CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



and spared the accused in spite of condemnatory 

 verdicts. In 1711, Chief-justice Powell presided 

 at a trial where an old woman was pronounced 

 guilty. The judge, who had sneered openly at 

 the whole proceedings, asked the jury if they found 

 the woman 'guilty upon the indictment of con- 

 versing with the devil in the shape of a cat ? ' 

 The reply was : ' We do find her guilty of that ; ' 

 but the question of the judge produced its intended 

 effect- in casting ridicule on the whole charge, and 

 the woman was pardoned. Barrington, in his 

 observations on the statute of Henry VI., does 

 not hesitate to estimate the numbers of those put 

 to death in England, on this charge, at THIRTY 

 THOUSAND ! 



Notwithstanding that condemnations were no 

 longer obtainable after 1716, popular outrages on 

 supposed witches continued to take place in Eng- 

 land for many years afterwards. The occurrence 

 of such outrages having been traced to the unre- 

 pealed statute of James I. against witchcraft, an 

 act was passed in 1736 (loth George II. cap. 55), 

 discharging all legal proceedings on the ground of 

 sorcery or witchcraft ; and since that period, pro- 

 secutions for following hidden arts have had no 

 higher aim than the punishing of a pretended 

 skill in fortune-telling and other forms of practical 

 knavery. 



In the North American colonies of New Eng- 

 land, the witchcraft mania raged with peculiar 

 intensity. As in Scotland and elsewhere, the clergy 

 were the prime movers. Two clergymen have 

 obtained a special and unenviable notoriety for the 

 part they acted in this matter. The one was the 

 Rev. Cotton Mather, a man who was considered 

 a prodigy of learning and piety, but whose writings 

 and proceedings in regard to the trial and execu- 

 tion of witches, of which he was the chief insti- 

 gator, shew a degree of fanaticism, credulity, and 

 blind cruelty that is almost incredible. The other, 

 a Samuel Parris, minister of Salem, made use of 

 the popular feeling to gratify his own spite at 

 individuals. At last, in the ' Salem tragedy,' 

 as it is called, in 1692, the executions, torturings, 

 and imprisonments rose to such a height as to 

 be no longer endurable ; a complete revulsion of 

 public feeling took place, and the delusion was 

 broken. For details of New England witch-trials, 

 we must refer to No. 141 of Chambers^ Miscellany 

 of Tracts. 



SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 



According to old theories on the subject of 

 apparitions or spectres, the person who declared 

 that he had seen such an appearance was either 

 set down as the fabricator of an untruth, or his 

 story was fondly believed, and in the latter case 

 the supernatural incident was added to the mass 

 of credible history. It is now well understood 

 that we need neither accept the appearance as a 

 fact, nor yet accuse the narrator of a wish to 

 deceive. The explanation is to be sought in 

 disorder of the nervous system. Much light has 

 of late years been thrown upon this subject by 

 a more careful examination of what takes place 

 in all cases when a sensible idea or image is 

 called up in the mind. When we think vividly 

 of an object that we have seen or even imagined, 

 we are said to have it ' in our mind's eye.' The 



448 



phrase is generally understood as a metaphor ;. 

 but physiologists now teach us that it is a literal 

 truth. The revived impression or idea of an 

 object once seen is not called up without an actual 

 physical motion, or current of some kind, taking 

 place, not merely within the brain, but throughout 

 the nerves of vision to their extremities in the eye. 

 This affection of the nerves, by the memory of 

 an object, is of the same kind as that which takes 

 place when the object is present to the sight ; the 

 chief difference seems to be that the revived 

 impression is much feebler than the original, so 

 that it is impossible to mistake the one for the 

 other. What is true of sight is true of the other 

 senses ; the nerves of any sense are physically 

 affected by thinking of things connected with that 

 sense. In some cases, the affection is palpable 

 and unmistakable ; thus the thought of a savoury 

 dish actually tickles the palate of a hungry man, 

 and makes the saliva flow in common phrase, 

 makes the mouth water ; the remembrance of a 

 nauseous medicine will at times cause vomiting ; 

 to hear of torture and laceration makes the flesh 

 creep. 



While the nervous system is in a normal and 

 sound condition, the affections excited in it by 

 ideas are so faint that they are never mistaken 

 for impressions from without ; in fact, we are in 

 all ordinary circumstances utterly unconscious of 

 their existence. But when the system is in any 

 way disordered or unusually excited, then certain 

 ideas are apt to take possession of it haunt it, 

 and thus the affection of the nerves, of vision for 

 instance, becomes so strong as to be equal to an 

 impression made by the actual objects. The 

 person in this condition naturally believes that 

 these objects are really before him ; in other 

 words, he sees visions or spectres. The illusion 

 is generally dissipated by trying to handle the 

 object ; for the nerves of touch are not so easily 

 disordered or imposed upon as those of sight and 

 hearing. 



We must content ourselves with this brief state- 

 ment of the physiological principle on which all 

 cases of spectral appearances are to be explained. 

 We would merely remark, in conclusion, how neces- 

 sary caution and discrimination are in receiving 

 testimony to some kinds of facts. Even when 

 the witness declares that he had the evidence of 

 his senses for what he asserts, we may be justified 

 in disbelieving the alleged fact, and that without 

 calling in question his good faith his imagina- 

 tion may have made his senses impose upon 

 him. What an amount of delusion of this kind 

 must have taken place during the witchcraft 

 mania ! Thousands on thousands, of all ranks 

 and conditions, testified to having witnessed a 

 variety of things which we now know to be impos- 

 sibilities. They could not all have meant to tel" 

 falsehood ; the vast majority, without doubt 

 believed what they said. But they were unde 

 the influence of a contagious frenzy, when the eye 

 sees what the fancy suggests. It may be laid 

 down as a general rule, that when any extensive 

 excitement prevails on a subject involving the 

 sentiment of wonder, multitudes will be found 

 testifying, and testifying honestly, to alleged 

 facts, which fall in with the prevailing belief, but 

 have no better foundation than their own heated 

 imaginations. 



