Giles Corey.

All her history suggests that this worthy woman, whose ways and powers were somewhat peculiar, was one of those rare individuals whose interior perceptives become so unfolded while in the body as to sense in knowledge by processes, and in some directions to extent, beyond the possible reach of man’s outward intellect. Because of such blissful unfoldings her age condemned her, hastened her exit from among a creed-bound people, and her entrance to the home of freed spirits.

As renowned as any one among all sufferers under persecutions for witchcraft—a hero in theband—was Giles Corey, husband of Martha, more than fourscore years old, but still strong and resolute. He may have been wild and rough in youth and early manhood, but was efficient in business, and before the close of life was possessor of a very handsome estate for those times in that region. When the witchcraft prosecutions commenced, he sided with the multitude for a time; was vexed that his wife would not do the same, and, in his excitement, perhaps gave free vent to such hard epithets as his tongue had been allowed to put forth freely in his earlier years; some of which were soon brought to bear against his good dame, while she was subjected to examination. From some cause his sympathy with the prosecutors subsided when he saw his good wife maligned by them, and soon the witch detectors were after him also. He was arrested and imprisoned. His keen penetration perceived that acquittal, as things were going, was impossible, unless the accused pleaded guilty; which plea truth, honor, and manhood forbade him to make. To be tried and condemned would involve a forfeiture of his property, and take it from his children. But no trial could be had, and of course no condemnation, unless he should plead either guilty or not guilty to the indictment. His decision was soon formed. Taken into court, he closed his lips, and no power there could open them. Neitherguiltynornot guiltycould be wrung from them. The large, strong, old man stood in calm majesty before the court, his silence challenging the whole civil power of the province to shake his purpose. English custom in such cases—and he probably knew it—was to subject the recusant to lingering torture, trusting that pain or prostrationwould wring out a plea of either guilty or not guilty. Order was given by the court to lay this old man prostrate, pile over him heavy weights, and put him upon starvation diet for the purpose of bringing his stubborn will to subjection. But neither oppressing weights, the pangs of hunger, nor both combined, weakened the hold of that strong will upon its purpose. His only utterances then were, “More weight, more weight!”

Corey himself testified at his preliminary examination, and the court tried to make it evidence of diabolism, that, twice at least, when attempting to pray, there was more or less stoppage of his utterance. Whether this was caused by the action of some outside intelligence bringing spirit forces to bear upon him is not apparent. The case as stated will hardly justify the presumption, though it suggests the possibility that it was. The dumbness that was formerly imposed upon the prophet Ezekiel and priest Zacharias, and that which frequently befalls mediums in our own age, teach that unseen intelligences sometimes can and do temporarily prevent the use of vocal organs by their legitimate owners.

The conclusive evidences which led to his commitment were spectral. His apparition had been seen by many, and had harmed them. Ann Putnam’s sharp eyes were first in this case, as in most others, to see the witch. She saw this old man’s apparition April 13; Mercy Lewis did on the 14th; and subsequently he was seen as a specter by, and gave annoyances to, eight other females and two males, who severally gave in depositions to that effect.

Was their perception of him nothing more than theproduct of the imagination of the witnesses? Were all the declarations false? Possibly—but not probably; for both imagination and perjury are often charged with doing what clairvoyance legitimately sees and authorizes.

He was examined April 19, five days after his apparition was first seen. Calef states that “Sept. 16th Giles Corey was prest to death.” In a foot-note, p. 260 ofSalem Witchcraft, we read that “Giles Corey wasexecutedSept. 19, 1692, about noon.” Perhaps these statements permit the conclusion that he was subjected to pressure from some hour of the 16th, Calef’s date, till noon of the 19th, or about three days, when, according to Fowler, he died. “In pressing,” Calef says, “his tongue being prest out of his mouth, the sheriff, with his cane, forced it in again when he was dying.”

Corey’s endurance and call for “more weight,” says Upham, ii. 340, “for a person of more than eighty-one years of age, must be allowed to have been a marvelous exhibition of prowess, illustrating, as strongly as anything in human history, the power of a resolute will over the utmost pain and agony of body, and demonstrating that Giles Corey was a man of heroic nerve, and of a spirit that could not be subdued.” Hutchinson closes his account of this case with the remark that, “in all ages of the world, superstitious credulity has produced greater cruelty than is practiced among Hottentots, or other nations, whose belief of a deity is called in question.” And why “greatercruelty”? Nowhere outside of Christendom was so cruel a devil conceived of as within it. And therefore greater incitements to crueltywere called up in those fighting against his minions than in any other men anywhere at any time. The creed devil-ward, and not general “superstitious credulity,” evoked in strong, good men, true to their ancestral and theChristianworld’s faith, more thanSAVAGE CRUELTY.

The deluding and heart-steeling power of false conceptions of the devil, combined with clear faith that he could get access to external things only through human covenanters with himself, and also with belief that it was an imperative duty of Christian men to slay such persons as even spectral evidence or statements of clairvoyants pointed to as being in league with him, is perhaps manifested as strikingly and sadly in the case of Rebecca Nurse, as in that of any other person tried and executed at Salem—or indeed anywhere, in any age. The spirit-form or apparition of this venerable lady—venerable not only for years then bordering upon fourscore, but for a long life of active beneficence; for strong good sense; for Christian graces; for being the good wife of one and mother and mother-in-law of several as good, respectable, and useful men as the Village contained. Character and domestic connections so shielded her that nothing short of mighty power could fix upon her a blasting crime.

Her spirit-form or apparition had been seen by several members of the circle, and charged with having tempted them to evil and tormented them prior to the 23d of March; on the 24th she was broughtbefore the magistrates and subjected to examination. The occasion was well fitted to put to severe test existing fealty to a fearful creed. Well might the magistrate then say to the prisoner, as he did, “What a sad thing it is that a church member ... should be thus accused and charged.” Especiallysadit must have been in this case, because the accused had long been, and well deserved to be, regarded as one of the most venerable and esteemed of all the “mothers in Israel” residing in the region there and round about. Some sympathy was on her side, for when she said, “I can say before my Eternal Father I am innocent, and God will clear my innocency,” the magistrate responded, “There is never a one in the assembly but desires it.”

This venerable matron was then, and for scores of years had been, beloved and respected wherever known for her beautiful domestic, social, and religious course. Even such a one, however, was drawn in and crushed by the fierce and whirling zeal that was impelling community into headlong and frenzied fight for God and Christ against theDevil. Age and virtue were insufficient to arrest or divert the rushing storm which hallucination devil-ward then generated and propelled. A benighting creed, like a huge nightmare, lay down upon, and held down, both reason and all the kindlier sentiments, while it evoked and allowed free play to harsh and murderous propensities. Whither either natural brilliancy or natural attraction drew clairvoyant eyes most intently, thither were the accusing girls swayed to lead the whelming force. Why should they lead to, or rather why fix upon, the beloved and venerated Mrs. Nurse?

