e land did not read the
signs of the times and believed the new movement of feminine progress to
be but sporadic and of certain termination in the near future; but they
had some excuse for their blindness in the existence and nature of
another feminine movement which placed the female nature in a most
unenviable light,--that of witchcraft.

Under the chronological system which has been adopted--though it has
been stretched several times nearly to the breaking-point--it becomes
necessary to treat of witchcraft in New England in two separate
chapters, the Salem outbreak falling by date within the later period of
colonization.

Before we too greatly blame our forefathers and foremothers for their
superstition and cruelty in the matter of witchcraft, it may be well to
remember a few facts in connection with the subject. Such men as
Cranmer, Bacon, Luther, Melancthon, and Kepler have recorded their
belief in witchcraft, and as late as 1765 Blackstone wrote: "To deny the
possibility, nay, actual existence of witchcraft and sorcery is at once
flatly to contradict the revealed word of God in various passages both
of the Old and New Testaments; and the thing itself is a truth to which
every nation in the world hath, in its time, borne testimony either by
example, seemingly well attested, or by prohibitory laws which at least
suppose the possibility of commerce with evil spirits." Blackstone was
not unenlightened; and so we can see that a belief in the actual and
present existence of witchcraft was not inexcusable in our New England
forbears. Belief in witchcraft was prevalent in England down to the
nineteenth century; and even in the English Church in the seventeenth
century there was a canon which forbade clergymen to cast out devils
without being duly licensed to do so, and such licenses were actually
issued by the Bishop of Chester. It must also be remembered that America
was considered, by virtue probably of the color of its aborigines, to be
the peculiar domain of His Satanic Majesty, who delighted in dwelling
within its shores. Hence it would have been rather strange if there had
not arisen in the colonies accusation of witchcraft. This, however, does
not preclude our sympathy with the victims or our conclusions as to the
nature of the women who believed in such charges and as to the
civilization which condemned the witches to death. For it was usually on
charges brought by women against women that there came accusation o