“LODAWIC’ STUART, of Auckenhead, being sworn and purged of partial counsel, depones, that Sir George’s sickness fell upon him the 14th or 13th day of October—that he was not present at the finding of the picture of wax; but that he had seen Sir George Maxwel, of Pollock, after it was found; and having seen him in his sickness oftentimes before, he did perceive that Sir George had sensibly recovered after the time that the said picture was said to have been found, which was upon the 11th or 12th of December—that Jannet Mathie and Margery Craigie, two of the Pannel, are by report of the country said to be witches—that he having come to Pollock, he did see Sir George Maxwel, whose pains did recur, and that his pains and torments were greatly increased in respect of what they were before the finding of the picture of wax—that upon the eighth of January, when they left the said Sir George Maxwel, of Pollock, the deponent James Dunlop, of Housil, Allan Douglass, and several others, did go to the house of John Stuart, Warlock, on Pollockshaw, and there he found a picture of clay in the said John Stuart’s bed-straw—that there were three pins in the said picture of clay, and that there was one on each side, and one in the breast—and further depones, that being returned to Sir George’s house, Sir George told the deponent that he found great ease of his pains, and that it was before the deponent Hounsil, and the rest, did reveal to him that they had found the said picture of clay, and further, that this is the truth, as he shall answer to God.—_Sic. Subscrib._ Lodowick Stuart.” * * * * * There are more depositions of a similar nature whence these were extracted, but these are enough to discover that the confession of those witches are neither fables nor dreams. It belongs us, therefore, in this enlightened age, when superstition has fled before the rays of science and the influence of religion, to account for the then prevalent notion, which appears so far to be authenticated, of the existence of witches. It is not enough to say that people are barbarous, ignorant, or unenlightened, to exculpate them from charges involving such strong points as supernatural with human agency. In this stage of investigation, nothing is more natural than to ask, did witches ever exist? Yes.—Upon what authority? Sacred Writ.—Are there such beings as witches now? We hear of none.—Then the last grand question, to which a secret of some importance is attached—What has become of them? have they vanished into viewless air, without leaving a wreck behind; or are they consigned to the “bottom of the bottomless pit?” Of this we may say something hereafter; while in the meantime we lay before our readers _The Confession of Agnes Sympson to King James._