On the Prevalence and Effect of Witchcraft, during the Sixteenth and -I am shunn'd And hated like a sickness,-made a scorn To all degrees and sexes. I have heard old beldames Rats, ferrets, weasles, and I wot not what, That have appear'd, and suck'd (some say,) their blood; But, by what means they came acquainted with them, I am now ignorant. (Witch of Edmonton.) Hath not this present parliament A ledger to the devil sent, And has not he, within a year, Hang'd three-score of them in one shire? And some for sitting above ground Whole nights and days upon their breeches, And feeling pain, were hang'd for witches; The progress of the human intellect towards perfection has been far more rapid during the last century, than might have been expected from antecedent circumstances. Most of that gloomy dogmatism which fettered the minds of our ancestors has been dissipated, no less by the refulgence of science, than by the extensive dissemination of literature and the arts; and while the mind of man has become, by these means, enlarged and liberalized, his actions and manners,-influenced by these beneficial causes, are marked by a more ju Vor. V. (Hudibras.) dicious discrimination of character, and by a fair and candid revocation of all unworthy and unmanly prejudices. But, notwithstanding this kindly effect of civilization, there are in existence many morose and discontented individuals, who derive a malicious gratification from condemning the manners and usages of the present age, for the purpose of lauding what has been very unjustly denominated the "simplicity of old times." Vitio malignitatis humanæ vetera semper in laude, presentia in fastidio R sunt.* This is a silly mode of tormenting one's self; and quite as incongruous, as it is absurd and ridiculous: for those who are thus unhappily inclined, think only of the advantages of these ages of simplicity and virtue, while their more than proportionate evils are cast into the back-ground,--they look only at the bright and beautiful side of the picture, while they are utterly heedless of its blots and shadows. the It may be alleged, that there are more crimes committed now, than there were formerly. This we will grant to a certain extent, and only to a certain extent; for it is very evident, that this increase of crime is consequence of actual want, and of local circumstances, and not of a natural depravity in the people. A more refined and extended state of society has necessarily given origin to new vices, and to new laws for their suppression; but it has also totally annihilated the more barbarous atrocities of former ages, and completely swept away the turbulent iniquity, which prevailed to such an extent during that period, so erroneously and unfairly denominated good and simple. Among the happiest and most obvious advantages of this refinement may be reckoned the abolition of those absurd and abominable doctrines which originated in the ignorance and clouded superstition of our forefathers. The age of supernatural wonders has now, indeed, passed quite away; and we no longer live to be tormented by witches, or annoyed and terrified by the unceremo nious visitation of "black spirits and * Tacitus, De Oratoribus, Cap. xviii. Ed. Homeri. This fact may be easily proved by a reference to a table, showing the proportion which the number of persons committed to prison in each county of England and Wales bears to the whole population. Thus Middlesex has one in 588; Warwickshire (including, of course, the populous town of Birmingham) one in 989: while the more pastoral districts, particularly those in Wales, can boast of but a very small number of delinquents. Westmoreland has only one in 5,642; Anglesey, one in 18,522; Cardiganshire, one in 13,612; and Merionethshire, one in 13,377. It may be necessary to remark, that the table whence this calculation is derived comprises a period of thirteen years, namely, from 1805 to 1817, inclusive. The good old times, says Lord Byron, in his Preface to Childe Harold, when "l'amour du bon vieux tems, l'amour antique" flourished, were the most profligate of all possible centuries. The reader may consult Sir W. Scott's Border Minstrelsy for a horrible detail of the unsettled state of Scotland, during those days of anarchy and rudeness, and the fourth volume of the Retrospective Review, (in the article on the Gwedir History) for a view of the contumacious and unruly manners of the Welsh, before they experienced the benefits of civilization. § What sort of witches they were that our author knew to be such (observes an annotator) I cannot tell; for those which he mentions in the next section, as proceeding upon obliquely and upon consequence, a sort, not of infidels, but atheists. Those that, to confute their incredulity, desire to see apparitions, shall questionless never behold any, nor have the power to see so much as witches. The devil hath them already in a heresy as capital as witchcraft, and to appear to them, were but to convert them.*" These were not singular sentiments; nor were they confined to one or two classes of the community. They were, in fact, the sentiments of the million, and influenced the manners of both patrician and plebeian, and continued to do so to a period almost too late for credibility. Several men, of acknowledged learning and wisdom in other respects,stoutly advocated the existence of witches, and firmly believed in the potency of their spells; and, during the latter part of the sixteenth century, witchcraft prevailed to such an extraordinary degree, that the legislature thought it necessary to interpose its authority, for the purpose of putting a stop to the progress of a doctrine, the pernicious tenets of which were becoming daily more diffused throughout the kingdom. A statute was accordingly enacted in the thirty-third year of the reign of Henry VIII. which denounced the severest vengeance upon those who transgressed its decrees,-adjudging all witchcraft and sorcery to be felony, without benefit of clergy.