen +intelligence temporarily cohabiting with her own. + +When the two brethren of the church, going forth on their solemn, +self-imposed mission, had arrived at her home, Madam Corey welcomed them +_with a smile_; notwithstanding she possessed and expressed very exact +knowledge of the ominous nature and the purpose of their call. Her +saluting words were, "I know what you are come for. You are come to talk +with me about being a witch; but I am none. I cannot help other people's +talking of me." This probably had reference to Ann Putnam's saying that +she was afflicted by this speaker. She soon asked the men whether Ann, +whose accusations had prompted their call, "had described the clothes she +then wore." Learning that her dress had not been described, "a smile came +over her face." Somebody's consciousness of power, issuing from her form, +to obscure the child's vision, probably expressed itself in that smile; +and the reflection that the child was operated upon by forces within or +action through Mrs. Corey's own form, and therefore not necessarily by the +devil, and inference thence that the girl was not necessarily bewitched, +was followed by her saying, "she did not think there were any witches." +She knew enough of spiritual things to enable her to observe the broad +distinction, overlooked by her cotemporaries, that may exist between some +spirits and the devil; and also between persons whose inner senses were +cognizant of spirit presence and action as naturally as the outer eye was +of the sunlight, between these and such other human beings, could there be +any such, and she thought there could not, who made a covenant with the +devil, which covenant was a necessary preliminary to being a witch. "She," +very reasonably, "did not think there were any" such "witches;" and only +_such_ were sought for by her visitors and the startled public. + +This woman was intelligent, courteous, and devout--was capable of +understanding that _witch_, as then defined, necessarily meant a person +who had voluntarily entered into a distinct compact with a factitious +devil. Her _sensings_ in spirit spheres found no native-born monstrosity +there, and she could say in good conscience that she did not believe there +existed any such witches as her visitors and fellow church members were on +the hunt for. At the same time she may have known, probably did know, that +her own spirit and the spirit of little Ann Putnam could come into such +communings as would give them accurate and conscious mutual perception of +many unspoken thoughts and experiences in each other. + +Mrs. Corey, as we view her, was very mediumistic, and was also a woman +whose habitual aspirations were after things true, pure, and excellent. +But no amount of good or bad moral and religious qualities either +constitutes or nullifies ability for mutual visibility and rapport between +mediumistic persons. All such are impressible more by virtue of their +organisms and native properties, external and internal, than by any +intellectual and moral acquisitions, whether good or _bad_. + +Properties issuing from Mrs. Corey's system probably pinched and otherwise +tortured Ann Putnam; the girl knew their special mundane issuance, and +innocently gave utterance to the knowledge. She did so innocently and in +good faith. But the divulgence of facts often brings fearful sequences. + +When clear-headed logicians, being also conscientious and true men, as +well as holders of undoubting faith that none but covenanted devotees to a +wily devil could obtain knowledge and work harm by mysterious +processes,--when such men took this case into careful consideration, the +facts stated by the girl were to them proof that Mrs. Corey was the +devil's minion, and therefore must be consigned to a witch's doom--death. + +Edward Putnam and one other complained of her. + +The warrant for her arrest was dated March 19, just one week after the +visit of Putnam and Cheever. She was examined on the 21st; sentenced, +September 9; executed, September 22. The questioning at the examination +was discursive and protracted, spreading beyond inquiries as to who hurt +the children, and how they were tormented, because of the prisoner's +alleged disbelief in witchcraft; disapprobation of efforts to detect it; +declarations that the magistrates, ministers, and others were blinded, and +that she could open their eyes. She denied all knowledge as to who hurt +the children, all knowledge of the devil, and repeatedly asked permission +to go to prayer; but this privilege was denied her. She behaved like one +conscious of innocence of the things laid to her charge, and manifested +much intelligence, self-possession, and tact. + +While on trial, one feature in her demeanor, already indicated on a +previous occasion, strongly attracts notice. Notwithstanding the terrible +fate that was standing before her, and the unflagging persistency of the +magistrates and all others present in assuming her guilt, she was several +times accused of _laughing_. Those laughs may have been simply hysterical, +but possibly they were widely different from such. + +"Why did you say the magistrates' and ministers' eyes were blinded," and +"you would open them? She laughed, and denied it." + +"Were you to serve the devil ten years? She laughed." + +"Why did you say you would show us? She laughed again." + +As previously stated, when Edward Putnam and Ezekiel Cheever made their +call, although she knew the solemn object of the visit, they report that +"in a _smiling manner_ she said, 'I know what you are come for.' With +'eagerness of mind' she asked them, 'Does she tell you what clothes I have +on?' And when they replied that Ann had said, 'You came and blinded her, +and told her that she should see you no more before it was night, that so +she might not tell us what clothes you had on,' she seemed to _smile at it +as if she had showed us a pretty trick_." These men obviously were +prettily tricked. But who was genuine author of playful proceedings at a +time when the business was so grave and solemn? And whose emotions mantled +her face with smiles in the stern and frowning presence of "authority"? +Her calm and pleasant deportment, while others were agitated or solemnly +stern, was very like what is often manifested through some human forms by +intelligences whose condition places them beyond the reach of man's +frowns, laws, prisons, and scaffolds, and who, dwelling aloof from storms +of human passion, can smile amid scenes that make humanity shudder. + +Calef states, that "Martha Corey, wife to Giles Corey, protesting her +innocency, concluded her life with an eminent prayer upon the ladder." +Upham (vol. ii. 458) sums up her character thus: "Martha Corey was an aged +Christian professor of eminently devout habits and principles. It is +indeed a _strange fact_, that, in her humble home, surrounded, as it then +was, by a wilderness, this husbandman's wife should have reached a height +so above and beyond her age." The strangeness of the fact argues strongly +in favor of our position, that she was so unfolded as to receive +instruction directly from supernal teachers, or sense it in amid supernal +auras. "But," continues the historian, "it is proved conclusively by the +depositions adduced against her, that her mind was wholly disinthralled +from the errors of that period. She utterly repudiated the doctrines of +witchcraft, and expressed herself strongly and fearlessly against them. +The prayer which this woman made 'upon the ladder,' and which produced +such an impression upon those who heard it, was undoubtedly expressive of +enlightened piety, worthy of being characterized as 'eminent' in its +sentiments, and in its demonstration of an innocent, heart and life." + +All her history suggests that this worthy woman, whose ways and powers +were somewhat peculiar, was one of those rare individuals whose interior +perceptives become so unfolded while in the body as to sense in knowledge +by processes, and in some directions to extent, beyond the possible reach +of man's outward intellect. Because of such blissful unfoldings her age +condemned her, hastened her exit from among a creed-bound people, and her +entrance to the home of freed spirits. + + + + +GILES COREY. + + +As renowned as any one among all sufferers under persecutions for +witchcraft--a hero in the band--was Giles Corey, husband of Martha, more +than fourscore years old, but still strong and resolute. He may have been +wild and rough in youth and early manhood, but was efficient in business, +and before the close of life was possessor of a very handsome estate for +those times in that region. When the witchcraft prosecutions commenced, he +sided with the multitude for a time; was vexed that his wife would not do +the same, and, in his excitement, perhaps gave free vent to such hard +epithets as his tongue had been allowed to put forth freely in his earlier +years; some of which were soon brought to bear against his good dame, +while she was subjected to examination. From some cause his sympathy with +the prosecutors subsided when he saw his good wife maligned by them, and +soon the witch detectors were after him also. He was arrested and +imprisoned. His keen penetration perceived that acquittal, as things were +going, was impossible, unless the accused pleaded guilty; which plea +truth, honor, and manhood forbade him to make. To be tried and condemned +would involve a forfeiture of his property, and take it from his children. +But no trial could be had, and of course no condemnation, unless he should +plead either guilty or not guilty to the indictment. His decision was soon +formed. Taken into court, he closed his lips, and no power there could +open them. Neither _guilty_ nor _not guilty_ could be wrung from them. The +large, strong, old man stood in calm majesty before the court, his silence +challenging the whole civil power of the province to shake his purpose. +English custom in such cases--and he probably knew it--was to subject the +recusant to lingering torture, trusting that pain or prostration would +wring out a plea of either guilty or not guilty. Order was given by the +court to lay this old man prostrate, pile over him heavy weights, and put +him upon starvation diet for the purpose of bringing his stubborn will to +subjection. But neither oppressing weights, the pangs of hunger, nor both +combined, weakened the hold of that strong will upon its purpose. His only +utterances then were, "More weight, more weight!" + +Corey himself testified at his preliminary examination, and the court +tried to make it evidence of diabolism, that, twice at least, when +attempting to pray, there was more or less stoppage of his utterance. +Whether this was caused by the action of some outside intelligence +bringing spirit forces to bear upon him is not apparent. The case as +stated will hardly justify the presumption, though it suggests the +possibility that it was. The dumbness that was formerly imposed upon the +prophet Ezekiel and priest Zacharias, and that which frequently befalls +mediums in our own age, teach that unseen intelligences sometimes can and +do temporarily prevent the use of vocal organs by their legitimate owners. + +The conclusive evidences which led to his commitment were spectral. His +apparition had been seen by many, and had harmed them. Ann Putnam's sharp +eyes were first in this case, as in most others, to see the witch. She saw +this old man's apparition April 13; Mercy Lewis did on the 14th; and +subsequently he was seen as a specter by, and gave annoyances to, eight +other females and two males, who severally gave in depositions to that +effect. + +Was their perception of him nothing more than the product of the +imagination of the witnesses? Were all the declarations false? +Possibly--but not probably; for both imagination and perjury are often +charged with doing what clairvoyance legitimately sees and authorizes. + +He was examined April 19, five days after his apparition was first seen. +Calef states that "Sept. 16th Giles Corey was prest to death." In a +foot-note, p. 260 of _Salem Witchcraft_, we read that "Giles Corey was +_executed_ Sept. 19, 1692, about noon." Perhaps these statements permit +the conclusion that he was subjected to pressure from some hour of the +16th, Calef's date, till noon of the 19th, or about three days, when, +according to Fowler, he died. "In pressing," Calef says, "his tongue being +prest out of his mouth, the sheriff, with his cane, forced it in again +when he was dying." + +Corey's endurance and call for "more weight," says Upham, ii. 340, "for a +person of more than eighty-one years of age, must be allowed to have been +a marvelous exhibition of prowess, illustrating, as strongly as anything +in human history, the power of a resolute will over the utmost pain and +agony of body, and demonstrating that Giles Corey was a man of heroic +nerve, and of a spirit that could not be subdued." Hutchinson closes his +account of this case with the remark that, "in all ages of the world, +superstitious credulity has produced greater cruelty than is practiced +among Hottentots, or other nations, whose belief of a deity is called in +question." And why "_greater_ cruelty"? Nowhere outside of Christendom was +so cruel a devil conceived of as within it. And therefore greater +incitements to cruelty were called up in those fighting against his +minions than in any other men anywhere at any time. The creed devil-ward, +and not general "superstitious credulity," evoked in strong, good men, +true to their ancestral and the _Christian_ world's faith, more than +SAVAGE CRUELTY. + + + + +REBECCA NURSE. + + +The deluding and heart-steeling power of false conceptions of the devil, +combined with clear faith that he could get access to external things only +through human covenanters with himself, and also with belief that it was +an imperative duty of Christian men to slay such persons as even spectral +evidence or statements of clairvoyants pointed to as being in league with +him, is perhaps manifested as strikingly and sadly in the case of Rebecca +Nurse, as in that of any other person tried and executed at Salem--or +indeed anywhere, in any age. The spirit-form or apparition of this +venerable lady--venerable not only for years then bordering upon +fourscore, but for a long life of active beneficence; for strong good +sense; for Christian graces; for being the good wife of one and mother and +mother-in-law of several as good, respectable, and useful men as the +Village contained. Character and domestic connections so shielded her that +nothing short of mighty power could fix upon her a blasting crime. + +Her spirit-form or apparition had been seen by several members of the +circle, and charged with having tempted them to evil and tormented them +prior to the 23d of March; on the 24th she was brought before the +magistrates and subjected to examination. The occasion was well fitted to +put to severe test existing fealty to a fearful creed. Well might the +magistrate then say to the prisoner, as he did, "What a sad thing it is +that a church member ... should be thus accused and charged." Especially +_sad_ it must have been in this case, because the accused had long been, +and well deserved to be, regarded as one of the most venerable and +esteemed of all the "mothers in Israel" residing in the region there and +round about. Some sympathy was on her side, for when she said, "I can say +before my Eternal Father I am innocent, and God will clear my innocency," +the magistrate responded, "There is never a one in the assembly but +desires it." + +This venerable matron was then, and for scores of years had been, beloved +and respected wherever known for her beautiful domestic, social, and +religious course. Even such a one, however, was drawn in and crushed by +the fierce and whirling zeal that was impelling community into headlong +and frenzied fight for God and Christ against the _Devil_. Age and virtue +were insufficient to arrest or divert the rushing storm which +hallucination devil-ward then generated and propelled. A benighting creed, +like a huge nightmare, lay down upon, and held down, both reason and all +the kindlier sentiments, while it evoked and allowed free play to harsh +and murderous propensities. Whither either natural brilliancy or natural +attraction drew clairvoyant eyes most intently, thither were the accusing +girls swayed to lead the whelming force. Why should they lead to, or +rather why fix upon, the beloved and venerated Mrs. Nurse? + +We may not find in the old records as full and distinct evidence that she +was constitutionally impressible by either mesmeric or spirit force, as +many others are now seen to have been--we may miss conclusive _proof_ that +she was a magnet either drawing to or emitting from itself psychological +forces unconsciously, and thence either becoming herself psychologized or +yielding out substances from her own system which might cause, or be made +instrumental in causing, marked changes in other human organisms. Still, +several facts indicate that she may be assigned a place among the +sensitives. + +Mrs. Nurse, Mrs. Easty, and Mrs. Cloyse--three sisters--whose maiden name +was Towne, were eminently intelligent, efficient, respectable, and +respected matrons, and yet were all accused, tried, and the elder two were +executed because their spirit-forms or apparitions had been seen by +clairvoyants. The records contain a statement made at the time, in these +words: "It was no wonder they were witches, _for their mother was so +before them_." Often "blood will out" whatever its quality. Three noble +daughters bespeak a good mother, and yet, for some reason, Mrs. Towne had +been called _a witch_. The properties of the parent reappeared in her +children, and rendered them visible by the inner or clairvoyant sight of +others. Perception of their spirit-forms and of influences thence +emanating caused the accusing girls to name these good women as their +tormentors. Visibility as spirits or apparitions, and effluxes from their +systems, were their crimes. + +Though members of the accusing circle had been demonstrative for several +weeks, and probably had attracted to their bedsides or homes nearly every +person in the town who could move abroad, yet, at the time of her +examination, Mrs. Nurse had not been to see any of them. Her age and +infirmities alone might well have excused her. But when asked why she had +not visited the sufferers, she added to a statement of her years and +debility, that "by reason of _fits_ that she formerly used to have," she +had not been to see them. Remembrance of her own past fits--not +recent--not impending fits--but fits which "she _formerly_ used to have," +deterred her from going to the presence of the fit-afflicted. The question +was repeated thus: "_Why_ did you never visit these afflicted persons?" +_Ans._ "Because I was afraid _I should have fits, too_." Why afraid of +such result? Obviously she felt a secret apprehension that her coming in +contact with emanations from these mysteriously fit-afflicted ones, or +into close sympathy with them, would bring upon herself again such fits as +"she formerly used to have." From this comes forth spontaneously the +inference that she suspected that the nature and source of her own former +fits, and of those then transpiring in youthful forms, were so nearly +allied, that under the general law which makes like produce its like, she +was liable to have again generated within herself, in her old age, such +sufferings as she had experienced some time in previous years. In our view +she was correct in her supposition that she herself was constitutionally +liable to just such handlings as the jumping-jack girls were receiving. +Her own fears bespeak the probability that Mrs. Nurse was very impressible +by mind not her own--that she was highly mediumistic; and we ascribe her +persecution to her impressibility. Natural law led to designation of both +this woman and her sisters as the devil's covenanted servants. Their creed +blinded her persecutors to moral perceptions in certain emergencies, and +made them reason falsely concerning the source and purport of spectral +data. The presumed mediumistic properties of her mother, together with her +own apprehension that presence with the girls might bring renewal of her +own old fits, indicate that she probably was quite mediumistic. There is, +however, no clear indication that she was at any time so far developed as +to see or hear spirits or specters, nor that her own selfhood ever yielded +up to another's use her physical organs of speech or action. + +Mr. Parris, who, by request from the magistrates, took minutes of the +questions and responses at the trial of Mrs. Nurse, states that the tumult +in court was very disturbing, and intimates that it was difficult to +furnish a very reliable account of the transactions. Also Mrs. Nurse was +quite deaf and otherwise infirm, so that it is doubtful whether she always +correctly understood the questions put to her, or that she held her mental +faculties under such control as enabled her to give pertinent answers at +all times. She is reported as expressing belief that the accusing girls +were "not acting against their wills." Therein, if she was correctly +understood, she differed from the court and most beholders of the +children. Then the court remarked, "If you think it is not unwillingly, +but by design, you must look upon them as murderers." Probably all others +made that inference, and yet the accused did not. She distinctly denied +that she looked upon them as _murderers_, and only called them +"distracted." Crazy, and yet voluntary, seems to have been the view she +took of the girls; they were voluntary, but not responsible actors. Their +own wills, guided by their own intellects in disordered condition, +produced the fearful allegations. This was her charitable view. + +The power of human will to resist fits like those which the afflicted +endured is brought up for consideration when we find enfeebled Mrs. Nurse +afraid that visiting the suffering girls might induce recurrence of such +fits as she "formerly used to have." She seems to have surmised the +probable existence of such contagion in the air surrounding the sufferers +as in her weak state she might be unable to ward off; and it is possible +that memories of her own success when she was strong, in baffling +fit-producers may have persuaded her that young persons possess power to +withstand such operators, whether intelligent or merely physical, even +though the old may not. + +What human wills can do deserves most careful notice, and was well +illustrated in the case of little Elizabeth Parris. She was only nine +years old, and was one of the first, if not the very first, to be +distressed by fits and pinchings at the Village,--was the one whom Tituba +loved, and was specially unwilling, and yet was forced, to pinch. Upham +says, "She seems to have performed a leading part in the first stages of +the affair, and must have been a child of remarkable precocity." Drake, in +vol. iii., Appendix, says, "Parris appears to have been very desirous of +preventing his daughter Elizabeth from participating in the excitement at +the village. She was sent by her father, at the commencement of the +delusion, to reside at Salem, with Captain Stephen Sewall. While there, +the captain and his wife were much discouraged in effecting a cure, as she +continued to have sore fits. Elizabeth said that the great Black-man came +to her and told her, that if she would be ruled by him, she should have +whatsoever she desired, and go to a _golden city_. She related this to +Mrs. Sewall, who immediately told the child it was the devil, and he was a +liar, and bade her tell him so if he came again; which she did +accordingly.... The devil ... unaccustomed in those days to experience +such resistance ... never troubled her afterwards." It is generally true, +that if one strenuously resist the visitings of any spirit, whether it be +Gabriel or Beelzebub, the spirit cannot long maintain close access. If the +account just given, relating to Elizabeth Parris, be correct, she both saw +and heard what she, the actual and unsophisticated observer of his form +and features, called the "black man,"--who, as Mather states clairvoyants +generally say, "resembles an Indian." But Mrs. Sewall, adopting the usage +of the time, ignorantly called this semblance of an Indian "THE DEVIL." +Yes, the little girl, after her removal from home and _The Circle_, and no +doubt without young confederates, continued to have sore fits, and also to +see and to hear with her inner organs of sense during quite a long time. +"The captain and his wife were much discouraged in effecting a cure." The +discouragement shows that the process of cure was slow and prolonged; +eventually, however, the desired result was reached. The remedy is +indicated. Will-power wrought out the cure. The patient's own will was +aroused and armed with a resolute purpose to close up, and to keep +constantly and firmly closed, her own spirit loopholes through which only +could she see or hear the black man, or be influenced by him. A strong +will, steadily set against the entrance of a disembodied spirit, or +against perception of such, generally, though not always, effects its +purpose. The wills of companions and advisers, if working in harmony with +the resisting one, greatly increase its resisting power. Mrs. Sewall, and +the captain too, no doubt kept their wills set against the visiting black +man, till will-force generated an aura whose outgoing waves he could not +breast, and by which the girl's inner perceptives were firmly bandaged and +made dormant. Were the fits and visions which the isolated child continued +to have for a time after she was sent from home nothing other than her own +voluntary pranks and feignings? She was not author of them. The black man, +or Indian, then acted through and upon her till it was no longer in his +power to perform mighty works there because of unbelief, which had grown +up and hardened into an impervious wall of seclusion. + +Knowledge, gained by our personal observation in 1857, enables us to state +distinctly that the late Professor Agassiz, a man strong in body, mind, +and will, (while arrangements were being made for himself and several +associate professors for an investigation of spirit manifestations at the +Albion in Boston,) demanded for himself at the very outset, and was +granted, exemption from obligation to sit in a circle. Through all the +sessions which followed he kept most of the time on his feet, walking +vigorously back and forth, and manifesting symptoms of great uneasiness. +We then had heard that he formerly had been mesmerized, and therefore +suspected that he feared that if he sat quietly down in the presence of +mediums, he "should have fits too." His own account of his experiences +under the hands of Rev. Chauncy Hare Townshend we have given at length in +a recent work, published by Colby & Rich, Boston, entitled "Agassiz and +Spiritualism." We now gladly use what seems fitting occasion to state our +own belief, that his demand for personal exemption from compliance with a +rule which it was customary, fair, and important to enforce upon every +person present at a seance, and that his restlessness and disturbing +movements all sprung from a motive much more in harmony with the high +character and principles of that illustrious man, than are disparaging +ones which have often been ascribed to him. In our judgment, +_self-protection_ was his motive, and not design to disturb harmony, and +thus frustrate manifestations. His former experience had taught him that +even over his firm mental resistance another's mind had entered his body +and taken it out from under his own control; therefore he well might +apprehend that, if not very cautious, he again "might have fits," or might +become "a Saul among prophets." + +We have already substantially said that the blinding, infuriating, and +bloodthirsty beliefs of former days are perhaps in no case more distinctly +and deplorably manifested than in the lawless, barbarous treatment to +which good Rebecca Nurse was subjected by a court and people who sought to +do, and believed that they were doing, acceptable service to God, or, at +least, offensive service to the devil. Spectral evidence against her, and +that alone, was allowed to outweigh the merits of a long and beneficent +life. The jury first brought her in _not_ guilty. This verdict, surprising +the court, induced it to express apprehension that the jurors had not +given due weight to certain expressions which the prisoner had uttered; +whereupon _the jury itself requested permission_ to retire and hold +further deliberation; and even such a privilege was granted them! They +retired, reversed their verdict, pronounced her _guilty_, and she was +sentenced to be hanged. Afterward the governor of the province granted her +reprieve; and yet he soon revoked his own clement act. Probably neither +jury, nor the governor, was convinced that she was guilty of the crime +charged; nevertheless, both were forced by popular demand to let the +reputation and life of this eminently good woman fall a sacrifice before +infatuation and frenzy which the erroneous creed of the times engendered. + + + + +MARY EASTY, + + +a woman of strong character, good common sense, and capable of +comprehending both the dangers besetting any one then accused of +witchcraft, and also the purport and bearings of such questions as the +court was accustomed to ask, is presented in the following account. + + "The examination of Mary Easty, at a court held at Salem Village, + April 22, 1692, by the Wop. John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin. + + "At the bringing in of the accused, several fell into fits. 'Doth + this woman hurt you?' Many mouths were stopt, and several other fits + seized them. Abigail Williams said it was Goody Easty, and she had + hurt her; the like said Mary Walcot and Ann Putnam. John Jackson said + he saw her with Goody Hobbs. + + "'What do you say; are you guilty?' _Ans._ 'I can say before Jesus + Christ I am free.' _Response._ 'You see these accuse you.' _Ans._ + 'There is a God.' + + "'Hath she brought the book to you (the accusing girls)?' Their months + were stopt. + + "'What have you done to these children?' _Ans._ 'I know nothing.' + + "'How can you say you know nothing, when you see these tormented and + accuse you?' _Ans._ 'Would you have me accuse myself?' 'Yes, if you be + guilty. How far have you complied with Satan whereby he takes this + advantage of you?' + + "'Sir, I never complied: but prayed against him all my days. I have no + compliance with Satan in this. What would you have me do?' + + "'Confess, if you be guilty.' + + "'I will say it, if it was my last time: I am clear of this sin.' + + "'Of what sin?' + + "'Of witchcraft.' + + "(To the children.) 'Are you certain this is the woman?' + + "Never a one could speak for fits. + + "By and by, Ann Putnam said that was the woman: it was like her; 'and + she told me her name.' + + "(The court.) 