was an age when the last dying throes of
superstition seemed fastening on the people's minds, and the spasmodic
struggle threatened to upset their reason. The New Englander's mind was
prepared for mysteries as the fallow ground is prepared for the seed. He
was busied conquering the rugged earth and making it yield to his
husbandry. His time was divided between arduous toil for bread and
fighting the Indians. He was hemmed in by a gloomy old forest, the
magnitude of which he did not dream, and it was only natural, with his
fertile imagination, narrow perceptions and limited knowledge, that he
would see strange sights and hear strange sounds. Images and visions
which have been portrayed in tales of romance and given interest to the
pages of poetry were made by him to throng the woods, flit through the
air and hover over the heads of terrified officials, whose learning
should have placed them beyond the bounds of superstition. The ghosts of
murdered wives, husbands and children played their part with a vividness
of representation and artistic skill of expression hardly surpassed in
scenic representation on the stage. The superstition of the Middle Ages
was embodied in real action, with all its extravagant absurdities and
monstrosities. This, carried into the courts of law, where the relations
of society and conduct or feelings of individuals were suffered to be
under control of fanciful or mystical notions, could have but one
effect. When a whole people abandoned the solid ground of common sense,
overleaped the boundaries of human knowledge, gave itself up to wild
reveries, and let loose its passions without restraint, the result was
more destructive to society than a Vesuvius to Pompeii. When John Louder
said his gun was bewitched, there was no incredulous smile on his
companions' faces.

The political complexion of New England at that time no doubt had much
to do with the superstitious awe which overspread that country. Within
the recollection of many inhabitants, the parent government had changed
three times. Charles II. had lived such a life of furious dissipation,
that his earthly career was drawing to a close.

The New England people were zealous theologians, and Massachusetts and
Plymouth hated above all sects the Roman Catholics. Charles II. could
not reign long, and James, Duke of York, his brother, would be his
successor, as it was generally known that Charles II. had no legitimate
heir. It was hoped by some th