other than human spirits were concerned at all, one thing is beyond a
doubt: they were shockingly wicked spirits, and led those who dealt
with them to the utmost delusion, crime, and perdition; and this
example teaches all who seek to consult with spirits, through a medium
or in any other way, to be very strict to require beforehand the most
satisfactory and conclusive evidence of good character before they put
themselves into communication with them. Spirits who are said to
converse with people, in these modern ages, cannot be considered as
having much claim to a good repute. No valuable discovery of truth, no
important guidance in human conduct, no useful instruction, has ever
been conveyed to mankind through them; and much[ii.430] mischief
perhaps may have resulted from confiding in them. It is not wise to
place our minds under the influence of any of our fellow-creatures, in
the ordinary guise of humanity, unless we know something about them
entitling them to our acquaintance; much less so, to take them into our
intimacy or confidence. Spirits cannot be put under oath, or their
credibility be subjected to tests. Whether they are spirits of truth or
falsehood cannot be known; and common caution would seem to dictate an
avoidance of their company. The fields of knowledge opened to us in the
works of mortal men; the stores of human learning and science; the
pages of history, sacred or profane; the records of revelation; and the
instructions and conversation of the wise and good of our
fellow-creatures, while in the body,—are wide enough for our
exploration, and may well occupy the longest lifetime.
In its general outlines and minuter details, Salem Witchcraft is an
illustration of the fatal effects of allowing the imagination inflamed
by passion to take the place of common sense, and of pushing the
curiosity and credence of the human mind, in this stage of our being,
while in these corporeal embodiments, beyond the boundaries that ought
to limit their exercise. If we disregard those boundaries, and try to
overleap them, we shall be liable to the same results. The lesson needs
to be impressed equally upon all generations and ages of the world's
future history. Essays have been written and books published to prove
that the sense of the miraculous is destined[ii.431] to decline as
mankind becomes more enlightened, and ascribing a greater or less
tendency to the indulgence of this sense to particular periods of the
church, or systems of belief, or schools of what is called philosophy.
It is maintained that it was more prevalent in the mediæval ages than
in modern times. Some assert that it has had a greater development in
Catholic than Protestant countries; and some, perhaps, insist upon the
reverse. Some attempt to show that it has manifested itself more
remarkably among Puritans than in other classes of Protestant
Christians. The last and most pretentious form of this dogma is, that
the sense of the miraculous fades away in the progress of what
arrogates to itself the name of Rationalism. This is one of the
delusive results of introducing generalization into historical
disquisitions. History deals with man. Man is always the same. The race
consists, not of an aggregation, but of individuals, in all ages, never
moulded or melted into classes. Each individual has ever retained his
distinctness from every other. There has been the same infinite variety
in every period, in every race, in every nation. Society, philosophy,
custom, can no more obliterate these varieties than they can bring the
countenances and features of men into uniformity. Diversity everywhere
alike prevails. The particular forms and shapes in which the sense of
the miraculous may express itself have passed and will pass away in the
progress of civilization. But the sense itself remains; just as
particular costumes and fashions of garment pass away, while
the[ii.432] human form, its front erect and its vision towards the
heavens, remains. The sense of the miraculous remains with Protestants
as much as with Catholics, with Churchmen as much as with Puritans,
with those who reject all creeds, equally with those whose creeds are
the longest and the oldest. In our day, it must have been generally
noticed, that the wonders of what imagines itself to be Spiritualism
are rather more accredited by persons who aspire to the character of
rationalists than by those who hold on tenaciously to the old landmarks
of Orthodoxy.
The truth is, that the sense of the miraculous has not declined, and
never can. It will grow deeper and stronger with the progress of true
intelligence. As long as man thinks, he will feel that he is himself a
perpetual miracle. The more he thinks, the more will he feel it. The
mind which can wander into the deepest depths of the starry heavens,
and feel itself to be there; which, pondering over the printed page,
lives in the most distant past, communes with sages of hoar antiquity,
with prophets and apostles, joins the disciples as they walk with the
risen Lord to Emmaus, or mingles in the throng that listen to Paul at
Mars' Hill,—knows itself to be beyond the power of space or time, and
greater than material things. It knows not what it shall be; but it
feels that it is something above the present and visible. It realizes
the spiritual world, and will do so more and more, the higher its
culture, the greater its freedom, and the wider its view of the
material nature[ii.433] by which it is environed, while in this
transitory stage of its history.
The lesson of our story will be found not to discard spiritual things,
but to teach us, while in the flesh, not to attempt to break through
present limitations, not to seek to know more than has been made known
of the unseen and invisible, but to keep the inquiries of our minds and
the action of society within the bounds of knowledge now attainable,
and extend our curious researches and speculations only as far as we
can here have solid ground to stand upon.
