24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



which the perversion shows itself more in the mental state alone, lead- 

 ing - to strange aberrations of Mind, and ultimately to very sad results 

 in the condition of society where these things have spread, but not 

 leading to any thing like these convulsive paroxysms. I particularly 

 allude now to the epidemic belief in Witchcraft, which, more or less, 

 formerly prevailed constantly among the mass of the population, but 

 every now and then broke out with great vehemence. This belief in 

 witchcraft comes down to us from very ancient periods ; and at the 

 present time it is entertained by the lowest and most ignorant of the 

 population in all parts of the world. We have abundant instances of 

 it still, I am sorry to say, in our own community. We have poor, ig- 

 norant servant-girls allowing themselves to be if I may use such a 

 word " humbugged " by some designing old woman, who persuades 

 them that she can predict the husbands they are to have, or tell where 

 some article that they have lost is to be found, and who extracts money 

 from them merely as a means of obtaining a living in this irregular 

 way, and I believe at the bottom rather enjoying the cheat. Every 

 now and then we hear of some brutal young farmer who has pretty 

 nearly beaten to death a poor old woman, whom he suspected of caus- 

 ing; a murrain amonsr his cattle. This is what we know to exist among 

 the least cultivated of the savage nations at the present time, and 

 always to have existed. But we hope that the progress of rationalism 

 in our own community will, in time, put an end to this, as it has in the 

 middle and upper ranks of society during the last century or century 

 and a half. It is not very long since almost every one believed in the 

 possession of these occult powers by men and women, but especially 

 by old women. This belief has prevailed generally in countries which 

 have been overridden by a gloomy fanaticism in religious matters. I 

 speak of it simply as a matter of history. There is no question at all that 

 this prevailed where the Romish Church was most intolerant, espe- 

 cially in countries where the Inquisition was dominant, and its powers 

 were exerted in such a manner as to repress free thought and the free 

 exercise of feeling ; and, again, where strong Calvinism has exercised 

 an influence of exactly the same kind as in Scotand, a century and a 

 half ago, and in New England, where there was the same kind of 

 religious fanaticism. It is in these communities that belief in witch- 

 craft has been most rife, has extended itself most generally, and has 

 taken possession of the public mind most strongly ; and the most ter- 

 rible results have happened. Now, I will only cite one particular in- 

 stance, that of New England, in the early part of the last century and the 

 end of the century before. Not very long after the settlement of New 

 England, there was a terrible outbreak of this belief in witchcraft. It 

 began in a family, the children of which were out of health ; and cer- 

 tain persons whom they disliked were accused of having bewitched 

 them. Against these persons a great deal of evidence that we should 

 now consider most absurd was brought forward, and they were actually 



