Witch, but you must get a With, a green Osyer; that
if you nail a Horse-Shoe on the Sill of the Door, she cannot come into
the House, or go out, if she be in; these and a thousand more, too
simple to be believ'd, are yet so vouch'd, so taken for granted, and so
universally receiv'd for Truth, that there is no resisting them without
being thought atheistical.

What Methods to take to know, who are _Witches_, I really know not; but
on the other Side, I think there are variety of Methods to be used to
know who are not; _W--- G---_, Esq; is a Man of Fame, his Parts are
great, because his Estate is so; he has threescore and eight Lines of
_Virgil_ by rote, and they take up many of the Intervals of his merry
Discourses; he has just as many witty Stories to please Society; when
they are well told, _once over_, he begins again, and so he lives in a
round of Wit and Learning; he is a Man of great Simplicity and
Sincerity; you must be careful not to mistake my Meaning, as to the Word
Simplicity; some take it to mean Honesty, and so do I, only that it has
a Negative attending it, in his particular Case; in a Word, _W----
G----_ is an honest Man, and no _Conjurer_; a good Character, I think,
and without Impeachment to his Understanding, he may be a Man of Worth
for all that; take the other Sex, there is the Lady _H----_ is another
Discovery; bless us! what Charms in that Face! How bright those Eyes!
How flowing white her Breasts! How sweet her Voice? add to all, how
heavenly, divinely good her Temper! How inimitable her Behaviour! How
spotless her Virtue! How perfect her Innocence! and to sum up her
Character, we may add, the Lady _H----_ is no _Witch_; sure none of our
Beau Critics will be so unkind now as to censure me in those honest
Descriptions, as if I meant that my good Friend _W---- G----_ Esq; or my
ador'd Angel, the bright, the charming Lady _H----_ were Fools; but what
will not those Savages, call'd Critics, do, whose barbarous Nature
enclines them to trample on the brightest Characters, and to cavil on
the clearest Expressions?

It might be expected of me, however, in justice to my Friends, and to
the bright Characters of abundance of Gentlemen of this Age, who, by the
Depth of their Politics, and the Height of their Elevations might be
suspected, and might give us Room to charge them with Subterranean
Intelligence; I say, it might be expected that I should clear up their
Fame, and assure the World concerning them, eve