inexplicable--those who opined, with Bacon, that warts could be cured by
sympathy--who thought, with Napier, that hidden treasures could be
discovered by the mathematics--who salved the weapon instead of the
wound, and detected murders as well as springs of water by the
divining-rod, could not consistently use, to confute the believers in
witches, an argument turning on the impossible or the incredible.

Such were the obstacles arising from the vanity of philosophers and the
imperfection of their science, which suspended the strength of their
appeal to reason and common sense against the condemning of wretches to
a cruel death on account of crimes which the nature of things rendered
in modern times totally impossible. We cannot doubt that they suffered
considerably in the contest, which was carried on with much anger and
malevolence; but the good seed which they had sown remained uncorrupted
in the soil, to bear fruit so soon as the circumstances should be
altered which at first impeded its growth. In the next letter I shall
take a view of the causes which helped to remove these impediments, in
addition, it must always be remembered, to the general increase of
knowledge and improvement of experimental philosophy.

LETTER VII.

Penal Laws unpopular when rigidly exercised--Prosecution of Witches
placed in the hand of Special Commissioners, _ad
inquirendum_--Prosecution for Witchcraft not frequent in the Elder
Period of the Roman Empire--Nor in the Middle Ages--Some Cases took
place, however--The Maid of Orleans--The Duchess of
Gloucester--Richard the Third's Charge against the Relations of the
Queen Dowager--But Prosecutions against Sorcerers became more common
in the end of the Fourteenth Century--Usually united with the Charge
of Heresy--Monstrelet's Account of the Persecution against the
Waldenses, under pretext of Witchcraft--Florimond's Testimony
concerning the Increase of Witches in his own Time--Bull of Pope
Innocent VIII.--Various Prosecutions in Foreign Countries under this
severe Law--Prosecutions in Labourt by the Inquisitor De Lancre and
his Colleague--Lycanthropy--Witches in Spain--In Sweden--and
particularly those Apprehended at Mohra.

Penal laws, like those of the Middle Ages, denounced against witchcraft,
may be at first hailed with unanimous acquiescence and approbation, but
are uniformly found to disgust and offend at least the m