CHAPTER V.

THE LITERATURE OF WITCHCRAFT.

It should teach us humility when we find a belief in witchcraft and

demonology entertained not only by the uneducated and unintelligent

classes, but also by the men of light and leading, the scholar, the

philosopher, the legislator, who might have been expected to have

risen above so degrading a superstition. It would be manifestly unfair

to direct our reproaches at the credulous prejudices of the multitude

when Francis Bacon, the great apostle of the experimental philosophy,

accepts the crude teaching of his royal master's 'Demonologie,' and

actually discusses the ingredients of the celebrated 'witches'

ointment,' opining that they should all be of a soporiferous

character, such as henbane, hemlock, moonshade, mandrake, opium,

tobacco, and saffron. The weakness of Sir Matthew Hale, to which

reference has been made in a previous chapter, we cannot very strongly

condemn, when we know that it was shared by Sir Thomas Browne, who had

so keen an eye for the errors of the common people, and whose fine and

liberal genius throws so genial a light over the pages of the

'Religio Medici.' In his 'History of the World,' that consummate

statesman, poet, and scholar, Sir Walter Raleigh, gravely supports the

vulgar opinions which nowadays every Board School _alumnus_ would

reject with disdain. Even the philosopher of Malmesbury, the sagacious

author of 'The Leviathan,' Thomas Hobbes, was infected by the

prevalent delusion. Dr. Cudworth, to whom we owe the acute reasoning

of the treatises on 'Moral Good and Evil,' and 'The True Intellectual

System of the Universe,' firmly holds that the guilt of a reputed

witch might be determined by her inability or unwillingness to repeat

the Lord's Prayer. Strangest of it all is it to find the pure and

lofty spirit of Henry More, the founder of the school of English

Platonists, yielding to the general superstition. With large additions

of his own, he republished the Rev. Joseph Glanvill's notorious work,

'Sadducismus Triumphatus'--a pitiful example of the extent to which a

fine intellect may be led astray, though Mr. Lecky thinks it the most

powerful defence of witchcraft ever published. And the sober and

fair-minded Robert Boyle, in the midst of his scientific researches,

found time to listen, with breathless interest, to 'stories of witches

at Oxford, and devils at Muston.'

Among the Continental authorities on witchcraft, the chief of those

who may be called its advocates are, _Martin Antonio Delrio_

(1551-1608), who published, in the closing years of the sixteenth

century, his 'Disquisitionarum Magicarum Libri Sex,' a formidable

folio, brimful of credulity and ingenuity, which was translated into

French by Duchesne in 1611, and has been industriously pilfered from

by numerous later writers. Delrio has no pretensions to critical

judgment; he swallows the most monstrous inventions with astounding

facility.

Reference must also be made to the writings of Remigius, included in

Pez' 'Thesaurus Anecdotorum Novissimus,' and to the great work by H.

Institor and J. Sprenger, 'Malleus Maleficarum,' as well as to Basin,

Molitor ('Dialogus de Lamiis'), and other authors, to be found in the

1582 edition of 'Mallei quorundam Maleficarum,' published at

Frankfort.

On the same side we find the great philosophical lawyer and historian

_John Bodin_ (1530-1596), the author of the 'Republicæ,' and the

'Methodus ad facilem Historiarum Cognitionem.' In his 'Demonomanie des

Sorcius' he recommends the burning of witches and wizards with an

earnestness which should have gone far to compensate for his

heterodoxy on other points of belief and practice. He informs us that

from his thirty-seventh year he had been attended by a familiar spirit

or demon, which touched his ear whenever he was about to do anything

of which his conscience disapproved; and he quotes passages from the

Psalms, Job, and Isaiah, to prove that spirits indicate their presence

to men by touching and even pulling their ears, and not only by vocal

utterances.

Also, _Thomas Erastus_ (1524-1583), physician and controversialist,

who took so busy a part in the theological dissensions of his time. In

1577 he published a tract ('De Lamiis') on the lawfulness of putting

witches to death. It is strange that he should have been mastered by

the gross imposture of witchcraft, when he could expose with trenchant

force the pretensions of alchemists, astrologers, and Rosicrucians.

Happily, the cause of humanity, truth and tolerance was not without

its eager and capable defenders. The earliest I take to have been the

Dutch physician, _Wierus_, who, in his treatise 'De Præstigiis,'

published at Basel in 1564, vigorously attacked the cruel prejudice

that had doomed so many unhappy creatures to the stake. He did not,

however, deny the _existence_ of witchcraft, but demanded mercy for

those who practised it on the ground that they were the devil's

victims, not his servants. That he should have been wholly devoid of

credulity would have been more than one could rightly have expected of

a disciple of Cornelius Agrippa.

A stronger and much more successful assailant appeared in _Reginald

Scot_ (died 1599), a younger son of Sir John Scot, of Scot's Hall,

near Smeeth, who published his celebrated 'Discoverie of Witchcraft'

in 1584--a book which, in any age, would have been remarkable for its

sweet humanity, breadth of view, and moderation of tone, as well as

for its literary excellencies. One wonders where this quiet Kentish

gentleman, whose chief occupations appear to have been gardening and

planting, accumulated his erudition, and how, in the face of the

superstitions of his contemporaries, he arrived at such large and

liberal conclusions. The scope of his great work is indicated in its

lengthy title: 'The Discoverie of Witchcraft, wherein the lewd dealing

of Witches and Witchmongers is notablie detected, the knaverie of

conjurers, the impietie of enchanters, the follie of soothsaiers, the

impudent falsehood of couseners, the infidelitie of atheists, the

pestilent practices of Pythonists, the curiositie of figure-casters

[horoscope-makers], the vanitie of dreamers, the beggarlie art of

Alcumystrie, the abhomination of idolatrie, the horrible art of

poisoning, the vertue and power of naturall magike, and all the

conveyances of Legierdemain and juggling are deciphered: and many

other things opened, which have long lain hidden, howbeit verie

necessarie to be knowne. Heerevnto is added a treatise upon the Nature

and Substance of Spirits and Devils, etc.: all latelie written by

Reginald Scot, Esquire. 1 John iv. 1: "Believe not everie spirit, but

trie the spirits, whether they are of God; for many false prophets are

gone out into the world."'

From a book so well known--a new edition has recently appeared--it is

needless to make extracts; but I transcribe a brief passage in

illustration of the vivacity and manliness of the writer:

'I, therefore (at this time), do only desire you to consider of my

report concerning the evidence that is commonly brought before you

against them. See first whether the evidence be not frivolous, and

whether the proofs brought against them be not incredible, consisting

of guesses, presumptions, and impossibilities contrary to reason,

Scripture, and nature. See also what persons complain upon them,

whether they be not of the basest, the unwisest, and the most

faithless kind of people. Also, may it please you, to weigh what

accusations and crimes they lay to their charge, namely: She was at my

house of late, she would have had a pot of milk, she departed in a

chafe because she had it not, she railed, she cursed, she mumbled and

whispered; and, finally, she said she would be even with me: and soon

after my child, my cow, my sow, or my pullet died, or was strangely

taken. Nay (if it please your Worship), I have further proof: I was

with a wise woman, and she told me I had an ill neighbour, and that

she would come to my house ere it was long, and so did she; and that

she had a mark about her waist, and so had she: God forgive me, my

stomach hath gone against her a great while. Her mother before her was

counted a witch; she hath been beaten and scratched by the face till

blood was drawn upon her, because she hath been suspected, and

afterwards some of those persons were said to amend. These are the

certainties that I hear in their evidences.

'Note, also, how easily they may be brought to confess that which they

never did, nor lieth in the power of man to do; and then see whether I

have cause to write as I do. Further, if you shall see that

infidelity, popery, and many other manifest heresies be backed and

shouldered, and their professors animated and heartened, by yielding

to creatures such infinite power as is wrested out of God's hand, and

attributed to witches: finally, if you shall perceive that I have

faithfully and truly delivered and set down the condition and state of

the witch, and also of the witchmonger, and have confuted by reason

and law, and by the Word of God itself, all mine adversary's

objections and arguments; then let me have your countenance against

them that maliciously oppose themselves against me.

'My greatest adversaries are young ignorance and old custom. For what

folly soever tract of time hath fostered, it is so superstitiously

pursued of some, as though no error could be acquainted with custom.

But if the law of nations would join with such custom, to the

maintenance of ignorance and to the suppressing of knowledge, the

civilest country in the world would soon become barbarous. For as

knowledge and time discovereth errors, so doth superstition and

ignorance in time breed them.'

In another fine passage Scot says:

'God that knoweth my heart is witness, and you that read my book shall

see, that my drift and purpose in this enterprise tendeth only to

these respects. First, that the glory and power of God be not so

abridged and abused, as to be thrust into the hand or lip of a lewd

old woman, whereby the work of the Creator should be attributed to the

power of a creature. Secondly, that the religion of the Gospel may be

seen to stand without such peevish trumpery. Thirdly, that lawful

favour and Christian compassion be rather used towards these poor

souls than rigour and extremity. Because they which are commonly

accused of witchcraft are the least sufficient of all other persons to

speak for themselves, as having the most base and simple education of

all others; the extremity of their age giving them leave to dote,

their poverty to beg, their wrongs to chide and threaten (as being

void of any other way of revenge), their humour melancholical to be

full of imaginations, from whence chiefly proceedeth the vanity of

their confessions, as that they can transform themselves and others

into apes, owls, asses, dogs, cats, etc.; that they can fly in the

air, kill children with charms, hinder the coming of butter, etc.