'It is marvelous to me that you should sometimes think + they are bewitched and sometimes not, when several confess that they + have been guilty of bewitching them.' + + "'Well, sir, would you have me confess what I never knew?' + + "Her hands were clenched together, and then the hands of Mercy Lewis + were clenched. + + "'Look: now your hands are open, her hands are open. Is this the + woman?' + + "They made signs, but could not speak. But Ann Putnam, (and) + afterwards Betty Hubbard, cried out, 'Oh, Goody Easty, Goody Easty, + you are the woman!' + + "'Put up her head; for while her head is bound, the necks of these are + broken.' + + "'What do you say to this?' + + "'Why, God will know.' + + "'Nay, God knows now.' + + "'I know he does.' + + "'What did you think of the actions of others before your sisters came + out? Did you think it was witchcraft?' + + "'I cannot tell.' + + "'Why, do you not think it is witchcraft?' + + "'It is _an evil spirit_; but whether it be witchcraft I do not know.' + + "Several said she brought them the book, and then they fell into fits. + + + "Salem Village, March 24, 169-1/2. + + "Mr. Samuel Parris, being desired to take in writing the examination + of Mary Estie, hath delivered it as aforesaid. + + "'Upon hearing the aforesaid, and seeing what we did then see, + together with the charge of the persons then present, we committed + said Mary Easty to their Majesty's jail. + + "JOHN HATHORNE, } + "JONATHAN CORWIN, } _Assists_.'" + +Among the records of examinations and trials for witchcraft in 1692 we +have met with none other more commendable in its apparent spirit on both +sides, and in its continuous decorum, than the above; none other, also, +which reveals more clearly extreme depth of public conviction that the +prevalent witchcraft creed was sound to the core, and belief that spectral +evidence alone might legally prove the crime charged. From aught that +appears, there was something pertaining to Mrs. Easty, probably her whole +general character and her intellect, which held back both court and +spectators from rudeness in treatment of her, and even frequently tied up +the tongues of the accusing girls. The spectacle presented by that +examination was most rare and wonderful. We feel, when reading the +records, that magistrates, populace, and the accusers, all--all longed for +her acquittal; that none desired to, because none did accuse her of +anything but having been seen as an apparition, and of being the cause of +the fits which the girls were enduring. The girls named her as the cause +of their fits, but seemingly with less alacrity than they did most others +in like circumstances. But sympathy and respect must yield before belief; +her fit-producing emanations at that day proved her to have covenanted to +serve the devil. Having done that, she was _witch_, and therefore must +die. + +Her clear head perceived that the sufferings of the girls must owe their +existence to some occult power outside of themselves, and ascribed it to +"an evil spirit." Such an origin, however, did not prove to her +satisfaction that the doings were witchcrafts, that is, acts performed +either at the instigation or by aid of some mortal who was in covenant +with the devil. She was enough in advance of her times to suspect that a +spirit might work upon and among men without having formed such connection +with a mortal ally as would prove one's operations to be witchcrafts. She +perceived that the girls were wrought upon by some spirit, and she deemed +it an evil one. + +This noble woman was wife of Isaac Easty of Topsfield, fifty-eight years +old, and mother of seven children. After her conviction and sentence, and +when hope of escaping the dire penalty had fled, she addressed an +admirable letter to those then in power. The same inborn susceptibilities +which made her a victim may also have permitted a free influx of uplifting +power which raised her above narrow, selfish, and domestic views, and +prompted her, in moods generous and lofty, to appeal, in behalf of the +whole people of the land, for a stop in the course which the civil +authorities were pursuing. We judge the letter to be her own production, +and deem it indicative of good mental powers and of elevated philanthropy. + + "_The humble petition of Mary Easty unto His Excellency Sir William + Phips, and to the honored Judge and Bench now sitting in judicature in + Salem, and the reverend Ministers, humbly showeth_, That, whereas your + poor and humble petitioner, being condemned to die, do humbly beg of + you to take it into your judicious and pious consideration, that your + poor and humble petitioner, knowing my own innocency, blessed be the + Lord for it! and seeing plainly the wiles and subtilty of my accusers + by myself, cannot but judge charitably of others that are going the + same way of myself if the Lord steps not mightily in. I was confined a + whole month upon the same account that I am condemned now for, and + then cleared by some of the afflicted persons, as some of Your Honors + know. And in two days' time I was cried out upon (by) them, and have + been confined, and now am condemned to die. The Lord above knows my + innocency then, and likewise does now, as at the great day will be + known to men and angels. I petition Your Honors not for my own life, + for I know I must die, and my appointed time is set; but, the Lord he + knows it is, that if it be possible, no more _innocent blood_ may be + shed, which undoubtedly cannot be avoided in the way and course you go + in. I question not but Your Honors do to the utmost of your powers in + the discovery and detecting of witchcraft and witches, and would not + be guilty of innocent blood for the world. But _by my own innocency I + know you are in the wrong way_. The Lord in his infinite mercy direct + you in this great work, if it be his blessed will, that no more + innocent blood be shed! I would humbly beg of you that Your Honors + would be pleased to examine these afflicted persons strictly, and keep + them apart some time, and likewise to try some of these confessing + witches; I being confident there is several of them has belied + themselves and others, as will appear, if not in this world, I am sure + in the world to come, whither I am now agoing. I question not but you + will see an alteration in these things. They say, myself and others + having made a league with the devil, we cannot confess.... The Lord + above, who is the searcher of all hearts, knows, as I shall answer it + at the tribunal seat, that I know not the least thing of witchcraft: + therefore I cannot, I dare not belie my own soul. I beg Your Honors + not to deny this my poor humble petition from a poor, dying, innocent + person. And I question not but the Lord will give a blessing to your + endeavors." + +Calef says, that, "when she took her last farewell of her husband, +children, and friends," she "was, as is reported by them present, as +serious, religious, distinct, and affectionate as could well be expressed, +drawing tears from the eyes of almost all present." We can readily credit +that account to its fullest possible import; for her deportment and +language, throughout all the scenes in which she is presented, bespeak a +strong, clear, discriminating intellect, a true and brave heart, elevated +and generous sentiments, firm faith in God, and broad charity toward man. +A most welcome child found entrance to some bright home above when her +tried spirit gained release from its mortal form. + + + + +SUSANNA MARTIN. + + +The person bearing the above name was a widow residing in Amesbury, who +had been tried for witchcraft more than twenty years before, and therefore +obviously in 1692 was well along in life. Her answers in court, however, +bespeak a prompt, self-possessed, shrewd, and seemingly merry prisoner. A +few of her replies, together with the questions which elicited them, are +as follows:-- + +"Ann Putnam threw her glove at her in a fit. 'What do you laugh at?' said +the court. _Ans._ 'Well I may at such folly.' + +"'Is this folly to see these so hurt?' 'I never hurt man, woman, or +child.' + +"'What do you think ails them?' 'I do not desire to spend my judgment upon +it.' 'Do you think they are bewitched?' 'No; I do not think they are.' +'Well, tell us your thoughts about them.' 'My thoughts are mine own when +they are in; but when they are out they are another's.' 'Who do you think +is their master?' 'If they be dealing in the black art, you may know as +well as I.' 'How comes your appearance just now to hurt these?' 'How do I +know?' 'Are you not willing to tell the truth?' 'He that appeared in +Samuel's shape can appear in any one's shape.'" + +One R. P., dated Salisbury, August 9, 1692, and forwarded to Jonathan +Corwin, a document ranking among the ablest on record against the legal +proceedings of that day, in which he says, "I suppose 'tis granted by all +that the person of one that is dead cannot appear, because the soul and +body are separated, and so the person is dissolved, and so ceaseth to be; +and it is certain that the person of the living cannot be in two places at +one time." That writer conceived that man's personality ceased at death; +therefore he logically inferred that the personality of the prophet Samuel +had gone out of existence, and said, "The witch of Endor raised the DEVIL, +in the likeness of Samuel, to tell Saul his fortune." We find in many +places the cropping out, in those days, of the same idea. Susanna Martin +indicated her belief that it was the devil who appeared to the woman of +Endor, and not the glorified Samuel. Premises deemed valid by some men in +1692, would, if applied in that direction, support the conclusion that the +Moses and Elias who appeared to Jesus and others on the mount of +transfiguration were nothing but the devil in the shapes of those old +prophets. Belief that the devil personated Samuel is to us no more +unphilosophical than is Upham's conclusion, that "by the immediate agency +of the Almighty the spirit of Samuel really arose." Paul taught that there +_is_--not that there is to be hereafter, that there is now--"a spiritual +_body_." All clairvoyants to-day can see such a body belonging to a human +form, and sometimes see it being far away from the form to which nature +attached it. Each human being now possesses both a natural or physical and +also a spiritual _form_. That position of R. P. and Susanna Martin was +unsound which held that the physical body was essential to personality. +Also, since the Almighty originally infused through nature, elements and +forces which admit of the return of spirits by natural processes, it is as +unphilosophical to hold that Samuel was raised by the immediate agency of +the Almighty, or miraculously, as it would be to ascribe an American +traveler's return home from Europe to the _immediate_ agency of the same +Being. Natural laws and forces permitted, under possible conditions, the +return of Samuel himself. Such conditions existed often in and around the +hospitable and sympathetic woman of Endor, who was no _witch_, in the now +common meaning of that word; who was not called such in the Bible,--but +only a person who had a _familiar_ spirit, that is, a spirit so constantly +present, and having such ability of communion with her, as made the +spirit seem to her like one of her family--her familiar. A spirit thus +attendant on a mortal may be either good, bad, or indifferent, and may be +cognized by those persons whose constitution and development are such that +their inner senses can report to their external consciousness. The +existing properties of that woman, which permitted some special spirit to +frequently dwell and commune intelligibly with her, and be cognizable by +her inner senses as a dweller in her household, as her familiar,--such +properties would enable her to perceive the form and hear the voice of +another spirit, who might be called to her presence for an urgent purpose, +as naturally as the outer eye which sees one external form is competent to +see another. Samuel, when wanted, came and was seen by the clairvoyant +woman, but not by the external eyes of either Saul or his attendants. The +case was very like what occurred at the first examination under an +accusation for witchcraft at Salem Village. Sarah Good then said, "None +here see the witches"--that is, none see spirits--"but the afflicted and +themselves,"--that is, none but the afflicted and the accused, of which +she was one. In other words, the actual doers of the marvelous works, the +spirits, are seen only by the accusers and the accused--the clairvoyants +here. It is true that in the more modern instance the spirits seen were +often, though not always, those of living persons. But this does not +affect the principles of explanation. Those persons who are so unfolded as +to see spirit-forms can sometimes see them, whether they be still attached +to the outer ones or be liberated. Spirits, both some who had been +entirely liberated from the flesh, and other flesh-clad ones whose +encasements were translucent, could be seen by members of the accusing +"circle," and by some others of like combinations, even when the court and +the mass of attendants upon it might fail to see anything of the kind. The +horses and chariots of fire were as clearly seen by Elisha on the hills of +Dothan, while his servant was blind to them, as they were after the young +man's inner eyes were opened so that he too saw the helping and protecting +hosts. The change was in the young man himself, and not up on the hills. +Departed spirits are where they feel our aspirations for their presence, +and the opening of our inner sight, at any time or in any place, might +render them visible. + +Returning to Susanna Martin, we find that one William Brown, of Salisbury, +made deposition in 1692, "that, about one or two and thirty years ago, his +wife met Susanna in the road, who 'vanished away out of her sight,' ... +after which time the said Martin did many times appear to her at her +house, and did much trouble her.... When she did come, it was as birds +pecking her legs, or pricking her with the motion of their wings; and then +it would rise up into her stomach with pricking pain, as nails and pins, +of which she did bitterly complain.... After that it would up to her +throat in a bunch like a pullet's egg; and then she would turn back her +head and say, 'Witch, you shan't choke me.'" + +Much more testimony was adduced to show that this woman's apparition was +very frequently seen; and not only seen, but was a source of exceeding +sufferings to many people. This argues nothing against her character, but +plainly hints that the relation of her inner to her outer form was such +that the former could be seen and felt by many persons who either +constitutionally or from sickness, or both, were very sensitive. Such +persons often saw her spirit-form, and suffered from its psychological +action. That peculiarity perhaps made her so luminous as to be observable, +and therefore accused, by "the circle," and the accusation brought her to +the gallows. + + + + +MARTHA CARRIER. + + +The faculties and manifestations which nearly two centuries ago were +deemed to constitute witchcraft, and the mode of eliciting proof of that +crime then, stand forth very conspicuously in the history of the wife and +children of Thomas Carrier of Andover. + + _The Examination of Martha Carrier, May 31, 1692._ + + "_Q._ Abigail Williams, who hurts you? _A._ Goody Carrier of Andover. + + "_Q._ Elizabeth Hubbard, who hurts you? _A._ Goody Carrier. + + "_Q._ Susan Sheldon, who hurts you? _A._ Goody Carrier; she bites me, + pinches me, and tells me she would cut my throat if I did not sign her + book. Mary Walcott said she afflicted her, and brought the book to + her. + + "_Q._ What do you say to this you are charged with? _A._ I have not + done it. Susan Sheldon cried, she looks upon the black man. Ann Putnam + complained of a pin stuck in her. _Q._ What black man is that? _A._ I + know none. Mary Warren cried out she was pricked. _Q._ What black man + did you see? _A._ I saw no black man but _your own presence_. _Q._ + Can you look upon these and not knock them down? _A._ They will + dissemble if I look upon them. You see you look upon them and they + fall down. _A._ It is false; the _devil is a liar_. I looked upon none + since I came into the room. Susan Sheldon cried out _in a trance_, I + wonder what could you murder thirteen persons! Mary Walcott testified + the same: that there lay thirteen ghosts! All the afflicted fell into + intolerable outcries and agonies. Elizabeth Hubbard and Ann Putnam + testified the same: that she had killed thirteen at Andover. _A._ It + is a shameful thing that you should mind these folks, who are out of + their wits. _Q._ Do not you see them? _A._ If I do speak you will not + believe me. You do see them, said the accusers. _A._ You lie; I am + wronged. There is a black man whispering in her ear, said many of the + afflicted. Mercy Lewis in a violent fit, was well, upon the + examinant's grasping her arm. The tortures of the afflicted were so + great that there was no enduring of it, so that she was ordered away, + and to be bound hand and foot with all expedition; the afflicted in + the mean while almost killed, to the great trouble of all spectators, + magistrates, and others. + + "_Note._ As soon as she was well bound they all had strange and sudden + ease. Mary Walcott told the magistrates, that this woman told her, she + had been a witch this forty years." + +The foregoing record shows the fearful ordeal to which any one might be +subjected upon whom an accusation of witchcraft fell, and the +hopelessness of escape where spectral evidence was admitted and held to +be reliable. Here was a woman who, it seems, had been conscious of spirit +presence with her for "forty years," and her constitutional properties +which permitted this were so luminous in the spiritual atmosphere, or +medium of vision by inner eyes, that the clairvoyant girls readily caught +sight of her, readily felt influences from her, and therefore accused her +of tormenting them. + +The general character and deportment of this woman prior to her arrest may +not have won public approbation. When in presence of the magistrates she +was self-possessed and not lacking in boldness; for otherwise she would +not have told the judge that his own presence was the only black man she +had seen there. She told her examiners that it was shameful for them to +mind "these folks, who are out of their wits." She said to the girls, "You +lie; I am wronged." Her presence permitted extraordinary visions, +contortions, sufferings, and outcries, and probably emanations from her +were special helps to the unwonted outflow. + +_In trance_, one saw thirteen dead bodies, and charged the accused with +having murdered them. It was _in trance_ that this was seen and said. If +_entranced_, was the girl, then, a voluntary seer and speaker? No. +Supermundane force was in action there. Entrancements and obsessions came +upon all those youthful accusers fitfully--and the forms of the girls +generally were tools operated by wills entering from outside. The tongue +of that entranced accuser, like Ann Cole's, probably was "improved to +utter thoughts that never were in her own mind." + +Four of Mrs. Carrier's children were brought into court in company with +herself, either as accused ones or as witnesses against some members of +the family. "Before the trial," says Drake, "several of her own children +had frankly and fully confessed not only that they were witches +themselves, but that their mother had made them so." The artlessness and +simplicity of their _confessions_ render them not simply entertaining, but +more instructive than almost any other statements made at the examinations +and trials. Little Sarah was asked,-- + +"How long have you been a witch? _A._ Ever since I was six years old. How +old are you now? _A._ Near eight years old; brother Richard says I shall +be eight years old in November next. + +"Who made you a witch? _A._ My mother; she made me set my hand to a book. +How did you set your hand to it? _A._ I touched it with my fingers; and +the book was red; the paper of it was white. She said she never had seen +the black man ... that her mother had baptized her, and the devil or black +man was not there, as she saw. Her mother said, when she baptized her, +'Thou art mine for ever and ever. Amen.' + +"How did you afflict folks? _A._ I pinched them. She said she went to +those whom she afflicted--_went_, not in body, but in her spirit. She +would not own that she had ever been at the witch-meeting at the Village." + +The _confessions_ (?) are beautiful and precious; they are robed in all +the appropriate naivete of any school-girl's _confession_ that herself was +a--_pupil_. Not a tinge of shame, sorrow, or humiliation is visible +anywhere about them. Not a sign appears, that, in little Sarah's +comprehension, there was anything more censurable, as in fact there was +not, in her being a witch, than there is in the child of to-day being a +Sunday school scholar. Disclosure of common occurrences at her home, which +inborn faculties there as naturally brought into view, as other faculties +there and elsewhere cause the limbs of childhood to expand and its +intellect to unfold, constituted her confession of the witchcraft that +pertained to her mother and herself. + +The common mind, if not cautioned, will almost perforce attach meanings to +the testimonies of Martha Carrier's children which never belonged to them. +The detailings of facts and experiences not rare in that mediumistic +family, were no confession of anything like what the public in any age has +been accustomed to designate by the term witchcraft. In biblical times the +occurrences might have been called prophecies--true or false--and to-day +they would be regarded as spirit manifestations, or near kindred to such. + +The little girl's _confessions_ are _precious_ as well as beautiful; they +are instructive comments upon the creed held by the adults of her day; +they give some support to the position that compact with some spirit was +an element in preparation for working marvels. Her mother baptized her, +and made her virtually sign a book, and then claimed her own child as hers +"for ever and ever, Amen." The little child herself seems to have regarded +this ratification of her mother's spirit claims upon her spirit as having +made herself a witch; but such a witch as she was not ashamed to be, and +saw no harm in being. Indeed, how can any other than perverted vision see +harm in the girl's filial compact? Her clairvoyant and other mediumistic +faculties had become so unfolded when she was about six years old, that +she and her mother, as freed spirits, could, in conscious companionship, +roam in spirit realms; and she, no doubt, felt that forces emanating from +the mother aided in her unfoldment, and continued to have much sway over +her in her mental journeyings and operations. She might with much +propriety say that her mother made her a witch. And her case shows that +the process for producing a witch might be much simpler and much less +horrifying than the public in her day had any conception of. Indeed, +witchification was then, and now is, a growth or unfoldment from God's +plantings much more than a manufacture by the devil's or any mother's +hands. She saw no devil, no black man--but only her own mother was +concerned in making her a witch; and the mother probably made her a witch +by processes as natural and legitimate as those by which she had +previously made her a child. + +The girl's power for afflicting was mental; her journeyings and pinchings +were mental; and yet, no doubt, her grip was as sensibly felt by the +nerves of those whom she pinched as would have been firm graspings of +their flesh by her fingers of bones and muscles. It is the spirit only +which feels hurts of the body, and a pinched spirit imprints the hurt on +the flesh it is animating. This little girl's statements confirm Tituba's, +and give credibility to the many declarations of the accusing girls that +they were pinched, bitten, and tortured by persons whose outer forms were +remote from them at the time. We live amid mysteries which one by one are +getting revealed as time rolls on. + +An instructive instance of the warping force of these prevalent beliefs in +shaping the diction of the most erudite describers of witchcraft facts, is +found in Lawson's summary of events, where, when commenting upon testimony +like that given by little Sarah, he says, "Several have _confessed_ +against their own mother, that they were instruments to bring them into +_the devil's covenant_." But the girl's testimony mentioned a covenant +with her mother _alone_, saying that the devil was not there, as she saw. +It was Lawson, and not the girl, who brought the devil into this case. + +The same writer further says, "Some girls of eight or nine years of age +did declare that after they were so betrayed by their mothers to the power +of _Satan_, they saw _the devil_ go in their _own shapes_ to afflict +others." But the statement of Sarah is, that she herself went forth and +afflicted in her spirit-form, and not that the _devil_ went in her shape. +The cultured of that generation had _devil on the brain_ so severely, that +they persistently brought him in even where the facts as presented by the +witnesses plainly excluded him. + +Richard Carrier, eighteen years old, son of Thomas and Martha, was +examined. + +"Have you been in the devil's snare?--Yes. + +"Is your brother Andrew insnared by the devil's snare?--Yes. + +"How long has your brother been a witch?--Near a month. + +"How long have you been a witch?--Not long. + +"Have you joined in afflicting the afflicted persons?--Yes. + +"You helped to hurt Timothy Swan, did you?--Yes. + +"How long have you been a witch?--About five weeks. + +"Who was in company when you covenanted with the devil?--Mrs. Bradbury. + +"Did she help you afflict?--Yes. + +"Who was at the Village Meeting when you were there?--Goodwife How, +Goodwife Nurse, Goodwife Wildes, Proctor and his wife, Mrs. Bradbury, and +Corey's wife. + +"What did they do there?--Eat, and drank wine. + +"Was there a minister there?--No, not as I know of. + +"From whence had you your wine?--From Salem, I think it was. + +"Goodwife Oliver there?--Yes; I knew her." + +Statements by this witness, and also his probable circumstances and +condition, seem worthy of special note. Frankness glows on all that he +said. He was stating facts, which, in his apprehension, were harmless, and +why should he not let them out? He knew, probably, that his mother had all +through his life been accustomed to see and act through other than her +physical organs, and was conscious that during the last five weeks at +least himself had been doing the same. The abilities came unsought into +action--were outgrowths from the natures of his mother and himself, and +were not crimes. His long familiarity with the ostensible workings of such +powers through his mother had shown him that they were neither diabolical +nor censurable; and why not admit possession of them, and the acts they +produced, whether through himself, his mother, or any one else? Neither +the mother nor children in that family were afraid of ghostly beings, +because able to confer with them intelligibly and sympathetically; and the +ready admission by Richard that he had aided in hurting Timothy Swan, and +been at a great witch-meeting, where they ate, and also drank wine, was no +confession of any crime, but simple statement of facts. He was a medium, +and also a frank and truthful witness. + +He granted that he had been in the devil's snare. How much did this +import? He and his brother Andrew both had been caught in it--one about +four, and the other five, weeks prior to his statement. As certain +atmospheric and other physical conditions often produce epidemic or +wide-spread physical health or disease either, and certain public mental +and moral states often act powerfully upon many minds, the great public +excitement engendered by the arrest and prosecution of witches may well be +deemed adequate to have unfolded latent mediumistic susceptibilities very +widely; and it is not surprising that the children of a Martha Carrier +should have such susceptibilities suddenly brought to their own +cognizance, nor that they should as suddenly become well-fledged +clairvoyants competent to wing their way widely and rapidly in the airs of +a world in which spirits dwell; nor that they should be psychologized by +spirit beings, and made to take part in any work, malignant or benevolent, +which their controllers were bent upon executing. By being caught in the +devil's snare, they probably meant neither more nor less than that they +became mediums. All conditions like theirs the public was charging the +devil with producing, and the young Carriers assented to that being done +in their own case. Most things not of the earth, earthy, were then charged +to the devil; and the mental powers of these children were not competent +to show that their slippings out from their hampering bodies were effected +without his aid. + +Frequent mention occurs of witch-meetings at Salem Village, on the Green, +or the minister's pasture, near Deacon Ingersoll's. + +If any accused one had been seen in the company of assembled witches +there, the fact was excessively damaging. Richard Carrier acknowledged +having been there, and freely mentioned what persons were in the +assemblage--but did not see a minister. + +The records have not led us to suppose that Mrs. Carrier ever stood very +high in public estimation. It is not improbable that influences from +outside of her had often, during the forty years through which she had +experienced them, made her life eccentric, and many of her actions +mysterious. Even the aged and charitable Francis Dane said, "That there +was a suspicion of goodwife Carrier among some of us before she was +apprehended, I know; as for any other persons, I had no suspicion of +them." We must infer from that statement that she was noted for some +peculiarities which were not universally regarded with favor; suspicions +hung around her. + +She was accused by one of causing grievous sores in himself, of sickening +his cattle, and working many injuries; by others also of hurting and +bewitching them, and of having attended a witch-meeting. The accusing +girls, as seen above, were most excessively agonized when in court with +her. She may justly be regarded, we think, as being socially among the +lower class of persons then accused; and yet we have met with nothing +which will justify an inference that she was altogether unworthy of +esteem, or even that she was emphatically bad in any respect. Mather +called her _rampant hag_, and hence much of Christendom has been +influenced to contemplate her with aversion. But whatever may have been +her character, the sufferings of herself and family draw forth our +sympathies. + +If she said she had been a witch forty years, she meant only that for +"forty years" she had been conscious of the ongoing of occult processes +within and around herself. We doubt whether she applied the word _witch_ +to herself, but can readily believe that she confessed to such experiences +and performances as were in her day often called witchcrafts. That she +detailed some experiences to Mary Walcott, which the latter termed +witchcrafts, is highly probable. Neither the accused nor the accusers were +accustomed to speak of seeing the devil; but it was the black man, or some +other defined spirit,--not the devil,--according to their own statements. +Yet when recorders and reporters undertook to give us either the substance +of what was said, or a nearly verbatim report, they generally substituted +devil for black man, or for any other unseen occult operator, whatever +his, her, or its moral purpose or character. So, too, all specially +marvelous works were called witchcrafts. + +The little Carrier children were very instructive witnesses. Too young and +inexperienced to do otherwise than answer simple questions directly in +such language as was common, they show us of to-day, better than do older +witnesses, what was probably common application of some terms of very +frequent use in descriptions of things marvelous. When by implication +charged with being themselves witches, their answers conceded the truth of +the charge. One of them, eight years old, said she had been a witch ever +since she was six. Another, eighteen years old, had been a witch about +five weeks, and said that brother Andrew had been such "near a month." +Little did these frank and no doubt truthful young confessors of family +and personal experiences deem that they were exposing themselves, and +their mother also, to punishment by death. What they confessed to were +frequent sights and sounds in their home, which came as naturally and +innocently before them as the visits and words of friends and neighbors. +Community called such matters witchcrafts, and why should not these +children do the same? Their mental powers were not expanded enough to even +entertain the slightest apprehension that what they were saying could +imply that they had made a compact with the devil, or that a simple, true +statement of their unsought experiences could bring harm to themselves or +any one else. Equally incompetent were such little ones to comprehend the +nature of that devil who existed in the conception of the magistrate when +he asked whether the devil had insnared the witness and brother Andrew. +They, no doubt, held the common notion that any worker whatsoever from +realms unseen by the external eye was the devil; and having had +experience--at least one of them had--that her own spirit had gone forth +from her body and pinched certain persons, she understood that she had +performed a part in works which were imputed to the devil. Still neither +of these children confessed, or could be "insnared" to own, that they had +seen _the devil_. + +They, obviously, and their mother, we do not doubt, often as naturally and +innocently beheld spirit forms and scenes, and just as innocently held +converse with spirits, as they surveyed the scenes and forms of the outer +world, or went in company with embodied people to their congregations in +the meeting-house or elsewhere. The words of babes and sucklings, at a +witchcraft trial, revealed the existence of finer natural laws and forces, +and their operation also, upon and through some human beings, than science +then dreamed of, or is yet quite ready to recognize. Very much in +witchcraft times was charged to the devil which should have been credited +to God. The erroneous entry of many heavy items on the great +account-books, in the days of the fathers, calls for immense labor and +study for their proper and equitable adjustment now. Martha Carrier and +her children were probably posted on the wrong side of the moral Ledger +when Cotton Mather labeled her "Rampant Hag;" and there they have stood +ever since. + + + + +REV. GEORGE BURROUGHS. + + +Having come to the last of the accused whose case our leading purpose +induces us to notice at much length, we present here a specimen of +indictment for the crime of witchcraft. + + "THE INDICTMENT OF GEORGE BURROUGHS. + + Essex } _Anno Regni Regis et Reginæ Willielmi et_ + ss. } _Mariæ. Nunc