DEMON 
to give the wicked courtiers any proof of his exigence. 
When the confefiions of the perfons accufed were obtain¬ 
ed by torture, it is evident that no dependance could be 
placed on them ; it is painful to read what Wierus and 
Hutchinfon have collected on this fubjeft. The credit 
of the Suffolk trials, on which Baxter inlifts, is totally 
deftroyed, by the evidence which Dr. Hutchinfon pro¬ 
duces, of Hopkins the witch-finder having fubfifted by 
that practice. But let us hear fome of thefe confefling 
witches fpeak for themfelves. Six of the women accufed 
in New England, aflign the following reafons for having 
confeffed ; that they were furprized and frightened out 
of their judgment, by being i'uddenly feized and put in 
prifon; that their relations perfuaded them that con- 
feflion was the only ftep by which their lives could be 
faved: “ And indeed that confeflion that it is faid we 
made, w r as no other than what was fuggefted to us by 
fome gentlemen, they telling us 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 fo ; and our 
underftanding, our reafon, and our faculties, being alrnoft 
gone, we were not capable of judging of our condition: 
and mofi of what we faid was but a confenting to what 
they faid. Some time after, when we had been better 
compofed, they telling us what we had confeffed, we 
did profefs that we were innocent and ignorant of fuch 
things.” Several other confeffions, recorded by authors, 
are the language of total imbecility, or madnefs. An 
old woman, mentioned in Hutchinfon’s Chronological 
View, confeffed that the had killed feveral perfons, even 
when interrogated, purpofely, whether flie had killed 
fome who were then alive and in good health. Wierus 
relates, that a judge demanded of a famous witch, then 
in chafns, by what means a man could be preferved from 
the force of forcery ? To which the lerioufly replied, by 
keeping together all his old flioes. The unhappy luna¬ 
tic was burnt alive. By fimilar confeffions, the dobtrine 
of the lycanthropia was fupported : it was not furprizing 
that hypochondriacal perfons fhould believe themfelves 
transformed into wolves, and fhould dream of eating 
young children ; but what fhall we think of the judges 
who burnt them, on the ftrength of thofe confefiions, 
and regiflered their trials as folemn precedents ? On this 
occafion, the unwary avowal of Bodinus fhould not be 
forgotten : “ We mu ft be fevere in punifhing witches,” 
fays he ; “ for the populace would ffone a magiftrate 
who infclined to fnew them mercy.” 
The folemn meetings of witches are fuppofed to be 
proved beyond all doubt, by the numerous confefiions of 
criminals, who have deferibed their ceremonies, named 
the times and places of meeting, and the perfons prefent, 
and who have agreed in their relations, though feparate- 
ly delivered. There is a grave relation in Delrio, of a 
witch being fhot flying, by a Spanifh centinel, at the 
bridge of Nieulet, near Calais, after that place was taken 
by the Spaniards. The foldier faw a black cloud ad¬ 
vancing rapidly, from which voices iftued : when it came 
near he fired into it; immediately a witch dropped. This 
is undoubted proof of their meetings! But it maybe 
obferved, firft, that the circumftances told of thofe fefti- 
vals are ridiculous and incredible in themfelves ; for 
they are reprefented as gloomy and horrible, yet with a 
mixture of childifh and extravagant fancies, more likely 
to difguft and alienate than to conciliate the minds of the 
guefts. They have every appearance of uneafy dreams; 
fometimes the devil and his fubjebts fay mafs, lometimes 
he preaches to them, more commonly he was feen in 
form of a black goat, furrounded by imps in a thoufand 
frightful fhapes ; but none of thefe forms are new, they 
all refemble known quadrupeds or reptiles. Secondly, 
there is direft proof furniflied even by demonologifts, 
that all thefe fuppofed journies and entertainments are 
nothing more than dreams. Perfons accufed of witch¬ 
craft have been repeatedly watched, about the time which 
Urey had fixed for the meeting: they have been feen to 
Vol. V. No. 308, 
O L O G Y. 709 
anoint themfelves with foporific compofitions, after which 
they fell into profound fleep, and on awaking feveral 
hours afterwards, they have related their journey through, 
the air, their amufement at the feftival, and have named 
the perfons whom they faw there. In the inftance told 
by Hoffman, the dreamer was chained to the floor. Com¬ 
mon fenfe would reft fatisfied here, but the enthufiafm 
of demonology has invented more than one theory to get 
rid of thefe untoward fads. Dr. Henry More, as was 
formerly mentioned, believed that the aftral fpirit only 
was carried away : other demonologifts imagined that the 
witch was really removed to the place of meeting, but 
that a cacodemon was left in her room, as an to 
delude the fpeftaters. Thirdly, fome (lories of the fefti- 
vals are evidently tricks. Such is that related by Bodi¬ 
nus, with much gravity : a man is found in a gentleman’s 
cellar, and apprehended as’ a thief; he declares his wife 
had brought him thither to a witch-meeting, and on his 
pronouncing the name of God, (he and all her compa¬ 
nions had vaniftied, and left him inclofed. His wife is 
immediately feized, on this righteous evidence, and 
hanged, with feveral other perfons, named as prefent at 
the meeting. 
