Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1845 edition. Excerpt: ... PART II. Various Phases of Witchcraft. Sketches of its History. A Glance at the Grounds on which its Claims to Belief rest. Details of the Remarkable Outbreak in New England, in 1692. Spectral Appearances, Sfc. c. When I consider whether there are such persons as Witches, my mind is divided: I believe in general that there is such a thini? as Witchcraft, but can give no credit to any particular instance of it.--Addison. T is less than two centuries since all Christendom believed in witchcraft, demonology, and all similar systems. Now, almost air-Christendom laughs at such things. In this, there is no proof for or against their truth. Are our school boys wiser than the philosophers of old? Are there greater minds, or more learned, pious, and reflecting men, than formerly? Certainly not. And none need be told that some of the greatest mental lights that ever shed lustre upon science or religion, also aimed to make luminous those abstruse systems. The progress of fashion is as clearly exemplified, probably, in general interpretations of scripture, as in any thing that could be instanced. That the views of this age are correct, we, of course, believe; but a coming age may deem them absurd; just as we deem absurd the interpretations of past time. We all believe Martin Luther was a great man, and a man sincerely zealous in the cause of his Master; and our souls are nourished by the strong meat which his able hand prepared. But how much is our respect for him increased, when he gravely tells us of the Devil's coming into his bed room, and cracking stolen hazel nuts against his bed post, and otherwise disturbing his rest? Yet the Bible, in his view, created or sanctioned such belief. And in the variations of the views of mankind in..."
