=Motto.= "They make their own visions."--Virgil, _Eclogues_, viii. 108.
=129=: 9. =The subject of witchcraft.= The Spectator was less
credulous, on this matter of witchcraft, than most of his
contemporaries. The witchcraft craze in Salem, Massachusetts, occurred
in 1692; only a few years before this paper was written, two women had
been hanged in Northampton, England, for witchcraft; and as late as
1716 a certain Mrs. Hicks and her daughter were executed in Huntingdon
for selling their souls to the devil, etc. The statute of James I,
1603, punishing witchcraft by death, was not repealed until 1736;
and the belief in witchcraft continued to be common long after that,
not only among the ignorant, but among the educated. John Wesley, on
most matters a man of very sound practical judgement, writes in his
_Journal_ as late as 1770: "I cannot give up to all the Deists in
Great Britain the existence of witchcraft till I give up the credit of
all history, sacred and profane. And at the present time I have not
only as strong but stronger proofs of this from eye and ear witnesses
than I have of murder; so that I cannot rationally doubt of one any
more than the other." And Samuel Johnson, when questioned by Boswell
on the matter, while he would "not affirm anything positively upon the
subject," reminded Mr. Boswell that in support of witchcraft "You have
not only the general report and belief, but many solemn, voluntary
confessions." (Boswell's _Life of Samuel Johnson_, April 9, 1772.)
For an account of the kind of evidence used against alleged witches,
see a case cited in Ashton's _Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne_,
Chap. x.
=130=: 19. =Otway.= Thomas Otway (1651-1685), the best tragic dramatist
of the Restoration period. The passage is from his tragedy, _The
Orphan_, ii. 1.
=131=: 8. =Carried her several hundreds of miles.= In accordance with
the superstition that a witch rode through the air at night on a
broomstick. Other superstitions are referred to in the following lines.
=131=: 15. =Take a pin of her.= Because bewitched people were
frequently said to be tormented with pins, or to be made to vomit pins.
The pins that figured so conspicuously in the Salem witchcraft trials
may still be seen in the Museum there.
=132=: 5. =A tabby cat.= A black cat was traditionally supposed to be
a favourite form in which Satan embodied himself, and hence a constant
figure in all witchcraft stories.
=132=: 15. =Advising her, as a justice of peace.= This sentence
admirably indicates Sir Roger's half belief in the preternatural powers
of the old woman, and his anxiety to avoid any trouble that would
oblige him to come to a conclusion in the matter.
=132=: 24. =Trying experiments with her.= Because, if she floated, she
was accounted a witch; if she sank, she was probably innocent, and they
might pull her out.