We may not find in the old records as full and distinct evidence that she was constitutionally impressible by either mesmeric or spirit force, as many others are now seen to have been—we may miss conclusiveproofthat she was a magnet either drawing to or emitting from itself psychological forces unconsciously, and thence either becoming herself psychologized or yielding out substances from her own system which might cause, or be made instrumental in causing, marked changes in other human organisms. Still, several facts indicate that she may be assigned a place among the sensitives.

Mrs. Nurse, Mrs. Easty, and Mrs. Cloyse—three sisters—whose maiden name was Towne, were eminently intelligent, efficient, respectable, and respected matrons, and yet were all accused, tried, and the elder two were executed because their spirit-forms or apparitions had been seen by clairvoyants. The records contain a statement made at the time, in these words: “It was no wonder they were witches,for their mother was so before them.” Often “blood will out” whatever its quality. Three noble daughters bespeak a good mother, and yet, for some reason, Mrs. Towne had been calleda witch. The properties of the parent reappeared in her children, and rendered them visible by the inner or clairvoyant sight of others. Perception of their spirit-forms and of influences thence emanating caused the accusing girls to name these good women as their tormentors. Visibility as spirits or apparitions, and effluxes from their systems, were their crimes.

Though members of the accusing circle had been demonstrative for several weeks, and probably hadattracted to their bedsides or homes nearly every person in the town who could move abroad, yet, at the time of her examination, Mrs. Nurse had not been to see any of them. Her age and infirmities alone might well have excused her. But when asked why she had not visited the sufferers, she added to a statement of her years and debility, that “by reason offitsthat she formerly used to have,” she had not been to see them. Remembrance of her own past fits—not recent—not impending fits—but fits which “sheformerlyused to have,” deterred her from going to the presence of the fit-afflicted. The question was repeated thus: “Whydid you never visit these afflicted persons?”Ans.“Because I was afraidI should have fits, too.” Why afraid of such result? Obviously she felt a secret apprehension that her coming in contact with emanations from these mysteriously fit-afflicted ones, or into close sympathy with them, would bring upon herself again such fits as “she formerly used to have.” From this comes forth spontaneously the inference that she suspected that the nature and source of her own former fits, and of those then transpiring in youthful forms, were so nearly allied, that under the general law which makes like produce its like, she was liable to have again generated within herself, in her old age, such sufferings as she had experienced some time in previous years. In our view she was correct in her supposition that she herself was constitutionally liable to just such handlings as the jumping-jack girls were receiving. Her own fears bespeak the probability that Mrs. Nurse was very impressible by mind not her own—that she was highly mediumistic;and we ascribe her persecution to her impressibility. Natural law led to designation of both this woman and her sisters as the devil’s covenanted servants. Their creed blinded her persecutors to moral perceptions in certain emergencies, and made them reason falsely concerning the source and purport of spectral data. The presumed mediumistic properties of her mother, together with her own apprehension that presence with the girls might bring renewal of her own old fits, indicate that she probably was quite mediumistic. There is, however, no clear indication that she was at any time so far developed as to see or hear spirits or specters, nor that her own selfhood ever yielded up to another’s use her physical organs of speech or action.

Mr. Parris, who, by request from the magistrates, took minutes of the questions and responses at the trial of Mrs. Nurse, states that the tumult in court was very disturbing, and intimates that it was difficult to furnish a very reliable account of the transactions. Also Mrs. Nurse was quite deaf and otherwise infirm, so that it is doubtful whether she always correctly understood the questions put to her, or that she held her mental faculties under such control as enabled her to give pertinent answers at all times. She is reported as expressing belief that the accusing girls were “not acting against their wills.” Therein, if she was correctly understood, she differed from the court and most beholders of the children. Then the court remarked, “If you think it is not unwillingly, but by design, you must look upon them as murderers.” Probably all others made that inference, and yet the accused did not. She distinctly denied that shelooked upon them asmurderers, and only called them “distracted.” Crazy, and yet voluntary, seems to have been the view she took of the girls; they were voluntary, but not responsible actors. Their own wills, guided by their own intellects in disordered condition, produced the fearful allegations. This was her charitable view.

The power of human will to resist fits like those which the afflicted endured is brought up for consideration when we find enfeebled Mrs. Nurse afraid that visiting the suffering girls might induce recurrence of such fits as she “formerly used to have.” She seems to have surmised the probable existence of such contagion in the air surrounding the sufferers as in her weak state she might be unable to ward off; and it is possible that memories of her own success when she was strong, in baffling fit-producers may have persuaded her that young persons possess power to withstand such operators, whether intelligent or merely physical, even though the old may not.

What human wills can do deserves most careful notice, and was well illustrated in the case of little Elizabeth Parris. She was only nine years old, and was one of the first, if not the very first, to be distressed by fits and pinchings at the Village,—was the one whom Tituba loved, and was specially unwilling, and yet was forced, to pinch. Upham says, “She seems to have performed a leading part in the first stages of the affair, and must have been a child of remarkable precocity.” Drake, in vol. iii., Appendix, says, “Parris appears to have been very desirous of preventing his daughter Elizabeth from participating in the excitement at the village. She was sent by herfather, at the commencement of the delusion, to reside at Salem, with Captain Stephen Sewall. While there, the captain and his wife were much discouraged in effecting a cure, as she continued to have sore fits. Elizabeth said that the great Black-man came to her and told her, that if she would be ruled by him, she should have whatsoever she desired, and go to agolden city. She related this to Mrs. Sewall, who immediately told the child it was the devil, and he was a liar, and bade her tell him so if he came again; which she did accordingly.... The devil ... unaccustomed in those days to experience such resistance ... never troubled her afterwards.” It is generally true, that if one strenuously resist the visitings of any spirit, whether it be Gabriel or Beelzebub, the spirit cannot long maintain close access. If the account just given, relating to Elizabeth Parris, be correct, she both saw and heard what she, the actual and unsophisticated observer of his form and features, called the “black man,”—who, as Mather states clairvoyants generally say, “resembles an Indian.” But Mrs. Sewall, adopting the usage of the time, ignorantly called this semblance of an Indian “The Devil.” Yes, the little girl, after her removal from home andThe Circle, and no doubt without young confederates, continued to have sore fits, and also to see and to hear with her inner organs of sense during quite a long time. “The captain and his wife were much discouraged in effecting a cure.” The discouragement shows that the process of cure was slow and prolonged; eventually, however, the desired result was reached. The remedy is indicated. Will-power wrought out the cure. The patient’s own will was aroused and armed with aresolute purpose to close up, and to keep constantly and firmly closed, her own spirit loopholes through which only could she see or hear the black man, or be influenced by him. A strong will, steadily set against the entrance of a disembodied spirit, or against perception of such, generally, though not always, effects its purpose. The wills of companions and advisers, if working in harmony with the resisting one, greatly increase its resisting power. Mrs. Sewall, and the captain too, no doubt kept their wills set against the visiting black man, till will-force generated an aura whose outgoing waves he could not breast, and by which the girl’s inner perceptives were firmly bandaged and made dormant. Were the fits and visions which the isolated child continued to have for a time after she was sent from home nothing other than her own voluntary pranks and feignings? She was not author of them. The black man, or Indian, then acted through and upon her till it was no longer in his power to perform mighty works there because of unbelief, which had grown up and hardened into an impervious wall of seclusion.

