“If a man weave a spell and put a ban upon a man, and has not justified himself, he that wove the spell upon him shall be put to death.”[3] And the same code provided that the man against whom the spell was woven, should plunge into the “holy river” and if the river overcame him, his house should go to the weaver of the spell, but if the river made the man innocent, he should take the house of the sorcerer and he was to be put to death.[4] According to the photogravure of the blocks of diorite, upon which these most antique laws were written, therefore, when King Hammurabi, received his law direct from the seated sun-god, Samas,—the judge of heaven and earth—the old delusion of witchcraft and sorcery obtained. So prevalent was the offense, according to the delusion then obtaining, that the very first sections of the code were directed at this crime, established to the satisfaction of the judges of that period, by the test of a plunge into the “holy river,” in the absence of more direct proof of the existence of the offense which existed only in the imaginations of the superstitious inhabitants of that misty age. During the time of Moses, we find that many imposters insulted the intelligence of the Supreme Being, by claiming to have received delegated powers from on high and hence Moses provided in his law that “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” The long persecution of persons convicted of witchcraft, by a misinterpretation of this text, was thus justified by this Biblical injunction and many conscientious men and women, in their inability to understand the science of common things, attributed appearances which they could not explain, to supernatural agencies and blindly believing in this Mosaic law, proceeded to violate the highest laws of God and man, in the fanaticism that a Divine injunction was being obeyed, in the punishment of those convicted of witchcraft and sorcery.[5] The Twelve Tables of the early Romans contained penal provisions against one who should bewitch the fruits of the earth or conjure away his neighbors’ corn, into his own field,[6] and a century and a half after the adoption of the Twelve Tables, one hundred and seventy Roman women were tried and convicted of poisoning, under the pretense of charms and incantations, which led to new laws against such supposed practices. As the Mosaic law against witchcraft was formerly interpreted, to mean the punishment by death of witches who did positive injury to another in his person or property, so the Roman laws were directed against those supposed to have done positive injury to a person, in his property or to have hurt him, physically.