i 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Everything was made to contribute to the orthodox view of 

 possession. On one occasion, when a cart conveying eight con- 

 demned persons to the place of execution stuck fast in the mire, 

 some of the possessed declared that they saw the devil trying to 

 prevent the punishment of his associates. Confessions of witch- 

 craft abounded ; but the way in which these confessions were ob- 

 tained is touchingly exhibited in a statement afterward made by 

 several women. In explaining the reasons why, when charged 

 with afflicting sick persons, they made a false confession, they 

 said: 



..." By reason of that suddain surprizal, we knowing our- 

 selves altogether Innocent of that Crime, we were all exceedingly 

 astonished and amazed, and consternated and affrighted even out 

 of our Reason ; and our nearest and dearest Relations, seeing us 

 in that dreadful condition, and knowing our great danger, appre- 

 hending that there was no other way to save our lives, . . . out of 

 tender . . . pitty perswaded us to confess what we did confess. 

 And indeed that Confession, that it is said we made, was no other 

 than what was suggested to us by some Gentlemen ; they telling 

 us, that we were Witches, and they knew it, and we knew it, and 

 they knew that we knew it, which made us think that it was so ; 

 and our understanding, our reason, and our faculties almost gone, 

 we were not capable of judging our condition ; as also the hard 

 measures they used with us, rendred us uncapable of making our 

 Defence, but said anything and everything which they desired, 

 and most of what we said, was in effect a consenting to what they 

 said." * . . . 



Case after case, in which hysteria, fanaticism, cruelty, injus- 

 tice, and trickery played their part, was followed up to the scaf- 

 fold. In a short time twenty persons had been put to a cruel 

 death, and the number of the accused grew larger and larger. The 

 highest position and the noblest character formed no barrier. 

 Daily the possessed became more bold, more tricky, and more 

 wild. No plea availed anything. In behalf of several women, 

 whose lives had been of the purest and gentlest, petitions were 

 presented, but to no effect. A Scriptural text was always ready 

 to aid in the repression of mercy : it was remembered that " Satan 

 himself is transformed into an angel of light," and above all re- 

 sounded the Old Testament injunction, which had sent such mul- 

 titudes in Europe to the torture-chamber and the stake, " Ye shall 

 not suffer a witch to live." 



Such clergymen as Noyes, Parris, and Mather, aided by such 

 judges as Stoughton and Hathorn, left nothing undone to stimu- 

 late these proceedings. The great Cotton Mather based upon this 

 outbreak of disease thus treated his famous book, " Wonders of 



* Sec Calef, in Drake, vol. iii, pp. 56, 5*7 ; also vol. iii, pp. 38-46 ; also Upham. 



