The course of opinion is a circuitous one. We have followed its windings in and out through more than half a century. We have listened as respectfully as possible to the vagaries of country parsons and university preachers, we have heard from scholars, from gentlemen, from jurists and men of affairs, from physicians and philosophers. It matters little now what they thought or said, but it did matter then. We have seen how easy a thing it was to fall into the error that a middle course was nearest truth. Broad was the way and many there were that walked therein. Yet even those who travelled that highway found their direction shifting. For there was progress in opinion. With every decade the travellers, as well those who strayed aside as those who followed the crowd, were getting a little nearer to truth. [1] "Printed by Cantrel Legge, Printer to the Universitie of Cambridge" (1608, 1610). [2] See _Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft_, ch. VII, sect. I. [3] His literary executor, Thomas Pickering, late of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and now "Minister of Finchingfield in Essex," who prepared the _Discourse_ for the press (both in its separate form and as a part of Perkins's collected works), and who dedicates it to Sir Edward Coke, is, however, equally silent as to James, though in his preface he mentions Scot by name. [4] _Ibid._, ch. IV, sect. I. See also ch. II. [5] _Ibid._, ch. VII, sect. II. [6] _Ibid._, ch. VI. [7] _Ibid._, ch. VII, sect. II. [8] _Ibid._, ch. VII, sect. II. [9] James Mason, "Master of Artes," whose _Anatomie of Sorcerie_ ("printed at London by John Legatte, Printer to the Universitie of Cambridge," 1612), puts him next to Perkins in chronological order, needs only mention in passing. He takes the reality of sorcery for granted, and devotes himself to argument against its use. [10] _... Shewing the True and Right Methode of the Discovery._ Cotta was familiar with the more important trials of his time. He knew of the Warboys, Lancaster, and York trials and he probably had come into close contact with the Northampton cases. He had read, too, several of the books on the subject, such as Scot, Wier, and Perkins. His omission of King James's work is therefore not only curious but significant. A second edition of his book was published in 1625. [11] See _Triall of Witchcraft_, ch. XIV. [12] See _ibid._, p. 48. [13] _Ibid._, 66-67. [14] See _ibid._, ch. VI. Cotta speaks of the case as six years earlier. [15] _Ibid._, 62, 66. [16] _A Short Discoverie_, 70. [17] _Triall of Witchcraft_, 83-84. [18] _A Short Discoverie_, 51-53. [19] _Triall of Witchcraft_, 70. [20] Roberts's explanation of the proneness of women to witchcraft deserves mention in passing. Women are more credulous, more curious, "their complection is softer," they have "greater facility to fall," greater desire for revenge, and "are of a slippery tongue." _Treatise of Witchcraft_, 42-43.