ertain persons (De
Divinatione, i.), is justified by the faith of Christendom,
as well as by that of paganism; and is as true of witchcraft
as it is of prophecy or divination.

[3] Dr. Balthazar Becker, Amsterdam, 1691, quoted in
Mosheim's _Institutes of Ecclesiastical History_, ed. Reid.

Those (comparatively few) whose reason and humanity alike
revolted from a horrible dogma, loudly proclaim the prevailing
prejudice. Such protests, however, were, for a long time at
least, feeble and useless--helplessly overwhelmed by the
irresistible torrent of public opinion. All classes of society
were almost equally infected by a plague-spot that knew no
distinction of class or rank. If theologians (like Bishop Jewell,
one of the most esteemed divines in the Anglican Church,
publicly asserting on a well known occasion at once his faith and
his fears) or lawyers (like Sir Edward Coke and Judge Hale) are
found unmistakably recording their undoubting conviction, they
were bound, it is plain, the one class by theology, the other by
legislation. Credulity of so extraordinary a kind is sufficiently
surprising even in theologians; but what is to be thought of the
deliberate opinion of unbiassed writers of a recent age
maintaining the possibility, if not the actual occurrence, of the
facts of the belief?

The deliberate judgment of Addison, whose wit and preeminent
graces of style were especially devoted to the extirpation of
almost every sort of popular folly of the day, could declare:
'When I hear the relations that are made from all parts of the
world, not only from Norway and Lapland, from the East and West
Indies, but from every particular nation in Europe, I cannot
forbear thinking that there is such an intercourse and commerce
with evil spirits as that which we express by the name of
witchcraft.... In short, when I consider the question whether
there are such persons in the world as those we call witches, my
mind is divided between two opposite opinions; or rather, to
speak my thoughts freely, I believe in general that there is and
has been such a thing as witchcraft, but at the same time can
give no credit to any particular modern instance of it.'[4]
Evidence, if additional were wanted, how deference to authority
and universal custom may subdue the reason and understanding. The
language and decision of Addison are adopted by Sir W. Blackstone
in 'Commentaries on the Laws of England,' who shelters himself
behind tha