Knowledge, gained by our personal observation in 1857, enables us to state distinctly that the late Professor Agassiz, a man strong in body, mind, and will, (while arrangements were being made for himself and several associate professors for an investigation of spirit manifestations at the Albion in Boston,) demanded for himself at the very outset, and was granted, exemption from obligation to sit in a circle. Through all the sessions which followed he kept most of the time on his feet, walking vigorously back and forth, and manifesting symptoms of great uneasiness.We then had heard that he formerly had been mesmerized, and therefore suspected that he feared that if he sat quietly down in the presence of mediums, he “should have fits too.” His own account of his experiences under the hands of Rev. Chauncy Hare Townshend we have given at length in a recent work, published by Colby & Rich, Boston, entitled “Agassiz and Spiritualism.” We now gladly use what seems fitting occasion to state our own belief, that his demand for personal exemption from compliance with a rule which it was customary, fair, and important to enforce upon every person present at a seance, and that his restlessness and disturbing movements all sprung from a motive much more in harmony with the high character and principles of that illustrious man, than are disparaging ones which have often been ascribed to him. In our judgment,self-protectionwas his motive, and not design to disturb harmony, and thus frustrate manifestations. His former experience had taught him that even over his firm mental resistance another’s mind had entered his body and taken it out from under his own control; therefore he well might apprehend that, if not very cautious, he again “might have fits,” or might become “a Saul among prophets.”

We have already substantially said that the blinding, infuriating, and bloodthirsty beliefs of former days are perhaps in no case more distinctly and deplorably manifested than in the lawless, barbarous treatment to which good Rebecca Nurse was subjected by a court and people who sought to do, and believed that they were doing, acceptable service to God, or, at least, offensive service to the devil. Spectralevidence against her, and that alone, was allowed to outweigh the merits of a long and beneficent life. The jury first brought her innotguilty. This verdict, surprising the court, induced it to express apprehension that the jurors had not given due weight to certain expressions which the prisoner had uttered; whereuponthe jury itself requested permissionto retire and hold further deliberation; and even such a privilege was granted them! They retired, reversed their verdict, pronounced herguilty, and she was sentenced to be hanged. Afterward the governor of the province granted her reprieve; and yet he soon revoked his own clement act. Probably neither jury, nor the governor, was convinced that she was guilty of the crime charged; nevertheless, both were forced by popular demand to let the reputation and life of this eminently good woman fall a sacrifice before infatuation and frenzy which the erroneous creed of the times engendered.

a woman of strong character, good common sense, and capable of comprehending both the dangers besetting any one then accused of witchcraft, and also the purport and bearings of such questions as the court was accustomed to ask, is presented in the following account.

“The examination of Mary Easty, at a court held at Salem Village, April 22, 1692, by the Wop. John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin.“At the bringing in of the accused, several fell intofits. ‘Doth this woman hurt you?’ Many mouths were stopt, and several other fits seized them. Abigail Williams said it was Goody Easty, and she had hurt her; the like said Mary Walcot and Ann Putnam. John Jackson said he saw her with Goody Hobbs.“‘What do you say; are you guilty?’Ans.‘I can say before Jesus Christ I am free.’Response.‘You see these accuse you.’Ans.‘There is a God.’“‘Hath she brought the book to you (the accusing girls)?’ Their months were stopt.“‘What have you done to these children?’Ans.‘I know nothing.’“‘How can you say you know nothing, when you see these tormented and accuse you?’Ans.‘Would you have me accuse myself?’ ‘Yes, if you be guilty. How far have you complied with Satan whereby he takes this advantage of you?’“‘Sir, I never complied: but prayed against him all my days. I have no compliance with Satan in this. What would you have me do?’“‘Confess, if you be guilty.’“‘I will say it, if it was my last time: I am clear of this sin.’“‘Of what sin?’“‘Of witchcraft.’“(To the children.) ‘Are you certain this is the woman?’“Never a one could speak for fits.“By and by, Ann Putnam said that was the woman: it was like her; ‘and she told me her name.’“(The court.) ‘It is marvelous to me that you should sometimes think they are bewitched andsometimes not, when several confess that they have been guilty of bewitching them.’“‘Well, sir, would you have me confess what I never knew?’“Her hands were clenched together, and then the hands of Mercy Lewis were clenched.“‘Look: now your hands are open, her hands are open. Is this the woman?’“They made signs, but could not speak. But Ann Putnam, (and) afterwards Betty Hubbard, cried out, ‘Oh, Goody Easty, Goody Easty, you are the woman!’“‘Put up her head; for while her head is bound, the necks of these are broken.’“‘What do you say to this?’“‘Why, God will know.’“‘Nay, God knows now.’“‘I know he does.’“‘What did you think of the actions of others before your sisters came out? Did you think it was witchcraft?’“‘I cannot tell.’“‘Why, do you not think it is witchcraft?’“‘It isan evil spirit; but whether it be witchcraft I do not know.’“Several said she brought them the book, and then they fell into fits.“Salem Village, March 24, 169½.“Mr. Samuel Parris, being desired to take in writing the examination of Mary Estie, hath delivered it as aforesaid.“‘Upon hearing the aforesaid, and seeing what we did then see, together with the charge of the personsthen present, we committed said Mary Easty to their Majesty’s jail.“John Hathorne,“Jonathan Corwin,Assists.’”

“The examination of Mary Easty, at a court held at Salem Village, April 22, 1692, by the Wop. John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin.

“At the bringing in of the accused, several fell intofits. ‘Doth this woman hurt you?’ Many mouths were stopt, and several other fits seized them. Abigail Williams said it was Goody Easty, and she had hurt her; the like said Mary Walcot and Ann Putnam. John Jackson said he saw her with Goody Hobbs.

