THE SABBATH. 35 



saw before them instead of the glories of heaven the 

 infinite tortures of hell. Not to the fall of Sarmatia, 

 but to the treatment of witches in the seventeenth 

 century, ought to be applied the words of your poet 

 Campbell: 



Oh! bloodiest picture in the book of time! 



The mind sits in sackcloth and ashes while contemplat- 

 ing the scenes so powerfully described by Mr. Lecky in 

 his chapter on Magic and Witchcraft. But I will dwell 

 no further upon these tragedies than to point out how 

 terrible are the errors which our clergy may commit 

 after they have once subscribed to the creed and laws of 

 Judaism, and constituted themselves the legal expo- 

 nents and interpreters of those laws.* 



Turning over the leaves of the Pentateuch, where 

 God's alleged dealings with the Israelites are recorded, 

 it strikes one with amazement that such writings should 

 be considered for a moment as binding upon us. The 

 overmastering strength of habit, the power of early 

 education possibly a defiance of the claims of reason 

 involved in the very constitution of the mental organ 

 are.forcibly illustrated by the fact that learned men are 

 still to be found willing to devote their time and endow- 

 ments to these writings under the assumption that they 

 are not human but divine. Claiming the same origin 

 as other books, the Old Testament is without a rival, 

 but its unnatural exaltation as a court of appeal pro- 

 vokes recoil and rejection. Leviticus, for example, 

 when read in the light of its own age, is full of interest 

 and instruction. "We see there described the efforts of 



* The sufferings of reputed witches in the seventeenth century 

 as well as those of the early Christians, might be traced to panics 

 and passions similar in kind to those which produced the atroci- 

 ties of the Reign of Terror in France. 



