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Untitled Article
of Sir Thomas Browne , and Blackstone , and Sir Matthew Hale , and a host of others . In February , 1692 , two children in the family of Mr . Parris , above-mentioned , and a young companion , began to behave very strangely ; and in order to find a cause for their odd looks and gestures , physicians were called in , one of whom gave it as his
opinion that the patients were bewitched . The malady spread , of course ; and the reverend gentleman invited the neighbouring ministers to assemble at his house , for the purpose of praying throughout the day for deliverance from the great enemy of souls . It was some time before the children could be brought to throw any light on the origin of their complaints ; but when the public
attention was fully fixed on them , and the general mind prepared to receive as gospel whatever they might say , they began to ' cry out upon' one individual after another ; the first being an Indian woman attached to Mr . Parris ' s family . This poor creature was wrought upon by threats , delusions , and ( as she long afterwards protested ) by the scourge , applied by Mr . Parris ' s own dignified hands , to confess she was in league with the devil . A confession ,
—indisputable evidence as it appeared , —was all that was wanted to decide the success of the experiment . Few doubted against such proof ; and of those few , some concealed their scepticism , and kept as quiet as possible , and others , probably , secured their own safety by pretending to be bewitched , and thus aided the delusion . This sort of evidence abounded in proportion to the spread of the
mischief ; for the lives of those who confessed were spared . Fiftyfive persons thus escaped death . In their case the motive to confession is clear ; but it was long a mystery to us in instances where confession was the highway to the stake or the gibbet , as in England and Scotland . The affecting anecdote told by Sir George Mackenzie , however , makes all plain . One of these confessors told him , ' under secresie , ' that ' she had not confessed
because she was guilty , but , being a poor creature who wrought for her meat , and being defamed for a witch , she knew she would starve ; for no person thereafter would either give her meat or lodging , and that all men would beat her and hound dogs at her , and that therefore she desired to be out of the world . ' —She had heard of a place where the wicked cease from troubling .
If further testimony were needed as to the worthlessness of confessions , it might be found in the volume before us , in the recantations of Margaret Jacobs ( p . 60 ) , and of six respectable females , belonging to Andover , who affixed their names to an explanation of their delusions ( p . 66 ) . We wish we had space
for them here , for they are extremely interesting , from the character of simplicity which they bear . The number of martyrs was , as might be expected , smaller than of those who escaped by confession . Twenty fell by the executioner , and among them were some spirits as heroic as any who ever perished through the atrocity of superstitiop .
Untitled Article
On ffatcheraft . 549
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1832, page 549, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1818/page/45/
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