oned
them in another connection--and he was prompted by them to tell a story
of Dr. Harvey, with whom he was "very familiarly acquainted." "I once
asked him what his opinion was concerning witchcraft; whether there was
any such thing. Hee told mee he believed there was not." Asked the
reasons for his doubt, Harvey told him that "when he was at Newmercat
with the King [Charles I] he heard there was a woman who dwelt at a lone
house on the borders of the Heath who was reputed a Witch, that he went
alone to her, and found her alone at home.... Hee said shee was very
distrustful at first, but when hee told her he was a vizard, and came
purposely to converse with her in their common trade, then shee easily
believed him; for say'd hee to mee, 'You know I have a very magicall
face.'" The physician asked her where her familiar was and desired to
see him, upon which she brought out a dish of milk and made a chuckling
noise, as toads do, at which a toad came from under the chest and drank
some of the milk. Harvey now laid a plan to get rid of the woman. He
suggested that as fellow witches they ought to drink together, and that
she procure some ale. She went out to a neighboring ale-house, half a
mile away, and Harvey availed himself of her absence to take up the toad
and cut it open. Out came the milk. On a thorough examination he
concluded that the toad "no ways differed from other toades," but that
the melancholy old woman had brought it home some evening and had tamed
it by feeding and had so come to believe it a spirit and her familiar.
When the woman returned and found her "familiar" cut in pieces, she
"flew like a Tigris" at his face. The physician offered her money and
tried to persuade her that her familiar was nothing more than a toad.
When he found that this did not pacify her he took another tack and told
her that he was the king's physician, sent to discover if she were a
witch, and, in case she were, to have her apprehended. With this
explanation, Harvey was able to get away. He related the story to the
king, whose leave he had to go on the expedition. The narrator adds: "I
am certayne this for an argument against spirits or witchcraft is the
best and most experimentall I ever heard."

Who the justice of the peace was that penned this letter, we are unable
even to guess, nor do we know upon whose authority it was published. We
cannot, therefore, rest upon it with absolute certainty, but we can say
that it possesses s