exceptions, this hideous and infamous belief
was universal. Under these conditions, progress was almost impossible.

Fear paralyzes the brain. Progress is born of courage. Fear
believes--courage doubts. Fear falls upon the earth and prays--courage
stands erect and thinks. Fear retreats--courage advances. Fear is
barbarism--courage is civilization. Fear believes in witchcraft, in
devils and in ghosts. Fear is religion--courage is science.

The facts, upon which this terrible belief rested, were proved over
and over again in every court of Europe. Thousands confessed themselves
guilty--admitted that they had sold themselves to the devil. They gave
the particulars of the sale; told what they said and what the devil
replied. They confessed this, when they knew that confession was death;
knew that their property would be confiscated, and their children left
to beg their bread. This is one of the miracles of history--one of the
strangest contradictions of the human mind. Without doubt, they really
believed themselves guilty. In the first place, they believed in
witchcraft as a fact, and when charged with it, they probably became
insane. In their insanity they confessed their guilt. They found
themselves abhorred and deserted--charged with a crime that they could
not disprove. Like a man in quicksand, every effort only sunk them
deeper. Caught in this frightful web, at the mercy of the spiders
of superstition, hope fled, and nothing remained but the insanity of
confession. The whole world appeared to be insane.

In the time of James the First, a man was executed for causing a storm
at sea with the intention of drowning one of the royal family. How could
he disprove it? How could he show that he did not cause the storm?
All storms were at that time generally supposed to be caused by
the devil--the prince of the power of the air--and by those whom he
assisted.

I implore you to remember that the believers in such impossible things
were the authors of our creeds and confessions of faith.

A woman was tried and convicted before Sir Matthew Hale, one of the
great judges and lawyers of England, for having caused children to
vomit crooked pins. She was also charged with having nursed devils. The
learned judge charged the intelligent jury that there was no doubt as
to the existence of witches; that it was established by all history, and
expressly taught by the bible.

The woman was hanged and her body burned.

Sir Thomas Moore