'And for so much as the mighty help themselves together, and the poor

widow's cry, though it reach to heaven, is scarce heard here upon

earth, I thought good (according to my poor ability) to make

intercession, that some part of common rigour and some points of hasty

judgment may be advised upon. For the world is now at that stay (as

Brentius, in a most godly sermon, in these words affirmeth), that

even, as when the heathen persecuted the Christians, if any were

accused to believe in Christ, the common people cried _Ad leonem_; so

now, of any woman, be she never so honest, be she accused of

witchcraft, they cry _Ad ignem_.'

* * * * *

Scot's attack upon the credulity of his contemporaries, strenuous and

capable as it was, did not bear much fruit at the time; while it

exposed him to charges of Atheism and Sadduceeism from several small

critics, who were supported by the authority of James I., and, at a

later date, of Dr. Meric Casaubon. He found a fellow-labourer,

however, in his work of humanity, in the _Rev. George Gifford_, of

Maldon, Essex, who in 1593 published 'A Dialogue concerning Witches

and Witchcraft,' in which 'is layed open how craftily the Divell

deceiveth not only the Witches but Many other, and so leadeth them

awaie into Manie Great Errours.' It will be seen from the title that

the writer does not adopt the uncompromising line of Reginald Scot,

but inclines rather to the standpoint of Wierus. There is, however, a

good deal of ability in his treatment of the question; and some

account of the 'Dialogue' reprinted by the Percy Society in 1842,

should be interesting, I think, to the reader.

* * * * *

The interlocutors are named Samuel, Daniel, Samuel's wife, M. B., a

schoolmaster, and the goodwife R.

The dialogue opens with Samuel and Daniel, the former of whom is a

fanatical believer in witches. 'These evil-favoured old witches,' he

says, 'do trouble me.' He repeats the common rumour that there is

scarcely a town or village in the shire but has one or two witches in

it. 'In good sooth,' he adds, 'I may tell it to you as to my friend,

when I go but into my closes, I am afraid, for I see now and then a

hare, which my conscience giveth me is a witch, or some witch's

spirit, she stareth so upon me. And sometime I see an ugly weasel run

through my yard; and there is a foul, great cat sometimes in my barn,

which I have no liking unto.' Having introduced his friend, who is

less credulous than himself, to his wife and his home, he promotes an

argument between him and another friend, M. B., a schoolmaster, on

this _quæstio vexata_.

M. B. starts with a good deal of fervour:

'The word of God doth show plainly that there be witches, and

commandeth they should be put to death. Experience hath

taught too many what harms they do. And if any have the gift

to minister help against them, shall we refuse it?'

But after some discussion he agrees, at Daniel's instance, to consider

the subject in a spirit of sober argument; and the first question they

take up is: 'Are there witches that work by the Devil?' The

conversation then proceeds as follows:

DANIEL. It is so evident by the Scriptures, and in all

experience, that there be witches which work by the devil, or

rather, I may say, the devil worketh by them, that such as go

about to prove the contrary, do show themselves but

cavillers.

M. B. I am glad we agree on that point; I hope we shall in

the rest. What say you to this? That the witches have their

spirits. Some hath one; some hath more, as two, three, four,

or five. Some in one likeness and some in another, as like

cats, weasels, toads, or mice, whom they nourish with milk or

with a chicken, or by letting them suck now and then a drop

of blood, whom they call if they be offended with any, and

send them to hurt them in their bodies, yea, to kill them,

and to kill their cattle.

DANIEL. Here is great deceit, and great illusion; here the

Devil leadeth the ignorant people into foul errors, by which

he draweth them headlong into many grievous sins.

M. B. Nay, then, I see you are awry, if you deny these

things, and say they be but illusions.... I did dwell in a

village within these five years where there was a man of good

wealth, and suddenly, within ten days' space, he had three

kine died, his gelding, worth ten pounds, fell lame, he was

himself taken with a great pain in his back, and a child of

seven years old died. He sent to the woman at R. H., and she

said he was plagued by a witch, adding, moreover, that there

were three women witches in that town, and one man witch,

willing him to look whom he most suspected. He suspected an

old woman, and caused her to be carried before a justice of

peace and examined. With much ado at the last she confessed

all, which was this in effect--that she had three spirits,

one like a cat, which she called _Lightfoot_; another like a

toad, which she called _Lunch_; the third like a weasel,

which she called _Makeshift_. This Lightfoot, she said, one

Mother Bailey, of W., sold her above sixteen years ago, for

an oven-cake, and told her the cat would do her good service;

if she would, she might send her of her errands. This cat was

with her but a while, but the weasel and the toad came and

offered their service. The cat would kill kine, the weasel

would kill horses, the toad would plague men in their bodies.

She sent them all three (as she confessed) against this man.

She was committed to the prison, and there she died before

the assizes.

Daniel then strikes into the conversation, enlarging on the Scriptural

description of devils as 'mighty and terrible spirits, full of rage

and power and cruelty'--principalities and powers, the rulers of the

darkness of this world--and forcibly insisting that if spirits so

awful and potential as these assumed the shapes of such paltry vermin

as cats, mice, toads, and weasels, it must be out of subtilty to cover

and hide the mighty tyranny and power which they exercise over the

hearts of the wicked. And he argues that such spirits would never

deign to be a witch's servant or to do her bidding. M. B. contends,

however, that, although he be lord, yet is he content to serve her

turn; and the witches confess, he says, that they call forth their

demons, and send them on what errands they please, and hire them to

hurt in their bodies and their cattle those against whom they cherish

angry and revengeful feelings. 'I am sorry,' says Daniel mildly, 'you

are so far awry; it is a pity any man should be in such error,

especially a man that hath learning, and should teach others

knowledge.'

After some further disputation, M. B. is brought to admit that God

giveth the devils power to plague and seduce because of man's

wickedness; but he asks whether a godly, faithful man or woman may not

be bewitched. We see, he says, that the devil had power given him of

old, as over Job. But Daniel will not admit that this is a case in

point, because it is not said that the devil dealt with Job through

the agency of witches. Thereupon Samuel, perceiving the drift of his

argument to be that the devil has no need to act by instruments so

mean and even degraded, and would assuredly never be at their command;

that, consequently, there can be no witchcraft, because there is no

necessity for it, suddenly interposes:

'With your leave, M. B., I would ask two or three questions

of my friend. There was but seven miles hence, at W. H., one

M.; the man was of good wealth, and well accounted of among

his neighbours. He pined away with sickness half a year, and

at last died. After he was dead, his wife suspected

ill-dealing. She went to a cunning man, who told her that her

husband died of witchery, and asked her if she did not

suspect any. Yes, there was one woman she did not like, one

Mother W.; her husband and she fell out, and he fell sick

within two days after, and never recovered. He showed her the

woman as plain in a glass as we see one another, and taught

her how she might bring her to confess. Well, she followed

his counsel, went home, caused her to be apprehended and

carried before a justice of peace. He examined her so wisely

that in the end she confessed she killed the man. She was

sent to prison, she was arraigned, condemned, and executed;

and upon the ladder she seemed very penitent, desiring all

the world to forgive her. She said she had a spirit in the

likeness of a yellow dun cat. This cat came unto her, as she

said, as she sat by the fire, when she was fallen out with a

neighbour of hers, and wished that the vengeance of God might

light upon him and his. The cat bade her not be afraid; she

would do her no harm. She had served a dame five years in

Kent that was now dead, and, if she would, she would be her

servant. "And whereas," said the cat, "such a man hath

misused thee, if thou wilt I will plague him in his cattle."

She sent the cat; she killed three hogs and one cow. The man,

suspecting, _burnt a pig alive_, and, as she said, her cat

would never go thither any more. Afterward she fell out with

that M. She sent her cat, who told her that she had given him

that which he should never recover; and, indeed, the man

died. Now, do you not think the woman spoke the truth in all

this? Would the woman accuse herself falsely at her death?

Did not the cat become her servant? Did not she send her? Did

she not plague and kill both man and beast? What should a man

think of this?

DANIEL. You propound a particular example, and let us examine

everything in it touching the witch. You say the cat came to

her when she was in a great rage with one of her neighbours,

and did curse, wishing the vengeance of God to fall upon him

and his.

SAM. She said so, indeed. I heard her with my own ears, for I

was at the execution.

DAN. Then tell me who set her in such a devilish rage, so to

curse and ban, as to wish that the vengeance of God might

light upon him and his? Did not the cat?

SAM. Truly I think that the devil wrought that in her.

DAN. Very well. Then, you see, the cat is the beginning of

this play.

SAM. Call you it a play? It was no play to some.

DAN. Indeed, the witch at last had better have wrought hard

than been at her play. But I mean Satan did play the juggler;

for doth he not offer his service? Doth he not move her to

send him to plague the man? Tell me, is she so forward to

send, as he is to be sent? Or do you not take it that he

ruleth in her heart, and even wholly directeth it to this

matter?

SAM. I am fully persuaded he ruleth her heart.