It may (fill farther confirm the preceding obfervations, 
if we'remark that the fuccefs of all magical operations 
was aferibed to the innate confidence of the magician. 
It was a common queftion among philofophers, in the 
feventeenth century, whether the imagination could 
move external objects, generally decided in the affirma¬ 
tive ; the reality of demoniacal action, (the refult of fim- 
ple intelligence,) was one of the ftrongeft reafons for this 
determination. The wits might be expeCted to divert 
themfelves with this entluifiaftic philofophy : accord¬ 
ingly Ariofto reckons magical purfuits among thofe which 
prove deftruCtive to reafon. Rabelais alfo makes very 
free with Agrippa’s philofophical character, under the 
ludicrous- name of HerTrippa ; and in the Epijlola Obfcu- 
rorum Virorum, Ortuinus is made to retail fome of the 
molt ridiculous conceits that have found their way into 
magical books. But the mod formidable enemy to thofe 
doCtrines was our Samuel Butler, who bent fuch a force 
of ridicule againft them, as expelled them entirely from 
the higher ranks of men, among whom they were ad¬ 
mitted before. 
III. The remedies employed in difeafes fuppofed to 
be preternatural, may be divided into magical and natu¬ 
ral. Of the firft, the cure by pronouncing certain words, 
or verfes, is the moft ancient; for the method by em¬ 
blem, of which the brazen ferpent, ereCted by Mofes, 
was the firft example, was not magical, but miraculous. 
The former is generally termed the Homeric cure, becatife 
the oldeft inftance of it is found in the Odyffey : a dif- 
fertation on this fubjeCt is aferibed to Galen. Serenus, 
who is fuppofed to have invented the famous abracada¬ 
bra, thought it efficacious, as did iEtius, Pliny, Alex¬ 
ander Trallianus, Marcellus, Gordonius, and Ferrerius. 
Antonins Benivenius relates that an arrow was drawn 
from a foldier’s body, by a long. Celius Aurelianus had 
told that the emperor Adrian cured a perfon of a dropfy, 
by reciting certain words. A collection of fome very 
ridiculous forms, for the cure of different difeafes, is 
alfo furniflied by Wierus. Bodinus thought it very im¬ 
pious, and even blafphemous, to print them. Amulets 
form the principal part of magical remedies, but many 
amulets were not properly magical; thofe compofed of 
relics, or of medicinal fubftances, mult be exempted from 
this appellation. But, though they were remedies of 
the imagination only, it was generally believed that thofe 
compofed of characters were the produce of demoniacal 
compabt, and therefore unlawful. During the greateft 
part of the feventeenth century, it was very generally be¬ 
lieved that a man might be rendered invulnerable by 
means of an amulet; and, in the thirty-years war, moft 
of the officers wore one on duty. Some differtations on 
this fubject may be found in the Mujcdlanca Curio/a, the 
S S Acla 