“‘What do you say; are you guilty?’Ans.‘I can say before Jesus Christ I am free.’Response.‘You see these accuse you.’Ans.‘There is a God.’

“‘Hath she brought the book to you (the accusing girls)?’ Their months were stopt.

“‘What have you done to these children?’Ans.‘I know nothing.’

“‘How can you say you know nothing, when you see these tormented and accuse you?’Ans.‘Would you have me accuse myself?’ ‘Yes, if you be guilty. How far have you complied with Satan whereby he takes this advantage of you?’

“‘Sir, I never complied: but prayed against him all my days. I have no compliance with Satan in this. What would you have me do?’

“‘Confess, if you be guilty.’

“‘I will say it, if it was my last time: I am clear of this sin.’

“‘Of what sin?’

“‘Of witchcraft.’

“(To the children.) ‘Are you certain this is the woman?’

“Never a one could speak for fits.

“By and by, Ann Putnam said that was the woman: it was like her; ‘and she told me her name.’

“(The court.) ‘It is marvelous to me that you should sometimes think they are bewitched andsometimes not, when several confess that they have been guilty of bewitching them.’

“‘Well, sir, would you have me confess what I never knew?’

“Her hands were clenched together, and then the hands of Mercy Lewis were clenched.

“‘Look: now your hands are open, her hands are open. Is this the woman?’

“They made signs, but could not speak. But Ann Putnam, (and) afterwards Betty Hubbard, cried out, ‘Oh, Goody Easty, Goody Easty, you are the woman!’

“‘Put up her head; for while her head is bound, the necks of these are broken.’

“‘What do you say to this?’

“‘Why, God will know.’

“‘Nay, God knows now.’

“‘I know he does.’

“‘What did you think of the actions of others before your sisters came out? Did you think it was witchcraft?’

“‘I cannot tell.’

“‘Why, do you not think it is witchcraft?’

“‘It isan evil spirit; but whether it be witchcraft I do not know.’

“Several said she brought them the book, and then they fell into fits.

“Salem Village, March 24, 169½.“Mr. Samuel Parris, being desired to take in writing the examination of Mary Estie, hath delivered it as aforesaid.“‘Upon hearing the aforesaid, and seeing what we did then see, together with the charge of the personsthen present, we committed said Mary Easty to their Majesty’s jail.“John Hathorne,“Jonathan Corwin,Assists.’”

“Salem Village, March 24, 169½.

“Mr. Samuel Parris, being desired to take in writing the examination of Mary Estie, hath delivered it as aforesaid.

“‘Upon hearing the aforesaid, and seeing what we did then see, together with the charge of the personsthen present, we committed said Mary Easty to their Majesty’s jail.

“John Hathorne,“Jonathan Corwin,Assists.’”

Among the records of examinations and trials for witchcraft in 1692 we have met with none other more commendable in its apparent spirit on both sides, and in its continuous decorum, than the above; none other, also, which reveals more clearly extreme depth of public conviction that the prevalent witchcraft creed was sound to the core, and belief that spectral evidence alone might legally prove the crime charged. From aught that appears, there was something pertaining to Mrs. Easty, probably her whole general character and her intellect, which held back both court and spectators from rudeness in treatment of her, and even frequently tied up the tongues of the accusing girls. The spectacle presented by that examination was most rare and wonderful. We feel, when reading the records, that magistrates, populace, and the accusers, all—all longed for her acquittal; that none desired to, because none did accuse her of anything but having been seen as an apparition, and of being the cause of the fits which the girls were enduring. The girls named her as the cause of their fits, but seemingly with less alacrity than they did most others in like circumstances. But sympathy and respect must yield before belief; her fit-producing emanations at that day proved her to have covenanted to serve the devil. Having done that, she waswitch, and therefore must die.

Her clear head perceived that the sufferings of the girls must owe their existence to some occult poweroutside of themselves, and ascribed it to “an evil spirit.” Such an origin, however, did not prove to her satisfaction that the doings were witchcrafts, that is, acts performed either at the instigation or by aid of some mortal who was in covenant with the devil. She was enough in advance of her times to suspect that a spirit might work upon and among men without having formed such connection with a mortal ally as would prove one’s operations to be witchcrafts. She perceived that the girls were wrought upon by some spirit, and she deemed it an evil one.

This noble woman was wife of Isaac Easty of Topsfield, fifty-eight years old, and mother of seven children. After her conviction and sentence, and when hope of escaping the dire penalty had fled, she addressed an admirable letter to those then in power. The same inborn susceptibilities which made her a victim may also have permitted a free influx of uplifting power which raised her above narrow, selfish, and domestic views, and prompted her, in moods generous and lofty, to appeal, in behalf of the whole people of the land, for a stop in the course which the civil authorities were pursuing. We judge the letter to be her own production, and deem it indicative of good mental powers and of elevated philanthropy.

“The humble petition of Mary Easty unto His Excellency Sir William Phips, and to the honored Judge and Bench now sitting in judicature in Salem, and the reverend Ministers, humbly showeth, That, whereas your poor and humble petitioner, being condemned to die, do humbly beg of you to take it into your judicious and pious consideration, that your poor and humblepetitioner, knowing my own innocency, blessed be the Lord for it! and seeing plainly the wiles and subtilty of my accusers by myself, cannot but judge charitably of others that are going the same way of myself if the Lord steps not mightily in. I was confined a whole month upon the same account that I am condemned now for, and then cleared by some of the afflicted persons, as some of Your Honors know. And in two days’ time I was cried out upon (by) them, and have been confined, and now am condemned to die. The Lord above knows my innocency then, and likewise does now, as at the great day will be known to men and angels. I petition Your Honors not for my own life, for I know I must die, and my appointed time is set; but, the Lord he knows it is, that if it be possible, no moreinnocent bloodmay be shed, which undoubtedly cannot be avoided in the way and course you go in. I question not but Your Honors do to the utmost of your powers in the discovery and detecting of witchcraft and witches, and would not be guilty of innocent blood for the world. Butby my own innocency I know you are in the wrong way. The Lord in his infinite mercy direct you in this great work, if it be his blessed will, that no more innocent blood be shed! I would humbly beg of you that Your Honors would be pleased to examine these afflicted persons strictly, and keep them apart some time, and likewise to try some of these confessing witches; I being confident there is several of them has belied themselves and others, as will appear, if not in this world, I am sure in the world to come, whither I am now agoing. I question not but you will see an alteration in these things. They say, myself and others having made aleague with the devil, we cannot confess.... The Lord above, who is the searcher of all hearts, knows, as I shall answer it at the tribunal seat, that I know not the least thing of witchcraft: therefore I cannot, I dare not belie my own soul. I beg Your Honors not to deny this my poor humble petition from a poor, dying, innocent person. And I question not but the Lord will give a blessing to your endeavors.”