To explain the superstitious opinions that took effect in the
witchcraft delusion, it is necessary to consider the state of biblical
criticism at that period. That department of theological learning was
then in a very immature condition.
The authority of Scripture, as it appeared on the face of the standard
version, seemed to require them to pursue the course they adopted; and
those enlarged and just principles of interpretation which we are
taught by the learned of all denominations at the present day to apply
to the Sacred Writings had not then been brought to the view of the
people or received by the clergy.
It was gravely argued, for instance, that there was nothing improbable
in the idea that witches had the power, in virtue of their compact with
the Devil, of riding aloft through the air, because it is recorded, in
the history of our Lord's temptation, that Satan transported him in a
similar manner to the pinnacle of the[ii.434] temple, and to the summit
of an exceedingly high mountain. And Cotton Mather declares, that, to
his apprehension, the disclosures of the wonderful operations of the
Devil, upon and through his subjects, that were made in the course of
the witchcraft prosecutions, had shed a marvellous light upon the
Scriptures! What a perversion of the Sacred Writings to employ them for
the purpose of sanctioning the extravagant and delirious reveries of
the human imagination! What a miserable delusion, to suppose that the
Word of God could receive illumination from the most absurd and
horrible superstition that ever brooded in darkness over the mind of
man!
One of the sources of the delusion of 1692 was ignorance of many
natural laws that have been revealed by modern science. A vast amount
of knowledge on these subjects has been attained since that time. In
our halls of education, in associations for the diffusion of knowledge,
and in a diversified and all-pervading popular literature, what was
dark and impenetrable mystery then has been explained, accounted for,
and brought within the grasp of all minds. The contemplation of the
evils brought upon our predecessors by their ignorance of the laws of
nature cannot but lead us to appreciate more highly our opportunities
to get knowledge in this department. As we advance into the interior of
the physical system to which we belong; are led in succession from one
revelation of beauty and grandeur to another, and the field of light
and truth displaces that of darkness and[ii.435] mystery; while the
fearful images that disturbed the faith and bewildered the thoughts of
our fathers are dissolving and vanishing, the whole host of spirits,
ghosts, and demons disappearing, and the presence and providence of God
alone found to fill all scenes and cause all effects,—our hearts ought
to rise to him in loftier adoration and holier devotion. If, while we
enjoy a fuller revelation of his infinite and all-glorious operations
and designs than our fathers did, the sentiment of piety which glowed
in their hearts like a coal from the altar of God has been permitted to
grow dim in ours, no reproach their errors and faults can possibly
authorize will equal that which will justly fall upon us.
Another cause of their delusion was too great a dependence upon the
imagination. We shall find no lesson more clearly taught by history, by
experience, or by observation, than this, that man is never safe while
either his fancy or his feeling is the guiding principle of his nature.
There is a strong and constant attraction between his imagination and
his passions; and, if either is permitted to exercise unlimited sway,
the other will most certainly be drawn into co-operation with it, and,
when they are allowed to act without restraint upon each other and with
each other, they lead to the derangement and convulsion of his whole
system. They constitute the combustible elements of our being: one
serves as the spark to explode the other. Reason, enlightened by
revelation and guided by conscience, is the great conservative
prin[ii.436]ciple: while that exercises the sovereign power over the
fancy and the passions, we are safe; if it is dethroned, no limit can
be assigned to the ruin that may follow. In the scenes we have now been
called to witness, we have perceived to what lengths of folly, cruelty,
and crime even good men have been carried, who relinquished the aid,
rejected the counsels, and abandoned the guidance of their reason.
Another influence that operated to produce the catastrophe in 1692 was
the power of contagious sympathy. Every wise man and good citizen ought
to be aware of the existence and operation of this power. There seems
indeed to be a constitutional, original, sympathy in our nature. When
men act in a crowd, their heartstrings are prone to vibrate in unison.
Whatever chord of passion is struck in one breast, the same will ring
forth its wild note through the whole mass. This principle shows itself
particularly in seasons of excitement, and its power rises in
proportion to the ardor and zeal of those upon whom it acts. It is for
every one who desires to be preserved from the excesses of popular
feeling, and to prevent the community to which he belongs from plunging
into riotous and blind commotions, to keep his own judgment and
emotions as free as possible from a power that seizes all it can reach,
draws them into its current, and sweeps them round and round like the
Maelstrom, until they are overwhelmed and buried in its devouring
vortex. When others are heated, the only wisdom is to determine to keep
cool; whenever a people or an individual[ii.437] is rushing headlong,
it is the duty of patriotism and of friendship to check the motion.
In this connection it may be remarked—and I should be sorry to bring
the subject to a close without urging the thought upon your
attention—that the mere power of sympathy, the momentum with which men
act in a crowd, is itself capable of convulsing society and
overthrowing all its safeguards, without the aid or supposed agency of
supernatural beings. The early history of the colony of New York
presents a case in point.
