WITCHCRAFT

THE next fact to which I call your attention is, that during the Middle

Ages the people, the whole people, the learned and the ignorant, the

masters and the slaves, the clergy, the lawyers, doctors and statesmen,

all believed in witchcraft--in the evil eye, and that the devil entered

into people, into animals and even into insects to accomplish his dark

designs. And all the people believed it their solemn duty to thwart the

devil by all means in their power, and they accordingly set themselves

at work hanging and burning everybody suspected of being in league with

the Enemy of mankind. If you grant their premises, you justify their

actions. If these persons had actually entered into partnership with the

devil for the purpose of injuring their neighbors, the people would have

been justified in exterminating them all. And the crime of witchcraft

was proven over and over again in court after court in every town of

Europe. Thousands of people who were charged with being in league with

the devil confessed the crime, gave all the particulars of the bargain,

told just what the devil said and what they replied, and exactly how the

bargain was consummated, admitted in the presence of death, on the very

edge of the grave, when they knew that the confession would confiscate

all their property and leave their children homeless wanderers, and

render their own names infamous after death.

We can account for a man suffering death for what he believes to be

right. He knows that he has the sympathy of all the truly good, and he

hopes that his name will be gratefully remembered in the far future, and

above all, he hopes to win the approval of a just God. But the man who

confessed himself guilty of being a wizard, knew that his memory would

be execrated and expected that his soul would be eternally lost. What

motive could then have induced so many to confess? Strange as it is, I

believe that they actually believed themselves guilty. They considered

their case hopeless; they confessed and died without a prayer. These

things are enough to make one think that sometimes the world becomes

insane and that the earth is a vast asylum without a keeper. I repeat

that I am convinced that the people that confessed themselves guilty

believed that they were so. In the first place, they believed in

witchcraft and that people often were possessed of Satan, and when they

were accused the fright and consternation produced by the accusation, in

connection with their belief, often produced insanity or something

akin to it, and the poor creatures charged with a crime that it was

impossible to disprove, deserted and abhorred by their friends, left

alone with their superstitions and fears, driven to despair, looked upon

death as a blessed relief from a torture that you and I cannot at this

day understand. People were charged with the most impossible crimes.

In the time of James the First, a man was burned in Scotland for having

produced a storm at sea for the purpose of drowning one of the royal

family. A woman was tried before Sir Matthew Hale, one of the most

learned and celebrated lawyers of England, for having caused children to

vomit-crooked pins. She was also charged with nursing demons. Of course

she was found guilty, and the learned Judge charged the jury that there

was no doubt as to the existence of witches, that all history, sacred

and profane, and that the experience of every country proved it beyond

any manner of doubt. And the woman was either hanged or burned for a

crime for which it was impossible for her to be guilty. In those times

they also believed in Lycanthropy--that is, that persons of whom the

devil had taken possession could assume the appearance of wolves.

One instance is related where a man was attacked by what appeared to

be a wolf. He defended himself and succeeded in cutting off one of the

wolf's paws, whereupon the wolf ran and the man picked up the paw and

putting it in his pocket went home. When he took the paw out of his

pocket it had changed to a human hand, and his wife sat in the house

with one of her hands gone and the stump of her arm bleeding. He

denounced his wife as a witch, she confessed the crime and was burned

at the stake. People were burned for causing frosts in the summer, for

destroying crops with hail, for causing cows to become dry, and even for

souring beer. The life of no one was secure, malicious enemies had only

to charge one with witchcraft, prove a few odd sayings and queer actions

to secure the death of their victim. And this belief in witchcraft was

so intense that to express a doubt upon the subject was to be suspected

and probably executed. Believing that animals were also taken possession

of by evil spirits and also believing that if they killed an animal

containing one of the evil spirits that they caused the death of the

spirit, they absolutely tried animals, convicted and executed them. At

Basle, in 1474, a rooster was tried, charged with having laid an egg,

and as rooster eggs were used only in making witch ointment it was a

serious charge, and everyone of course admitted that the devil must have

been the cause, as roosters could not very well lay eggs without some

help. And the egg having been produced in court, the rooster was duly

convicted and he together with his miraculous egg were publicly and with

all due solemnity burned in the public square. So a hog and six pigs

were tried for having killed, and partially eaten a child, the hog was

convicted and executed, but the pigs were acquitted on the ground of

their extreme youth. Asiate as 1740 a cow was absolutely tried on a

charge of being possessed of the devil. Our forefathers used to rid

themselves of rats, leeches, locusts and vermin by pronouncing what they

called a public exorcism.

