The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-05-17
BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT
How the Old-Time Superstition has
Been Held by Some Great
Men
From FraZer's Magazine. /

Lndlcrous as the powers appear to us
at the present day with which witch.
craft i'll former times was credited
such powers seem never to have
open denied by the great minds of the past.
Wltch was all that was abominabIe, and to
oe iieid IN the strongest l"athng; yet few had
the wisdom or the courage to contradict tbe
possibility of her exercising the arts She pre- re-
tended to. The judge, as he passed sentence
upon the condemned woman, trembled lest
her fell gaze should bring upon him and his
household sorrow or death. The yelling
crowd, as it half stripped her to undergo the
water ordeal, shuddered as it saw upon her
exposed bosom the marks which, it was sup
posed, proved that she allowed her "fam!iarn
to draw upon her life's blood. The VILLAGERS
who went miles ont of their way TO avoid
her haunts, never for one moment believed
that the object of their fear was powerless to
work them evil, and was either halt-mad
woman, the victim of some hdeous delusion
or else the actress of 81 me khavish part to
her OWL vile ends. TO all the old cronp
with her tall hat, crutch-stich and black c.t
nestled on her shoulders, was one who had
dealings with the devil and who, through
the might of satanic aid, could scatter the
seeds OF misery wherever she listed She had
sold herself, body and soul, to hell. and
until death claimed her, her power to
effect evil, it was alleged, was unlim-
tied. The great man is he who rises
superior to the prejudices of his age; but be-
fore the end Of The seventeenth century,
with the exception of Bodin, Reginald, Scot,
John Wagstatie and Dr. Webster-there were
none who had the boldness or knowledge to
brand witchcratt as a base and palpabe su =
perstilion. We ind Lord Bacon gravely
prescribing ''henbane, hemock, mandrake,
moonshade, tobacco. opium and other sopo-
riterous medicines as the best ingredients
for a witch's ointment. From the pages of
his History Of the World" we see that the
gifted and practical Sir Walter Raleigh was a
firm believer in this childish form of SUPER
sttion. The learned Selden, in his "Table
Talk" while pleasantly discoursing on the
subject Of witches, shows that he also held
the same faith. Sir Thomas Browne. the
kindest of physicians: Sir Matthew Hale, one
of the most acute and spotless of Judges:
Hobbies, the skeplic; "the eminent Dr. More,
of Cambridge" and the patient and thought
ful Boyle, all were Of opinion that witchcraft
was all evil capable of solid proof, and
that its disciples merted sharp and swift
punishment. 1t was not until the dawn of
the eighteenth century that men came to the
conclusion that devices witches and witch
mongers" were only so many tricks and fa-
bles, and utterly unworthy of fcredence The
last judicial execution in England for witch
craft took place in the year 17l6, when Wo-
men and her little daughter were hanged at
Huntingdon ''for selling their souls to Satan"
Since that date, however, various cases have
occurred Of women. accused as witches, be-
ing drowned while undergoing the ordeal by
water at the hands ftheir inundated vet in
iUriated neighbOrs.