In 1741, just half a century after the witchcraft prosecutions in
Massachusetts, the city of New York, then containing about nine
thousand inhabitants, witnessed a scene quite rivalling, in horror and
folly, that presented here. Some one started the idea, that a
conspiracy was on foot, among the colored portion of the inhabitants,
to murder the whites. The story was passed from one to another.
Although subsequently ascertained to have been utterly without
foundation, no one stopped to inquire into its truth, or had the wisdom
or courage to discountenance its circulation. Soon a universal panic,
like a conflagration, spread through the whole community; and the
results were most frightful. More than one hundred persons were cast
into prison. Four white persons and eighteen negroes were hanged.
Eleven negroes were burned at the stake, and fifty were transported
into slavery. As in the witchcraft prosecutions, a clergyman was among
the victims, and perished on the gallows.[ii.438]
The "New-York Negro Plot," as it was called, was indeed marked by all
the features of absurdity in the delusion, ferocity in the popular
excitement, and destruction along the path of its progress, which
belonged to the witchcraft proceedings here, and shows that any people,
given over to the power of contagious passion, may be swept by
desolation, and plunged into ruin.
One of the practical lessons inculcated by the history that has now
been related is, that no duty is more certain, none more important,
than a free and fearless expression of opinion, by all persons, on all
occasions. No wise or philosophic person would think of complaining of
the diversities of sentiment it is likely to develop. Such diversities
are the vital principle of free communities, and the only elements of
popular intelligence. If the right to utter them is asserted by all and
for all, tolerance is secured, and no inconvenience results. It is
probable that there were many persons here in 1692 who doubted the
propriety of the proceedings at their commencement, but who were
afterwards prevailed upon to fall into the current and swell the tide.
If they had all discharged their duty to their country and their
consciences by freely and boldly uttering their disapprobation and
declaring their dissent, who can tell but that the whole tragedy might
have been prevented? and, if it might, the blood of the innocent may be
said, in one sense, to be upon their heads.
The leading features and most striking aspects of[ii.439] the
witchcraft delusion have been repeated in places where witches and the
interference of supernatural beings are never thought of: whenever a
community gives way to its passions, and spurns the admonitions and
casts off the restraints of reason, there is a delusion that can hardly
be described in any other phrase. We cannot glance our eye over the
face of our country without beholding such scenes: and, so long as they
are exhibited; so long as we permit ourselves to invest objects of
little or no real importance with such an inordinate imaginary interest
that we are ready to go to every extremity rather than relinquish them;
so long as we yield to the impulse of passion, and plunge into
excitement, and take counsel of our feelings rather than our
judgment,—we are following in the footsteps of our fanatical ancestors.
It would be wiser to direct our ridicule and reproaches to the
delusions of our own times than to those of a previous age; and it
becomes us to treat with charity and mercy the failings of our
predecessors, at least until we have ceased to imitate and repeat them.
It has been my object to collect and arrange all the materials within
reach necessary to give a correct and adequate view of the passage of
history related and discussed in this work, and to suggest the
considerations and conclusions required by truth and justice. It is
worthy of the most thoughtful contemplation. The moralist,
metaphysician, and political philosopher will find few chapters of
human experience more fraught with instruction, and may well ponder
upon[ii.440] the lessons it teaches, scrutinize thoroughly all its
periods, phases, and branches, analyze its causes, eliminate its
elements, and mark its developments. The laws, energies, capabilities,
and liabilities of our nature, as exhibited in the character of
individuals and in the action of society, are remarkably illustrated.
The essential facts belonging to the transaction, gathered from
authentic records and reliable testimonies and traditions, have been
faithfully presented. The Witchcraft Delusion of 1692, so far as I have
been able to recover it from misunderstanding and oblivion, has been
brought to view; and I indulge the belief, that the subject will
commend itself to, and reward, the study of every meditative mind.
I know not in what better terms the discussion of this subject can be
brought to a termination, than in those which express the conclusions
to which one of our own most distinguished citizens was brought, after
having examined the whole transaction with the eye of a lawyer and the
spirit of a judge. The following is from the Centennial Discourse
pronounced in Salem on the 18th of September, 1828, by the late Hon.
Joseph Story, of the Supreme Court of the United States:—
"We may lament, then," says he, "the errors of the times, which led to
these prosecutions. But surely our ancestors had no special reasons for
shame in a belief which had the universal sanction of their own and all
former ages; which counted in its train philosophers, as well as
enthusiasts; which was graced[ii.441] by the learning of prelates, as
well as by the countenance of kings; which the law supported by its
mandates, and the purest judges felt no compunctions in enforcing. Let
Witch Hill remain for ever memorable by this sad catastrophe, not to
perpetuate our dishonor, but as an affecting, enduring proof of human
infirmity; a proof that perfect justice belongs to one judgment-seat
only,—that which is linked to the throne of God."
