EPIDEMIC DELUSIONS. 25 



executed : and some of them under torture, or under moral torture 

 for it was not merely physical torture that was applied ; in many cases 

 it was the distress and moral torture of being so accused, the dread, 

 even if found not guilty, of being considered outcasts all their lives, or 

 of being a burden to their friends made confessions which any sober 

 persons would have considered perfectly ridiculous ; but, under the 

 dominant idea of the reality of this witchcraft, no one interfered to 

 point out how utterly repugnant to common-sense these confessions 

 were, as well as the testimony that was brought forward. And this 

 spread to such a degree in New England, one person being accused 

 after another, that, at last, even those who considered themselves God's 

 chosen people began to feel, " Our turn may come next ; " they then 

 began to think better of it, and so put an end to these accusations, 

 even some who were under sentence being allowed to go free ; and to 

 the great surprise of those who were entirely convinced of the truth of 

 these accusations, this epidemic subsided, and witchcraft was not 

 heard of for a long time afterward ; so that the belief has never pre- 

 vailed in New England from that time to the present, excepting among 

 the lowest and most ignorant class. In Scotland, these witch-persecu- 

 tions attained to a most fearful extent during the seventeenth century. 

 They were introduced into England very much by James I., who came 

 to England possessed by these ideas, and he communicated them to 

 others, and there were a good many witch-persecutions during his 

 reign. After the execution of Charles I., and during the time of the 

 Commonwealth and the Puritans, there were a good many witch-per- 

 secutions ; but I think, after that, very little more was heard of them. 

 And yet the belief in witchcraft lingered for a considerable time 

 lono-er. It is said that even Dr. Johnson was accustomed to remark 

 that he did not see that there was any proof of the non-existence of 

 witches ; that, though their existence could not be proved, he was not 

 at all satisfied that they did not exist. John Wesley was a most de- 

 vout believer in witchcraft, and said on one occasion that, if witchcraft 

 was not to be believed, we could not believe in the Bible. So you see 

 that this belief had a very extraordinary hold over the public mind. It 

 was only the most intelligent class, whose minds had been freed from 

 prejudice by general culture, who were really free from it; and that 

 cultivation happily permeated downward, as it were; so that now I 

 should hope there are very few among our intelligent working-class in 

 our great towns where the general culture is much higher than it is 

 in the agricultural districts who retain any thing more than the linger- 

 ing superstition which is to be found even in the very highest cir- 

 cles as, for instance, not liking to be married on a Friday, or not 

 liking to sit down thirteen at the dinner-table. These are things 

 which even those who consider themselves the very aristocracy of in- 

 tellect will sometimes confess to, laughing at it all the time, but say- 

 ing, " It goes against the grain, and I would rather not do it." These, 



