_MADAM,_
My opinion of Witches and Witchcraft, (of whose Power and strange
effects your _Author_ is pleased to relate many stories) in brief,
is this; My Sense and Reason doth inform me, that there is Natural
Witchcraft, as I may call it, which is Sympathy, Antipathy, Magnetisme,
and the like, which are made by the sensitive and rational motions
between several Creatures, as by Imagination, Fancy, Love, Aversion,
and many the like; but these Motions, being sometimes unusual and
strange to us, we not knowing their causes, (For what Creature knows
all motions in Nature, and their ways?) do stand amazed at their
working power; and by reason we cannot assign any Natural cause for
them, are apt to ascribe their effects to the Devil; but that there
should be any such devillish Witchcraft, which is made by a Covenant
and Agreement with the Devil, by whose power Men do enchaunt or bewitch
other Creatures, I cannot readily believe. Certainly, I dare say,
that many a good, old honest woman hath been condemned innocently,
and suffered death wrongfully, by the sentence of some foolish and
cruel Judges, meerly upon this suspition of Witchcraft, when as really
there hath been no such thing; for many things are done by slights
or juggling Arts, wherein neither the Devil nor Witches are Actors.
And thus an Englishman whose name was _Banks_, was like to be burnt
beyond the Seas for a Witch, as I have been inform'd, onely for making
a Horse shew tricks by Art; There have been also several others; as
one that could vomit up several kinds of Liquors and other things:
and another who did make a Drum beat of it self. But all these were
nothing but slights and jugling tricks; as also the talking and walking
Bell; and the Brazen-Head which spake these words, _Time was, Time
is_, and _Time is past_, and so fell down; Which may easily have been
performed by speaking through a Pipe conveighed into the said head:
But such and the like trifles will amaze many grave and wise men, when
they do not know the manner or way how they are done, so as they are
apt to judg them to be effected by Witchcraft or Combination with the
Devil. But, as I said before, I believe there is Natural Magick; which
is, that the sensitive and rational Matter oft moves such a way, as
is unknown to us; and in the number of these is also the bleeding of
a murdered body at the presence of the Murderer, which your _Author,_
mentions;[1] for the corporeal motions in the murthered body may move
so, as to work such effects, which are more then ordinary; for the
animal Figure, being not so quickly dissolved, the animal motions are
not so soon altered, (for the dissolving of the Figure is nothing else
but an alteration of its Motions;) and this dissolution is not done in
an instant of time, but by degrees: But yet I must confess, it is not a
common action in Nature, for Nature hath both common, and singular or
particular actions: As for example, Madness, natural Folly, and many
the like, are but in some particular persons; for if those actions were
general, and common, then all, or most men would be either mad, or
fools, but, though there are too many already, yet all men are not so;
and so some murthered bodies may bleed or express some alterations at
the presence of the Murtherer, but I do not believe, that all do so;
for surely in many, not any alteration will be perceived, and others
will have the same alterations without the presence of the Murtherer.
And thus you see, _Madam_, that this is done naturally, without the
help of the Devil; nay, your _Author_ doth himself confess it to be
so; for, says he, _The act of the Witch is plainly Natural; onely the
stirring up of the vertue or power in the Witch comes from Satan._
But I cannot understand what your _Author_ means, by the departing of
spiritual rays from the Witch into Man, or any other animal, which she
intends to kill or hurt; nor how Spirits wander about in the Air, and
have their mansions there; for men may talk as well of impossibilities,
as of such things which are not composed of Natural Matter: If man were
an Incorporeal Spirit himself, he might, perhaps, sooner conceive the
essence of a Spirit, as being of the same Nature; but as long as he is
material, and composed of Natural Matter, he might as well pretend to
know the Essence of God, as of an Incorporeal Spirit. Truly, I must
confess, I have had some fancies oftentimes of such pure and subtil
substances, purer and subtiler then the Sky or Æthereal substance is,
whereof I have spoken in my Poetical Works; but these substances, which
I conceived within my fancy, were material, and had bodies, though
never so small and subtil; for I was never able to conceive a substance
abstracted from all Matter, for even Fancy it self is material, and
all Thoughts and Conceptions are made by the rational Matter, and
so are those which Philosophers call Animal Spirits, but a material
Fancy cannot produce immaterial effects, that is, Ideas of Incorporeal
Spirits: And this was the cause that in the first impression of my
_Philosophical Opinions_, I named the sensitive and rational Matter,
sensitive and rational Spirits, because of its subtilty, activity
and agility; not that I thought them to be immaterial, but material
Spirits: but since Spirits are commonly taken to be immaterial, and
Spirit and Body are counted opposite to one another, to prevent
a misapprehension in the thoughts of my Readers, as if I meant
Incorporeal Spirits, I altered this expression in the last Edition, and
call'd it onely sensitive and rational Matter, or, which is all one,
sensitive and rational corporeal motions. You will say, perhaps, That
the divine Soul in Man is a Spirit: but I desire you to call to mind
what I oftentimes have told you, to wit, that when I speak of the Soul
of Man, I mean onely the Natural, not the Divine Soul; which as she is
supernatural, so she acts also supernaturally; but all the effects of
the natural Soul, of which I discourse, are natural, and not divine or
supernatural. But to return to Magnetisme; I am absolutely of opinion,
that it is naturally effected by natural means, without the concurrence
of Immaterial Spirits either good or bad, meerly by natural corporeal
sensitive and rational motions; and, for the most part, there must be a
due approach between the Agent and the Patient, or otherwise the effect
will hardly follow, as you may see by the Loadstone and Iron; Neither
is the influence of the Stars performed beyond a certain distance,
that is, such a distance as is beyond sight or their natural power to
work; for if their light comes to our Eyes, I know no reason against
it, but their effects may come to our bodies. And as for infectious
Diseases, they come by a corporeal imitation, as by touch, either of
the infected air, drawn in by breath, or entring through the pores
of the Body, or of some things brought from infected places, or else
by hearing; but diseases, caused by Conceit, have their beginning,
as all alterations have, from the sensitive and rational Motions,
which do not onely make the fear and conceit, but also the disease;
for as a fright will sometimes cure diseases, so it will sometimes
cause diseases; but as I said, both fright, cure, and the disease, are
made by the rational and sensitive corporeal motions within the body,
and not by Supernatural Magick, as Satanical Witchcraft, entering
from without into the body by spiritual rays. But having discoursed
hereof in my former Letter, I will not trouble you with an unnecessary
repetition thereof; I conclude therefore with what I begun, _viz._ that
I believe natural Magick to be natural corporeal motions in natural
bodies: Not that I say, Nature in her self is a Magicianess, but it
may be called natural Magick or Witchcraft, meerly in respect to our
Ignorance; for though Nature is old, yet she is not a Witch, but a
grave, wise, methodical Matron, ordering her Infinite family, which are
her several parts, with ease and facility, without needless troubles
and difficulties; for these are onely made through the ignorance of
her several parts or particular Creatures, not understanding their
Mistress, Nature, and her actions and government, for which they cannot
be blamed; for how should a part understand the Infinite body, when it
doth not understand it self; but Nature understands her parts better
then they do her. And so leaving Wise Nature, and the Ignorance of her
Particulars, I understand my self so far that I am,
Madam,
_Your humble and_
_faithful Servant._
[1] _Ch._ Of the Magnetick cure of wounds.