Another remarkable fact is this, that while in other countries the
delusion was extinguished by the incredulity of the upper classes and the
interference of authority, here the reaction took place among the people
themselves, and here only was an attempt made at some legislative
restitution, however inadequate. Mr. Upham's sincere and honest
narrative, while it never condescends to a formal plea, is the best
vindication possible of a community which was itself the greatest
sufferer by the persecution which its credulity engendered.
If any lesson may be drawn from the tragical and too often disgustful
history of witchcraft, it is not one of exultation at our superior
enlightenment or shame at the shortcomings of the human intellect. It is
rather one of charity and self-distrust. When we see what inhuman
absurdities men in other respects wise and good have clung to as the
corner-stone of their faith in immortality and a divine ordering of the
world, may we not suspect that those who now maintain political or other
doctrines which seem to us barbarous and unenlightened, may be, for all
that, in the main as virtuous and clear-sighted as ourselves? While we
maintain our own side with an honest ardor of conviction, let us not
forget to allow for mortal incompetence in the other.
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