On some occasions animals were received as witnesses in judicial

proceedings.

The law was in some of the countries of Europe, that if a man's house

was broken into between sunset and sunrise and the owner killed the

intruder, it should be considered justifiable homicide.

But it was also considered that it was just possible that a man living

alone might entice another to his house in the night-time, kill him and

then pretend that his victim was a robber. In order to prevent this,

it was enacted that when a person was killed by a man living alone and

under such circumstances, the solitary householder should not be held

innocent unless he produced in court some animal, a dog or a cat, that

had been an inmate of the house and had witnessed the death of the

person killed. The prisoner was then compelled in the presence of such

animal to make a solemn declaration of his innocence, and if the animal

failed to contradict him, he was declared guiltless,--the law taking it

for granted that the Deity would cause a miraculous manifestation by a

dumb animal, rather than allow a murderer to escape. It was the law

in England that any one convicted of a crime, could appeal to what was

called corsned or morsel of execration. This was a piece of cheese or

bread of about an ounce in weight, which was first consecrated with a

form of exorcism desiring that the Almighty, if the man were guilty,

would cause convulsions and paleness, and that it might stick in his

throat, but that it might if the man were innocent, turn to health and

nourishment. Godwin, the Earl of Kent, during the reign of Edward

the Confessor, appealed to the corsned, which sticking in his throat,

produced death. There were also trials by water and by fire. Persons

were made to handle red hot iron, and if it burned them their guilt was

established; so their hands and feet were tied, and they were thrown

into the water, and if they sank they were pronounced guilty and allowed

to drown. I give these instances to show you what has happened, and what

always will happen, in countries where ignorance prevails, and people

abandon the great standard of reason. And also to show to you that

scarcely any man, however great, can free himself of the superstitions

of his time. Kepler, one of the greatest men of the world, and an

astronomer second to none, although he plucked from the stars the

secrets of the universe, was an astrologer and thought he could predict

the career of any man by finding what star was in the ascendant at his

birth. This infinitely foolish stuff was religiously believed by

him, merely because he had been raised in an atmosphere of boundless

credulity. Tycho Brahe, another astronomer who has been, and is called

the prince of astronomers--not only believed in astrology, but actually

kept an idiot in his service, whose disconnected and meaningless words

he carefully wrote down and then put them together in such a manner as

to make prophecies, and then he patiently and confidently awaited their

fulfillment.

Luther believed that he had actually seen the devil not only, but that

he had had discussions with him upon points of theology. On one occasion

getting excited, he threw an inkstand at his majesty's head, and the ink

stain is still to be seen on the wall where the stand was broken.

The devil I believe, was untouched, he probably having an inkling of

Luther's intention, made a successful dodge.

In the time of Charles the Fifth, Emperor of Germany, Stoefflerer, a

noted mathematician and astronomer, a man of great learning, made an

astronomical calculation according to the great science of astrology

and ascertained that the world was to be visited by another deluge. This

prediction was absolutely believed by the leading men of the empire not

only, but of all Europe. The commissioner general of the army of Charles

the Fifth recommended that a survey be made of the country by competent

men in order to find out the highest land. But as it was uncertain how

high the water would rise this idea was abandoned.

Thousands of people left their homes in low lands, by the rivers and

near the sea and sought the more elevated ground. Immense suffering was

produced. People in some instances abandoned the aged, the sick and the

infirm to the tender mercies of the expected flood, so anxious were they

to reach some place of security.