Angliæ, &c., quarto._ + + "The jurors of our sovereign lord and lady, the king and queen, + _present_--That George Burroughs, late of Falmouth, in the province of + Massachusetts Bay, in New England, clerk, the 9th day of May, in the + fourth year of the reign of our sovereign lord and lady, William and + Mary, by the grace of God, of England, Scotland, France and Ireland + king and queen, defenders of the faith, &c., and divers other days and + times, as well before as after, certain detestable arts, called + witchcrafts and sorceries, wickedly and feloniously hath used, + practiced, and exercised, at and within the township of Salem, in the + county of Essex aforesaid, in, upon, and against one Mary Walcutt, of + Salem Village, in the county of Essex, single woman; by which said + wicked arts the said Mary Walcutt, the 9th day of May, in the fourth + year abovesaid, and divers other days and times, as well before as + after, was and is tortured, afflicted, pined, consumed, wasted, and + tormented, against the peace of our sovereign lord and lady, the king + and queen, and against the form of the statute in that case made and + provided. + + "Witnesses: MARY WALCOTT, SARAH VIBBER, + MERCY LEWIS, ANN PUTNAM, + ELIZ. HUBBARD. + + "Indorsed by the grand jury, _Billa vera_." + +Three other similar indictments accompanied the above, for witchcrafts +practiced by Burroughs upon Elizabeth Hubbard, Mercy Lewis, and Ann Putnam +severally. + +S. P. Fowler, in the edition of "Salem Witchcraft" edited by him, says, on +page 278,-- + +"The trial of Rev. Geo. Burroughs appears to have attracted general notice +from the circumstance of his being a former clergyman in Salem Village, +and supposed to be a leader amongst witches." + +Fowler adds, that-- + +"Dr. Cotton Mather says he was not present at any of the trials for +witchcraft; how he could keep away from that of Burroughs we cannot +imagine. His father, Dr. Increase Mather, informs us that he attended this +single trial, and says, 'Had I been one of George Burroughs's judges, I +could not have acquitted him, for several persons did upon oath testify +that they saw him do such things as no man that had not a devil to be his +familiar could perform.' + +"Burroughs was apprehended in Wells, in Maine; so say his children. They +also inform us that he was buried by his friends, after the inhuman +treatment of his body from the hands of his executioners at Gallows Hill, +in Salem. + +"He is represented as being a small, black-haired dark-complexioned man, +of quick passions and great strength. His power of muscle, which +discovered itself early when Burroughs was a member of Cambridge College, +and which we notice in the slight rebutting evidence offered by his +friends at his trial, convinces us that he lifted the gun, and the barrel +of molasses, by the power of his own well-strung muscles, and not by any +help from the devil, as was supposed by the Mathers, both father and son. +Alas, that a man's own strong arm should prove his ruin!" + +We shall show shortly that this commentator here overlooked an important +point. Burroughs himself made statement, in his own defense, that an +Indian stood by and lifted the gun; therefore the chief question is not +whether Burroughs was himself strong enough to lift it as alleged, but +whether he told the truth when he said that he had help. The chief +question bears upon his veracity, not upon his strength. The Mathers +believed him on that point. + +The allegations in the indictment were for witchcrafts invisibly practiced +upon members of the famous CIRCLE, and not for visible feats of strength. +All the girls testified to seeing and suffering from his apparition. Also +some who confessed to having been _witches_ themselves (for some accused +ones were over-persuaded to speak of their own clairvoyant observations +and experiences as witchcrafts, and therefore of themselves as +witches),--some such testified thus, as Mather says (p. 279, _Salem +Witchcraft_). "He was accused by eight of the confessing witches as being +head actor at some of their hellish rendezvous, and who had promise of +being a king in Satan's kingdom now going to be erected; he was accused by +nine persons for extraordinary liftings, ... and for other things, ... +until about thirty testimonies were brought in against him." + +Mather's account of the witchcraft at Salem was drawn up at the request of +William Phips, then governor of the province; and two prominent judges at +the trials indorsed it as follows:-- + + "The reverend and worthy author having, at the direction of his + Excellency the governor, so far obliged the public as to give some + account of the sufferings brought upon the country by witchcrafts, + and of the trials which have passed upon several executed for the + same: + + "Upon perusal thereof, _we find the matters of fact and evidence truly + reported_, and a prospect given of the methods of conviction used in + the proceedings of the court at Salem. + + "Boston, Oct. 11, 1692. + + "WILLIAM STOUGHTON, + "SAMUEL SEWALL." + +Manifestation of one class of phenomena presented at those trials has not +been noticed in the preceding pages; viz., the appearance of the spirits +of particular departed ones to many of the accusing girls. It is obviously +true that those clairvoyants were very much oftener beholders of the +spirits of those still dwelling in mortal forms than of those who had +escaped from thralldom to the flesh. Still there were then some cases in +which the spirits of some who had been known in that vicinity, and whose +bodies were moldering beneath its soil, were both seen and heard. Among +others, two former wives of Burroughs were named. Mather says (p. 282), +"Several of the bewitched had given in their testimony that they had been +troubled with the apparitions of two women, who said they were G. B.'s two +wives; and that he had been the death of them.... Now, G. B. had been +infamous for the barbarous usage of his two successive wives, all the +country over. (p. 286.) ... 'Twas testified, that, keeping his two +successive wives in _a strange kind of slavery_, he would, when he came +home from abroad, pretend to tell the talk which any had with them; that +he has brought them to the point of death by his harsh dealings with his +wives, and then made people promise that, in case death should happen, +they would say nothing of it; that he used all means to make his wives +write, sign, seal, and swear to a covenant _never to reveal any of his +secrets_; that his wives had privately complained unto the neighbors about +_frightly apparitions_ of evil spirits, with which their house was +sometimes infested," &c. + +Some of these allegations probably rested on firmer bases of facts than +have generally been perceived. Though we regard Burroughs as having been +one of the kindest and best of men, we do not entirely withhold credence +from the general import of such allegations regarding him. They point both +to extraordinary unfoldments within him, and to probable handlings and +control of his outer form at times by some intelligence not his own. +"_Strange kind of slavery_" would naturally result, in those days, from a +husband's telling his wife, on returning to his home, what conversation +she had held with others during his absence, _if his statements were +true_; but if not true, the wife would only laugh at his pretensions, and +make no complaints to neighbors. If both true and oft repeated, such +mysterious utterances might well enslave, worry, and bring close to +death's door a sensitive wife; and the husband, however affectionate and +kind, may at times have been as powerless to shape his course of procedure +as is the dried leaf when whirled onward by strong autumnal breezes. Acts +not his own the world would hold him responsible for; and no wonder that, +in his age, a spiritualistically unfolded, an illumined man, and one also +whose form might be moved, as was that of Agassiz, by will not his own, +should strive in all possible ways to prevent wives, and any other people +who knew them, from revealing any of his peculiar and marvelous _secrets_; +no wonder that he sought to make his wives "write, sign, seal, and swear" +never to do it; because the noising abroad of such powers as he possessed, +and such performances as were attendant upon him, if publicly known, would +be profaned, would destroy his usefulness, and endanger, if not take, his +life. Thanks that, in our day, danger of a hangman's rope does not +threaten one because of his high spiritual illumination. + +George Burroughs was graduated at Harvard College in 1670; had been a +preacher for many years prior to 1692, and, during some of them, +ministered to the people at Salem Village. But before the outburst of +witchcraft there, he had found a home far off to the north-east, on the +shores of Casco Bay, in the Province of Maine, where he was then humbly +and quietly laboring in his profession, but not in impenetrable seclusion. +Clairvoyants are masters of both seclusion and space to a marvelous +extent. Throughout a region far, far around, wherever the special light +pertaining to the mediumistic or illuminated condition revealed its +possessor and put forth its attractions, there the opened inner vision of +the accusing girls might make them practically present. Emanations from +one residing at Falmouth or at Wells might readily meet and blend with +those from sensitives at their home in Salem. Thought flies fast and far. +With equal speed, and quite as far, can the unswathed inner perceptives of +an entranced or illumined mortal be attracted. Old memories and +undissolved psychological attachments may have operated in this case. One +of the accusing girls had lived for a time in the family of Burroughs +while he resided at the Village. Chains of association are never broken +and rendered forever unusable, though they often become exceedingly +attenuated, and cease to retain recognition in our ordinary conditions. +Several of the accusing girls alleged that Burroughs was one, and a +leading and authoritative one, in the band of apparitional beings from +whom their torments came. He was "cried out upon," arrested, tried, +condemned, and executed. + +The opinions of different writers as to the real character and worth of +this man have been very diverse. While some have accounted him an +hypocritical wizard, others have deemed him a man of beautiful and +beneficent life. Mather regarded him with aversion, and says, "Glad should +I have been if I had never known the name of this man." Afterward the same +author charged Burroughs with "tergiversations, contradictions, and +falsehoods." Sullivan, in his History of Maine, says, that "he was a man +of bad character, and of a cruel disposition." Hutchinson asserted, on +insufficient grounds, that when under examination, "he was confounded, and +used many twistings and turnings." But Fowler says, "All the weight of +character enlisted against him fails to counteract the favorable +impression made by his Christian conduct during his imprisonment, and at +the time of his execution." Calef says, that, the day before execution, +Margaret Jacobs, who had testified against him, came to the prisoner, +acknowledging that she had belied him, and asking his forgiveness; "who +not only forgave her, but also _prayed with and for her_." The same +adducer of "_Facts_" states that, "when upon the ladder, he made a speech +for the clearing of his innocency, with such solemn and serious +expressions as were to the admiration of all present; his prayer (which he +concluded by repeating the Lord's prayer) was so well worded, and uttered +with such composedness and such (at least seeming) fervency of spirit, as +was very affecting, and drew tears from many, so that it seemed to some +that the spectators would hinder the execution. _The accusers said the +black man stood and dictated to him._ As soon as he was turned off, Mr. +Cotton Mather, being mounted upon a horse, addressed himself to the +people, partly to declare that he (Burroughs) was no ordained minister, +and partly to possess the people of his guilt, saying that the devil has +often been transformed into an angel of light; and this somewhat appeased +the people, and the executions went on." His prayers, and his whole +deportment and spirit during these last trying scenes, indicate his +possession of a calm, strong soul, which bore him, on the wings of +innocence and piety, into a region of serenity which his traducers and +murderers were unfited to enter and knew not of. The brief account which +Upham's researches enabled him to furnish of this man's life prior to the +witchcraft mania presents still further evidences of his sterling worth. +That author says, "Papers on file in the State House prove that in the +District of Maine, where he lived and preached before and after his +settlement at the Village, he was regarded with confidence by his +neighbors, and looked up to as a friend and counselor.... He was +self-denying, generous, and public-spirited, laboring in humility and with +zeal in the midst of great privations." Land had been granted to him, and +when the town asked him to exchange a part of it for other lands, "he +freely gave it back, not desiring any land anywhere else, nor anything +else in consideration thereof." + +Scanning Burroughs as well as accessible knowledge of him now permits, we +judge that he was a quiet, peaceful, persistent laborer for the good of +his fellow-men,--a humble, trustful, sincere servant of God,--a rare +embodiment of the prevailing perceptions, sentiments, virtues, and graces +which haloed the form of the Nazarene. + +Why did the people of his time take his life? What were the accusations +against him? In addition to the testimony that he was felt by many of the +girls as a tormenting specter, he was accused of putting forth superhuman +physical strength. Cotton Mather says,-- + +"He was a very puny man, yet he had often done things beyond the strength +of a giant. A gun of about seven feet barrel, and so heavy that strong men +could not steadily hold it out with both hands, there were several +testimonies given in by persons of credit and honor, that he made nothing +of taking up such a gun behind the lock with one hand, and holding it out +like a pistol, at arm's end. In his vindication he was _foolish enough to +say that an Indian was there, and held it out at the same time_; whereas, +none of the spectators ever saw any such Indian; but they _supposed_ the +black man (as the witches call the devil, and they generally say he +resembles an Indian) might have given him that assistance." + +That paragraph is very instructive. All subsequent historians, beginning +back with Calef, have mentioned, what is no doubt true, that Burroughs +was a small man, and yet was constitutionally very strong--was remarkable +for physical powers even in his college days; and they have fancied that +on that ground they have satisfactorily accounted for his marvelous +exploits; they seemingly overlook the fact that it was Burroughs himself, +and not other people, who said that "an Indian," invisible to others, +stood by and held the gun out. Historians have explained the good and true +man's seeming physical feats at the expense of his _veracity_. Heaven help +the innocent when in the hands of such traducing commentators. The +question is not what Burroughs could have done unaided, but it is whether +_he told truth_ when he said an Indian helped him. His whole character and +life argue that he would not have spoken as he is alleged to have done, +unless he had been conscious of the presence of an Indian within or by +himself, putting forth, in part at least, the strength which raised and +supported that heavy gun. He said that such was the fact. What though all +spectators failed to see the Indian? It was a disembodied Indian--a spirit +Indian--and therefore necessarily invisible by external eyes. The +non-perception of him by other men standing by is no evidence that the +spirit Indian was not there; for spiritual beings are discernible by the +inner or spirit optics alone, and not by the outer; so taught Paul. + +The fact that bystanders supposed the devil helped Burroughs, or performed +the lifting feat through him, implies that they, as well as he, believed +that something more was done than mere human strength accomplished. In +the present day, when spirits are very often putting forth strength +through forms of flesh which executes performances quite as marvelous as +any which were alleged to have been enacted through Burroughs, his +assertion that a foreign, hidden intelligence worked within and through +his form, conjoined with the belief of beholders that some spiritual being +was operating therein, any array of facts now, proving, even to perfect +demonstration, that the little man was enormously strong, though it may +indicate that he did not require foreign aid to lift and hold out the gun, +does nothing toward impeaching his own veracity when he said he had help. +Surely one _can_ have help in the performance of what he could do alone. +If any man says he had help in a particular case, his ability to have +performed the special feat alone affords no indication that his statement +is untrue; and yet the spirit of witchcraft history implies that it does. + +Prove Burroughs to have been constitutionally as strong as the strongest +mortal that ever lived,--yes, as strong as the strongest of all created +beings,--ay, as strong as the Omnipotent One himself, and even then you +have done nothing which shows or tends to show that another intelligent +worker may not have co-operated with him in the performance of marvelous +feats. We say again that the question raised by his statement is not +whether he, in and of himself, was competent to his seeming feats, but it +is whether an Indian spirit did or did not help him. Burroughs says he had +help from such a one. Bystanders supposed that the devil helped him; but +he who sensed the helper's presence called him an Indian; and he was a +much more trustworthy testifier as to that helper's proper classification +in the scale of being, than a combined world of men devoid of +spirit-vision, putting forth only their inferences regarding an unseen +personage. Imputation of this man's liftings to his constitutional +strength solely is an imputation of false testimony to the truthful man +himself, and historic arguments, if valid, make him a liar. + +Who helped the little clergyman lift and hold the heavy gun? He says it +was "_an Indian_." But Mather says, "none of the spectators ever saw any +such Indian; but they _supposed the black man_ (as the witches call the +_devil_, and they generally say he _resembles an Indian_) might have given +him that assistance." That sentence illumines many a dark spot in our +ancient witchcraft. The witches, or clairvoyants, whether accusers or +accused, were not accustomed to speak of seeing _the devil_. It is fairly +questionable whether any one among them ever spoke of seeing _the devil_, +or of having any interview with _him_, or knowledge of _him_ obtained by +personal observation. It was _man_ whom they saw. They spoke of the black +_man_. Mather says that was their name for _the devil_. We doubt it. What +they saw failed to present a semblance of Cloven-foot, with horns, tail, +and hoofs, and did not suggest to them an idea of _the devil_. The +substitution of devil for black man, or the regarding the two as +synonymous, was Mather's work, and not that of the clairvoyants. And who +was _the black man_? Mather informs us that those whose optics could see +him "generally say he _resembles an Indian_." If he resembled an Indian, +is not the inference very fair that he was an Indian? Yes. "Black man" +obviously was applied by clairvoyants to designate any Indian spirit, and +spirits of human beings probably were the only spirits whom their inner +vision ever beheld. Thanks to you, Mather, for recording that explanatory +sentence. The devil you fought against was your brother man--was +earth-born--and when seen and conferred with not very formidable. Your +clairvoyants, or witches, saw and heard occult men, women, children, +beasts, and birds, but never spoke of seeing your ecclesiastical devil. +The human beings whom they beheld varied in size from little children to +tall men, and in complexion from black to white--even up to glorious +brightness. Your informants never used the word _devil_ in their +descriptions. You misreported them, as Cheever did Tituba; Calef followed +your lead, and subsequent historians have copied from both you and him. + +You also state that Burroughs was "_foolish_ enough to say that an Indian" +helped him. Was it foolish in him to state the truth? Your own witnesses +en masse say his helper _resembled_ an Indian--he said the assistant _was_ +an Indian. Why didn't you take the words of your own witnesses as +corroborative of the man's statement? They surely were so, and they give +us a true presentation of the case. The reason of your course is obvious; +the creed of your times deemed any spirit visitant or helper to be the +devil himself. + +A subsequent charge against "G. B." (George Burroughs) was, that "when +they" (the accusing girls) "cried out of G. B. biting them, the print of +his teeth would be seen on the flesh of the complainers; and just such a +set of teeth as G. B.'s would then appear upon them." As in the case of +little Dorcas Good, here we have it charged that indentations on the flesh +of complainants corresponded to the size and shape of the teeth belonging +to the person who was accused of biting. If G. B.'s spirit-form or +apparition was made to approach and bite the accusers,--and it probably +was,--his spirit-teeth would naturally, and, as we apprehend, necessarily +have the exact size and form of his external ones. + +Another charge is embraced in the following quotation:-- + +"His wives" (he had buried two) "had privately complained unto the +neighbors about frightly apparitions of evil spirits with which their +house was sometimes infested; and many such things had been whispered +among the neighborhood." + +We have previously quoted but did not comment upon the above which relates +to the appearance of apparitions. That statement may as well indicate that +the wives themselves, or any other persons resident in his house, were the +attracting or helping instrumentalities for producing the "frightly" +sights, as that Burroughs himself was, provided only that some one or more +of them were mediumistic. But the probabilities are, that the elements +emanated from him which rendered such presentations practicable. + +His telling the purport of talks held in the house during his absence +indicates that his inner ears were opened to catch either the spirit of +mundane sounds, or sounds made by spirits, as could those of Margaret +Jones, Ann Hibbins, Joan of Arc, and many others. The same power in him is +indicated in the following extract:-- + +"One Mr. Ruck, brother-in-law to this G. B., testified that G. B., and he +himself, and his sister, G. B.'s wife, going out for two or three miles to +gather strawberries, Ruck, with his sister, the wife of G. B., rode home +very softly" (slowly) "with G. B. on foot in their company. G. B. stepped +aside a little into the bushes. Whereupon they halted and hollowed for +him. He not answering, they went homewards with a quickened pace without +any expectation of seeing him in a considerable while. And yet, when they +were got near home, to their astonishment they found him on foot with +them, having a basket of strawberries. (Philip was found at Azotus.) G. B. +immediately then fell to chiding his wife on account of what she had been +speaking to her brother of him on the road. Which when they wondered at, +he said he _knew their thoughts_. Ruck, being startled at that, made some +reply, intimating that the devil himself did not know so far; but G. B. +answered, My God makes known your thoughts unto me." + +True and luminous fact! The humble, pious, intelligent, illumined +Burroughs, far-looker into the realm of causes--an observer of things +behind the vail which bounds the reach of mortal senses and pure +reason--stated that _God_--not the devil--made known to him the thoughts +of other and absent people. In other words, his intended meaning probably +was, that God's worlds and laws provide for legitimate inflowings, to +some minds, of knowledge of the thoughts and purposes of other minds, even +though far distant in space. The character, or rather the actual qualities +of this man, if we read him correctly, were truthfulness, humility, and +piety. When such a one deliberately said to a brother-in-law, under such +circumstances as stated above, "_My God makes known your thoughts unto +me_," he indicated his consciousness of possessing self-experienced +knowledge of the existence of an instructive and momentous fact pertaining +to human capabilities. Only few persons, relatively, have had proof by +personal experience of the extent to which the inner perceptives of +embodied mortals may reach forth and imbibe knowledge by processes common +to freed spirits, and in the realms of their abode. What the unfoldings of +Burroughs permitted him to do and know is possible with many others while +resident in mortal forms. If he could, some others may, come into that +condition in which thought itself shall be heard speaking itself out to +them, in which they shall be listeners to "_cogitatio +loquens_"--self-speaking thought--which Swedenborg says abounds in spirit +spheres; in which thought from supernal fonts shall make itself known to +the consciousness of an embodied man, and become matter of knowledge with +him. Others, and more in number, may have the inner ear opened and hear +the words of spirits. + +With ears competently attuned, the meek and truth-loving Burroughs was +occasionally able to receive not only knowledge of the thoughts of mortals +in ways unusual, but also, as we judge, to receive spiritual truths +copiously from purer fountains than his cotemporaries generally could get +access to; and he thence obtained such truths as relaxed in him many +credal bonds which firmly held most of his cotemporary preachers to the +creeds, forms, ordinances, and customs common in the churches then. Many +questions put to him at his trial were, obviously, designed to draw forth +evidence of his lax regard for and inattention to the accepted ordinances +of religion. He admitted both that it was long since he had sat at the +communion table, and that some of his own children had not been baptized. +We presume that he was inwardly, wisely, and beneficently prompted to walk +somewhat astray from the narrow and soul-cramping paths then trod by most +New England clergymen. The spirit of the Lord was giving him more liberty +than most of his cotemporaries felt privileged to exercise. Using his +greater facilities than theirs for instruction in heavenly things, he +probably advanced far beyond his brethren generally in sinking the +_letter_, that is, sinking the forms, and ceremonies, and ordinances of +religion beneath its divine spirit, and his less illumined brethren +suspected him of an abandonment of religion itself, and of alliance with +the great enemy of all goodness. Some among them apparently looked upon +him as a combined heretic and wizard, withheld all sympathy from, and +exulted over the doom of, this double culprit. + +But this victim may have been, and probably was, as high above most of his +crucifiers as freedom is above bondage, as the spirit above the letter, as +light above darkness, as sincerity above hypocrisy. The blood of such as +Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse, Mary Easty, GEORGE BURROUGHS, and probably +many others who in company with these took their exit from life shrouded +in witchcraft's blackening mists, may go far toward making Gallows Hill a +Mount Calvary--a spot on which zeal urged on the worse to crucify their +betters in true godliness--betters in all that fits immortal souls for +gladdening welcome into realms above. + + + + +SUMMARY. + + +1648. MARGARET JONES manifested startling efficacy of hands and medicines, +consternating keenness of perceptives, predictions subsequently verified, +and the presence of a vanishing child. Such was her witchcraft; and for +this she was executed. + +1656. ANN HIBBINS comprehended conversation between persons too distant +from her to be heard normally, ... and was hanged. + +1662. ANN COLE had her form possessed and spoken through by either the +devil or other disembodied ones, and by them made both to express thoughts +that never were in her mind, and to further the conviction and execution +of the Greensmiths. + +1671-2. ELIZABETH KNAP'S external form was strangely convulsed and +agonized by an old man, and also spoken through by one who called himself +a pretty black boy. + +1680. WILLIAM MORSE, in his home, where lived his good wife, who had been +called a witch, saw pots, andirons, tools, and household furniture +generally, seem to take on wills of their own, and rudely play many a +lively gymnastic game. + +1688. JOHN GOODWIN saw four of his children subjected and tortured +immediately subsequent to the scolding of one of them by a wild Irish +woman; and the same one afterward was made to play the deuce in Cotton +Mather's own house. Mrs. Glover was hanged for bewitching; and also she +_continued to torture the same children after her spirit had left its +outer form_. + +The above cases occurred prior to the holding of "The Circle" at Salem, +before the establishment of a school at which the arts of "necromancy, +magic, and spiritualism" might be learned. Generally the performers named +thus far had no visible confederates. If sole actors, their geniuses were +vast, and the fonts of malice or of benevolence in some of them were both +very capacious and copiously overflowing. + +1692. TITUBA, the slave, avowed having been forced by something like a +man, and his four female spectral aids, to pinch the two little girls in +her master's family at the very time when they were first mysteriously +afflicted. She furnished strong evidence that a tall man with white hair +and serge coat, invisibly to others, frequently visited her, compelled her +aid, and kindled and long kept adding fuel to the fires of witchcraft at +Salem Village. For this she was imprisoned thirteen months, and then sold +to pay her jail fees. + +SARAH GOOD was seen as a specter, was accused of hurting by occult organs +and processes; became invisible by those standing guard over her; +announced to the magistrates the great explanatory fact that none but the +accusers and the accused, that is, none but clairvoyants, could see the +actual inflictors of the pains endured. Also she fore-sensed a fact that +occurred when Mr. Noyes died in an after year. She was hanged. + +DORCAS GOOD, not five years old, was big enough to have her specter seen, +to have her spirit-teeth bite, and also to see clairvoyantly. The little +witch was sent to jail. + +SARAH OSBURN was sighted by the inner optics of the accused, and she heard +voices from out the unseen. This feeble one was sent to jail, and soon +died there. + +MARTHA COREY was charged with afflicting; also she avowed heresy +pertaining to witchcraft. Though interiorly illumined far beyond her +accusers and judges, and enabled to smile amid their frowns, she was +executed. + +GILES COREY, seen as a specter, and accused of harming many, would make no +plea to his indictment. Pressure, applied for forcing out a plea, extorted +only his call for "More weight, more weight,"--and his life went out. + +REBECCA NURSE, venerable matron, daughter of a mother who had been called +a witch, and conscious of personal liability to then prevalent fits, was +seen by, and accused of hurting, members of The Circle. Therefore she must +be hanged--though jury first acquitted, and then, under rebuke, called her +guilty; and though governor pardoned, and then revoked his clement act. +Fealty to witchcraft creed in that case triumphed, though nearly defeated +twice. + +MARY EASTY, noble woman, sister of the above, and daughter of the same +witch-blooded mother, once arrested and discharged, and then re-arrested, +because seen by inner eyes and accused of bewitching, rose sublimely above +thoughts of self and dread of death, and appealed to the magistrates, in +clear, strong, and forceful language, to change their course of +procedure, to spare the innocent, and become wisely humane. + +SUSANNA MARTIN, spectrally seen, and a reputed witch during more than a +score of years, bravely faced the dangers besetting an accused one, was +self-possessed before the magistrates, was spicy, shrewd, and keen in her +answers to their questions, but failed to descend to confession, and died +on Gallows Hill. + +MARTHA CARRIER, having been a clear seer for forty years, and long visible +by others similarly unfolded, was brave, self-possessed, and ready with +pointed retort. Because hard to subdue, accusations came thick and heavy +upon her from "The Circle" almost _en masse_, and she too was doomed to +mount the ladder. + +SARAH CARRIER, daughter of the above, eight years old, stated instructive +facts in her experience as a clairvoyant, and notably