: _The Occult Sciences_ (1891), p. 51.

These "psychological experiments" were not, save, perhaps, in rare
cases, carried out in the spirit of modern psychical research, with the
high aim of the man of science. It was, indeed, far otherwise; selfish
motives were at the root of most of them; and, apart from what may be
termed "medicinal magic," it was for the satisfaction of greed, lust,
revenge, that men and women had recourse to magical arts. The history of
goeticism and witchcraft is one of the most horrible of all histories.
The "Grimoires," witnesses to the superstitious folly of the past, are
full of disgusting, absurd, and even criminal rites for the satisfaction
of unlawful desires and passions. The Church was certainly justified in
attempting to put down the practice of magic, but the means adopted in
this design and the results to which they led were even more abominable
than witchcraft itself. The methods of detecting witches and the
tortures to which suspected persons were subjected to force them to
confess to imaginary crimes, employed in so-called civilised England and
Scotland and also in America, to say nothing of countries in which the
"Holy" Inquisition held undisputed sway, are almost too horrible to
describe. For details the reader may be referred to Sir WALTER SCOTT'S
_Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft_ (1830), and (as concerns America)
COTTON MATHER'S The _Wonders of the Invisible World_ (1692). The
credulous Church and the credulous people were terribly afraid of the
power of witchcraft, and, as always, fear destroyed their mental balance
and made them totally disregard the demands of justice. The result may
be well illustrated by what almost inevitably happens when a country
goes to war; for war, as the Hon. BERTRAND RUSSELL has well shown,
is fear's offspring. Fear of the enemy causes the military party to
persecute in an insensate manner, without the least regard to justice,
all those of their fellow-men whom they consider are not heart and soul
with them in their cause; similarly the Church relentlessly persecuted
its supposed enemies, of whom it was so afraid. No doubt some of the
poor wretches that were tortured and killed on the charge of witchcraft
really believed themselves to have made a pact with the devil, and were
thus morally depraved, though, generally speaking, they were no more
responsible for their actions than any other madmen. But the majority
of the persons persecuted as wi