“The humble petition of Mary Easty unto His Excellency Sir William Phips, and to the honored Judge and Bench now sitting in judicature in Salem, and the reverend Ministers, humbly showeth, That, whereas your poor and humble petitioner, being condemned to die, do humbly beg of you to take it into your judicious and pious consideration, that your poor and humblepetitioner, knowing my own innocency, blessed be the Lord for it! and seeing plainly the wiles and subtilty of my accusers by myself, cannot but judge charitably of others that are going the same way of myself if the Lord steps not mightily in. I was confined a whole month upon the same account that I am condemned now for, and then cleared by some of the afflicted persons, as some of Your Honors know. And in two days’ time I was cried out upon (by) them, and have been confined, and now am condemned to die. The Lord above knows my innocency then, and likewise does now, as at the great day will be known to men and angels. I petition Your Honors not for my own life, for I know I must die, and my appointed time is set; but, the Lord he knows it is, that if it be possible, no moreinnocent bloodmay be shed, which undoubtedly cannot be avoided in the way and course you go in. I question not but Your Honors do to the utmost of your powers in the discovery and detecting of witchcraft and witches, and would not be guilty of innocent blood for the world. Butby my own innocency I know you are in the wrong way. The Lord in his infinite mercy direct you in this great work, if it be his blessed will, that no more innocent blood be shed! I would humbly beg of you that Your Honors would be pleased to examine these afflicted persons strictly, and keep them apart some time, and likewise to try some of these confessing witches; I being confident there is several of them has belied themselves and others, as will appear, if not in this world, I am sure in the world to come, whither I am now agoing. I question not but you will see an alteration in these things. They say, myself and others having made aleague with the devil, we cannot confess.... The Lord above, who is the searcher of all hearts, knows, as I shall answer it at the tribunal seat, that I know not the least thing of witchcraft: therefore I cannot, I dare not belie my own soul. I beg Your Honors not to deny this my poor humble petition from a poor, dying, innocent person. And I question not but the Lord will give a blessing to your endeavors.”

Calef says, that, “when she took her last farewell of her husband, children, and friends,” she “was, as is reported by them present, as serious, religious, distinct, and affectionate as could well be expressed, drawing tears from the eyes of almost all present.” We can readily credit that account to its fullest possible import; for her deportment and language, throughout all the scenes in which she is presented, bespeak a strong, clear, discriminating intellect, a true and brave heart, elevated and generous sentiments, firm faith in God, and broad charity toward man. A most welcome child found entrance to some bright home above when her tried spirit gained release from its mortal form.

The person bearing the above name was a widow residing in Amesbury, who had been tried for witchcraft more than twenty years before, and therefore obviously in 1692 was well along in life. Her answers in court, however, bespeak a prompt, self-possessed, shrewd, and seemingly merry prisoner. A few of her replies, together with the questions which elicited them, are as follows:—

“Ann Putnam threw her glove at her in a fit. ‘What do you laugh at?’ said the court.Ans.‘Well I may at such folly.’

“‘Is this folly to see these so hurt?’ ‘I never hurt man, woman, or child.’

“‘What do you think ails them?’ ‘I do not desire to spend my judgment upon it.’ ‘Do you think they are bewitched?’ ‘No; I do not think they are.’ ‘Well, tell us your thoughts about them.’ ‘My thoughts are mine own when they are in; but when they are out they are another’s.’ ‘Who do you think is their master?’ ‘If they be dealing in the black art, you may know as well as I.’ ‘How comes your appearance just now to hurt these?’ ‘How do I know?’ ‘Are you not willing to tell the truth?’ ‘He that appeared in Samuel’s shape can appear in any one’s shape.’”

One R. P., dated Salisbury, August 9, 1692, and forwarded to Jonathan Corwin, a document ranking among the ablest on record against the legal proceedings of that day, in which he says, “I suppose ’tis granted by all that the person of one that is dead cannot appear, because the soul and body are separated, and so the person is dissolved, and so ceaseth to be; and it is certain that the person of the living cannot be in two places at one time.” That writer conceived that man’s personality ceased at death; therefore he logically inferred that the personality of the prophet Samuel had gone out of existence, and said, “The witch of Endor raised theDevil, in the likeness of Samuel, to tell Saul his fortune.” We find in many places the cropping out, in those days, of the same idea. Susanna Martin indicated her belief that it wasthe devil who appeared to the woman of Endor, and not the glorified Samuel. Premises deemed valid by some men in 1692, would, if applied in that direction, support the conclusion that the Moses and Elias who appeared to Jesus and others on the mount of transfiguration were nothing but the devil in the shapes of those old prophets. Belief that the devil personated Samuel is to us no more unphilosophical than is Upham’s conclusion, that “by the immediate agency of the Almighty the spirit of Samuel really arose.” Paul taught that thereis—not that there is to be hereafter, that there is now—“a spiritualbody.” All clairvoyants to-day can see such a body belonging to a human form, and sometimes see it being far away from the form to which nature attached it. Each human being now possesses both a natural or physical and also a spiritualform. That position of R. P. and Susanna Martin was unsound which held that the physical body was essential to personality. Also, since the Almighty originally infused through nature, elements and forces which admit of the return of spirits by natural processes, it is as unphilosophical to hold that Samuel was raised by the immediate agency of the Almighty, or miraculously, as it would be to ascribe an American traveler’s return home from Europe to theimmediateagency of the same Being. Natural laws and forces permitted, under possible conditions, the return of Samuel himself. Such conditions existed often in and around the hospitable and sympathetic woman of Endor, who was nowitch, in the now common meaning of that word; who was not called such in the Bible,—but only a person who had afamiliarspirit, that is, a spirit so constantly present,and having such ability of communion with her, as made the spirit seem to her like one of her family—her familiar. A spirit thus attendant on a mortal may be either good, bad, or indifferent, and may be cognized by those persons whose constitution and development are such that their inner senses can report to their external consciousness. The existing properties of that woman, which permitted some special spirit to frequently dwell and commune intelligibly with her, and be cognizable by her inner senses as a dweller in her household, as her familiar,—such properties would enable her to perceive the form and hear the voice of another spirit, who might be called to her presence for an urgent purpose, as naturally as the outer eye which sees one external form is competent to see another. Samuel, when wanted, came and was seen by the clairvoyant woman, but not by the external eyes of either Saul or his attendants. The case was very like what occurred at the first examination under an accusation for witchcraft at Salem Village. Sarah Good then said, “None here see the witches”—that is, none see spirits—“but the afflicted and themselves,”—that is, none but the afflicted and the accused, of which she was one. In other words, the actual doers of the marvelous works, the spirits, are seen only by the accusers and the accused—the clairvoyants here. It is true that in the more modern instance the spirits seen were often, though not always, those of living persons. But this does not affect the principles of explanation. Those persons who are so unfolded as to see spirit-forms can sometimes see them, whether they be still attached to the outer ones or be liberated. Spirits, both some who had been entirely liberatedfrom the flesh, and other flesh-clad ones whose encasements were translucent, could be seen by members of the accusing “circle,” and by some others of like combinations, even when the court and the mass of attendants upon it might fail to see anything of the kind. The horses and chariots of fire were as clearly seen by Elisha on the hills of Dothan, while his servant was blind to them, as they were after the young man’s inner eyes were opened so that he too saw the helping and protecting hosts. The change was in the young man himself, and not up on the hills. Departed spirits are where they feel our aspirations for their presence, and the opening of our inner sight, at any time or in any place, might render them visible.