said that her own +_spirit_ could go forth to others and hurt them; also that her mother's +was the only spirit with which she entered into the compact that made her +a witch. + +REV. GEORGE BURROUGHS, sometimes supernally strong physically, because, as +himself asserted, an Indian, invisible by others, helped him; able, by +God's help as he claimed, to read his brother's thoughts; A freer and less +formal religionist than most clergymen of his day, because of his high +spiritual illumination; a humble but beneficent Christian--was, like his +exemplar, made to yield up life at the call of such as cried, "Crucify +him! crucify him!" If he was luminous, and spoke like an angel of light in +the hour of his departure, he was not Satan transformed, but George +Burroughs unvailing his genuine self. + +1693. MARGARET RULE, the first of afflicted ones noticed in our pages, +endured her strange experiences last. The evening before her fits came on +she had been bitterly treated and threatened by an old woman whose curings +of hurts had put her under suspicions of witchcrafts. Margaret was not a +graduate from the Salem school, but was self-taught, if taught at all; and +yet she saw many specters--saw, in the night, a young man in danger of +drowning who was miles away from her; was lifted from her bed to the +ceiling above in horizontal position by invisible beings; fasted nine days +without pining; and saw and heard one bright and glorious visitant who +comforted and heartened her much. She under the special watch and care of +Cotton Mather, was held back, mainly perhaps by his advice, from any +divulgences which should endanger the lives of others. No blood was shed +because of her afflictions. + +Twenty persons were put to death in Essex County, by the direct action of +government officials, between June 9 and September 23, 1692. Nearly or +quite two hundred were accused, arrested, imprisoned, and many more than +the executed twenty were convicted. Numerous arrested ones perished under +the hardships of prison life and gnawings of mental anxieties. Others had +health, spirits, domestic ties, and worldly possessions shattered to +pieces, and the condition of their subsequent lives made most forlorn and +wretched. Neither tongue nor pen can possibly tell their tale in its +fullness of horrors. Most excessively frenzying and woeful must have been +the privations, sufferings, heart-wrenchings, agonies of nearly all the +scattered residents of the then wooded region at and round about Salem +Village, when Christendom's mighty and malignant witchcraft devil was +believed to be prowling and fiercely slaughtering in their midst. No +blood, nor any other mark, on the door-posts would effectually warn the +fell destroyer to pass by and leave the occupants within unscathed. +Mysterious and fearful dangers flocked above, below, around, before, and +behind: they lurked here, there, and everywhere continually, so that none +could ever be at ease. + +And now we ask, whether common sense admits that such credulity and +infatuation ever pervaded any hardy, energetic, and intelligent community, +in any county of Massachusetts or New England, in any age, as that girls +and old women, aided by a very few insignificant men, however bright, +cunning, roguish, playful, self-conceited, greedy of notice, or resentful +and malicious the leaders might be, could possibly so perform as to induce +Rev. Mr. Whiting, Samuel Willard, William Morse, Cotton Mather, Deodat +Lawson, Samuel Parris, Rev. Mr. Hale, and scores upon scores of other +intelligent, sagacious, and leading men, to present to the public, in +writing, such narratives as they did, and to essentially vouch for their +own belief in the positive occurrence of such "amazing feats" as they +described? We ask also, whether such frail enactors as a band of mere +girls and a few women must have been, could possibly devise and manifest +such tricks, and put forth such accusations, from any motives whatsoever, +as would cause the leading minds throughout a large section of the state +to regard the accused ones as allies of beings rising up from regions of +darkness, and making malignant and most baneful onslaught upon the +children of God and Christ, and upon the families and possessions of men, +in such numbers and with such force, that the civil power of the land was +urged and helped to put the gallows in use upon every one whose specter +was said to be seen and to torment? The amazing feats are well attested. +The more amazing deviltries both of the accusers and of courts and +executives, no one can doubt, if all the feats were offspring of mere +juvenile and senile cunning, fraud, and malice. + +In the cases of Margaret Jones, Ann Cole, Elizabeth Knap, John Stiles, and +Martha Goodwin each, there is distinct mention of the presence, the +speech, or the action of some spirit. We found Tituba distinctly stating +that she saw, heard, and was made to help a nocturnal visitant whose +doings indicate that he was the originator of the vast Salem Tragedy: that +visitant was a spirit. Mr. Burroughs said, in explanation of his feats of +strength, that an Indian, invisible by others, was his helper. Margaret +Rule, as had Mercy Lewis the year before, saw, and each was infilled with +bliss by, a most glorious bright spirit. In our own day, in every city, +town, and hamlet of our land, as well as on the opposite shore of the +Atlantic, spirits are widely recognized as the authors of performances +alike strange and amazing in themselves, as those described in the +seventeenth century, which are there called witchcrafts. The primitive +records of American witchcrafts show that portions of it, and especially +that Salem witchcraft feats, were devised in supermundane brains, and +enacted under their supervision. + + + + +THE CONFESSORS. + + +When persons arraigned for specific offences plead guilty, their pleas +generally are deemed conclusive evidence that the accused have performed +the special deeds set forth in the allegations. Many of the accused in +witchcraft times made statements which have ever since been called +_confessions_. Inference from that has long been general and wide-spread, +that nearly such witchcraft as the creed of our fathers specified had +positive manifestation in their day. But we seriously doubt whether any +record of statements made by an accused one exhibits distinct admission +that he or she had entered into covenant with that devil which one must +have been in league with to become such a witch or wizard as the laws +against witchcraft were intended to arrest. + +Such confessions as were recorded may have been true in the main, but they +fall short of confessions of the special crime alleged; they amount to +little, if anything, more than admissions and statements that the +confessors had seen, been influenced by, and had acted in company with +apparitions or spirits all of whom were of earthly origin, and were +members of the _human_ family; they confessed only to being, or to having +been at times, clairvoyants. + +The circumstances under which even such confessions were generally made, +need to be carefully viewed before just estimate can be placed upon the +worth and significance of the recorded statements. + +Hutchinson supposed that "those who were condemned and not executed, all +confessed their guilt," ... and that "the most effectual way to prevent an +accusation" (of one's self) "was to become an accuser." +Strange--strange--and yet obviously true. An accused one, then, could look +for escape from death--the legal penalty of witchcraft--only by pleading +guilty to the charge. Confession of guilt, and nothing else, then, +purchased exemption from capital punishment. This becoming obvious, all +natural instincts for preservation of one's life, and all possible +entreaties, urgings, and commands of friends and relatives, forcibly +tended to extort confession even from the innocent. Husband or wife, +children, parents, brothers, sisters, and trusted advisers, often all +conspired in urging an accused one to plead guilty--yes, even a condemned +one, for that plea was as efficacious after conviction and sentence as +before. It is said that many did confess. Confessed to what? Never to +having made a covenant with the great witchcraft devil nor any formidable +imp of his, but generally to clairvoyant visions, to mental meetings with +the specters of friends, neighbors, and other embodied mortals, and to +some compacts and co-operative labors with such personages,--_never with +the devil_. They did not confess to witchcraft itself _as then defined_. +The clear-headed Mary Easty besought the magistrates "to try some of the +confessing witches, I being confident there is several of them has belied +themselves and others." Her clear and calm brain perceived the broad +distinction existing between clairvoyance and witchcraft. So, too, did +Martha and Giles Corey, Jacobs, Proctor, Susanna Martin, George Burroughs, +and others; these, and such as these, did not confess, while many weaker +and more ignorant ones did. + +Little Sarah Carrier, only eight years old, whose testimony we adduced in +part, when presenting the case of her mother, throws much light upon some +_confessions_ of that day. _Simon Willard_, who wrote out and attested to +"the substance" of her statements, heads his record, "Sarah Carrier's +_Confession_, August 11th." The girl's confession? No; it was simply a +frank statement of facts in her own experience, which lets us know that +when she was about six years old her own mother made her a witch, and +baptized her. But "the devil, or black man, was not there, as she saw," +when she was made a witch. She afflicted folks by pinching them; went to +those whom she afflicted; but went only "_in her spirit_." Her mother was +the only devil who bewitched her, and the only being whom her baptism +bound her to serve. Such was her witchcraft. That plain statement is +refreshing and valuable. It shows that when about six years old this +mediumistic girl had become so developed that her spirit could commune +with her mother's, independently of their bodies. She then became a +conscious clairvoyant, and could trace felt influences, issuing from her +mother, back to their source. Thenceforth mother and daughter could +conjointly place themselves on the green at Salem Village, ten miles off, +or in any pasture or any house whither thought might lead them. The +mother's stronger mind had but to wish, and the child must go with her +and do her bidding; and when the two were in rapport, any stronger spirit +controlling the mother could make the child co-operative in pinchings or +any other inflictions of pains. Because the little girl had set her hand +to a red book presented by her own mother, and thus, by implication, bound +herself to be obedient to that mother, her statement of the fact was +labeled _a confession_ of witchcraft, and deemed damaging to her mother. +Three or four other children of Mrs. Carrier were able to sense spirit +scenes. Her home was a domestic school of prophets, and her own children +were apt pupils in it. Her moral character and influence do not here +concern us. + +Abigail Faulkner was condemned, and two of her children, "Dorothy ten, and +Abigail eight years old, testified that their mother appeared and made +them witches." That mother was daughter of Rev. Francis Dane of Andover, +some of whose other children and grandchildren were accused, which +suggests, though it fails to prove, that much medianimic susceptibility +was imparted through either him or his wife, or both, to their offspring. +His descendants attracted the notice of clairvoyants. Hutchinson states +that Mr. Dane himself "is _tenderly_ touched in several of the +examinations, which" (the tenderness?) "might be owing to a fair +character; and he may be one of the persons accused who" (the accusation +of whom) "caused a discouragement to further prosecutions." "He," being +then "near fourscore, seems to have been in danger." Internal luminosity +and copious radiations from their interior forms probably rendered Rev. +Mr. Dane, Rev. Samuel Willard, Mrs. Hale, wife of the minister at Beverly, +Mrs. Phips, wife of the governor, and many others of high character or +standing, visible by mediumistic optics, and presentible apparitionally +where spirits were wont to congregate, consult and manipulate instruments +for acting out--not for learning--the "wonders of necromancy, magic, and +Spiritualism." + +Witch meetings, as they were called, or congregated spirits or apparitions +on the green, or in the pasture of the minister at Salem Village, are +mentioned more frequently and with more particularity and concordant +specifications, than would naturally be looked for if they had no basis on +fact. That Spirits in vast crowds have more than once been seen in modern +times by a seer looking up from High Rock in Lynn, can be learned by +perusal of A. J. Davis's visions there. But he was the observer of +departed ones only, while the apparent personages at witch meetings of old +were partly either the spirits of embodied persons or their apparitions. +The fact of apparitions being present thereat in those days proved the +persons themselves apparitionally seen to be the devil's allies. Some +confessors of witchcraft intended to verify the truth of their statements +by describing whom they had seen, and what they had observed at such +meetings. And it is not without interest that some people now read +confessions like the following from Ann Foster of Andover, viz.: "That she +was at the meeting of the witches at Salem Village when about twenty-five +were present; that Goody Carrier came and told her of the meeting and +would have her go, and so they got upon sticks and went the said journey, +and being there did see Mr. Burroughs the minister, who spake to them +all;... that they were presently at the Village," when they rode on the +"stick or pole"; and that she heard some of the witches say that there +were three hundred and five in the whole country, and that they would ruin +that place--the Village. Also that there was present at that meeting two +men besides Mr. Burroughs, the minister, and _one of them had gray hair_. + +Not without interest are such things read, because they prompt to +fancyings of things possible in an unseen sphere which hangs over and +enfolds all mortals. Could Ann Foster's gray-haired man have been Tituba's +white-haired visitant--the originator and enactor of Salem witchcraft? Who +knows? Could not he and such as he have searched out and numbered many +persons in the land who were adapted to be facile instruments for his use, +and found three hundred and five in all? Had not his will power to call +instantly together, that is, to arrest and concentrate the attention of as +many of them as were at the moment impressible by him, either directly or +through other plastic mortals, from any part of the region between the +Penobscot and the Hudson, or even further, and thus collect a band, that +is, arrest and fix the attention, of twenty-five of them, more or less, to +whom inklings of his plans for the future might be given, and whose +relative rank, efficiency, or importance could be foreshadowed? Through +either unconscious apparitions or conscious spirits of mortals, or of both +classes commingled, might he not enact scenes which it pleased him to +have certain witnesses behold, and to proclaim, so far as he judged best, +his purposes, his doctrines, or aught else it should be his pleasure to +divulge or enforce? Possibly. Those witch meetings may have been much more +than mere fictions. + +We will look now at other and quite different confessions, or rather at +what reputed confessors afterward said in explanation and defense of their +own admissions. Six well-esteemed women of Andover conjointly subscribed +to the following account:-- + + "We were all seized, as prisoners, by a warrant from the justice of + the peace, and forthwith carried to Salem. And, by reason of that + sudden surprisal, we, knowing ourselves innocent of the crime, were + all exceedingly astonished and amazed, and consternated and affrighted + even out of our reason. And our nearest and dearest relations, seeing + us in that dreadful condition, and knowing our great danger, + apprehended there was no other way to save our lives, as the case was + then circumstanced, but by our confessing ourselves to be such and + such persons as the afflicted represented us to be: they" (our + friends), "out of tenderness and pity, persuaded us to confess what we + did confess. And indeed that confession, that it is said we made, was + no other than what was suggested to us by gentlemen, they telling us + that we were witches, and they knew it and we knew it, which made us + think that it was so; and our understandings, our reason, our + faculties almost gone, we were not capable of judging of our + condition; as also the hard measures they took with us rendered us + incapable of making our defense; but said anything and everything + which they desired, and most of what we said was but, in effect, a + consenting to what they said. Some time after, when we were better + composed, they telling us what we had confessed, we did profess that + we were innocent and ignorant of such things.... + + "MARY OSGOOD, ABIGAIL BARKER, + MARY TILER, SARAH WILSON, + DELIVERANCE DANE, HANNAH TILER." + +That document no doubt describes very accurately the mental condition and +pressing circumstances under which a very large number of the confessions +were made. There existed some cases, however, which differed from the +above. Samuel Wardwell, represented in some accounts as insane, confessed, +and afterward recalled his confession, and was executed. Margaret Jacobs, +perhaps under pressure and bewilderment as great as those attendant upon +the Andover women, made confession, in which she accused both her +grandfather and Mr. Burroughs; but compunctions of conscience forthwith +came over her, and she most fully and humbly recalled her confession, +choosing rather to die on the gallows than not to confess and repent +before the God of truth. + + + + +THE ACCUSING GIRLS. + + +One more case--not of an accused one, but of a chief accuser, Ann Putnam, +the younger--merits careful attention. She was only twelve years old in +1692; but was the eldest child in a family of at least nine children, both +of whose parents died while they were all young; and this eldest continued +to live at the homestead, caring for the younger ones, during many years. +In August, 1706, fourteen years subsequent to the scenes in which she was +eminently conspicuous, she made the following confession before the +church, and thereupon was admitted to membership in it. + + "The confession of Anne Putnam, when she was received to communion, + 1706. + + "I desire to be humble before God for that sad and humbling providence + that befell my father's family in the year about '92; that I, then + being in my childhood, should by such a providence of God _be made an + instrument_ for the accusing of several persons of a grievous crime, + whereby their lives were taken away from them, whom now I have just + grounds and good reason to believe were innocent persons; and that it + was a great delusion of Satan that deceived me in that sad time; + whereby I justly fear I have been instrumental, with others, _though + ignorantly and unwillingly_, to bring upon myself and this land the + guilt of innocent blood. Though what was said or done by me against + any person I can truly and uprightly say, before God and man, I did it + _not out of any anger, malice, or ill-will to any person_, for I had + no such thing against one of them; but what I did was ignorantly, + being deluded by Satan. And particularly as I was a chief _instrument_ + of accusing Goodwife Nurse and her two sisters, I desire to lie in the + dust, and to be humbled for it, in that I was a cause, with others, of + so sad a calamity to them and their families; for which cause I desire + to lie in the dust, and earnestly beg forgiveness of God, and from all + those unto whom I have given just cause of sorrow and offense, whose + relations were taken away or accused. + + (Signed) ANNE PUTNAM. + + "This confession was read before the congregation, together with her + relation, August 25, 1706; and she acknowledged it. + + "J. GREEN, _Pastor_." + +In that confession she speaks very pointedly of herself as having been +used as an _instrument_. Any mortal may perhaps properly do so in relation +to each and every act performed. But her history induces inquiry whether +Ann was not very strictly an instrument; whether her own will, or whether +some other intelligent being's will, used her lips when they put forth +accusations of witchcraft. The latter may have been possible; for once, +while we were in conversation with a lady who applied disparaging remarks +to particular gentleman who was a prominent medium, we, in reply, +expressed our belief that the doings which annoyed her were not the man's +voluntary acts, and also that his consciousness that such deeds were +alleged by truthful and trustworthy persons to have actually been +performed through his physical organism made the acts even more grievous +to him than to any one of his acquaintances. She doubted, while we +maintained, the possibility of one's mortal form being thus subjected to a +will outside of itself. Not many minutes had elapsed--not much argument +having been presented on either side--before her own lips were set in use +for putting forth a warm defense of Victoria C. Woodhull, a person upon +whom our colloquist looked, and of whom she was accustomed to speak, with +very decided disapprobation. She was a conscious listener to the words +that rolled from her own lips, and experience taught her that our defense +of the censured man might be admissible; for, in spite of herself, her own +lips were made to bless whom her sentiments were inclining her to curse. +Baalam _could_ not curse whom his Lord did not. That lady is a _conscious_ +medium--conscious that her physical organs, without her consent, and in +spite of her resistance, are sometimes temporarily borrowed and used by an +intelligence outside of herself. As such she is representative of many +others. Of course, in these days, she is so informed as to see that +actions and words of spirits are imputed to her as being her own because +performed by use of her organs, while they are, in fact, no more hers than +are the acts and utterances of her neighbors. But we doubt much whether +any one in 1692 or 1706 had attained to knowledge that some human forms +could be thus filchable and usable; no ground had then been discovered on +which one could stand and credibly say, "Though my own lips spake thus and +so, another's will put forth the utterances in spite of me." Firm ground +for that has now been found; it is not a new formation, but existed, +though then unknown, in 1692. Ann Putnam's form may have been used by +another's will in each and all of her imputed accusations for witchcraft, +and she, as far as then concerned, have been absolutely a will-less +_instrument_. + +There are other classes of mediums. We call to mind at this instant four +ladies, all of them respectable and excellent, whom we know and have known +for years, whose lips often give utterance to facts, opinions, and beliefs +while the ladies are absolutely unconscious; and sayings then which seem +to be theirs are often wide at variance with what either their knowledge +or their sense of right and truth would permit their own wills to +announce. These are _unconscious_ mediums; not responsible for, because +absolutely ignorant of, what their physical forms are being made to say +and do. These persons are representatives of a large class of good +mediums. + +One phrase in Ann Putnam's confession indicates to us that she probably +belonged to the mediumistic class here presented. She had been, years +before, as she says, an _instrument_ not only ignorant, but _unwitting_. +In childhood, Ann was brightest among the bright; and, in the absence of +evidence to the contrary, it is fair to presume that when reaching the age +of twenty-six she was an intelligent woman, capable of knowing the fair +import of any statements to which she gave deliberate and solemn assent. +We apprehend that her confession was drawn up very carefully, and in +consultation with her intelligent and excellent pastor, Rev. Mr. Green; +also that every word of it was carefully weighed. She seems then to have +been stretching forth a hand soliciting acceptance and friendly grasp by +representatives of some whose blood had been shed because of accusations +from her lips; and we feel forced to presume that then she was in mental +and affectional moods which would make it her duty and her choice to take +upon herself all the blame for her share in the witchcraft transactions +which facts and truth could possibly permit. Her confession is special. It +all pertains to her _instrumental_ share in accusing innocent persons of +what was then deemed grievous crime, and thus in bringing them to death +upon the gallows. Her declaration is as distinct as words can make it, +that the doings through her were "not out of any anger, malice, or +ill-will to any person" on her part; and this renders Upham's supposition, +that family, neighborhood, and sectional quarrels, disputes, rivalries, +&c., were motives in her, very improbable. + +Also her statement is very distinct, that whatever she did in that respect +was done, so far as she was concerned, both "_ignorantly_ and +_unwittingly_." We are aware that those two words are sometimes used +synonymously, or very nearly so. But when the first occurs in a carefully +constructed sentence, the other, if added, should be deemed to have been +inserted for the special purpose of expressing something beyond what the +first usually imports. The whole had not been told when she had said she +acted ignorantly. To express the remainder, she added--_unwittingly_. When +that word was thus applied, she cannot fairly be supposed to have meant +less than that she acted _unknowingly_--that is, without either knowledge +or consciousness that she did thus act. An _unwitting_ instrument--an +instrument not knowing that it was being used--enfolds within itself a +silent but most potent plea for the world's lenient regards. When +consciousness has taken no cognizance of acts performed by the tongue or +the hand,--when memory can find no record of them, compunction cannot gnaw +deeply, nor conscience be a stern accuser. Often conscience may be at +peace, and God may approve, where man blames. Testimony from without may +force mental conviction that one's lips and limbs must have been used in +doing excessive harm, though consciousness of the fact be entirely +wanting. Conviction even thus generated will naturally and almost +necessarily create apprehension that the world is regarding the owner of +those lips and limbs as having been guilty of very great crimes. That +apprehension may create sadness over all one's subsequent days. Public +opinion bridles the tongue then; for a denial of guilt, however honest +and true, can receive no credence where external senses have perceived +knowledge to the contrary. Ann's relations to society may necessarily have +been saddening during many years, even though she of herself had done +nothing offensive either to her own conscience or to God. + +Imagination can scarcely picture the sadness which must have come upon the +accusing girls when, a year or two later, public opinion and favor, which +at first buoyed them up and favored such use of their organisms as has +been depicted, began to turn against them and to brand them as murderers +of the innocent and good. We have no means to trace many of them through +their subsequent years. Could we do it, we should expect to find them +weighed down, depressed, and made forlorn by the great change of +estimation in which the doings were afterward held, in which they had +appeared to be prominent and most disastrous actors. Few of them probably +had inherent stamina enough to enable them to stand erect, and move about +firmly poised, under the burdens of obloquy, pity, hatred, resentment, +&c., which the wounded hearts of the families of murdered ones would lay +upon these seeming authors of their losses. + +It is pleasant to find that the sensitive and bright Ann Putnam, as +prominent as any one in the band of accusers, survived such pressure, +continued long to care for her orphaned little brothers and sisters, and, +after the first and most crushing effects of the change in public opinion +had been endured for a dozen years or more, held out her hand in friendly +beckoning to those who had most seeming cause to blame her, and who +perhaps in turn had imposed her heaviest burdens, and seeking to thus open +the way for her unopposed admission to the church, and to fellowship with +the kindred and friends of those whom her tongue had been used to defame +and bring to ignominious death. Her life experiences were hard, but +perhaps fruitful of good to man beyond what words can express. Possibly it +is her blessed privilege now to see that her form was used as an +_instrument_ for effecting Christendom's emancipation from monstrous +error, and putting an effectual stop to executions for witchcraft +everywhere. + + + + +THE PROSECUTORS. + + +The first warrants for arrest for witchcraft at Salem were issued on +February 29, 1692, on complaint preferred by Joseph Hutchinson, Thomas +Putnam, Edward Putnam, and Thomas Preston, that Sarah Good, Sarah Osburn, +and Tituba had by witchcraft, within the last two months, done harm to +Elizabeth Parris, Abigail Williams, Anne Putnam, and Elizabeth Hubbard. + +Complaint of Martha Corey was made by Edward Putnam and Henry Keney, March +19. + +Edward Putnam and Jonathan Putnam complained of Rebecca Nurse; and + +Jonathan Walcott and Nathaniel Ingersoll, against Elizabeth Proctor. + +Perusal of the records shows that very many of the most intelligent, +influential, highly respected, and trusted men of the Village were +complainants; and shows also that, as early as February 29, when the first +complaint was entered, there were four afflicted ones: two in the family +of Mr. Parris; one in that of Thomas Putnam, living more than two miles +north from the parsonage; and one in that of Dr. Griggs, dwelling more +than two miles east from the same. Thus much had the trouble spread before +the law was invoked to aid in its suppression. The homes of the minister, +the doctor, and the parish clerk--a capable and good-one, too--were the +first invaded. Not mean abodes housed, nor low-lived people cared for the +first afflicted ones. Men of the highest standing there were leaders off +in the impending conflict with the devil. Two were most prominently and +persistently active, viz., Thomas Putnam and Mr. Parris. And why? If any +people then and there knew what the emergency required, these two would be +among them: none were more competent than they to perceive and perform the +duties of such an hour. They, too, and theirs were the chief sufferers. No +other active men there had motives pressing as theirs to work for prompt +relief in their households; and we will notice these two as +representatives of the prosecutors. + +Thomas Putnam deservedly held high position among the inhabitants there, +and possessed the esteem, respect, and confidence of the whole community +around him. How came it that this very intelligent, influential, and +useful citizen, then a little more than forty years old and in the full +vigor of manhood, was prominent among the foremost and most pertinacious +prosecutors? Why was such a one an enterer of complaints against +neighbors, whether high or low, good or bad? Our response is, that in his +home a loved and loving wife, cultured, refined, and of acute +sensibilities,--a daughter, twelve years old, bright and charming,--and +also Mercy Lewis, a young domestic, were all so mysteriously tortured at +times, that no doubt existed in a mind which comprehended the creed of +that day, that the devil was author of the abnormal torments. That enemy +must be getting access to these innocent and loved ones, the creed said, +through some neighbors--at least some living mortals--who had made +covenants with the Evil One, and thus become his agents. Imbued and bound +by the creed of his day, this husband and father could cherish no +expectation that his wife and child could be shielded, or that comfort, +tranquillity, and peace could come to him and his dear ones, so long as +such covenanters were allowed to live. His creed--the general creed of the +times--called upon him to invoke the law's aid, since by help from no +other source could he hope to reclaim wife, child, and domestic from the +clutches of hell's sovereign, and save his own fireside from continuing on +indefinitely a frenzied pandemonium. The higher his manhood, and the +deeper his love for wife and children, the more vigilant, resolute, and +untiring would be his purpose and his efforts to use any and every +available means for delivering his family from the hell which had been +thrust in under his roof. + +The sufferings of his dear ones, then necessarily operative upon his