At Toulouse, in France, the people actually built an ark and stocked it

with provisions, and it was not till long after the day upon which the

flood was to have come, had passed, that the people recovered from their

fright and returned to their homes. About the same time it was currently

reported and believed that a child had been born in Silesia with

a golden tooth. The people were again filled with wonder and

consternation. They were satisfied that some great evil was coming upon

mankind. At last it was solved by some chapter in Daniel wherein is

predicted somebody with a golden head. Such stories would never have

gained credence only for the reason that the supernatural was expected.

Anything in the ordinary course of nature was not worth telling. The

human mind was in chains; it had been deformed by slavery. Reason was a

trembling coward, and every production of the mind was deformed, every

idea was a monster. Almost every law was unjust. Their religion was

nothing more or less than monsters worshiping an imaginary monster.

Science could not, properly speaking, exist. Their histories were the

grossest and most palpable falsehoods, and they filled all Europe with

the most shocking absurdities. The histories were all written by the

monks and bishops, all of whom were intensely superstitious, and equally

dishonest. Everything they did was a pious fraud. They wrote as if

they had been eye-witnesses of every occurrence that they related. They

entertained, and consequently expressed, no doubt as to any particular,

and in case of any difficulty they always had a few miracles ready just

suited for the occasion, and the people never for an instant doubted the

absolute truth of every statement that they made. They wrote the history

of every country of any importance. They related all the past and

present, and predicted nearly all the future, with an ignorant impudence

actually sublime. They traced the order of St. Michael in France back

to the Archangel himself, and alleged that he was the founder of a

chivalric order in heaven itself. They also said that the Tartars

originally came from hell, and that they were called Tartars because

Tartarus was one of the names of perdition. They declared that Scotland

was so called after Scota, a daughter of Pharaoh, who landed in Ireland

and afterward invaded Scotland and took it by force of arms. This

statement was made in a letter addressed to the Pope in the 14th century

and was alluded to as a well-known fact. The letter was written by some

of the highest dignitaries of the church and by direction of the king

himself. Matthew, of Paris, an eminent historian of the 13th century,

gave the world the following piece of valuable information: "It is

well known that Mohammed originally was a Cardinal and became a heretic

because he failed in his design of being elected Pope."

The same gentleman informs us that Mohammed having drank to excess fell

drunk by the roadside, and in that condition was killed by pigs. And

this is the reason, says he, that his followers abhor pork even unto

this day. Another historian of about the same period, tells us that one

of the popes cut off his hand because it had been kissed by an improper

person, and that the hand was still in the Lateran at Rome, where it had

been miraculously preserved from corruption for over five hundred years.

After that occurrence, says he, the Pope's toe was substituted, which

accounts for this practice. He also has the goodness to inform his

readers that Nero was in the habit of vomiting frogs. Some of the

croakers of the present day against progress would, I think, be the

better of such a vomit. The history of Charlemagne was written by Turpin

the Archbishop of Rheims, and received the formal approbation of the

Pope. In this it is asserted that the walls of a city fell down in

answer to prayer; that Charlemagne was opposed by a giant called

Fenacute who was a descendant of the ancient Goliath; that forty men

were sent to attack this giant, and that he took them under his arms

and quietly carried them away. At last Orlando engaged him singly; not

meeting with the success that he anticipated, he changed his tactics and

commenced a theological discussion; warming with his subject he pressed

forward and suddenly stabbed his opponent, inflicting a mortal wound.

After the death of the giant, Charlemagne easily conquered the whole

country and divided it among his sons.

The history of the Britons, written by the Archdeacons of Monmouth and

Oxford, was immensely popular. According to their account, Brutus, a

Roman, conquered England, built London, called the country Britain after

himself. During his time it rained blood for three days. At another

time a monster came from the sea, and after having devoured a great many

common people, finally swallowed the king himself. They say that King

Arthur was not born like ordinary mortals, but was formed by a magical

contrivance made by a wizard. That he was particularly lucky in killing

giants, that he killed one in France who used to eat several people

every day, and that this giant was clothed with garments made entirely

of the beards of kings that he had killed and eaten. To cap the climax,

one of the authors of this book was promoted for having written an

authentic history of his country. Another writer of the 15th century

says that after Ignatius was dead they found impressed upon his heart

the Greek word Theos. In all historical compositions there was an

incredible want of common honesty. The great historian Eusebius

ingenuously remarks that in his history he omitted whatever tended to

discredit the church and magnified whatever conduced to her glory.