DAN. _Then was she his drudge, and not he her servant._ He

needeth not to be hired and entreated; for if her heart were

to send him anywhere, unto such as he knoweth he cannot hurt,

nor seeth how to make any show that he hurteth them, he can

quickly turn her from that. Well, the cat goeth and killeth

the man, certain hogs, and a cow. How could she tell that the

cat did it?

SAM. How could she tell? Why, he told her, man, and she saw

and heard that he lost his cattle.

DAN. The cat would lie--would she not? for they say such cats

are liars.

SAM. I do not trust the cat's words, but because the thing

fell out so.

DAN. Because the hogs and the cow died, are you sure the cat

did kill them? Might they not die of some natural causes, as

you see both men and beasts are well, and die suddenly?

In this way the dialogue proceeds, with a good deal of ingenuity and

some degree of dramatic spirit; and though the reasoning is not

without its fallacies, yet it is sufficiently clear and forcible, on

the whole, as a protest on the side of liberality and tolerance.

The next branch of the subject taken up for consideration is 'the help

and remedy' that is sought for against witches 'at the hands of

cunning men;' Daniel contending that, if the cunning men can render

any assistance, it must be through the devil's instrumentality, and,

therefore, Christian men are not justified in availing themselves of

it. The alleged cures performed by witches, Daniel refers to the

influence of the imagination; and in this category he tells an amusing

story. 'There was a person in London,' he say, 'acquainted with the

magician Fento. Now, this Fento had a black dog, whom he called

Bomelius. This party afterwards had a conceit that Bomelius was a

devil, and that he felt him within him. He was in heaviness, and made

his moan to one of his acquaintances, who had a merry head, and told

him he had a friend could remove Bomelius. He bade him prepare a

breakfast, and he would bring him. Then this was the cure: he (the

friend) made him be stripped naked and stand by a good fire, and

though he were fat enough of himself, basted him all over with butter

against the fire, and made him wear a sleek-stone next his skin under

his belly, and the man had immediate relief, and gave him afterwards

great thanks.'

'The conceit, or imagination, does much,' continues Daniel, 'even when

there is no apparent disease. A man feareth he is bewitched; it

troubleth all the powers of his mind, and that distempereth his body,

making great alterations in it, and bringeth sundry griefs. Now, when

his mind is freed from such imaginations, his bodily griefs, which

flew from the same, are eased. And a multitude of Satan's is of the

same character.'

The conversation next turns upon the danger of shedding innocent

blood, which is inseparable from the execution of alleged witches;

while juries, says Daniel, must become guilty of shedding innocent

blood by condemning as guilty, and that upon their solemn oath, such

as be suspected upon vain surmises, and imaginations, and illusions,

rising from blindness and infidelity, and fear of Satan which is in

the ignorant sort.

M. B. If you take it that this is one craft of Satan to bring

many to be guilty of innocent blood, and even upon their

oaths, which is horrible, what would you have the judges and

juries to do, when they are arraigned of suspicion to be

witches?

DAN. What would I have them do? I would wish them to be most

wary and circumspect that they be not guilty of innocent

blood. And that is, to condemn none but upon sure ground, and

infallible proof; because presumptions shall not warrant or

excuse them before God, if guiltless blood be shed.

Replying to observations made by the schoolmaster, Daniel continues:

'You bring two reasons to prove that in convicting witches

likelihoods and presumptions ought to be of force more than

about thieves or murderers. The first, because their dealing

is secret; the other, because the devil will not let them

confess. Indeed, men, imagining that witches do work strange

mischiefs, burn in desire to have them hanged, as hoping then

to be free; and then, upon such persuasions as you mention,

they suppose it is a very good work to put to death all which

are suspected. But, touching thieves and murderers, let men

take heed how they deal upon presumptions, unless they be

very strong; for we see that juries sometimes do condemn such

as be guiltless, which is a hard thing, especially as they

are upon their oath. And in witches, above all other, the

people had need to be strong, because there is greater

sleight of Satan to pursue the guiltless into death than in

the other. Here is special care and wisdom to be used. And so

likewise for their confessing. Satan doth gain more by their

confession than by their denial, and therefore rather

bewrayeth them himself, and forceth them unto confession

oftener than unto denial.'

Samuel at first is reluctant to accept this statement. It has always

been his belief that the devil is much angered when witches confess

and betray matters; and in confirmation of this belief, or at least as

some excuse for it, he relates an anecdote. Of course, one woman had

suspected another to be a witch. She prevailed upon a gentleman to

send for the suspected person, and having accused her in his presence,

left him to admonish her with due severity, and to persuade her to

renounce the devil and all his works. While he was thus engaged, and

she was stoutly denying the accusation brought against her, a weasel

or lobster suddenly made its appearance. 'Look,' said the gentleman,

'yonder is thy spirit.' 'Ah, master!' she replied, 'that is a vermin;

there be many of them everywhere.' Well, as they went towards it, it

vanished out of sight; by-and-by it re-appeared, and looked upon them.

'Surely,' said the gentleman, 'it is thy spirit;' but she still

denied, and with that her mouth was drawn awry. Then he pressed her

further, and she confessed all. She confessed she had hurt and killed

by sending her spirit. The gentleman, not being a magistrate, allowed

her to go home, and then disclosed the affair to a justice. When she

reached home another witch accosted her, and said: 'Ah, thou beast,

what hast thou done? Thou hast betrayed us all. What remedy now?' said

she. 'What remedy?' said the other; 'send thy spirit and touch him.'

She sent her spirit, and of a sudden the gentleman had, as it were, a

flash of fire about him: he lifted up his heart to God, and felt no

hurt. The spirit returned, and said he could not hurt him, because he

had faith. 'What then,' said the other witch, 'hath he nothing that

thou mayest touch?' 'He hath a child,' said the other. 'Send thy

spirit,' said she, 'and touch the child.' She sent her spirit; the

child was in great pain, and died. The witches were hanged, and

confessed.

Daniel, by an ingenious analysis, soon dismisses this absurd story,

which, like all such stories, he takes to be further evidence of

Satan's craft, and no disproof at all of the argument he has laid

down. 'Then,' says Samuel, 'I will tell you of another thing which was

done of late.

'A woman suspected of being a witch, and of having done harm among

the cattle, was examined and brought to confess that she had a spirit,

which resided in a hollow tree, and spoke to her out of a hole in the

trunk. And whenever she was offended with any persons she went to that

tree and sent her spirit to kill their cattle. She was persuaded to

confess her faults openly, and to promise that she would utterly

forsake such ungodly ways: after she had made this open confession,

the spirit came unto her, being alone. "Ah!" said he, "thou hast

confessed and betrayed all. I could turn it to rend thee in pieces:"

with that she was afraid, and went away, and got her into company.

Within some few weeks after she fell out greatly into anger against

one man. Towards the tree she goeth, and before she came at it--"Oh!"

said the spirit, "wherefore comest thou? Who hath angered thee?" "Such

a man," said the witch. "And what wouldest thou have me do?" said the

spirit. "He hath," saith she, "two horses going yonder; touch them, or

one of them." Well, I think even that night one of the horses died,

and the other was little better. Indeed, they recovered again that one

which was not dead, but in very evil case. Now methinketh it is plain:

he was angry that she had betrayed all. And yet when she came to the

tree he let go all displeasure and went readily.'

There is much common-sense, as we should nowadays call it, in Daniel's

comments on this extraordinarily wild story. 'Do you think,' he is

represented as saying, 'that Satan lodgeth in a hollow tree? Is he

become so lazy and idle? Hath he left off to be as a roaring lion,

seeking whom he may devour? Hath he put off the bloody and cruel

nature of the fiery dragon, so that he mindeth no harm but when an

angry woman entreats him to go kill a cow or a horse? Is he become so

doting with age that man shall espy his craft--yea, be found craftier

than he is?'

And now for the winding-up of Parson Gifford's 'Dialogue.' 'Tis to be

wished that all the parsons of his time had been equally sensible and

courageous.

M. B. I could be content to hear more in these matters; I see

how fondly I have erred. But seeing you must be gone, I hope

we shall meet here again at some other time. God keep you!

SAM. I am bound to give you great thanks. And, I pray you,

when occasion serveth, that you come this way. Let us see you

at my house.

M. B. I thought there had not been such subtle practices of

the devil, nor so great sins as he leadeth men into.

SAM. It is strange to see how many thousands are carried

away, and deceived, yea, many that are very wise men.

M. B. The devil is too crafty for the wisest, unless they

have the light of God's Word.

SAMUEL'S WIFE. Husband, yonder cometh the goodwife R.

SAM. I wish she had come sooner.

GOODWIFE R. Ho, who is within, by your leave?

SAMUEL'S WIFE. I would you had come a little sooner; here was

one even now that said you were a witch.

GOODWIFE R. Was there one said I am a witch? You do but jest.

SAMUEL'S WIFE. Nay, I promise you he was in good earnest.

GOODWIFE R. I a witch? I defy him that saith it, though he be

a lord. I would all the witches in the land were hanged, and

their spirits by them.

M. B. Would you not be glad, if their spirits were hanged up

with them, to have a gown furred with some of their skins?

GOODWIFE R. Out upon them. There were few!

SAM. Wife, why didst thou say that the goodwife R. is a

witch? He did not say so.

