INTRODUCTION.

The following poem refers to the year, and the years ensuing

"On brooms when witches flew, "That blessed time when law kept wide awake, "Proscrib'd the faithless, and made Quakers quake."

At that time, religious fanaticism broke out with all its fury in New-England, and began the work of persecution by imputing to divers persons the crime of witchcraft. We are informed by Dr. Morse, that at Salem, it originated" in the family of the Rev. Mr. Paris, the then minister, and at Salem was the principal theatre of the bloody business." He adds, however, that in other parts of the country, "the leading characters, both in church and state, were active in it." Wherever it may have originated, certain it is, that the processes against witches, wizards, &c. were very rigorously carried on, and many, of both sexes, were executed. Their graves still remain at the place. of execution, in the vicinity of Salem, called, from this

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INTRODUCTION.

circumstance," Gallows Hill." Such is the foundation of the following poem.

It appears that it was the grand object of the clerical body to be able to obtain the assistance of the civil power; on this circumstance much of the following tale depends.

We are informed, by various memoirs, that notwithstanding the fulminations of the church, the persons of that day who were suspected of having communication with evil spirits, very resolutely persisted in sundry unseemly practices. They would wear rusty and crooked and headless pins in their sleeves, in opposition to the parson and deacons; they reared black cats in preference to those of any other color, asserting as a pretext, that they were better mousers; they were determined to sift their meal in a very particular and unusual manner; and on the Sabbath, would straggle round the church doors, in an unbecoming way, with dirty faces, and unkempt locks.

"Ante fores, subito, non vultus non color unus "Non compte mansere comæ.

These abuses were necessarily to be quelled in a summary way, and the whipping-post and the stocks, bridewell and starvation, effectually brought many the unhappy delinquents to that state, in which, in

of

order to be relieved from their sufferings by death or otherwise, they were induced to confess any thing their persecutors chose to demand. Many of the executions at Salem, might be illustrated by the story of Appollonius Thyaneus," who cured a laughing demoniac at Athens, by threats, menaces, and a severe floging, (a treatment certainly well calculated to suppress laughter); and another case, where the same sage freed the city of Ephesus from the plague, by exciting the rabble to stone to death an old ragged begger, whom he (Appollonius) called the "Plague," and who certainly must have been a dæmon, from the circumstance of his having changed himself into a black dog. [See Philosbeatus' life of Appollonius.

A difficulty has occurred to ancient and modern writers on the subject of witchcraft, viz. that many "in articulo mortis" who were apparently possessed of sanity of intellect, have with signs of contrition and remorse, confessed their communication with infernal spirits; under the full conviction of having committed a crime of the most henious nature, and wishing to make all the expiation in their power, by voluntarily undergoing an earthly punishment. For a New-England priest in the year, to accept such testimony,

is not surprising, particularly as it has boggled wiser men of a wiser day.

That the unhappy deluded victims themselves, implicitly believed, they had had communication with evil spirits, is not to be doubted. "But I would ob

serve" says Dr. Ferriar, (in his essay on popular delusions)" that the circumstance told of their meetings, are in themselves ridiculous and incredible, for they. are represented as gloomy and horrible, and yet, with a mixture of childish and extravagant fancies, more likely to disgust and alienate the mind, than to conciliate the guests. They have every appearance of uneasy dreams. Sometimes the Devil and his subjects say mass, sometimes he preaches to them, most usually he was seen in the shape of a black goat, surrounded by imps of a thousand frightful shapes, but none of these shapes are new. They all resemble known quadrupeds or reptiles. There is direct proof furnished by demonologists themselves, that these supposed visits, are in reality dreams.

"Persons accused of witchcraft, have been repeatedly watched about the time they had fixed for their meeting; they have been seen to anoint themselves with soporific compositions; after which they fell into a profound sleep, and on awakening, several hours af

terwards, have related their journey through the air, the reception they had met with, and the names of the persons they had seen. This is exactly conformable to the practice of the ancient magicians and diviners, and seems to be the true way of accounting, as well for many of the phenomena of magic, as for that extravagant and shameful superstition, which was at one time so prevalent in New-England, and by which such numbers of innocent people, were cruelly put to death.

The effect of medicated applications to the human body, particularly of those substances, known to medical men by the appellation of narcotics, as affecting the mind by an absorption through the skin, and in consequence, being applied very generally to the nervous system, is well known; and few who have taken medicines of this class, but can recollect the singular dreams, as well as uncommon waking thoughts induced by their operation. Applied externally, they will produce the same sensations, in a greater or less degree, according to the mode and time of application, as when taken inwardly; from the phrenetic ravings of a bewildered brain, to the deep and motionless stupor of total insensibility.

We learn from the writings of Helmont, the Hyocyamus niger, was employed in his day, as an herb of