1882.] Witchcraft , Insanity , and Crime . 507 
It is therefore not easy to recognise the Salem murders as 
“ the last struggles, the death-rattle of the monster that had 
been wandering for centuries wild over Europe.” They were 
merely one scene in its decline. 
In order “ to answer the question why the last bloody 
battles of witchcraft were fought on American soil,” Dr. 
Beard considers ic necessary to “ know something of the 
intellectual character of the American people, and of the 
race to which they belong.” His remarks on this subject 
are so interesting and suggestive that I quote them, even 
after having shown that the last dying struggle of witchcraft 
took place elsewhere : — 
“ The Anglo-Saxon peoples in both Europe and America 
have, in modern days, a genius for non-expertness in Science. 
That we might preserve our political freedom we have in 
other directions become as slaves bound in time-rusted chains 
of common delusions ; we have sacrificed almost everything 
else that we might have liberty.” Parenthetically I remark 
that this “ political freedom ” may prove to have been dear 
at the price. “ Were we not,” he resumes, “ constantly 
nursed at the breast of Germany, both England and America 
would long since have starved to death scientifically.” I 
fully admit here that in the number of sound scientific 
workers, and consequently in the quantity of research pro- 
duced, we are far inferior to Germany. But Faraday and 
Darwin may serve as sufficient instances to show that our 
deficiency lies not in any in-bred peculiarity of race, but in 
artificial circumstances, which at present drive or tempt all 
our best minds away in other directions, and which it is, to 
a great extent, within the power of the Government to alter. 
I refer, e.g ., to the possibility of appropriating University 
fellowships as the reward of successful research. 
Dr. Beard continues : — “ This genius for scientific non- 
expertness is attended by a genius of almost equal power for 
intellectual timidity. Of all great peoples the English- 
speaking peoples are the most cowardty in the face of ideas : 
of such were our ancestors in England and New England ; 
of such, in fading degree, are we at this hour. The one 
prayer of the puritan mother, that her child should never 
learn to think, has been answered, and thus far America has 
given no philosophy to the world.” Has Spain, or has 
Russia ? To continue my quotation : — “ With all our op- 
portunity, with all our advance, no other enlightened nation 
has expended so much cerebral force in the emotion of fear 
as has America. Always our fathers were kept on the run 
before new truths ; they would be above the suspicion of 
2 L 2 