SAMUEL'S WIFE. Husband, I did mark his words well enough; he

said she is a witch.

SAM. He doth not know her, and how could he say she is a

witch?

SAMUEL'S WIFE. What though he did not know her? Did he not

say that she played the witch that heated the spit red hot,

and thrust it into her cream when the butter would not come?

SAM. Indeed, wife, thou sayest true. He said that was a thing

taught by the devil, as also the burning of a hen, or of a

hog alive, and all such like devices.

GOODWIFE R. Is that witchcraft? Some Scripture man hath told

you so. Did the devil teach it? Nay, the good woman at R. H.

taught it my husband: she doth more good in one year than all

those Scripture men will do so long as they live.

M. B. Who do you think taught it the cunning woman at R. H.?

GOODWIFE R. It is a gift which God hath given her. I think

the Holy Spirit of God doth teach her.

M. B. You do not think, then, that the devil doth teach her?

GOODWIFE R. How should I think that the devil doth teach her?

Did you ever hear that the devil did teach any good thing?

M. B. Do you know that was a good thing?

GOODWIFE R. Was it not a good thing to drive the evil spirit

out of any man?

M. B. Do you think the devil was afraid of your spit?

GOODWIFE R. I know he was driven away, and we have been rid

of him ever since.

M. B. Can a spit hurt him?

GOODWIFE R. It doth hurt him, or it hurteth the witch: one of

them, I am sure: for he cometh no more. Either she can get

him come no more, because it hurteth him: or else she will

let him come no more, because it hurteth her.

M. B. It is certain that spirits cannot be hurt but with

spiritual weapons: therefore your spit cannot fray nor hurt

the devil. And how can it hurt the witch? You did not think

she was in your cream, did you?

GOODWIFE R. Some think she is there, and therefore when they

thrust in the spit they say: 'If thou beest here, have at

thine eye.'

M. B. If she were in your cream, your butter was not very

cleanly.

GOODWIFE R. You are merrily disposed, M. B. I know you are

of my mind, though you put these questions to me. For I am

sure none hath counselled more to go to the cunning folk than

you.

M. B. I _was_ of your mind, but I am not now, for I see how

foolish I was. I am sorry that I offended so grievously as to

counsel any for to seek unto devils.

GOODWIFE R. Why, M. B., who hath schooled you to-day? I am

sure you were of another mind no longer agone than yesterday.

SAMUEL'S WIFE. Truly, goodwife R., I think my husband is

turned also: here hath been one reasoning with them three or

four hours.

GOODWIFE R. Is your husband turned, too? I would you might

lose all your hens one after another, and then I would she

would set her spirit upon your ducks and your geese, and

leave you not one alive. Will you come to defend witches?...

M. B. You think the devil can kill men's cattle, and lame

both man and beast at his pleasure: you think if the witch

entreat him and send him, he will go, and if she will not

have him go, he will not meddle. And you think when he doth

come, you can drive him away with a hot spit, or with burning

a live hen or a pig.

GOODWIFE R. Never tell me I think so, for you yourself have

thought so; and let them say what they can, all the Scripture

men in the world shall never persuade me otherwise.

M. B. I do wonder, not so much at your ignorance as at this,

that I was ever of the same mind that you are, and could not

see mine own folly.

GOODWIFE R. Folly! how wise you are become of a sudden! I

know that their spirits lie lurking, for they foster them;

and when anybody hath angered them, then they call them forth

and send them. And look what they bid them do, or hire them

to do, that shall be done: as when she is angry, the spirit

will ask her, 'What shall I do?' 'Such a man hath misused

me,' saith she; 'go, kill his cow'; by-and-by he goeth and

doeth it. 'Go, kill such a woman's hens'; down go they. And

some of them are not content to do these lesser harms; but

they will say, 'Go, make such a man lame, kill him, or kill

his child.' Then are they ready, and will do anything; and I

think they be happy that can learn to drive them away.

M. B. If I should reason with you out of the words of God,

you should see that all this is false, which you say. The

devil cannot kill nor hurt anything; no, not so much as a

poor hen. If he had power, who can escape him? Would he tarry

to be sent or entreated by a woman? He is a stirrer up unto

all harms and mischiefs.

GOODWIFE R. What will you tell me of God's word? Doth not

God's word say there be witches? and do not you think God

doth suffer bad people? Are you a turncoat? Fare you well; I

will no longer talk with you.

M. B. She is wilful indeed. I will leave you also.

SAMUEL. I thank you for your good company.

About the same time that Gifford was endeavouring to teach his

countrymen a more excellent way of dealing with the vexed questions of

demonology and witchcraft, a Dutch minister, named Bekker, scandalized

the orthodox by a frank denial of all power whatsoever to the devil,

and, consequently, to the witches and warlocks who were supposed to be

at one and the same time his servants and yet his employers. His

'Monde Enchanté' (originally written in Dutch) consists of four

ponderous volumes, remarkable for prolixity and repetition, as well as

for a certain originality of argument. There was no just ground,

however, as Hallam remarks, for throwing imputations on the author's

religious sincerity. He shared, however, the opprobrium that attaches

to all who deviate in theology from the orthodox path; and it must be

admitted that his Scriptural explanations in the case of the demoniacs

and the like are more ingenious than satisfactory.

* * * * *

A violent trumpet-note on the side of intolerance was blown by King

James I. in 1597 in his famous 'Dæmonologia.' It is written in the

form of a dialogue, and numbers about eighty closely-printed pages.

James, as the reader has seen, had had ample personal experience of

witches and their 'cantrips,' and had 'got up' the subject with a

commendable amount of thoroughness. He divides witches into eight

classes, who severally work their evil designs against mankind; then he

subdivides into white and black witches, of whom the former are the

more dangerous; and again into 'acted' and 'pacted' witches, the former

depending for their power on their supernatural gifts, and the latter

having made a compact with Satan contrary to 'all rules and orders of

nature, art or grace.' Further, the demons have a classification of

their own; some of the higher ranks of the demonarchy looking down

contemptuously enough on those of the inferior grades, who consist of

'the damned souls of departed conjurers.' These 'damned souls'

discharge all kinds of mean and servile offices--bringing fire from

heaven for the convenience of their employers; conveying bodies through

the air; conjuring corn from one field into another; imparting a show

of life to dead bodies; and raising the wind for witches to sell to

their nautical customers--who received pieces of knotted rope, and,

untying the first knot, secured a favourable breeze, for the second a

moderate wind, and for the third a violent gale.

After describing the rites in vogue on the conclusion of a compact

between witch and devil, King James enlarges on other points of

ceremonial, such as the making of various magic circles--sometimes

round, sometimes triangular, sometimes quadrangular; the use of holy

water and crosses in ridicule of the papists; and the offer to the

demons of some living animal. He adds that the great witches' meetings

frequently took place in churches: and he says that the witches mutter

and hurriedly mumble through their conjurations 'like a priest

despatching a hunting masse'; and that if they step out of a circle in

a sudden alarm at the horrible appearance assumed by the demon, he

flies off with them body and soul.

The royal expert proceeds to indicate the means by which you may

detect a witch. 'There are two good helpes that may be used for their

trials; the one is the finding of their marke and the trying the

insensibility thereof. The other is their fleeting on the water: for

as in a secret murther, if the dead carkasse be at any time thereafter

handled by the murtherer, it will gush out of blood, as if the blood

were crying to the heaven for revenge of the murtherer, God having

appoynted that secret supernaturale signe for triale of that secret

unnaturale crime, so it appears that God hath appoynted (for a

supernaturale signe of the monstrous impietie of witches) that the

water shall refuse to receive them in her bosome that have shaken off

them the sacred water of Baptism and willingly refused the benefit

thereof: no, not so much as their eies are able to shed teares

(threaten and torture them as you please) while first they repent (God

not permitting them to dissemble their obstinacie in so horrible a

crime), albeit the womenkind especially be able other waies to shed

teares at every light occasion when they will, yea altho' it were

dissemblingly like the crocodiles.'

Incidentally, our witch-hunting King offers an explanation of a

peculiarity which, no doubt, our readers have already noted--the great

numerical superiority of witches over warlocks. 'The reason is easie,'

he says; 'for as that sex is frailer than man is, so is it easier to

be intrapped in the grosse snares of the devil,--as was over well

prooved to be true by the serpente deceiving of Eva at the beginning,

which makes him the homelier with that sex sensine [ever since].'

As regards the external appearance of witches, he remarks that they

are not generally melancholic; 'but some are rich and worldly wise,

some are fat and corpulent, and most part are given over unto the

pleasures of the flesh; and further experience daily proves how loth

they are to confess without torture, which witnesseth their

guiltinesse.' He concludes by asking, 'Who is safe?' and replies that

the only safe person is the magistrate, when assiduously employed in

bringing witches to justice. One Reginald Scot, Esq., however,

hop-grower and brewer of Smeeth, in Kent, a persistent disbeliever in

and ridiculer of witchcraft, who had the courage to break lances with

the King and the bench of Bishops in contemporary pamphlets, and is

called by the King an 'Englishman of damnable opiniones,' irreverently

answered this question by saying that the only safe person was the

King himself, as his sex prevented his being taken for a witch, and

the whole kingdom was satisfied that he was no conjurer.