Returning to Susanna Martin, we find that one William Brown, of Salisbury, made deposition in 1692, “that, about one or two and thirty years ago, his wife met Susanna in the road, who ‘vanished away out of her sight,’ ... after which time the said Martin did many times appear to her at her house, and did much trouble her.... When she did come, it was as birds pecking her legs, or pricking her with the motion of their wings; and then it would rise up into her stomach with pricking pain, as nails and pins, of which she did bitterly complain.... After that it would up to her throat in a bunch like a pullet’s egg; and then she would turn back her head and say, ‘Witch, you shan’t choke me.’”

Much more testimony was adduced to show that this woman’s apparition was very frequently seen; and not only seen, but was a source of exceeding sufferings to many people. This argues nothing against her character, but plainly hints that the relation ofher inner to her outer form was such that the former could be seen and felt by many persons who either constitutionally or from sickness, or both, were very sensitive. Such persons often saw her spirit-form, and suffered from its psychological action. That peculiarity perhaps made her so luminous as to be observable, and therefore accused, by “the circle,” and the accusation brought her to the gallows.

The faculties and manifestations which nearly two centuries ago were deemed to constitute witchcraft, and the mode of eliciting proof of that crime then, stand forth very conspicuously in the history of the wife and children of Thomas Carrier of Andover.

The Examination of Martha Carrier, May 31, 1692.“Q.Abigail Williams, who hurts you?A.Goody Carrier of Andover.“Q.Elizabeth Hubbard, who hurts you?A.Goody Carrier.“Q.Susan Sheldon, who hurts you?A.Goody Carrier; she bites me, pinches me, and tells me she would cut my throat if I did not sign her book. Mary Walcott said she afflicted her, and brought the book to her.“Q.What do you say to this you are charged with?A.I have not done it. Susan Sheldon cried, she looks upon the black man. Ann Putnam complained of a pin stuck in her.Q.What black man is that?A.I know none. Mary Warren cried out she was pricked.Q.What black man did you see?A.Isaw no black man butyour own presence.Q.Can you look upon these and not knock them down?A.They will dissemble if I look upon them. You see you look upon them and they fall down.A.It is false; thedevil is a liar. I looked upon none since I came into the room. Susan Sheldon cried outin a trance, I wonder what could you murder thirteen persons! Mary Walcott testified the same: that there lay thirteen ghosts! All the afflicted fell into intolerable outcries and agonies. Elizabeth Hubbard and Ann Putnam testified the same: that she had killed thirteen at Andover.A.It is a shameful thing that you should mind these folks, who are out of their wits.Q.Do not you see them?A.If I do speak you will not believe me. You do see them, said the accusers.A.You lie; I am wronged. There is a black man whispering in her ear, said many of the afflicted. Mercy Lewis in a violent fit, was well, upon the examinant’s grasping her arm. The tortures of the afflicted were so great that there was no enduring of it, so that she was ordered away, and to be bound hand and foot with all expedition; the afflicted in the mean while almost killed, to the great trouble of all spectators, magistrates, and others.“Note.As soon as she was well bound they all had strange and sudden ease. Mary Walcott told the magistrates, that this woman told her, she had been a witch this forty years.”

The Examination of Martha Carrier, May 31, 1692.

“Q.Abigail Williams, who hurts you?A.Goody Carrier of Andover.

“Q.Elizabeth Hubbard, who hurts you?A.Goody Carrier.

“Q.Susan Sheldon, who hurts you?A.Goody Carrier; she bites me, pinches me, and tells me she would cut my throat if I did not sign her book. Mary Walcott said she afflicted her, and brought the book to her.

“Q.What do you say to this you are charged with?A.I have not done it. Susan Sheldon cried, she looks upon the black man. Ann Putnam complained of a pin stuck in her.Q.What black man is that?A.I know none. Mary Warren cried out she was pricked.Q.What black man did you see?A.Isaw no black man butyour own presence.Q.Can you look upon these and not knock them down?A.They will dissemble if I look upon them. You see you look upon them and they fall down.A.It is false; thedevil is a liar. I looked upon none since I came into the room. Susan Sheldon cried outin a trance, I wonder what could you murder thirteen persons! Mary Walcott testified the same: that there lay thirteen ghosts! All the afflicted fell into intolerable outcries and agonies. Elizabeth Hubbard and Ann Putnam testified the same: that she had killed thirteen at Andover.A.It is a shameful thing that you should mind these folks, who are out of their wits.Q.Do not you see them?A.If I do speak you will not believe me. You do see them, said the accusers.A.You lie; I am wronged. There is a black man whispering in her ear, said many of the afflicted. Mercy Lewis in a violent fit, was well, upon the examinant’s grasping her arm. The tortures of the afflicted were so great that there was no enduring of it, so that she was ordered away, and to be bound hand and foot with all expedition; the afflicted in the mean while almost killed, to the great trouble of all spectators, magistrates, and others.

“Note.As soon as she was well bound they all had strange and sudden ease. Mary Walcott told the magistrates, that this woman told her, she had been a witch this forty years.”

The foregoing record shows the fearful ordeal to which any one might be subjected upon whom an accusation of witchcraft fell, and the hopelessnessof escape where spectral evidence was admitted and held to be reliable. Here was a woman who, it seems, had been conscious of spirit presence with her for “forty years,” and her constitutional properties which permitted this were so luminous in the spiritual atmosphere, or medium of vision by inner eyes, that the clairvoyant girls readily caught sight of her, readily felt influences from her, and therefore accused her of tormenting them.