mind +and affections, we presume were the chief prompters of his course and +incentives to his perseverance in it. Defense and protection of wife, +children, and all within his household are incumbent on any one worthy to +be called a _man_. Think not the worse of Thomas Putnam because of his +resolute purposes and speedy as well as prolonged efforts to rescue from +sufferings and perdition wife, child, and domestic. Because a prominent +sufferer, he became a prominent prosecutor--yes, the most prominent. +Though that fact stands boldly out on the pages of history, no one in his +time or since, so far as we have noticed, ever imputed to him an unworthy +motive, or annexed a disparaging epithet to his name. Perhaps he, as well +as Mr. Dane of Andover, was "tenderly touched" because of "a fair +character." + +In part the same can be said in defense of Rev. Samuel Parris as we have +adduced in defense of his co-sufferer and co-laborer for relief. During +the weeks from January 20 to the end of February, both his little daughter +and niece, under his own roof, were so strangely and sorely tormented that +he and his whole household must have been wearied, agitated, and rendered +miserable. When medical aid and kind nursing had proved abortive, and +medical authority announced the working of an _Evil Hand_ there, who can +wonder, knowing the creed of the day and place, that Mr. Parris sought the +law's aid for bringing relief to the little sufferers and to all beneath +his roof? Samuel Parris and Thomas Putnam, the minister and the clerk of +the parish, were both the first and the greatest sufferers affectionally +at the oncoming of invasion by mysterious tormentors, and both have fair +claims to be judged of tenderly in their connection with witchcraft +prosecutions. The chief apparent action of the minister was as scribe or +reporter for the courts, and this because he was more competent to that +work than any other person obtainable there. Such action is surely not +censurable. His position and abilities, however, were such that it was +quite as much within his power to have stopped the whole proceedings as in +that of any man then living; and they, no doubt, had his sanction and +efficient support. And yet we find no ground from which inference either +must or can fairly be drawn that the motives of the minister's actions +_pertaining to that special matter_, both at its commencement and in its +subsequent progress, were other than those common to the most enlightened +and best members of the community. Still we have not learned to like the +_man_. Selfishness, and disposition to rule harshly over his parish and +individuals, if not resentfully and even maliciously, are made too +manifest in the records for us to hold him in high esteem. + +As servants of God and Christ, which they professed and believed +themselves to be, the prosecutors entered upon and long followed up war, +bloody war,--not against neighbors and men, but against the Devil--the +great enemy of God, Christ, and all good Christians. They were true, +earnest, resolute, strong, fearless men, waging their fight in good +conscience. + +The community at large, in which those men lived and held prominent +position, was not below most, if below any other of equal numbers on the +continent. Intellect there was keen, and morality high. Upham's "History +of Salem Village," admirable for its research, its thoroughness, its +prevailing accuracy, and its extensive charms, clearly shows that the five +hundred people, more or less, residing there in 1692, could scarcely be +surpassed by the residents of any other locality in intelligence, mental +keenness, moral strength, personal courage, and firmness of purpose and +resolve to live up to their convictions of truth, right, and duty. Salem +witchcraft was born in the homes of intelligent, brave, honored men,--who, +in co-operation with their wives, children, and domestics, contributed to +its growth, and elicited its vast and awful power to startle, frenzy, and +desolate the region round about. The world at large has never been kept +well instructed as to the circumstances amid which that great _delusion_ +made its entrance on the field of human vision, nor as to the high +standing, intelligence, and character of its first escorts and sponsors. +Its victims, too, as a whole, were very respectable. Some of them, it is +true, were not high on the social scale, but the most of them were well +up, and quite a number ranked high among the intelligent, virtuous, and +saintly. The wide-spread and long prevalent notion that the dark doings +there were little else than outgrowths from tricks played by a few artful +and mischievous girls upon some low-lived and bed-ridden old women, has no +foundation on the facts in the case. This most monstrous child of +Christendom's creed had begetting and birth, in 1692, amid as reputable +circumstances and people, and as religious opponents of Satan, as any +marked revival of religion which has anywhere transpired since that +memorable day when the leading men of Salem Village, being challenged to +defense of their homes, armed themselves with civil law, and bravely, +long, and forcefully fought for God and His against the Devil. + + + + +WITCHCRAFT'S AUTHOR. + + +What personality or persons, and of what rank in the scale of being, was +or were primal and chief in originating and enacting the famous Salem +Tragedy? If, as the generation then living believed, it was a specially +great controller and commander of all invisible foes to God, Christ, and +Christians everywhere, and who, having been effectually baffled in Europe, +resolved to keep America from passing into the control of his enemies, +God and Christ, and to thoroughly banish the hated intruders from these +his more exclusive and prized domains; if it was that being, his strategy +seemingly was to "beard the lion in his den," to make bold and fierce +attack on one of the strongest fortresses of Christians, presuming that +capture of such a post would lead to easy expulsion of all trespassers +from the whole of his broad lands on this side the Atlantic. His apparent +policy, judged of by the place and circumstances of attack, was to subdue +the strongest first, and thus so intimidate as to frighten all others back +to their former homes or the homes of their fathers. But _such_ a devil +was not there. Many beliefs prevalent two centuries ago are now obsolete. +Such a devil as witchcraft was imputed to, and who was believed to put +forth greater power over all Indian and heathen lands than God exercised +there, receives cognition in few brains to-day. Nevertheless, faith in the +presence, power, and malignity of such a being, present and at work among +them, was the main force that enabled his contestants to unwittingly put +an end to faith in the existence of any one special foe to all goodness, +whose power and dominion over the earth and its inhabitants very nearly +rivaled those of the Omnipotent One, and whose malice was a near +counterpoise to complete supernal benevolence. + +Reason demands that the creature shall be inferior to its creator, that +devil shall be less than God; and she in most persons refers all things +and all events, in the ultimate analysis of causes and agents, back to One +Great Over-Soul--one God. + +If an all-wise and omnipotent One, being full of mercy too, proposed to +subject an erroneous and enslaving human creed to a strain which should +shatter it past restoration to strength, and thus to set its subjected +holders free, highest wisdom may have seen that bright intellect, true +courage, firm nerves, unfaltering devotion to sense of duty, and strong +faith heavenward, were needful instrumentalities for best accomplishment +of the design. The abode of people than whom none elsewhere were better +prepared, more able, or more willing to fight the devil himself promptly, +unfalteringly, and persistently, may have been a spot where supernal +prescience saw that men, as blinded instruments, could best be made to +effect their own and the world's emancipation from a time-hardened and +disastrous public error. The mental and moral strength, and other good +_fighting_ qualities of its occupants generally, may have caused the +Village to be fixed upon as the most favorable battle-ground available for +the projected struggle. + +Neither God nor the devil, however, was author in any sense pertinent to +the present inquiry. Our _ifs_, and the sentences which follow them, +cannot meet the demands nor the needs of modern readers. Faith, in direct +personal action upon either individual human beings or communities and +nations by any incomprehensibly vast and ubiquitous intelligent being +either malignant or benevolent, is not as prevalent now as it was in many +generations past. God, or a mighty devil either, as constant, immediate, +and personal performer on humanity's stage of operations, is not +extensively recognized by the deep thinkers of our age. + +Indeed, modern thought has come very low down in its search for +witchcraft's author. Turning from God and the devil, the reputed workers +of great marvels in ages long past, our interpreters of America's earlier +wonders have fancied that they find the former existence of little girls +whose powers to sway the human mind and agitate a land, so approximated +those of omnipotence, and whose malignities so perceptibly equaled his of +Cloven Hoof, that they of their own wills concocted and enacted scenes of +simulated pains, distortions, losses of sight, hearing, and speech; and +also mimicked the movements of birds and beasts, and performed such +impositions and tricks innumerable as made their homes and neighborhood a +horrid pandemonium; in doing which they manifested such prodigious power, +skill, and perfect acting, that these little untaught and untrained ones +outled in skill, all the world's most expert tricksters, and, in +malignity, the most devilish human monsters our world ever contained, in +any age or land. + +Somewhere between the extremes of strength and weakness, of benevolence +and malignity, we perhaps can find beings more likely to have directly +produced the marvels in question than either God, devil, or little girls. +Consciousness and experience indicate to most persons that an +all-dominating power exists, and bounds and hedges in the spheres of +freedom and ability which are occupied by finite beings. Something above +and beyond all finites says to each of them, "Thus far, but no farther, +canst thou go." Within spheres thus limited there abide many grades of +intelligent and affectional beings, ranging in differences of powers and +dispositions as widely as any mortal's thoughts can conceive. Vast, +countless hosts of intelligences, though vailed from our outer vision, may +be, and evidences are very strong that such ever are abiding dwellers +above, below, around, and in the midst of earth's corporeal inhabitants. +Within their unperceived abodes such ones may actuate the forces which +evolve many less marked events, as well as all special providences, +special judgments--miracles so called, and such marvels generally as were +formerly imputed to either God or the devil as _immediate_ author. We have +no faith that either of the two had any closer or more special connection +with witchcraft matters than with the ordinary doings of man. + +The undefinable source of all things which are contained in the vast +creation, emitted all forth subject to laws, and surrounded and +infiltrated by forces which enable the world's progressing inhabitants, +visible and invisible, to purchase, through study, toil, absorptions from +enfolding auras, and other furnished helps, both knowledge and powers just +as fast and great as their advancements and growing needs from time to +time call for more light and for augmented powers. + +Finite beings naturally gravitate to where every instrumentality needful +to their highest well-being can be obtained by the co-operative efforts +and aspirations of finites, seen and unseen, for learning laws and +manipulating forces which pervade their places of residence. Generations +upon generations, whose mortal forms long centuries ago moldered away, may +still be active laborers in and about the men of to-day, and may be, and +may always have been, the immediate manifesters of all supernal +intelligence and marvelous force issuing from regions which the eye of +flesh lacks power to scan. One of the old prophets of a prior generation +made known to John the Revelator what he recorded; and agents of like +nature, that is, departed human spirits, may have been the only revealers +of supernal truths, facts, and visions to man, and the only workers of the +signs or extra-marvelous manifestations of force and knowledge which have +been deemed credentials from the Omniscient and Omnipotent. We believe in +God and in the issuance of knowledge and force from him to man, but have +not faith in his immediate personal putting forth of either, in +accomplishment of such events as are often called special providences. +Such events occur--they often come both uncalled for and in response to +prayer--to yearnings "uttered or unexpressed;" but the prayers and +yearnings reach, stimulate, and help both ambient forces and ascended +spirits to let in or to confer the needed protection or restoration. The +air all around us is alive with hearers of prayer, and no humble and +fervent aspiration for help to come forth from the mystic abodes of +spiritual beings and occult forces ever fails to bring aid and elevation. +The purer and humbler the aspiration, the nearer does it penetrate toward +the Great Source of being, life, and bliss, and the more powerful and +beneficent are those whose responses and emanations can reach and aid the +petitioner. + +The same forces and laws which permit the sensible action of good spirits +among men, just as freely and extensively permit the presence and action +of malicious ones. God aids the good and restrains the wicked just as much +and no more on the other side of the grave than on this. Freedom, whether +to comply with or to contend against either natural or moral law, is as +great in spirit spheres as in our midst on earth. Any spirit, either +benevolent or malignant, is as free to use the forces and laws which +permit spirit manifestations, as any navigator is, be he morally good or +bad, to avail himself of winds, currents, tides, and the like, for passing +over seas to a land not his own, and acting out his characteristic +purposes there. + +Our position, fortified by the facts and reasonings in the preceding +pages, is, that spirits--departed human beings--generated and outwrought +Salem witchcraft. That is our answer to the question of its authorship. + + + + +THE MOTIVE. + + +Thus far questions pertaining to the character of the main motives +operating in the authors of acts called witchcraft, have purposely been +avoided. The actors and their doings have been sought for, irrespective of +morality. But the _cui bono_, the what good? must have been asked over and +over again by the reader. Why did any intelligent being, whether mortal or +spirit, thus woefully invade and disturb the homes of able, honored, +worthy Christian men? and especially why perpetrate such agonizing +cruelties upon bright, lovely, and promising children? + +The spirit-world, as well as ours, holds inhabitants differing widely one +from another in character, tastes, propensities, and occupations--it +contains yearners to recommune with surviving kindred at the old material +home--contains its rovers, its explorers, its scientists, its seekers +after novelties, facts, and principles; after new places, scenes, and +peoples to visit; after new routes and appliances for travel, and after +new applications of known powers and forces. The motives for acting upon +and through mortal forms may vary from worst to best, from best to worst. + +The moral character of motives can neither invalidate nor confirm what has +been adduced. The motives, having been either good or bad, may be ascribed +to spirits as well as mortals, and to mortals as well as spirits, for both +good and bad beings dwell in mortal forms now, and both classes have left +their outer forms behind, and passed into the abiding-place of +spirits--have become spirits, and that, too, without necessary alteration +of their moral states. Motives in different cases and with different +operators were doubtless quite varied. Correct presentation of their +qualities in connection with the several cases adduced in the preceding +pages is obviously beyond our power. Though conscious that we must +probably be mistaken in some instances, we yet are willing to state some +of the thoughts which facts and appearances have suggested. + +Perhaps no unseen intelligences aided or acted through either Margaret +Jones or Ann Hibbins; and, if any did, their performances in and of +themselves were never perceptibly harmful to the public. We apprehend, +however, that if the whole truth were known, man would now see that kind +physicians, who had bid farewell to earth, continued to practice the +healing art through the brain and hands of Margaret Jones. + +The users of Ann Cole's vocal organs furnished no distinct indication that +they were either specially benevolent or the reverse. We are constrained +to regard them as having been low, ignorant, willing to excite +consternation among men, and very willing to help the lewd Greensmiths on, +by the halter's use, to speedy entrance into conditions in which +themselves could confer with these debased ones more familiarly than was +possible while they remained encased in flesh. Such a view need not imply +that they were malicious. Desire to hold closer connection with one's +affinities is natural, and not necessarily bad. Communicators from the +other side of death's portals generally decline to call any spirits _bad_; +they speak of many as being low, ignorant, benighted, undeveloped, &c., +but seldom call any one bad. They seem to regard many much as we do green +fruits. One omits to call the half-grown apple bad, however sour or +crabbed, and says only that it is immature, unripe, &c., implying that, +though in its present condition not good to eat, time may come when it +will be palatable and nutritious. + +Elizabeth Knap's visitant--the one to whom she said, "What cheer, old +man?"--who presumably was the chief operator through and upon her form, +and lingered about her for at least three years, we regard as a sort of +recluse spirit, who kept mainly aloof from other disembodied ones, and +found his chief enjoyment in retaining or resuming as close alliances as +possible with the outer or material world, and from a selfish desire to +secure permanent possession of this instrument, strove through torturings +to reduce her to subjection; and this, perhaps, without desire to injure +her, but mainly with a view to gratify his own selfishness. The other +one--the pretty black boy--of a more lively disposition, found pleasure in +playfully bantering the grave clergyman, and probably strove, in playful +mood, to teach the honest and good man some lessons in charity and +demonology. We see no reason why he may not be regarded as a genial good +fellow, desiring to make some gloomy portion of mankind more cheerful and +happy. + +At Newbury there possibly was nothing more than a playful and +self-gratifying exercise of constitutional powers by a band of spirit +gymnasts--not malicious, but playful and rude; curious also, it may be, to +see how far they might be able to frighten mortals and arouse +consternating wonder, while they should be pleasurably exercising their +own faculties. We view them as neither specially good or bad, but as +heedless and rude in their frolic. + +Appearances are different when we look at the Goodwin family. There an +embodied old wild Irish woman's spirit was the first to put forth +psychologizing power over the children. She was moved by anger, or +resentment, or both; her guardian or kindred spirits no doubt helped her, +and from motives like her own. Perhaps we may properly call both her and +her aids bad. Yet we hear no call to apply that word emphatically. Little +Martha had just charged the old woman's daughter with having stolen some +of the clothes which the latter was employed to wash; and, if that charge +was false, or even presumed by the old woman to be false, she, who was +obviously fiery and ignorant, may not have been excessively diabolical in +using any process of mental or emotional retaliation which was at her +command. Perhaps ignorance and instinctive retaliation were quite as +operative in her as malice. + +Martha's form, subsequently, when she was residing with Cotton Mather, was +often used by one or more spirits who seem to have been bent upon showing +the learned man that sport might exist and be enjoyable beyond the +confines of mortal life, and that denizens there were disposed to make +some at his expense. They soon showed him that linguists unseen could +comprehend his meaning, whatever the language he might use for expression +of his thought; and also thumped the sectarian by disdaining to read books +which he approved, and by reading with ecstatic delight such as he +condemned. Nor was this all; they exhibited in his presence feats of +strength and agility, and many marvelous antics, which were suited to +cause a thinker and scholar to hold on to his belief that others than the +guileless miss took part in the performance of such marvels. While amusing +themselves, they were exhibiters of instructive facts. Nothing bad in +their purposes becomes apparent. + +The case of most special interest and chief importance pertains to Salem. +Upham, vol. ii. p. 429, says, "If there was anything supernatural in the +witchcraft of 1692, if any other than human spirits were concerned at all, +one thing is beyond a doubt; they were shockingly wicked spirits." _Beyond +a doubt?_ Perhaps not in some minds. But if any disembodied spirits +whatsoever, even _shockingly wicked ones_, were mainly performers of the +convulsing operations at Salem, the historian's theory of explanation is +not only baseless, but is lamentably cruel and unjust toward the human +instruments through whom the spirits acted. If specific doings prove their +authors, if spirits, to have been shockingly wicked, the same having +mortal authors, would prove the latter to have been just as shockingly +wicked. We do not like to apply that defamatory phrase to all those girls +and women who are set forth as the chief accusers. Were all those youthful +females shockingly wicked? We hope not, and think not. God rules alike in +the invisible and visible world, and often moves in mysterious ways for +executing benevolent designs. + +The motive of Tituba's "tall man with white hair," whom we regard as prime +mover in the most momentous witchcraft scene the world has ever witnessed, +is difficult to comprehend satisfactorily. The deliberateness indicated +both by his visit to Tituba five days in advance of practical operation, +and by his then appointing a special time and place for entering upon his +intended processes, bespeaks a definite and abiding motive of some marked +quality. Judging from the earlier and more perceptible effects of his +doings, the world must almost necessarily regard him as a deliberate +tormentor of innocent children; as a disturber of domestic, social, +religious, and civil peace; as an immolator of the innocent and the +virtuous; as hell's sovereign acting out his fiendish pleasure upon the +inmates of a Christian fold. Infernal malignity, at the first glance, +seems to have actuated this intruder at the parsonage. World-wide +experience, however, has learned that many things are "not as they seem." +We have been taught to recognize One being, and there may be many others +in spheres unseen, in whose sight "a thousand years are as one day." +Teachings of history and observation show that the overruling power is +attended and guided by far--very far--reaching prescience; and also that +many of man's greatest blessings are educed from temporal evils of vast +magnitude. The malice of man nailed Jesus to the cross. What wears every +appearance of wicked motive is often used as helpful, if not needed, +instrumentality in procuring man's deliverance and redemption from +debasement and oppression. + +When John Brown made his raid across the border line of freedom, not only +the invaded South, but a large portion of the North regarded him as a +ruthless and malicious invader of the rights of our fellow-countrymen, and +therefore worthy of a felon's doom. A cannon soon sent to Fort Sumter the +comments of the South upon what Brown had done, and war, carnage, and +horrors of varied forms and vast dimensions soon spread over the broad +nation, from the St. John to the southern gulf, and from the Atlantic to +the Pacific. John Brown was no felon, no malicious invader, but a +philanthropic planner to strip the chains of slavery from four millions of +his brother men; and his step, though a seeming evil then, led directly +on to the emancipation of all for whose good he went forth in seeming +malice. + +When plagues of various kinds were invoked and brought upon the Egyptians +by and through the mediumistic Moses and Aaron, what Egyptian would have +deemed that the motives of the unseen intelligence who counseled and +controlled them could be benevolent? Plague, pestilences, and sore +afflictions for a long time, and finally death of the first born, were +imposed upon each Egyptian household. The motive to those inflictions is +deemed to have been deliverance of the children of Israel from bondage. +Egyptians being judges, it must have been a shockingly wicked spirit who +acted upon them through Moses and Aaron. + +History, on most of its pages, shows that war--war,--that ruthless +trampler upon the innocent scarcely less than upon the offending, has ever +been a very common, if not the chief, instrument by which oppressed people +have gained deliverance, and through use of which the depressed have come +up to higher stand-points. If our world has, through all its past ages, +been wisely and beneficently managed by some intelligence higher than man, +then far-reaching wisdom--supernal wisdom--has often seen that the good of +the many--nay, the good of _all_--required the coming of suffering, +sacrifice, and anguish upon the few. Has the Great Permitter of the many +sufferings which war has engendered been "shockingly wicked"? + +The chains of old enslaving errors often become invisible and unfelt by +those on whom they were early placed by a mother's kindly hand, and the +like to which all associates wear as supposed helps, and never as +suspected hindrances, to expansion and health of mind and heart. Nothing +short of a most strenuous conflict--nothing short of a struggle for life +and all that makes life valuable and dear--is competent in some cases to +awaken perception that such chains are and ever have been cramping their +wearers, and holding them back from such expansion and freedom as their +Maker fitted men to attain to and enjoy. We regard the witchcraft creed as +having been such a chain. + +Looking carefully at the methods by which the power that overrules all +terrestrial affairs has almost invariably led man to break away from +thralldom and oppression, can one reasonably entertain belief that any +purely peaceful measures, any preachings, arguments, appeals to the reason +of men, could have brought Christendom, at any time after the twelfth or +thirteenth century, to perceive that its witchcraft creed was enslaving +its mind, and thwarting its proper expansion heavenward? We apprehend not; +and also we surmise that in 1602 supernal intelligence saw that +opportunity and power existed, which, if then availed of, could put +mortals into a conflict which would reveal to them the inherent falsity +and barbarity of the witchcraft creed, and thus let such light into their +minds as, in time, would lead them to cast off the chains in which they +were bound, attain to clearer and more accurate views of their relations +to God and the spirit-world, and rise to higher and freer manhood. + +If such were the case, we can readily conceive that supernal wisdom and +benevolence might permit and foster the oncoming of an appalling and +terrific struggle which should bring into vigorous action man's every +latent energy, sweep away in its course many erroneous beliefs, hampering +customs, and ruts of thought, and thoroughly overturn much which had long +been deemed immovable truth. Such a course might be the most beneficent +possible, even though it involved destruction of the comfort, peace, and +lives of many innocent and most estimable inhabitants at the place and +vicinity where the battle should be waged, and that, too, whether the war +itself should be the ostensible offspring of revenge and malice, or a +brave conflict for preservation of one's altars and fireside in peace. + +Some amusement, and little else perhaps, may be furnished by presentation +of what a spiritualist's fancy, prior to careful study of facts narrated +by Tituba, had become accustomed to deem not only possible, but probable. +She was a slave dwelling among oppressors of her kindred and +race--oppressors of the negro, the Indian, and of those generally who were +"guilty of a skin not colored like their own," and of worshiping gods +different from their own. What more natural than that departed ones, whom +the whites had defrauded, injured, and oppressed while dwellers here, and +whose surviving kindred were still being treated in like manner, should +embrace an opportunity which the mediumistic qualities and the abode of +Tituba furnished, for perpetrating retaliation whence woes had been +received? True Christian morality may denounce such action as being +"shockingly wicked," but the more prevalent morality in the world--in the +more resolute portions of it at least, and especially in the less +enlightened--may be as ready to commend as to condemn it, and to applaud +as to censure those whose fire and pluck induced and enabled them to pay +over upon their oppressors wrong for wrong, even augmented with interest +at the highest rates which their altered circumstances allowed. It having +been discovered that Tituba's form was a portal for spirit return, fancy +saw the spirits of her ancestral race, and hosts of ascended aborigines of +Massachusetts soil, eagerly coming back through her helping properties, +disposed and eager to cast their impalpable arrows and tomahawks at any +members of the wronging race who might be vulnerable by such weapons. +Scouts swiftly and widely spread over the spirit hunting-grounds knowledge +of the glorious opportunity for retaliation and revenge which had come, +and hosts of volunteers rushed thence with lightning speed to the alluring +scene. Quick havoc ensued, and the great consternation, bewilderment, +devastation, slaughter, disturbance of peace, and agonizings of terror and +awe, which the invasion produced, gave keenest pleasure, satisfaction, and +joy to the assailants. Possibly Indian spirits might then begin to cherish +hopes of expelling all whites from the land of their fathers, and of +re-acquiring and leaving the whole a legacy to red men's heirs. + +But the whites, not less than the darker-skinned, were under the +supervision of spirit guardians, friends, and helpers, who, though +probably taken by surprise and at disadvantage, were by no means disposed +to leave their wards, kindred, and loved ones to be long thus harassed and +abused. Invisible hosts soon mustered, and warred against other invisible +hosts over and around the Village; and when the struggle had been waged +far enough to sever witchcraft's chains, the laws of the _Highest_ +permitted the guardians of the Christians to conquer a lasting peace whose +balm would heal the wounds inflicted, and whose fruits would be +emancipation from cramping errors, and consequent expansion and elevation +of mental powers. + +As, perhaps, appropriate sequent to our fanciful views, we next present +something which was not born in our own brain, and which may or may not be +statement of ancient facts. We have devoted but little time to directly +seeking information from spirits relating to the subject upon which we +are writing, and yet have seldom entered into conversation with any good +clairvoyant, at any time during the last year or two, without receiving +description of one or more spirits then in attendance, and manifesting +desire to have us recognize them. In most cases they have shown their +names. In this manner Cotton Mather, more than any other one, signifies +that interest in our present work draws him near to us. Mather's mother, +also Martha Goodwin, Rebecca Nurse, and others, have presented their cards +through persons ignorant that individuals bearing such names ever lived. +But Mather has done more. On two or three occasions, using a medium's +organs of speech, he has entered into conversation with us upon his +connection with witchcraft. He is not now well pleased with his blindness +when in his physical form, and urges us to be more severe in our +criticisms upon his course than historic facts permit us to be. + +February 9, 1875, he was in control