... And for so much as the
mighty help themselves together, and the poor widow's cry, though it
reach to Heaven, is scarce heard here upon earth, I thought good
(according to my poor ability) to make intercession that some part of
common rigor and some points of hasty judgment may be advised upon."....
The case is nowhere put with more point, or urged with more sense and
eloquence, than by Scot, whose book contains also more curious matter, in
the way of charms, incantations, exorcisms, and feats of legerdemain,
than any other of the kind.
Other books followed on the same side, of which Bekker's, published about
a century later, was the most important. It is well reasoned, learned,
and tedious to a masterly degree. But though the belief in witchcraft
might be shaken, it still had the advantage of being on the whole
orthodox and respectable. Wise men, as usual, insisted on regarding
superstition as of one substance with faith, and objected to any scouring
of the shield of religion, lest, like that of Cornelius Scriblerus, it
should suddenly turn out to be nothing more than "a paltry old sconce
with the nozzle broke off." The Devil continued to be the only recognized
Minister Resident of God upon earth. When we remember that one man's
accusation on his death-bed was enough to constitute grave presumption of
witchcraft, it might seem singular that dying testimonies were so long of
no avail against the common credulity.
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