* * * * *

In 1616, John Cotta, a Northampton physician, published a forcibly

written attack on the vulgar delusion, under the title of 'The Trial

of Witchcraft,' which reached a second (and enlarged) edition in 1624.

Cotta was also the author of a fierce blast against quacks--'Discovery

of the Dangers of ignorant Practisers of Physick in England,' 1612;

and of a not less vehement attack on the _aurum potabile_ of the

chemists, entitled, 'Cotta contra Antonium, or An Ant. Anthony,' 1623.

* * * * *

There is a lively work by John Gaul, preacher of the Word at Great

Haughton, in the county of Huntingdon--'Select Cases of Conscience

touching Witches and Witchcraft,' 1646, which is worth looking into.

Gaul was a courageous and persevering opponent of the great

witch-finder, Hopkins.

* * * * *

The unhappy victims of popular prejudice found a strenuous champion

also in Sir Robert Filmer, who, in 1653, published his 'Advertisement

to the Jurymen of England, touching Witches, together with a

Difference between an English and Hebrew Witch.' Filmer is best known

to students by his 'Patriarcha,' an apology for the paternal

government of kings, which does violence to all constitutional

principles, but has at least the negative merit of obvious sincerity

on the part of its writer. It is somewhat surprising to find a mind

like Filmer's, fettered as it was by so many prejudices and a slavish

adherence to prescription, openly urging the cause of tolerance and

enlightenment, and vigorously demolishing the sham arguments by which

the believers in witchcraft endeavoured to support their grotesque

theories.

* * * * *

Three years later followed on the same side a certain Thomas Ady,

M.A., who, with considerable vivacity, fulminated against the

witch-mongers and witch-torturers in his tractate, 'A Candle in the

Dark; or, A Treatise concerning the Nature of Witches and Witchcraft:

being Advice to Judges, Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, and Grand

Jurymen, what to do before they pass sentence on such as are arraigned

for their lives as Witches.' The quaintly-worded dedication ran as

follows:

'To the Prince of the Kings of the Earth. It is the manner of men, O

heavenly King, to dedicate their books to some great men, thereby to

have their works protected and countenanced among them; but Thou only

art able by Thy Holy Spirit of Truth, to defend Thy Truth, and to make

it take impression in the heart and understanding of men. Unto Thee

alone do I dedicate this work, entreating Thy Most High Majesty to

grant that, whoever shall open this book, Thy Holy Spirit may so

possess their understanding as that the Spirit of error may depart

from them, and that they may read and try Thy Truth by the touchstone

of Thy Truth, the Holy Scriptures; and finding that Truth, may embrace

it and forsake their darksome inventions of Anti-Christ, that have

deluded and defiled the nations now and in former ages. Enlighten the

world, Thou art the Light of the World, and let darkness be no more in

the world, now or in any future age; but make all people to walk as

children of the light for ever; and destroy Anti-Christ that hath

deceived the nations, and save us the residue by Thyself alone; and

let not Satan any more delude us, for the Truth is thine for ever.'

* * * * *

In 1669 John Wagstaffe published 'The Question of Witchcraft Debated.'

According to Wood, he was the son of John Wagstaffe, a London citizen;

was born in Cheapside; entered as a commoner of Oriel College, Oxford,

towards the end of 1649; took the degrees in Arts, and applied himself

to the study of politics and other learning. 'At length being raised

from an academical life to the inheritance of Hasland by the death of

an uncle, who died without male issue, he spent his life afterwards in

single estate.' He died in 1677. Wood describes him as 'a little

crooked man, and of a despicable presence. He was laughed at by the

boys of this University because, as they said, he himself looked like

a little wizard.'

His book is illuminated throughout by the generous sympathies of a

large and liberal mind. His peroration has been described, and not

unjustly, as 'lofty' and 'memorable,' and, when animated by a noble

earnestness, the writer's language rises into positive eloquence. 'I

cannot think,' he says, 'without trembling and horror on the vast

numbers of people that in several ages and several countries have

been sacrificed unto this cold opinion. Thousands, ten thousands, are

upon record to have been slain, and many of them not with simple

deaths, but horrid, exquisite tortures. And yet, how many are there

more who have undergone the same fate, of whom we have no memorial

extant? Since therefore the opinion of witchcraft is a mere stranger

unto Scripture, and wholly alien from true religion; since it is

ridiculous by asserting fables and impossibilities; since it appears,

when duly considered, to be all bloody and full of dangerous

consequence unto the lives and safety of men; I hope that with this my

discourse, opposing an absurd and pernicious error, I cannot at all

disoblige any sober, unbiased person, especially if he be of such

ingenuity as to have freed himself from a slavish subjection unto

those prejudicial opinions which custom and education do with too much

tyranny impose.

'If the doctrine of witchcraft should be carried up to a height, and

the inquisition after it should be entrusted in the hands of

ambitious, covetous, and malicious men, it would prove of far more

fatal consequences unto the lives and safety of mankind than that

ancient heathenish custom of sacrificing men unto idol gods, insomuch

that we stand in need of another Heracles Liberator, who, as the

former freed the world from human sacrifice, should, in like manner,

travel from country to country, and by his all-commanding authority

free it from this evil and base custom of torturing people to confess

themselves witches, and burning them after extorted confessions.

Surely the blood of men ought not to be so cheap, nor so easily to be

shed by those who, under the name of God, do gratify exorbitant

passions and selfish ends; for without question, under this side

heaven, there is nothing so sacred as the life of man, for the

preservation whereof all policies and forms of government, all laws

and magistrates are most especially ordained. Wherefore I presume that

this discourse of mine, attempting to prove the vanity and

impossibility of witchcraft, is so far from any deserved censure and

blame, that it rather deserves commendation and praise, if I can in

the least measure contribute to the saving of the lives of men.'

* * * * *

Meric Casaubon, a man of abundant learning and not less abundant

superstition, attempted a reply to Wagstaffe in his treatise 'Of

Credulity and Incredulity in Things Divine and Spiritual' (1670).

* * * * *

At Thornton, in the parish of Caswold, Yorkshire, was born, on the 3rd

of February, 1610, one of the ablest and most successful of the

adversaries of the witch-maniacs, John Webster. It is supposed that he

was educated at Cambridge; but the first event in his career of which

we have any certain knowledge is his admission to holy orders in the

Church of England by Dr. Morton, Bishop of Durham. In 1634 we find him

officiating as curate at Kildwick in Craven, and nine years later as

Master of the Free Grammar School at Clitheroe. He seems afterwards to

have held for a time a military chaplaincy, then to have withdrawn

from the Church of England, and taken refuge in some form of Dissent.

In 1653 his new religious views found expression in his 'Saints'

Guide,' and in 1654, in 'The Judgment Set and the Books Opened,' a

series of sermons which he had originally preached at All Hallows'

Church in Lombard Street. It was in this church the incident occurred

which Wood has recorded: 'On the 12th of October, 1653, William

Erbury, with John Webster, sometime a Cambridge scholar, endeavoured

to knock down learning and the ministry both together in a disputation

that they then had against two ministers in a church in Lombard

Street, London. Erbury then declared that the wisest ministers and the

purest churches were at that time befooled, confounded, and defiled by

reason of learning. Another while he said that the ministry were

monsters, beasts, asses, greedy dogs, false prophets, and that they

are the Beast with seven heads and ten horns. The same person also

spoke out and said that Babylon is the Church in her ministers, and

that the Great Whore is the Church in her worship, etc., so that with

him there was an end of ministers and churches and ordinations

altogether. While these things were babbled to and fro, the multitude,

being of various opinions, began to mutter, and many to cry out, and

immediately it came to a meeting or tumult (call it which you please),

wherein the women bore away the bell, but lost some of them their

kerchiefs; and the dispute being hot, there was more danger of pulling

down the church than the ministry.'

In 1654, our iconoclastic enthusiast strongly--but not without good

reason--assailed the educational system then in vogue at Oxford and

Cambridge in his treatise, 'Academiarum Examen,' which created quite a

sensation in 'polite circles,' fluttering the dove-cots of the rulers

of the two Universities. Very curious, however, are its sympathetic

references to the old Hermetic mysteries, Rosicrucianism, and

astrology, to the fanciful abstractions and dreamy speculations of

Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Fludd, and Dr. Dee. One cannot but wonder

that so acute and vigorous an intellect should have allowed itself to

be entangled in the delusions of the occult sciences. But his study of

the works of the old philosophers was, no doubt, the original motive

of the laborious research which resulted in his 'Metallographia; or, A

History of Metals' (1671). In this learned and comprehensive treatise

are declared 'the signs of Ores and Minerals, both before and after

Digging, the causes and manner of their generations, their kinds,

sorts, and differences; with the description of sundry new Metals, or

Semi-Metals, and many other things pertaining to Mineral Knowledge. As

also the handling and showing of their Vegetability, and the

discussion of the most difficult Questions belonging to Mystical

Chymistry, as of the Philosopher's Gold, their Mercury, the Liquor

Alkahest, Aurum potabile, and such like. Gathered forth of the most

approved Authors that have written in Greek, Latin, or High Dutch,

with some Observations and Discoveries of the Author Himself. By John

Webster, Practitioner in Physick and Chirurgery. "_Qui principia

naturalia in seipso ignoraverit, hic jam multum remotus est ab arte

nostra, quoniam non habet radiam veram super quam intentionem suam

fundit._" Geber, Sum. Perfect., lib. i., p. 21.'