of a medium, and we inquired as to his +present views of George Burroughs. At once and cordially he described +Burroughs as one of the brightest of all spirits whom he had seen, and as +"illumining whatever sphere he enters." We asked Mather if he had ever +learned who the spirit was that came to Tituba and started Salem +witchcraft. He had not. Had he met Tituba? "Yes." "Can you not," we asked, +"find him through her?" "Probably," was his response; "and will try, if +you wish it." "Well, then," we said, "two weeks from this day and hour we +will meet you at this place." This was arranged through an _unconscious_ +medium, who never receives into her consciousness any knowledge of what +her lips utter while she is entranced, and she was on that occasion. We +did not inform her, nor did any other mortal than ourself know, that we +arranged for a subsequent meeting with Mather. + +We called upon the medium February 23, when forthwith, in her normal and +conscious state, she said that she was then seeing at our side two spirits +of very strange aspect, and of race or races unknown to her. One of them +she described as a male, uncouth in aspect, having large piercing eyes, a +very wild look, and as being clothed in a sort of blouse, beneath and +below which were short pants tucked into the shoes; also his teeth were +very large. The other was a female of unknown race, and of a race +different from that to which the male belonged; her complexion was dark, +but she was neither negro nor Indian, and exhibited the letter T. + +This medium may have known, and probably did, that we were engaged in +writing upon witchcraft; but she is not conversant with its history, nor +did she know the names of individuals concerned in it, nor the parts any +had severally performed. + +Very shortly after having given the above description, the medium was +entranced; soon Cotton Mather, speaking through her, signified that he had +brought with him both Tituba and her nocturnal visitant when she was slave +of Mr. Parris; also, he stated, that, since they were not accustomed to +giving utterance through borrowed lips, he proposed to speak for and of +them. The statement relating to the man was substantially as follows:-- + +"His name was Zachahara; he was of Egyptian descent, but a Ninevite, or +dweller in Nineveh. His time on earth was somewhat before that of Moses. +Not long after his death, he, a spirit, observed that a spirit by the name +of Jehocah--not Jehovah--was working strange marvels, and enacting +cruelties among the race from which himself had sprung, through one Moses, +and was thereby acting out a spirit's purposes toward man through a +mortal's form. At once he, Zachahara, felt strong inclination and desire +to exercise his own powers in the same mode. The desire clung to him +tenaciously, and ever kept him alert, to find a mortal whom he could use +with efficiency rivaling that which Jehocah manifested through Moses. No +one of his many trials, however, was very successful until he put forth +his skill and power upon and through Tituba. His ruling motive was desire +to ascertain how far he, being a spirit, could get and keep control of a +mortal form, and what amount and kinds of wonders he could perform with +such an instrument. The motive was devoid of either malice or benevolence; +it essentially was that of the scientist seeking new knowledge of nature's +permissions. To keep Tituba in good humor with himself, he freely made +promises to bestow upon her many fine things; and, to please her, he would +say and do anything he thought might add to his power over her, and, +through her, over other mortals." + +Such was the account; and, while it was coming upon our ears, it carried +us back to familiar accounts of marvels of old, and we felt that the acts +of Jehocah through Moses, and those of Zachahara through Tituba, bespoke +motives so much alike in apparent barbarity, that, if either actor was +blameworthy, it might be difficult to see why equal blame should not be +meted out upon the other. + +Mather, speaking of and for Tituba, said, that "when the man first came to +her and sought her service and aid, he was very bright and pleasant; but +that, when she declined to comply with his wishes and demands, he became +awfully dark and terrible." Briefly, Tituba herself managed the medium's +vocal organs, furnished a simpering confirmation of Mather's statement, +and said, with a shrug and shiver, "he was awful! awful!" + +Subsequent conversation at the same seance elicited from spirits their +belief, that, as soon as a door of access to men through Tituba was +discovered, numerous Indian spirits were able and eager to rush through +and lend a helping hand to the old Ninevite, and were devoid of any strong +desire to help gently; indeed, they were very willing to molest the whites +on their own responsibility. Soon, when unimpassioned search for knowledge +of what ability spirits possessed or might acquire to revisit and again +act amid terrestrial scenes was too much attended by agents willing to +enact, and actually enacting, havoc too severe to be longer tolerated, +wise and compassionate spirits brought power to bear which soon put a stop +to what was producing most agonizing consequences. Spirits claim that they +did much in the way of changing the views of mortals, and preventing a +renewal of prosecutions at the next term of court. Perceiving that enough +cruelty had been enacted to make mortals ready to ask whether both +humanity and God were not belied by the creed Christians were enforcing, +they turned the minds of men to more rational and humane views. + +Some time during the winter of 1874-5, Rev. G. Burroughs having poured +out, through a medium's lips, a few sentences redolent with charity and +heavenly grace, we asked him what he now deemed the motive which primarily +induced some spirit to inaugurate the operations which brought himself and +many others to untimely end? His response was, "I suppose it was the +natural and proper desire of some spirit to resume communion with its dear +ones on earth." No spirit has ever indicated to us a suspicion even that +the spirits whose acts evolved witchcraft were either malevolent, +censurable, or in any sense _shockingly wicked_. + +Did supernal prescience select and post agents peculiarly fitted to +perform the witchcraft tragedy? Perhaps so: and possibly Sir William Phips +was not governor by mere chance. Some statements by Calef indicate that +Sir William when young, perhaps while but a learner of ship-carpentry in +Maine, received a written communication which led him to go to Europe and +obtain means whereby to seek for a wreck, the finding of which brought him +fortune and title. He long and carefully preserved the prophetic paper, +and, when flush in means, paid the writer of it more than two hundred +pounds. From the same or a similar source he fore-learned his becoming a +commander, governor of New England, and other events of his life. +Information of that kind usually comes to such as are mediumistic enough +to be susceptible of guidance, or at least of swayings, by the +intelligence from whom the prophecy issues. Sir Phips may have been +himself mediumistic. The probable fact that the accusing girls named the +governor's wife as one from whom they received annoyance bespeaks +probability that she too had place in the class of impressibles. +Therefore, one inclined to prosecute such speculations is here furnished +with a basis on which to argue that the Infinite Prescience which +permitted the advent of Salem witchcraft, also embraced fit instruments in +fit position for controlling its course, and also for putting a stop to it +as soon as it should have outwrought enough of seeming evil to beget the +good which Infinite Benevolence purposed to bestow upon mortals. Spirits +take to themselves much credit for the part they performed in changing the +opinions and course of the authorities and people here in the autumn of +1692, and the early months of the following year. + +The adjournment of the court, and no law permitting another session for +months, gave opportunity for reflection. Also the actual and contemplated +arrests of many of high standing and most estimable character were matters +of sobering influence, so that reason resumed its sway; no more were tried +for witchcraft, and all prisoners were set free. This may have occurred +either with or without special action of spirits upon the public mind. + +We now regard the primal motive as nearly or quite devoid of moral +quality. It probably was either a natural and proper desire to get access +to dear ones left on earth, or some experimental or some scientific +impulse to test the power which a spirit could exercise over those encased +in mortal forms. When, before the days of ether, good Dr. Flag had fixed +his forceps firmly on our raging tooth, and given a long, strong pull till +out of breath, our pains, our agony, our heavy blows upon his hand and +arms, failed to make him let go. He was shockingly wicked at that moment, +for he not only held on and kept us in torture, but pulled again without +success; and even then he would not let go, but pulled yet once more, and +the tooth came out. Spirits, getting access to mortals, may have judged +that only through transient evils and sufferings could man get relief from +severe chronic maladies, and that, when opportunity occurred, their +kindest possible treatment of men was homoeopathic--was the curing like +with like--curing evil by inflicting evil. They may have been so +shockingly wicked as to do that. + +Spirits may often, and generally explore and operate from motives not +perceptibly different from such as actuate their human counterparts. The +devoted vivisectionist seldom shrinks from entering upon, or gives up +pursuit of, knowledge because the scalpel agonizes his living subject. So, +too, a spirit in pursuit of knowledge--if, either casually or by intended +experiment, finding himself controlling the will and organs of Tituba or +some other impressible mortal, and thus opening up a new field for +exploration--might be strongly inclined to see how far and efficiently he +could wield forces of nature so as himself to sway the forms and affairs +of embodied men. Each gain in power or skill for acting amid terrestrial +beings, scenes, and objects, would naturally thrill him with pleasure, and +incite him to follow up researches in the spirit of science. That spirit +is prone to look upon sufferings which its own processes occasion, as but +temporary incidents, and of little account in comparison with the +beneficent results which its triumphs will procure. Extension of their own +fields of knowledge and influence was perhaps among the chief motives +which prompted spirits to perform the wonders that startled, frenzied, and +agonized the subjects and observers of their operations in 1692. Another +may have been self-gratification by revisiting well-known scenes; and yet +another, beneficence to man by opening for his use a new source of +knowledge and wisdom. + +Realms unseen are the abodes of sympathetic as well as of scientific +beings; and as soon as a false creed had been forced to disclose its +falsity, the former may have seen occasion to dissuade the latter from +acting further upon benighted dwellers in mortal forms, until time should +bring man to calm reflection and retrospection, and to possession of such +mental freedom as would embolden him to meet unawed, strange visitants +from unseen realms, and extend to even such a friendly hand. The lapse of +a hundred and fifty years brought such mental freedom to us, purchased by +the sufferings of our fathers, that, undeterred by fears of the halter, we +now can invite to our earthly homes the loved and saintly ones who have +passed on to realms above, hold blissful and uplifting communings with +them, and learn their justification of the wonderful ways of God both to +and through the children of men and in all nature. + +Whatever the ruling motive of the chief direct producer of Salem +Witchcraft may have been, the resistless power which moves all things, +including malignant motives, onward toward the production of ultimate +good, caused the fierce conflict we are considering to soon put an +effectual stop to prosecutions for witchcraft throughout all Christian +lands, and shattered to fragments a pernicious creed which had long +enslaved the Christian mind. Costly as that struggle was in pains, +sicknesses, tortures, anguish, physical exhaustions, domestic distresses, +social alienations, church discords, languishments in prison, fears, +frenzies, and even life, the price may not have been high for the +wide-spread and abiding blessings of mental freedom which it obtained. + + + + +LOCAL AND PERSONAL. + + +_Members of the First Parish in Danvers, and all residents on the soil of +Salem Village_:-- + +About three years since it was my privilege to speak briefly concerning +the marvels of 1692, on the spot where they transpired. Courtesy then +required brevity, and some vagueness of statement resulted: my remarks on +that occasion are embraced among the addresses appended to Rev. Charles B. +Rice's admirable "History of the First Parish in Danvers, 1672-1872"--a +production of much more than ordinary merit. + +The present occasion is embraced to point out a misprint. On pages 186 and +187 of those bi-centennial offerings, I am made to say that "the little +resolute band of devil-fighters here in the wilderness became, though all +_unwillingly_, yet became most efficient helpers in gaining liberty for +the freer action of nobler things than any creed," &c.--I never cherished +a thought so derogatory to them as that they _unwillingly_ became +efficient helpers in gaining liberty. My spoken words were, that they +_unwittingly_, that is, without knowing it, were being made instrumental +in gaining mental freedom, or deliverance from the chains of error; and I +believe that a large part of the preceding pages tends to make the truth +of my actual statement apparent, while it shows the falsity of the one +imputed to me. + +The soil beneath you long has been and long will be either consecrated or +damned to fame; damned, hereafter, if prevalent modern views of former +actors there be correct; consecrated, if the ostensible actors be viewed +as chosen combatants and instruments on witchcraft's last and most widely +renowned battle-field. + +Many of you know that I first drew breath and also received my earlier +training and unfoldment on the soil of your town. My relations to +witchcraft soil were not of my own choosing, and I feel no responsibility +for them--feel no sense of gratulation, and none of shame, because of +them. Still, no doubt, they increase my desire to set forth the merits of +former dwellers at the Village as having been as great and noble, and +their faults as few and small, as authenticated facts fairly demand; and +this not because of anything done or suffered by any one of my personal +ancestors, no one of whom, so far as I have learned, was either accuser, +accused, or witness in any witchcraft case. There, however, has been +transmitted orally from sire to son what possibly indicates that one of +them was exposed to arrest. Immediately after the prosecutions ceased, +Joseph Putnam, father of General Israel, was a firm and efficient opponent +to Mr. Parris's retaining position as minister at the Village. Tradition +says that when rage for arrestings was high, he, being then only +twenty-two years old, and his still younger wife, kept themselves and +their family armed, their horses saddled and fed by the door, day and +night for six months. This was preparation for either resistance or +flight, as circumstances might render expedient in case an arrest should +be attempted there. Opposition to prevalent beliefs, therefore, may not be +a new feature in the family history. The heretic to the notions of many +to-day, may have had an ancestor heretical to the witchcraft creed in +1692. + +But if heresy has come by inheritance, charity combines with it; for my +heart is gladdened by each newly discovered indication that Joseph's elder +half-brother, Thomas Putnam, the great and impartial prosecutor, and Ann, +daughter of Thomas the great witch-finder,--also that Mr. Parris and many +other former villagers,--never, any one of them, acted any part in +relation to witchcraft that was not prompted by devotion to the relief and +good of their families and neighbors, or forced upon them by unseen and +irresistible agents. + +Your trusted teachers upon the subject--Upham, Fowler, Hanson, and Rice, +all well informed in most directions, and well-intentioned--have severally +favored the view that neither supermundane nor submundane agents were at +all concerned in producing your witchcraft scenes. Their course throws +tremendous and most fearful responsibilities upon both the fathers and +daughters of a former age; and not responsibilities alone, but also +accusations of deviltry upon the children, and of stupidity and barbarity +upon the fathers, which make them all objects of aversion, and a stock +from which any one may well blush to find that he has descended. + +No one of these teachers went back to the commencement of the strange +doings, and scanned the testimony of Tituba, that personal participator in +them, and the best possible witness. No one of them used, and probably +none but Upham had at command, her simple but plain statements, that a +spirit came to her and forced her to help him and others pinch the two +little girls in Mr. Parris's family, at the very time when their +mysterious ailments were first manifested. The keen and exact Deodat +Lawson states that the afflicted ones "talked with the specters as with +living persons." Mention of spirits as being seen attendant upon the +startling works is of frequent occurrence in the primitive records. +Therefore, facts well presented and authoritative have been left unadduced +by your teachers. They, however, are a part, and a very important part, of +things to be accounted for. Any theory of explanation that fails to +embrace such is essentially faulty, misleading, and not worthy of +adoption. Fair respect for historic facts, and especially for the +reputation of those men and young women who were prominently concerned in +its scenes, very properly and forcefully demands a widely different and +less humiliating and aspersory solution of your witchcraft than such as +has been proffered in the present century. + +My reading in preparation for this work failed to meet with either +distinct mention of any meeting of a circle at Mr. Parris's house, or with +any statement which had seeming reference to the existence of such a one, +till I got down to Upham, who dwells much upon it and its influences, but +omits mention of the source of his information. Since the publication of +his Lectures upon Witchcraft, many writers have followed his lead. + +Knowledge of the locality and of the relative positions of the homes of +those girls, and of their positions in those homes, is perhaps kept more +steadily in view by a writer whose young days, and parts of his manhood, +were passed there, than by others not so long familiar with the region; +and perhaps he holds firmer conviction that gatherings, with the frequency +and to the extent which are claimed, for the purpose of learning the arts +of necromancy, magic, and spiritualism, under the roof of such a man as +Mr. Parris, were very much nearer to an impossibility, than most others do +who have of late had occasion to consider _who_ enacted Salem witchcraft. +If current assumptions, that the accusing girls, by study and practice, +rendered themselves able to concoct and enact the vast and bloody tragedy +imputed to them, and if their own minds and wills were properly authors +there,--if the prevalent explanation of witchcraft be much other than +fanciful,--then the magical skill and powers, and the brutal acts there +manifested, loudly call for admission that wolfish fathers had begotten +foxes, and were beguiled and spurred on by their own wily vulpines to +commit such horrid havoc as must fix unfading and ineffaceable stain of +infamy upon the spot where they prowled. + +The blackest smooch on the pages of your history was dropped from the pen +which virtually made the Village daughters incarnate devils, and their +fathers gullible, stupid, and brutal mistakers of what their own girls +performed for the marvelous doings of agents possessing more than mortal +powers. God save the parish soil from the stain which modern fancy's +course tends to impress upon it! Its men were never beguiled and aroused +to perpetration of monstrous barbarities by the self-willed actings and +words of their daughters. But genuine and mysterious afflictions of their +children found the sires ready to fight manfully and unflaggingly for God +and the deliverance of their families from mundane hells, and that, too, +with such force and persistency as never before was equaled in +witchcraft's long history, and with such success that no extension of that +sad volume has since been possible. + +That was most emphatically a time that tried men's _souls_; and the souls +then there proved to be brave enough to wage conflict against the +mightiest and most formidable of possible enemies, and strong and +persistent enough to force him to such struggle as strained his vitals, +and paralyzed his power to molest grievously in any future age. The Unique +Devil of Witchcraft left that field of fight a Samson shorn of his locks; +the source of his strength was there cut off, for the intensely indurated +encasement of the delusion which centuries before had begotten him, and +had ever since been feeding him abundantly, was then so thoroughly +cracked, that its contents went the way of water spilled upon the ground, +and he famished. + +Blush not for the fathers. They were heroes, true to their creed, their +families, and their neighbors; true servants of their God--true foes to +their devil. And their fight purchased the freedom which lets me now speak +in their defense, devoid of any fears of the hangman's rope; and +purchased, too, your no less valuable freedom to let me now speak without +molestation,--which would be impossible were the creed of the fathers now +prevalent, and if you equaled them in devotion to _Faith_,--because then +my methods and processes for gaining knowledge would require you to hang +either me or those through whom loved and wise ones speak back from beyond +the grave, impart their hallowing lessons of experience in bright abodes, +and their instructions in righteousness. Thank God yourselves that you +hold no creed calling you to perpetrate such barbarity! Hutchinson's +statement, that our witch-prosecutors were more barbarous than Hottentots +and nations scarcely knowing a God ever were known to be, involves a very +significant comment upon the witchcraft creed. That creed made our fathers +more barbarous than any tribe of men outside the Christian pale; and were +that creed yours to-day, and were you true to it, you would be equally +barbarous as they. Their struggle purchased for you and all Christendom +exemption from their direful condition. + +Adopt the view--and we believe it correct--that the accusing girls were +constitutionally endowed with fine sensibilities and special organisms and +temperaments which rendered their bodies facile instruments through which +unseen intelligences acted upon visible matter and human beings, the +supposition that God made them capable of being good mediums--good +instruments for use by other minds and wills than their own, and that +their bodies, either apart from or against their own minds and wills, were +concerned in the enactment of witchcraft, and then you may look upon each +and all of them as having been as pure, innocent, harmless, sympathetic, +and benevolent as any females in that or in this generation; and no +descendant from them need fear the cropping out of specially bad and +disreputable blood thence inherited, and each may regard his or her native +spot as deserving to be consecrated rather than damned to fame, because +there true, conscientious men fought manfully and legitimately for rescue +of both their own homes and the community from direst of all conceivable +foes, while living instruments of rare efficiency existed there, by use of +which the Christian world was delivered from dwarfing and hampering +slavery to a monk-made devil. What other battle, of any nature, ever +fought on American soil, purchased choicer freedom, or effected mental +emancipation more widely over Christendom, than did your fathers' conflict +with _their_ devil? May the year 1892 deem the spot worthy of a +commemorative monument! + +Your last historian poetically says, that your "witchcraft darkness is a +cloud conspicuous chiefly by the widening radiance itself of the morning +on whose brow it hung." Shining traits, qualities, and deeds of New +Englanders in the seventeenth century, including the dwellers at the +Village, no doubt gave widening radiance to the morning of our nation's +day; and the abiding brilliancy of that morning may be what makes your +"witchcraft darkness" far more conspicuous than any in other lands. But it +surely required far other than begulled fathers and begulling daughters to +emit the rays of a morning of such widening radiance as would make +darkness more conspicuous there than elsewhere. That morning owed its +brightness to far other traits than beguiled and beguiling ones. Clear +perceptions of the demands of a creed, of duty to God, of duty to one's +family; prompt, vigorous action in obedience to God's direction and the +king's law when the devil invaded one's home; fearless and untiring +conflict with man's most powerful and malignant foe;--these, and other +powers, qualities, and acts kindred to these, emitted the radiance which +made the blackness of witchcraft more conspicuous at Danvers than +elsewhere in the broad world. + +No. Witchcraft did not rage with most marvelous fierceness, end enact its +death-struggle, on your soil because of the weakness, but because of the +strength of your fathers; not because of their cowardice, but of their +courage; not because of their heartlessness and barbarity, but of +tenderness toward their agonized families; not because of lack of faith in +God, but because of faith in him so strong that it could put humaneness +down, and keep it down till God's call to put a witch to death could be +obeyed. + +Such properties gave to the morning of the Village an inherent brightness +which first extinguished witchcraft's dismal day, and now harbingers a +brighter one, in which, no civil law molesting, spirits hold mutually +helpful communings with mortals. That momentous and most valuable +privilege was essentially won on your soil in 1692. Nation after nation, +taught by results at the Village, has repealed its obnoxious statutes, and +broad Christendom is the freer and more elevated because of light widely +radiating forth from your "witchcraft darkness." + + + + +METHODS OF PROVIDENCE. + + +Our planet, Earth, is yet crude. Its soil, products, emanations, and auras +are coarse and harsh. Though meliorated much since it first gave birth to +man, it is not now fitted to nurture beings as refined as it will be +centuries hence. It is being constantly softened, and is ever progressing +toward the present ripened condition of older planets, whose embodied +inhabitants easily and constantly commune with wise departed kindred, from +whom they receive such instructions and aids as cause them to live in +close harmony with the laws of animal health, and therefore nearly free +from sickness and pains, and, when ripened for release, to pass painlessly +out from their grosser integuments. From the days of remotest history, and +our world over, spirits have often been transiently visible and palpable +by some mortals. But the atmosphere in which humans live is measurably +uncongenial and oppressive to most, and especially to purer and more +advanced spirits; still it becomes less so from century to century, is +ever gaining such conditions as lift a little higher its incarnate +inhabitants, and is less oppressive to those disrobed of flesh. Its +modifications prophesy that time will be when mortals and spirits may here +more comfortably than now intercommune constantly and with mutual benefit. +Terrific mental conflicts--moral tornadoes, agitations to the depths of +society, are used as instruments in advancing earth and its inhabitants to +states which will permit spirits to be our constantly recognized +attendants, and our helpful advisers and guides along the paths of +spiritual progression. Progress is hastened through intense tribulations. + +Great changes and advances of either a material, mental, political, +social, or spiritual world are, like births, generally outwrought through +anguish and sufferings. Even the entrance of spirits into mortal forms is +usually painful to both parties. First and earlier reincarnations are +almost necessarily attended by psychological action which forces spirits +severally to manifest, and, moderatedly, to undergo, again their special +sufferings during their last hours of earth-life. Mortals, too, shrink +from, and are agitated by, and afraid of their nearest friends, if +disrobed of flesh. Such fears are repulsive forces, making spirit approach +arduous and often impossible. The boon of return, in most cases, is at the +cost of suffering--but of suffering which pays well--suffering which +purchases joy for both those who come and those who welcome them. Our +earth and all who are born upon it receive or earn many of their greatest +blessings through the sweats of convulsive throes or severe toil. The +abolition of a wide-spread obnoxious creed was terrific in 1692. + +In civilized lands extensively, and especially in Protestant Christendom, +possibility of the return of departed good souls from their invisible +abodes has for centuries been doubted. Therefore a most copious source of +valuable instruction and help has been unused. Resort to it has, or had, +become horrific; it has been deemed by men the devil's pool exclusively. +But not so by spirits. Wise and friendly ones, unseen, have long and often +sought and labored for such recognition and welcome, by survivors on +earth, as would render demonstration of spirit presence widely +practicable. Spirits have sought this because they have been seeing that +free and extensive intercommunings between dwellers in flesh and +enfranchised ones might greatly facilitate the advance of both classes in +beneficence and happiness. The immense aid which the earth-embodied +living, and only they, can give to many unhappy ones whom they call dead, +is not yet dreamed of by the public. Knowledge that many departed ones are +obliged to get aid from earth ere they can make an efficient start up the +ladder heavenward, opens a wide and interesting field of labor to those +who have carefully sought to learn the mutual dependences of the seen and +unseen worlds. + +The possible advent of instruction from unseen realms is now for the first +time receiving practical demonstration among a people, who, as a whole, +are able and disposed to scan carefully the nature and qualities of the +intelligences who impart it. Prior to 1692, the Christian world had long +been shrinking from conferences with unseen colloquists, deeming all such +diabolical in purpose and influence. Ignorance was mother of its fears. +The present age, more enlightened, more disposed to investigation, more +prone to believe in the reign of law always and everywhere, asks the +hidden teachers who they are, and whence and why and how they gain access +to our homes. Their responses affirm, and each lapsing year of +non-refutation confirms the allegation, that they are spirits now, but +once were mortals robed in flesh; and that they come, some from this +motive, some from that,--some for fun, frolic, and even revenge and wrong; +but more of them to give and to receive the pleasure and happiness which +visits to their former homes and friends will generate, and especially to +make known to their loved ones here the course of life which will best fit +them for joy and happiness in the mansions and scenes of the world to +which they all must come. + +The methods of Providence have ever been homogeneous; and now that they +have brought peoples to the dawn of a day when human hospitality is +entertaining angels, not always unawares, but often consciously and +joyfully, the beneficence of the witchcraft scenes at Salem Village, +whereby Christendom's thralldom to a factitious devil was effectually +broken up, becomes conspicuous. Lapsed time reveals probability that the +barbarisms of that day were availed of as instruments for procuring the +freedom which now permits instructive, helpful, and gladdening intercourse +between millions of devout and truth-seeking mortals and bright, +beneficent spirits. What though the agitation of Christendom brings its +latent iniquities and impurities to the surface? What though the +counterparts of publicans, sinners, and harlots float numerously into +view? Ascent of dross and scum to the surface is usually the first product +in processes of