That was a curious state of things in Salem village. There was the
Meeting-House in plain sight, with sermons every Sunday and lectures on
week-days. There were gospel privileges for all, and the path of duty
was evident enough for the simplest understanding. Nevertheless, certain
persons who should have listened to the sermons, when they heard the
sound of a trumpet hied to the rendezvous of witches. When haled before
the court their only answer was that they couldn't help it.
The ministers were disturbed, but being thorough-going men, they did not
rest content with academic discussion of the question of the falling-off
in church attendance. They inquired into its cause, and became
convinced that they were dealing with sorcery. All this is duly set down
in Increase Mather's treatise on "Cases of Conscience concerning
Witchcrafts."
This method of inquisition is commended to those writers who look upon
the Gentle Reader's love of Romance as a deadly sin. The trouble, as I
understand it, is this. A number of gentlemen devoted to literature have
cultivated style till it is as near a state of utter perfection as human
nature will tolerate. Indeed, they emulate that classic writer of whom
Roger Ascham remarked that he labored "with uncontented care to write
better than he could." They have attained such accuracy of observation
and such skill in the choice of words that the man in the book is as
like to the man on the street as two peas. They are also skilled in
criticism and are able to prove that it is our duty not only to admire
but also to read their books. The complaint is that the readers, instead
of walking in the path of duty, troop off after some mere story-teller
who has never passed an examination in Pathology, and who is utterly
incapable of making an exhaustive analysis of motives.
The Gentle Reader when he hears the accusations of the stern realists
makes no denial of the facts. He admits that he likes a good story
better than an involved study of character. He listens to the reproofs
with the helplessness of one who has only the frail barrier of a
personal taste to shield him from the direct blow of the categorical
imperative. If personal taste were to be accepted as a sufficient plea,
he is aware that the most besotted inebriate would go unwhipped of
justice. In this predicament he shields himself behind his favorite
authors. If there be a fault it is theirs, not his. They have bewitched
him by their spells. It is impossible for him to withstand the potent
enchantments of these wizards.
I am inclined to think that there is much justice in this view of the
matter and that the militant realists should turn their attention from
the innocent reader to those who have power to bewitch him.
The accepted signs of witchcraft, as enumerated by the Mathers, are
present. Thus we are told: "A famous Divine recites among other
Convictions of a Witch, the Testimony of the Party bewitched, together
with the joint Oaths of sufficient Persons that they have seen
Prodigious Pranks or Feats wrought by the Party accused."
This was the kind of evidence relied upon in the case of G. B. in the
Court of Oyer and Terminer held at Salem in 1692. "He was accused by
Nine Persons for extraordinary Lifting and such Feats of Strength as
could not be done without Diabolical Assistance." It was said that
"though he was a Puny Man yet he had done things beyond the strength of
a Giant. A Gun of about seven foot Barrel, and so heavy that strong Men
could not steadily hold it out with both hands; there were several
Testimonies that he made nothing of taking up such a Gun behind the
Lock, with one hand, and holding it out like a Pistol at arm's end." Any
readers of romance can tell of many such prodigious pranks which, while
the spell was upon them, seemed altogether credible.
The test which was looked upon as infallible by those judicious judges
who put little confidence in the flotation of witches on the mill pond,
was that of the lack of intellectual consistency. "Faltering, faulty,
inconstant, and contrary answers upon judicial and deliberate
Examination are accounted unlucky symptoms of guilt."
Such inconsistencies may be found in all romantic fiction; yet the
magicians seem to have the power to make all things appear probable. I
might tell what a pleasant thrill is sometimes produced by these
sorceries, but I had better follow the policy of Cotton Mather, who
declined to tell all he knew about the Invisible World, lest he might
make witchcraft too attractive. "I will not speak plainly lest I should,
unaware, poison some of my Readers, as the pious Hermingius did one of
his Pupils when he only by way of Diversion recited a Spell."
Cotton Mather makes a suggestion which is of value in regard to the
different grades of witches and other wonder-working spirits. His
remarks upon this head are so judicious that they should be quoted in
full.
"Thirdly, 'tis to be supposed, that some _Devils_ are more peculiarly
_Commission'd_, and perhaps _Qualify'd_, for some Countries, while
others are for others. This is intimated when in _Mar_. 5. 10. The
Devils _besought_ our Lord much, _that he would not send them away out
of the Countrey_. Why was that? But in all probability, because _these
Devils_ were more able to _do the works of the Devil_, in such a
Countrey, than in another. It is not likely that every Devil does know
every _Language_; or that every Devil can do every _Mischief_. 'Tis
possible, that the _Experience_, or, if I may call it so, the
_Education_ of all Devils is not alike, and that there may be some
difference in their _Abilities_. If one might make an Inference from
what the Devils _do_, to what they _are_, One cannot forbear dreaming,
that there are _degrees_ of Devils. Who can allow, that such Trifling
_Demons_, as that of _Mascon_, or those that once infested our
New-berry, are of so much Grandeur, as those _Demons_, whose Games are
mighty Kingdoms? Yea, 'tis certain, that all Devils do not make a like
figure in the _Invisible World_. Nor does it look agreeably, That the
_Demons_, which were Familiars of such a Man as the old _Apollonius_,
differ not from those baser Goblins that chuse to Nest in the filthy and
loathsome Rags of a beastly Sorceress. Accordingly, why may not some
Devils be more accomplished for what is to be done in such and such
places, when others must be _detach'd_ for other Territories? Each
Devil, as he sees his advantage, cries out, _Let me be in this Countrey,
rather than another_."
It is only on the theory of bewitchment by a trifling demon who belongs
to the lower orders of the literary world that I can account for the sad
fall of the reader whose confession follows. Carefully shielded in his
youth from all the enticements of the imagination, he yet fell from
grace. The unfortunate person seems to be lacking in strength of will,
and yet to have some good in him. In my opinion he was more sinned
against than sinning. But I will let him tell his story in his own way.