ugh the
treasure
Of nature's germins tumble all together,
Even till destruction sicken, answer me
To what I ask you. SHAKSPEARE.

In our two preceding papers,[1] we have briefly brought before the
attention of the reader, a few of the most prominent and striking
features connected with the history of the first (as the honourable
house hath it in 1602) "of those detestable slaves of the devil,
witches, sorcerers, enchanters and conjurors." And now we proceed to
offer a few concluding illustrations of the subject.

[1] See vol xi. p. 391--vol. xii. p. 70.

In the early ages, to be possessed of a greater degree of learning and
science than the mass of mankind (at a time when even kings could not
read or write) was to be invested with a more than earthly share of
power; and the philosopher was in consequence subjected in many cases to
a suspicion at once dangerous and dishonourable: to use the language of
Coleridge, the real teachers and discoverers of truth were exposed to
the hazard of fire and faggot; a dungeon being the best shrine that was
vouchsafed to a Roger Bacon or a Galileo!

A few years since, a place was pointed out to the writer, on the borders
of Scotland, which had been even within the "memory of the oldest
inhabitant," used for the "trial" of witches; and a pool of water in an
adjacent stream is still to be seen, where the poor old creatures were
dragged to sink or swim; and our informant added, that a very great
number had perished on that spot. Indeed, in Scotland, a refinement of
cruelty was practised in the persecution of witches; the innocent
relations of a suspected criminal were tortured in her presence, in the
hope of extorting confession from her, in order to put an end to their
sufferings, after similar means had been used without effect on herself.
Even children of seven years of age were sometimes tortured in the
presence of their mothers for this design. In 1751, at Trigg, in
Hertfordshire, two harmless old people above seventy years of age, being
suspected of bewitching a publican, named Butterfield, a vast concourse
of people assembled for the purpose of ducking them, and the poor
wretches were seized, and "stripped naked by the mob, their thumbs tied
to their toes, and then dragged two miles and thrown into a muddy
stream;" the woman expired under the hands of her persecutors, but her
husband, though seriously injured, escaped with his life. One of the
ringle