clarification. Inexperienced observers are very liable to +regard the unsightly stuff as a sample of all that underlies it. Others, +who better comprehend the cause and object of bringing impurities into +view, observe such first results complacently, knowing that subsequent +effects will be most beneficent--will present purified, and therefore +more precious views of the divine methods of bringing men to +righteousness, and will furnish more efficient helps to man's upward +progression than have been generally applicable heretofore. + +Great reformatory truths have seldom been first offered to or received by +the worldly-wise and prudent. Not rulers and Pharisees, but common people, +fishermen, humble women, publicans, sinners, and harlots were numerous +among the first followers of Jesus; and these were the ones who heard him +gladly. Like causes which made it thus of old, operate to-day, and the +supplemental revelations and revealers of our time meet with like +reception as did those centuries ago. It is well. Wide popularity and +affectionate fondling might sap an infant _ism_ of its best health-giving +and reformatory powers. Comprehensive wisdom lets it harden and strengthen +through buffetings with the leaders of prevalent theological and +scientific decisions, opinions, and fashions. The boundless intelligence, +which ever acts for good, is patient and long forbearing. It waits for +seeds of reforms to take deep root in the masses, and thence, in time, +pushes onward the force which overturns dynasties, hierarchies, and all +effete institutions, creeds, and customs which are no longer fruitful of +food suited to cultured man's existing needs. + +Savage and barbarous nations, everywhere and always, attain to more or +less faith in the presence and help of ancestral spirits; they seek +instruction from the departed. Broad and perpetual belief in a particular +fact is far from weak evidence of its positive existence. Uncultured minds +admit witnessed facts to be positive occurrences, and affect no need to +comprehend how they are produced before giving assent to their verity. But +the cultured are prone to deny the manifestation of any events whose +transpiration is not referable to the permission of some law whose +operations are familiar. They cannot account for a fact, and therefore it +does not exist, or, as Agassiz said, "it is not in nature." The greatest +of human scientists, however, falls far short of acquaintance with all the +forces and permissions enfolded within boundless, unfathomable, +incomprehensible _nature_. It is dogmatism--not science--which says that +facts observed by the senses of man continuously from the birth of his +race down to now, have had no positive existence. + +Law reigns; and we know no law which permits return from beyond the +grave; therefore departed spirits cannot revisit their survivors on earth. +Such is often the position and argument of theology, science, and culture. +But our question to them is, Are you sure that you are acquainted with all +the laws, forces, agents, and permissions in the broad storehouses of +nature? Have you explored all realms in the universe, and qualified +yourselves to maintain that you have definitely learned that no forces +anywhere exist by which things anomalous to human science can be +manifested to human senses? Practically you say, Yes. And doing thus, you +foster and fast extend belief in non-immortality. + +Are the results of your course to be lamented? Perhaps not. The oozing out +and disappearance of an old belief, and a consequent state of non-belief, +may be arranged for in the methods of Providence, because the latter state +may be the best possible for the induction of belief founded on +demonstration, where one previously lived which rested upon dogmatic +authority. + +The skepticism of our generation pertaining to a future life is an +offspring of general and advanced education which asks for proofs as the +only proper foundation for belief. That education has fitted the thinking +masses to demand that teachers shall grapple with and either refute or +adopt sensible facts widely witnessed. Millions upon millions of +Christendom's inhabitants are having sensible demonstration, day by day +and hour by hour, that the spirits of departed mortals make known their +veritable presence among their survivors in mortal forms. They say to the +world's leading minds,--spirit return is a fact in nature: it is made +manifest to our physical senses; we know it to be true. Therefore, ye +sticklers for law and scientific methods, prove to us our mistake if we +are dupes. + +During more than five and twenty years we have been putting forth that +call, and you have thus long omitted to give any other response than +dogmatic assertion that the appearances we witness are the productions of +fraud, fancy, delusion, and the like. That is not satisfactory. Our claim +is, that departed spirits of men are working marvels on the earth. That +claim is good till it be shown that the marvelous events witnessed are the +productions of other agents. Each lapsing year strengthens that claim. And +if a check to such materialism as argues that man is devoid of any +property which will consciously survive the death of his body, and if a +positive demonstration of man's survival beyond the tomb, be matters +which the methods of Providence are employed to advance, then the unwonted +numbers of returning spirits recently and now, and the frequency of their +advent, together with the consequent daily and palpable demonstration of a +life beyond the present, come to man most opportunely--come to him both +when vast masses of mortals are prepared so meet and welcome them as +friends and kindred, and also, and significantly, when their presence +impairs the power of bright and leading minds to cause the thinkers of our +age to anticipate annihilation of themselves, their kindred, and their +race, and to suffer loss of the incentives and joys which attend +anticipations of a heaven in advance. + +So welcome, efficient, and salutary an advent of invisible actors and +teachers as we witness to-day, seemingly would have been impossible, had +the witchcraft creed of our fathers retained abiding hold upon their +descendants. The methods of Providence seem to have embraced both the +abolition of that creed, and a sufficient lapse of time for the nurture +and culture of a people up to such elevation that a large portion of it +would be fitted and disposed to welcome back departed ones just when their +proved presence would be the great fact at man's command which would +effectually deter advancing and beneficent physical scientists from +inferring and teaching that life's emigrants all take a plunge into the +rayless abyss of nonentity. + +A continuous thread of the methods of Providence seems traceable through +many of the darkest and most shocking scenes of human history. Many of +man's greatest advances have been outwrought through anguish and tortures +whose inflictors we reprobate. Is it too much to say that such a thread +ropes in, as instruments of good, Pharaoh, Pontius Pilate, Witchcraft, and +many other notable personages and scenes, which have been made to further +the deliverances of oppressed and suffering mortals? Permission of sins, +sufferings, and wrongs comes from the Infinitely Benevolent. + +Fit instrumentality existed at Salem Village for demolishing that special +creed of Christendom which closed and barred the gates that nature hinged +for furnishing a way of egress back from beyond the grave; and wisest and +kindest dwellers above were in mood then to let suffering and anguish +enough come upon mortals there to awaken them out of their deep delusion, +and sway them to set those special gates ajar. They broke the bars; but +dust and rubbish long made a wide opening difficult and arduous. A +century and a half was needed for such liberation of mortals from the +crampings of delusion, and for such exercise of free thought in a land of +free schools, as would educate a nation up to courage which could calmly +ask any mysterious visitant whatsoever, who he was, whence he came, and +what he wanted. In the fullness of time, this could be and was done. When +culture and science were broadly producing conviction that there is no +hereafter for man, one came forth from the land of the departed, knocked +on cottage walls, gained the ear of common people, allured hosts of other +spirits to follow him to human abodes; and the numerous band of returning +ones is now the only host which can effectually stop the hope-crushing +advance of materialism, and furnish the world palpable demonstration of an +hereafter for the souls of men. + +In 1692, an unprecedented strain in its application effectually broke up +Christendom's long cherished and indurated delusion that devils unfleshed +and devils incarnate are the only beings who can act and commune across +the line dividing this from the life beyond. That rupture set Christians +free to learn that duty called them to "try the spirits." In time a +generation came who met that duty. Spirits of God--good spirits--as well +as others visit human abodes, and their presence itself is proof positive +of man's survival beyond the grave. Their widely conceded advent seems +divinely opportune, for it occurs when their presence tends forcefully to +check, and promises to stop the prevalent strong tendency of science and +culture to divine that man's doom is drear annihilation. The beneficent +intensity of a special strain upon a specific delusion, nine score years +ago, is due to the strength of faith, character, and action, and to the +unwonted extent and excellency of medianimic instrumentality then existing +at Salem Village, whose conspicuous action and use there made that spot +lastingly memorable; and we deem it just to regard it as a point from +which influences emanated whose fruits to-day are eminent blessings to the +Christian world. The methods of Providence often educe choicest good from +most direful evils. + + + + +APPENDIX. + +CHRISTENDOM'S WITCHCRAFT DEVIL. + + +Christians, when New England witchcraft occurred, generally believed that +it originated with, emanated from, and was controlled by _one_ vast +malignant personality, possessing frightful powers, aspects, and +efficiency. A fair comprehension of what that being was then conceived to +be is needful to anything like accurate knowledge of the origin, growth, +sway, exit, and genuine character of occurrences which outwrought as dire +strifes, horrors, bloodshed, and heart-wrenchings, as any courageous, +intelligent, and conscientious people ever sided forward or suffered +under. + +Christendom, in the day of our Puritan forefathers, believed in a devil +peculiar to a few centuries--in one who was of more modern birth than the +Bible or other ancient histories--who was very different from any being +characterized in either Jewish or heathen records of antiquity, and has no +parallel, we trust, in any creed to-day. + +Probably many malicious, as well as benevolent, unseen personages exist, +who may often act upon men and their affairs. There may be powerful _evil +ones_, in realms unseen, who there rule over hosts of like dispositions +with themselves. Neither the existence of many devils, nor intermeddling +by them with man's peace and welfare, is called in question. + +Authors of the Bible, when using the terms devil, Satan, and others of +similar import, generally designated, as our own age extensively does, +beings very unlike _such_ a devil as was conceived of and dreaded by +Christendom from two to five hundred years ago. Prior to and during the +days of Jesus and his apostles, such terms were often applied to whatever, +in either the visible or the unseen world, tempted or forced men to +wrong-doing, or hindered their progress in goodness. Jesus said to a +disciple, "Get thee behind me, _Satan_;" and this, simply because Peter +was giving him advice more carnal than spiritual, and which was designed +to dissuade Jesus from following the course which his conscience was +prompting him to pursue. The mere giving of unwise advice made Peter _a +Satan_. Turning to 2 Sam. xxiv. 1, you may read that the LORD, being +angry, moved David to number the people. Turning again to 1 Chron. xxi. 1, +you will find a description of the same transaction, in which it is said +that "_Satan_ ... provoked David to number Israel." Therefore, in biblical +language, even the LORD, when angry, was equivalent to Satan. Any accuser, +in a court of justice or equity, might properly have been called a Satan, +in the days of the prophets, for then that term was applicable to any +adversary or opponent, of whatever grade or nature. + +Very much later than David's day the word _devil_ frequently had a much +softer meaning than it usually bears now. Jesus said (John vi. 70), "Have +not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is _a devil_?" Having previously +called Peter "Satan," Jesus here called Judas a _devil_. Thus highest +Christian authority spoke of unwise and treacherous men as being Satans +and devils, and thereby showed that those words anciently were sometimes +applied, by the pure and wise, to other beings than one special great +malignant spirit. The devil of modern _witchcraft_ was unknown by Jesus +and by all biblical authors. + +Whence, then, since not from the Bible,--whence did Christians of the +seventeenth and some earlier centuries obtain those peculiar conceptions +of him, which made the devil almost counterbalance, in malignity and +monstrosity, the benignity and beauty of the Infinite God? Where did they +find him? So far as we perceive and believe, his like was never +recognized, either outside of Christendom, or prior to the dark ages. No +being verily like him was ever dreaded as an enemy by any other people +than Christians, and not by them till within the last thousand years. +About all that we know is, that he had become huge and frightful at the +time of the Reformation; and our belief is, that morbid fancy, in the +cloisters and monasteries of Europe, through several centuries plied her +limnistic verbal skill, and thereby outlined and blackened piecemeal her +most _outré_ conceptions possible of the lineaments and expressions of a +being as monstrous in shape, as powerful, wily, and malicious, as +imagination could fabricate, and thus gave the Christian world a monk-made +devil--a hideous personification of evil. Lapsing time eventually caused +this cloister-born scarecrow to be looked upon as vitalized malignity +incarnate--as an immortal, ubiquitous personality--as a living fiend of +awful sway and force, who should be watched, feared, and fought by every +God-serving man. We look upon him as a production of human fancy. But not +so did our predecessors. They assigned to their devil of horrid form and +huge dimensions a very different origin and nature. + +Where born, and what his nature, according to the belief of those who +imported him to New England shores, are important questions the +appropriate answers to which must be comprehended before one can obtain +just appreciation of the position in which their creed placed our +forefathers, and the direction and force it gave to their action whenever +seeming diabolism not only fearfully disturbed private firesides and +social relations, but threatened tenure of lands, and continued existence +of church and state throughout the colonies. + +Their Author of witchcraft was conceived of, believed in, and set forth in +language, as having been heaven-born--a glorious angel once, but apostate +and banished from his native skies;--as one mighty, malignant personality, +almost ubiquitous, almost omniscient, second in power to Almighty God +alone, and nearly His equal. As quoted by Upham, vol. i. p. 390, Wierius, +a learned German physician, described the devil as being one who +"possesses great courage, incredible cunning, superhuman wisdom, the most +acute penetration, consummate prudence, an incomparable skill in vailing +the most pernicious artifices under a specious disguise, and a malicious +and infinite hatred toward the human race, implacable and incurable."--"He +was," says Appleton's N. A. Cyc., "often represented on the stage, with +black complexion, flaming eyes, sulphuric odor, horns, tail, hooked nails, +and cloven hoof." Many of us now living have seen him pictured nearly thus +in some old illustrated editions of the Bible. + +But the gifted Milton's comprehensive fancy and lofty diction, exempted, +under poetic license, from adherence to fact or creed, or other enfeebling +restraint, put forth, in masterly and acceptable manner, lineaments and +features appropriate to an embodiment of his highest possible conceptions +of combined majesty, might, and malignity, and thus allured his own and +future ages to bow in awe before a devil who in grandeur far surpassed any +which monkish powers had been able to fabricate and describe. He imputed +to Satan "eyes that sparkling blaz'd; his other parts, besides prone on +the flood, extended long and large lay floating many a rood," ... +"unconquerable will, and study of revenge, immortal hate, and courage +never to submit or yield," ... "resolve to wage by force or guile eternal +war, irreconcilable to our grand foe, ... ever to do ill our sole delight, +as being the contrary to his high will whom we resist; If then his +providence out of our evil seek to bring forth good, our labor must be to +prevent that end, and out of good still to find means of evil." Such was +the great poet's "Archangel ruined;" nearly such was the prevalent +perception of him by the general mind of Christendom. He was one mighty +Evil Spirit--monarch of all fiends, and an untiring operator for harm to +both the body and soul of man. + +Such conceptions were general alike in Europe and America. But still +another view, quite as appalling as any of the foregoing, and appealing +more directly to the temporal interests of men, operated in _America_, and +made it specially needful for all property holders here to contest the +devil's advances. Cotton Mather called the arch mischief-worker "a great +landholder;" and he was spoken of as though conceived to be temporal as +well as spiritual ruler over all Indian tribes and their lands, and also +as being a contester against God and Christ for empire over each and every +part of the American continent where Christians encroached upon his sable +majesty's domains. God and devil--each was a vast and powerful spirit, +exercising sway and dominion widely, as the other would let him; and these +two mighty spiritual Rulers were often struggling in sharp conflict of +doubtful issue for empire over particular portions of the earth. The +Devil--and such a devil too--occupied much space not only in the theology +and philosophy of the learned, but also in the daily and worldly thoughts +of the common colonists. + +Upham has forcefully and truthfully said (vol. i. p. 393), that our +fathers "were under an impression that the devil, having failed to prevent +progress of knowledge in Europe, had abandoned his efforts to obstruct it +effectually there; had withdrawn into the American wilderness, intending +here to make a final stand; and had resolved to retain an undiminished +empire over the whole continent and his pagan allies, the native +inhabitants. Our fathers accounted for the extraordinary descent, and +incursions of the Evil One among them, in 1692, on the supposition "that +it was a desperate effort to prevent them from bringing civilization and +Christianity within his favorite retreat; and their souls were fired with +the glorious thought, that, by carrying on the war with vigor against him +and his confederates, the witches, they would become chosen and honored +instruments in the hands of God for breaking down and abolishing the last +stronghold on the earth of the kingdom of darkness." + +This mighty Devil, commander-in-chief of the countless hosts of all the +devils, demons, satans, Indians, heathen, sinners in, above, upon, or +around earth,--this mighty contester for dominion with God and Christ and +all good Christians, was conceived to be author of all works called +witchcrafts, producing them through human beings who had voluntarily made +a covenant to serve him, and who resided in the midst of the people whom +he molested; for we shall soon see that the philosophy of those times +permitted him no other possible access to man than through persons who +were in covenant with himself. + +Any covenanter with such a devil, that is, any wizard or witch, could be +regarded by the public as nothing less formidable than a voracious wolf +burrowing within the Christian sheepfold, who, if not at once unearthed +and slain, would either actually devour, or frighten away from their +pasturing grounds, all those with their descendants who had crossed the +ocean to feed on the hills and vales of America. Our fathers felt that the +possession and value of their homes and lands, as well as the temporal +peace and prosperity of the community, its religious privileges, and the +salvation of human souls, were at stake in a witchcraft conflict. Their +faith, their interests temporal and spiritual, their manhood, and all that +was brave, strong, and good in them, called upon them to face boldly even +such a devil as has been described above, and to fight him by any +processes which had been tried and approved in Europe; the chief of which +was, to seize his covenanted servants--his guns--and silence them promptly +and permanently. Witches must die! + + +LIMITATIONS OF THE DEVIL'S POWERS. + +Creed-makers before the Reformation conceived, what is probably true, that +natural barriers at all times have effectually debarred even the mightiest +devil, as well as each and all of his disembodied imps, from coming +directly into such close contact with a human body, or any other material +object, as enabled them to produce effects perceptible by man's physical +senses. Being themselves spirits, whether primarily earth-born or foreign, +devils could effect direct access to, and could harm the minds and souls +of men, and, unaided by mortals, could incite human beings to evil actions +and self-debasement, while yet, so long as they were unaided by voluntary +human alliance, they were absolutely unable to act upon matter--unable to +subject human forms to fits, twitchings, tumblings, transformations, +sicknesses, pains, &c., such as the bewitched of old experienced, and such +as await many mediumistic persons to-day. Devils, formerly, and spirits +now, to make the effects of their powers observable, or to make themselves +felt by men's external senses, usually must act first and directly upon +the equivalent to such nervous fluid or aura as enables man's mind to +actuate his own body. Any disembodied spirit, of whatsoever grade or +character, may be, and probably is, seldom able to command that +intermediate aura--or that _something_--excepting when in or near an +animal organism which possesses those properties or conditions, whatever +they are, which render a person mediumistic. Constructors of the +witchcraft creed probably had learned that nature always and everywhere +makes matter intangible by spirit directly, and they thence inferred that +the devil could never get into close contact with human bodies without the +aid of some spirit, or of appendages to some spirit, who holds living +alliance with matter, and consequently has in or around itself nervous +fluid, or its equivalent, which is usable by mind not its own--is +loanable, or at least liable to be abstracted. + +Transpiring observation now quite distinctly perceives that control of +human organisms by disembodied spirits is usually attended by conditions +fundamentally analogous to an antecedent covenant. The old creed-makers +may have reasoned from facts of experience and observation much more +generally and logically than the present age imagines. No special desire +is felt, and we do not see that any special obligation rests upon us, to +palliate the doings of those monastics who in dark ages both fabricated +and shackled the devil of witchcraft. Still we do not begrudge them such +justification as may flow out that passing facts. We have already stated +the probability that nature makes physical man intangible by spirits +directly. Because of protracted observations of their doings, we assume +that spirits are able to read at a glance the properties of each form to +which they give special attention, and are at no loss to determine what +organisms are controllable by them when conditions are all favorable. One +and an important condition is, absence of resistance to control by the +mind to which the susceptible organism pertains. The genuine owner +generally _can_ withhold his or her nervous fluids, or auras, or those +properties, of whatever kind or name, which a spirit must use in the +controlling process; and, consequently, _a quasi agreement_, amounting at +least to acquiescence on the part of the medium, is generally a necessary +preliminary to any modern spirit-manifestation, especially with mediums +not much accustomed to be controlled. + +When and where belief prevailed that all disembodied spirits who ever +actuated human forms were the devil or his imps, the inference that those +whom he and his controlled had entered into an agreement with _him_, was +natural and almost necessary. For an agreement or consensus between a +controlling spirit and the will of the person controlled is very common +now, and, no doubt, has been in all past ages. The assumption, however, +which seems to have been prevalent formerly, that such consensus involved +eternal reciprocal obligation between the devil and a human soul, or the +sale of that soul to the Evil One, could not be required or suggested by +any facts perceivable by modern observation. No doubt each successive use +of properties of a particular body by an intelligence from outside itself, +generally enables the foreign spirit subsequently to manage that body with +increasing ease to itself, and with more satisfaction probably to both +parties; and the practice, if mutually pleasurable, renders prolonged +co-operation probable; but co-operation for a time imposes no obligation +or necessity that the parties shall remain forever conjoined. Common use +of the same magnetism, nervous elements, or whatever they use in common, +may tend to make a spirit and a mortal assimilate in their tastes, +emotions, motives, and characters. This co-operation may evoke such +sympathy between them, that each may often be drawn to the of other's aid, +and conjointly they may manifest both physical and mental powers which +neither could put forth alone. And it is possible that a liberated spirit +may be so linked in sympathy with numerous other spirits, that the joint +powers of many are at his service, so that through a single human form +there may be manifested to the outer world the effects of the combined +forces of legions of ascended spirits, either good or bad, in one +accordant band. + +Obviously, spiritual beings, of whatever quality, are generally dependent, +for any manifestation to the outer world, on one or more of a class of +mortals possessing special properties or susceptibilities. Nature seems to +impose such necessity. She does not let even man's own spirit act upon his +stable body directly, but through something evanescent before microscope +and scalpel. + + +COVENANT WITH THE DEVIL + +Perhaps, and probably, the direst and most disastrous of all deluding +misconceptions by our forefathers--the one which engendered, nurtured, and +intensified the greatest evils of witchcraft--was, that neither their huge +devil, nor any subordinate fiendish spirit, could get access to external +nature and human bodies through any other avenue than some man, woman, or +child, who had already _voluntarily made an explicit agreement with him or +his to be his obedient and faithful servant, in consideration of helps and +favors which the devil promised to bestow in requital_. When such a +covenant had been ratified by signature in the devil's book, written with +the blood of the mortal party, then forthwith the devil and his hosts +thereby became subject to his new servant's call, and the servant to the +devil's summons, so that either could command the powers of both for +co-operation in the execution of any malice or deviltry whatsoever, and +upon any designated individual. The assumed fact that the devil could use +the faculties and properties of no human being who had not expressly +covenanted with him, conjoined with belief that he must have the voluntary +help of some human being whenever he molested men, was the specially +murderous ingredient of faith which impelled good and humane men on to +copious shedding of innocent blood. The making of that covenant, and +thereby opening an aperture for the devil's entrance through nature's +barrier, and thus admitting a wolf into the Christian fold, who otherwise +could not possibly have entered, constituted the essence of the crime of +witchcraft. That covenanting act made the covenanting man or woman a +wizard or a witch; and God had said, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to +live." + + +THE DEVIL'S DEFENSE. + +The custom is humane and equitable which permits the accused to be heard +in their own behalf. It is a common saying, that even the prisoner now at +our bar is always entitled to his due and we cheerfully grant him +opportunity to defend himself. Under his alias, Satan, and using a +cultured Englishman as his amanuensis, he has recently favored the world +with his autobiography; in which he says,-- + +"I am a power. I am a power under God, and as such I perform a task which, +however unlovely and however painful, is destined to put forward God's +wise and benignant purposes for the good of man.... I am an image of the +evil that is in man, arising from his divinely-given liberty of moral +choice. That evil I discipline and correct, as well as represent; and so I +am also a divine school-master to bring the world to God. My origin is +human, my sphere of action earthly, my final end dissolution. Evil must +cease when good is universal. While, then, I cannot boast of a heavenly +birth, I disown fiendish dispositions. Worse than the worst man I cannot +be. I am indeed a sort of mongrel, born, bred, reared, and nurtured of +human fancy, folly, and fraud. As such I possess a sort of quasi +omnipresence and a quasi omniscience, for I exist wherever man exists, +and, dwelling in human hearts, know all that men think, feel, and do. +Hence I have power to tempt and mislead; and that power, when in my worst +moods, I am pleased to exercise.... I am a personification of the dark +side of humanity and the universe.... I exist in every land, and occupy a +corner in every human heart.... I am the child of human speculation: I +came into existence on the first day that man asked himself, 'Whence this +world in which I live and of which I am a part?'"