† But this, like our present peremptory law against forgery, did but increase the evil it was intended to eradicate; and at the commencement of the reign of Elizabeth, it seems to have flourished with such vigour, that another law was passed in the fifth One would imagine that the establishment of protestantism would have conduced to the abolition of this lamentable and pernicious credulity; but, as Dr. Johnson observes, the reformation did not immediately arrive at its meridian; and though day was gradually increasing upon us, the goblins of witchcraft still continued to hover in the twilight. The superstition, indeed, was at first increased, rather than diminished, by this measure; and its augmentation is thus accounted for by a writer who has fully exposed the absurdity of the "Though the laws about delusion. religion were changed, the inhabitants of the country were the same; and the monks and nuns being turned loose among the people, infected their minds with superstitious tales: and though these follies are usually matter of jest, while they keep among the vulgar; yet when they happen to find faith among the great ones, and the kindred of the crown, they often draw them to the attempting great changes; for the high stations of the great do not secure either them or their children sounder judgments than their neighbours, nor free them from the superstitions and credulity of the meanest. And when their high spirits and great interests are acted upon by vain hopes and tales, they soon burst the bonds that preserve a nation's peace."§ In 1584, Reginald Scot published his "Discoverie of Witchcraft," which curious and amusing work was writ the principles of nature, none have denied. Against such it was, indeed, that the Julian law against witches was made, that is, those who had intoxicated any body with noxious or bad drugs or draughts. Alexandri ab Alexandro Genial Dier. lib. 3. cap. 1. But for the opinion, that there are witches that co-operate with the devil, there are divines of great note, and far from any suspicion of being irreligious, that do oppose it. * Religio Medici, p. 91. See also his Vulgar Errors, Books 1, 5, and 7. + Offenders being lawfully convicted by this Statute, lost the privilege of clergy and sanctuary: but those who stood mute,-challenged peremptorily above twenty jurors,-or would not directly answer, were not deprived of clergy by the words of this Act. Recves' Hist. of the English Law, vol. iv. p. 319. In a sermon preached before the Queen, in 1558, by Bishop Jewel, is the following curious passage: "It may please your Grace to understand that witches and sorcerers, within these last four years, are marvellously increased within this your Grace's realm. Your Grace's subjects pine away even unto the death, their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft. I pray God they may never practise further than upon the subject." § Hutchinson's Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft, p. 177. Ed. 1718. R2 ten in behalf of the poor, the old, and the simple, whose age and infirmities had rendered them the objects of so much hatred and persecution. It furnishes a most complete and convincing detection of all the juggling knavery, and silly infatuation by which this vile, mean, and debasing superstition was carried on and supported.* But it entirely failed in the completion of its purpose, for the doctrine which it attempted to invalidate had gained such a secure footing among the people, and had become so intimately blended, as it were, with their thoughts and feelings, that they either could not, or would not be readily convinced of its fallacy. Besides, there were many individuals in the community, whose interest it was to propagate and encourage this abominable delusion, that they might enrich themselves at the expense of the peace and happiness of those whom they deluded so easily by their ingenious but infamous impostures. Living, as we do now, in an age of morality and refinement, we cannot form any accurate idea of the prevalence of witchcraft, nor of the potency of its effects upon the people. The prince and the peasant were alike influenced by it; and its virulence, like that of some desolating pestilence, contaminated all that was sound and healthy in the state. Our country, observes a writer in one of the most interesting and useful of modern publications, little deserved the title of "Merry England" in those days. One may almost believe that plague or pestilence would have been mercy, compared with the miseries which this infatuation must have diffused. Even he, who happily lived remote from the seat of this spiritual warfare; though few such there could be, so rapidly was it transferred from county to county, to the remotest districts; even he, in whose vicinity no one was suspected of dealing with the foul fiend; whose children, cattle, or neighbours showed no symptoms of being marks for those fiery darts which often struck from a distance, and wounded to death or madness, would not yet escape a sort of epidemic gloom,-a sympathy with the suffering, which was a vague apprehension of the mischief that might be. The atmosphere he breathed would come to him thick with foul fancies; he would be ever telling, or hearing some wild and melancholy tale of crime and punishment; the best feelings and best enjoyments of himself and his kindred would be dashed with something of bitterness, suspicion, and terror, as he reflected that, though yet uninvaded, these were at the mercy of malignant fellow mortals, leagued with more malignant spirits, the laws and limits of whose operations were wholly undefinable. What must have been his feelings on whom the evil eye had glared,-against whom the potent spell had been pronounced, on whom misfortunes came thick and fast, by flood and field, at home and abroad,- in business and in pleasure; whose cattle died, whose crops were blighted, and about whose bed and board, invisible, unwelcome, and mischievous, guests held their revels? who saw not in his calamities the result of ignorance or error to be averted by caution, nor the inflictions of heaven to be borne with pious resignation, but was the victim of a supposed compact, in which his disasters were part of the price paid by the powers of hell for an immortal soul. In sickness, mental agony,-by far the hardest to endure—was superinduced on bodily. He who pined in consumption shuddered, as he imagined that his own waxen effigy was revolving and melting at the charmed fire; the changes of his sensations In this admirable Treatise, our author does not confine himself to the exposition of the wicked absurdities of witchcraft. He attacks, with equal energy," the knaverie of conjurors, the impietie of inchanters, the follie of soothsayers, the impudent falshood of couseners, the infidelitie of atheists, the pestilent practices of pythinists, the curiositie of figure-casters, the vanitie of dreamers, and the beggarlie arte of alcumystrie." + Retrospective Review, vol. 5. It may be necessary to remark, that the present article was written long before the publication of the last number of this Review. We mention this, because we are unwilling to incur the suspicion of plagiarism; and we have contrived to introduce the above passage, from a most judicious summary of witchcraft, because it describes so well the miserable state of our country, when it was labouring under the influence of the "damning spells" of this revolting superstition. |