section 2, member 1, subsection 3:--“Many deny Witches at

all, or if there be any, they can doe no harme: of this
opinion is _Wierus, lib. 3. cap. 53, de præstig. dæm_.
Austin Lerchemer, a Dutch writer, _Biarmanus_, _Ewichius_,
_Euwaldus_, our countryman _Scot_ ... but on the contrary
are most Lawyers, Diuines, Physitians, Philosophers.”

[44] Wier’s great work, De Praestigiis Dæmonum, was
published in 1563, and was afterwards much enlarged. It
went through many editions.

[45] See the extraordinary list in William Drage,
Daimonomageia. A Small Treatise of Sicknesses and Diseases
from Witchcraft, and Supernatural Causes, 1665. Webster
considers this subject at length in Chap. xii of his
Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft, 1677, with a full
discussion of van Helmont’s views. Cf. Henry More, Antidote
against Atheism, Chaps. 4-5 (Philosophical Writings, 2d
ed., 1662, pp. 97 ff.).

[46] “Ea dæmonis subtilitate uelocitateque imperceptibili,
ori ingesta, nostris ad hæc oculis uel celeritate eius
uictis, uel fascino delusis, uel interiecto corpore aereo
aut aliter motis eo intus uel foris uel utrinque humoribus
aut spiritu caligantibus.” De Præstigiis Dæmonum (Basileæ,
1568), iv, 2, pp. 352-353.

[47] Even Bekker (see p. 35, below), who approaches the
subject from the philosophical direction, and whose logical
process is different from Wier’s, is greatly indebted to
him.

[48] Compare the fate of Bekker in 1692 (p. 39).

[49] A Treatise proving Spirits, Witches and Supernatural
Operations, 1672, p. 35.

[50] The same, p. 46.

[51] Dæmonologie, Workes, 1616, p. 92. On Wier in general,
see Carl Binz, Doctor Johann Weyer, ein rheinischer Arst,
der erste Bekämpfer des Hexenwahns, Berlin, 1896.

[52] He expressly asserts his belief in their existence (A
Discourse upon Divels and Spirits, chap. 32, p. 540; cf.
chap. 16, p. 514).

[53] Discoverie of Witchcraft, xiii, 22-34, ed. 1584, pp.
321 ff., ed. 1665, pp. 181-201 (with cuts). Most of the
tricks which Scot describes are identical with feats of
legerdemain that are the stock in trade of every modern
juggler:--“To throwe a peece of monie awaie, and to find
it againe where you list” (p. 326); “To make a groat or
a testor to sinke through a table, and to vanish out of
a handkercher very strangelie” (p. 327); “How to deliver
out foure aces, and to convert them into foure knaves”
(p. 333); “To tell one without confederacie what card he
thinketh” (p. 334); “To burne a thred, and to make it whole
againe with the ashes thereof” (p. 341); “To cut off ones
head, and to laie it in a platter, &c.: which the jugglers
call the decollation of John Baptist” (p. 349). The picture
of the apparatus required for the last-mentioned trick
is very curious indeed (p. 353). The references to Scot,
unless the contrary is stated, are to all the pages of
the first (1584) edition, as reprinted by Dr. Brinsley
Nicholson (London, 1886).

[54] King James remarks, in the Preface to his Dæmonologie,
that Scot “is not ashamed in publike Print to deny, that
there can be such a thing as Witch-craft: and so maintaines
the old errour of the Sadduces in denying of spirits”
(Workes, 1616, pp. 91-92).

[55] In what an orderly way one may proceed from an
admission of the doctrine of fallen angels to the final
results of the witch dogma may be seen, for instance, in
Henry Hallywell’s Melampronoea: or A Discourse of the
Polity and Kingdom of Darkness, 1681. Hallywell had been a
Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge.

[56] See p. 9, above.

[57] P. 39. See Nicholson’s reprint of the 1584 edition, p.
xlii.

[58] Page 46.

[59] Introduction to the Chetham Society reprint of Potts’s
Discoverie of Witches, pp. xxxviii-xxxix.

[60] Pages 202-215.

[61] P. 228. Perhaps Webster is merely “putting a case”
here; but he certainly seems to be making an admission, at
least in theory.

