The volume of records of supposed necromancy and witchcraft is
sufficiently copious, without its being in any way necessary to trace
it through its latest relics and fragments. Superstition is so
congenial to the mind of man, that, even in the early years of the
author of the present volume, scarcely a village was unfurnished with
an old man or woman who laboured under an ill repute on this score;
and I doubt not many remain to this very day. I remember, when a
child, that I had an old woman pointed out to me by an ignorant
servant-maid, as being unquestionably possessed of the ominous gift
of the "evil eye," and that my impulse was to remove myself as quickly
as might be from the range of her observation.
But witchcraft, as it appears to me, is by no means so desirable a
subject as to make one unwilling to drop it. It has its uses. It is
perhaps right that we should be somewhat acquainted with this
repulsive chapter in the annals of human nature. As the wise man says
in the Bible, "It is good for us to resort to the house of those that
mourn;" for there is a melancholy which is attended with beneficial
effects, and "by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made
better." But I feel no propensity to linger in these dreary abodes,
and would rather make a speedy exchange for the dwellings of
healthfulness and a certain hilarity. We will therefore with the
reader's permission at length shut the book, and say, "Lo, it is
enough."
There is no time perhaps at which we can more fairly quit the subject,
than when the more enlightened governments of Europe have called for
the code of their laws, and have obliterated the statute which annexed
the penalty of death to this imaginary crime.
So early as the year 1672, Louis XIV promulgated an order of the
council of state, forbidding the tribunals from proceeding to judgment
in cases where the accusation was of sorcery only. [228]
In England we paid a much later tribute to the progress of
illumination and knowledge; and it was not till the year 1736 that
a statute was passed, repealing the law made in the first year of
James I, and enacting that no capital prosecution should for the
future take place for conjuration, sorcery and enchantment, but
restricting the punishment of persons pretending to tell fortunes
and discover stolen goods by witchcraft, to that appertaining to a
misdemeanour.
As long as death could by law be awarded against those who were
charged with a commerce with evil spirits, and by their means
inflicting mischief on their species, it is a subject not unworthy
of grave argument and true philanthropy, to endeavour to detect the
fallacy of such pretences, and expose the incalculable evils and the
dreadful tragedies that have grown out of accusations and prosecutions
for such imaginary crimes. But the effect of perpetuating the silly
and superstitious tales that have survived this mortal blow, is
exactly opposite. It only serves to keep alive the lingering folly
of imbecile minds, and still to feed with pestiferous clouds the
thoughts of the ignorant. Let us rather hail with heart-felt gladness
the light which has, though late, broken in upon us, and weep over
the calamity of our forefathers, who, in addition to the inevitable
ills of our sublunary state, were harassed with imaginary terrors,
and haunted by suggestions,
Whose horrid image did unfix their hair,
And make their seated hearts knock at their ribs,
Against the use of nature.