The same glorious principle was adhered to by most, if not all, of

the writers of those days. They wrote and the people believed that the

tracks of Pharaoh's chariot wheels, were still impressed upon the sands

of the Red Sea and could not be obliterated either by the winds or

waves.

The next subject to which I call your attention is the wonderful

progress in the mechanical arts. Animals use the weapons nature has

furnished, and those only--the beak, the claw, the tusk, the teeth.

The barbarian uses a club, a stone. As man advances he makes tools with

which to fashion his weapons; he discovers the best material to be used

in their construction. The next thing was to find some power to assist

him--that is to say, the weight of falling water, or the force of the

wind. He then creates a force, so to speak, by changing water to steam,

and with that he impels machines that can do almost everything but

think. You will observe that the ingenuity of man is first exercised in

the construction of weapons. There were splendid Damascus blades when

plowing was done with a crooked stick. There were complete suits of

armor on backs that had never felt a shirt. The world was full of

inventions to destroy life before there were any to prolong it or make

it endurable. Murder was always a science--medicine is not one yet.

Scalping was known and practiced long before Barret discovered the Hair

Regenerator. The destroyers have always been honored. The useful have

always been despised. In ancient times agriculture was known only to

slaves. The low, the ignorant, the contemptible, cultivated the soil. To

work was to be nobody. Mechanics were only one degree above the farmer.

In short, labor was disgraceful. Idleness was the badge of gentle blood.

The fields being poorly cultivated produced but little at the best. Only

a few kinds of crops were raised. The result was frequent famine and

constant suffering. One country could not be supplied from another as

now; the roads were always horrible, and besides all this, every country

was at war with nearly every other. This state of things lasted until a

few years ago.

Let me show you the condition of England at the beginning of the

eighteenth century. At that time London was the most populous capital

in Europe, yet it was dirty, ill built, without any sanitary provisions

whatever. The deaths were one in 23 each year. Now in a much more

crowded population they are not one in forty. Much of the country was

then heath and swamp. Almost within sight of London there was a tract,

twenty-five miles round, almost in a state of nature; there were

but three houses upon it. In the rainy season the roads were almost

impassable. Through gullies filled with mud, carriages were dragged by

oxen. Between places of great importance the roads were little

known, and a principal mode of transport was by pack horses, of which

passengers took advantage by stowing themselves away between the packs.

The usual charge for freight was 30 cents per ton a mile. After a while,

what they were pleased to call flying coaches were established. They

could move from thirty to fifty miles a day. Many persons thought the

risk so great that it was tempting Providence to get into one of them.

The mail bag was carried on horseback at five miles an hour. A penny

post had been established in the city, but many long-headed men, who

knew what they were saying, denounced it as a popish contrivance. Only a

few years before, Parliament had resolved that all pictures in the royal

collection which contained representations of Jesus or the Virgin Mary

should be burned. Greek statues were handed over to Puritan stone masons

to be made decent. Lewis Meggleton had given himself out as the last and

the greatest of the prophets, having power to save or damn. He had also

discovered that God was only six feet high and the sun four miles off.

There were people in England as savage as our Indians. The women, half

naked, would chant some wild measure, while the men would brandish their

dirks and dance. There were thirty-four counties without a printer.

