Mr. Parris had lived in the West Indies for some years, and had brought
several slaves with him to Salem. One of these, an Indian named John,
and Tituba his wife, seem to have been full of the gross superstitions
of their people, and of the frame and temperament best adapted for the
practices of demonology. In such a state of affairs the pastor actually
formed, or allowed to be formed, a society of young girls between the
ages of eight and eighteen to meet in his parsonage, strongly resembling
those "circles" in the America of our time which have filled the lunatic
asylums with thousands of victims of "spiritualist" visitations. It
seems that these young persons were laboring under strong nervous
excitement, which was encouraged rather than repressed by the means
employed by their spiritual director. Instead of treating them as the
subjects of morbid delusion, Mr. Parris regarded them as the victims of
external diabolical influence; and this influence was, strangely enough,
supposed to be exercised, on the evidence of the children themselves, by
some of the most pious and respectable members of the community.
We need not describe the course of events. In the dull life of the
country, the excitement of the proceedings in the "circle" was welcome,
no doubt; and it was always on the increase. Whatever trickery there
might be--and no doubt there was plenty; whatever excitement to
hysteria, whatever actual sharpening of common faculties, it is clear
that there was more; and those who have given due and dispassionate
attention to the processes of mesmerism and their effects can have no
difficulty in understanding the reports handed down of what these young
creatures did, and said, and saw, under peculiar conditions of the
nervous system. When the physicians of the district could see no
explanation of the ailments of "the afflicted children" but "the evil
hand," no doubt could remain to those who consulted them of these
agonies being the work of Satan. The matter was settled at once. But
Satan can work only through human agents; and who were his instruments
for the affliction of these children? Here was the opening through which
calamity rushed in; and for half a year this favored corner of the godly
land of New England was turned into a hell. The more the children were
stared at and pitied, the bolder they grew in their vagaries, till at
last they broke through the restraints of public worship, and talked
nonsense to the minister in the pulpit, and profaned the prayers. Mr.
Parris assembled all the divines he could collect at his parsonage, and
made his troop go through their performances--the result of which was
a general groan over the manifest presence of the Evil One, and a
passionate intercession for "the afflicted children."
[These afflicted children of Salem, in 1690, were kindred to the
numerous "mediums" of 1869. In the former, ignorance ascribed their
actions and revelations to the devil, who bewitched certain persons.
Now, we simply have the more innocent "communications" from where and
from whom you like.]