In the work which has now reached its close, many strange phases of
humanity have been exposed. We have beheld, with astonishment and
horror, the extent to which it is liable to be the agent and victim of
delusion and ruin. Folly that cannot be exceeded; wrong, outrage, and
woe, melting the heart that contemplates them; and crime, not within
our power or province to measure,—have passed before us. But not the
dark side only of our nature has been displayed. Manifestations of
innocence, heroism, invincible devotion to truth, integrity of soul
triumphing over all the terrors and horrors that can be accumulated in
life and in death, Christian piety in its most heavenly radiance, have
mingled in the drama, whose curtain is now to fall. Noble specimens of
virtue in man and woman, old and young, have shed a light, as from
above, upon its dark and melancholy scenes. Not only the sufferers, but
some of those who shared the dread responsibility of the crisis, demand
our commiseration, and did what they could to atone for their error.
The conduct of Judge Sewall claims our particu[ii.442]lar admiration.
He observed annually in private a day of humiliation and prayer, during
the remainder of his life, to keep fresh in his mind a sense of
repentance and sorrow for the part he bore in the trials. On the day of
the general fast, he rose in the place where he was accustomed to
worship, the Old South, in Boston, and, in the presence of the great
assembly, handed up to the pulpit a written confession, acknowledging
the error into which he had been led, praying for the forgiveness of
God and his people, and concluding with a request to all the
congregation to unite with him in devout supplication, that it might
not bring down the displeasure of the Most High upon his country, his
family, or himself. He remained standing during the public reading of
the paper. This was an act of true manliness and dignity of soul.
The following passage is found in his diary, under the date of April
23, 1720, nearly thirty years afterwards. It was suggested by the
perusal of Neal's "History of New England:"—
"In Dr. Neal's 'History of New England,' its nakedness is laid open in
the businesses of the Quakers, Anabaptists, witchcraft. The judges'
names are mentioned p. 502; my confession, p. 536, vol. ii. The good
and gracious God be pleased to save New England and me, and my family!"
There never was a more striking and complete fulfilment of the
apostolic assurance, that the prayer of a righteous man availeth much,
than in this instance. God has been pleased, in a remarkable manner,
to[ii.443] save and bless New England. The favor of Heaven was bestowed
upon Judge Sewall during the remainder of his life. He presided for
many years on the bench where he committed the error so sincerely
deplored by him, and was regarded by all as a benefactor, an ornament,
and a blessing to the community: while his family have enjoyed to a
high degree the protection of Providence from that day to this; have
adorned every profession, and every department of society; have filled
with honor the most elevated stations; have graced, in successive
generations, the same lofty seat their ancestor occupied; and been the
objects of the confidence, respect, and love of their fellow-citizens.
Your thoughts have been led through scenes of the most distressing and
revolting character. I leave before your imaginations one bright with
all the beauty of Christian virtue,—that which exhibits Judge Sewall
standing forth in the house of his God and in the presence of his
fellow-worshippers, making a public declaration of his sorrow and
regret for the mistaken judgment he had co-operated with others in
pronouncing. Here you have a representation of a truly great and
magnanimous spirit; a spirit to which the divine influence of our
religion had given an expansion and a lustre that Roman or Grecian
virtue never knew; a spirit that had achieved a greater victory than
warrior ever won,—a victory over itself; a spirit so noble and so pure,
that it felt no shame in acknowledging an error, and publicly
imploring,[ii.444] for a great wrong done to his fellow-creatures, the
forgiveness of God and man.
Our Essex poet, whose beautiful genius has made classical the banks of
his own Merrimac, shed a romantic light over the early homes and
characters of New England, and brought back to life the spirit, forms,
scenes, and men of the past, has not failed to immortalize, in his
verse, the profound penitence of the misguided but upright judge:—
"Touching and sad, a tale is told,
Like a penitent hymn of the Psalmist old,
Of the fast which the good man life-long kept
With a haunting sorrow that never slept,
As the circling year brought round the time
Of an error that left the sting of crime,
When he sat on the bench of the witchcraft courts,
With the laws of Moses and 'Hale's Reports,'
And spake, in the name of both, the word
That gave the witch's neck to the cord,
And piled the oaken planks that pressed
The feeble life from the warlock's breast!
All the day long, from dawn to dawn,
His door was bolted, his curtain drawn;
No foot on his silent threshold trod,
No eye looked on him save that of God,
As he baffled the ghosts of the dead with charms
Of penitent tears, and prayers, and psalms,
And, with precious proofs from the sacred Word
Of the boundless pity and love of the Lord,
His faith confirmed and his trust renewed,
That the sin of his ignorance, sorely rued,
Might be washed away in the mingled flood
Of his human sorrow and Christ's dear blood!"
[ii.445]
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