ack.

[110] _Nice._ Precise, fastidious.

[111] _Counter-tenor._ Alto.

[112] _Benevolence._ Good-will.

[113] _Stole away._ The correct hunting cry which the Spectator should
have given.

[114] _Pole._ A leaping-pole carried by the huntsman, who was on foot,
and thrown by him as a signal to the hounds to stop.

[115] _Monsieur Paschal._ French philosopher: 1622-62.

[116] _Habit._ Constitution.

NO. 117. SATURDAY, JULY 14

_Ipsi sibi somnia fingunt._

VIRG. _Ecl._ viii. ver. 108.

Their own imaginations they deceive.

There are some opinions in which a man should stand neuter[117], without
engaging[118] his assent to one side or the other. Such a hovering faith
as this, which refuses to settle upon any determination[119], is
absolutely necessary in a mind that is careful to avoid errors and
prepossessions. When the arguments press equally on both sides in matters
that are indifferent to us, the safest method is to give up ourselves to
neither.

It is with this temper of mind that I consider the subject of witchcraft.
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. But when I consider that the ignorant
and credulous parts of the world abound most in these relations, and that
the persons among us, who are supposed to engage in such an infernal
commerce, are people of a weak understanding and crazed imagination, and
at the same time reflect upon the many impostures and delusions of this
nature that have been detected in all ages, I endeavour to suspend my
belief till I hear more certain accounts than any which have yet come to
my knowledge. 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 the 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
instance of it.

I am engaged in this speculation by some occurrences that I met with
yesterday, which I shall give my reader an account of at large. As I was
walking with my friend Sir Roger by the side of one of his woods, an old
woman applie