[62] Page 230.

[63] Pages 294 ff.

[64] Page 294.

[65] Pages 297-298.

[66] Pages 302-310.

[67] P. 308. On the astral spirit, see also pp. 312 ff.

[68] Page 310.

[69] Pages 10-11.

[70] See also pp. 267 ff.

[71] Page 73.

[72] Page 231.

[73] Pages 242-243.

[74] Page 244.

[75] Pages 245-246.

[76] Page 247.

[77] Page 260.

[78] Page 267.

[79] Note, however, that the upholders of the current
beliefs on witchcraft are also many times emphatic enough
in similar cautionary remarks. A first-rate example is the
following characteristic passage from Dr. Casaubon, whom
Webster calls a “witchmonger”:--

“And indeed, that the denying of _Witches_, to them
that content themselves in the search of truth with a
superficial view, is a very plausible cause; it cannot be
denied. For if any thing in the world, (as we know all
things in the world are) be liable to fraud, and imposture,
and innocent mistake, through weakness and simplicity; this
subject of Witches and Spirits is.... How ordinary is it to
mistake natural melancholy (not to speak of other diseases)
for a Devil? And how much, too frequently, is both the
disease increased, or made incurable; and the mistake
confirmed, by many ignorant Ministers, who take every wild
motion, or phansie, for a suggestion of the Devil? Whereas,
in such a case, it should be the care of wise friends, to
apply themselves to the Physician of the body, and not to
entertain the other, (I speak it of _natural_ melancholy)
who probably may do more hurt, than good; but as the
learned Naturalist doth allow, and advise? Excellent is the
advice and counsel in this kind, of the Author of the book
_de morbo Sacro_ attributed to _Hippocrates_, which I could
wish all men were bound to read, before they take upon them
to visit sick folks, that are troubled with melancholy
diseases” (A Treatise proving Spirits, etc., 1672, pp.
29-30: cf. p. 14, note 31, above).

[80] Pages 219, 220, 224.

[81] Saducismus Triumphatus, Part II, ed. 1682, p. 4. (ed.
1726, pp. 225-226). Glanvill is here replying to Webster,
whose book, it will be remembered, appeared in 1677.

[82] Increase Mather’s copy is in the Harvard College
Library.

[83] Lowell, New England Two Centuries Ago, Writings,
Riverside edition, II, 73.

[84] Leviathan, i, 2 (English Works, ed. Molesworth, III,
9). Compare Hobbes’s Dialogue between a Philosopher and
a Student of the Common Law of England (English Works,
VI, 96):--“L. I know not. Besides these crimes, there is
conjuration, witchcraft, sorcery and enchantment; which are
capital by the statute I James, c. 12.--P. But I desire
not to discourse of that subject. For though without doubt
there is some great wickedness signified by those crimes;
yet I have ever found myself too dull to conceive the
nature of them, or how the devil hath power to do so many
things which witches have been accused of.” Wier is far
more humane, as well as more reasonable. If one holds, he
writes, that witches are to be severely punished for their
evil intent, let it be remembered that there is a great
difference between sane and insane will. “Quod si quis
contentiose uoluntatem seuerius puniendam defendat, is
primum distinguat inter uoluntatem hominis sani perfectam,
quae in actum uere dirigi coeperit: et inter uitiatae
mentis sensum, uel (si uoles) corruptam amentis uoluntatem:
cui suo opere, quasi alterius esset, colludit diabolus, nec
alius insulse uolentem subsequitur effectus.” De Præstigiis
Dæmonum, vi, 21, ed. 1568, pp. 641-642.

[85] Table-Talk, 1689, p. 59 (the first edition). Selden
died in 1654.

[86] Soldan, Geschichte der Hexenprozesse, ed. Heppe, II,
243.

[87] A Candle in the Dark: or, A Treatise concerning the
Nature of Witches & Witchcraft, 1656, p. 41.

[88] Sir Robert Filmer’s brief tract, An Advertisement to
the Jury-men of England, touching Witches, was occasioned,
according to the Preface, by “the late Execution of Witches
at the Summer Assizes in Kent.” It was first published in
1652, and may be found annexed to the Free-holders Grand
Inquest, 1679. The case which elicited Sir Robert’s little