8 



as indicative of (iiabolical or divine malevolence, and thus 

 their minds were filled with dark forebodings. 



They were on the lookout for signs and omens, signs on the 

 earth, in the earth, among animals and in the heavens. The 

 pigs must be slaughtered in the right phase of the moon so 

 that tlie pork would not shrink in the pot, and the howling of 

 a dog under a window was ominous of an early death in the 

 family. The religious hate of that age is illustrated in the 

 case of Thomas Macy of Salisbury, who, in 1658, was fined 30 

 shillings for sheltering three Quakers about twenty minutes 

 in a heavy rain storm. The records of the neighboring town 

 of Andover indicate the horrible condition of domestic life in 

 the treatment of those charged with the crime of witchcraft 

 during the continuance of the delusion. 



It is impossible to adequately realize the terror which a 

 severe thunder storm caused in most families in New England 

 in times prior to the advent of Franklin. Not a single 

 intelligible or reasonable explanation had been given of the 

 cause or nature of electrical phenomena, and people were com- 

 pelled to observe in awe and superstitious fear, a display of 

 electrical activities, now clearly understood by every school 

 boy. A severe thunder storm was generally regarded as a 

 special manifestation of God's anger, and when, in obedience 

 to law, electrical discharges occurred, taking the human body 

 in their pathway, such occurrences were viewed as indications 

 of the divine displeasure towards the unfortunate individual. 

 The fear of God's wrath, as manifested not only in thunder- 

 bolts, but in almost every untoward event or accident, tor- 

 mented our ancestors, engaged in their rural avocations, to a 

 degree of suffering of which we can form no adequate idea. 

 Celestial visitants and appearances, as comets, eclipses, the 



