enough for her Bread, and she hath a
little Help of the Epilepsy or Cramp, to teach her to roll her Eyes, wry
her Mouth, gnash her Teeth, startle with her Body, hold her Arms and Hands
stiff, &c. And then with an old Mother Nobs hath by Chance call'd her Idle
young Housewife, or bid the Devil scratch her; then no doubt but Mother
Nobs is the Witch, and the young Girl is Owl-blasted, &c." Then he goes on
to say, with more force and right judgment than one could have expected
from one of his generation:--"They that have their Brains baited, and
their Fancies distemper'd with the Imaginations, and Apprehensions of
Witches, Conjurers, and Fairies, and all that Lymphatical Chimaera, I find
to be marshall'd in one of these five Ranks: Children, Fools, Women,
Cowards, sick or black melancholick discompos'd Wits."

These then are the sentiments of three somewhat wise and sane men, who
lived in a time of universal madness, and gave their minds to the task of
stemming the raging torrent. For the whole world was overrun with witches.
From every town came crowds of these lost and damned souls; from every
hovel peered out the cursing witch, or cried aloud for help the stricken
victims. These poor and old and wretched beings, upon whose heads lighted
the wrath of a world, and against whom every idle lad had a curse and a
stone to fling at his will, were held capable of all but omnipotence. They
could destroy the babe in the womb and make the "mother of many children
childless among women;" they could kill with a look and disable with a
curse; bring storms or sunshine as they listed; by their "witch-ropes,"
artfully woven, draw to themselves all the profit of their neighbours'
barns and breweries; yet ever remained poor and miserable, glad to beg a
mouthful of meat, or a can of sour milk from the hands of those whom they
could ruin by half a dozen muttered words; they could take on themselves
what shapes they would, and transport themselves whither they would: no
bolt or bar kept them out, no distance by land or sea was too great for
them to accomplish; a straw--a broomstick--the serviceable imp ever at
hand--was enough for them; and with a pot of magic ointment, and a charm
of spoken gibberish, they might visit the king on his throne, or the lady
in her bower, to do what ill was in their hearts against them, or to
gather to themselves what gain and store they would. Yet with all this
power the superstitious world of the time saw nothi