Part 19

It may be Difficult for some to comprehend wherein the Devil was blamed; for, according to the Text he goes no further than he is commanded or permitted to go by a Power whereby he was fully and completely controlled.

"The pious Bishop of Norwich." He was a Cotemporary of the weak King James, and his Companion on one of his Excursions into Scotland. He was mild and temperate compared with Laud and others of his Time. He was born in Leicester about 1574, and died in Norfolk in 1656, in the 82d Year of his Age. He appears not to have been much behind Dr. Mather in speaking of the "damned Brood" of Witches. His Works are even now held in much Repute by many, and were collected and published in three heavy Folios, 1647-62.

The Reader may perhaps find all he will care to know respecting the Suffolk Witches in Hutchinson's Historical Essay, 79, et sequen. second Edition. But Suffolk furnishes but a small Portion of England infected by Witchcraft, and Mr. Hutchinson's Work has not the hundredth Part of them.

Witchcraft may be said to have been on the Wane in Old England when this of 1692-3 began in New England. Indeed there is no Comparison, as to the Extent of the Delusion between the two Countries.

If he is such a knowing Devil as was generally supposed, he certainly must have known to a certainty the Success he was to meet with before setting out.

It is hardly to be inferred from the Sentiments here expressed, that the Author was among the most earnest of his blind Advocates for extreme Measures against those accused.

Not a good Translation, but the Sense is sufficiently apparent. Voltaire has the same in Substance in one of his "Letters concerning the English Nation." A Condition not peculiar to any Country.

The Time of Henry III was from 1574 to 1589.

Those who are familiar with the Works of Erasmus may verify the Story. He may have been, and probably was, like the Rest of the learned World, a Believer in such Nonsense. The great Poet who has contributed to his Immortality in the following Lines may not have heard of the above Story:

"At length Erasmus, that great injured Name, (The Glory of the Priesthood and the Shame!) Stem'd the wild Torrent of a bar'brous Age, And drove those holy Vandals off the Stage."

There was about this Time a Society established in England expressly for the "Reformation of Manners," and a small octavo Volume was issued under its Auspices, setting forth the Objects and Necessity for such a Society. In it the Plantations are remembered.

The Author does not seem to remember that he has elsewhere said with much Emphasis, that "this remote Part of the Earth" was the Devil's own Territory, that he was undisturbed here before the white People came and that he did not expect to be disturbed here.

This was Mr. Samuel Clarke or Clark (as he indifferently wrote his own Surname), and his Father's Name was Hugh Clark. The Life spoken of is in the Martyrology by the Son, a Work not now often referred to, but one abounding with interesting and curious biographical and historical Information, having intimate Connection with the Founders of New England, and containing a good deal concerning many of them. See his Lives, appended to the Martyrology, Page 127, et seq. Folio, 1677. I have often had Occasion to refer to his various Works.

There appears to have been some Mystery about that Perfume of Brimstone, if indeed "Metaphor" be left out of the Account, as the Author says it is to be. One might be led to suppose that the Circumstance which happened at Oxford in 1577, was of the Character of that in the Text, as alluded to by Hutchinson, in his Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft, Page 38, but on Reference to his Authority, a Parallel is hardly warranted. The Story will be found fully related in Camden's Reign of Elizabeth, 237, Ed. 1675.

In that curious Poem entitled The Sorceress, are the following Lines, among others, on "The Spell:"

"Rust of the Gibbet, and Bone of the Dead, I mingle and into the Teakettle throw, Root of Skunk-cabbage and Rattlesnakes Mead, And Leaves pluck'd at Midnight from Juniper bough. Charm break the Rest Of the Parsun distrest, From his Eyes let the Blessing of Slumber depart; Lucifer aid me And Night overshade me, Spirit of Beelzebub, lend me thine Art." &c.