The general character and deportment of this woman prior to her arrest may not have won public approbation. When in presence of the magistrates she was self-possessed and not lacking in boldness; for otherwise she would not have told the judge that his own presence was the only black man she had seen there. She told her examiners that it was shameful for them to mind “these folks, who are out of their wits.” She said to the girls, “You lie; I am wronged.” Her presence permitted extraordinary visions, contortions, sufferings, and outcries, and probably emanations from her were special helps to the unwonted outflow.

In trance, one saw thirteen dead bodies, and charged the accused with having murdered them. It wasin trancethat this was seen and said. Ifentranced, was the girl, then, a voluntary seer and speaker? No. Supermundane force was in action there. Entrancements and obsessions came upon all those youthful accusers fitfully—and the forms of the girls generally were tools operated by wills entering from outside. The tongue of that entranced accuser, like Ann Cole’s, probably was “improved to utter thoughts that never were in her own mind.”

Four of Mrs. Carrier’s children were brought into court in company with herself, either as accused ones or as witnesses against some members of the family. “Before the trial,” says Drake, “several of her own children had frankly and fully confessed not only that they were witches themselves, but that their mother had made them so.” The artlessness and simplicity of theirconfessionsrender them not simply entertaining, but more instructive than almost any other statements made at the examinations and trials. Little Sarah was asked,—

“How long have you been a witch?A.Ever since I was six years old. How old are you now?A.Near eight years old; brother Richard says I shall be eight years old in November next.

“Who made you a witch?A.My mother; she made me set my hand to a book. How did you set your hand to it?A.I touched it with my fingers; and the book was red; the paper of it was white. She said she never had seen the black man ... that her mother had baptized her, and the devil or black man was not there, as she saw. Her mother said, when she baptized her, ‘Thou art mine for ever and ever. Amen.’

“How did you afflict folks?A.I pinched them. She said she went to those whom she afflicted—went, not in body, but in her spirit. She would not own that she had ever been at the witch-meeting at the Village.”

Theconfessions(?) are beautiful and precious; they are robed in all the appropriate naivete of any school-girl’sconfessionthat herself was a—pupil. Not a tinge of shame, sorrow, or humiliation is visibleanywhere about them. Not a sign appears, that, in little Sarah’s comprehension, there was anything more censurable, as in fact there was not, in her being a witch, than there is in the child of to-day being a Sunday school scholar. Disclosure of common occurrences at her home, which inborn faculties there as naturally brought into view, as other faculties there and elsewhere cause the limbs of childhood to expand and its intellect to unfold, constituted her confession of the witchcraft that pertained to her mother and herself.

The common mind, if not cautioned, will almost perforce attach meanings to the testimonies of Martha Carrier’s children which never belonged to them. The detailings of facts and experiences not rare in that mediumistic family, were no confession of anything like what the public in any age has been accustomed to designate by the term witchcraft. In biblical times the occurrences might have been called prophecies—true or false—and to-day they would be regarded as spirit manifestations, or near kindred to such.

The little girl’sconfessionsarepreciousas well as beautiful; they are instructive comments upon the creed held by the adults of her day; they give some support to the position that compact with some spirit was an element in preparation for working marvels. Her mother baptized her, and made her virtually sign a book, and then claimed her own child as hers “for ever and ever, Amen.” The little child herself seems to have regarded this ratification of her mother’s spirit claims upon her spirit as having made herself a witch; but such a witch as she was notashamed to be, and saw no harm in being. Indeed, how can any other than perverted vision see harm in the girl’s filial compact? Her clairvoyant and other mediumistic faculties had become so unfolded when she was about six years old, that she and her mother, as freed spirits, could, in conscious companionship, roam in spirit realms; and she, no doubt, felt that forces emanating from the mother aided in her unfoldment, and continued to have much sway over her in her mental journeyings and operations. She might with much propriety say that her mother made her a witch. And her case shows that the process for producing a witch might be much simpler and much less horrifying than the public in her day had any conception of. Indeed, witchification was then, and now is, a growth or unfoldment from God’s plantings much more than a manufacture by the devil’s or any mother’s hands. She saw no devil, no black man—but only her own mother was concerned in making her a witch; and the mother probably made her a witch by processes as natural and legitimate as those by which she had previously made her a child.

The girl’s power for afflicting was mental; her journeyings and pinchings were mental; and yet, no doubt, her grip was as sensibly felt by the nerves of those whom she pinched as would have been firm graspings of their flesh by her fingers of bones and muscles. It is the spirit only which feels hurts of the body, and a pinched spirit imprints the hurt on the flesh it is animating. This little girl’s statements confirm Tituba’s, and give credibility to the many declarations of the accusing girls that theywere pinched, bitten, and tortured by persons whose outer forms were remote from them at the time. We live amid mysteries which one by one are getting revealed as time rolls on.

An instructive instance of the warping force of these prevalent beliefs in shaping the diction of the most erudite describers of witchcraft facts, is found in Lawson’s summary of events, where, when commenting upon testimony like that given by little Sarah, he says, “Several haveconfessedagainst their own mother, that they were instruments to bring them intothe devil’s covenant.” But the girl’s testimony mentioned a covenant with her motheralone, saying that the devil was not there, as she saw. It was Lawson, and not the girl, who brought the devil into this case.

The same writer further says, “Some girls of eight or nine years of age did declare that after they were so betrayed by their mothers to the power ofSatan, they sawthe devilgo in theirown shapesto afflict others.” But the statement of Sarah is, that she herself went forth and afflicted in her spirit-form, and not that thedevilwent in her shape. The cultured of that generation haddevil on the brainso severely, that they persistently brought him in even where the facts as presented by the witnesses plainly excluded him.

Richard Carrier, eighteen years old, son of Thomas and Martha, was examined.

“Have you been in the devil’s snare?—Yes.

“Is your brother Andrew insnared by the devil’s snare?—Yes.

“How long has your brother been a witch?—Near a month.

“How long have you been a witch?—Not long.

“Have you joined in afflicting the afflicted persons?—Yes.

“You helped to hurt Timothy Swan, did you?—Yes.

“How long have you been a witch?—About five weeks.

“Who was in company when you covenanted with the devil?—Mrs. Bradbury.

“Did she help you afflict?—Yes.

“Who was at the Village Meeting when you were there?—Goodwife How, Goodwife Nurse, Goodwife Wildes, Proctor and his wife, Mrs. Bradbury, and Corey’s wife.

“What did they do there?—Eat, and drank wine.

“Was there a minister there?—No, not as I know of.

