; and although our
reverend brother views the former abomination with more lenient eye than
ourselves, we think that fagot and stake are but too slight a punishment
for such black and damning sin. But still, of late, thy denunciations
against this crime have much multiplied; and sometimes, it has seemed to
our justice, upon but small and vague proof--although popular voice
demanded the condemnation of the wretched women. Have a care, then, how
thou wrongfully preferrest such a charge--have a care how thou jugglest
with our sense of right and wrong; for though there seemeth, in truth,
to be some appearance of the demon and his works in the horror which
that woman has expressed for the symbols of our holy religion, and in
the manner in which she has drawn blood from our young and innocent
daughter, yet were we to find thy accusation to be inspired by motive or
the spirit of falsehood, as we live that pile which threatens the
sorceress and hag shall be thy own seat--the fire thy death-garment."

"Noble Amtmann," cried the witchfinder, undaunted by this address, "I
fear not the proof. Again I denounce that woman as dealing in
witchcraft, and consorting with the powers of darkness."

As the guard drew nearer, to force the unhappy woman with their
pike-heads to rise from the ground, where she still lay crouched
together, the wretched Magdalena raised her head, and her eyes fell upon
the dark face of the witchfinder, as it glared upon her in triumph. The
hideous yells of the crowd prevented her hearing the only faint voice of
pity raised in her behalf--that of gentle Gottlob. Her brain whirled
with terror--she thought that her last hour was come; and, with a heavy
shudder throughout her whole frame, she fell senseless to the ground.

NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN.{A}

It has probably occurred to the reflecting student of logic, that the
philosophers of the schools must have been sorely straitened in seeking
for a definition of man, before they would have had recourse to such a
derogation from his apparently higher attributes, as to define him by
"_animal risibile_," or "_animal bipes implumis_." An attentive
consideration will, however, show the enquirer, that to distinguish man
from the remainder of the animal kingdom by his structural
characteristics alone, is not so easy a task as would at first sight
appear; and he will be obliged at length to return to some such
humiliating designation of the _genus animal_, _species