The Witchcraft in New England. Calef Robert
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Название: The Witchcraft in New England
Автор: Calef Robert
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Зарубежная психология
isbn: 4064066393588
isbn:
A deep Abyss, wherein there is no Bottom to be found.
Day of Doom, Edit. 1715, P. 51.
[59] In the Notes of Butler and Dr. Nash to Hudibras the Reader will find some Amusement respecting the Witches of Lapland. Although the Laplanders are described as a miserable Race, they could not have been much behind the English in Matters of Superstition at this Period. Dr. Heylyn says the Laplanders, "at their first going out of their Doores in a Morning vse to giue worship and diuine honour all the Day following, to that liuing Creature what ere it be, which they see at their first going out." Mikrokosmos, 328, Edit. 1624, 4to.
[60] It does not appear to have occurred to the Doctor that a good Spirit might have been the Author of such darting Operations.
[61] It would have been gratifying to at least some of the Author's Readers if he had informed them how, where and when he became possessed of the Art of Sorcery, and as he acknowledges having the Art, how he escaped Prosecution. This is parum claris lucem dare indeed.
[62] This Hopefulness occasionally breaks out. It ill agrees with the doleful Tone often expressed, in various Parts of the Doctor's Writings—that "New England is on the broad Road to Perdition."
[63] This has Reference to the Favor expected at the Hands of William and Mary. The new Charter granted by them was received in Boston on the 14th of May, 1692. Sir Wm. Phipps came over at the same Time and assumed the Office of Governor.
[64] William Stoughton, afterwards Governor.
[65] These were to be 28 in Number. As the early Histories do not name them I copy them here from the Charter as printed in 1726: "Simon Broadstreet, John Richards, Nathanael Saltonstall, Wait Winthrop, John Philips, James Russell, Samuel Sewall, Samuel Appleton, Bartholomew Gedney, John Hathorn, Elisha Hutchinson, Robert Pike, Jonathan Corwin, John Jolliffe, Adam Winthrop, Richard Middlecot, John Foster, Peter Sergeant, Joseph Lynd, Samuel Heyman, Stephen Mason, Thomas Hinkley, William Bradford, John Walley, Barnabas Lothrop, Job Alcot, Samuel Daniel, and Silvanus Davis, Esquires." Isaac Addington was appointed Secretary. Nearly all noticed in Allen's Amer. Biog. Dict.
[66] The horrible Picture drawn in this long Paragraph has Reference especially to the still deep Current among the few who did not believe in Witchcraft, or at least who did not believe in extreme Measures against those accused of it.
[67] Strange Source, indeed, whence to hear a Plea for Charity!
[68] Did this Fact suggest the Idea of the Happy Family to the Keepers of modern Menageries? The Freshet is not mentioned by the Chroniclers.
[69] There was a Proposition, it is said, to send to England to engage one Matthew Hopkins, a professed Witch-finder, then in high repute in that Country. See History and Antiquities of Boston, 309.
[70] It is at every Step surprising to observe how the Writer assumes to be the Judge, in this at the same Time "dark and incomprehensible Business," as it is frequently acknowledged by him to be.
AN ABSTRACT OF MR. PERKINS'S[71] WAY FOR THE DISCOVERY OF WITCHES.
I. There are Presumptions, which do at least probably and conjecturally note one to be a Witch. These give occasion to Examine, yet they are no sufficient Causes of Conviction.
II. If any Man or Woman be notoriously defamed for a Witch, this yields a strong Suspition. Yet the Judge ought carefully to look, that the Report be made by Men of Honesty and Credit.
III. If a Fellow-Witch, or Magician, give Testimony of any Person to be a Witch; this indeed is not sufficient for Condemnation; but it is a fit Presumption to cause a straight Examination.
IV. If after Cursing there follow Death, or at least some mischief: for Witches are wont to practise their mischievous Facts by Cursing and Banning: This also is a sufficient matter of Examination, tho' not of Conviction.
V. If after Enmity, Quarrelling, or Threatning, a present mischief does follow; that also is a great Presumption.
[15] VI. If the Party suspected be the Son or Daughter, the man-servant or maid-servant, the Familiar Friend, near Neighbor, or old Companion, of a known and convicted Witch; this may be likewise a Presumption; for Witchcraft is an Art that may be learned, and conveyed from man to man.
VII. Some add this for a Presumption: If the Party suspected be found to have the Devil's mark; for it is commonly thought, when the Devil makes his Covenant with them, he alwaies leaves his mark behind them, whereby he knows them for his own:—a mark whereof no evident Reason in Nature can be given.
VIII. Lastly, If the party examined be Unconstant, or contrary to himself, in his deliberate Answers, it argueth a Guilty Conscience, which stops the freedom of Utterance. And yet there are causes of Astonishment, which may befal the Good, as well as the Bad.
IX. But then there is a Conviction, discovering the Witch, which must proceed from just and sufficient proofs, and not from bare presumptions.
X. Scratching of the suspected party, and Recovery thereupon, with several other such weak Proofs; as also, the fleeting of the suspected Party, thrown upon the Water; these Proofs are so far from being sufficient, that some of them are, after a sort, practices of Witchcraft.
XI. The Testimony of some Wizzard, tho' offering to shew the Witches Face in a Glass: This, I grant, may be a good Presumption, to cause a strait Examination; but a sufficient Proof of Conviction it cannot be. If the Devil tell the Grand Jury, that the person in question is a Witch, and offers withal to confirm the same by Oath, should the Inquest receive his Oath or Accusation to condemn the man? Assuredly no. And yet, that is as much as the Testimony of another Wizzard, who only by the Devil's help reveals the Witch.
XII. If a man, being dangerously sick, and like to dy, upon Suspicion, will take it on his Death, that such an one hath bewitched him, it is an Allegation of the same nature, which may move the Judge to examine the Party, but it is of no moment for Conviction.
XIII. Among the sufficient means of Conviction, the first is, the free and voluntary Confession of the Crime, made by the party suspected and accused, after Examination. I say not, that a bare confession is sufficient, СКАЧАТЬ