World of Spirits_--published in 1691. It is
unnecessary to review its arguments here. They were an elaboration of
those already used in earlier works. Too much has been made of this
book. Baxter had the fever for publication. It was a lean year when he
dashed off less than two works. His wife told him once that he would
write better if he wrote less. Probably she was thinking of his style,
and she was doubtless right. But it was true, too, of his thinking; and
none of his productions show this more than his hurried book on, spirits
and witches.[16]

Beaumont and Boulton may be passed over quickly. Beaumont[17] had read
widely in the witch literature of England and other countries;[18] he
had read indeed with some care, as is evidenced by the fact that he had
compared Hopkins's and Stearne's accounts of the same events and found
them not altogether consistent. Nevertheless Beaumont never thought of
questioning the reality of witchcraft phenomena, and his chief aim in
writing was to answer _The World Bewitched_, the great work of a Dutch
theologian, Balthazar Bekker, "who laughs at all these things of this
Nature as done by Humane contrivance."[19] Bekker's bold book was
indeed gaining wide notice; but this reply to it was entirely
commonplace. Richard Boulton, sometime of Brasenose College, published
ten years later, in 1715, _A Compleat History of Magic_. It was a book
thrown together in a haphazard way from earlier authors, and was written
rather to sell than to convince. Seven years later a second edition was
brought out, in which the writer inserted an answer to Hutchinson.

Before taking up Hutchinson's work we shall turn aside to collect those
stray fragments of opinion that indicate in which direction the wind was
blowing. Among those who wrote on nearly related topics, one
comparatively obscure name deserves mention. Dr. Richard Burthogge
published in 1694 an _Essay upon Reason and the Nature of Spirits_, a
book which was dedicated to John Locke. He touched on witchcraft in
passing. "Most of the relations," he wrote, "do, upon impartial
Examination, prove either Impostures of Malicious, or Mistakes of
Ignorant and Superstitious persons; yet some come so well Attested that
it were to bid defiance to all Human Testimony to refuse them
belief."[20]

This was the last stand of those who still believed. Shall we, they
asked, discredit all human testimony? It was practically the belief of
Bishop William Lloyd of Wor