“From whence had you your wine?—From Salem, I think it was.

“Goodwife Oliver there?—Yes; I knew her.”

Statements by this witness, and also his probable circumstances and condition, seem worthy of special note. Frankness glows on all that he said. He was stating facts, which, in his apprehension, were harmless, and why should he not let them out? He knew, probably, that his mother had all through his life been accustomed to see and act through other than her physical organs, and was conscious that during the last five weeks at least himself had been doing the same. The abilities came unsought into action—were outgrowths from the natures of his mother and himself, and were not crimes. His long familiarity with the ostensible workings of such powers throughhis mother had shown him that they were neither diabolical nor censurable; and why not admit possession of them, and the acts they produced, whether through himself, his mother, or any one else? Neither the mother nor children in that family were afraid of ghostly beings, because able to confer with them intelligibly and sympathetically; and the ready admission by Richard that he had aided in hurting Timothy Swan, and been at a great witch-meeting, where they ate, and also drank wine, was no confession of any crime, but simple statement of facts. He was a medium, and also a frank and truthful witness.

He granted that he had been in the devil’s snare. How much did this import? He and his brother Andrew both had been caught in it—one about four, and the other five, weeks prior to his statement. As certain atmospheric and other physical conditions often produce epidemic or wide-spread physical health or disease either, and certain public mental and moral states often act powerfully upon many minds, the great public excitement engendered by the arrest and prosecution of witches may well be deemed adequate to have unfolded latent mediumistic susceptibilities very widely; and it is not surprising that the children of a Martha Carrier should have such susceptibilities suddenly brought to their own cognizance, nor that they should as suddenly become well-fledged clairvoyants competent to wing their way widely and rapidly in the airs of a world in which spirits dwell; nor that they should be psychologized by spirit beings, and made to take part in any work, malignant or benevolent, which their controllers were bent upon executing. By being caught in the devil’s snare, theyprobably meant neither more nor less than that they became mediums. All conditions like theirs the public was charging the devil with producing, and the young Carriers assented to that being done in their own case. Most things not of the earth, earthy, were then charged to the devil; and the mental powers of these children were not competent to show that their slippings out from their hampering bodies were effected without his aid.

Frequent mention occurs of witch-meetings at Salem Village, on the Green, or the minister’s pasture, near Deacon Ingersoll’s.

If any accused one had been seen in the company of assembled witches there, the fact was excessively damaging. Richard Carrier acknowledged having been there, and freely mentioned what persons were in the assemblage—but did not see a minister.

The records have not led us to suppose that Mrs. Carrier ever stood very high in public estimation. It is not improbable that influences from outside of her had often, during the forty years through which she had experienced them, made her life eccentric, and many of her actions mysterious. Even the aged and charitable Francis Dane said, “That there was a suspicion of goodwife Carrier among some of us before she was apprehended, I know; as for any other persons, I had no suspicion of them.” We must infer from that statement that she was noted for some peculiarities which were not universally regarded with favor; suspicions hung around her.

She was accused by one of causing grievous sores in himself, of sickening his cattle, and working many injuries; by others also of hurting and bewitchingthem, and of having attended a witch-meeting. The accusing girls, as seen above, were most excessively agonized when in court with her. She may justly be regarded, we think, as being socially among the lower class of persons then accused; and yet we have met with nothing which will justify an inference that she was altogether unworthy of esteem, or even that she was emphatically bad in any respect. Mather called herrampant hag, and hence much of Christendom has been influenced to contemplate her with aversion. But whatever may have been her character, the sufferings of herself and family draw forth our sympathies.

If she said she had been a witch forty years, she meant only that for “forty years” she had been conscious of the ongoing of occult processes within and around herself. We doubt whether she applied the wordwitchto herself, but can readily believe that she confessed to such experiences and performances as were in her day often called witchcrafts. That she detailed some experiences to Mary Walcott, which the latter termed witchcrafts, is highly probable. Neither the accused nor the accusers were accustomed to speak of seeing the devil; but it was the black man, or some other defined spirit,—not the devil,—according to their own statements. Yet when recorders and reporters undertook to give us either the substance of what was said, or a nearly verbatim report, they generally substituted devil for black man, or for any other unseen occult operator, whatever his, her, or its moral purpose or character. So, too, all specially marvelous works were called witchcrafts.

The little Carrier children were very instructive witnesses. Too young and inexperienced to do otherwisethan answer simple questions directly in such language as was common, they show us of to-day, better than do older witnesses, what was probably common application of some terms of very frequent use in descriptions of things marvelous. When by implication charged with being themselves witches, their answers conceded the truth of the charge. One of them, eight years old, said she had been a witch ever since she was six. Another, eighteen years old, had been a witch about five weeks, and said that brother Andrew had been such “near a month.” Little did these frank and no doubt truthful young confessors of family and personal experiences deem that they were exposing themselves, and their mother also, to punishment by death. What they confessed to were frequent sights and sounds in their home, which came as naturally and innocently before them as the visits and words of friends and neighbors. Community called such matters witchcrafts, and why should not these children do the same? Their mental powers were not expanded enough to even entertain the slightest apprehension that what they were saying could imply that they had made a compact with the devil, or that a simple, true statement of their unsought experiences could bring harm to themselves or any one else. Equally incompetent were such little ones to comprehend the nature of that devil who existed in the conception of the magistrate when he asked whether the devil had insnared the witness and brother Andrew. They, no doubt, held the common notion that any worker whatsoever from realms unseen by the external eye was the devil; and having had experience—at least one of them had—that herown spirit had gone forth from her body and pinched certain persons, she understood that she had performed a part in works which were imputed to the devil. Still neither of these children confessed, or could be “insnared” to own, that they had seenthe devil.

They, obviously, and their mother, we do not doubt, often as naturally and innocently beheld spirit forms and scenes, and just as innocently held converse with spirits, as they surveyed the scenes and forms of the outer world, or went in company with embodied people to their congregations in the meeting-house or elsewhere. The words of babes and sucklings, at a witchcraft trial, revealed the existence of finer natural laws and forces, and their operation also, upon and through some human beings, than science then dreamed of, or is yet quite ready to recognize. Very much in witchcraft times was charged to the devil which should have been credited to God. The erroneous entry of many heavy items on the great account-books, in the days of the fathers, calls for immense labor and study for their proper and equitable adjustment now. Martha Carrier and her children were probably posted on the wrong side of the moral Ledger when Cotton Mather labeled her “Rampant Hag;” and there they have stood ever since.

Having come to the last of the accused whose case our leading purpose induces us to notice at much length, we present here a specimen of indictment for the crime of witchcraft.

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