The person bearing the above name was a widow residing in Amesbury, who
had been tried for witchcraft more than twenty years before, and therefore
obviously in 1692 was well along in life. Her answers in court, however,
bespeak a prompt, self-possessed, shrewd, and seemingly merry prisoner. A
few of her replies, together with the questions which elicited them, are
as follows:--
"Ann Putnam threw her glove at her in a fit. 'What do you laugh at?' said
the court. _Ans._ 'Well I may at such folly.'
"'Is this folly to see these so hurt?' 'I never hurt man, woman, or
child.'
"'What do you think ails them?' 'I do not desire to spend my judgment upon
it.' 'Do you think they are bewitched?' 'No; I do not think they are.'
'Well, tell us your thoughts about them.' 'My thoughts are mine own when
they are in; but when they are out they are another's.' 'Who do you think
is their master?' 'If they be dealing in the black art, you may know as
well as I.' 'How comes your appearance just now to hurt these?' 'How do I
know?' 'Are you not willing to tell the truth?' 'He that appeared in
Samuel's shape can appear in any one's shape.'"
One R. P., dated Salisbury, August 9, 1692, and forwarded to Jonathan
Corwin, a document ranking among the ablest on record against the legal
proceedings of that day, in which he says, "I suppose 'tis granted by all
that the person of one that is dead cannot appear, because the soul and
body are separated, and so the person is dissolved, and so ceaseth to be;
and it is certain that the person of the living cannot be in two places at
one time." That writer conceived that man's personality ceased at death;
therefore he logically inferred that the personality of the prophet Samuel
had gone out of existence, and said, "The witch of Endor raised the DEVIL,
in the likeness of Samuel, to tell Saul his fortune." We find in many
places the cropping out, in those days, of the same idea. Susanna Martin
indicated her belief that it was the devil who appeared to the woman of
Endor, and not the glorified Samuel. Premises deemed valid by some men in
1692, would, if applied in that direction, support the conclusion that the
Moses and Elias who appeared to Jesus and others on the mount of
transfiguration were nothing but the devil in the shapes of those old
prophets. Belief that the devil personated Samuel is to us no more
unphilosophical than is Upham's conclusion, that "by the immediate agency
of the Almighty the spirit of Samuel really arose." Paul taught that there
_is_--not that there is to be hereafter, that there is now--"a spiritual
_body_." All clairvoyants to-day can see such a body belonging to a human
form, and sometimes see it being far away from the form to which nature
attached it. Each human being now possesses both a natural or physical and
also a spiritual _form_. That position of R. P. and Susanna Martin was
unsound which held that the physical body was essential to personality.
Also, since the Almighty originally infused through nature, elements and
forces which admit of the return of spirits by natural processes, it is as
unphilosophical to hold that Samuel was raised by the immediate agency of
the Almighty, or miraculously, as it would be to ascribe an American
traveler's return home from Europe to the _immediate_ agency of the same
Being. Natural laws and forces permitted, under possible conditions, the
return of Samuel himself. Such conditions existed often in and around the
hospitable and sympathetic woman of Endor, who was no _witch_, in the now
common meaning of that word; who was not called such in the Bible,--but
only a person who had a _familiar_ spirit, that is, a spirit so constantly
present, and having such ability of communion with her, as made the
spirit seem to her like one of her family--her familiar. A spirit thus
attendant on a mortal may be either good, bad, or indifferent, and may be
cognized by those persons whose constitution and development are such that
their inner senses can report to their external consciousness. The
existing properties of that woman, which permitted some special spirit to
frequently dwell and commune intelligibly with her, and be cognizable by
her inner senses as a dweller in her household, as her familiar,--such
properties would enable her to perceive the form and hear the voice of
another spirit, who might be called to her presence for an urgent purpose,
as naturally as the outer eye which sees one external form is competent to
see another. Samuel, when wanted, came and was seen by the clairvoyant
woman, but not by the external eyes of either Saul or his attendants. The
case was very like what occurred at the first examination under an
accusation for witchcraft at Salem Village. Sarah Good then said, "None
here see the witches"--that is, none see spirits--"but the afflicted and
themselves,"--that is, none but the afflicted and the accused, of which
she was one. In other words, the actual doers of the marvelous works, the
spirits, are seen only by the accusers and the accused--the clairvoyants
here. It is true that in the more modern instance the spirits seen were
often, though not always, those of living persons. But this does not
affect the principles of explanation. Those persons who are so unfolded as
to see spirit-forms can sometimes see them, whether they be still attached
to the outer ones or be liberated. Spirits, both some who had been
entirely liberated from the flesh, and other flesh-clad ones whose
encasements were translucent, could be seen by members of the accusing
"circle," and by some others of like combinations, even when the court and
the mass of attendants upon it might fail to see anything of the kind. The
horses and chariots of fire were as clearly seen by Elisha on the hills of
Dothan, while his servant was blind to them, as they were after the young
man's inner eyes were opened so that he too saw the helping and protecting
hosts. The change was in the young man himself, and not up on the hills.
Departed spirits are where they feel our aspirations for their presence,
and the opening of our inner sight, at any time or in any place, might
render them visible.
Returning to Susanna Martin, we find that one William Brown, of Salisbury,
made deposition in 1692, "that, about one or two and thirty years ago, his
wife met Susanna in the road, who 'vanished away out of her sight,' ...
after which time the said Martin did many times appear to her at her
house, and did much trouble her.... When she did come, it was as birds
pecking her legs, or pricking her with the motion of their wings; and then
it would rise up into her stomach with pricking pain, as nails and pins,
of which she did bitterly complain.... After that it would up to her
throat in a bunch like a pullet's egg; and then she would turn back her
head and say, 'Witch, you shan't choke me.'"
Much more testimony was adduced to show that this woman's apparition was
very frequently seen; and not only seen, but was a source of exceeding
sufferings to many people. This argues nothing against her character, but
plainly hints that the relation of her inner to her outer form was such
that the former could be seen and felt by many persons who either
constitutionally or from sickness, or both, were very sensitive. Such
persons often saw her spirit-form, and suffered from its psychological
action. That peculiarity perhaps made her so luminous as to be observable,
and therefore accused, by "the circle," and the accusation brought her to
the gallows.