[1] + + [1] The Autobiography of Satan, edited by John R. Beard, D. D., + London, 1872. + +The frankness, perspicuity, definiteness, and point, taken in connection +with the calm, earnest tone, and gentle, candid spirit in which his then +placid Majesty dictated that account of himself to his Reverend scribe, +win our credence, and induce us to believe he utters only the simple truth +when he describes himself as "a personification of the dark side of +humanity and the universe,"--as one who "cannot boast of a heavenly +birth," but was "born, bred, and nurtured of human fancy, folly, and +fraud,"--as possessing "a sort of quasi omnipresence and a quasi +omniscience," existing "wherever man exists, ... dwelling in human +hearts," knowing "all that men think, feel, and do," having power "to +tempt and mislead," and, in his "worst moods, is pleased to exercise" that +power. Such a Satan, or devil, no doubt exists. But, though we admit that +he was a mighty impersonal power in the midst of witchcraft scenes, he was +vastly different from the heaven-born "Archangel fallen," whom the good +people of New England believed in, feared, and supposed themselves to be +fighting against. + +A personification of the principle of evil, or "of the dark side of +humanity and the universe," is the only devil who is simultaneously +present with the whole human race. But hosts of unseen +personalities--earth-born, expanded, wily, malignant, and powerful--may +act upon man, and bands of such may be subservient to some abler ones of +their kind, who reign over them as princes of the dark powers of the air. +Malignant departed mortals are the only disembodied personal devils who +molest mankind. We believe in _many_ devils, but not in Christendom's +witchcraft chief _One_. + +The devil of our fathers, though but a fiction, was chief cause of +witchcraft's woes, and therefore merits attention first, in any attempt to +subject that matter to new analysis. + + +DEMONOLOGY AND NECROMANCY. + +Demonology--intercourse with demons--implies dealings with spiritual +personalities; but these may be either good or bad, and may consist +wholly, or only in part, of departed human beings, provided there be any +other grade of spirits residing in, or able to enter, earth's spirit +spheres: probably there are not. + +In earlier ages, these demons were often deemed to be intermediate +messengers and links facilitating intercourse between mortals on earth and +most eminent gods above. That idea, somewhat qualified, is having revival +now in the minds of those who are receiving from their departed friends +instructions and influences which allure humans heavenward. In the olden +faith, demon was used to designate a spirit who might be good; and +demonology, then, far from being branded as DIABOLISM, or dealings with +one great Devil and his special devotees, was generally deemed not only +innocent, but helpful;--as much so as man's communings to-day with either +his disembodied kindred and friends, or with benighted, forlorn, and +anguished souls who seek needed encouragement and solace, which they can +obtain from none other than an earthly source, are deemed helpful by those +loving and philanthropic men and women who take active part in similar +demonological interviews now. Bad as demonology seems at this day, when +the word has come to suggest dealings with bad and demoralizing spirits +alone, time was, when both it and necromancy, or intercourse with the +dead, could be legitimately applied to such interviews as Jesus had with +Moses and Elias on the Mount of Transfiguration; and therefore then might +have imported communings that would spiritualize and elevate whoever +experienced its operations. Strictly, there are no dead. Moses and Elias +were living personages when seen by Jesus. Socrates, and many another +ancient and wise teacher, drew much profound wisdom and inspiration from +out the vailed recesses of demonology and necromancy, and the example of +such wise and good men of old has practical imitation by the +spiritually-minded and philanthropic disciples of modern communicators +living in supernal spheres. + + +BIBLICAL WITCH AND WITCHCRAFT. + +Very great difference existed between the witchcraft of Bible times and +that of Christendom fifteen hundred years after John recorded the +Revelation. The difference was almost as marked as that between the devils +of those two periods. + +The word witch seems primarily to mean, "a _knowing_ one," and perhaps has +always hinted at knowledge or power acquired by some mysterious method. +Witch has generally meant, not only a _knowing one_, but also any person +who gets knowledge or help by processes which are mysterious. Witch_craft_ +has been the utterance of knowledge, or the application of power, thus +obtained. But neither all such utterance, nor all such application of +force, was, in biblical times, called witchcraft. Far, very far different +from that. Daniel, Ezekiel, and John the Revelator, all obtained knowledge +mysteriously from the lips of departed men; their promulgation of it, +however, was not called _witchcraft_, but the _word of God_. + +Neither do the Scriptures speak of the woman of Endor as a witch or +practicer of witchcraft, though she had both a familiar spirit, and such +clairvoyant powers that at her call Samuel rendered himself visible by +her; and he either used her organs of speech, or impressed her to use +them, in utterance of rebukes to Saul and prediction of his coming fate. +This was not biblical _witchcraft_; though, departing from biblical +precedent, the modern world has fallen into the habit of calling the woman +of Endor a _witch_, while that epithet is not applied to her in the Bible. + +His lawgiver said to Moses, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live;" but +if that teacher furnished any very clear definition of either witch or +witchcraft, it has not come down to us. Tempting to _spiritual whoredom_, +so far as we can determine, constituted the crime of witchcraft among the +Jews. The people of Israel were regarded as being _wedded_ to the God of +Abraham; therefore persons who by _signs_, by marvelous utterances and +acts, tempted Jews to be false to their marriage relations with their God, +were witches. The crime of witchcraft was not involved in simply putting +forth knowledge, signs, and wonders by the help of familiar spirits, +because prophets and apostles often did that when they put forth "the +word of God." Witchcraft was application of supernal knowledge and powers +for the special purpose of seducing and tempting people to worship Moloch, +or some other god of the heathen. (See Lev. xx. 5, 6.) Bible witchcraft +was _use of mysterious acquisitions in teaching_ HERESY. + + +PROTESTANT CHRISTENDOM'S WITCH AND WITCHCRAFT. + +In the seventeenth century, much of the biblical import of witch and +witchcraft, as well as of demon, had been either perverted or dropped, and +belief was prevalent, especially outside of the Catholic Church, that none +but _evil_ spirits could come to men; and also that "the days of miracles, +or special manifestation directly from the Almighty, had ceased." Then, +too, a personal devil, heaven-born but apostate, and perhaps also myriads +of other heaven-born but rebellious and banished angels, could, and only +such base spirits could, get access to our external world; and they could +effect entrance only through human beings who voluntarily consented and +agreed to co-operate with them. It will be apparent on future pages, that +any spirit then seen by clairvoyant eyes, whatever the sex, form, +features, complexion, or aspect, was either the devil himself, or some +apparition formed and presented by him or his, and he was held responsible +for its presentation. Our fathers attained to and held firm conviction +that all channels for inspirations and mighty works, available since the +days of Jesus and his apostles, were avenues for the influx of none but +poisonous waters. This was a sad mistake; for, could they have perceived +the groundlessness of their faith that supernal springs of truth, purity, +and benevolence had been dammed against the emission of good waters +earthward,--groundlessness of their belief that the possibility and +feasibility of such works and inspirations as they called miracles had +ever been restricted by anything but natural conditions,--that perception +would have rendered it apparent to themselves that they ought to make +wizards of Abraham and Lot, of Moses and Samuel, of Daniel, Ezekiel, and +John the Revelator, since each one of those communed with spirits. + +Our American predecessors in the seventeenth century believed it +impossible that good spirits could come to man from bright +abodes,--doubted perhaps, perhaps disbelieved, that departed men and women +ever did return to earth, excepting "by the immediate agency of the +Almighty;" and their writings and actions justify us in saying, that with +them, _witchcraft was injection of occult forces and teachings upon man, +through consenting mortals, for malicious purposes solely, and by +invisible intelligences_. + + +SPIRIT, SOUL, AND MENTAL POWERS. + +Perplexing diversity prevails among users of English language in their +application of the terms spirit and soul. Some regard spirit as only a +fine, invisible robe of the essential man; while others speak of soul as +the robe and spirit as the man who wears it. Our own custom has been to +regard soul as _the man_, and spirit as his under-garment during +earth-life, and his outer one, if he shall have more than one, when he +shall put off his present outer. This view is not novel. The sometimes +clairvoyant Paul stated that there is a natural or outer, and a spiritual +or inner body--yes, _body_. Opened inner eyes to-day often see +spirit-forms pervading the outer forms of people around them. Their +observations are in harmony with the apostle's declaration. + +The essential nature of spirit is all unknown by us. Whether matter, +spirit, and soul are but different combinations and conditions of like +primal elements, we are utterly incompetent to determine. Practically we +accept, what is probably a common notion, that matter and soul differ +fundamentally; and, having done that, we are unable to identify spirit +with either of them elementally. Therefore, without any definite +conceptions as to its inherent alliances, we speak of it as possibly +something between the other two--_a tertium quid_. Thought regards it as +the substance of worlds unspeakably finer than material planets. Spirit, +in mass, is not a living, conscious entity, any more than matter is; but +is a finer than gossamer substance, capable, like matter, of becoming +organized, and growing into a living enrobement of the soul--enrobement of +that which constitutes the on-living man through all changes of vestiture. +Such is our present conjecture. + +We apprehend that a world whose elemental substance is spirit both +pervades and surrounds this material one--a world, we will say for the +purpose of indicating our thought, composed of spirit matter. The +invisibility and impalpability of such spirit substance are no conclusive +refutation of its existence in and around us perpetually. Who sees +electricity, magnetism, gravitation, attraction, cohesion, repulsion? Who +sees either mind, or the force by which an aching toe reports to the brain +and excites the sympathy of the whole organism? Many things are about us, +and yet known only in their perceptible phenomena. Spirit substance may be +all about us; the spirit world may be in, through, upon, and around the +material one. Many manifestations hint at the existence of an +all-permeating something, which--since the word is shorter than +atmosphere, and not so liable perhaps to be suggestive of palpable +matter--we will call _aura_, that contains and furnishes the elements out +of which spirit _bodies_ are formed, elements of the solid globe on which +spirits live, and also is the medium of sight, sound, touch, and all +sensation to man's spiritual or inner organism even now and here. A soul, +encased within a body elaborated from and within that aura, may, when and +where conditions favor, live, move freely, and be happy, whether near the +fireside of its former earthly mansion, in earth's atmosphere above and +around us, in the earth below our feet, under and in the waters of ocean, +in the heavens over us, or _wherever thought can go_. It gives body to +thought itself. Brick walls and granite mountains may be no hindrances to +its movements, or its freedom and power to see, act, and enjoy. All such +powers and privileges probably pertain to us as spirits, even while +residents in these outer forms, provided only we can effect temporary +disentanglements from the outer, as is often done by or for the highly +mediumistic. And yet, so long as the two bodies of a human being retain +their ordinary conjunction, something not yet well understood, generally +either keeps the spirit senses from cognizable contact with what is +conceived to be their native aura, and therefore holds them seemingly +embryonic, or it keeps the exterior consciousness of most persons from +perceptions of many things which inner senses may be latently +experiencing. + +A broad survey of mediumistic phenomena raises the question, whether the +inner powers of mediums--now in this life, and daily--see, hear, and learn +any more of spiritual things than do the inner powers of others, or +whether the chief difference between the mediumistic and others is that +the inner faculties of mediums are enabled, in consequence of some +peculiarity in relative strength between the outer and inner or in the +attachments between the two sets of organs, to report to the outer +consciousness, and thus let their outer faculties perceive and report what +the inner have cognized, while in the mass of mankind such process is not +cognized. + +The young servant of Elisha (2 Kings vi. 17) was unable to see spirit +hosts upon the hills about Dothan, which were visible to his master; but +"Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may +see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and, +behold, the mountain was full of horses, and chariots of fire round about +Elisha." The prophet did not ask that his young man should be endowed with +any new organs of vision, but only for the opening of such as he already +possessed. As soon as those visual organs in him, which could be reached +and illumined by spirit aura, came into action of which he became +conscious, the young man beheld spiritual beings; which beings, since the +prophet had been seeing them all the time, were obviously as near and as +visible before as after the prayer. Some spirit perhaps ejected spirit +force upon the young man in such way as helped internal perceptions to +impress themselves on his external consciousness. Spirits frequently throw +some invisible aura with perceptible force upon the external eyes of +modern mediums, when these sensitives are being brought into condition for +conscious discernment of spirits. Whether the object be to awaken new +vision, or simply to impress existing internal vision upon the outer +consciousness, is yet an unanswered question. Perhaps each in different +cases. + +Possibly an actual discernment of earth-emancipated intelligences by our +inner organs, especially in our hours of sleep, occurs frequently with +most human beings; that is, the "inward man," or inner consciousness, of +each mortal may be well acquainted now with many spirits and spirit +scenes, so that, upon liberation from the flesh, emerging spirits may find +themselves among acquaintances and at home. With some +individuals--especially with prophetic and otherwise mediumistic +ones--their knowledge, gained through sensations experienced by the inner +faculties, is sometimes brought to and impresses itself upon the outer +consciousness, and becomes to palpably operative that those individuals +are deemed inspired, for they speak as never _man_--that is, as the +outward man--spake. + +Either physical peculiarities, or peculiar relations between the outer or +natural and the inner or spiritual bodies, more than the quantum of either +mental or moral developments, seem to be the requisites for facile +mediumship. That view is often set forth in statements made by spirits, +and is rendered probable by observation of many facts. Mediumistic +proclivities run much in families, about as much as musical ones do; and +the capabilities for either mediumistic or musical performances are +measurably constitutional and transmissible. Moses, Aaron, and their +sister Miriam, all prophesied, or were mediums of communications from the +realm of spirits. In our antecedent pages it appears that four children of +John Goodwin,--that three noble, adult, and married sisters, Nurse, Easty, +and Cloyse, living apart from each other, whose mother had been called a +witch,--that Sarah Good and her little daughter Dorcas, five years +old,--that Mrs. Ann Putnam and her daughter Ann, and that Martha Carrier +and four of her children, were mediumistic. We can add to the list seven +sons of Seva, and four daughters of Philip, in apostolic times. +Constitutional properties, combinations, or endowments, differing from +such as are most common in the make-up of man, pertain to such persons as +are or can be the most plastic mediums. In many people, the organized +properties of their physical or mental structures, or of both these, and +the relations of such properties to each other, and their mutual action, +become, at times, so modified by severe sickness, proximate drownings, +protracted fastings, sudden frights, intense griefs, by use of +anæsthetics, narcotics, and stimulants, and from many other causes, that +those to whom the properties belong become temporarily mediumistic, though +they be not observably or consciously such in their more normal states. +The most common, and the more mildly acting agents or instrumentalities of +such change, and those which produce the more abiding effects, are +magnetic emanations and psychological influences from the positively +mediumistic acting upon relatively negative systems. Such emanations may +be seed originating new, or fertilizers quickening and expanding existing, +inward growths. + +Emanuel Swedenborg was, prior to and independently of his marked spiritual +illumination late in life, one of the most erudite and illustrious +scientists of the last century, and, being a truthful, conscientious, +devout man, trained to accuracy of observation and statement, he was +admirably fitted for a reporter to the external world, of facts which came +under his observation as an observer in spirit realms; and we take from +his works the following short extracts, which have some bearing upon the +topic just presented. + +"Man loses nothing by death, but is still a man in all respects.... Many +are bewildered after death by finding themselves in a body, in garments, +and in houses, ... some had believed that men after death would be as +ghosts, specters of which they had heard." + +"The will and understanding ... are two _organic_ forms, ... forms +organized from the purest substances. It is no objection that their +organization is not manifest to the eye, being interior to sight.... How +can love and wisdom act upon what is not a substantial existence? How else +can thought inhere?" + + +TWO SETS OF MENTAL POWERS. + +Teachers unseen, speaking back to the world they have gone from, often say +that, when here, they possessed two _bodies_--one of which is entombed +below, while in the other they went forth and still abide; they say also +that they possessed two mental systems and a double consciousness, one +only of which survives. Quite recently, science, pressing forward in +explorations, obtained perceptions of this latter fact. In his eighth +lecture on the "Method of Creation," given May 1, 1873, and reported in +the New York Tribune, the eminent Agassiz spoke as follows:-- + +"Are all mental faculties one? Is there only one kind of mental power +throughout the whole animal kingdom, differing only in intensity and range +of manifestation? In a series of admirable lectures, given recently in +Boston by Dr. Brown-Séquard, he laid before his audience _a new philosophy +of mental powers_. Through physiological experiments, combined with a +careful study and comparison of pathological cases, he has come to the +conclusion that there are _two sets_, or a double set, of mental powers in +the human organism, or acting through the human organism, essentially +different from each other. The one may be designated as our ordinary +conscious intelligence; the other as a superior power which controls our +better nature, solves, sometimes suddenly and unexpectedly, nay, even in +sleep, our problems and perplexities, suggests the right thing at the +right time, acting through us without conscious action of our own, though +susceptible of training and elevation. Or perhaps I should rather say, our +own organism may be trained to be a more plastic instrument through which +this power acts in us. + +"I do not see why this view should not be accepted. It is in harmony with +facts as far as we know them. The experiments through which my friend Dr. +Brown-Séquard has satisfied himself that the subtle mechanism of the human +frame, about which we know so little in its connection with mental +processes, is sometimes acted upon by a power outside of us as familiar +with that organization as we are ignorant of it, are no less acute than +they are curious and interesting." + +Many persons, including the author of these pages, more than twenty years +ago found among "phenomena called spiritual," many which seemed +imperatively to demand a broadening of the base of any mental philosophy +which the world at large had presented to their notice, and apprehended +that light was dawning amid the dark work of spirits, which might reveal +to man more knowledge than he had ever obtained both of his own mysterious +structure, and of his relations to and possible intercourse with his +predecessors on earth. Many, perceiving this, have held on prosecuting +such observations, and drawing such conclusions as their opportunities and +powers permitted, undeterred by sneers and cold shoulders; and such now +spontaneously hail with joy the arrival of the world's most advanced +scientists at "_a new philosophy of mental powers_;" such a philosophy, +too, as manifestations well scrutinized have long been indicating would +some day be based on the firm foundation of proved facts, and become a +blessing to our race. Both spiritualism and science, by distinct routes, +have reached a common point, and each testifies to the other's discovery +of a new world _in_ man. + +"The subtle mechanism of the human frame, about which we know so little in +its connection with mental processes, _is sometimes acted upon by a power +outside of us as familiar with that organism as we are ignorant of it, ... +acting through us without conscious action of our own, though susceptible +of training or elevation_." Such is the conclusion of Dr. Brown-Séquard, +which is indorsed by Agassiz. Backed by such authority, one may very +courageously move forward in efforts to show that the very structure of +man through all ages may have permitted certain human forms to have been +controlled and used by intelligent powers outside of themselves, and +without conscious action of their own, that is, without consciousness on +the part of the individual minds to which those bodies naturally +pertained. Such facts are guide-boards designating pathways along which +producers of prophetic, witchcraft, and spiritualistic phenomena can reach +standing-points for speech and action perceptible by men's external +senses; these facts are keys, too, that will unlock many chambers of +mystery, and we have used them in searches among the records of +witchcraft. + +Those eminent savants do not state, and therefore we shall not maintain, +that the outside power they refer to is spirits of former occupants of +human bodies; but since that power "is as familiar with the human organism +as we are ignorant of it," the language surely implies reference to _some +intelligent_ power, for its familiarity with the organism is that of +_knowledge_, the acquisition of which is contrasted with our _ignorance_. +To whom can they refer, if not to spirits of some grade? + +The nature of things contains provision for temporary reincarnations of +some departed spirits in the physical forms of some peculiarly organized +and endowed human beings. This fact is important, and should be borne in +mind during a perusal of the present work. + + +MARVEL AND SPIRITUALISM. + +We are reluctant to use the word "miracle" because of its liability to be +construed as designating not only an act performed directly by an Almighty +One, but also that, in performing it, He acts "contrary to the established +constitution and course of things;" which course we believe was never +adopted. Therefore we shall use "marvel," to designate all works which +have seemed to require more than human power, and have been understood to +be "more than natural." + +Such A MARVEL _is a result from application of powerful occult forces +which man neither comprehends nor can manage_. + +SPIRITUALISM is phenomena resulting from use of occult forces and +processes by invisible, departed human spirits. + +Most genuine spiritual phenomena are marvels; but there may be, and may +have been in witchcraft-scenes, marvels which spirits did not produce. We +left out from the definition of marvel, necessity for an _intelligent_ +operator. Impersonal influxes to many mediums may at times produce many +things which are often ascribed to personal spirits. + +Our broad definition lets the word marvel cover all supernal revelations +and inspirations from any god, spirit, or the impersonal spirit +realms,--all angel or spirit presence ever perceived by man,--all mighty +works, signs, and wonders ever wrought through prophets, apostles, +magicians, sorcerers, and the like,--all promptings, helps, and works by +spirits called "familiar,"--all necromancies, witchcrafts, &c., &c. As a +natural philosophy, our subject embraces all these. Its moral or religious +aspects do not come under special consideration in the course of inquiry +which is pursued by us. Spiritualism--as evolvements by finite unseen +intelligences, using none other than natural forces, however occult, +acting in subserviency to natural laws and nice conditions--has its +rightful place with whatever has come forth from action of intra-mundane +or supra-mundane forces and agents. + +Hidden intelligences in all ages and lands have had credit for performing +in man's presence many "mighty works," and for making revelations from the +world unseen. Over the whole earth formerly, and over the larger part of +it now, such intelligences have been and are deemed to be of all +characters and grades, from very unfolded, pure, and benevolent beings, +down to the ignorant, corrupt, and malignant. But our Puritan ancestry on +this continent had inherited and brought hither with them a firm, +unqualified belief that no other spirits but evil ones could, or at least +that none but such would, operate among the Christian dwellers on New +England soil. The mysterious workers and their doings were here +excessively diabolized by the monstrous creed previously described, which +prevailed all through Christendom during the seventeenth and some prior +centuries, so that signs, wonders, and mighty works among our ancestors +assumed forms, characters, and horrors which were never known among Jews, +Christians, or heathen of old, and do not revive in our own times. There +was then lacking here any conjecture that the same laws which in Job's +time permitted Satan to mingle in company with the sons of God, might +permit a son of God--a good spirit--to traverse the paths along which the +sons of the devil--bad spirits--made approaches to the children of men. +Moses, Elias, Samuel, and John's brother prophet were forgotten. We +apprehend that facts of history teach beyond all successful refutation +that spirits of some quality acted upon and through many persons in the +American colonies during the latter half of the seventeenth century. Our +fathers were not mistaken as to that fact; but their inhospitable and +fierce slamming of doors in the faces of these visitants provoked terrible +retaliations. One leading object of this work is to refute the position of +intervening historians, that no disembodied spirits whatsoever had any +hand in producing American witchcraft. + + +INDIAN WORSHIP. + +The historian Hutchinson said, "the Indians were supposed to be worshipers +of the devil, and their powows to be wizards." Such supposition by the +mind of Christendom intensified fears and ruthless acts on American soil +more than elsewhere, whenever suspicion of witchcraft was engendered. +America was then understood to be peculiarly the domain of the Evil One, +and all its pagan inhabitants were regarded as his devoted adherents. +Thence his followers here were deemed to be more numerous and formidable +than elsewhere, and therefore his invasion was more to be dreaded on this +than on the other side of the Atlantic. + +We must impute a considerable portion of witchcraft horrors to such narrow +and cramping religious views and feelings among our fathers, as made all +men everywhere seem to them not only outcasts from God, but also +associates with Satan, who did not possess their special creed, and +worship by their processes. They practically forgot that all men, of all +nations and tribes, are the offspring of the Unknown God, whom Paul +declared to the Athenians; and also that his paternal beneficence extends +to his children everywhere, and draws them toward him by methods suited to +their circumstances, capacities, and needs, and consequently that all +religious creeds and all modes and forms of worship may be helpful to +those who possess and use them. + +History, literature, and public belief, pertaining to the religious +practices of North American Indians, so far as we remember, have very +uniformly ascribed to them something closely resembling communings and +consultations with invisible intelligences. Such religious services are, +and ever have been, rendered in all those primitive tribes the world over +concerning whom we have attained to anything like accurate knowledge. (See +Primitive Culture, by Edward B. Tylor.) Ethnology proves that belief in +the presence of spirits--and, generally, belief in the access of ancestral +spirits--exists among man everywhere in the nations lowest of all in +culture, and survives in them as they rise in development. Dr. Bentley +declared that "the agency of invisible beings, if not a part of every +religion, is not contrary to any one." Hutchinson, as quoted above, says, +"The Indians were supposed to be worshipers of _The Devil_, and their +powows to be wizards." + +No question is raised that such a supposition pertaining to Indian worship +was prevalent in the New England mind down to the close of the seventeenth +century. Nor can we doubt that untruthfully the Puritans charged the +aborigines with worshiping the one great Devil of Puritan Diabolism, +because of our conviction that the red men were in fact communing with +their ancestral and numerous other friendly spirits. The white man's +erroneous conception that his devil was the red man's god, had no small +influence upon public action in witchcraft times. The idea that their +devil had for backers all the aborigines of the continent, made him a more +formidable foe than he otherwise would have been, and intensified the +ruthlessness of the whites in their persecutions of those of their own +complexion and households who were believed to have made a compact to +serve the Evil One. Perhaps a modern instance may exhibit with much +clearness the real nature of Indian worship in former ages. + +We quote from the Washington Chronicle, early in the year 1873, what is +there ascribed to General O. O. Howard, who is often called the _Christian +Soldier_. He, as commissioner from the American government, had, unarmed +and with but two attendants, penetrated the fastnesses of the mountains, +made his way to the home of the Appache Indians and to the presence of +their fierce chief, Cochise. After council with the Appaches, "they had," +as General Howard writes, "an Appache prayer-meeting, ... one Indian after +another would pray or speak.... Cochise's talks were apparently the most +authoritative;... I could hear him name Stagalito, meaning Red Beard. I +knew from this that our whole case was being considered in their way _in +the Divine Presence_ either of the God of the earth, or of His spirits; +and surely these were solemn moments, ... fortunately the spirits were on +our side." These words indicate very clearly the nature of that devil whom +modern Indian powows worship: they make him on one occasion neither more +nor less than the ascended chief Stagalito, associated with other spirits +of the same nature. Can there be a doubt that Hutchinson misrepresented +the fact, if he meant to call the Indian communings with spirits a +worshiping of that monstrous being whom the word "_Devil_," uttered +through clerical lips, or recorded by intelligent pens, in early colonial +times, was intended and understood to describe? We think not. There was +neither truth nor justice in the supposition that the red men were +devil-worshipers at the times when they were consulting departed spirits; +nor in the presumption that their mediums--their powows--were wizards. +False epithets do not convert any sincere worship, performed even by the +rudest of the rude, into a bad act. Those Indians of two centuries ago, as +judged by us now, had truer conceptions and better knowledge of spirit +intercourse with mortals, and of the fit methods of obtaining useful +incentives and help from spirit realms, than had their Christian +neighbors, who misunderstood and blindly maligned the devotions offered to +the Great Spirit by his children in the forests. The Indians, to the best +of their ability, worshiped Him who is the common Father of all men of +every hue and condition. They sought access to the Great Spirit, our God +as well as theirs, through communings with their ancestral and other +spirits. But the supposition that they worshiped such a being as the devil +of Christendom, is obviously incorrect. + +Cotton Mather said that "the Indians generally acknowledged and worshiped +_many_ GODS; therefore greatly esteemed and reveres their _priests_, +powows or wizards, who were esteemed as having immediate converse with the +gods." Rev. Mr. Higginson, of Salem, said the Indians in that vicinity "do +worship two gods--a good and an evil." Mather and Higginson are better +authority on this point than Hutchinson. Those denizens of the impressive +forests were nature-taught spiritualists communing with their ancestral +spirits, and through them were lured and helped on to worship the Great +Spirit of Nature--the Omnipresent God. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Witchcraft of New England Explained by +Modern Spiritualism, by Allen Putnam + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCHCRAFT OF NEW ENGLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 36312-8.txt or 36312-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/3/1/36312/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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