TJu Book of Cats. 175 



proof was by swimming, as before narrated. They 

 tied together the thumbs and toes of the suspected 

 person, about whose waist was fastened a cord, the 

 ends of which were held on the banks of the river 

 by two men, whose power it was to strain or slacken 

 it. If they floated, they were witches. After a 

 considerable course of wicked accusation on the 

 part of Hopkins and his accomplices, testing all by 

 these modes of trial, and ending in the cruel deaths 

 of many wretched old persons, a reaction against 

 him took place, probably at the instigation of some 

 whose friends had been condemned innocently, or 

 of those who were too wise to believe in his tests, 

 and disgusted with his cold wickedness. His own 

 famous and conclusive evidence — the experiment of 

 swimming — was tried upon himself; and this wretch, 

 who had sacrificed so many, by the same test, was 

 found to be guilty, too. He was deservedly con- 

 demned, and suffered death himself as a wizard." 



Dr. Harsenet, Archbishop of York, in his 

 Declaration of Popish Impostures, says, "Out of 

 those is shap'd us the true idea of a witch, an old 

 weather-beaten crone, having her chin and knees 

 meeting for age, walking like a bow leaning on a 

 staff, hollow ey'd, untooth'd, furrow'd on her face, 

 having her lips trembling with the palsy, going 



