ere by reason
of their moral turpitude especial subjects of Satan for the temptation
of men. With them, the persecution of witches was not solely a
matter of superstition, but of public morals as well. They were often
actuated by a sincere desire to raise the standard of morality, and to
preserve order and decency. That the women rather than the men should
have suffered for evil courses was due, of course, to the conception
that moral reprobation is to be visited upon the weaker sex.

In the second half of the seventeenth century the witchcraft
superstition became a veritable epidemic, and persecution broke out
in different sections of the country. Hardly had the stories of the
execution of witches in one place ceased to be a nine days' wonder,
when the tongues of the people were busy with stories of similar
occurrences somewhere else. An angry sailor threw a stone at a boy;
and the boy's mother roundly cursed the assailant of her offspring,
and added the hope that his fingers would rot off. When, two years
later, something of the sort actually did happen, her imprecation was
remembered against her, and there was also brought to light the fact
that a neighbor with whom she was at odds had been seized with
severe pains and felt her bed rocking up and down. The evidence was
conclusive, the woman must be a witch; such was the verdict, and death
was her sentence. Two women who lived alone, and, probably partly
because of their solitary existence, had developed irascible tempers
and demeanors which enlisted the hearty dislike of the inhabitants of
the fishing hamlet near by, were subjected to the petty persecutions
in which children instigated by their parents are such adepts; finding
existence too miserable to care very much for their reputations, they
endangered their security by their attitude toward their tormentors.
At last, nobody would even sell them fish, and their cursing and
prophecies of evil for their enemies became increasingly violent. In
the order of nature, some children were seized with fits, and, under
the inspiration of their elders, declared that they saw the two women
coming to torment them. After being eight years under accusation,
the women were brought to trial, and Sir Matthew Hale, the presiding
judge, after expressing his belief that the Scriptures proved the
reality of witchcraft, decided against the unhappy women and condemned
them to be hanged. This occurred in 1664, and constituted the
celebra