In 1677, Webster, who had abandoned the cure of souls for that of

bodies, produced the work which entitles him to honourable mention in

these pages. According to the fashion of the day, its title was almost

as long as a table of contents. I transcribe it here _in extenso_:

'_The Displaying of supposed Witchcraft_, Wherein is affirmed that

there are many sorts of Deceivers and Impostors. And Divers persons

under a passive Delusion of Melancholy and Fancy. But that there is a

Corporeal League made betwixt the Devil and the Witch, Or that he

sucks on the Witches Body, has Carnal Copulation, or that Witches are

turned into Cats or Dogs, raise Tempests or the like, is utterly

denied and disproved. Wherein also is handled the Existence of Angels

and Spirits, the Truth of Apparitions, the Nature of Astral and

Sidereal Spirits, the Force of Charms and Philters; with other

Abstruse Matters. By John Webster, Practitioner in Physic. "_Falsæ

etenim opiniones Hominum præoccupantes, non solum surdos sed ut cæcos

faciunt, ita ut videre nequeant, quæ aliis perspicua apparent._"

Galen, lib. viii., de Comp. Med. London. Printed by I. M., and are to

be sold by the Booksellers in London, 1677.'

Webster, who was evidently a man of restless and inquiring intellect,

and independent judgment, died on June 18, 1682, and was buried in

St. Margaret's, Clitheroe, where his monument may still be seen. Its

singular inscription must have been devised by some astrological

sympathizer:

Qui hanc figuram intelligunt

Me etiam intellexisse, intelligent.

Here follows a mysterious figure of the sun, with several circles and

much astrological lettering, which it is unnecessary to reproduce. The

inscription continues:

Hic jacet ignotus mundo mersus que tumultus

Invidiæ, semper mens tamen æqua fecit,

Multa tulit veterum ut sciret secreta sophorum

Ac tandem vires noverit ignis aquæ.

Johannes Hyphantes sive Webster.

In villa Spinosa supermontana, in

Parochia silvæ cuculatæ, in agro

Eboracensi, natus 1610, Feb. 3.

Ergastulum animæ deposuit 1682, Junii 18.

Annoq. ætatis suæ 72 currente.

Sicq. peroravit moriens mundo huic valedicens,

Aurea pax vivis, requies æterna sepultis.

In 1728, Andrew Millar, at the sign of The Buchanan's Head, against

St. Clement's Church in the Strand, published 'A System of Magick: or,

A History of the Black Art,' by Daniel Defoe; a book which, though it

by no means justifies its title, is one of more than passing interest,

partly from the renown of its author, and partly from the light it

throws on the popularity of magic among the English middle classes in

the earlier years of the eighteenth century. As it has not been

reprinted for the last fifty years, and is not very generally known,

some glimpses of the stuff it is made of may be acceptable to the

curious reader.[53]

In his preface Defoe lavishes a good deal of contempt on contemporary

pretenders to the character of magician, who by sham magical practices

imposed on a public ignorant, and therefore credulous. Magicians, he

says, in the first ages were wise men; in the middle ages, madmen; in

these latter ages, they are cunning men. In the earliest times they

were honest; in the middle time, rogues; in these last times, fools.

At first they dealt with nature; then with the devil; and now, not

with the devil or with nature either. In the first ages the magicians

were wiser than the people; in the second age wickeder than the

people; and in this later age the people are both worse and wickeder

than the magicians. Like many other generalizations, this one of

Defoe's is more pointed than true; and it is evident that the

so-called magicians could not have flourished had there not been an

ignorant class who readily accepted their pretensions.

Defoe's account of the origin of magic is so vague as to suggest that

he knew very little of the subject he was writing about. 'I have

traced it,' he says, 'as far back as antiquity gives us any clue to

discover it by: it seems to have its beginning in the ignorance and

curiosity of the darkest ages of the world, when miracle and something

wonderful was expected to confirm every advanced notion; and when the

wise men, having racked their invention to the utmost, called in the

devil to their assistance for want of better help; and those that did

not run into Satan's measures, and give themselves up to the infernal,

yet trod so near, and upon the very verge of Hell, that it was hard to

distinguish between the magician and the devil, and thus they have

gone on ever since: so that almost all the dispute between us and the

magicians is that they say they converse with good spirits, and we say

if they deal with any spirits, it is with the devil.'

Here the greatness of his theme stimulates Defoe into poetry, which

differs very little, however, from his prose, so that a brief specimen

will content everybody:

'Hail! dangerous science, falsely called sublime,

Which treads upon the very brink of crime.

Hell's mimic, Satan's mountebank of state,

Deals with more devils than Heaven did e'er create.

The infernal juggling-box, by Heaven designed,

To put the grand parade upon mankind.

The devil's first game which he in Eden played,

When he harangued to Eve in masquerade.'

Dividing his treatise into two parts, our author, in the introduction

to Part I., discusses the meaning of the principal terms in magical

lore; who, and what kind of people, the magicians were; and the

meaning originally given to the words 'magic' and 'magician.' As a

matter of course, he strays back to the old Chaldean days, when a

magician, he says, was simply a mathematician, a man of science, who,

stored with knowledge and learning, was a kind of walking dictionary

to other people, instructing the rest of mankind on subjects of which

they were ignorant; a wise man, in fact, who interpreted omens, ill

signs, tokens, and dreams; understood the signs of the times, the face

of the heavens, and the influences of the superior luminaries there.

When all this wisdom became more common, and the magi had communicated

much of their knowledge to the people at large, their successors,

still aspiring to a position above, and apart from, the rest of the

world, were compelled to push their studies further, to inquire into

nature, to view the aspect of the heavens, to calculate the motions of

the stars, and more particularly to dwell upon their influences in

human affairs--thus creating the science of astrology. But these men

neither had, nor pretended to have, any compact or correspondence with

the devil or with any of his works. They were men of thought, or, if

you please, men of deeper thinking than the ordinary sort; they

studied the sciences, inquired into the works of nature and

providence, studied the meaning and end of things, the causes and

events, and consequently were able to see further into the ordinary

course and causes both of things about them, and things above them,

than other men.

Such were the world's gray forefathers, the magicians of the elder

time, in whom was found 'an excellent spirit of wisdom.' There were

others--not less learned--whose studies took a different direction;

who inquired into the structure and organization of the human body;

who investigated the origin, the progress, and the causes of diseases

and distempers, both in men and women; who sought out the physical or

medicinal virtues of drugs and plants; and as by these means they made

daily discoveries in nature, of which the world, until then, was

ignorant, and by which they performed astonishing cures, they

naturally gained the esteem and reverence of the people.

Sir Walter Raleigh contends that only the word 'magic,' and not the

magical art, is derived from Simon Magus. He adds that Simon's name

was not Magus, a magician, but Gors, a person familiar with evil

spirits; and that he usurped the title of Simon the Magician simply

because it was then a good and honourable title. Defoe avails himself

of Raleigh's authority to sustain his own opinion, that there is a

manifest difference between _magic_, which is wisdom and supernatural

knowledge, and the witchcraft and conjuring which we now understand by

the word.

In his second chapter Defoe classifies the magic of the ancients under

three heads: i. _Natural_, which included the knowledge of the stars,

of the motions of the planetary bodies, and their revolutions and

influences; that is to say, the study of nature, of philosophy, and

astronomy; ii. _Artificial_ or _Rational_, in which was included the

knowledge of all judicial astrology, the casting or calculating

nativities, and the cure of diseases--(1) by particular charms and

figures placed in this or that position; (2) by herbs gathered at this

or that particular crisis of time; (3) by saying such and such words

over the patient; (4) by such and such gestures; (5) by striking the

flesh in such and such a manner, and innumerable such-like pieces of

mimicry, working not upon the disease itself, but upon the imagination

of the patient, and so affecting the cure by the power of nature,

though that nature were set in operation by the weakest and simplest

methods imaginable; and, iii. _Diabolical_, which was wrought by and

with the concurrence of the devil, carried on by a correspondence with

evil spirits--with their help, presence, and personal assistance--and

practised chiefly by their priests. Defoe argues that the ancients at

first were acquainted only with the purer form of magic, and that,

therefore, sorcery and witchcraft were of much later development. The

cause and motive of this development he traces in his third chapter

('Of the Reason and Occasion which brought the ancient honest Magi,

whose original study was philosophy, astronomy, and the works of

nature, to turn sorcerers and wizards, and deal with the Devil, and

how their Conversation began'). Egyptologists will find Defoe's

comments upon Egyptian magic refreshingly simple and unhistorical, and

his identifications of the Pyramids with magical practices is wildly

vague and hypothetical. Of the magic which was really taught and

practised among the ancient people of Egypt, Defoe, of course, knows

nothing. He tells us, however, that the Jews learned it from them. He

goes on to speculate as to the time when that close intercourse began

between the devil and his servants on earth which is the foundation

of the later or diabolical magic, and concludes that his first

visible appearance on this mundane stage was as the enemy of Job.

