ON THE GENERAL DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE. 



try deficient in examples of this kind : The 

 belief attached to the doctrine of witchcraft, led 

 our ancestors, little more than a century ago, to 

 condemn and to burn at the stake hundreds of 

 unhappy women, accused of crimes of which 

 they could not possibly have been guilty.* In 

 New England, about the year 1692, a witchcraft 

 phrensy rose to such excess as to produce com 

 motions and calamities more dreadful than the 

 scourge of war or the destroying pestilence. 

 There lived in the town of Salem, in that coun 

 try, two young women, who were subject to 

 convulsions, accompanied with extraordinary 

 symptoms. Their father, a minister of the 

 church, supposing they were bewitched, cast his 

 suspicions upon an Indian girl, who lived in the 

 house, whom he compelled, by harsh treatment, 

 to confess that she was a witch. Other women, 

 on hearing this, immediately believed that the 

 convulsions, which proceeded only from the 

 nature of their sex, were owing to the same 

 cause. Three citizens, casually named, were 

 immediately thrown into prison, accused of 

 witchcraft, hanged, and their bodies left ex 

 posed to wild beasts and birds of prey. A few 

 days after, sixteen other persons, together with 

 a counsellor, who, because he refused to plead 

 against them, was supposed to share in their 

 guilt, suffered in the same manner. From 

 this instant, the imagination of the multitude 

 was inflamed with these horrid and gloomy 

 scenes. Children often years of age were put 

 to death, young girls were stripped naked, and 

 the marks of witchcraft searched for upon their 

 bodies with the most indecenf. curiosity ; and 

 hose spots of the scurvy which age impresses 

 upon the bodies of old men, were token for evi 

 dent signs of infernal power. In default of these, 

 torments were employed to extort confessions, 

 dictated by the executioners themselves. For 

 such fancied crimes, the offspring of supersti 

 tion alone, they were imprisoned, tortured, 

 murdered, and their bodies devoured by the 

 beasts of prey. If the magistrates, tired out 

 with executions, refused to punish, they were 

 themselves accused of the crimes they tolerated ; 

 the very ministers of religion raised false wit 

 nesses against them, who made them forfeit 

 with their lives the tardy remorse excited in 

 them by humanity. Dreams, apparitions, ter 

 ror, and consternation of every kind, increased 

 these prodigies of folly and horror. The pri 

 sons were filled, the gibbets left standing, and 



* The Scots appear to have displayed a more than 

 ordinary zeal against witches, and it is said that 

 more deranged old women were condemned for this 

 imaginary crime in Scotland, than in any other coun 

 try. So late as 1722, a poor woman was burned for 

 witchcraft, which was among the last executions in 

 Scotland. A variety of curious particulars in rela 

 tion to the trials of witches, may be seen in Pit- 

 cairn s &quot; Criminal Trials, and other proceedings be 

 fore the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland.&quot;-. 

 Part II. lately published. See also Appendix, No. V. 



all the citizens involved in gloomy apprehen 

 sions. So that superstitious notions, so far from 

 being innocent and harmless speculations, lead 

 to the most deplorable results, and therefore 

 ought to be undermined and eradicated by every 

 one who wishes to promote the happiness arid 

 the good order of general society. 



Such, then, is the evil we find existing among 

 mankind false opinions, which produce vain 

 fears, which debase the understanding, exhibit 

 distorted views of the Deity, and lead to deeds 

 of cruelty and injustice. Let us now consider 

 the remedy to be applied for its removal. 



I have all along taken it for granted, that 

 ignorance of the laws and economy of nature 

 is the great source of the absurd opinions to 

 which I have adverted, a position which, I 

 presume, will not be called in question. For 

 such opinions cannot be deduced from an atten 

 tive survey of the phenomena of nature, or from 

 an induction of well-authenticated facts ; and 

 they are equally repugnant to the dictates of 

 revelation. Nay, so far are they from having 

 any foundation in nature or experience, that in 

 proportion as we advance in our researches 

 into Nature s economy and laws, in the same 

 proportion we perceive their futility and ab 

 surdity. As in most other cases, so in this, a 

 knowledge of the cause of the evil leads to the 

 proper remedy. Let us take away the cause, 

 and the effect of course will be removed. Let 

 the exercise of the rational faculties be directed 

 into a proper channel, and the mind furnished 

 with a few fundamental and incontrovertible 

 principles of reasoning let the proper sources 

 of information be laid open let striking and 

 interesting facts be presented to view, and a 

 taste for rational investigation be encouraged 

 and promoted let habits of accurate observa 

 tion be induced, and the mind directed to draw 

 proper conclusions from the various objects 

 which present themselves to view, and then 

 we may confidently expect, that superstitious 

 opinions, with all their usual accompaniments, 

 will gradually evanish, as the shades of night 

 before the rising sun. 



But here it may be inquired, What kind of 

 knowledge is it that will produce this effect ? 

 It is not merely an acquaintance with a number 

 of dead languages, with Roman and Grecian 

 antiquities, with the subtleties of metaphysics, 

 with pagan mythology, with politics or poetry : 

 these, however important in other point, of 

 view, will not, in the present case, produce the 

 desired effect; for we have already seen, hat 

 many who were conversant in such subjects were 

 not proof against the admission of superstitious 

 opinions. In order to produce the desired ef 

 fect, the mind must be directed to the study of 

 material nature, to contemplate the various 

 appearances it presents, and to mark the uni 

 form results of those invariable laws by which 