A vast Number of Books had been published previous to our Author's Time upon Magic, and Astrology. A principal Writer on these Subjects was Dr. John Dee. His Diary was published by the Camden Society in 1842. See also William Lilley's Hist. of his Life and Times.

This most uncharitable Assertion is a complete Contradiction of what has before been asserted. He had already made poor New England bad enough, but this seems to place her in a perfectly hopeless Condition. Not many Pages back the Author cautioned the World lest it should not do Justice to New England, by believing her worse than Old England. A disordered Brain will always drive a Pen at random.

An Idea reminding one of the Case of the Jew in the Merchant of Venice. Unfortunately for the poor accused Wretches, there was no Daniel to sit in Judgment, and to see that no Blood was taken with the Pound of Flesh.

This certainly does not exhibit the Author as a "principal Ringleader" in those Persecutions. A Remark similar has been made to a previous Passage in the Text, of a like Purport. And frequent parallel Passages may be found.

This is the French Form of what we now write Clucking. The Verb to cluck is well known, and in frequent Use where Hens are raised, but to employ it as the Doctor does cannot but excite Ridicule.

Allowing this to be a just Conclusion it is remarkable that the Devil did not set his Witches at Work in the Beginning in the Colony of Plymouth; there were repeated Complaints to the Commissioners of the United Colonies, that various Towns in that Colony had neglected Ministers and Churches altogether; while from the County of Essex we hear of no such Complaints.

Additional Particulars respecting this Woman may be seen in Dr. I. Mather's Prevalency of Prayer, published in Connection with his Relation. See Early Hist. New England, 275.

Many, no Doubt, will think it strange that the Author did not count himself in. Had he done so he assuredly would have lost no Credit with his Readers now, nor probably by those in future.

This Mr. Beacon does not appear to have belonged to Boston. He was probably a casual Resident at that Time.

We are told by Bishop Burnet (the Father of our Governor Burnet), that Judge Hale was born at Alderly in Gloucestershire, the first of November, 1609, and died on the 25th of December, 1676. In the Life of Sir Matthew, appended to his Contemplations, is given one of the most interesting Pieces of Biography extant. In Accordance with one of his Sayings he was buried in the Church-yard of Alderly, and not in the Church, as was in his Time the prevailing Custom--that Saying was: "The Churches were for the Living, and the Church-yards for the Dead." In the Bishop's Life of him will be found a particular Account of his Family. After the great Fire of London he was one of the principal Judges that sat in Clifford's Inn, to regulate the Affairs between Landlord and Tenant, growing out of that Desolation. And with Sir Orlando Bridgman he rendered great Service in accommodating Differences which otherwise would long have retarded the rebuilding of the City. Whereas its "sudden and quiet building is justly reconed one of the Wonders of the Age." He was made "Lord Chief Justice of England," May 18th, 1671, which Office he resigned but a few Months previous to his Death, owing to his Infirmity. He lamented the rigorous Proceedings against the Nonconformists, though the adherent to the established Church; and used to say, "Those of the Separation were good Men, but they had narrow Souls, who would break the Peace of the Church, about such inconsiderable Matters, as the Points in Difference were." There does not appear to be taken any Notice of the Trials of Witches by Burnet in his Life of the Judge. It may be sufficient to say, that, like our Judges, Sewall and Stoughton, he was a Believer in Witchcraft, because there was Evidence of its Existence in the Bible! He was a timid Man, and this Timidity would not allow him so much as "to sum up the Evidence" in the Trial above given, and thus was the Case submitted to the Jury, who speedily gave in their Verdict of Guilty. There can be no Doubt but if Sir Matthew Hale had lived until the End of the New England Trials, he would, like Judge Sewall, have repented of his Course.

Spelt Keyling in the Life of Hale, whom he (Hale) succeeded as Lord Chief Justice, without taking his good Sense with him.

There is different, and somewhat more of a common Sense Account of this Trial in Hutchinson's Essay, Pp. 139-157, Chap. viii.