Social discipline was wretched. The master flogged his apprentice, the

pedagogue his scholar, the husband his wife; and I am ashamed to say

that whipping has not been abolished in our schools. It is a relic of

barbarism and should not be tolerated one moment. It is brutal, low and

contemptible. The teacher that administers such punishment is no more

to blame than the parents that allow it. Every gentleman and lady

should use his or her influence to do away with this vile and infamous

practice. In those days public punishments were all brutal. Men and

women were put in the pillory and then pelted with brick-bats, rotten

eggs and dead cats, by the rabble. The whipping-post was then an

institution in England as it is now in the enlightened State of

Delaware. Criminals were drawn and quartered; others were disemboweled

and hung and their bodies suspended in chains to rot in the air. The

houses of the people in the country were huts, thatched with straw.

Anybody who could get fresh meat once a week was considered rich.

Children six years old had to labor. In London the houses were of wood

or plaster, the streets filthy beyond expression, even muddier than

Bloomington is now. After nightfall a passenger went about at his peril,

for chamber windows were opened and slop pails unceremoniously emptied.

There were no lamps in the streets, but plenty of highwaymen and

robbers.

The morals of the people corresponded, as they generally do, to their

physical condition. It is said that the clergy did what they could to

make the people pious, but they could not accomplish much. You cannot

convert a man when he is hungry. He will not accept better doctrines

until he gets better clothes, and he won't have more faith till he gets

more food. Besides this, the clergy were a little below par, so much so

that Queen Elizabeth issued an order that no clergyman should presume

to marry a servant girl without the consent of her master or mistress.

During the same time the condition of France and indeed of all Europe

was even worse than England. What has changed the condition of Great

Britain? More than any and everything else, the inventions of her

mechanics. The old moral method was and always will be a failure. If

you wish to better the condition of a people morally, better them

physically. About the close of the 18th Century, Watt, Arkwright,

Hargreave, Crompton, Cartwright, invented the steam engine, the spring

frame, the jenny, the mule, the power loom, the carding machine and a

hundred other minor inventions, and put it in the power of England to

monopolize the markets of the world. Her machinery soon became equal

to 30,000,000 of men. In a few years the population was doubled and

the wealth quadrupled; and England became the first nation of the world

through her inventors, her merchants, her mechanics, and in spite of

her statesmen, her priests and her nobles. England began to spin for

the world, cotton began to be universally worn, clean shirts began to

be seen. The most cunning spinners of India could make a thread over

100 miles long from one pound of cotton. The machines of England have

produced one over 1000 miles in length from the same quantity. In a

short time Stephenson invented the locomotive. Railroads began to be

built. Fulton gave to the world the steamboat, and commerce became

independent of the winds. There are already railroads enough in

the United States to make a double track around the world. Man has

lengthened his arms. He reaches to every country and takes what he

wants; the world is before him; he helps himself. There can be no more

famine. If there is no food in this country, the boat and the car will

bring it from another.

We can have the luxuries of every climate. A majority of the people now

live better than the king used to do. Poor Solomon with his thousand

wives, and no carpets, his great temple, and no gas light! A thousand

women, and not a pin in the house; no stoves, no cooking range, no

baking powder, no potatoes--think of it! Breakfast without potatoes!

Plenty of wisdom and old saws--but no green corn; never heard of

succotash in his whole life. No clean clothes, no music, if you except a

jew's-harp, no ice water, no skates, no carriages, because there was not

a decent road in all his dominions. Plenty of theology but no tobacco,

no books, no pictures, not a picture in all Palestine, not a piece of

statuary, not a plough that would scour. No tea, no coffee; he never

heard of any place of amusement, never was at a theatre, or a circus.

"Seven up" was then unknown to the world. He couldn't even play

billiards, with all his knowledge, never had an idea of woman's rights,

or universal suffrage; never went to school a day in his life, and cared

no more about the will of the people than Andy Johnson.

The inventors have helped more than any other class to make the world

what it is; the workers and the thinkers, the poor and the grand; labor

and learning, industry and intelligence; Watt and Descartes, Fulton

and Montaigne, Stephenson and Kepler, Crompton and Comte, Franklin and

Voltaire, Morse and Buckle, Draper and Spencer, and hundreds more that I

could mention. The inventors, the workers, the thinkers, the mechanics,

the surgeons, the philosophers--these are the Atlases upon whose

shoulders rests the great fabric of modern civilization.