Thence he is led to inquire, in his fourth chapter, what shapes the

devil assumed on his first appearances to the magicians and others, in

the dawn of the world's history, and whether he is or has been allowed

to assume a human shape or no. And he suggests that his earliest

acquaintance with mankind was made through dreams, and that by this

method he contrived to infuse into men's minds an infinite variety of

corrupt imaginations, wicked desires, and abhorrent conclusions and

resolutions, with some ridiculous, foolish, and absurd things at the

same time.

Defoe then proceeds to tell an Oriental story, which, doubtlessly, is

his own invention:

Ali Albrahazen, a Persian wizard, had, it is said, this kind of

intercourse with the devil. He was a Sabean by birth, and had obtained

a wonderful reputation for his witchcraft, so that he was sent for by

the King of Persia upon extraordinary occasions, such as the

interpretation of a dream, or of an apparition, like that of

Belshazzar's handwriting, or of some meteor or eclipse, and he never

failed to give the King satisfaction. For whether his utterances were

true or false, he couched them always in such ambiguous terms that

something of what he predicted might certainly be deduced from his

words, and so seem to import that he had effectually revealed it,

whether he had really done so or not.

This Ali, wandering alone in the desert, and musing much upon the

appearance of a fiery meteor, which, to the great terror of the

country, had flamed in the heavens every night for nearly a month,

sought to apprehend its significance, and what it should portend to

the world; but, failing to do so, he sat down, weary and disheartened,

in the shade of a spreading palm. Breathing to himself a strong desire

that some spirit from the other world would generously assist him to

arrive at the true meaning of a phenomenon so remarkable, he fell

asleep. And, lo! in his sleep he dreamed a dream, and the dream was

this: that a tall man came to him, a tall man of sage and venerable

aspect, with a pleasing smile upon his countenance; and, addressing

him by his name, told him that he was prepared to answer his

questions, and to explain to him the signification of the great and

terrible fire in the air which was terrifying all Arabia and Persia.

His explanation proved to be of an astronomical character. These fiery

appearances, he said, were collections of vapour exhaled by the

influence of the sun from earth or sea. As to their importance to

human affairs, it was simply this: that sometimes by their propinquity

to the earth, and their power of attraction, or by their dissipation

of aqueous vapours, they occasioned great droughts and insupportable

heats; while, at other times, they distilled heavy and unusual rains,

by condensing, in an extraordinary manner, the vapours they had

absorbed. And he added: 'Go thou and warn thy nation that this fiery

meteor portends an excessive drought and famine; for know that by the

strong exhalation of the vapours of the earth, occasioned by the

meteor's unusual nearness to it, the necessary rains will be withheld,

and to a long drought, as a matter of course, famine and scarcity of

corn succeed. Thus, by judging according to the rules of natural

causes, thou shalt predict what shall certainly come to pass, and

shalt obtain the reputation thou so ardently desirest of being a wise

man and a great magician.'

'This prediction,' said Ali, 'was all very well as regarded Arabia;

but would it apply also to Persia?' 'No,' replied the devil; for Ali's

interlocutor was no less distinguished a personage--fiery meteors from

the same causes sometimes produced contrary events; and he might

repair to the Persian Court, and predict the advent of excessive rains

and floods, which would greatly injure the fruits of the earth, and

occasion want and scarcity. 'Thus, if either of these succeed, as it

is most probable, thou shalt assuredly be received as a sage magician

in one country, if not in the other; also, to both of them thou mayest

suggest, as a probability only, that the consequence may be a plague

or infection among the people, which is ordinarily the effect as well

of excessive wet as of excessive heat. If this happens, thou shalt

gain the reputation thou desirest; and if not, seeing thou didst not

positively foretell it, thou shalt not incur the ignominy of a false

prediction.'

Ali was very grateful for the devil's assistance, and failed not to

ask how, at need, he might again secure it. He was told to come again

to the palm-tree, and to go around it fifteen times, calling him

thrice by his name each time: at the end of the fifteenth

circumambulation he would find himself overtaken by drowsiness;

whereupon he should lie down with his face to the south, and he would

receive a visit from him in vision. The devil further told him the

magic name by which he was to summon him.

The magician's predictions were duly made and duly fulfilled.

Thenceforward he maintained a constant communication with the devil,

who, strange to say, seems not to have exacted anything from him in

return for his valuable, but hazardous, assistance.

Defoe's fifth chapter contains a further account of the devil's

conduct in imitating divine inspirations; describes the difference

between the genuine and the false; and dwells upon signs and wonders,

fictitious as well as real. In chapter the sixth our author treats of

the first practices of magic and witchcraft as a diabolical art, and

explains how it was handed on to the Egyptians and Phoenicians, by

whom it was openly encouraged. He offers some amusing remarks on the

methods adopted by magicians for summoning the devil, who seems to be

at once their servant and master. In parts of India they go up, he

says, to the summit of some particular mountain, where they call him

with a little kettledrum, just as the good old wives in England hive

their bees, except that they beat it on the wrong side. Then they

pronounce certain words which they call 'charms,' and the devil

appears without fail.

It is not easy to discover in history what words were used for charms

in Egypt and Arabia for so many ages. It is certain they differed in

different countries; and it is certain they differed as the magicians

acted together or individually. Nor are we less at a loss to

understand what the devil could mean by suffering such words, or any

words at all, to charm, summon, alarm, or arouse him. The Greeks have

left us, he says, a word which was used by the magicians of antiquity

pretty frequently--that famous trine or triangular word, Abracadabra:

A B R A C A D A B R A

A B R A C A D A B R

A B R A C A D A B

A B R A C A D A

A B R A C A D

A B R A C A

A B R A C

A B R A

A B R

A B

A

'There is abundance of learned puzzle among the ancients to find out

the signification of this word: the subtle position of the letters

gave a kind of reverence to them, because they read it as it were

every way, upwards and downwards, backwards and forwards, and many

will have it still _that the devil put them together_: nay, they begin

at last to think it was old Legion's surname, and whenever he was

called by that name, he used to come very readily; for which reason

the old women in their chimney-corners would be horribly afraid of

saying it often over together, for if they should say it a certain

number of times, they had a notion it would certainly raise the devil.

'They say, on the contrary, that it was invented by one Basilides, a

learned Greek; that it contained the great and awful name of the

Divinity; and that it was used for many years for the opposing the

spells and charms of the Pagans; that is, the diabolical spells and

charms of the pagan magicians.'

In the seventh chapter we read of the practice and progress of magic,

as it is now explained to be a diabolical art; how it spread itself in

the world, and by what degrees it grew up to the height which it has

since attained.

* * * * *

The introduction to the second part of Defoe's work is devoted to an

exposition of the Black Art 'as it really is,' and sets forth 'why

there are several differing practices of it in the several parts of

the world, and what those practices are; as, also, what is contained

in it in general.' He defines it as 'a new general term for all the

branches of that correspondence which mankind has maintained, or does,

or can carry on, between himself and the devil, between this and the

infernal world.' And he enumerates these branches as: _Divining_, or

_Soothsaying_; _Observing of Times_; _Using Enchantment_;

_Witchcraft_; _Charming_, or _Setting of Spells_; _Dealing with

Familiar Spirits_; _Wizardising_, or _Sorcery_; and _Necromancy_.

The first chapter treats of Modern Magic, or the Black Art in its

present practice and perfection.

In the second chapter the scene is changed: as the devil acted at

first with his Black Art without the magicians, so the magicians seem

now to carry it on without the devil. This is written in Defoe's best

style of sober irony. 'The magicians,' he says, 'were formerly the

devil's servants, but now they are his masters, and that to such a

degree, that it is but drawing a circle, casting a few figures,

muttering a little Arabic, and up comes the devil, as readily as the

drawer at a tavern, with a _D'ye call, sir?_ or like a Scotch caude

[caddie?], with _What's your honour's wull, sir?_ Nay, as the learned

in the art say, he must come, he can't help it: then as to tempting,

he is quite out of doors. And I think, as the Old Parliament did by

the bishops, we may e'en vote him useless. In a word, there is no

manner of occasion for him: mankind are as froward as he can wish and

desire of them; nay, some cunning men tell us we sin faster than the

devil can keep pace with us: as witness the late witty and moderately

wicked Lady ...., who blest her stars that the devil never tempted her

to anything; he understood himself better, for she knew well enough

how to sin without him, and that it would be losing his time to talk

to her.'

Defoe furnishes an entertaining account of his conversation with a

countryman, who had been to a magician at Oundle. Whether true or

fictitious, the narrative shows that many of the favourite tricks

performed at spiritualistic _séances_ in our own time were well known

in Defoe's:

COUNTRYMAN. I saw my old gentleman in a great chair, and two

more in chairs at some distance, and three great candles, and

a great sheet of white paper upon the floor between them;

every one of them had a long white wand in their hands, the

lower end of which touched the sheet of paper.

DEFOE. And were the candles upon the ground too?

C. Yes, all of them.

D. There was a great deal of ceremony about you, I assure

you.

C. I think so, too, but it is not done yet: immediately I

heard the little door stir, as if it was opening, and away I

skipped as softly as I could tread, and got into my chair

again, and sat there as gravely as if I had never stirred out

of it. I was no sooner set, but the door opened indeed, and

the old gentleman came out as before, and turning to me,

said, 'Sit still, don't ye stir;' and at that word the other

two that were with him in the room walked out after him, one

after another, across the room, as if to go out at the other

door where I came in; but at the further end of the room they

stopped, and turned their faces to one another, and talked;

but it was some devil's language of their own, for I could

understand nothing of it.

