On (he Belief in Witchcraft. 



310 



ii»<o some motion, — is actually as firm 

 a believer in tlie principle of witchorat't 

 as tlie woman and lier daiij;liters wiio 

 assaulted the sup])oscd witcii at AVi- 

 vilscomb. 



These are universal propositions, 

 which admit of no excci)tions in the 

 whole range of human observation imd 

 scicn"ce. Every one who should at- 

 tempt to prove an exception to them 

 would evince a mind not thorounhly 

 practised in the art of reasonings, and 

 caj)ablc of admitting- by analog;y the 

 yrinciple of witchcraft. 



Witchery is merely the assumption 

 of a power which has no material or 

 mechanical connexion with theallcg'cd 

 cfi'ect ; and, if the belief in it is one of 

 tlie first of Ihe family of superstitions 

 which the educated have agreed to 

 expel, tljeir faith in other branches of 

 the same family proves tliat they are 

 more ofl'ended by its vulgarity and 

 fiTOssness than by its opposition to 

 lirst principles of philosophical truth. 



In the politest circles we hrar every 

 moment of luck and ill-luck at cards 

 and dice; and of yood and ill fortune 

 in all the afl'airs of life, as points of 

 faith governing constant practice ; yet 

 all those who talk of and believe in 

 snich operative agencies arc palpably 

 as complete dupes of the principle of 

 witchcraft as the good women of Wi- 

 vilscomb. 



By the most splendid fire-sides we 

 hear the gravest parties speaking of 

 their dreams (which often, however, 

 are their best thoughts,) as allording 

 anticipations of good or evil ; and all 

 believers in such circumstances, ut- 

 terly unconuected as < ausc and eil'ect, 

 areof lourse radical believers, though 

 ill anotlier form, in the principle of 

 witchcraft. 



In our Universities, in our royal and 

 oilier learned Societies, we hear the 

 most sapient piolessors and most daz- 

 zling lecturers treating gravely and 

 eliKjuently of the mutual and innate 

 attractions and r* pid.sions of inert and 

 senseless masses of matter; of innate 

 jiowers of universal gravitation acting 

 lietwccn planets through an infinite 

 vacuum, and couiiteractcd by projec- 

 tile forties; of affinities single, double, 

 and compound ; and of innate princi- 

 ples of operation out of number : plain 

 as it is, that no such causes can have 

 any connexion w ith the eflcets ; and 

 yet most of your readers, enlightened 

 as they may fancy themselves, wilj 



[May 1, 



startle on discovering tlvat belief in 

 any such innate causes or principles is 

 closely allied to belief in the gross and 

 yul^ar principle of witchcraft. 



It is to be feared that human nature 

 is too radically infected with supersti- 

 tion, or with a disposition to ascribe 

 eH'eets to inadequate and irrelevant 

 causes, ortoprincipleswhichcannotbc 

 causes at all, for it to be expected that 

 such errors will speedily be weeded 

 from the mind. The learned, as they 

 call themselves, who laugh at certain 

 extravagancies of the less assuming 

 classes, should however take the beam 

 out of their own eyes before they can 

 with effect remove the mote from 

 the eyes of others. For their strong 

 powers of reasoning by analogy will 

 continue to mislead the Unlettered as 

 long as those who are miscalled philo- 

 sophers continue to teach, tliat some 

 incomprehcnsilile power in the earth 

 acts on the opposite side of a stone, 

 and occasions it to fall to the earth ; — 

 that a cork is drawn to a bung floating 

 on the water by mutual forces, Avhich 

 drive them by acting on their opposite 

 sides ; — that the moon raises the water 

 by pushipp; it upward from the bottom 

 of the sea:* — as long as chemists talk 

 so flippantly of their attractions, repul- 

 sions, affinities, matter of caloric, and 

 as many other gratuitous powers as 

 would furnish another thousand-and- 

 one nights ; — as long as medical col- 

 leges teach that reptiles or plants are 

 endowed with a principle of life distinct 

 from the capabilities of their organiza- 

 tion to appropriate the powers by 

 which they are surrounded ; — as long 

 as waking dreamers discuss their half- 

 sleeping thoughts as portentous of un- 

 connected events; — and as long as 

 I)riiices and lordlings of tlie earth 

 arc governed by feelings about lu( k 

 and ill luck, good or bad fortune, 

 and principles of absurd fatalism in 



* As nun have not time to examine two 

 out of cvo'v three propositions siibniitted 

 to them, Eo tliousancis never have consider- 

 ed that all motion is produced by a force 

 in the diieclioii of the motion ; eoiisc- 

 qiiently, that if the moon attiacts or draws 

 the waters in a direction towards itself, the 

 moon must push them upward from the 

 bottom of the sea I So it is with all pre- 

 tended attractions ; yet such is the precious 

 stutf taught to the youth of Europe in 

 every univcisily and every scnniiary of 

 education as veritable philosophy ! 



icganl 