D. And now I suppose you were frighted in earnest?

C. Ay, so I was; but it was worse yet, for they had not stood

long together, but the great elbow-chair, which the old

gentleman sat in at the little table just by me, _began to

stir of itself_; at which the old gentleman, knowing I should

be afraid, came to me, and said, 'Sit still, don't you stir,

all will be well; you shall have no harm;' at which he gave

his chair a kick with his foot, and saith, 'Go!' with some

other words, and other language; _and away went the obedient

chair, sliding, two of its legs on the ground, and the other

two off, as if somebody had dragged it by that part_.

D. And so, no doubt, they did, though you could not see it.

C. And as soon as the chair was dragged or moved to the end

of the room, where the three, I know not what to call 'em,

were, two other chairs did the like from the other side of

the room, and so they all sat down, and talked together a

good while; at last the door at that end of the room opened

too, and they all were gone in a moment, without rising out

of their chairs; for I am sure they did not rise to go out,

as other folks do.

D. What did you think of yourself when you saw the chair stir

so near you?

C. Think! nay, I did not think; I was dead, to be sure I was

dead, with the fright, and expected I should be carried away,

chair and all, the next moment. Then it was, I say, that my

hair would have lifted off my hat, if it had been on, I am

sure it would.

D. Well, but when they were all gone, you came to yourself

again, I suppose?

C. To tell you the truth, master, I am not come to myself

yet.

D. But go on, let me know how it ended.

C. Why, after a little while, my old man came in again,

called his man to set the chairs to rights, and then sat him

down at the table, spoke cheerfully to me, and asked me if I

would drink, which I refused, though I was a-dry indeed. I

believe the fright had made me dry; but as I never had been

used to drink with the devil, I didn't know what to think of

it, so I let it alone.

In his third chapter ('Of the present pretences of the Magicians; how

they defend themselves; and some examples of their practice') Defoe

has a lively account of a contemporary magician, a Dr. Bowman, of

Kent, who seems to have been a firm believer in what is now called

Spiritualism. He was a green old man, who went about in a long black

velvet gown and a cap, with a long beard, and his upper lip trimmed

'with a kind of muschato.' He strongly repudiated any kind of

correspondence or intercourse with the devil; but hinted that he

derived much assistance from the good spirits which people the

invisible world. After dwelling on the follies of the learned, and the

superstitions of the ignorant, this lordly conjurer said: 'You see how

that we, men of art, who have studied the sacred sciences, suffer by

the errors of common fame; they take us all for devil-mongers, damned

rogues, and conjurers.'

The fourth chapter discusses the doctrine of spirits as it is

understood by the magicians; how far it may be supposed there may be

an intercourse with superior beings, apart from any familiarity with

the devil or the spirits of evil; with a transition to the present

times.

And so much for the 'Art of Magic' as expounded by Daniel Defoe.

* * * * *

In 1718 appeared Bishop Hutchinson's 'Historical Essay concerning

Witchcraft,' a book written in a most liberal and tolerant spirit,

and, at the same time, with so much comprehensiveness and exactitude,

that later writers have availed themselves freely of its stores.

Reference may also be made to--

John Beaumont, 'Treatise of Spirits, Apparitions, Witchcrafts, and

other Magical Practices,' 1705.

James Braid (of Manchester), 'Magic, Witchcraft, Animal Magnetism,

Hypnotism, and Electro-Biology' (1852), in which there is very little

about witchcraft, but a good deal about the influence of the

imagination.

J. C. Colquhoun, 'History of Magic, Witchcraft, and Animal Magnetism,'

1851.

Rev. Joseph Glanvill, 'Sadducismus Triumphatus; or, A full and plain

Evidence concerning Witches and Apparitions,' 1670.

Sir Walter Scott, 'Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft,' 1831.

Howard Williams, 'The Superstitions of Witchcraft,' 1865.

It may be a convenience to the reader if I indicate some of the

principal foreign authorities on this subject. Such as--Institor and

Sprenger's great work, 'Malleus Maleficarum' (Nuremberg, 1494); The

monk Heisterbach's (Cæsarius) 'Dialogus Miraculorum' (ed. by

Strange), 1851; Cannaert's 'Procès des Sorcières en Belgique,' 1848;

Dr. W. G. Soldan's 'Geschichte der Hexenprocesse' (1843); G. C.

Horst's 'Zauber-Bibliothek, oder die Zauberei, Theurgie und Mantik,

Zauberei, Hexen und Hexenprocessen, Dämonen, Gespenster und

Geistererscheinungen,' in 6 vols., 1821--a most learned and

exhaustive work, brimful of recondite lore; Collin de Plancy's

'Dictionnaire Infernal; ou Répertoire Universel des Etres, des

Livres, et des Choses qui tiennent aux Apparitions, aux Divinations,

à la Magie,' etc., 1844; Michelet's 'La Sorcière' is, of course,

brilliantly written; R. Reuss's 'La Sorcellerie au xvi{e}. et

xvii{e}. Siècle,' 1872; Tartarotti's 'Del Congresso Notturno delle

Lamie,' 1749; F. Perreaud's 'Demonologie, ou Traité des Démons et

Sorciers,' 1655; H. Boguet's 'Discours des Sorciers,' 1610 (very

rare); and Cotton Mather's 'Wonders of the Invisible World,' 1695--a

monument of credulity, prejudice, and bigotry.

FOOTNOTE:

[53] Some authorities doubt the authorship; but the internal evidence

seems to me to justify the claim made for it as Defoe's.

BOOKS ON MAGIC.

It may also be convenient to the reader if I enumerate a few of the

principal authorities on the history of Magic, Sorcery, and Alchemy. A

very exhaustive list will be found in the 'Bibliotheca Magica et

Pneumatica,' by Graessel, 1843; and an 'Alphabetical Catalogue of

Works on Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy' is appended to the 'Lives of

Alchemystical Philosophers,' by Arthur Edward Waite, 1888. For

ordinary purposes the following will be found sufficient: Langlet du

Fresnoy, 'Histoire de la Philosophie Hermétique,' 1742; Gabriel Naudé,

'Apologie pour les Grands Hommes faussement soupçonnés de Magie,'

1625; Martin Antoine Delrio, 'Disquisitionum Magicarum, libri sex,'

1599; L. F. Alfred Maury, 'La Magie et l'Astrologie dans l'Antiquité

et au Moyen Age,' etc., 1860; Eus. Salverte, 'Sciences Occultes,' ed.

by Littré, 1856 (see the English translation, 'Philosophy of Magic,'

with Notes by Dr. A. Todd Thomson, 1846); Abbé de Villars, 'Entretiens

du Comte de Gabalis' ('Voyages Imaginaires,' tome 34), Englished as

'The Count de Gabalis: being a diverting History of the Rosicrucian

Doctrine of Spirits,' etc., 1714; Elias Ashmole, 'Theatrum Chemicum

Britannicum;' Roger Bacon, 'Mirror of Alchemy,' 1597; Louis Figuier,

'Histoire de l'Alchimie et les Alchimistes,' 1865; Arthur Edward

Waite, 'The Real History of the Rosicrucians,' 1887; Hargrave

Jennings, 'The Rosicrucians,' new edit.; William Godwin, 'Lives of the

Necromancers,' 1834; Dr. T. Thomson, 'History of Chemistry,' 1831;

'Encyclopædia Britannica,' _in locis_; Dr. Kopp, 'Geschichte der

Chemie;' G. Rodwell, 'Birth of Chemistry,' 1874; Haerfor, 'Histoire de

la Chimie,' etc., etc.

BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.

Transcriber's Note

Variations in spelling, hyphenation and accent usage are preserved as

printed.

Minor punctuation errors have been repaired.

Page 253 includes the phrase "And thead of the said meetinge was to

consult ...". Another source of the quotation uses 'thend' instead

of 'thead'. Although 'thead' may be a typographic error, as there is

no way to be certain it is preserved as printed.

The following amendments have been made:

Page 65--1675 amended to 1575--"One of these royal visits was

made on March 10, 1575, ..."

Page 142--make amended to made--"... made many impertinent

obliterations, formed many objections, ..."

Page 143--every amended to ever--"... as any that ever fell

from the lips of the Pythian priestess: ..."

Page 150--or amended to of--"... (both of which were

translated by Elias Ashmole), ..."

Page 204--withcraft amended to witchcraft--"... and even

ecclesiastics, have been accused of practising witchcraft."

Page 272--infalliby amended to infallibly--"... whose skill

would infallibly detect the guilty person."

Page 310--Macgillivordam amended to MacGillivordam--"she

instructed MacGillivordam to procure a large quantity of

poison."

Page 314--MacIngurach amended to MacIngaruch--"A warrant was

issued for the arrest of Marion MacIngaruch; ..."

Page 375--changes amended to change, and person amended to

persons--"... encouraged by this change of sentiment, persons

accused of witchcraft ..."

Page 428--soupçonnès amended to soupçonnés--"... 'Apologie

pour les Grands Hommes faussement soupçonnés de Magie,' ..."